Ukraine in NATO? Nope, no, nyet, never, nein, non!
watch on iPhone/iPod Touch Check this shit out! When you're good, you're good...and when you're me, you're better!Related Stories:
Nato summit: George Bush abandoned over Ukraine and Georgia
NATO: Still a Sore Point With Putin
INTERPOL: Justice, Global-Style!!!
Huzzah for the good guys! Huzzah huzzah huzzah!…and help me find my way back to the hotel bar…I've been celebrating the recent snatch of a scumbag here in southeast Asia, Thailand to be exact, and I'm afraid I've gotten too caught up in the party to be able to navigate the back streets of Bangkok. I've got the Murray Head song "One Night in
Interpol launches public manhunt for pedophile
Interpol issues notice seeking arrest of Canadian suspected pedophile
Interpol detains 166 cross-border crime suspects in Tanzania
International Co-operation Leads to Arrest of Rwandan Genocide Suspect
Talk about global justice served! Man, I always get fired up when I see the good guys fighting for 
the global good getting their man…or in this case a total scumbag of a man. Interpol's most recent incursion into current events came last week when they helped bag some Canadian child molesting shit-eater. Interpol specialists unscrambled an internet-posted image of this dude in the act. They then identified him, and sent out a worldwide information alert which helped track his sick ass down in less than a week, and he was subsequently arrested in
Oh, and I suppose I should respect the rights of judicial due process, and declare that this guy is innocent until proven guilty. NOT! I'm a vigilante at heart, but all that aside, the freak posted pictures of himself in the act! Hell no to due process! This twisted shit is guilty! The mere fact that a Canadian was caught outside of his country should be setting off alarm bells. But a single white male Canadian caught in Thailand with photos of himself on the web molesting boys?….um….yeah….that's what we call an open and shut case…And I hope they open and shut the iron door right on his skull a few hundred times after the trial, if you get my drift.
A little Plaid Avenger tip to you world travelers: don't get arrested in
In a nutshell: INTERPOL is an organization facilitating international police cooperation. And I do mean international! It is the world's largest international police organization, with 186 member countries…making it the fifth biggest organization on the planet by membership. INTERPOL helps facilitate co-operation on affairs of justice even when diplomatic relations do not exist between particular countries. So even though countries like the US and Iran hate each other and have absolutely no diplomatic ties, both of those states participate in INTERPOL and therefore exchange information at least in the capacity of serving global justice. Everybody does INTERPOL man!
And what exactly does INTERPOL do? They support and assist all organizations, authorities and 
services whose mission is to prevent or combat international crime. The BIG thing they do is all about the information. Pooling intelligence, as it were. INTERPOL has the single biggest crime database on the planet…created by verifying, posting, sharing, and cross-referencing all the crime data from all its participating countries…which as I have pointed out, is pretty much the whole damn world! From their website: "One of INTERPOL's most important functions is to help police in member countries share critical crime-related information using the organization's system of international notices."
But not all crime! Just the crimes and criminals that have an international dimension. In order to 
maintain as politically neutral a role as possible, Interpol's constitution forbids its involvement in crimes that do not overlap several member countries. In other words, INTERPOL would never interfere in any judicial proceedings on a crime which occurred just in a single state—that is left to the locals to deal with. However, when any individual or criminal organization deals across two or more countries, then INTERPOL tracks and posts the data…and sometimes even gets more pro-active by physically going after the bad guys!
So data sharing is their main deal. They track and post lists of wanted fugitives who have fled across international borders. They post lists of stolen passport identities that all countries can access. They advertise photos and known aliases of criminals. All this data—and much more—is available across the entire planet to all police and government agencies who fight crime. Pretty fucking cool man. Unless you are a criminal of course.
And the criminals they focus on? Its work focuses primarily on public safety, terrorism, organized 
crime, war crimes, illicit drug production, drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, trafficking in human beings, money laundering, child pornography, white-collar crime, computer crime, Intellectual Property crime and corruption. All bad shit to be sure. And all shit that has global dimensions on our world….which is why its so freakin' awesome to see a truly positive form of globalization for a change!
