DAMNED IF YOU DO

Another empty shop in inner-Sydney. Picture by John Stapleton

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. A shred of sky falling apart. A fractured pane, the glinting light. He hadn't wanted to come back to Sydney, but the plans were not formed. Another time, another place. Burnout. Wild, crowded dreams. He wasn't sure what had bought on the latest outage, build and destroy. Tired of thinking. Nothing seemed right.

He made one trip to Oxford Street, but to him it no longer had any charm or ambience. There was a predatory look in all their eyes, as they crowded into one of the last remaining bars.

But look, look, he would say, how dead this place, how quiet everything.

As if to prove the point they drove past an almost empty hotel in Redfern, two people propping up the bar.

This grizzling discontent, when the rest of the world was steam rolling out of control. Each day brought new complexities and new nightmares in the dissolving world of the Middle East. New jihadist scandals. New debates, condemnation, apologists, a vexed interpretation.

Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton.

They were perched on the edge of the outer rim, the last outpost of civilisation.

There was no easy fix.

No remaining core, no singularity.

Twenty years before he had lived a mere two streets away, a dissolving relationship, children. But this was not a village. He encountered few people he had known before, although it felt, the streets were so familiar, as if they should be there, old acquaintances.

But they just weren't.

Let go of all attachment.

Even attachment to a place.

Like others, sometimes he found it safer to just stay home; not to face the treachery. Nothing was as it appeared, marauding spirits behind graffitied walls, instincts gone awry, perplexed by his own peculiarties. The murmer of voices in the distance. The gentlest of breezes. He did Buddhist exercises in a Christian cemetery, and sometimes, in that hyper-real consciousness he thought he could discern the purpose, why fate had brought him here. A stability of form or an empty vessel. In a galaxy far far away.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Crime and disorder warning after influx of male migrants
WILL PAVIA
THE TIMES
JANUARY 7, 2016 11:00AM



Tens of thousands of young male migrants pursuing a new life in Europe could threaten the peace and stability of western nations, an American professor has warned.

Huge numbers of unaccompanied teenage boys who have fled poverty and war in Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan are creating imbalances in the numbers of men and women in parts of Europe which rival those of China, according to Valerie Hudson, a professor at Texas A & M University who studies the effects of sex ratios on the stability of nations.

Writing for Politico, a website based in Washington, Dr Hudson said: “Crimes such as rape and sexual harassment become more common in highly masculinised societies, and women’s ability to move about freely and without fear within society is curtailed. In addition, demand for prostitution soars. Places where the sex ratio is most imbalanced have higher violent crime and property crime rates.”

Her warning about the consequences of too many young men dominating western societies came after scores of women were attacked, sexually assaulted and robbed by gangs in four German cities on New Year’s Eve.

Police said that the victims reported that their assailants were of Middle Eastern appearance. The attacks triggered a backlash over Germany’s acceptance of 1.1 million asylum seekers last year. One local police chief described the attacks as “a completely new dimension in crime”. It remains unclear if the assailants were migrants.

According to official statistics, two thirds of all migrants registering in Greece and Italy last year were male. A fifth of all those who reached the EU last year were under the age of 18; half had travelled alone. Of those, more than 90 per cent were boys.

While debate in Europe has frequently focused on the faith and culture of the new arrivals, Dr Hudson argues that demographics should be driving the decisions of governments. “Nobody is talking about this,” she said. “We should be thinking strategically about how to protect the normal sex ratios. Places where the sex ratios are most unequal have suffered a rise in crime. China has suffered a rise in crime, India as well.

“I don’t care if they are Muslim or Greek Orthodox,” she added. “If you are altering sex ratios to the level of 123 men to every 100 women, you are going to have problems.”

Other demographers have argued that a large young population can be a recipe for revolution. The “youth bulge theory” was frequently cited during the Arab Spring.

A larger number of men than women has also been identified as a cause of instability. “High numbers of males per females tends to be correlated with more violent cultures or societies,” said Barbara Miller, a professor of anthropology and international affairs at George Washington University.

Dr Hudson warned that the problem of too many young migrant men was particularly profound in Sweden, which has taken more migrants per head of population than any other European country — nearly four times that of Germany. She calculated that among the population aged 16 and 17 there were now 123 boys for every 100 girls. In China, where gender imbalances are blamed on the government’s one-child policy, the ratio is 117 boys to every 100 girls.

She claims that 18,615 boys aged 16 and 17 entered Sweden, compared to 2,555 girls last year. Adding those figures to the existing population count in Sweden for those age groups, as reported by the international database of the US Census Bureau, she finds that there are now 121,914 boys in that age bracket, compared with 99,079 girls.

Dr Hudson cites Canada as an example of a country that has recognised the risks of an overly large young male population. Canada has committed to accepting 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of next month, but it is only accepting women, accompanied minors and families. She fears that Europe’s hard-won victories for gender equality and public safety are jeopardised by an influx of disproportionately large numbers of young men.

Her research, in conjunction with Andrea Den Boer, a specialist in gender and international relations at the University of Kent, has found a link between such disparities and the emergence of criminal gangs and anti-government groups.

They argue that young men who struggle to start their own families and who may also be marginalised as immigrants, are more likely to turn to crime.

Of migrants registering in Greece and Italy, 66.2 per cent were male, according to the International Organisation for Migration. This imbalance may be reduced if men succeed in bringing their wives and children to join them. However, the gender disparity among unaccompanied teenage and child migrants is far greater and unlikely to be corrected.

Dr Hudson noted that 20 per cent of migrants were minors and most were arriving unaccompanied. They are virtually guaranteed asylum upon arrival but are not permitted to bring over spouses — the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that countries need not recognise the legality of child marriages among migrants. Among these unaccompanied children and teenagers, 90 per cent are male.

In Britain, David Cameron’s decision only to take the most vulnerable people from refugee camps — and his refusal to take migrants who have already reached Europe — is expected to prevent a disproportionate number of young men arriving.

The UK is taking in 20,000 Syrians by 2020, but only “vulnerable” people camped in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon who have not managed to make the treacherous trip to Europe. Under the UK’s program, the UN identifies those it believes to be the most vulnerable, including victims of torture, sexual exploitation, the elderly and infirm, and the severely ill. They are put through a security check before being approved for resettlement in Britain.

