Apple's masterplan unfolds
Neil McIntosh
January 9, 2007 10:15 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/neil_mcintosh/2007/01/apples_masterplan=
_unfolds.html
The biggest surprise of Steve Jobs' keynote came right at the start.
The Apple chief executive was already expected to continue Apple's push
into the world of showbiz with a glitzy launch of a television set-top
box, and a new mobile phone. Only the audacious execution of the phone
plans, of which more later, raised a further eyebrow.
But what really caught seasoned Apple-watchers out was Jobs'
turtleneck; it was brown, not black. In all my encounters with Jobs - I
reported on the company for several years from 1998 - I never saw him
not wearing his trademark black turtleneck, blue jeans and sneakers.
Changing states
Mai Yamani
January 9, 2007 10:02 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mai_yamani/2007/01/the_new_middle_east_=
order.html
Tomorrow, President George Bush will - reluctantly - announce a new
policy for the United States in Iraq. A new policy is needed not only
in order to halt America's drift into impotence as it tries to prevent
Iraq from spiraling into full-scale civil war, but also because the map
of power in the Middle East has changed dramatically.
That map has been in constant flux for the last 60 years, during which
the main players - Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel, and Iran -
have formed and broken alliances. Now, something like a dividing line
is emerging, and if Bush finally begins to understand the region's
dynamics, he may be able to craft a policy with a chance of success.
They've been cheated
Larry Elliott
January 9, 2007 08:56 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/larry_elliott/2007/01/chavez_and_nation=
alisation.html
It's a sign of how the intellectual climate has changed over the past
three decades that the plans for sweeping nationalisation in Venezuela
by Hugo Chavez are seen as shocking, even by those on the left. The
belief that the private sector makes a far better fist of running
things than the public sector is now firmly ingrained.
The decision by Chavez to take control of Venezuela's main
telecommunications company and the country's biggest private power
group challenges the accepted wisdom - and a good thing too, in my
view.
Doctor W
Tim Footman
January 9, 2007 06:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tim_footman/2007/01/doctor_w.html
Science minister Malcolm Wicks has suggested that teachers should use
clips of Doctor Who and Star Wars to make lessons less boring and more
accessible. The edict has provoked a surprisingly laid-back response
from the Association of Science Education, gently reminding the
minister that "teachers would need to be careful to make it clear which
bits are science and which fantasy". Mr Wicks's heart (I presume that,
unlike a Time Lord, he has just the one) is clearly in the right place,
but it's not clear how students' employment prospects could be improved
by learning the correct use of a perigosto stick to reverse the
polarity of the neutron flow.
This is not to say that the Government should reject Doctor Who as a
potential resource for public education. Take Genesis of the Daleks,
first broadcast in 1975. In case you need reminding, this was the story
that introduced us to Davros, the crazed scientist who created the
ironclad mutations to provide the Kaleds with the knockout blow in
their generations-long conflict with the Thals. I still remember gazing
open-mouthed as the renegade Gallifreyan held those two wires that,
when connected, would allow him to destroy the embryonic menace. And
all he could do was ponder: "Do I have the right?" I was six years old
at the time, but that was the moment I realised that life was a bit
more complex than a battle between goodies and baddies.
None are more equal than others
Inayat Bunglawala and Abdurahman Jafar
January 9, 2007 05:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/inayat_bunglawala_and_abdurahman_jafar/=
2007/01/gay_rights_and_wrongs.html
Later today there will be a protest - led by some Christian groups -
outside parliament to oppose the new Sexual Orientation Regulations
which seek to outlaw discrimination against gays and lesbians in the
provision of goods and services. The law came into force in Northern
Ireland on January 1 and the government plans to extend it to cover
England and Wales too.
Polly Toynbee has decried the alliance of "Christians, Muslims and
Jews" who she says are fighting against the legislation, while today on
Cif, AC Grayling lamented that some Jews would be "joining Christian
and Muslims - the usual standard bearers of intolerance and reaction"
in today's protest.
Concessions in the pipeline
Dilip Hiro
January 9, 2007 04:59 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dilip_hiro/2007/01/running_on_empty.html
Many Iraqi politicians and oil executives will be alarmed to discover
the generous terms offered to foreign petroleum companies to extract
Iraqi oil contained in the draft law being finalised in Baghdad.
Equally alarming is the fact that the early draft of the proposed law,
prepared with the assistance of BearingPoint, an American consultancy
company hired by the Bush administration, was sent to the Bush White
House and major western petroleum corporations in July, and then to the
International Monetary Fund two months later, while most Iraqi
legislators remained uninformed.