Which is the real reason for today's rant. When are all these politicians and ardent nationalists going to wake the hell up to how the world is working right now? We have a global economy, we have global trade, we have global movement of capital, global movement of people, global corporations, and even global warming. As such, we also now have global crime syndicates, global drug trafficking, global human trafficking, global arms trade…HOWEVER we don't have any real global law, no global judicial system, and no real way to effectively stop global crime. Why not?
Because most of the countries on the planet refuse to cooperate in a single global law system due to conflicting cultural beliefs, personal vendettas against other countries, and mostly due to fear of loss of a smidgen of sovereignty. Oh shit! There is that sovereignty word again! It is always causing trouble! In particular, the most powerful states in the world—like the
We live in a globalized world people! Crime does not stop at state borders anymore! When nothing else on this planet is confined to state boundaries, why do we still insist that justice be so confined? And frankly, a lot of states are just being dumb not to support more global justice mechanisms.
Want an example? Drugs! No, I don't mean take them, I mean think about them. Drugs are a global commodity, produced and traded and moved all around the planet by criminal organizations from at least a few dozen different countries. Why would a single state want to take on the burden of fighting a 'war on drugs' all by themselves? Its not even possible man! A truly global problem like drug trafficking simply demands a global solution…and a global justice system to try the folks you bust, and a global police to go and bust them.
Well, for now we at least have INTERPOL, which is a start. But I must be honest with you here…it's not really that much. I think INTERPOL kicks total ass, but the reason that they mostly just deal with information availability is that they don't have much of a budget or much of a staff to do much else. (Last year they received $59 million in contributions from member states; in contrast EUROPOL received $90, and Bill Gates used $120 million in 100-dollar bills just to wipe his ass.) So they don't have a lot of coin, or a lot of international authority, to do too much.
What does INTERPOL not do? INTERPOL action is taken within the limits of existing laws in different countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. INTERPOL's constitution prohibits 'any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.' And while it makes for great fiction, INTERPOL generally does not have a bunch of detectives out searching for clues at the crime scene, and rarely sends agents to go apprehend a criminal. It works with the national and local police to get those things done.
It is still a cool concept to think about though, and you have probably seen reference to INTERPOL 
in a film or two as well. Ethan Hawke played an INTERPOL agent tracking down the Nicolas Cage character in Lords of War ;a movie about the illegal global arms trade. Inspector Gadget is supposed to be an INTERPOL agent. In the movie Mission: Impossible III, Ethan Hunt is told he is on INTERPOL's Most Wanted list. My personal favorite—mostly because she is a hottie—is Agent Isabel Lahiri played by Catherine Zeta-Jones in Oceans Twelve.
Actually, Agent Lahiri was a EUROPOL agent—EUROPOL is exactly like INTERPOL except it is a 
collaboration just of EU countries under a common crime-fighting umbrella. However, Agent Lahiri is forced near the end of the film to turn over the Oceans Twelve suspects to a group of folks posing as…can you guess?…INTERPOL agents of course! Dude! That movie totally kicks ass! That was easily the best acting job I've ever seen Bruce Willis do…oh, wait a minute, he was playing himself. Hmmm, I guess that explains it. But I digress as usual…
So now you know INTERPOL and what it does. You also know its limitations, and limited use in today's world…a situation which all fighters for global justice must help remedy! As Batman and Robin would say: "Support your local police"….as The Plaid Avenger insists: "Support your global justice system", and for now, that justice is INTERPOL.
Crime is no longer just local, and so justice should not be either. Rock on, fighters for truth and freedom on the planetary platform!
Costa Rican Close Call Turns the CAFTA Tide: Free Trade Surf’s Up Dudes!
