America's North-West Frontier fantasy
Declan Walsh
July 24, 2007 11:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/declan_walsh/2007/07/americas_north-wes=
t_frontier_fantasy.html
A perplexing twist in Washington's "war on terror" has occurred. For
at least two years, the White House has stoutly defended the Pakistani
president, Pervez Musharraf's, record on combating Islamist extremism,
even as Taliban terror swept across the tribal belt. But now, as
Musharraf finally starts to act - ordering the Red Mosque siege,
deploying fresh troops to North-West Frontier Province, and trying to
rally the country for a potential civil war against militants -
Washington has suddenly decided he's not going fast enough. In fact,
it's seriously considering war.
A cascade of ever-tougher statements over the past week have created
the impression that Washington is preparing to strike al-Qaida targets
inside Pakistan. First the National Intelligence Estimate pinpointed
(pdf) Pakistan's tribal areas as the global headquarters for Bin
Laden's cohorts and warned that, as a result, the US was at risk. Then
President Bush declared that Musharraf's efforts to broker peace with
local militants in the same area had miserably failed. Finally his
homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, said that "no options are
off the table" to solve the problem - including military action.
Trigger-happy Democrats chimed in enthusiastically. "We should go get
them," crowed the Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid.
Let age be no barrier
Jonathan Pyke
July 24, 2007 11:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_pyke/2007/07/let_age_be_no_bar=
rier.html
Ed Milliband is absolutely right to highlight the need to combat the
perception that the majority of the teen population are involved in
criminal behaviour on a regular basis, but far-reaching change is
needed if we are to succeed in properly re-engaging young people.
No one, you may suggest, is claiming that on any given Monday night
the vast majority of the youth of today can be found lurking outside
supermarkets smoking crack after a busy afternoon kicking off wing-
mirrors; but one could almost be forgiven for having thought so.
Consider the evidence from youth magazine Young People Now, which
claims that 78% of youth-related media coverage is negative in its
portrayal of young people. So it is about time that a cabinet minister
has drawn attention to this issue. In recognising that the majority of
young people are law-abiding, and largely refrain from petty
vandalism, there must also be a formal recognition that young people
are, in the main, mature and responsible citizens and entitled to
respect as such.
I'll never forget whatshisname
Cameron Duodu
July 24, 2007 10:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/cameron_duodu/2007/07/ill_never_forget_=
whatshisname_1.html
I was listening to Test Match Special on the BBC's Radio 4, a normally
soporific experience that delivers sheer rapture without demanding
much intellectual effort in return, when I realised that there was
something wrong.
How could a commentary on a cricket match between England and India
not include that golden voice from India? Maybe he would come on
later, to break the Anglocentric chatter of the British commentators
then on the air, Jonathan Agnew and Geoffrey Boycott.
A novel idea
Alex Stein
July 24, 2007 10:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/alex_stein/2007/07/a_novel_idea.html
David Lassman, a frustrated would-be novelist, recently decided to do
a little test. He sent the opening chapters of classic Jane Austen
novels to publishers, in order to see how they would be received.
Perhaps inevitably, they were summarily rejected, with only one
publisher spotting the ruse.
The changing face of inequality
David Lipsey
July 24, 2007 9:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_lipsey/2007/07/the_changing_face_=
of_inequality.html
At least under the new New Labour, equality is not a banned word. Not
a day goes by without a new attack on the so-called "super-rich", who
are generating a new inequality.
However, today's analysis is marred by a lack of historical
perspective. It is now 50 years since Anthony Crosland, once my boss
and mentor, wrote The Future of Socialism. He followed in the great
socialist tradition of Tawney and Orwell in putting equality at the
heart of the socialist vision. What has happened since they wrote? I
try to answer this question in my new pamphlet for the Social Market
Foundation ("The Social Market and its Enemies: A philosophy for
Brown?").
Advice to Tony Blair
Ahmed Yousef
July 24, 2007 9:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ahmed_yousef/2007/07/advice_to_tony_bla=
ir.html
Twenty years ago, Ronald Reagan stood at Germany's Brandenburg Gate
and implored Mikhael Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," a reference
to the Soviet barrier separating east and west Berlin.
Will Tony Blair, one wonders, muster the courage to do the same about
Israel's separation wall, as did former US president Jimmy Carter who
pointed out that Israel's checkpoints - over 160 in the West Bank
alone - are more repressive than the apartheid system was on human
movement in South Africa.
Beyond the call
Bryony Coleman
July 24, 2007 8:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/bryony_coleman/2007/07/beyond_the_call.=
html
So, schoolchildren are to learn to master the art of using the
telephone at an on-site call centre at their Sunderland secondary
school. And for this they get half a GCSE? What else are examination
boards prepared to reward our children for? Should they expect
certificates in burger flipping? Ticket punching? Ordering a
takeaway?
Perhaps they need to learn where to rent a DVD from or the correct use
of staples. In fact, both are already on the GNVQ syllabus. It's all
very well developing "beverage service skills" in BTec, but what's the
point unless our children make us cups of tea without being asked? For
Music GCSE, they can study "club dance remixing", and yet they seem
unable to locate the volume button on their speakers. And a
Manufacturing GNVQ may be full of information about the construction
of a Tetra Pak carton, but where will they learn not to drink straight
out of it?
The adventures of Ian Trepid, MP
Phil Bloomer
July 24, 2007 8:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/phil_bloomer/2007/07/the_adventures_of_=
ian_trepid_mp.html
Over the summer there's barely a farmhouse in Tuscany or a poolside in
Provence without a holidaying British politician - or so the clich=E9
goes. But this summer some adventurous MPs are going further than
Nantucket or even Sharm el-Sheikh.
David Cameron and seven other Tories are spending up to a fortnight in
Rwanda, rolling up their sleeves. They hope to see first-hand the
problems facing Rwandan politicians and officials as they try to build
up a country split asunder by genocide.
Presumed innocent
Yvonne Roberts
July 24, 2007 7:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/yvonne_roberts/2007/07/presumed_innocen=
t=2Ehtml
Sales of "misery memoirs" or "vic lit" generated over =A324m in profit
last year and show no signs of abating. Supermarket shelves are
overflowing with sagas about the nasty things parents do to their
babies, toddlers and children - many with one-word titles that sum it
all up: Ugly, Abandoned, Betrayed. Yet, in the public arena, when it
comes to deciding who is the guilty party, so often, it's the mother
who is given the benefit of the doubt. This hypocritical idolisation
of motherhood is a killer - for all concerned.
According to a study published in the current issue of the British
Medical Journal, murder should never be ruled out when investigating
repeat cot deaths, in spite of claims that most are natural.