These revelations have revived the debate about the acquisition of
Iraqi petroleum being the main motive behind the Anglo-American
invasion of Iraq.
Has America lost the plot?
Cameron Duodu
January 9, 2007 04:31 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/cameron_duodu/2007/01/have_the_american=
s_completely.html
Perhaps we should not be surprised that the Americans have launched air
strikes on a Somali village in the area of Ras Kamboni, on Badmadow
island, in an attempt to kill Islamist fighters alleged to be hiding
there.
The question is: did the Ethiopians refuse to do this particular dirty
job for the Americans? We need to ask because the Ethiopians have used
their air force in Somalia in the past, and it seems strange that after
hiding behind the Ethiopians in the early stages of the anti-Islamist
campaign, the Americans should suddenly rip off their mask and show
themselves at the controls of an AC-130 gunship, blasting away.
Letters from America
John Gittings
January 9, 2007 04:01 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_gittings/2007/01/the_trident_lette=
rs.html
A significant exchange of letters between Tony Blair and George Bush,
dealing with the future of British nuclear weapons for the next 50
years, has attracted little attention so far. Perhaps this is because
the letters, dated December 7, were only released on December 19, when
media attention had drifted away from the Trident decision and towards
Christmas. But as the great debate on Trident, promised (though not
visibly encouraged) by the government gets under way, the contents of
this exchange should be an important part of it.
The apparent point of the letters is to deal with a mismatch in timing:
the US Trident missiles on which Britain depends are likely to be
phased out by 2042, but the new submarines which Blair wants Britain to
build will be operational till 2055. Even to keep Trident going till
2042 will require a "life-extension programme" in which, Bush agrees,
Britain will participate.
Revolutionary leadership
Richard Gott
January 9, 2007 03:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_gott/2007/01/post_888.html
Hugo Ch=E1vez will be inaugurated in Caracas tomorrow, to a fresh six
year term as president of Venezuela, and he has already signalled the
important changes that lie ahead on the road to what he describes as
"socialism for the 21st century".
Ch=E1vez has now moved into a new gear, and, after a year of extensive
activity on the foreign front, he is concentrating on four areas of
politics nearer home. He is to incorporate the squabbling groups that
support his government into a single, unified, political party. He has
reshuffled his cabinet to bring long-awaited change to the existing
useless bureaucracies, peopled with leftovers from the old era. He has
announced plans to renationalise electrical and telecommunications
companies, and to reverse the privatisation of firms processing the
heavy oil of the Orinoco. And he is preparing to enforce the existing
media legislation that will curb or crush the power of ultra-rightist
and anti-democratic press barons.
Halting progress
AC Grayling
January 9, 2007 02:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ac_grayling/2007/01/an_obscentiy_agains=
t_human_rig.html
There is only one printable phrase apt enough for religious groups
seeking exemption from the requirement not to discriminate against gay
people, and that is that their actions constitute an obscenity against
human rights.
To obscenity add hypocrisy. Among the various items of deliberate
misinformation being spread by religious groups about the
anti-discrimination regulations is one that says primary schools will
be obliged to promote gay civil partnerships on an equal footing with
marriage. (Well, why not? Human affections and the commitments and
comforts they generate are a great good.) As it happens the regulations
do no such thing. Yet the law requires all schools to subject children
to a "daily act of worship", aka stone-age superstition with a tendency
at one of its extremes to end in suicide bombings. I look forward to
the day we secularists rally outside parliament by torchlight against
brainwashing children into the nonsense left over from the ignorance of
humankind's infancy. In a choice between promoting civil partnerships
for gays and obliging children to sacrifice a goat to Zeus, I'd go for
the former every time.
Distorted by the terror prism
Ian Black
January 9, 2007 02:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_black/2007/01/war_on_terrors_distor=
ting_pris.html
American policy towards Somalia has been driven for years by the search
for the al-Qaida operatives suspected of carrying out the bombings of
two US embassies in East Africa in 1998. But the US air strike in the
south of the country breaks new ground - and risks opening up a new and
volatile front in the "global war on terror".
The attack, mounted from a US base in nearby Djibouti, is the first
American military action in Somalia since Bill Clinton withdrew US
forces after the notorious "Black Hawk Down" episode in 1993. That was
part of an ill-fated UN peacekeeping effort that showed how messy the
post cold-war era was going to be - and just how bad things were going
to get in this benighted country in the Horn of Africa.
Feeling threatened?
