[warning: the following is fairly macabre]

I’m trying to get my head round the death toll in Iraq. I don’t know what the latest estimates are (some past ones are collected [here](http://www.iraqanalysis.org/info/93), but it’s clear that we’re well over the 100,000 that the Lancet [guessed](http://www.jhsph.edu/Refugee/Front%20Page%20News/Document%20Links/Mortality_Lancet%20final.pdf) back in October 2004. Compare that to [this collection of 20th century death tolls](http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstats.htm) , and you’ll see Iraq is in the running as a serious catastrophe on historical scales. It’s caused more than [these wars and atrocities](http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat4.htm) (e.g. the Boxer rebellion), and is comihng close to [some of these](http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat3.htm) (e.g. the Lebanese Civil War). Worse, it feels like we’re only getting started.

[cross-posted to the [IAG blog](http://www.iraqanalysis.org/blog)]

Since the bombing of the Samarra mosque, nearly 1000 Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes every day. I’ve just added a report from the IOM, which sources these figures, and gives an (incomplete, but still interesting) breakdown by region and cause of migration.

As Rachel wrote recently, this is part of a change over the past few months, which has deeply affected the country in all kinds of ways.

People are refusing to carry their identity cards: the cards give their names and hence hint at their creed, and have been used by gangs to choose victims for execution. 30% of children are absent from school, largely because parents are too frightened of the violence to let them leave home, but also because schools are becoming ever more divided on religious lines.

I don’t think we yet have a good understanding of what’s going on here – but much of the information is available, just waiting to be pulled together. Some questions I’d like to see answered:

• How regionally-limited is this? Examining the figures in the IOM report above would tell us something
• How much public support is there for the militias among different communities? We might be able to find this out from opinion polls
• Who is conducting the executions, and why? Analysts with more of a military background than IAG have already devoted a lot of effort to answering this question
• Can we blame this all on the bombing of the mosque in Samarra, or did that event just exacerbate a trend that already existed?

And then there’s the money question that nobody has an answer to:

• How can the violence be stopped?

This is too funny-scary not to propagate. The British police pulled somebody off a plane because he’d been singing along to

London Calling

on the way there.

For his sake, I’m glad it wasn’t

the guns of Brixton

I’d like to point you all towards a few blogs with real content, written by people who know what they’re talking about. I’m biased about all three: I’m a contributor to the first (and member of the group running it), I was taught by the author of the second, and the driving force behind the third is a close friend who I spent a year sharing a house with. Despite that, they’re all great!

First, the [Iraq Analysis Group](http://www.iraqanalysis.org/) have just launched their new [blog](http://www.iraqanalysis.org/blog/). This is one of the most awesome groups of people I’ve ever worked with. They’ve been campaigning and thinking about Iraq since the 1990s, first as the [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq](http://www.iraqanalysis.org/blog/), and then as this group after sanctions were lifted. They (OK, we) have accumulated a large [collection of resources to learn about Iraq](http://www.iraqanalysis.org/info/). It isn’t yet comprehensive, but it’s probably the best listing of it’s kind on the web. I strongly recommend this site: of the project I’ve been involved in, this is one of the few that I believe in 100%, and I’m continually impressed by all the people involved.

Then there’s [sarasvatam cakshuh](http://sarasvatam.blogspot.com/), a blog about Sanskrit written by Somadevah Vasudeva. The focus is on primary texts, so this probably won’t be your thing unless you read Sanskrit. That that doesn’t stop me squeeing about it, I’m afraid. There’s a good amount of [snarkiness](http://sarasvatam.blogspot.com/2006/03/skmadhynam-part-1.html) aimed at people who write about Sanskrit based on translations and small selections of original texts. Totally justified snarkiness: Somadevah is one of the few who has read immense amounts of Sanskrit literature. Some of it he’s committed to memory, and the rest is stored on his Mac, with copious annotations and some weird geek-fu that lets him instantly find any reference. Reading this blog makes me very aware of how little I know, but it also spurs me on to look at more Sanskrit texts.

Finally, another [blog](http://armstrade.blogspot.com/) on the borderline between research and campaigning. This one is from the [Campaign Against the Arms Trade](http://www.caat.org.uk/), which has been pluggin away at its issue for some 30 years, has kept going through thick and thin, and has a great body of expertise on the basty bits of British foreign policy and corporate nastiness. As with anything focussed on content rather than memes, this might be heavy going if you don’t care about the issues.

I’d like to point you all towards a few blogs with real content, written by people who know what they’re talking about. I’m biased about all three: I’m a contributor to the first (and member of the group running it), I was taught by the author of the second, and the driving force behind the third is a close friend who I spent a year sharing a house with. Despite that, they’re all great!

First, the Iraq Analysis Group have just launched their new blog. This is one of the most awesome groups of people I’ve ever worked with. They’ve been campaigning and thinking about Iraq since the 1990s, first as the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq, and then as this group after sanctions were lifted. They (OK, we) have accumulated a large collection of resources to learn about Iraq: it isn’t yet comprehensive, but it’s probably the best listing of it’s kind on the web. I strongly recommend this site: of the project I’ve been involved in, this is one of the few that I believe in 100%, and I’m continually impressed by all the people involved.

Then there’s sarasvatam cakshuh, a blog about Sanskrit written by Somadevah Vasudeva. This probably won’t be your thing unless you read Sanskrit, but that doesn’t stop me squeeing about it. As the subtitle tells you, this is about primary texts. There’s a good amount of snarkiness aimed at people who write about Sanskrit based on translations and small selections of original texts. Totally justified snarkiness: Somadevah is one of the few who has read immense amounts of Sanskrit literature. Some of it he’s committed to memory, and the rest is stored on his Mac, with copious annotations and some weird geek-fu that lets him instantly find any reference. Reading this blog makes me very aware of how little I know, but it also spurs me on to look at more Sanskrit texts.

