I could say something fun like how customizing your desktop is like interior decorating for your computer, but it’s really about making your productive life marginally easier while making onlookers in class and in the coffeeshop think you’re tech-savvy (and thus cool, because hey, coders are the new rockstars).

Getting started – A geektool “how to”

You’ll need to download and install geektool (the interface you see below, accessible from your System Preferences) and icalbuddy, which allows you to sync iCal into your geektool preferences.

• Install note for icalbuddy - To install, just double-click on the “install.command” file in Finder (it might just say “install” if your Finder preferences are set to hide file extensions.) This script will then be run in Terminal and it will first display you the locations where icalBuddy will be installed to and then prompt you to continue.

Wallpapers

These are my two most requested background images (click the image for the original source on deviantART). Part of their appeal is that warmer tones feel more natural (visually) when looking at a computer screen. When you spend many hours in front of your screen, the change to orange from blue can really make a difference! Also, if you’re on skype as much as I am connecting with family and friends, it makes the lighting from your screen appear a little more warm and natural.

Getting into the code

From System Preferences > Geektool, add a new shell (the boxes with rounded corners seen above) by dragging the shell icon to your desktop. Adjust the size and position by dragging the shell or adjusting the bottom-right corner.

• Command: for any custom text that changes from day to day. This is where you will put code that corresponds to the date, time, mini-calendar, and iCal events. I have provided all of the codes I am using for the customization you see above. 
• Override text: for any text that doesn’t need to change, such as your favourite quote.

The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us. – Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes)

• Click here to set font & color… self explanatory. If you are curious, I am using AvanteGarde LT Medium and AvanteGarde LT ExtraLight.

Date & Time

Day of the month: date +%d
Day of the week: date +%A
Month: date +%B
Time: date '+%H:%M'


Mini-Calendar

For the mini-calendar, make sure to use a mono-spaced or fixed-width font such as Courier. Otherwise, the calendar columns will be misaligned.

cal_head=`cal | head -1`; cal_tail=`cal | tail -7`; today=`date "+%e"`; echo "${cal_tail/${today}/\033[1;30m${today}\033[0m}";


List of iCal events

/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -nc -nrd -npn -df "%A" -ps "| ~ | -- |" -eed -sd -tf "@%H:%M" -n -sed eventsToday+9 | sed -e "s/*/--/" | sed -e "s/!/!!/" | fold -s -w 88


To customize how your list of iCal events looks, please check out these resources, which tell you what each piece of code you see here actually does:

• icalbuddy manual - http://hasseg.org/icalBuddy/man.html

January 22, 2013 – At Paris Fashion Week, technology and fashion collided when a model walked down the runway in a striking 3D printed dress.
Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/22/3-d-printed-tech-couture-dresses-hit-the-runway-at-paris-fashion-week/#o5C8A8d2c5LEwv5g.99

This news jumped out at me not because of the stunning application of 3D printing (which I formerly imagined as only within the realm of making toy-like wrenches), but because the advancement it suggests has been made in 3D printing since the technology first became common knowledge. Rather, if the fashion industry has taken off with 3D printing on the runway (where all fashion trends start), then where else have these advancements made their mark?

I did a quick search of applications of 3D printing in international development, which surprisingly came up with very little aside from this 3D4D Challenge, where a team of researchers from the University of Washington won 100,000 USD to make waste plastic as a filament in 3D printing a reality. To be fair, I have more faith that development professionals have thought about the applications of 3D printing in development, and less in their likelihood of posting it on the internet.

I have a redesigned geektool desktop that accommodates my new and more exciting schedule. Entire days were taking up the height of my desktop, preventing me from using my desktop agenda for what I had created it for – seeing what was to come for the days ahead! So I spent some time re-coding it earlier this January to a more compact version.

/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -nc -nrd -npn -df "%A" -ps "| ~ | -- |" -eed -sd -tf "@%H:%M" -n -sed eventsToday+9 | sed -e "s/*/--/" | sed -e "s/!/!!/" | fold -s -w 88

I have also updated the quote for the new year to remind myself that I still have a lot to learn!

The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us. – Bill Watterson

I have adopted the life-saving Trello to manage projects as the new Promotions Lead for the Co-op Student Committee. It sure makes keeping track of a medium-sized team’s activities a little easier! Some exciting plans are coming through this year, including a re-branding of the committee to reflect its social goals. Apparently I have not lost my long-unused skills in branding and logo design. As a preview, here’s the first draft I designed. We’ll see how the work progresses!