Open Thread
January 9, 2007 01:45 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2007/01/hows_your_threat_le=
vel.html
The public will soon be able to request email alerts from MI5 detailing
the level of threat the country faces from international terrorism,
according to a report from the BBC today. The Home Office said that the
system will be implemented as part of a broader scheme to increase
public access to threat-level information, a move which could see users
receiving threat-level bullitins via text message in the near future.
Attacks that run the risk of backfiring
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldbriefing/0,,1324846,00.html
Simon Tisdall
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
The principal aim of the US air strikes in southern Somalia appears to
have been the elimination of three al-Qaida suspects held responsible
for the 1998 bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The
limited US operation was not part of the larger, Ethiopian-led military
effort to topple the country's Islamist movement and rescue Somalia's
rump pro-western government - and runs the risk of undermining it.
Despite its repeated warnings that Somalia is a failed state that could
turn into a breeding ground for global terror and a new Taliban, the
Bush administration has no intention of getting involved on the ground
there. Washington will certainly not mourn the "large number" of
Islamist fighters reportedly killed. But further "precision" strikes
will only be ordered if the primary al-Qaida targets are still alive or
other wanted men are identified. To a large degree, Somalia remains
forbidden territory for American presidents and generals who remember
the "Black Hawk Down" catastrophe of 1993 when 18 troops died in
horrific circumstances.
Like a deluded compulsive gambler, Bush is fuelling a new cold war
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1986576,00.html
With air strikes on Somalia and a surge in troops in Iraq, he is
staking everything on a finale he can call victory
Jonathan Freedland
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
Say what you like about George Bush, but no one can accuse him of
following the crowd. When everyone from the American electorate to the
US military brass, along with a rare consensus of world opinion, cries
out with one voice to say "enough" of the war in Iraq, Bush heads in
the opposite direction - and decides to escalate. When his army chiefs
complain of desperate overstretch in the war on terror, he takes that
as his cue to open up another front. And that's just this week.
A Christian snuff movie that links blood with salvation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1986514,00.html
Substitute the Mayan temples for Jewish ones and Mel Gibson's latest
film is as anti-semitic as The Passion of the Christ
Giles Fraser
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
'Apocalypto is unburdened by nationalist or religious piety" claimed
New York's Village Voice. With this alibi, critics have allowed
themselves to be won over by Mel Gibson's disgusting Mayan slasher
movie. His previous film, The Passion of the Christ, was widely
condemned for its anti-semitic portrait of Jews - repeating, many
believed, the idea that "the Jews" were responsible for Christ's death.
This interpretation was apparently confirmed by an incident last summer
in which Gibson told a policeman: "Jews are responsible for all the
wars in the world." In the light of this there is palpable relief that
Gibson has left his religious politics at home and made Mad Max in the
jungle. But this relief is groundless. Apocalypto is a prequel to The
Passion of the Christ, just as determined by Gibson's disturbing
theological worldview and just as infatuated with the connection
between blood and salvation. It's another Christian snuff movie, but
most reviewers haven't the theological literacy to spot it.
The change from below
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1986513,00.html
Grassroots movements have been having a greater impact on French
politics than the parties
Naima Bouteldja
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
For millions of European voters, the experience of governments
identified with the left have in the past decade become increasingly
indistinguishable from the authoritarian neoliberalism of the new
right. In France, the retreat from social democracy has been more
gradual, buttressed by the influence of the Communist party (one of the
main political forces until the 1980s), strong social movements and the
institutional gains of the postwar era. But just as 1979 was Britain's
electoral crossroads, the 2007 presidential election threatens to do
the same for France.
Ethics are so this season
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1986563,00.html
Trade in scarce resources like diamonds wreaks devastation, no matter
how buyers excuse it
Zoe Williams
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
It always amazes me when Hollywood as a community heeds the lessons of
its own films. It seems to go against the world order. It would be like
doctors reading their own research and stopping drinking alcohol. Among
actors, however, this really does happen, and the result will be
particularly marked at next month's Oscars ceremony, where diamonds are
the new fur.
That is to say they are taboo, as a result of the geopolitical issues
thrown up by Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond. Agents have been
feverishly looking around for some other means of conveying untold
wealth, and some stars plan to arrive on the oiled backs of miniature
Tibetan slave donkeys. Slavery is not such a big thing this year, and
donkeys are so '97.
