Worldwide Politics

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Onhell said:
Ottowa is flooding. Stay home LC.
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Luckily I live on the hill. But yes, it is bad in some areas.

About 500 homes in Ottawa and another 500 in Gatineau across the river have been evacuated. One woman died when she drove into a washed out road. The army has been deployed to help with sandbagging. It is not good.
 
LooseCannon said:
Luckily I live on the hill. But yes, it is bad in some areas.

About 500 homes in Ottawa and another 500 in Gatineau across the river have been evacuated. One woman died when she drove into a washed out road. The army has been deployed to help with sandbagging. It is not good.
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Reports say it's due to a broken dam, is that accurate?
 
Onhell said:
Reports say it's due to a broken dam, is that accurate?
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As far as I know, no.

Edit: A dike near Montreal has broken and a dam upstream of Hawkesbury (downstream from me) is currently besieged by water. Several major bridges are closed due to flooding near their road levels. This is the worst flood in recorded history in the Ottawa Valley and it's not over yet.
 
Must be the climate doing exactly what it's always been doing.
 
İmamoğlu winning was a major upset the first time, but the largely expected result this time around. The margin of victory was expected to be smaller though, about 3-4 percent. İmamoğlu not only kept his vote, but managed to gain a very sizable number of votes from people who voted for the AKP candidate on 31 March. Some of the districts İmamoğlu managed to win were known as major AKP strongholds. AKP had won 23 of the 39 districts on 31 March, they only managed to win 9 this time around.

Erdoğan and his AKP couldn't convince the people of Istanbul (or Turkey in general) that the annulment of the initial election was justified. İmamoğlu drove the point home very effectively and did a better job of energizing the opposition than any political figure that we've seen in years. He got major celebrities who remained apolitical throughout Erdoğan's rule to speak up, for example.

Erdoğan's AKP and their ultranationalist allies, Devlet Bahçeli's MHP, also made some catastrophic mistakes in the run-up to the re-election. A member of AKP alluded to İmamoğlu, who is from Trabzon, of being "the remnant of the Puntic Empire", a move that clearly alienated a lot of people from the Black Sea Region, especially those from Trabzon. Another one came with a only a couple of days left and I need to expand on it a little bit to get the point across, so bear with me.

Istanbul has a large Kurdish population. The pro-Kurdish HDP receives around 10% of the vote in Istanbul in general elections, so gaining their support in a close two-way battle is decisive. HDP voiced their support for the opposition candidate, or technically, voiced their opposition to the AKP-MHP candidate, and the AKP-MHP alliance based their entire campaign in the lead-up to the local elections in 31 March on associating the opposition with the PKK, the Kurdish separatist terrorist organization.

After İmamoğlu ended up winning in a close vote, AKP embraced a softer tone on Kurds. Candidate Binali Yıldırım referred to "Kurdistan", a word that ultranationalists are allergic to, and the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, was allowed to speak to his lawyers for the first time in years. Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the ultranationalist MHP was largely unresponsive against these developments. With only a few days left until the election, Öcalan sent a letter through a representative that saw him in prison, obviously with the permit of the government, which asked for Kurdish voters to remain neutral in the Istanbul elections. Pro-AKP media promoted the letter extensively. HDP, however, declared that they would continue to support the opposition candidate despite the letter, a move that clearly contradicted the AKP-MHP talking point of HDP and PKK essentially being the same thing. Widely expected to speak out harshly against Öcalan being allowed to send letters, Devlet Bahçeli shocked everyone by speaking in a tone that appeared to defend or at least legitimize Öcalan, essentially saying that "He had a right to be upset about HDP supporting this nefarious alliance and their candidate". This move very likely alienated the ultranationalists who had been supporting the AKP-MHP alliance because of the perception that the opposition had been "in bed with the Kurdish separatists".

It's definitely a slap in the face for the AKP-MHP alliance, and their mistakes during the lead-up, starting with the fact that there was a (second) lead-up in the first place, could have larger consequences. Also, look out for Ekrem İmamoğlu. Rising star in Turkish politics and most likely Erdoğan's next rival for the Presidency. It's worth mentioning that Erdoğan likewise came to prominence as the Mayor of Istanbul, forming the AKP after his tenure had ended.
 