The YouTube debate
Conor Clarke
July 24, 2007 7:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/conor_clarke/2007/07/the_youtube_debate=
..html
YouTube, as you've probably heard, is a pretty popular website. The
way it works is that people make videos -- either things they've
recorded themselves, clips they've captured from somewhere, things
they've edited together, or some combination of those -- and then
upload them to their YouTube accounts. Each member has a page on the
YouTube site where his or her uploaded videos can be found. The videos
can be linked to by other people's blogs or even embedded into other
websites and watched there. If you're looking for some kind of video
-- a recording of a band you want to write about playing, or something
involving cute kittens, or a clip of the old Transformers cartoon
show, or whatever -- you can use the website's search function and
find something that meets your needs. If you're just bored, the site
itself offers a lot of browsing functions -- you can see the most
viewed videos of the day, or the highest rated ones, or the most
linked ones, or the most discussed ones, whatever. You can sort by
different categories or weekly or monthly rather than daily.
The point, all things considered, is that even though the vast
majority of videos the vast majority of people make may be utterly
useless to the vast majority of potential viewers, the site finds ways
so that you, the user, find things that you want to see, while other
users find the things that they want to see. Meanwhile, an interesting
video can be distributed around the world without the would-be
distributor needing to go through the enormous expense of assembling
an entire television network.
Kiss and make up
Josh Freedman Berthoud
July 24, 2007 7:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/josh_freedman_berthoud/2007/07/kiss_and=
_make_up.html
For the last few months, Israel and Syria have resembled two
playground lovebirds, each secretly dreaming of kissing the other, but
equally scared of their big, bad bully mates finding out. Every few
days, one or other of the blushing children will turn to their mutual
friend, Turkey, and ask them to find out if their playmate likes them.
For a few days it looks like they might finally get together, but then
the entire playground learns of their flirtation and the taunts start
flying, "Israel and Syria, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g."
Turning red, both Israel and Syria announce that they hate each other
and far from wanting to kiss, they actually want to have a big fight
and give each other nosebleeds. America and Iran look on proudly,
satisfied that their proteges aren't turning soft, and the fight talk
continues for a few more days until Syria and Israel realise that
perhaps they really do want to kiss after all. And along comes Turkey
once more: "Excuse me, my friend really likes you ... "
Pakistan on the brink
Benazir Bhutto
July 24, 2007 12:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/benazir_bhutto/2007/07/pakistan_on_the_=
brink.html
Pakistan is facing a deep crisis, a crisis that began almost 50 years
ago when President Ayub Khan the country's first military ruler seized
power in 1958. Thirty years ago, in 1977, another military coup d'etat
against a democratically elected government further deepened the
crisis. Four military dictatorships, most recently General Zia-ul-Haq
and General Pervez Musharraf, have ruled my nation for the last 32
years alternating with elected civilian governments that have been
summarily brought down by intervention by the military intelligence
agencies. Democracy has never been given a chance to grow in Pakistan.
Today the crisis has not only continued but it has dangerously
accelerated, not only in Pakistan but for the whole region and the
wider world community. And much to the dismay of the people of
Pakistan, Islamabad has become the site of a training and staging area
for al-Qaida.
Tragically from our soil, from areas that were under the control of my
government but have now been ceded to the militants, pro-Taliban
forces linked to al-Qaida launch almost daily attacks on Nato troops
across the border in Afghanistan. They also pose an internal threat to
the 160 million people of Pakistan killing members of the armed
forces, political workers, and innocent civilians across the length
and breadth of Pakistan. Last week we had four suicide attacks and in
the last suicide attack that took place in Islamabad 18 people were
killed. From parts of the Pakistani territory that the present regime
has termed ungovernable those forces of militancy and extremism are
planning further acts of terror and aggression against the west and
against the people of Pakistan threatening to match or even exceed the
scale of the September 11 atrocities. Without hesitation I believe
that the future of democracy in South Asia and, without exaggeration,
the stability of the entire world lies in the balance directly as a
result of the international community's acquiescence to military
dictatorship.
Two lame ducks
Simon Maxwell Apter
July 23, 2007 10:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_maxwell_apter/2007/07/two_lame_du=
cks.html
Universally despised outside of San Francisco, it's not clear where
Barry Bonds will be - or how much he'll be paid - after his one-year,
$15m contract with the San Francisco Giants expires at the end of the
baseball season. Beyond a desire that Bonds hit his historical 756th
career home run in a Giants uniform, it's remains to be seen where the
record-breaking left fielder fits in the cellar-dwelling team's future
plans.
Shunned by Henry Aaron (who has expressed desire not to attend Bonds's
imminent coronation as baseball's home run king, whenever it may be);
tolerated - but not embraced - by major league baseball commissioner
Bud Selig (who, like Aaron, is in no hurry to witness number 756 in
person); and ridiculed by any and every media outlet (most recently,
of all places, in July's Harper's Magazine, that famous chronicle of
all things sport), Bonds has been reduced to catering to his "base" -
that is, to socking dingers into the bay for a non-contending ballclub
in front of 40,000 sycophantic Giants fans.
Tell us another one
Marcy Wheeler
July 23, 2007 9:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/marcy_wheeler/2007/07/tell_us_another_o=
ne.html
In a list of questions sent to the attorney general Alberto Gonzales
last Wednesday, Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, revealed a remarkable detail.
"Other inspectors-general can investigate misconduct throughout their
agencies," Leahy began, referring to the officials within each
executive agency who are charged with conducting internal
investigations into possible agency wrongdoing. "Apparently, the
Department of Justice inspector general suffers under a limitation
that restricts his ability to investigate misconduct by you, the
deputy attorney general, and other senior department lawyers."
After Genoa
Matt Foot
July 23, 2007 9:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/matt_foot/2007/07/after_genoa.html
Six years ago this month, Nicola Doherty and her boyfriend Rich Moth
were relaxing at a bar in Genoa, having just taken part in the 300,000
strong anti-globalisation protest against the G8. It was Nicola's
first large-scale demonstration and, after a tiring day, she declined
a second drink and they left friends to stay at the Diaz School. That
decision condemned them to a terrible ordeal.
Soon after they got back, more than a hundred riot police and
carabinieri forced their way into the building. Panic ensued. Rich and
Nicola ran upstairs but came to a dead end. A police squad followed
down the dark corridor with batons raised. Rich lay on top of Nicola
to protect her. The police took it in turns to beat and kick him
leaving him with two serious gashes to the head and his back black
with bruising. Nicola's right wrist was broken. Both required
immediate hospital treatment.
All about oil
Jake Bernstein
July 23, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jake_bernstein/2007/07/all_about_oil.ht=
ml
An anxious world awaits the outcome of American vice-president *****
Cheney's belligerence toward Iran. Rather than attempt to negotiate
with the Iranians, it is Cheney who is the strongest advocate in the
White House for unleashing the bombers. "All options are on the
table," he repeats, mantra-like. Cheney, unfettered by concern over
elections or polls, doesn't want to leave Iran to a future president
who presumably won't enjoy his freedom to act. It helps that Cheney
and President Bush share the fundamentalist's conviction in the purity
of their motives. History will surely validate their every action,
conveniently, long after they are dead.