There's more to us than clotted cream and donkey rides
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1986528,00.html
Forget the cosy stereotypes: the south-west is booming and people love
our lifestyle
Nicolas Buckland
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
Last week, Serious Guardian confirmed that more people had moved to
south-west England in the past decade than to any other region in
Britain ('Cool' south-west grows by 300,000 people over decade, January
2). The following day, Funny Guardian said, "Hold on, what's all this
about?", and stuck the boot in (Way out west, G2, January 3). From our
seaside donkeys and local comedians to our alternative lifestyles and
unique cultural festivals, a familiar - if not completely undeniable -
list of cosy south-west associations filled four pages. I heaped
another scoop of clotted cream on to my pasty and enjoyed the ride.
America attacks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,1986523,00.html
Leader
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
The US airstrikes which reportedly killed large numbers of people in
southern Somalia on Sunday and Monday - whether they are jihadi
militants or civilians is not yet known - were the first overt military
action Washington has taken in the country since 1994, the year after
bloody clashes between UN forces and warlords and the grim Black Hawk
Down battle which left 18 US servicemen dead. What happened to militant
Islamism in the intervening 13 years is instructive. Somalia provided
all the right conditions in which it could thrive: a traditional
Islamic nation, a failed state, complete freedom in which to develop, a
plethora of Muslim associations under which it could hide. And yet the
jihadis have failed repeatedly to take hold. As the respected analysts
of the International Crisis Group concluded, this is not because of
foreign counterterrorism, but because of Somali resistance.
How do you solve a problem like Blair?
Michael Billington
January 9, 2007 11:29 AM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/theatre/2007/01/how_do_you_solve_a_problem_lik.=
html
One thing's for sure in 2007, we'll be hearing a lot about Tony Blair.
And not just in the news columns either. Next week Channel 4 presents
The Trial of Tony Blair: an Alistair Beaton satire envisioning the
ex-PM's tribulations in the years ahead. And London's Tricycle Theatre
has just announced that on April 23 (St George's Day, no less) it will
open Called To Account: The Indictment of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
For The Crime of Aggression Against Iraq. Blair won't be represented on
stage. But he will be the drama's invisible protagonist.
The Tricycle show sounds fascinating. This is a theatre that has
pioneered "tribunal drama": productions, like The Colour of Justice and
Justifying War, that offered edited transcripts of judicial enquiries.
This time the Tricycle has commissioned two leading lawyers, Philippe
Sands for the prosecution and Julian Knowles for the defence, to
interview a large panel of expert witnesses to decide whether Blair
should be arraigned for war crimes. As before, the Guardian's Richard
Norton-Taylor will edit the transcript. What is unusual is that the
Tricycle audience will act as jury and be asked to cast its vote.
Descent into hell
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1986667,00.html
Film-makers in Iraq are going where news teams no longer dare - with
shocking results. Could one of them really win an Oscar? By Ed
Pilkington.
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
There is a scene towards the end of the documentary The War Tapes in
which a US soldier reads from the diary he kept of his year's tour of
duty to Iraq in 2004. "Today is the first time I shook a man's hand,"
Sergeant Steve Pink recites in a deadpan voice, "that wasn't attached
to his arm." In another sequence, the soldier and his fellow National
Guardsmen spend off-duty time discussing in earnest whether the feel of
a severed limb most resembles that of a raw roast or sausage meat.
The spy who stayed out in the cold
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1986660,00.html
After blowing the whistle on the dirty tactics of his CIA bosses in the
70s, Philip Agee was forced into exile. Thirty years on he has found a
safe haven, but, he tells Duncan Campbell, the fight goes on
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
Thirty years ago, Philip Agee, then a 41-year-old former CIA officer
living in Cambridge, was told that he was to be deported from Britain
as a threat to the security of the state. After a high-profile but
unsuccessful attempt to fight the order, he and his young family left
Britain for ever. But what happened to the man denounced as a traitor
by George Bush Sr, threatened with death by his former colleagues and
portrayed as a communist stooge by the British government?
A rat, insects and litter: delights of mass tourism reach Gal=E1pagos
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1986701,00.html
David Adam, environment correspondent
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
Not since Hamelin has the discovery of a rat provoked so much alarm. It
was only a single creature, but it had no business being on the island
of Santa Fe in the isolated Gal=E1pagos archipelago, where
conservationists now strive to keep foreign wildlife at bay as
effectively as hundreds of miles of open ocean did for millions of
years.
The rat is alleged to have arrived on the MV Discovery, a giant British
cruise liner that visited the islands in April. Today, the ship is due
to return to the Gal=E1pagos, and arriving with it are 460 paying
passengers, protests and a campaign to protect the islands from such
mass tourism.
Apple proclaims its revolution: a camera, an iPod ... oh, and a phone
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1986895,00.html
All purpose handset will reinvent telecoms sector, says Apple chief
executive
Bobbie Johnson in San Francisco and Lee Glendinning
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
It is the logical synthesis of two of the most ubiquitous pieces of
technology.