Home Office officials denied that the decision to accept refugees who had reached Europe was down to “not wanting a particular type of individual”. Instead, they said that it was designed to ensure that others were not encouraged to make the dangerous voyage.

However, Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, suggested in October that he believed that migrants reaching Europe were disproportionately “fit young men”. He said: “Many of the people we see on our television screens walking down railway lines are fit young men coming to Europe to look for work,” he said in October.

The Times

A Sense of Place Book Blog

DAMNED IF YOU DO

Another empty shop in inner-Sydney. Picture by John Stapleton

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. A shred of sky falling apart. A fractured pane, the glinting light. He hadn't wanted to come back to Sydney, but the plans were not formed. Another time, another place. Burnout. Wild, crowded dreams. He wasn't sure what had bought on the latest outage, build and destroy. Tired of thinking. Nothing seemed right.

He made one trip to Oxford Street, but to him it no longer had any charm or ambience. There was a predatory look in all their eyes, as they crowded into one of the last remaining bars.

But look, look, he would say, how dead this place, how quiet everything.

As if to prove the point they drove past an almost empty hotel in Redfern, two people propping up the bar.

This grizzling discontent, when the rest of the world was steam rolling out of control. Each day brought new complexities and new nightmares in the dissolving world of the Middle East. New jihadist scandals. New debates, condemnation, apologists, a vexed interpretation.

Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton.

They were perched on the edge of the outer rim, the last outpost of civilisation.

There was no easy fix.

No remaining core, no singularity.

Twenty years before he had lived a mere two streets away, a dissolving relationship, children. But this was not a village. He encountered few people he had known before, although it felt, the streets were so familiar, as if they should be there, old acquaintances.

But they just weren't.

Let go of all attachment.

Even attachment to a place.

Like others, sometimes he found it safer to just stay home; not to face the treachery. Nothing was as it appeared, marauding spirits behind graffitied walls, instincts gone awry, perplexed by his own peculiarties. The murmer of voices in the distance. The gentlest of breezes. He did Buddhist exercises in a Christian cemetery, and sometimes, in that hyper-real consciousness he thought he could discern the purpose, why fate had brought him here. A stability of form or an empty vessel. In a galaxy far far away.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Crime and disorder warning after influx of male migrants
WILL PAVIA
THE TIMES
JANUARY 7, 2016 11:00AM



Tens of thousands of young male migrants pursuing a new life in Europe could threaten the peace and stability of western nations, an American professor has warned.

Huge numbers of unaccompanied teenage boys who have fled poverty and war in Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan are creating imbalances in the numbers of men and women in parts of Europe which rival those of China, according to Valerie Hudson, a professor at Texas A & M University who studies the effects of sex ratios on the stability of nations.

Writing for Politico, a website based in Washington, Dr Hudson said: “Crimes such as rape and sexual harassment become more common in highly masculinised societies, and women’s ability to move about freely and without fear within society is curtailed. In addition, demand for prostitution soars. Places where the sex ratio is most imbalanced have higher violent crime and property crime rates.”

Her warning about the consequences of too many young men dominating western societies came after scores of women were attacked, sexually assaulted and robbed by gangs in four German cities on New Year’s Eve.

Police said that the victims reported that their assailants were of Middle Eastern appearance. The attacks triggered a backlash over Germany’s acceptance of 1.1 million asylum seekers last year. One local police chief described the attacks as “a completely new dimension in crime”. It remains unclear if the assailants were migrants.

According to official statistics, two thirds of all migrants registering in Greece and Italy last year were male. A fifth of all those who reached the EU last year were under the age of 18; half had travelled alone. Of those, more than 90 per cent were boys.

While debate in Europe has frequently focused on the faith and culture of the new arrivals, Dr Hudson argues that demographics should be driving the decisions of governments. “Nobody is talking about this,” she said. “We should be thinking strategically about how to protect the normal sex ratios. Places where the sex ratios are most unequal have suffered a rise in crime. China has suffered a rise in crime, India as well.

“I don’t care if they are Muslim or Greek Orthodox,” she added. “If you are altering sex ratios to the level of 123 men to every 100 women, you are going to have problems.”

Other demographers have argued that a large young population can be a recipe for revolution. The “youth bulge theory” was frequently cited during the Arab Spring.

A larger number of men than women has also been identified as a cause of instability. “High numbers of males per females tends to be correlated with more violent cultures or societies,” said Barbara Miller, a professor of anthropology and international affairs at George Washington University.

Dr Hudson warned that the problem of too many young migrant men was particularly profound in Sweden, which has taken more migrants per head of population than any other European country — nearly four times that of Germany. She calculated that among the population aged 16 and 17 there were now 123 boys for every 100 girls. In China, where gender imbalances are blamed on the government’s one-child policy, the ratio is 117 boys to every 100 girls.

She claims that 18,615 boys aged 16 and 17 entered Sweden, compared to 2,555 girls last year. Adding those figures to the existing population count in Sweden for those age groups, as reported by the international database of the US Census Bureau, she finds that there are now 121,914 boys in that age bracket, compared with 99,079 girls.

Dr Hudson cites Canada as an example of a country that has recognised the risks of an overly large young male population. Canada has committed to accepting 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of next month, but it is only accepting women, accompanied minors and families. She fears that Europe’s hard-won victories for gender equality and public safety are jeopardised by an influx of disproportionately large numbers of young men.

Her research, in conjunction with Andrea Den Boer, a specialist in gender and international relations at the University of Kent, has found a link between such disparities and the emergence of criminal gangs and anti-government groups.

They argue that young men who struggle to start their own families and who may also be marginalised as immigrants, are more likely to turn to crime.

Of migrants registering in Greece and Italy, 66.2 per cent were male, according to the International Organisation for Migration. This imbalance may be reduced if men succeed in bringing their wives and children to join them. However, the gender disparity among unaccompanied teenage and child migrants is far greater and unlikely to be corrected.

Dr Hudson noted that 20 per cent of migrants were minors and most were arriving unaccompanied. They are virtually guaranteed asylum upon arrival but are not permitted to bring over spouses — the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that countries need not recognise the legality of child marriages among migrants. Among these unaccompanied children and teenagers, 90 per cent are male.

In Britain, David Cameron’s decision only to take the most vulnerable people from refugee camps — and his refusal to take migrants who have already reached Europe — is expected to prevent a disproportionate number of young men arriving.