The casus belli is said to be Iran's ambition to obtain a nuclear
weapon. Tragically, the administration squandered a unique opportunity
to engage the Iranians over their nuclear programme. In the spring of
2003, shortly after American troops captured Baghdad, the Iranians
approached the administration through the Swiss ambassador. They were
ready to negotiate. Emboldened by apparent success in Iraq and
intoxicated by visions of remaking the Middle East, Cheney convinced
Bush to reject the overture. Four years later, as Peter David noted
here, the failed Iraq war has strengthened Iran's position in the
region beyond Tehran's wildest dreams.
All quiet on the Turkish front
David Barchard
July 23, 2007 8:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_barchard/2007/07/nothing_changes_=
the_mood_as_1.html
Nothing changes the mood as swiftly as a decisive general election. On
Sunday morning, I sat in an Ankara coffee house in Ulus, the poorer
district of town, listening to a group of people, from the central
Anatolian provincial towns, telling me that this was the quietest
election that there had ever been in Turkey and there didn't seem to
be any big issues in it. What they said made the frenetic reporting in
the world media about a crisis sound more than a little strange. In
particular, I rubbed my eyes at Barry Rubin's over-the-top suggestion
that this was Turkey's "most important political event since the
Republic was founded".
Commentators like Professor Rubin in the US, (which has clearly
decided "mild Islamism" in Turkey is good for its interests) assume
that the elections were a plebiscite on religion. Perhaps they were
for sophisticated folk. But to ordinary people on the ground in
Turkey, I suspect that this was a "you've never had it so good"
election and the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reaped a
rightful reward for four and a half years of effective management of
the economy.
Mind your manners
Joanna Moorhead
July 23, 2007 7:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/joanna_moorhead/2007/07/mind_your_manne=
rs.html
A few days ago, my 15-year-old daughter fainted on a busy train. She'd
never fainted before, so it was a scary experience for her - but
scarier still, for me at least, was the attitude of the adults around
her.
Two of her friends caught her as she keeled over, and they helped
bring her round. She needed to sit down, so they helped her over to
the seats and one of the friends asked a middle-aged woman if they
could have her seat, explaining what had happened.
Offsetting is offputting
Peter Martin
July 23, 2007 7:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_martin/2007/07/offsetting_is_offp=
utting.html
The Environmental Audit Committee has missed a good opportunity to
fully reappraise the practice of offsetting - its drawbacks as well as
its benefits. While the airlines' efforts are criticised in its latest
report and the practice of offsetting is widely encouraged, the flaws
that undermine its value as a method of combating climate change are
skipped over.
I am concerned by the comment from Tim Yeo, the committee's chairman,
that "the UK's financial and carbon markets have much to gain from a
rapid growth in this field". This, coupled the fact that many of the
external contributors to the committee have a vested interest in
offsetting, give the impression that the UK's financial interests have
been given priority over the need for effective emission reductions
for all of us on the planet.
First and second class kids
Fiona Millar
July 23, 2007 6:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/fiona_millar/2007/07/first_and_second_c=
lass_kids_1.html
The summer holidays kicked off with the news that a Sunderland school
has opened a simulated call centre in which pupils can get half a GCSE
by selling mobile phones and answering complaints from computer
generated customers.
Does this matter? The kids apparently love it, get self-esteem from it
and may eventually get jobs with local firm EDF, which is
coincidentally sponsoring the project.
It's TheirTube, not YouTube
Niall Stanage
July 23, 2007 6:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/niall_stanage/2007/07/cnnyoutube_debate=
_piece_by_nia.html
Note: the Guardian will be live-blogging the CNN-YouTube hosted
Democratic presidential debate from Charleston, from 7pm eastern time
(midnight BST).
CNN is giving tonight's Democratic presidential debate the hard sell.
Full-page ads have been taken out in the US press. A news story on
CNN.com suggests that those who tune in will witness "a milestone in
presidential campaign history".
Perhaps "footnote" would be a better word.
Hawks rule the roost
Peter David
July 23, 2007 5:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_david/2007/07/hawks_rule_the_roos=
t=2Ehtml
Given the bloody mayhem in Iraq, and the clamour in Washington to
bring the boys home from a failing war, it may seem hard to believe
that any sane western policymaker could be contemplating yet another
attack on another, much bigger, Muslim country. But as Iran moves
inexorably closer to learning how to build an atomic bomb, the danger
that America or Israel will attack its nuclear sites is now acute.
As the Economist argues in a special report this week, Iran is now
within fingertip-touch of mastering the dark arts of nuclear
enrichment. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the
UN's nuclear watchdog, it could by the end of this month have as many
as 3,000 centrifuges spinning at the underground plant it built
secretly at Natanz, south of Tehran. Most experts say that if these
ran at full speed and high efficiency for a year, they could make
enough nuclear fuel for a crude atomic bomb. Making a workable weapon
would take more time. But even the cautious IAEA now reckons that if
it wanted to Iran could become a nuclear-weapons state within three
years.
The case for gerontocracy
Neil Clark
July 23, 2007 5:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/neil_clark/2007/07/the_case_for_geronto=
cracy.html
I don't know about you, but I can't help feeling that Labour
overlooked the obvious candidate when it came to replacing Tony
Blair.
Someone who possesses not only a great intellect, humour and superb
oratory skills, but most importantly in the aftermath of Blair, is a
man of complete integrity. Michael Foot is 94 today. What a pity the
grand old man of British politics is not celebrating his birthday in
No 10.
Miscalculating Kosovo
Simon Tisdall
July 23, 2007 4:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_tisdall/2007/07/miscalculating_ko=
sovo.html
Exactly how far Russia will go in defence of Serbia's rights in Kosovo
is a question of pressing importance, now UN security council
negotiations to grant consensual, conditional independence to the
breakaway province have ground to an ignominious halt.
Western countries including Britain and France - prime movers in the
1999 Nato intervention - have consistently underestimated Russian
resolve on this issue. By tabling a UN resolution, they tried to call
Moscow's bluff. But President Vladimir Putin icily stared them down.
On Friday, they blinked first.
Minding their RPs and Qs
Lyn Gardner
July 23, 2007 4:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lyn_gardner/2007/07/minding_their_rps_a=
nd_qs.html
Come back Henry Higgins, your country needs you. It seems that
received pronunciation has become as rare as fish knives among the
middle classes and estuary English is now so pervasive among teenagers
of all backgrounds that the BBC has been struggling to cast the roles
of youngsters Posy and Pauline Fossil for its upcoming TV version of
Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes, about a trio of orphans at stage
school in the 1930s. A grande dame of the British theatre has warned
that unless young actors can master received pronunciation they will
never be able to take on classical roles and are doomed to play
parlour maids for their entire careers. Strangely, I just can't think
of many parlourmaid roles in the plays of Dennis Kelly, Anthony
Neilson and Simon Stephens.