An sleek black device, almost certain to be found in thousands of
handbags and pockets before the end of the year, was seen for the first
time yesterday when Apple unveiled its widely anticipated iPhone.
The touchscreen handset will combine internet access and iPod music
with a built-in 2 megapixel digital camera and video playback features.
Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, launched what he called a "magic",
"super-smart", super-hyped device, which also provides the more mundane
functions of the traditional phone.
Bush hits new low on eve of crucial speech
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1986642,00.html
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
George Bush's public approval ratings hit a new low yesterday as
Democratic opposition to his planned US troop increase for Iraq rapidly
gained momentum. Even before Mr Bush formally announces a fresh Iraq
strategy tonight, Democrats in the new Congress discussed a range of
options that include withholding funding for what they call an
escalation of the war.
A poll in USA Today showed that approval for Mr Bush's handling of the
war has dropped to 26%, a record low. About 61% opposed Mr Bush's
proposed 20,000 increase in the number of troops.
Ch=E1vez puts shares into a spin with vow to nationalise utilities
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1986776,00.html
=B7 President sets out road to socialist republic
=B7 Speech wipes a third from value of phone company
Rory Carroll in Caracas
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian
Shares in some of Venezuela's biggest corporations plunged yesterday
after the president, Hugo Ch=E1vez, said electricity and
telecommunications companies would be nationalised as part of a
sweeping move towards socialism.
Shares in CA Nacional de Tel=E9fonos de Venezuela (Cantv), the main
telecommunications company, fell 33% on the New York stock exchange in
the first few hours of trading, indicating investors' alarm. The
Caracas stock exchange fell 9.8% and trading in Electricidad de
Caracas, another target of nationalisation, was suspended after its
shares tumbled by 20%.
That joke isn't funny anymore
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1986379,00.html
The makers of A Very Social Secretary take a deadly serious swipe at
the legacy of Tony Blair. By John Plunkett
Tuesday January 9, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk
Nightmarish visions of suicide bombers and dead children, a rushed
conversion to Catholicism, and a mental breakdown over the war on Iraq.
Welcome to the fictional world of a former prime minister, as portrayed
in the new Channel 4 drama, The Trial of Tony Blair.
Brought to you by the team behind the David Blunkett satire, A Very
Social Secretary, including its writer Alistair Beaton, Robert Lindsay
reprises his role as Tony Blair, except this time with a rather
straighter face.
'Many dead' as US bombers return to Somalia to attack 'al-Qa'ida
suspects'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2140274.ece
By Richard Lough in Nairobi
Published: 10 January 2007
The United States has intervened overtly in Somalia for the first time
in more than a decade with high-risk air strikes on suspected al-Qa'ida
operatives believed to be hiding alongside defeated Islamist fighters.
The Pentagon said the US Special Operations Command had been pounding
remote border areas of Somalia for the past two days. Witnesses
reported many dead after an AC-130 aircraft fired on the village of
Hayo, near the Kenyan border, on Monday.
Merkel attacks cuts in Russian oil supply
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2140261.ece
By Stephen Castle in Berlin
Published: 10 January 2007
The crisis over Russian oil supplies escalated into a full-scale
confrontation with Europe yesterday as Germany's Chancellor, Angela
Merkel, condemned Moscow's decision to turn off the tap as
"unacceptable". She said Russia's tactics were destroying its
credibility as a reliable energy partner.
The comments came after Russia halted supplies to several countries,
including Poland, after a dispute with Belarus over exports through the
Druzhba pipeline. Moscow, which said it was forced to act because
Belarus was illegally siphoning off oil, dug in yesterday, threatening
to throttle oil production in an effort to pile more pressure on the
government in Minsk.
Hamish McRae: The slow shift of economic power
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/hamish_mcrae/article2140240=
..ece
As the workforce becomes more flexible, the more this swings the
advantage towards women
Published: 10 January 2007
The Equal Opportunities Commission is worried about the lack of
progress over the past 30 years since the Sex Discrimination Act was
made law.
In a report at the end of last week it described the pace of change as
"painfully slow". In some cases it was going backwards. As an example,
it pointed out that women make up only 10 per cent of directors of
FTSE-100 companies and only 20 per cent of MPs. In a world that is
desperate for talented people, it certainly seems odd that half the
population should be so under-represented. It is odder still, given
that girls in general do better than boys in school and they are fully
represented when training for fields such as medicine and law.
.
|