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I don't know where to put this but it is an excellent read if you want to get pissed off instantly;

JEDDAH, 5 June 2003 — Saudi Arabia’s leading executioner Muhammad Saad Al-Beshi will behead up to seven people in a day.

“It doesn’t matter to me: Two, four, 10 — As long as I’m doing God’s will, it doesn’t matter how many people I execute,” he told Okaz newspaper in an interview.
He started at a prison in Taif, where his job was to handcuff and blindfold the prisoners before their execution. “Because of this background, I developed a desire to be an executioner,” he says.

He applied for the job and was accepted.

His first job came in 1998 in Jeddah. “The criminal was tied and blindfolded. With one stroke of the sword I severed his head. It rolled meters away.” Of course he was nervous, then, he says, as many people were watching, but now stage fright is a thing of the past.

He says he is calm at work because he is doing God’s work. “But there are many people who faint when they witness an execution. I don’t know why they come and watch if they don’t have the stomach for it.
“Me? I sleep very well,” he adds.

Does he think people are afraid of him? “In this country we have a society that understands God’s law,” he says. “No one is afraid of me. I have a lot of relatives, and many friends at the mosque, and I live a normal life like everyone else. There are no drawbacks for my social life.”

Before an execution, nonetheless, he will go to the victim’s family to obtain forgiveness for the criminal. “I always have that hope, until the very last minute, and I pray to God to give the criminal a new lease of life. I always keep that hope alive.”

Al-Beshi will not reveal how much he gets paid per execution as this is a confidential agreement with the government. But he insists that the reward is not important. “I am very proud to do God’s work,” he reiterates.
However, he does reveal that a sword will cost something in the region of SR20,000. “It’s a gift from the government. I look after it and sharpen it once in a while, and I make sure to clean it of bloodstains.

“It’s very sharp. People are amazed how fast it can separate the head from the body.”

By the time the victims reach the execution square they have surrendered themselves to death, he says, though they may hope to be forgiven at the last minute. “Their hearts and minds are taken up with reciting the Shahada.” The only conversation with the prisoner is when he tells him to say the Shahada.
“When they get to the execution square, their strength drains away. Then I read the execution order, and at a signal I cut the prisoner’s head off.”
He has executed numerous women without hesitation, he explains. “Despite the fact that I hate violence against women, when it comes to God’s will, I have to carry it out.”

There is no great difference between executing men and women, except that the women wear hijab, and nobody is allowed near them except Al-Beshi himself when the time for execution comes.
When executing women he will use either gun or sword. “It depends what they ask me to use. Sometimes they ask me to use a sword and sometimes a gun. But most of the time I use the sword,” he adds.
As an experienced executioner, 42-year-old Al-Beshi is entrusted with the task of training the young. “I successfully trained my son Musaed, 22, as an executioner and he was approved and chosen,” he says proudly. Training focuses on the way to hold the sword and where to hit, and is mostly through observing the executioner at work.

An executioner’s life, of course, is not all killing. Sometimes it can be amputation of hands and legs. “I use a special sharp knife, not a sword,” he explains. “When I cut off a hand I cut it from the joint. If it is a leg the authorities specify where it is to be taken off, so I follow that.”
Al-Beshi describes himself as a family man. Married before he became an executioner, his wife did not object to his chosen profession. “She only asked me to think carefully before committing myself,” he recalls. “But I don’t think she’s afraid of me,” he smiles. “I deal with my family with kindness and love. They aren’t afraid when I come back from an execution. Sometimes they help me clean my sword.”

A father of seven, he is a proud grandfather already. “I have a married daughter who has a son. He is called Haza, and he’s my pride and joy. And then there are my sons. The oldest one is Saad, and of course there is Musaed, who’ll be the next executioner,” he adds.
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The Brazilian president has complained that his country is being treated like a colony over the Amazon fires. I hate to break it to to you buddy...
 
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