Next war. Not a question of if, but where?

A cynical question. Do we have to increase work pace to get our documentary done in time before the next big war breaks out? The sarcasm was triggered by Terror Expert Bruce Riedel’s explanations on how he sees current affairs in the world and its hotbeds. Riedel is an advisor to President-Elect Barack Obama on South Asia and terrorism and recently gave this interview to German News Platform SPIEGEL.

Here are four interesting quotes from CIA veteran Bruce Riedel in case you don’t want to read the entire interview:

1 “These attacks (Mumbai Attacks) dominated global news for 72 hours non-stop. Achieving that amount of media coverage is exactly what the terrorists wanted. With the exception of Sept. 11, we have never really seen such global coverage.”

2 “We know the airline business is high on their (al-Qaida’s) target list. In addition, al-Qaida has decided that if and when it attacks in the US again, it has to outdo Sept. 11.”

3 “If there is any place in the world where al-Qaida might hope to steal nuclear material, Pakistan would be the most logical.”

4 “South Asia is the most likely place where in our lifetimes we might see a nuclear war.”

Not very thrilling all this. Here’s the link to the entire interviewagain. In case you got curious.

No dehumanizing here.

Just traveled back to Los Angeles to check the footage we filmed over the course of last months. And while doing more research one fact appears frequently when we talk about war: Dehumanizing the enemy prepares the killing machine. Today I stumbled over this short little film which does just the opposite. It tells you more about your very own ancestors in just a few minutes. Thought you might like it:

glance at the other side.

Not too long ago I’ve been traveling to the Hofer Filmtage with my previous film South Of Pico. There I did watch a film which made me look at a warzone in a very different way. The film is called NOMAD’S LAND by Gael Metroz.

This documentary tells the tales of traveling through Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan down to India and Sri Lanka. I was especially taken by the director’s glance at the tribal area in bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan – a terrorism hothouse as it is depicted in main stream media. Nomad’s Land doesn’t hide the area’s “lawlessness”  but also presents great imagery and insights on an area and people we really don’t know much about to begin with.

Check out a glance here on this link.

But the harshness of war also needs to be addressed. Over and over again. And it’s children who suffer the most. Watch this report here about an UN inspection of an Afghan refugee camp.

Vladimir Putin ‘wanted to hang Georgian President Saakashvili by the balls’

Just found this article on Times Online and thought i’d share it with you.

Mr Sarkozy’s chief diplomatic adviser reported an exchange between Putin and Sarozy in a news magazine before an EU-Russia summit today. If the account is true it’s an interesting glance behind the curtains of international diplomacy to say the least. Heres an excerpt:

“With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia’s Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked. “Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there.”

and here’s the link to the article.

Running out of time…

Lots of talk about Global Warming. And while in some parts of the world we’re still debating who might be responsible for the rising temperatures, in other parts the water is already up to people’s necks.  “…on some islands you can only move back so far before you have to start worrying about the water at your back door as well as the water in front.” says this article. Check it out!