I'm afraid I just can't take this crisis in civilisation very
seriously. Perhaps it's because I come from a generation when
elocution lesions were part of the curriculum at a certain kind of
gels' school and as a result I now speak not with a plum in my mouth
but the entire ruddy fruit stall. My own children's less-than-perfect
vowels are far more vibrant than mine, and I enjoy sitting on the top
of buses and listening to the banter of teenagers whose patois often
has the rich inventiveness of anything written by Shakespeare.
Clipping those corporate wings
Larry Elliott
July 23, 2007 3:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/larry_elliott/2007/07/clipping_those_co=
rporate_wings.html
"Poll reveals backlash in wealthy countries against globalisation",
says today's headline in the Financial Times. Well, blow me down with
a feather. Who would have thought it? As Iago the parrot says in the
Disney version of Aladdin: "I think I'm going to have a heart attack
from not-surprise."
The opinion poll conducted by Harris for the bosses' paper shows that
ordinary people have twigged some of the inconsistencies of
globalisation. How, for example, the existence of a seamless global
market "inevitably" means downward pressure on wages for those at the
bottom (all that cheap competition from Asia) but also "inevitably"
means ever-higher remuneration packages for those in the boardroom
(limited pool of footloose talent).
It was the snobs wot lost it
Ian Traynor
July 23, 2007 3:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_traynor/2007/07/it_was_the_snobs_wo=
t_lost_it.html
Rush-hour on the Istanbul waterfront and the ferries are zigzagging
across the Bosphorus, dumping thousands on to the jetties of Besiktas.
It's Friday night, 48 hours before a momentous general election. The
cafes are packed, the jetties are crowded. The party activists smell a
campaign opportunity.
It's a telling scene. Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP, as the Turks call
the ruling Justice and Development party, has a trailer set up - a
dozen seats, some tables, parasols, a water-cooler, very loud thudding
music. There are candidates and campaigners, free baseball caps and
cheap ballpoint pens, paper fans for the searing heat, campaign
literature by the pile. And young activists badgering the crowds
heading for the ferries and the taxi-boats.
China's soft power successes
Joshua Kurlantzick
July 23, 2007 2:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/joshua_kurlantzick/2007/07/chinas_soft_=
power_successes.html
Over the past month, consumers and governments around the globe have
realised they face an influx of tainted, even deadly Chinese goods,
from toothpaste to pet food. For some commentators, the dangerous
exports reveal China's weakness - Beijing can hardly control China's
factories and local officials, and even executed the head of its own
food and drug agency after he allegedly approved fake medicines in
exchange for payments from companies.
But if China at home is like America during the Industrial Revolution
- struggling to develop rules for its chaotic factories - China abroad
resembles the US of that time, too: a far more influential nation than
other existing powers (19th century Britain, or today's United States)
care to admit.
Raining on Gordon's parade
Martin Kettle
July 23, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/martin_kettle/2007/07/raining_on_gordon=
s_parade.html
Are the English floods of 2007 Gordon Brown's Katrina moment?
Everything about his response shows he fears that they may be. The
prime minister was one of the earliest official visitors to the
Yorkshire floods earlier this month and he was up early again this
morning to tour flood defences in Gloucester, before returning to
London to face his first prime ministerial press conference - an event
which was dominated by questions about the floods.
Brown is right to take the political implications of the floods
seriously. Most of what he has done in his first month as prime
minister has been long planned. But it's the way he handles the
unexpected - first the car bombs and now the floods - that will do
most to fix his image for competence in the minds of the mostly
inattentive voters.
Che lives!
Open Thread
July 23, 2007 1:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2007/07/che_lives.html
Elvis may be dead but Che Guevara, the arch-enemy of capitalism, seems
to be alive and well - and busy flogging property in Dubai. Can anyone
explain?
(With thanks to Mango Girl)
Hamas is a fact of life
Brian Whitaker
July 23, 2007 1:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brian_whitaker/2007/07/hamas_is_a_fact_=
of_life.html
Tony Blair starts work in the Middle East today as the Quartet's
special envoy - a role that many regard as Mission Impossible. He will
be visiting Jordan, Israel and the West Bank but, bizarrely, he will
have no contact with one of the key players - Hamas, the party that
won the Palestinian elections last year.
The ground rules laid down by the Quartet (and criticised by former US
secretary of state Colin Powell, among others) preclude contact with
Hamas - which more or less guarantees that the mission will fail. Why
Mr Blair took up the job in those circumstances is puzzling - except
that he has always tended to delude himself that he has some kind of
magic touch where the Middle East is concerned.
Ethical shopping is just another way of showing how rich you are
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2133110,00.html
The middle classes congratulate themselves on going green, then carry
on buying and flying as much as before
George Monbiot
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
It wasn't meant to happen like this. The climate scientists told us
that our winters would become wetter and our summers drier. So I can't
claim that these floods were caused by climate change, or are even
consistent with the models. But, like the ghost of Christmas yet to
come, they offer us a glimpse of the possible winter world that we
will inhabit if we don't sort ourselves out.
With rising sea levels and more winter rain - and remember that when
the trees are dormant and the soils saturated, there are fewer places
for the rain to go - all it will take is a freshwater flood to
coincide with a high spring tide and we have a formula for full-blown
disaster. We have now seen how localised floods can wipe out essential
services and overwhelm emergency workers. But this month's events
don't even register beside some of the predictions circulating in
learned journals. Our primary political struggle must be to prevent
the breakup of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. The only
question now worth asking about climate change is how.
This equality road map must now apply to men
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2133161,00.html
The organisation that won women the key victories of the past three
decades has plenty to teach its successor
Madeleine Bunting
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
The Equal Opportunities Commission is shutting up shop after 32 years,
during which it has probably been admired and vilified in almost equal
measure. Born in the heady days of feminism's most vibrant decade, the
70s, it has soldiered on long after feminism got marginalised by a
generation that erroneously believed all the big battles had been won.
Looking back over the EOC's greatest hits, its role in challenging
complacent consensus - and then forging a new consensus - is striking
and under-appreciated. Take, for example, the EOC's victory against El
Vino's bar in 1982; today, thanks to that case, it would be
inconceivable for a bar to insist that women are only served in a back
room. It was an unpopular cause at the time, that prompted men to
grumble into their pints about uppity women who lacked a sense of
humour. Or take the less famous but outrageous case in 1984 of three
girls held back a year in their primary school simply to correct an
imbalance in numbers, while their younger male contemporaries overtook
them. Or take the first successful pregnancy discrimination case in
1985 - a woman fired simply because she was expecting a child.