The UK is taking in 20,000 Syrians by 2020, but only “vulnerable” people camped in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon who have not managed to make the treacherous trip to Europe. Under the UK’s program, the UN identifies those it believes to be the most vulnerable, including victims of torture, sexual exploitation, the elderly and infirm, and the severely ill. They are put through a security check before being approved for resettlement in Britain.

Home Office officials denied that the decision to accept refugees who had reached Europe was down to “not wanting a particular type of individual”. Instead, they said that it was designed to ensure that others were not encouraged to make the dangerous voyage.

However, Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, suggested in October that he believed that migrants reaching Europe were disproportionately “fit young men”. He said: “Many of the people we see on our television screens walking down railway lines are fit young men coming to Europe to look for work,” he said in October.

The Times

A Sense of Place Book Blog

LISTEN TO ME

Picture by John Stapleton. A typical scene across Sydney

"Listen to me,"a voice said.
Well they were always saying something.
"We're here to help you. We're on your side."
Or far worse.
And then one day, after a particularly torrid mind mess where he had lured them down the most obscene routes, just to get rid of them, to shock them or help them to classify and thereby dismiss him, he heard it again, clear as a bell: "They were the military. We're different. We're here to clean up their mess."
Well that was as well may be, he didn't care for them either. We're from the government and we're here to help you. Any attempt at cooperation had long since disappeared; one disaster accruing on to another.
Trust no one.
New X-Files on the way.
They were frightened now, and stayed away, or bored. Bigger fish to fry.
He had done his best to bore them; and slept far more than usual.
Normally a sign of depression, but he was not depressed. Resigned, perhaps. Knocked sideways.
And then opportunity came knocking.
The rains drenched across Sydney. A man was swept off a yacht off Port Stephens. A hundred miles away, a hundred years away, every moment imprinted into history before being swept away.
He wished he could travel back through time, to undo a wrong. The person concerned, a disabled child, was probably already dead. It was almost 20 years before. In a world where people were being beheaded and crucified and burnt alive, dragged behind cars or bombed mercilessly from the sky, Obama shedding faux tears at gun victims while his bombs rained down on the Middle East, every last one of them designed to kill another Muslim and inflame an already out of control situation which they themselves had helped to create; well that was the world now. ONE BIG LIE.
Faith in government was at record lows.
MacDonalds was sponsoring the Australian Open, the one organisation most signally responsible for the decline in the health and eating habits of Australians, a significant driver behind record obesity rates. Australians had never been fatter or more inactive. Local business had never been more dire. The American giant had driven hundreds, thousands of small businesses, hamburger and a milkshake thanks, to the wall, while armies of bureaucrats strangled every single aspect of human behaviour.
Their repeated failures were, to them, only evidence of a greater need.
There were no plots that he could detect in the immediate vicinity.
No planned massacres.
But you didn't have to go very far West.
Into the world of the disenfranchised and disengaged; deranged, or justifiably angry.
The bureaucrats, their frontmen and women, the politicians, with an accompanying orchestra of polarised media, told one bifurcated story. The reality was an entirely different matter.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/henry-ergas/itll-take-courage-to-remedy-a-world-gone-wrong/news-story/bc5a115d970c40e4deea44f52c0980b4

It’ll take courage to remedy a world gone wrong
THE AUSTRALIAN
DECEMBER 28, 2015 12:00AM
Henry Ergas

There are times when history ­escapes from the leash. And rarely has it done so more dramatically than in the past year.
But it is not only the sense of loss of control that marked 2015; it is the perception that Western governments are unable to tame the anarchy, much less renew hope.
The risk, as expectations are disappointed and fears stoked, is of a self-reinforcing process in which the declining legitimacy of public institutions saps the confidence required to restore world order, perpetuating the chaos and the horrors.
The public’s malaise is not difficult to understand. Even in the US, the economic recovery, currently in its sixth year, has not been strong enough to materially lift Middle America’s income and ­revive its faith in the nation’s strengths and prospects.
The optimism John Dewey ­exuded, when he wrote of the US that “everywhere, new possibilities beckon and arouse courage and ­effort”, seems tarnished beyond repair; so does the American Dream, which Bill Clinton described as the conviction that “if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll be rewarded with a good life for yourself and a better chance for your children”.
No doubt, the election of President Barack Obama temporarily boosted the public mood; but it was the myth, not the man, that had won the day — and when a myth collapses, as Obama’s did long ago, it leaves a void bitterness quickly fills.
A report from the Pew Research Centre charts the consequences.
In every major national poll conducted since July 2007, no more than three Americans out of 10 have expressed trust in the ­federal government: the longest period of low trust in government since systematic polling began.
In 1957, when the question was first asked, 73 per cent of Americans said government did the right thing just about always or most of the time; now, that proportion is down to 19 per cent.
It is not that Americans think there are quick fixes to the country’s problems; it is simply that they no longer believe the federal government can credibly tackle them. Fractious, frustrated and fearful, their turning to characters such as Donald Trump is entirely unsurprising.
The situation in Europe — which this year, for the first time since the consolidation of the modern state system, completely lost controls of its borders — is even worse.
However commendable ­Angela Merkel’s intentions may have been, the concomitance of the flood of refugees with the ­terrorist attacks in Paris has ­destroyed what little there still was of the ­European project.
The Schengen Agreement on free movement within Europe lies in tatters; so does any common ­vision of the European future.
Of the supranational aspiration, only the shop-soiled rhetoric remains; but Europe’s political elites are unwilling to recognise its passing, much less sign its death certificate.
Nor has the euro fared any better. Yes, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi convinced markets he could prevent the eurozone from imploding; but he has not managed to convince them he can get it growing. If the best the eurozone can achieve is 1 to 2 per cent growth, as seems likely, its fiscal woes will prove ever more intractable, as will the social problems that are already tearing it apart.
Little wonder then that so much of the continent has been swept by anger and anxiety. In the short run, the elections in Spain and Portugal, which rejected austerity without endorsing any alternative, will add to the instability; but it is the longer-term effects of pervasive disillusionment that are most troubling.
Those effects were starkly on display in France’s recent regional elections. With fewer than a quarter of young people believing their lives will be better than their parents’, polls showed the Front ­National receiving support from 35 per cent of young voters, 50 per cent of blue-collar voters and 40 per cent of white-collar voters. For sure, once the left and centre-right parties combined their vote, it failed to pick up entire regions; but those parties’ unnatural entente will merely validate the Front National’s claim that its opponents are a cartel of unprincipled careerists and shortsighted opportunists.
It is not solely in the West that the major powers are in crisis. Views differ on how severe China’s economic difficulties are; what is clear, however, is that its Communist leaders, to whom so many Australian observers had ascribed talismanic qualities, are floundering. Yet with China struggling, the rest of the world economy is too weak to achieve rapid growth.
That can only make all of today’s problems more acute. An expanding pie is the best remedy to society’s heartaches, unleashing initiative and focusing attention on the future, rather than the past; but when growth slows to a halt, every issue becomes a zero-sum game, harshening divisions and making conflicts interminable.
And as those conflicts play themselves out, Western governments will be even less willing than they already are to bear the costs and risks of imposing international order.
None of that should be an invitation to hand-wringing. These are not signs preceding the end of the world; rather, they are a call to analyse what has gone wrong. And that requires honest discussion, ­including of fraught issues such as Islamic extremism.
In democracies, public understanding never moves towards the truth over a royal straight road; it must find its way, at times painfully, through the twists and turns of its confusions and contradictions. But the alternative to frank debate is a diminution of social possibility, as governments that distrust voters earn their distrust in return.
“Courage,” said Aristotle, “is the first of human virtues because it makes all others possible.” And there is no greater courage than the courage to “see what one sees”.