Finally, another blog on the borderline between research and campaigning. This one is from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, which has been pluggin away at its issue for some 30 years, has kept going through thick and thin, and has a great body of expertise on the basty bits of British foreign policy and corporate nastiness. As with anything focussed on content rather than memes, this might be heavy going if you don’t care about the issues.

Does anybody else do this?

I have an interesting dream, half wake up from it, and want to write it down. Then I dream myself finding a pen and notepad and writing it down, and go back to sleep in the knowledge that I’ve recorded it. In the morning I’m pretty irritated about it all, but if I’m lucky I’ll be able to remember the words I jotted down on the dream-notepad, and reconstruct the dream from that.

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Spent the evening binging on Leonard Cohen, for which I blame i_am_toast and her lyrics posts. Then I come into work, and find the boss has decided tonight is Happy Hardcore Night – to the point of sitting at our computers waving glowsticks, with all the lights turned out.

Yes, working at Jagex does sometimes feel like being back at school – but at least it’s usually in a good way.

Given how much I’m reading about Central Asia these days, it seems perverse not to write anything about it

UNDP has [released](http://neweurasia.net/?p=317) a “[Central Asia Human Development Report](http://europeandcis.undp.org/?wspc=CAHDR2005%20)” (which, typically, I’m going to link to instead of reading). Both [registan](http://www.registan.net/?p=6328#more-6328) and [New Eurasia](http://neweurasia.net/?p=317) report from the launch party. Despite a couple of references to the “new silk road” and the “new great game”, it sounds like an interesting day. One academic talked about the lack of interest in Central Asia from everyone except China. China is naturally enough after Central Asia’s oil, but I’m surprised nobody else is. He also commented:

> Trade between Central Asian countries…is not and will not be a significant engine of development

I’m not saying he’s wrong, but I’d be interested to see the basis for that reasoning. Martha Brill Olcett responded with:

> Central Asia certainly needs the great markets more than the great markets need Central Asia as a transit route

Finally, one speaker talked about the emergence of:

> a transnational democratic mobilization connected by technology

And it _is_ exciting to hear about groups like this, because we can empathise, and because it justifies the time we spend behind computers rather than mobilizing on the streets or manning soup kitchens. Again, I’d like to know the figures behind this mobilization before I jump up and down squealing.

Time to read the report now, I guess.

Let’s start with one of those proverbially obscure, remote countries: Mongolia.

Did you notice the [political crisis](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4616050.stm) there earlier this month? No, neither did I. The BBC’s narrative is: Prime Minister starts anti-corruption drive. The main party, the MPRP, pulls out of his government. There are protests in favour of the Prime Minister and his party. By the time the dust settles, we’ve all lost interest.

For general political commentary, Nathan at Registan has been [churning out Mongolia posts](http://www.registan.net/index.php?cat=15), and his [del.icio.us linklist](http://del.icio.us/nathanhamm/mongolia) points to some of the more interesting news coverage of Mongolia. [East Asia Watch](http://www.eastasiawatch.com/category/mongolia/) has some posts about Mongolia, and [Shards of Mongolia](http://shardsofmongolia.blogspot.com/) has a lot more.

At NewEurasia, a [Mongolia blog](http://mongolia.neweurasia.net/) got going in the past few days, and it’s going through the initial posting-splurge of any new blog. The author has the advantage of living in Mongolia, and he’s coming up with some interesting things.

Mongolia’s only non-government news TV station, Eagle TV, is [expanding broadcasting to 16 hours a day](http://mongolia.neweurasia.net/?p=24). The man behind Eagle TV, Tom Terry, has his own [blog](http://terrycom.net/blog/). From that site, it looks like Eagle TV has a strong Christian slant, as Terry tries to bring to Mongolia “Faith and Freedom”. In his [book](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1597817260/qid=1133994992/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-1959482-3403105?s=books%26v=glance%26n=283155) of the same title he argues, according to one Amazon reviewer, that “(Christian) faith and human freedom are so inextricably connected that no culture can for long have one without the other”. Well, I’d rather have missionary TV than no non-government media, and at least there are rumours of a second news station starting up in competition. Multiple news stations in a country with a population [under 3 million](http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mg.html) isn’t bad!

On more cultural topics, he talks about [attempts to reintroduce the traditional Mongolian script](http://mongolia.neweurasia.net/?p=22), and about the [preservation of Buddhist artfacts](http://mongolia.neweurasia.net/?p=20).

The [Mongolian Matters](http://www.mongolianmatters.com/) blog has a series of posts on th idolisation of Genghis Khan: a Japanese film, Ulan Bator’s airport being renamed Chinggis Khaan. [Plans are even afoot](http://www.mongolianmatters.com/2006/02/mongolias-genghis-khan-craze-1153.html) to create a 40-metre statue of Genghis Khan on horseback, with a golden whip.

Places to look for more: [global voices](http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/-/world/central-asia-caucasus/mongolia/) links to the blogs, (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/mongolia) collects pretty pictures. There is a [Mongolian State News Agency](http://www.montsame.mn/). Most of the [other](http://www.mongolianews.com/) [Mongolian](http://mongolianews.net/) [news websites](http://www.insidemongolia.com/) just reprint stories from the international press. [The UB Post](http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/) seems has substantially more original content.