The Nimr Report

Since Nimr couldn't match this most obscure post, I've taken it upon myself to issue the First Edition of The Nimr Report (TNR).

TNR will be issued whenever Nimr posts on an obscure, irrelevant topic, with the aim of educating him, and the rest of [Blog], on how to spot stories relevant to at least 0.0001% of humanity.

Today's TNR is all about Racism. That's right, boys and girls, a favorite topic for the [Blog]Crew and its staunch Kabob Comments Resistance Committees (including myself, Firouz, [Name], [Name], [Name], [Name] and... the incorrigible Anonymous).

Specifically, the subject at hand is the UN Conference on Racism, aka Durban II. We have a report from Joel Brinkley, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for The New York Times and now a professor of journalism at Stanford University:

I confess I had forgotten about the U.N. World Conference against Racism, in Durban, South Africa, on Sept. 8, 2001. It turned so quickly into a racist, anti-Semitic hate-fest that Secretary of State Colin Powell stood up and walked out.

The indignant commentary was just getting started when the Sept. 11 attacks swept the coverage away. The event was largely forgotten.

I bring it up now because they’re at it again. The United Nations has scheduled a sequel, dubbed Durban II, to take place in Geneva, Switzerland, next spring. (This time, Durban’s city fathers refused to host it.) And if the 2001 event proved to be an embarrassment for the United Nations and the world, the next one promises to be a shameful travesty that will light up cable news, late-night TV talk shows and multi-media blogs for weeks.

Worse, the event is certain to cleave an even deeper divide between the Arab states and the rest of the world. It’s pre-ordained.

...continue reading.

This concludes the First Edition of The Nimr Report.