What the hell is up party plaid people? I heard you kicked ass on your mid-term exam….Congratulations! Your success was probably largely thanks to my colorful and creative cacophony of clarifying current event concoctions, of course! And sticking with the alliteration of C, I just had to come down to
Central American Leaders Applaud Costa Ricans Approving CAFTA
Costa Rica votes in referendum on US free trade deal
U.S. warns Costa Rica against rejecting CAFTA
CAFTA will open doors for Costa Rica's workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs point
DR-CAFTA: A Bad Deal for Poor Countries counter-point
So
DR-CAFTA stands for the 'Dominican Republic/Central America Free Trade Agreement' and is an international treaty to increase free trade. It was ratified by the Senate of the
So why isn't the
Hmmmm….let's test your Latin American learning my plaid amigos: what leaders south of the border would be opposed to some trade block action with the
Since the rise of the letftist/socialist in
But why so tough a fight to begin with? Wouldn't poor ass countries be thrilled to get a trade deal with the
And think about it. Could any Costa Rican company really compete with Wal-Mart? Or Ford Motor 
Company? Or Exxon? You gotta face the facts: these trade blocks create a level economic playing field between countries…and even medium-sized
So the fight for free trade is a much debated debacle of our age….and the Americans are extremely anxious to continue the free trade ball rolling south of the border, so as to keep the dream of the FTAA alive as well. That's why the Costa Rican CAFTA vote was such a nail-biter for the
Ah….but the Plaid Avenger will let you in on another little secret that the headline news sources are too shallow to figure out! The 
countries tied to them economically….and that reason is
What's that got to do with anything? Just this: In officially recognizing 
And I have to say, my plaid hat is off to President Oscar Arias and his whole Costa Rican funky bunch…they just played a masterful hand of pitting the two world powers against each other, completely benefiting themselves. Nice job guys! You got China and the US kissing your asses!
Damn I'm good! I bet no one has linked these two stories but me. But then again, no one but me has had so many sultry relationships with so many Costa Rican hotties either…
How else do you think I have such good insider information….Watch out all you world leaders! Protect your wives from …the Plaid Avenger!
TI: Coolest Corruption-Fighting Cats on the Plaid Planet
Watch out you cowardly crooked klepto-crats! TI is in the house, and are ready to deal with your dastardly deeds! TI stands for Transparency International, and they are a global outfit that is working damn hard to make the world a better place…by exposing and reporting on the most crooked government and corporate assholes on the plaid planet. Hell yes! It's about time we had some more good guys on the scene… damn, I can't do everything on my own! I need me some back up every now and again, and these guys are one of the best grime-fighting groups we've got. If you are really interested in understanding the world, or maybe even trying to help out the world, then you absolutely must keep up with the TI. Browse through their website as often as you can. And why are they in the news right now? Check it:
2007 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) page from Transparency International
Somalia, Myanmar, Iraq top corruption blacklist
How do we break the corruption cycle?
West 'complicit' in Third World corruption
Group calls on multinationals to fight the bribery that fuels corruption
So what the hell exactly is corruption? Simply put on a global scale, it's when politicians and civil servants abuse their public positions for personal gain. While TI mostly focuses on corruption within political systems, we also have to consider the role of multinational corporations and illegal entities that play a big part in providing a lot of opportunities for those politicians and civil servants to screw up. In other words, you can't tackle corruption simply by busting people who are on the take, but you have to also bust the bastards supplying the cash. You dig?
And how did TI come about to help fight this shit? As with everything good, it started with one dude: As director of the World Bank for
For this reason, Peter Eigen told the World Bank to 'piss off' and he formed Transparency International in 1993. The goal of TI is to eradicate corruption because it believes that corruption hinders social and economic progress and weakens democracy. It defines corruption as "the abuse of public office for private gain." Some examples provided by TI as corruption are poor people having to come up with bribes in Southern India to use birth clinics or parents in
But I'll keep this rant brief: the news stories allude to this year's publication of the Corruptions Perception Index (CPI) which ranks 180 countries on a variety of factors to see how corrupt they are. Scores range from 10 (perfectly clean) to 1 (covered in shit). See map below for a graphic take, or visit their website to download the whole report.
Some high-lites:
So why should anybody even care about this stuff? Because "corruption continues to exist and ruin lives. For the poorest nations, in particular, corruption remains an enormous drain on resources sorely needed for education, health and infrastructure." Sure, you can give money to charities and build habitat for humanity with Jimmy Carter or even start a business that provides jobs to an impoverished area. But if you do these things in an extremely corrupt environment, then in the long run you are not going to help people out that much. Corruption is a disease that can eventually sap the life out of a community…or a country. Unless it is stopped in its tracks!
