Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Continental journalists should get their geography right

Radio France Internationale reports on the peace vigils taking place in the north. The reporter seems to think that the Real IRA (which in French bears the oddly attractive name l'IRA-Véritable) and the Continuity IRA are the same thing. He interviews a "young Catholic" woman who says she's on the march because she's part of "the new Northern Ireland." Well, if thats what she wants to call the six counties ... But the biggest howler lies in the name of the country that all of this is supposedly taking place in. According to the article, it's le Royaume-Uni.

Looks like the movement for Irish unity still has quite a bit of work to do in hearts and minds. Let's be at the forefront of it.

In other news, the site reports that in Iraq, Tariq Aziz has been sentenced to 15 years in prison along with "Chemical Ali" - "meme si jamais aucun témoignage n'a pu établir sa responsabilité directe dans ces crimes." The former foreign minister is, as you may know, a Catholic. How that fact ties in with the neocon myth that the invasion of Iraq was part of some glorious campaign against militant Islam is unclear. Especially since Saudi Arabia, which ruthlessly persecutes Christians and which I once heard a pious Iranian student describe as "a hell country", remains a cosseted US ally.

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