I’m volunteering again, yay! This time for Ladies Learning Code, Ottawa division! I heard a call for local Ottawa html/css experts on twitter and answered. It turned out to be for a wonderful project called Ladies Learning Code that started running tech workshops in Toronto that make coding more accessible (and affordable!) to women. I volunteered as a workshop mentor for the first workshop in their Ottawa division, and will be volunteering for them again this Saturday for a WordPress workshop!

There I am somewhere in the middle, shiny black hair and all.

Also, I have a new profile picture much thanks to photographer Alex Esguerra! I am hoping that every 6 months will bring a new profile picture to feature on my website and social profiles. Odd that although the online world is essentially season-less, it still feels slightly irksome to be “out of season” on the internet.

Startup Weekend Ottawa, November 9 to 11, 2012

Last Friday, I pitched an idea to the participants of Startup Weekend Ottawa 2012 with the hope of building a platform to connect people who hate shopping with personal shoppers. My pitch tied for 3^rd best idea and a team of talented developers, designers and marketers organically formed. Over the course of the 54-hour entrepreneurial event, our team of 7 talented and dedicated individuals created the prototype and business model for the service platform now known as Trade Avenu.

What is Trade Avenu?

Trade Avenu matches people who hate shopping with people who love it! It’s a platform for great shoppers to get paid for what they do, and for you who don’t want to shop to get everything you need at your convenience! Sign up, connect with shoppers, and get all the shopping you love and need done with Trade Avenu!

Connect with Trade Avenu!

Learn more about Trade Avenu and sign up to hear the latest! - http://www.tradeavenu.co
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/tradeavenu
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/tradeavenu
Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/tradeavenu 

When it comes to discussions on language discrimination, there is always a rug to be pulled out from under you. Particularly in the Canadian context, there’s always someone (whether they are anglophone, francophone, immigrant, aboriginal Canadian or otherwise) who will be left out, no matter how accommodating you try your hardest to be. And though Canadians try to get the right and wrong all clear-cut with our Policies on Discrimination and Language and litigation, at the end of the day it’s still a zero-sum game. Sometimes when push comes to shove, it helps to remember that tolerance is a virtue.

The highest result of education is tolerance. – Helen Keller

Submitted to Professor M. Masaeli
for the course Special Research Topics: Global Justice
University of Ottawa, July 22, 2012

In his book The International Criminal Court and National Courts: A Contentious Relationship, Nidal Nabil Jurdi uses a deeply comprehensive historical and legal analysis to answer his question of whether the International Criminal Court (ICC) is effective at encouraging national judicial systems to prosecute core crimes in the effort to eradicate impunity in the international criminal system. What Jurdi refers to as a “hope that the ICC would change the dynamics of international relations, creating a global body that transcends state interests to enforce an erga omnes duty to prosecute international crimes” he says, “has not yet been realized” (Jurdi, 2011, p. 263). In his historical recounting of the negotiations surrounding the creation of the ICC and complementarity principle, Jurdi builds his conviction that the “complementarity mechanism” (as he puts it) has been unsuccessful at encouraging states to take up their duty under the Rome Statute to prosecute core crimes, and thus the ICC and states together have not been able to eradicate impunity (p. 6). Jurdi draws on a thorough and complete inspection of the Rome Statute as well as case studies from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Sudan to follow the reader through his conclusions. Although Jurdi’s detailed historical and legal analysis of the complementarity principle (both in abstract and in practice) effectively draw out the ICC’s weaknesses and strengths, the book lacks developed or original suggestions. While I agree on Jurdi’s central conclusion on the ineffectiveness of past co-operations between national judicial systems and the ICC, I differ on the solutions I call upon in response. Where Jurdi advocates for greater support for the ICC both at the international and domestic level, I suggest that the improvement of national judicial systems themselves require the focused energy and support of the international community.