Everyone is entitled to a stake in the nation's soil and bricks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2133179,00.html
The government is taking the right steps towards changing the housing
climate, whether homeowners like it or not
Polly Toynbee
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
Housing is dangerous politics. It may sound simple: just cool the
overheated market, build more and give first-timers an affordable
start. Who isn't in favour of that? But below the surface lurk a host
of wicked issues. The interests of homeowners are often in direct
conflict with would-be owners. The interests of the generations
differ: average homes costing eight times the average salary is good
for the old, bad for the young. Protest groups across the south-east
fight against building where it's needed most, the have-homes at war
with the need-homes.
No bloodless revolution
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2133162,00.html
Turkey's election may point the way to further democratisation, but
the army means to block it
Maureen Freely
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
When Turkey went to the polls at the weekend, it was, according to the
headlines, fighting for its soul. Which would it choose, Islam or
secularism? But that was never the real contest. The key issue was
democracy - would the Turkish electorate again endorse a secular
system that has, since its inception, been enforced by the military?
Or would it signal that the time had come to let the people govern
themselves? This was their message on Sunday, when they returned the
mildly Islamist AK party to power with 47% of the vote. That they
could do so at all is a victory for democracy. But it is not at all
clear who will have the final say.
A vehicle for the brand
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2133159,00.html
Designer labels profess outrage at the counterfeit market, but they
are complicit in its creation
Neil Boorman
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
The shocking news that two-thirds of British consumers are happy to
purchase fake designer goods was announced in a new study yesterday.
Shopping for phony handbags and watches has become socially
acceptable. Knowing no shame, we'll happily admit to this illegal
thrift.
The luxury brand market is predictably up in arms that we have become
so comfortable purchasing counterfeits of their products. But this
phenomenon is no revelation to upscale design houses. In fact, any
brand worth its salt carries a diffusion range that caters for this
very market. They are known in the industry as "entry point" products
- cheaply produced sunglasses, belts, key rings and perfumes that
command high premiums by virtue of the brand that is attached.
Mothers protecting their children should not have to defy the courts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2133090,00.html
Violent fathers are not good role models. Judges should be tougher on
their visiting rights, says Sandra Horley
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
I read with concern that "senior judges have issued a strong warning
to divorced and separated mothers", who risk losing the right to have
their children live with them if they defy court orders for fathers to
have contact with their children (Judges get tough on fathers' rights
to contact with children, July 16). As you report, "the cases signal a
tougher approach by the judges, who in the past have rarely used the
last-ditch option of moving a child".
In praise of... Simon Bolivar
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,2133098,00.html
Many politicians dream of leaving a great legacy to be remembered in
centuries to come. But reputations can be used in ways that their
subjects never expected.
Leader
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
Many politicians dream of leaving a great legacy to be remembered in
centuries to come. But reputations can be used in ways that their
subjects never expected, which is surely the fate of Sim=F3n Bol=EDvar,
the anniversary of whose birth is celebrated across Spanish-speaking
South America today. By any measure he was an extraordinary man who
achieved extraordinary things: hailed as El Libertador, driving the
Spanish out of six countries on the back of a military campaign
fuelled by enlightenment philosophy, charisma and tremendous
confidence and energy. Born in Caracas, now in Venezuela, into a rich
Spanish family, he fought through the 1810s and 1820s to create a new
republic, Gran Colombia, and for a moment succeeded. His campaign, at
least in intention, was as noble as the American war of independence
against Britain: but Bol=EDvar, unlike George Washington, could not
control what he created. In place of a great liberal unified republic,
South America fragmented into oligarchy, with white Spanish-speaking
citizens mostly on top, exploiting and frequently oppressing all
others. That injustice has created pressure for a new South American
revolution under Bol=EDvar's name, especially in Venezuela, where Hugo
Chavez presents himself as a modern-day Libertador. The parallel is
perhaps more hoped for than real. Sim=F3n Bol=EDvar was a great man. But
he has given birth to a great myth, too. Modern leaders, eager for
their own legacies, should remember how little they can control them.
The history book that has everything
Jonathan Jones
July 24, 2007 11:56 AM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/07/the_history_book_that_has_ever.ht=
ml
Choosing books to take abroad is agony, and futile, because as soon as
I get through customs I'm in the airport bookshop buying something
else. All too often it turns out to be an appealing volume of
narrative history that looks just right for the trip ... and proves a
disappointing read. Well, at last I've found the antidote to half-
baked popular history. If you share my appetite for history books -
and someone must, to judge from how many are published - I can finally
recommend one that delivers.
It is The New Penguin History of the World by JM Roberts and it's the
history book that has everything. It is an amazing synthesis of
knowledge and interpretation that carries you along not with stylistic
bravura but a lucid presentation of themes other writers struggle to
explain. It's so restrained in language, so measured in argument it
might be mistaken for a textbook except it's shot through by strong
untextbooklike opinions such as the confident assertion that Cordoba's
Great Mosque is the most beautiful building in the world.
Is CNN and YouTube's debate the future of politics?
Ben Marshall
July 24, 2007 11:53 AM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/07/cnn_and_youtubes_bizarre_presi.html
Four years ago political pundits marvelled at the idea that parties of
all stripes were seeking funding through the internet. Well yesterday
evening something far more seismic happened. CNN, the biggest name in
global news, teemed up with YouTube, which 18 months ago barely
existed, to host an online debate in which citizens could question all
the Democratic presidential hopefuls.
It was a bizarre occasion. A bloke dressed as a snowman and sounding
an awful lot like Robin Williams in one of his more cloying roles
asked about global warming; two men claiming to be from Tennessee
managed to alarm all the candidates by asking a question about
immigration in deliberately dire Spanish; and someone in a George Bush
mask appeared to be asking a question about torture but ended up
making a very different point about America's so called Culture Wars.
Is this Sex and the City for Saudi Arabia?
James Buchan
July 24, 2007 11:30 AM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/07/is_this_sex_and_the_city_for_s.ht=
ml
Imagine Sex and the City without sex or city, and you will have an
idea both of Girls of Riyadh and the determination of its young
author. The book's publishers boast that the Arabic edition of 2005
was banned in Saudi Arabia, but then everything is banned in Saudi
Arabia: women driving or leaving the house alone or travelling abroad
unescorted or working with men. None of that. Nor that.
But sex, being sex, cannot be abolished. In Rajaa Alsanea's Girls of
Riyadh, sex in Saudi Arabia is sighs and tears, cruising, long
telephone calls after midnight, instant messaging, arranged marriages,
prayers to God, the verse of Nizar Qabbani, running from the religious
police, unsatisfactory wedding nights, getting even and divorce. The
males are all brutes, teases and mama's boys, but they are better than
the alternative, which is not nice at all.