Click to go to Blog Site

LISTEN TO ME

Picture by John Stapleton. A typical scene across Sydney

"Listen to me,"a voice said.
Well they were always saying something.
"We're here to help you. We're on your side."
Or far worse.
And then one day, after a particularly torrid mind mess where he had lured them down the most obscene routes, just to get rid of them, to shock them or help them to classify and thereby dismiss him, he heard it again, clear as a bell: "They were the military. We're different. We're here to clean up their mess."
Well that was as well may be, he didn't care for them either. We're from the government and we're here to help you. Any attempt at cooperation had long since disappeared; one disaster accruing on to another.
Trust no one.
New X-Files on the way.
They were frightened now, and stayed away, or bored. Bigger fish to fry.
He had done his best to bore them; and slept far more than usual.
Normally a sign of depression, but he was not depressed. Resigned, perhaps. Knocked sideways.
And then opportunity came knocking.
The rains drenched across Sydney. A man was swept off a yacht off Port Stephens. A hundred miles away, a hundred years away, every moment imprinted into history before being swept away.
He wished he could travel back through time, to undo a wrong. The person concerned, a disabled child, was probably already dead. It was almost 20 years before. In a world where people were being beheaded and crucified and burnt alive, dragged behind cars or bombed mercilessly from the sky, Obama shedding faux tears at gun victims while his bombs rained down on the Middle East, every last one of them designed to kill another Muslim and inflame an already out of control situation which they themselves had helped to create; well that was the world now. ONE BIG LIE.
Faith in government was at record lows.
MacDonalds was sponsoring the Australian Open, the one organisation most signally responsible for the decline in the health and eating habits of Australians, a significant driver behind record obesity rates. Australians had never been fatter or more inactive. Local business had never been more dire. The American giant had driven hundreds, thousands of small businesses, hamburger and a milkshake thanks, to the wall, while armies of bureaucrats strangled every single aspect of human behaviour.
Their repeated failures were, to them, only evidence of a greater need.
There were no plots that he could detect in the immediate vicinity.
No planned massacres.
But you didn't have to go very far West.
Into the world of the disenfranchised and disengaged; deranged, or justifiably angry.
The bureaucrats, their frontmen and women, the politicians, with an accompanying orchestra of polarised media, told one bifurcated story. The reality was an entirely different matter.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/henry-ergas/itll-take-courage-to-remedy-a-world-gone-wrong/news-story/bc5a115d970c40e4deea44f52c0980b4

It’ll take courage to remedy a world gone wrong
THE AUSTRALIAN
DECEMBER 28, 2015 12:00AM
Henry Ergas

There are times when history ­escapes from the leash. And rarely has it done so more dramatically than in the past year.
But it is not only the sense of loss of control that marked 2015; it is the perception that Western governments are unable to tame the anarchy, much less renew hope.
The risk, as expectations are disappointed and fears stoked, is of a self-reinforcing process in which the declining legitimacy of public institutions saps the confidence required to restore world order, perpetuating the chaos and the horrors.
The public’s malaise is not difficult to understand. Even in the US, the economic recovery, currently in its sixth year, has not been strong enough to materially lift Middle America’s income and ­revive its faith in the nation’s strengths and prospects.
The optimism John Dewey ­exuded, when he wrote of the US that “everywhere, new possibilities beckon and arouse courage and ­effort”, seems tarnished beyond repair; so does the American Dream, which Bill Clinton described as the conviction that “if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll be rewarded with a good life for yourself and a better chance for your children”.
No doubt, the election of President Barack Obama temporarily boosted the public mood; but it was the myth, not the man, that had won the day — and when a myth collapses, as Obama’s did long ago, it leaves a void bitterness quickly fills.
A report from the Pew Research Centre charts the consequences.
In every major national poll conducted since July 2007, no more than three Americans out of 10 have expressed trust in the ­federal government: the longest period of low trust in government since systematic polling began.
In 1957, when the question was first asked, 73 per cent of Americans said government did the right thing just about always or most of the time; now, that proportion is down to 19 per cent.
It is not that Americans think there are quick fixes to the country’s problems; it is simply that they no longer believe the federal government can credibly tackle them. Fractious, frustrated and fearful, their turning to characters such as Donald Trump is entirely unsurprising.
The situation in Europe — which this year, for the first time since the consolidation of the modern state system, completely lost controls of its borders — is even worse.
However commendable ­Angela Merkel’s intentions may have been, the concomitance of the flood of refugees with the ­terrorist attacks in Paris has ­destroyed what little there still was of the ­European project.
The Schengen Agreement on free movement within Europe lies in tatters; so does any common ­vision of the European future.
Of the supranational aspiration, only the shop-soiled rhetoric remains; but Europe’s political elites are unwilling to recognise its passing, much less sign its death certificate.
Nor has the euro fared any better. Yes, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi convinced markets he could prevent the eurozone from imploding; but he has not managed to convince them he can get it growing. If the best the eurozone can achieve is 1 to 2 per cent growth, as seems likely, its fiscal woes will prove ever more intractable, as will the social problems that are already tearing it apart.
Little wonder then that so much of the continent has been swept by anger and anxiety. In the short run, the elections in Spain and Portugal, which rejected austerity without endorsing any alternative, will add to the instability; but it is the longer-term effects of pervasive disillusionment that are most troubling.
Those effects were starkly on display in France’s recent regional elections. With fewer than a quarter of young people believing their lives will be better than their parents’, polls showed the Front ­National receiving support from 35 per cent of young voters, 50 per cent of blue-collar voters and 40 per cent of white-collar voters. For sure, once the left and centre-right parties combined their vote, it failed to pick up entire regions; but those parties’ unnatural entente will merely validate the Front National’s claim that its opponents are a cartel of unprincipled careerists and shortsighted opportunists.
It is not solely in the West that the major powers are in crisis. Views differ on how severe China’s economic difficulties are; what is clear, however, is that its Communist leaders, to whom so many Australian observers had ascribed talismanic qualities, are floundering. Yet with China struggling, the rest of the world economy is too weak to achieve rapid growth.
That can only make all of today’s problems more acute. An expanding pie is the best remedy to society’s heartaches, unleashing initiative and focusing attention on the future, rather than the past; but when growth slows to a halt, every issue becomes a zero-sum game, harshening divisions and making conflicts interminable.
And as those conflicts play themselves out, Western governments will be even less willing than they already are to bear the costs and risks of imposing international order.
None of that should be an invitation to hand-wringing. These are not signs preceding the end of the world; rather, they are a call to analyse what has gone wrong. And that requires honest discussion, ­including of fraught issues such as Islamic extremism.
In democracies, public understanding never moves towards the truth over a royal straight road; it must find its way, at times painfully, through the twists and turns of its confusions and contradictions. But the alternative to frank debate is a diminution of social possibility, as governments that distrust voters earn their distrust in return.
“Courage,” said Aristotle, “is the first of human virtues because it makes all others possible.” And there is no greater courage than the courage to “see what one sees”.

