Month: October 2002

Macro Caching in Conversant

Macrobyte Resources have added a number of macro caching features in the last 48 hours, including caching the insertQuery macro. This is especially useful to me since I use queries on data fields to build dynamic category pages.

This works great, but as the number of articles found grew larger, the amount of time the insertquery macro took grew longer.

Caching the macro results dramatically improved performance. My Miscellaneous page used to take 9 to 10 seconds to display because it has so many articles. Caching it reduces the display time to about 2.5 seconds — quite an improvement.

Macrobyte has wisely included an option to control how long the macro is cached, and I’m setting it at 12 hours since I don’t update all that often, and I can live with a 12-hour dated category page that loads four times faster than normal.

Jennifer Granholm Redefining Backpedaling

One of the more amusing aspects of elections is watching one candidate or another say something completely off the wall and then, rather than admit the mistake, try to spin the statement away. Jennifer Granholm, Democratic candidate for governor here in Michigan, is running unintentionally hilarious advertisements trying to save herself from a major blunder.

Earlier this year, Granholm appeared at an NAACP function where she felt it necessary to say, “For the record, I support reparations as well.” Republicans got hold of a videotape of that event and are running “Granholm: Too Liberal for Michigan”-style ads.

Granholm had a number of options in replying to the ads, but has chosen the silliest one — that when she said she supported reparations, she never meant that she supported any sort of economic restitution to the descendants of slaves. She just meant she supports civil rights, expanded opportunities for African Americans, etc., etc.

I.e., she’s either clueless or lying, and either way not very promising. But she’ll likely win because her Republican is just as bad (if not a little worse), and Michigan is still largely a Democratic state.

Source:


Campaign for Governor: Airwaves crackle as race ads burn. Dawson Bell and Chris Christoff, Detroit Free Press, October 19, 2002.

An Objectionable Kiss in Iran

In late September, the Iranian city of Yazd hosted an awards ceremony for the Iranian film industry. Actress Gohar Kheirandish presented the award for best director to Ali Zamini, and Kheirandish became so excited that she kissed Zamini on the forehead and shook his hand. Kheirandish immediately found herself in court and at the center of a debate over public morality.

Following strict Islamic law, it is illegal in Iran for unrelated men and women to have any sort of physical contact, including handshakes. Former Iranian ambassador to the United States Hadi nejad Hosseinan was quoted by an Iranian newspaper as explaining that while serving in the United States, “During ceremonies, I hold a glass in one hand and my bag in other to avoid shaking women’s hands.”

Kheirnadish’s kiss was condemned by conservative Muslims as nothing more than an assault on public morality by the enemies of Islam.

Mohsen Talebpour, representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Al Kahmenei, organized a protest in Yazd and told the official Iranian news agency that, “Today the enemy has targeted our islamic beliefs.”

An editorial in weekly Iranian newspaper Ya Lessarat lamented that, “Our enemies are trying to harm Islam through our culture and this event is an example of that fact.”

As for the legal repercussions of the kiss, Zamini was arrested and then released on $2,500 bail while Kheirandish was expected to return to Yazd to turn herself in. In addition, a local Culture Ministry official who failed to immediately have Zaminie and Kheirandish arrested was himself arrested and charged as an accomplice and later released on $6,250 bail.

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson don’t have anything on these folks.

Source:

Kiss lands Iranian actress and director in court. Parisa Hafezi, Reuters, October 3, 2002.

Lawsuit Against King of Swaziland

Swaziland is the last country in Africa that maintains an absolute monarchy, and King Mswati III takes his absolute ruler position very seriously. Among other things, he continues a longstanding tradition of the king picking multiple girls each year as potential wives. The girls are then forced to the royal court where Mswati eventually takes one as a wife. The others are offered to lesser royal figures as wives.

But Lindiwe Dlamini, a single mother living in central Swaziland, has filed a lawsuit in Swaziland claiming that this tradition amounts to little more than kidnapping among other things.

Dlamini’s daughter, Zena Mahlangu, 18, was taken by the King’s courtiers during an annual Reed Dance ceremony in September. Mahlangu was one of four women selected by the King and required to return to the royal court for training as potential wives.

“My right to custody of my child will have been unlawfully infringed, and Zena’s right to liberty, privacy and protection from abuse will have been breached,” Dlamini said.

Sources:

Mother challenges King over girl’s ‘abduction’. Michael Dynes, Times (UK), October 21, 2002.

Case against King Mswati III goes to court. SABCNews.Com, October 21, 2002.

Nigerian Couple Released on Bail After Being Sentenced to Death

A Nigerian couple recently sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery were released on bail by a sharia court in order for the woman, Fatima Usman, to give birth to her child.

Usman and her lover, Ahmadu Ibrahim, were originally ordered to be imprisoned after being found guilty of committing adultery. But at their appeal hearing, a judge ruled that the wrong statute had been cited and changed the couple’s sentence to death by stoning.

Nigerian sharia courts have routinely delayed the carrying out of such sentences until the infants is born and weaned.

So far, none of the people sentenced to death in Nigeria has actually had that sentence carried out, but according to the BBC,

But defence lawyers are increasingly concerned that it is only a matter of time before on of the majority Muslim northern states decides to carry out such a sentence.

. . .

Nigeria’s central government has said it is opposed to such sentences being carried out, but says it has no powers to intervene in judgments handed down by Islamic courts in the north of the country.

Source:

Nigeria’s stoning couple freed. The BBC, August 22, 2002.