Making James Bond funnier is a bad idea
Danny Leigh
July 24, 2007 10:30 AM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/07/making_james_bond_funnier_is_a.html
Nobody knows anything, goes the chestnut about the film industry.
After the success of Casino Royale last year, however, the cliche
looked to be due a small qualifier - nobody knows anything except for
how to save James Bond. Because in the wake of Daniel Craig's debut in
the role, the trick seemed obvious. No jokes. That simple. Reviving
the franchise came as easily as removing its once-trademark one-
liners, Craig's mirthless scowl an emblematic presence in a film full
of chilly brutality but with little in the way of double entendres.
The result was lauded by critics, loved by audiences. The producers
were geniuses.
But actually, it turns out nobody does know anything after all. For
with the 22nd Bond about to go into production, Craig has disclosed
that a shift in tone is in the offing. "The producers have told me
that they want more gags," the actor is reported to have said. "The
next one's going to be a lot funnier [with] Octopussy and ***** Galore-
style gags."
The Simpsons Movie: still funny after all these years
Peter Bradshaw
July 24, 2007 9:29 AM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/07/the_simpsons_movie_still_funny.html
What's the opposite of D'Oh? Y'Oh! Wh'oh! G'oh! The Simpsons are
finally, triumphantly, here, after much whingeing and whispering that
we've all got Simpsons fatigue and that the movie was only going to be
a feature-length version of the TV show. To which I can only say
"only?" It's only going to be superbly funny and well-written all the
way through? With a creative IQ that easily outpaces 99% of everything
else Hollywood churns out? And as for Simpsons fatigue, I was too busy
laughing to notice any.
For 17 long years The Simpsons has not been turned into a film, and
that single fact is often held up as proof that it is the very epitome
of televisual perfection. The show has outlasted two American
presidents and a pope. It predated the internet. While fractured,
dysfunctional households in the real world had kids that watched TV in
their rooms, The Simpsons rushed home to gather round the family set,
without video or Sky+, like the nuclear families of old.
Last night's TV: Brando
Sam Wollaston
July 24, 2007 8:40 AM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/07/last_nights_tv_brando.html
I hate those talking-heads shows - you know, where you have clips of
whatever, interspersed with rentaquotes blabbing on about something
they know nothing about, regurgitating opinions they're being paid =A375
to pretend to have. There's a Polly from the Mirror who's often on
them.
But if you are going to make a show like that, you may as well aim
high with your rentaquotes. Which is what Brando (TCM) seems to have
done. Al Pacino, John Travolta, Martin Scorsese, Johnny Depp ...
bloody hell, this is like the Oscars. Jane Fonda, Dennis Hopper,
Quincy Jones, that bloke from the Esure advert ... hang about, what
the hell is he doing in there? He used to do something in films? Are
you sure? Calm down dear, it's only a movie?
You review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Adam Chidell
July 23, 2007 5:01 PM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/07/you_review_harry_potter_and_th.ht=
ml
While threatened legal battles were casting Dementor-like shadows over
the embargo-breaking American reviewers of Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows last week, a sincere quatrain from a young American
fan floated trough the blogosphere, simply expressing the degree to
which millions of fans have been captivated by the teenage wizard:
Potter's predictable magic
Nicholas Clee
July 23, 2007 4:53 PM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/07/potters_predictable_magic.html
We did not need to wait for the official announcement to know that
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows would become the fastest-selling
book of all time. All the anticipation, all the pre-publication
announcements, made the result a certainty. But here it is, in
figures: Nielsen BookScan, the official trade monitor, says that JK
Rowling's seventh and concluding Harry Potter novel sold 2,652,656
copies on its first day of release.
This beats the previous fastest-selling book of all time, Harry Potter
and the Half-Blood Prince - which had beaten previous record holder
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which had beaten previous
record holder Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Half-Blood Prince
sold 1,869,505 on its day of release.
Wanted, for crimes against the state
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2133184,00.html
For many years, Azmi Bishara has been one of the most prominent voices
representing the 1.5 million Arabs living in Israel. But now he is a
fugitive, facing some of the most serious allegations ever made
against an Israeli MP. What happened? In a rare interview, he talks to
Rory McCarthy
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
When war broke out in Lebanon last summer there were few dissenting
voices in Israel. Opinion polls showed unprecedented public support
for the conflict. Politicians and pundits crowded television studios
to argue that Israel was fighting for its survival in its battle to
wipe out Hizbullah.
But one Israeli MP saw it differently. Hizbullah, he wrote, was a
resistance movement, fighting a war brought on by an Israeli
government led by "mediocrities, cowards and opportunists" who were
responsible for "barbaric vandalism and the deliberate targeting of
civilians".
Libya frees HIV case medics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/libya/story/0,,2133416,00.html
Associated Press
Tuesday July 24, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had their death
sentences for allegedly contaminating Libyan children with HIV
overturned left Tripoli for Bulgaria today, France's presidential
palace said.
A delegation from Paris including C=E9cilia Sarkozy, the wife of the
French president, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU commissioner for
foreign affairs, arrived in Libya at the weekend to negotiate their
return home.
France had been seeking the return of the six - in jail for the past
eight years - as a final goodwill gesture from Libya after it commuted
their death sentences in favour of life in prison.
US and Iran renew talks on Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2133582,00.html
Haroon Siddique and agencies
Tuesday July 24, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
US and Iranian officials today began a second round of talks in Iraq
aimed at countering the country's deepening security crisis.
The talks in Baghdad between the Iranian ambassador, Hassan Kazemi-
Qomi, and his US counterpart, Ryan Crocker, follow a landmark meeting
in May that ended a diplomatic freeze between the two countries after
almost 30 years.
Democrats answer to the people in YouTube debate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/story/0,,2133413,00.html
Minute-by-minute: how the debate evolved
Ewen MacAskill in Charleston, South Carolina
Tuesday July 24, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Democratic candidates in the 2008 presidential race last night
launched a new, more direct and livelier form of political debate.
YouTube, the video-sharing website that is only two-and-half years
old, joined with CNN to allow a cross-section of Americans to question
the challengers in 30-second video clips.
In the fourth of the Democratic debates, the tired format of
journalists putting the questions to the eight candidates was finally
dispensed with. YouTube provided 50 questions from more than 2,000
videos sent in, ranging from a cancer survivor to the father of a
soldier killed in Iraq and a man cradling his "baby", a gun.
Japanese family sue government agency over Tamiflu
http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,,2133603,00.html
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Tuesday July 24, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The family of a Japanese boy who died after taking the antiviral drug
Tamiflu are to launch an unprecedented lawsuit against a health
ministry body after it said the controversial drug was not responsible
for his death.
The 17-year-old died in February 2004 when he ran out of his home in
his bare feet and was run over by a truck about two hours after taking
Tamiflu, a common flu treatment and the drug stockpiled by many
countries to combat a potential bird flu epidemic.