Click to go to Blog Site

THE WRITING ON THE WALL

Sapa in North Vietnam, Picture by John Stapleton

There was a biometric study. There was a picture on a wall. He could hear the police changing shift in the early hours of the morning. He could sense everything. Sydney drenched and cold in the middle of summer. "Bring back global warming," he would say, apropos of nothing, a stupid joke which always fell flat, testing, testing, one two three. But no, the perfect religion for the modern age, all you had to say was you believe to make you a progressive, caring person, remained as strong as ever. "I saw a documentary the other day," the man at the cafe said, and proceded to tell a story about shrinking ice. There were just as many stories about expanding ice, but he didn't bother to argue. "The truth is, neither of us really know," he said, and took his coffee.

"I suspect we're not being told everything that's going on," the coffee maker said, his cafe empty as they looked out on the unseasonal cold, the ceaseless rain. There had only been a few days hinting at summer, and that was that.

Australian politics dissolved into ever more pointless hysteria. A father drove the bodies of his children and himself off a pier in South Australia, that wild, lonely, infinite coast.

The taxpayer funded women's organisations were all on holiday; and were yet to make hay out of the misery of families; but no doubt they would. They always did. Although men and women killed their children in approximately equal numbers, it was the men who were monsters and the women who were victims, the ceaseless infantilising of the population, the ceaseless, destructive dogma of the half-educated, or the over-educated, take your pick.

A minister resigned after making a clumsy pass at a female employee of DFAT while out on a drunken evening in Hong Kong, another junket at taxpayers expense. The scandal rippled out, the ceaseless cries of the deliberately outraged. If the situation had been reversed, or gender reversed, there would have been no consequence, freedom of expression.

A woman at the doctor's called him "darling"; he was not outraged. "Respect for women", the chant went, while respect for men was an absurdity none of them could harbour.

It was no wonder that men were withdrawing from the public debate, unwilling to be ridiculed at every turn.

While the Middle East ran out of control, daily out of control. Saudi Arabia, a country with which Australia was in military alliance, executed 47 people in a single day, including a Shia cleric, turning the already vexed quagmire into a powder keg without precedent. Iran accused the Saudis of funding Islamist groups worldwide. Common knowledge.

In Australia the tensions spread, papered increasingly thin.

The bureaucrats had a new frontman, in the form of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, far happier to give the official, so-called "progressive" line.

While his bombs, the bombs for which he was responsible, rained down on the Middle East; killing people for their religious beliefs, no matter how extreme those religious beliefs might appear to be; and with every bomb creating new enemies, a new line of the dead, harvested souls to haunt the coming apocalypse.

There was uniform delight, just as there had been uniform distaste for his predecessor Tony Abbott. The most dangerous Prime Minister Australia had ever had; the man who took the country back to war, and in doing so, imperilled the population.

He heard the police changing shifts in the early dawn; "he's harmless" he heard someone say.

"Well, we'll see about that," he thought. They had been in hiding all these years, another lifeform trying to survive in a hostile environment.

"We'll see about that."

There was no point hiding, here at The End of Days.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-05/islamic-state-video-sign-desperation-says-david-cameron/7067406

Intelligence officials will use voice recognition to help identify a masked man in a newly released video by the Islamic State militant group which purports to show five British spies being shot dead.

Key points:
Latest video by IS purports to show five British spies being executed
The grandfather of the boy believed to be in the video says he is being used as a shield
UK authorities are searching through names and details of Britons known to have travelled to Syria and Iraq


The 10 minute video, which could not be independently verified, shows a young boy, who appears to be about four to five years old, in military fatigues and an older masked militant, who both spoke with British accents.

The masked man in the video waves a gun at the camera while criticizing British prime minister David Cameron and calling him an imbecile.

"This is a message to David Cameron, O slave of the White House, O mule of the Jews," the man said in the 10-minute video, which was released on Sunday.

"One would have thought you'd have learned the lessons of your pathetic master in Washington and his failed campaign against the Islamic State," the man said.

He threatens the British PM and vows that Islamic State will one day occupy Britain before shooting one of the alleged spies in the head.

Mr Cameron said the video was a sign of the group's desperation.

He said the group is losing territory and the video should be seen as a propaganda tool.

"It's desperate stuff from an organisation that really does do the most utterly despicable and ghastly acts and people can see that again today," Mr Cameron said.

"This is an organisation that's losing territory, it's losing ground and it's increasingly losing anybody's sympathy.