And don't feel like you have no role in this game my friends! You do! As TI and other international organizations well know, multinational corporations (most of whom are from the rich countries) and even the rich democracies themselves fuel a lot of this corruption from afar… some of it unintentional to be sure, but some of it quite intentional. Crooked bastards! We in the superhero community encourage you all to pay attention to corporations that contribute to corrupting poor governments, and strike back. How? Don't buy their shit!
Quite frankly, corruption may be the biggest factor that keeps poor countries poor. To many of us superheros in the business of justice, stopping corruption begins to solve virtually all the other problems that face the poorest countries in the world. And you simply cannot solve problems by sending aid to these places—because the damn crooked bastards will just steal it! See how problematic corruption becomes?
So keep up on the happenings of TI! Do your part to fight for international justice! Help stamp out corruption! And as always: Party on!
Permanent Possessors of Power: the Fabulous 5!
Forget the Fantastic 4, you want to know about the Fabulous 5! Greetings from the 
least of which is the Avenger knocking back a dozen big-ass Manhattans—my mixed drink of choice here in the big city. Hey, the town's so nice they named it twice, so I have to drink twice as much when I party here! But I digress as usual….While this weekend's meeting will cover many tipples and topics, I just wanted to give you a quick rant about the UN's most powerful component: the UN Permanent Security Council. Check out these stories related to this group's recent activity:
Security Council reps discuss Iranian sanctions
Security Council Reform Resolution Fuels German Hope for Seat
Signs of shift in Iran stand-off
U.N. to revisit Security Council growth
U.N. Security Council has imposed an arms embargo on Sudan
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the main organ of the UN charged with 
maintaining peace and security among countries. While lots of other committees do lots of other shit, all that shit only amounts to recommendations that are made to countries of the world. However, the Security Council has the power to make decisions which member governments must carry out under the UN Charter—a charter which all members states have agreed to. Starting to get the picture here? If the Security Council passes a resolution, it must be enforced…by force if necessary!
In example: if a country on the Security Council proposes a resolution to bomb Burma, and that resolution passes, then the UN has to act on it, and Burma will be bombed. That is an extreme scenario, but you get the point. In 1950, it was just such a UN resolution that led to the invasion of
But let's look at the mechanics of how this shit actually works. The Security Council is made up of 15 member states, consisting of five permanent seats and ten temporary 
seats. Ah! Now we finally see the 'permanent' part of this group, and the reason for this blog. The permanent five are the
But the big 5! That is where all the action really is! Why? Because the Permanent Security Council members have this one all important distinction: veto power! Any one of the 5 permanent members can stop any resolution dead in its tracks.
Why so much drama? Because for the UN to actually send troops or aid to any part of the world requires a resolution from the council. See, the entire Security Council votes on all issues, with each country getting one vote. For any resolution to pass, it must have at least 9 'yes' votes, and zero 'veto' votes from any of the permanent 5. And the big permanent 5 don't always see eye to eye on what the UN should be doing, because they all have different allies and strategic partners and motivations to consider. So to keep our example going, the
Need another example? Just think back to the lead-up to the current
To keep it even more real, consider the current Iranian situation as referenced in the 
stories above. The
Just as a side note:
And you should know that a country can actually decide not to vote at all—which happens quite a bit with the Chinese. They might not like a resolution, but if 
everyone else wants it, they will just not vote, thereby saving face. To keep our Iranian example: if the Russians eventually agree to some use of force against Iran, China will not want to stand in the way of a resolution that everyone wants, so they will abstain from the vote….so they won't piss off the US, UK and France, and at the same time can tell the Iranians "Hey, don't be pissed at us! We didn't vote for it! Send your terrorist to their countries, not ours!" See how this shit works?
To finish, you just got to know your Permanent Security Council 5, and how their behavior in large part determines the actions of the entire UN. Many folks want to expand the Permanent Security Council membership and change some of the rules to better represent the world and end the predictable stalemates. Check the stories above for activity on that front…and know this:
Hmmm….Germany….isn't it about time for Octoberfest celebrations to begin?
-----