To illustrate, this review will articulate the particular realities that Jurdi reveals as significant and deeply concerning complications for the effectiveness of the complementarity mechanism. These realities include the implications of: (1) state cooperation (illustrated by the Darfur case);  (2) pardons; and (3) a positive interpretation of complementarity (to be elaborated later) as critical barriers toward the effectiveness of complementarity. While Jurdi uses these weaknesses and loopholes in the complementarity principle to strengthen his call for greater support for the ICC, this review will highlight his arguments from a different light, viewing the issue instead from the bottom (domestic to international), as opposed to the top (international to domestic) perspective, the latter of which Jurdi employs throughout the book. The author’s work in this light will reveal that while he aims to end impunity, his suggestions do so only short-sightedly. Rather, the focus of his perspective remains focused on unsustainable solutions for cooperation to improve the effectiveness of the ICC on a case-by-case basis. The aim of this review of Jurdi’s book, hopes to make clear that impunity could be more sustainably combated by greater effort towards improving the national judicial systems themselves.

To begin, it is noteworthy that Jurdi approaches these issues as a lecturer on the subject of international law and organizations at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. In the past, Jurdi has been Human Rights Officer at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and is widely published in this and other areas including terrorism and Lebanese law (Jurdi, 2011, p. xxvii). Deeply entrenched in the international criminal law system from the top, it is reasonable and perhaps justified that his aim in the book is to inform and help to solve the issue of impunity on a short term, or case-by-case, basis.

(1) State cooperation

The author’s deep legal analyses of Article 17, Article 20, and Article 53 of the Rome Statute reveal how the complementarity mechanism in its careful choice of terms, notes and criteria is deeply rooted in the principle of state sovereignty as a result of the process of negotiations and compromise by the drafters. With this insight in mind, it is almost with humour that Jurdi the notes the following, referencing the ‘unwillingness’ criterion with respect to admissibility, in the Darfur case: “it is a deep paradox for the ICC, whose jurisdiction is triggered by the lack of action or unwillingness of Sudan [to prosecute core crimes], to rely heavily on the support of Sudan to carry out its mandate” (as cited in Jurdi, 2011, p. 258). Here, the author refers to the political and practical challenges that the ICC faces in attempting to conduct proceedings against Ahmad Harun, Ali Kushayb and Omar al-Bashir, which ultimately prevented the ICC from conducting investigations inside Sudan (as cited in Jurdi, 2011, pp. 253-5). While this is a unsettling setback, the complexities regarding state cooperation dig further, since in light of the Security Council, we see that: 

Most major powers appeared unwilling to get involved in a humanitarian intervention to stop the massacres. Three of the five permanent Security Council members have major investments in the Sudanese oil sector. In addition, four of the five members have been brokering arms contracts with the Sudanese government. Moreover, all five permanent members remain staunch defenders of state sovereignty, and none wants to embolden precedents that might diminish state sovereignty (as cited in Jurdi, 2011, p. 254).

It can clearly be seen that the unwillingness of both the state and other non-state actors certainly enforce the author’s primary suggestion for greater cooperation, as without this the ICC’s efforts to investigate, prosecute, and punish offenders would be wholly offset. It is important to note, however, that Jurdi also concludes that Sudan’s judicial system did not satisfy the ‘inability’ criterion, and was thus, at least in theory, able to conduct proceedings from this perspective (p. 249). Given that there was some degree of ability in Sudan’s judicial system as it did not constitute “a total or substantial collapse” (p. 220), the author does not recognize other possible avenues for addressing impunity in this case. Consequently, the view provided by the Jurdi is rather narrow in terms of addressing the issue of impunity in international criminal law, as it looks only to the ICC for a solution, and where this treaty organization falters, provides undeveloped suggestion for addressing these weaknesses. For example, Jurdi’s consistently top-down approach is clear in his suggestion for greater support from major political powers in the Darfur situation: “In the opinion of this author, it is not enough for the international community and the major powers to refer the situation in Darfur to the ICC, but rather to proceed with a strong political will to support ICC investigations and prosecutions” (p. 260). The strength of Jurdi’s approach, in this regard, would be greatly supported by developing a more detailed account or suggestion of possibilities that could support national judicial systems (such as Sudan’s, which shows some capability) from the bottom-up.