"It may take a very long time but they will be defeated."
UK man says child his grandson

British security officials are studying the footage for clues about the identity of a masked IS militant.

The footage revived memories of Jihadi John, a British Islamic State member who appeared in several videos in which hostages were killed before his own death was reported in an air strike late last year.

The United States said in November it had killed Mohammed Emwazi, who had become a symbol of IS.

He doesn't like it over there. It's propaganda. They are just using a small boy. He doesn't know anything. They are just using him as a shield.
Grandfather of boy believed to be in IS video

Intelligence agencies used voice recognition to identify him.

Authorities are searching through the names and details of hundreds of Britons known to have travelled to Syria and Iraq.

They are also expected to utilise information from the Muslim community in London to establish who is behind the video.

A spokeswoman for Cameron declined to comment on whether the executed men shown had been spies, but said the group's past propaganda had not all been true.

Some British media speculated the militant might be Siddhartha Dhar, who is also known as Abu Rumaysah, a convert from Hinduism and a high-profile Islamist, although security experts were divided on whether it was him.

Dhar left Britain with his family to travel to Syria, despite being on police bail after being arrested in late 2014 on suspicion of being a member of a banned organisation.

His sister has spoken to the media and said she initially thought it was her brother but was unsure when she saw the rest of the video.

In the original video the child, who was not masked, was clearly identifiable.

The father of Grace Dare, a woman from London who left Britain to join Islamic State and marry a militant, said he believed the boy in the video was her son.

"It's my grandson. I can't disown him," Sunday Dare told Channel 4 News.

"He doesn't like it over there. It's propaganda. They are just using a small boy. He doesn't know anything. They are just using him as a shield."

Dr Afzal Ashraf, a fellow with the Royal United Services Institute in London, said the odds are against IS.

"They have no courage to confront the West, they have no capability to confront the West," Dr Ashraf said.

"It takes no courage to kill a man whose hands are bound and shoot him in the back of the head."

In November, British officials said that up to 800 Britons had travelled to Iraq and Syria, some to join Islamic State.

Islamic State militants have lost some ground in Syria and Iraq but experts have said it would be wrong to believe they were not capable of encouraging followers to launch terror attacks on the west.

Counter-terrorism expert Rashad Ali, a senior fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, denied IS were on the "back foot".

"They may have lost certain areas but they are retaking other areas thanks largely to the Russian bombardment of opposition groups," Mr Ali said.

A Sense of Place Book Blog

THE WRITING ON THE WALL

Sapa in North Vietnam, Picture by John Stapleton

There was a biometric study. There was a picture on a wall. He could hear the police changing shift in the early hours of the morning. He could sense everything. Sydney drenched and cold in the middle of summer. "Bring back global warming," he would say, apropos of nothing, a stupid joke which always fell flat, testing, testing, one two three. But no, the perfect religion for the modern age, all you had to say was you believe to make you a progressive, caring person, remained as strong as ever. "I saw a documentary the other day," the man at the cafe said, and proceded to tell a story about shrinking ice. There were just as many stories about expanding ice, but he didn't bother to argue. "The truth is, neither of us really know," he said, and took his coffee.

"I suspect we're not being told everything that's going on," the coffee maker said, his cafe empty as they looked out on the unseasonal cold, the ceaseless rain. There had only been a few days hinting at summer, and that was that.

Australian politics dissolved into ever more pointless hysteria. A father drove the bodies of his children and himself off a pier in South Australia, that wild, lonely, infinite coast.

The taxpayer funded women's organisations were all on holiday; and were yet to make hay out of the misery of families; but no doubt they would. They always did. Although men and women killed their children in approximately equal numbers, it was the men who were monsters and the women who were victims, the ceaseless infantilising of the population, the ceaseless, destructive dogma of the half-educated, or the over-educated, take your pick.

A minister resigned after making a clumsy pass at a female employee of DFAT while out on a drunken evening in Hong Kong, another junket at taxpayers expense. The scandal rippled out, the ceaseless cries of the deliberately outraged. If the situation had been reversed, or gender reversed, there would have been no consequence, freedom of expression.

A woman at the doctor's called him "darling"; he was not outraged. "Respect for women", the chant went, while respect for men was an absurdity none of them could harbour.

It was no wonder that men were withdrawing from the public debate, unwilling to be ridiculed at every turn.

While the Middle East ran out of control, daily out of control. Saudi Arabia, a country with which Australia was in military alliance, executed 47 people in a single day, including a Shia cleric, turning the already vexed quagmire into a powder keg without precedent. Iran accused the Saudis of funding Islamist groups worldwide. Common knowledge.

In Australia the tensions spread, papered increasingly thin.

The bureaucrats had a new frontman, in the form of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, far happier to give the official, so-called "progressive" line.

While his bombs, the bombs for which he was responsible, rained down on the Middle East; killing people for their religious beliefs, no matter how extreme those religious beliefs might appear to be; and with every bomb creating new enemies, a new line of the dead, harvested souls to haunt the coming apocalypse.

There was uniform delight, just as there had been uniform distaste for his predecessor Tony Abbott. The most dangerous Prime Minister Australia had ever had; the man who took the country back to war, and in doing so, imperilled the population.

He heard the police changing shifts in the early dawn; "he's harmless" he heard someone say.

"Well, we'll see about that," he thought. They had been in hiding all these years, another lifeform trying to survive in a hostile environment.

"We'll see about that."

There was no point hiding, here at The End of Days.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-05/islamic-state-video-sign-desperation-says-david-cameron/7067406

Intelligence officials will use voice recognition to help identify a masked man in a newly released video by the Islamic State militant group which purports to show five British spies being shot dead.

Key points:
Latest video by IS purports to show five British spies being executed
The grandfather of the boy believed to be in the video says he is being used as a shield
UK authorities are searching through names and details of Britons known to have travelled to Syria and Iraq


The 10 minute video, which could not be independently verified, shows a young boy, who appears to be about four to five years old, in military fatigues and an older masked militant, who both spoke with British accents.

The masked man in the video waves a gun at the camera while criticizing British prime minister David Cameron and calling him an imbecile.

"This is a message to David Cameron, O slave of the White House, O mule of the Jews," the man said in the 10-minute video, which was released on Sunday.

"One would have thought you'd have learned the lessons of your pathetic master in Washington and his failed campaign against the Islamic State," the man said.

