Neutral <> peaceful

Heureux sont les artisans d'armes...

Parait-il que les exportations d'armes depuis la Suisse ont pris l'ascenseur en 2014.

J'ai une fois entendu quelqu'un (un bon suisse) expliquer que la neutralité suisse ne vient pas du fait qu'ils sont artisans de paix, mais plutôt de l'histoire des mercenaires suisses qui ne voulaient se couper des marchés potentiels en faisant des alliances.

(Ceci dit, d'après le rapport de la SECO, les armes ne sont pas exportées vers des méchants dictatures)

Blessed are the arms makers...

Swiss military weapons exports soar in 2014.

I once overheard someone explaining that Switzerland isn't neutral because the Swiss are peace loving, but because historically as mercenaries, they needed to keep their client base as large as possible.

(That said, they don't seem to be exporting to too many blatant dictatorships)

Also, this from a former assistant director of the FBI (via The Intercept - you should read the whole article):

If you’re submitting budget proposals for a law enforcement agency, for an intelligence agency, you’re not going to submit the proposal that “We won the war on terror and everything’s great,” cuz the first thing that’s gonna happen is your budget’s gonna be cut in half. You know, it’s my opposite of Jesse Jackson’s ‘Keep Hope Alive’—it’s ‘Keep Fear Alive.’ Keep it alive.

Snowden

If you weren't aware that CitizenFour, the documentary about Edward Snowden, won an Oscar, you are forgiven. Lots of media didn't even mention it in passing.

There was an interesting Reddit chat afterwards, with participation from the film maker, associated journalist, and the man himself.

It's worth dipping in for a look.

Here are two thought-provoking quotes:


In response to the popular trope "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to worry about":

Yes, but what if you DID have something to hide, not because you're a criminal, but because your government is?

Edward Snowden, talking about government reform:

Ultimately, if people lose their willingness to recognize that there are times in our history when legality becomes distinct from morality, we aren't just ceding control of our rights to government, but our agency in determing thour futures.

American Dream

Pas envie d'aller visiter les US.

This is why I'm in no hurry to visit the states....

Happens all the time (link)

This just in:
Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden 'black site' 

All hell on earth ... Enfer sur terre

On savait que les occidentaux avaient abandonné Gaddafi, après avoir fait copain-copain avec.

Maintenant il devient de plus en plus clair qu'ils ont abandonné la Libye entière...

Et il y a encore des gens pour vouloir éliminer Assad...

We knew that Western leaders had thrown Gaddafi under a bus after copious hob-knobbing with him.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that they also threw Libya to the dogs at the same time.

Two very different sources that agree:
Hailed as a Model for Successful Intervention, Libya Proves to be the Exact Opposite

Britain paved the way for the slaughter of Libya’s Christians

Some people saw it coming...

There are still people advocating arming rebels against Assad.

Better the devil you know.

Party ... Fête

Pour organiser la fête des 10 ans de Kalia on été un peu emprunté: on a utilisé toutes nos meilleures idées pour la fête des lumières!

Jusqu'au dernier moment on a eu un peu peur de ne pas avoir prévu assez de jeux, mais pour finir on n'a même pas pu les faire tous. Ma meilleure idée était une 'course au bateaux Lego' - il fallait utiliser scotch/ficelle/carton pour ajouter des voiles à des voitures en Lego (par équipe), puis faire une course en soufflant dessus.

Dans cette photo, Kalia et sa copine prépare la fête. Cest chouette parce qu'elle est assez grande pour participer et nous aider (et on profite qu'elle veuille encore de notre aide!)

We were a bit stuck when it came to organising Kalia's birthday party. We'd used up all our best ideas for her Festival of Lights.

Up to the last minute we were still a bit stressy, wondering if we had enough activities lined up, but in the end we still had a few spare at the end. My best/favourite idea was a 'Lego landboat race' - three teams using sellotape, string and paper to add sails to Lego cars, then race them by blowing on the sails.

In this photo, Kalia and her friend are setting the table. It's great because she's at an age where she can actively participate in the preparation (and for the moment we're still allowed to participate!)

Une amie lui a fait un gâteau sur le thème Aladdin (enfin, Jasmine), et elle a reçu le déguisement correspondant.

A friend of ours made here a Aladdin (well, actually Jasmine) cake, and she got a costume to suit.

Une démonstration de karaté avec son ami Romain.

A brief Karate demonstration with her friend Romain.

Champoussin

Où est passé tout ce temps?

Pour l'anni de Madame, on a fait un long week-end 'à la montagne'. Ici, à son réveil, Rebecca regarde la vue depuis l'hôtel.

Oops, time passed.

For Madame's birthday, we had a long weekend 'in the mountains'. In a nice hotel surrounded with snow on snow. Here's a picture of Rebecca on the first morning, have a look at the view.

Et voilà la vue.

And this was the view.

Kalia a eu son deuxième cours de ski (le précédent date de 2-3 ans en arrière), et j'ai eu mon premier!

Kalia had her second ever skiing lesson. And I had my first

Voilà les Dents du midi, nettement plus proche que depuis chez nous.

Here's "Les Dents du midi" that we can see from our place too, but not so close and beautiful.

Champoussin n'est pas très grand, et une fois qu'on est au chaud dans l'hôtel (et en pyjama), on n'a pas vraiment la motivation d'aller chercher autre chose que le restaurant de l'hôtel.

Il y avait aussi une chouette piscine où on a passé un bon moment.

Champoussin is a little place, and once you're nice and warm and in the hotel (and in your pyjamas!) you're kind of obliged to eat in the hotel's restaurant.

There was a rather nice swimming pool in the hotel too, where we spent quite a lot of time playing with diving sticks (thanks Libby!)

C'est sympa d'être arrivé au stade où les filles ont du plaisir à aller au restaurant, ET nous avons du plaisir à les prendre avec!

Holidays is not necessarily healthy eating time. But it's great to have got to the age where the girls like to go out (or stay in, in this case) to the restaurant, and we like to have them with us!

Give us this day our daily bread

Chaplain Mike knocks it out of the park, as usual.

It feels wrong for me to pray “Give us this day our daily bread” with this man in this place on this day because I sense the disconnect when I say that little word, “us.” It feels like I ought to say, “Give him his daily bread, Lord, I’m covered.”

IKEA will thank me ... IKEA devrait me payer

Grâce aux Legos qu'on fait ensemble, plus grande, les filles seront tout à fait aptes à monter leurs meubles !

Hier soir, j'ai vu que Rebecca arrivait à bien orienter sa construction, même avec les instructions à l'envers.

C'est R2D2, reçu de Madame pour mon anniversaire :)
 

Thanks to the Lego we're doing together, the girls will have no problems following the instructions for their furniture when they're older!

Yesterday, I even noticed Rebecca even seems to be able to follow the instructions if the book is facing the other way.

It's R2D2, which Madame gave me for my birthday ;)

10 years ... 10 ans

Il y a 10 ans aujourd'hui, Kalia est née. Et peu de temps avant, c'était le début de ce blog (qui compte mainteant environ 1640 articles - un tous les deux jours en moyenne!)

Il est d'usage de dire "on dirait que c'était qu'hier !" mais en réfléchissant je crois que non, on dirait que c'était il y a 10 ans.

Comme elle aime nous le rappeler: "Je ne suis plus un bébé !".

10 years ago today, Kalia was born, and shortly before that this blog (which now has 1641 posts - an average of one every two days).

Typically on these occasions one says "it seems like just yesterday!".

Having mulled things over I'd say that no, it seems like 10 years ago.

As she likes to remind us: "I'm not a baby any more!"