(2) Pardons

The issue regarding the consequence of pardons on the complementarity principle is serious for the author. His recount of the removal of articles from the Statute by the drafters regarding ICC jurisdiction over pardons is troubling, in the sense that state sovereignty over pardons, which in certain cases renders a situation or case inadmissible before the ICC, is a “serious loophole” in the admissibility mechanism (p. 115). Jurdi describes the attitude of the states in this regard, reinforcing further the illustration of the ICC’s deep roots in state sovereignty:

… states remain cautious towards having an international court that can transcend the traditional limitations of international law to create a new dynamic on the international level. This fear is vivid in some articles of the Statute, including pardons. (p. 115)

The consequence of pardons on the jurisdiction of the ICC, particularly for the author, who indicates his preference for a world order based “on the pillars of respect for human rights, the rule of law, and accountability for international crimes” (p. 263), is deeply unsettling. Nowhere in the text of his book does Jurdi provide a suggestion for this loophole. From an alternate perspective, this represents a manifestation of a deeper issue regarding states’ intentions to prosecute core crimes in good faith (or, what may be in the case of pardons, bad faith). Looked at further, it is not surprising that Jurdi does not provide his readers with a solution to pardons with regard to the ICC, since this particular issue may arguably be tackled only in the very long term (which is not the scope of the author’s approach in this book). Again, a broader stance could benefit Jurdi’s argument with regard to pardons and addressing impunity. In Jurdi’s lengthy discussion of pardons in his book, it is clear that reconciling state sovereignty over pardons with regard to admissible cases to the ICC’s jurisdiction would be complex and problematic, as the ICC (being a treaty organization) is heavily reliant on the cooperation of states to fulfill its mandate and cannot simply disregard state wishes in this matter of sovereignty. By extension, looking beyond the ICC for a response to the case of pardons as a barrier to complementarity could benefit Jurdi’s currently narrow viewpoint. From this perspective, an alternative suggestion would have to compromise state sovereignty over the decision to grant pardons with the ICC’s greater goal to end impunity. To be sure, such a compromise may not come to light, since (as Jurdi notes quite clearly), “[states] did not want the Court to interfere further in the political decision-making process (including pardons) of sovereign states” (as cited in Jurdi, 2011, p.112). It can be argued that, since Jurdi makes the dominance of state sovereignty in the current international criminal system quite clear, especially regarding states irrefutable position on its sovereignty over granting pardons, that the ICC alone is not a sufficient means by itself to encourage states to conduct their duty to persecute core crimes under the Rome Statute. From this perspective naturally comes the suggestion to look for other avenues to bolster national judicial systems. It is clear from this lens that Jurdi’s approach to improving the existing international criminal system lacks this development. The argument for a more broad or multi-faceted approach to combating impunity in international criminal law is rooted both as an alternative approach to reconciling sovereignty over pardons, and in the case for bolstering the national judicial system from below.

Extending the discussion of pardons, the author also discusses the implications of amnesty on the admissibility and complementary mechanism. In the case of Uganda, after the state refers the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) case to the ICC, the state offers amnesty to the offending rebels (under particular conditions). the author argues that amnesty here conflicts with the complementarity mechanism, since by choosing to grant amnesty the Ugandan government offered restorative justice to the population as opposed to punitive justice. The author describes the situation as follows:

Ugandan authorities have chosen restorative justice rather than a retributive or punitive form of justice. In terms of punitive justice, to end impunity as indicated in the Preamble of the Statute, the Amnesty Act creates an impunity gap on which the ICC chose to remain silent. In this respect, the complementarity principle of the ICC was not able to encourage the national Ugandan system to prosecute low-level perpetrators of crimes falling under the jurisdiction of the Court. (p. 88)

The situation here in the Ugandan case, however, brings into deeper question the narrowness of Jurdi’s viewpoint with regard to the duty of the state to prosecute core crimes. The application of the Amnesty Act could be considered successful in that the numbers in LRA ranks had dropped significantly (pp. 159-60). Regardless of this consideration, Jurdi questions the Act’s validity to international standards and the state’s duty to prosecute core crimes. A justice-from-below perspective, prioritizing restorative justice (this situation is unique in that in a sense “the perpetrator [children abducted to serve as soldiers] is itself the victim” (p.141), giving reason to prioritize reconciliation over punishment) would argue that the Amnesty Act was indeed justified. Moreover, it is this degree of complexity that suggests that state sovereignty to grant amnesty (or pardon) may in circumstantial cases be of greater good than granting jurisdiction to the ICC.