He threatens the British PM and vows that Islamic State will one day occupy Britain before shooting one of the alleged spies in the head.

Mr Cameron said the video was a sign of the group's desperation.

He said the group is losing territory and the video should be seen as a propaganda tool.

"It's desperate stuff from an organisation that really does do the most utterly despicable and ghastly acts and people can see that again today," Mr Cameron said.

"This is an organisation that's losing territory, it's losing ground and it's increasingly losing anybody's sympathy.

"It may take a very long time but they will be defeated."
UK man says child his grandson

British security officials are studying the footage for clues about the identity of a masked IS militant.

The footage revived memories of Jihadi John, a British Islamic State member who appeared in several videos in which hostages were killed before his own death was reported in an air strike late last year.

The United States said in November it had killed Mohammed Emwazi, who had become a symbol of IS.

He doesn't like it over there. It's propaganda. They are just using a small boy. He doesn't know anything. They are just using him as a shield.
Grandfather of boy believed to be in IS video

Intelligence agencies used voice recognition to identify him.

Authorities are searching through the names and details of hundreds of Britons known to have travelled to Syria and Iraq.

They are also expected to utilise information from the Muslim community in London to establish who is behind the video.

A spokeswoman for Cameron declined to comment on whether the executed men shown had been spies, but said the group's past propaganda had not all been true.

Some British media speculated the militant might be Siddhartha Dhar, who is also known as Abu Rumaysah, a convert from Hinduism and a high-profile Islamist, although security experts were divided on whether it was him.

Dhar left Britain with his family to travel to Syria, despite being on police bail after being arrested in late 2014 on suspicion of being a member of a banned organisation.

His sister has spoken to the media and said she initially thought it was her brother but was unsure when she saw the rest of the video.

In the original video the child, who was not masked, was clearly identifiable.

The father of Grace Dare, a woman from London who left Britain to join Islamic State and marry a militant, said he believed the boy in the video was her son.

"It's my grandson. I can't disown him," Sunday Dare told Channel 4 News.

"He doesn't like it over there. It's propaganda. They are just using a small boy. He doesn't know anything. They are just using him as a shield."

Dr Afzal Ashraf, a fellow with the Royal United Services Institute in London, said the odds are against IS.

"They have no courage to confront the West, they have no capability to confront the West," Dr Ashraf said.

"It takes no courage to kill a man whose hands are bound and shoot him in the back of the head."

In November, British officials said that up to 800 Britons had travelled to Iraq and Syria, some to join Islamic State.

Islamic State militants have lost some ground in Syria and Iraq but experts have said it would be wrong to believe they were not capable of encouraging followers to launch terror attacks on the west.

Counter-terrorism expert Rashad Ali, a senior fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, denied IS were on the "back foot".

"They may have lost certain areas but they are retaking other areas thanks largely to the Russian bombardment of opposition groups," Mr Ali said.

A Sense of Place Book Blog

VISIONS OF THE APOCALYPSE

Courtesy Lucas Zoltowski Deviant Art

There they were, little fissures in the sky, darting into the ordinary. He was impatient, pissed off, felt like shouting. Everything moved too slowly. These were the times. The drone of tennis matches on the summer television; the Australian Open and the run-up tournaments a general feature of the Australian summer. There was nothing else to watch on television in any case, decades old replays of MASH, Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, Antique Roadshow. Endless cheap as chips programming. Out  there, somewhere, bureaucrats talked of that greatest of all lies: community. And he felt twisted into smashing them in the face.

"I'd sue you for harassment if I could," he shouted at his invisible tormentors. 

And every now and then, more often now, they would go silent.

They had run so many doctors and psychiatrists over this scenario; the only thing they hadn't done was speak to him.

Because there was no way they could admit their own mistakes; the foolishness of their brigades; the outrageous expenditure of public monies.

And so he went quiet, very quiet.

"I wish he would stop talking to himself," someone said. 

And around and around it went, so much hypocrisy, in a country ridden with hypocrisy. ONE BIG LIE is how he had come to think of his home country, the Great Southern Land.

If there was a way out he would take it.

Meanwhile, the schemes went on; although he could sense none in the immediate area. A few Muslims, but no one was planning to blow up the local shopping centre.  It wasn't of great enough interest.

They said with a Black Pope and a Black President, the End of the World would arrive. But like every other such prediction, day followed day and in the end the world would realign. 

The Apocalypse would be a sting of pain down the Centuries; souls escaping from the agony of the flesh; gifts to the Dark Lord. 

Why, if a God was really a God, would it want to be worshipped? he asked. And shrugged. There was so much bullshit, paddling through the shadows.

One day he read Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory; perhaps 40 years to the day after he first read it. The whiskey priest climbing to the plateau, the dead child. Nobody could make our lives worse than we could make them ourselves; and thus, he thought, he abandoned all hope, ye who enter here.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35217328

Saudi Arabia says it has broken off diplomatic ties with Iran, amid a row over the Saudi execution of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir was speaking after demonstrators had stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others were executed on Saturday after being convicted of terror-related offences.

Mr Jubeir said that all Iranian diplomats must leave Saudi Arabia within 48 hours.

Saudi Arabia was recalling its diplomats from Tehran, he said.

Mr Jubeir said Saudi Arabia would not let Iran undermine its security, accusing it of having "distributed weapons and planted terrorist cells in the region".

"Iran's history is full of negative interference and hostility in Arab issues, and it is always accompanied by destruction," he told a news conference.

US state department spokesman John Kirby said: "We will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions".

"We believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential," he said.

---

Analysis: Lyse Doucet, BBC Chief international correspondent

A diplomatic rupture between the major Sunni and Shia powers in the region will resonate across the Middle East where they back opposing sides in many destructive wars and simmering conflicts.

Players are already lining up along sectarian lines to support either Tehran or Riyadh.

Last year had ended with a bit of hope that talks on ending Yemen's strife had, at least, begun. Syria was to follow this month. It looks an awful lot harder now.

In October Saudi sources told me they only dropped their opposition to Iran's presence at Syria talks after the US persuaded them to test Tehran's commitment.

But they doubt Iran will do a deal, and see it as key source of regional instability.

On the other side, Iranian officials don't hide their contempt for the Saudi system and its support for Islamist groups.

There's been barely-concealed anger for months. Now it's boiled over.