Criticise me and you're out, Ch=E1vez warns foreigners
http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,2133334,00.html
=B7 Venezuelan leader threatens deportations
=B7 Government proposes end to presidential term limit
Rory Carroll in Caracas
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
President Hugo Ch=E1vez has announced that foreigners who visit
Venezuela and criticise his government will be escorted to the airport
and expelled.
In a televised address the Venezuelan leader ordered cabinet ministers
to monitor statements by visitors and deport them if they "denigrated"
his leadership.
"How long are we going to allow a person - from any country in the
world - to come to our own house to say there's a dictatorship here,
that the president is a tyrant, and nobody does anything about it?" he
said. "No foreigner, whoever he may be, can come here and attack us.
Whoever comes, we must remove him from the country. Here is your bag,
sir, go."
Turkey raises hopes of peace with Kurds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,2133351,00.html
=B7 Poll victory gives Erdogan power to resist military
=B7 Kurdish party wins 23 seats in new parliament
Ian Traynor in Istanbul
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is likely to use his
sweeping election victory to open a dialogue with his country's
Kurdish insurgents, according to Turkish and Kurdish experts.
He is also expected to oppose an invasion of Kurdish northern Iraq and
has invited the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to Ankara for
talks that would include US officials.
Mr Erdogan is in a strong position to dismiss military pressure for a
cross-border crackdown on PKK Kurdish guerrillas based in northern
Iraq and to extract concessions on the Kurdish conflict from the
Americans and Kurdish leaders.
Three dozen aborted female foetuses found in India
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2133349,00.html
Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
Police in the eastern Indian state of Orissa exhumed skulls and body
parts believed to be from three dozen aborted female foetuses and
murdered girls in an abandoned well, a grisly find that highlights the
persistence of infanticide in the country.
Officers suspect a nearby clinic performed the abortions and killed
children because they were female. The owner of the clinic, Sabita
Sahu, and the manager, Shyma Sahu, have been detained for questioning.
Schiller's family exhumed as scientists work to crack mystery of the
two skulls
http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,2133279,00.html
Kate Connolly in Berlin
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
Two skulls, one poet. It is a riddle that has been vexing experts for
years. But now scientists hope to finally determine which skull
belonged to Germany's most famous playwright, Friedrich Schiller.
Archaeologists in the former West German capital, Bonn, are hoping to
end a long-running battle between academics by carrying out DNA tests
on two skulls both said to belong to the dramatist, poet and
philosopher, who wrote the Ode to Joy, set to music in Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony.
The remains of Schiller's wife, Charlotte von Lengefeld, who died in
1826, and those of the second of the couple's four children, Ernst
Friedrich Wilhelm, have been exhumed at Bonn's Old Cemetery where the
families of other musical luminaries are also buried. Crucial to the
project are the DNA samples from their teeth and thigh bones, which
will be compared with the two "Schiller" skulls as well as with other
parts of the writer's skeleton and locks of his hair.
Abe 'won't quit regardless of election result'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,,2133526,00.html
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Tuesday July 24, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
He is behind in the polls and under fire over pensions and sleaze
involving some of his closest allies. But even if polls prove correct
and his party loses Sunday's upper house elections, the Japanese prime
minister, Shinzo Abe, is set to stay on as leader, according to a
senior colleague.
"This election is not directly linked to choosing a prime minister, so
I think Mr Abe will continue," said Shoichi Nakagawa, the policy chief
of the prime minister's Liberal Democratic party (LDP) said.
Blair arrives in Israel on first trip as Middle East envoy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2133328,00.html
=B7 Former PM meets foreign and defence ministers
=B7 House of Lords report critical of Quartet role
Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem and Tania Branigan
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
Tony Blair flew into the Middle East yesterday for his first visit as
a special international envoy, hoping to spark a fresh peace
initiative at a time of long-stalled negotiations.
Mr Blair flew first to Amman, where he met the Jordanian foreign
minister, and then travelled in a private, unmarked, white jet to Tel
Aviv. His motorcade was rushed out of Ben Gurion airport and on to
Jerusalem, where photographers and autograph hunters waited for the
former prime minister at the King David hotel.
New plea on British hostages in Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2133268,00.html
Associated Press in Baghdad
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
The British government issued a new appeal yesterday for information
about five Britons who were taken hostage in Iraq nearly two months
ago.
The captives, four security guards and a consultant, were abducted
from the Iraqi finance ministry by about 40 heavily armed men who took
them in the direction of Baghdad's sprawling Shia district of Sadr
City.
We hacked into Apple's iPhone, claim security researchers
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2133240,00.html
Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
It arrived in a blaze of publicity and had frenzied gadget fans
queuing for days before its launch last month. But just weeks after
Apple's iPhone was unleashed on American shoppers, researchers say
they have discovered how to hack into it and steal personal
information.
Experts at Independent Security Evaluators, a computer protection
consultancy, claim to have found a way to gain complete access to the
phone, billed by its creators, Apple, as the mobile phone of the
future.
Saved by the bonds of war, 'lucky' Iraqis trickle into US
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2133343,00.html
Refugees of the post-Saddam chaos need friends with influence to get
into America
Suzanne Goldenberg in New York
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
There is an unseen presence in the flat in New York's East Village
that Lisa Ramaci-Vincent and Nour al-Khal now call home. It's that of
Steven Vincent, a freelance journalist killed by an Iraqi death squad
in Basra two years ago. Ms Ramaci-Vincent is his widow; Ms Khal was
his translator and was with him when he was kidnapped off a busy
street, bound, beaten and shot dead.
On June 26, the two women met for the first time at John F Kennedy
airport when Ms Khal was among the first contingent of 63 Iraqis to be
granted refugee status in America since the 2003 invasion. In her
arrival lies a story of the bonds forged in wartime and the
bureaucracy that would stand in their way.
Galicia asks Franco family to open house to public
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,,2133228,00.html
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
A row has broken out over a country house donated to the then Spanish
dictator Francisco Franco as authorities try to force his daughter to
open its doors to the public.
The Pazo de Meiras, an imposing stone imitation castle set in the lush
green countryside in the north-western region of Galicia was given to
the dictator by his own regime in 1939.
General Franco used it for his summer holidays, when he would return
to his native Galicia. After his death it passed into the hands of his
daughter, Carmen, who became the Duchess of Franco.
Chinese sculptor replaces black artist on Luther King memorial
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2133219,00.html
Ed Pilkington in New York
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
The plan to erect a giant memorial statue of Martin Luther King on the
National Mall in Washington has become embroiled in controversy after
it was decided to appoint a Chinese artist as the lead sculptor.