(3) Positive interpretation of complementarity

According to the author, “the positive interpretation of the complementarity principle states that ‘Article 17 limits ICC jurisdiction through the criterion of unwillingness or inability only when there is a conflict between the ICC and a national criminal jurisdiction’” (as cited in Jurdi, 2011, p. 164). The issue that this interpretation of Article 17 provokes is the case where a voluntary referral of a case to the ICC by a state would, under this positive interpretation, be admissible. This was indeed the case regarding Uganda’s referral of the LRA case. On this particular criticism, I agree with Jurdi in that, “the positive interpretation could be criticized as it may encourage states to be lazy in prosecuting international crimes, and that will prevent the ICC from contributing to the indirect enforcement mechanism of international criminal law.” (p. 165) Jurdi’s response to this case study, however, is as a whole suggestive that repetitions of cases such as this could discourage, rather than encourage, the prosecution of core crimes by national judiciaries, as states may simply handover jurisdiction despite willingness or ability to prosecute, as such a decision could life a state’s political, financial or other burden (p. 178). Nonetheless, Jurdi’s argument lacks suggestion other than to dismiss cases such as these as inadmissible to the ICC. It is in this shallow area that I argue the book could elaborate, since it is the ultimate aim not just to identify the weaknesses and strengths of the ICC, but also to identify areas where impunity could further be diminished in international criminal law. In the Uganda case, the author stipulates that the Ugandan judicial system is in fact “willing and able” despite suffering from some deficiencies (p. 149). The case is more complex, however, in that Uganda was rendered otherwise unable to prosecute due to the state’s inability to capture the LRA who, during the time, was temporarily located in Sudan (p. 173). From a locality-centric perspective, Jurdi offers no solution for the hypothetical case were Uganda is unable to prosecute, and the case is rendered inadmissible before the ICC. Contradictory to his intent, from this view the author leaves his own “impunity gap” (p. 57), which his own suggestions hoped to alleviate. His analysis and suggestions would then be more complete if his approach also took into account alternative ways that the ICC or other actors could supplement the national judicial systems where cases are not admissible before the ICC and difficult for states to prosecute. Furthermore, this approach is consistent with the author’s intentions, as long as further suggestions are both internationalist in nature (in that they maintain and take advantage of the existing international criminal system) and hold states as the primary avenue to prosecute core international crimes.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Nidal Nabil Jurdi’s book The International Criminal Court and National Courts: A Contentious Relationship delves into a critical analyses that reveals key weaknesses in the ICC complementarity principle, but leaves ambiguity in its suggestions. This review has provided some view into how the scope of Jurdi’s approach can be broadened to further develop and fill the gaps issued by the weaknesses and suggestions the author provides. Most importantly, Jurdi’s book allows the opportunity to develop further the possibility to support national judicial systems from below to diminish impunity in the international criminal system both from international and domestic spheres. Nonetheless, Jurdi’s book gives effective and comprehensive historical and legal insight into the nature of the ICC’s weaknesses (and strengths) from the view of the complementarity mechanism.  Although, in the author’s opinion, “the ICC subsumes the same unfortunate character of international criminal courts as ‘giant(s) without legs and arms’” (as cited in Jurdi, 2011, p. 258), it is hoped from this review and from the suggestions left by the author for greater cooperation in the international community that the expectation of a world order grounded in human rights is not altogether unfounded.

References

Jurdi, N. N. (2011). The International Criminal Court and National Courts: A Contentious Relationship. Farnham, Surrey, UK; Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

Wallpaper : by NEOkeitaro on deviantART

Desktop customization program (for mac) : Geektool

Geektool script for 7-day advance calendar (using icalbuddy – must be downloaded and installed for this to work) :

/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -nc -ic Work -nrd -npn -df "%A" -eed -sd -tf "@%H:%M" -n -sed eventsToday+9 | sed -e "s/*/--/" | sed -e "s/!/!!/"

(Make sure to read the installation instructions from icalbuddy provided in the ReadME file.)

Geektool script for monthly calendar with current day in black :

cal_head=`cal | head -1`; cal_tail=`cal | tail -7`; today=`date "+%e"`; echo "${cal_tail/${today}/\033[1;30m${today}\033[0m}";

Numerical day : date +%d

Day of the week : date +%A

Month : date +%B

Time : date '+%H:%M'

Font : AvantGarde LT ExtraLight