Earlier, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that the Sunni Muslim kingdom would face "divine revenge" for the execution - an act which also angered Shia Muslims elsewhere in the Middle East.

Ayatollah Khamenei called Sheikh Nimr a "martyr" who had acted peacefully.

Protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran late on Saturday, setting fire to the building before being driven back by police. The Saudi foreign ministry said none of its diplomats had been harmed in the incident.

Iran is Saudi Arabia's main regional rival - they back opposing sides in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

Relations between the countries have been strained over various issues in recent decades, including Iran's nuclear programme and deaths of Iranians at the Hajj pilgrimage in 1987 and again in 2015.

Image copyrightEPA

Image captionIranian protesters set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Sunday

Most of the 47 people executed by Saudi Arabia were Sunnis convicted of involvement in al-Qaeda-linked terror attacks over the last decade.

Sheikh Nimr was involved in anti-government protests that erupted in Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Arab Spring, up to his arrest in 2012.

The execution sparked new demonstrations in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, where Shia Muslims complain of marginalisation, as well as in Iraq, Bahrain and several other countries.

The top Shia cleric in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani denounced the execution as an "unjust aggression".

The leader of Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah, launched his sharpest attack yet on the Saudi ruling family on Sunday, accusing them of seeking to ignite a Shia-Sunni civil war across the world.

He said the blood of Sheikh Nimr would "plague the Al Saud [family] until the Day of Resurrection", prompting cries of "Death to the Al Saud!" among an audience watching his address.

VISIONS OF THE APOCALYPSE

Courtesy Lucas Zoltowski Deviant Art

There they were, little fissures in the sky, darting into the ordinary. He was impatient, pissed off, felt like shouting. Everything moved too slowly. These were the times. The drone of tennis matches on the summer television; the Australian Open and the run-up tournaments a general feature of the Australian summer. There was nothing else to watch on television in any case, decades old replays of MASH, Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, Antique Roadshow. Endless cheap as chips programming. Out  there, somewhere, bureaucrats talked of that greatest of all lies: community. And he felt twisted into smashing them in the face.

"I'd sue you for harassment if I could," he shouted at his invisible tormentors. 

And every now and then, more often now, they would go silent.

They had run so many doctors and psychiatrists over this scenario; the only thing they hadn't done was speak to him.

Because there was no way they could admit their own mistakes; the foolishness of their brigades; the outrageous expenditure of public monies.

And so he went quiet, very quiet.

"I wish he would stop talking to himself," someone said. 

And around and around it went, so much hypocrisy, in a country ridden with hypocrisy. ONE BIG LIE is how he had come to think of his home country, the Great Southern Land.

If there was a way out he would take it.

Meanwhile, the schemes went on; although he could sense none in the immediate area. A few Muslims, but no one was planning to blow up the local shopping centre.  It wasn't of great enough interest.

They said with a Black Pope and a Black President, the End of the World would arrive. But like every other such prediction, day followed day and in the end the world would realign. 

The Apocalypse would be a sting of pain down the Centuries; souls escaping from the agony of the flesh; gifts to the Dark Lord. 

Why, if a God was really a God, would it want to be worshipped? he asked. And shrugged. There was so much bullshit, paddling through the shadows.

One day he read Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory; perhaps 40 years to the day after he first read it. The whiskey priest climbing to the plateau, the dead child. Nobody could make our lives worse than we could make them ourselves; and thus, he thought, he abandoned all hope, ye who enter here.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35217328

Saudi Arabia says it has broken off diplomatic ties with Iran, amid a row over the Saudi execution of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir was speaking after demonstrators had stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others were executed on Saturday after being convicted of terror-related offences.

Mr Jubeir said that all Iranian diplomats must leave Saudi Arabia within 48 hours.

Saudi Arabia was recalling its diplomats from Tehran, he said.

Mr Jubeir said Saudi Arabia would not let Iran undermine its security, accusing it of having "distributed weapons and planted terrorist cells in the region".

"Iran's history is full of negative interference and hostility in Arab issues, and it is always accompanied by destruction," he told a news conference.

US state department spokesman John Kirby said: "We will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions".

"We believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential," he said.

---

Analysis: Lyse Doucet, BBC Chief international correspondent

A diplomatic rupture between the major Sunni and Shia powers in the region will resonate across the Middle East where they back opposing sides in many destructive wars and simmering conflicts.

Players are already lining up along sectarian lines to support either Tehran or Riyadh.

Last year had ended with a bit of hope that talks on ending Yemen's strife had, at least, begun. Syria was to follow this month. It looks an awful lot harder now.

In October Saudi sources told me they only dropped their opposition to Iran's presence at Syria talks after the US persuaded them to test Tehran's commitment.

But they doubt Iran will do a deal, and see it as key source of regional instability.

On the other side, Iranian officials don't hide their contempt for the Saudi system and its support for Islamist groups.

There's been barely-concealed anger for months. Now it's boiled over.

Earlier, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that the Sunni Muslim kingdom would face "divine revenge" for the execution - an act which also angered Shia Muslims elsewhere in the Middle East.

Ayatollah Khamenei called Sheikh Nimr a "martyr" who had acted peacefully.

Protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran late on Saturday, setting fire to the building before being driven back by police. The Saudi foreign ministry said none of its diplomats had been harmed in the incident.

Iran is Saudi Arabia's main regional rival - they back opposing sides in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

Relations between the countries have been strained over various issues in recent decades, including Iran's nuclear programme and deaths of Iranians at the Hajj pilgrimage in 1987 and again in 2015.

Image copyrightEPA

Image captionIranian protesters set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Sunday

Most of the 47 people executed by Saudi Arabia were Sunnis convicted of involvement in al-Qaeda-linked terror attacks over the last decade.

Sheikh Nimr was involved in anti-government protests that erupted in Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Arab Spring, up to his arrest in 2012.

The execution sparked new demonstrations in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, where Shia Muslims complain of marginalisation, as well as in Iraq, Bahrain and several other countries.

The top Shia cleric in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani denounced the execution as an "unjust aggression".

The leader of Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah, launched his sharpest attack yet on the Saudi ruling family on Sunday, accusing them of seeking to ignite a Shia-Sunni civil war across the world.

He said the blood of Sheikh Nimr would "plague the Al Saud [family] until the Day of Resurrection", prompting cries of "Death to the Al Saud!" among an audience watching his address.