Lei Yixin was spotted by a team from the King Memorial Foundation when
he was taking part in a discussion on stone carving in Saint Paul,
Minnesota, which is twinned with his home town of Changsha. The
foundation was looking for a sculptor capable of working with a huge
block of granite that would become the centrepiece of the planned
memorial: a nine-metre (30ft) statue of King called Stone of Hope.
Protein reverses Alzheimer's disease in mice
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2133192,00.html
James Randerson, science correspondent
Tuesday July 24, 2007
The Guardian
Scientists have successfully tested a treatment in mice that stops the
progression of Alzheimer's and even sends the disease into reverse.
It will be several years before the experimental treatment can be used
on humans but one advantage is that it works at a very early stage. It
is hoped the breakthrough could one day enable doctors to stop the
disease in its tracks before patients suffer the worst effects.
Presidential hopefuls grilled in internet debate
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2795850.ece
Published: 24 July 2007
Young, internet-savvy voters challenged Democratic presidential
hopefuls on Iraq, the military draft and the candidates' own place in
a broken political system, playing starring roles in a provocative,
video-driven debate.
"Wassup?" came the first question last night, from a voter named Zach,
after another, named Chris, opened the CNN-YouTube debate with a barb
aimed at the entire eight-candidate field: "Can you as politicians ...
actually answer questions rather than beat around the bush?"
Baghdad brings US and Iran together in bid to end violence
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2795651.ece
By Patrick Cockburn in Arbil and Anne Penketh in Tehran
Published: 24 July 2007
Iranian and American officials meet in Baghdad today to discuss Iraqi
security but wide differences are expected to prevent the real
dialogue which may be essential to end the war in Iraq.
The Iraqi government has been trying to get the US and Iran to talk,
pointing out that both support the Shia-Kurdish government in Baghdad.
Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab states largely oppose it.
Kamikaze survivors express regret and anger in new film
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2795630.ece
By David McNeill in Tokyo
Published: 24 July 2007
Trying to imagine Toshio Yoshitake as a wild-eyed 21-year-old hunched
over the cockpit of a flying bomb is not easy. Yet this kindly
pensioner with the easy laugh was once one of a legendary squad of
Japanese pilots who terrorised the United States Navy fleet in the
Pacific as it inched its way toward invasion of the Japanese
mainland.
Long before 11 September 2001 and today's suicide bomber came the
kamikaze, or tokkotai (special attack) pilots as they were known in
Japan. Like the jihad martyrs of the Middle East, the Second World War
kamikazes were depicted as desperate, fanatical men who burnt with
hatred for the US and were ready to die for their god, the emperor.
But a new documentary shows a different story.
Kidnapping brings unwanted attention to Afghan Christians
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2795629.ece
By Chris Sands in Mazar-e-Sharif
Published: 24 July 2007
The kidnapping of South Korean church volunteers by the Taliban has
sparked vigils in Seoul, and shone the spotlight on Afghanistan's
small, underground Christian community.
In Mazar-e-Sharif, home to one of Islam's most revered shrines,
Ahmedi, 33, says he would be killed instantly if his faith were
exposed. In this staunchly traditional society, conversion from Islam
remains reviled by many Afghans - and by government officials.
World is 'failing to halt spread of HIV/Aids'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2795719.ece
By Rupert Cornwell
Published: 24 July 2007
The world is losing the fight to control HIV/Aids, despite improved
access to drugs in developing countries, the White House's top adviser
on AIDS warned yesterday.
Speaking at a global AIDS conference in Sydney yesterday, Dr Anthony
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases in the US, warned that new infections were still hugely
outpacing treatment.
Zahir Shah: The last king of Afghanistan
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2795821.ece
He was King of a nation that, in the minds of many, does not really
exist. He was a feudal master who believed in liberating women. He was
a figurehead who lived a life of luxury in exile while his people
suffered the agonies of war and occupation. The story of Zahir Shah is
the story of Western arrogance and Eastern impotence, argues Robert
Fisk
By Robert Fisk
Published: 24 July 2007
When I arrived in Afghanistan to cover the 1979 Soviet invasion, I
mischeviously purchased a huge tin of talcum powder, produced by a
German factory in Kabul and called - for local consumption - "
Buzkashi". The front of the tin was illustrated with a portrait of a
massive Afghan warrior in long red robes, riding towards the purchaser
upon a fiery steed and with an expression of utmost ferocity on his
bearded face.
What puzzled me was why a talcum manufacturer would name his product
after one of the bloodiest of Asian sports: a mounted version of rugby
football played with a decapitated goat - riders were supposed to tug
the bloodied corpse of the wretched creature from each other, often
ripping the beast apart in the process. Of course, someone German had
concluded that this manly sport emphasised the romantic warrior of the
desert, the spirit of Afghan individuality amid the rugged landscape -
Afghan landscapes were always "rugged" or "forbidding" - although I
noticed that the only buyers of Buzkashi were foreigners. Afghans had
no interest in this exotic talcum powder.
Soldiers kill 35 tribal militants
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2795628.ece
By Bashirullah Khan, Associated Press Writer
Published: 24 July 2007
Suspected militants clashed with security forces in northwestern
Pakistan yesterday, leaving at least 35 insurgents and two soldiers
dead.
The rebel fighters were killed after they attacked two checkpoints
manned by security forces near Mir Ali in North Waziristan, a
stronghold of pro-Taliban militants.
Turkey steps back from Iraq invasion after poll
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2795638.ece
By Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
Published: 24 July 2007
As Turkey's government savoured an overwhelming electoral victory
yesterday, regional analysts agreed that the immediate impetus for an
invasion of northern Iraq had receded.
Sunday's clear mandate for the Islamic-rooted AKP of the Prime
Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been received as a snub to his
secularist and nationalist opponents, who put the fight against
Kurdish separatist guerrillas across the border at the centre of their
failed campaign.
EU to start planning for possible peacekeeping mission to Chad
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2795639.ece
By Constant Brand, Associated Press Writer
Published: 24 July 2007
European Union nations agreed yesterday to start planning for a
possible 3,000-strong peacekeeping mission to Chad to help protect aid
to tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict in Darfur.
A meeting of EU foreign ministers said that any mission had to be
backed by the United Nations "with a clearly defined exit strategy"
and in cooperation with the African Union, neighboring countries and
humanitarian aid groups.
Leading article: A surprising source of progressive achievement
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2795625.ece
Published: 24 July 2007
In recent years, Turkey has become perhaps the best counter-argument
to the idea that liberal democracy and Islam are incompatible. The re-
election of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the weekend is
an encouraging sign that this will remain the case.
The AKP has its roots in political Islam, but it has not been a
backward force since winning power in 2002. On the contrary, the
party's economic reforms have delivered impressive growth, and Turkey
attracted record foreign investment last year. Moreover, the AKP has
not attempted to undermine Turkey's secular constitution and the
freedoms it guarantees.
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