Back to the dark ages
Tim Luckhurst
June 1, 2007 10:50 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tim_luckhurst/2007/06/back_to_the_dark_=
ages.html
Abortion was not excluded accidentally from the remit of the Scottish
parliament. Donald Dewar knew what would happen if it were included.
Old prejudices would exploit devolution to plunge Scotland into a new
era of intolerance. Liberal reform in the 1960s only scratched the
surface of society here. The twin devils of misogyny and sectarianism
were buried alive mere centimetres below the surface. They burst forth
as soon as the modernising influence of the British state was relaxed.
Mr Dewar's sadly brief term as first minister was rendered traumatic
by fury over section 28 (known in Scotland as section 2a). When his
clever but foolish protege, Wendy Alexander, chose to make repeal a
defining policy for Labour's first term, her decision provoked a
carnival of loathing in which religion reclaimed its influence in
politics.
Angry old men
Alastair Harper
June 1, 2007 10:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/alastair_harper/2007/06/angry_old_men.h=
tml
Some much anticipated fun from John Mortimer yesterday at Hay.
Actually the billing is "Kathy Lette and John Mortimer," but I doubt
many bought the ticket based entirely on the presence of the former.
To put it slightly rudely, Lette is only here because she's the wife
of Geoffrey Robertson, once Mortimer's junior. Most of her own lines
come from some terrible universe where humour has been mistaken for
Sex and the City tartiness: "We don't just talk about length - we also
talk about width. Don't you agree girls?" And a wink. "I'm so against
having another child, I've put a condom on my vibrator." And a wink.
"It's the way women talk when there's no men around," she explains. I
can't say if this is true or not but I do find it hard to imagine
every woman in this world suddenly morphing into Valerie Solanas with
the comedic ability of Ruby Wax the moment there's no testicles in the
room.
Lette's use to us in the audience is essentially to crank up the aged
Mortimer into telling a few of his classic anecdotes. "Do you remember
that time I took you to Stringfellow's for your 82nd birthday? You had
27 girls sat around your table." "Yes, I remember. I was telling them
about my fringe production of Hedda Gabler." When he speaks a strange
shuddering effect makes his whole body seem to decompose before your
eyes. It was once cheerfully said of the creator of Rumpole that his
face looked like a bag full of spanners. These days it's more
stretched leather, all stitched together with bits of tweed. His mind,
however, is as sharp as ever.
Strength in numbers
Joschka Fischer
June 1, 2007 9:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/joschka_fischer/2007/06/strength_in_num=
bers.html
Europe today presents a contradictory picture. It is a land of peace,
democracy, and the rule of law. It is also a land of prosperity: its
economy is competitive, its currency strong, inflation is low, and its
standards of living are among the highest in the world. Europeans
benefit from very high levels of social protection, inexpensive, high-
quality education, strict environmental standards, and excellent
infrastructure. In addition, Europe has unmatched cultural diversity
and great natural beauty. It all sounds like a utopian dream.
With its 500 million people and the world's largest single market,
Europe, even if not seen by the world as a real union, is still an
economic giant. But politically it is a dwarf - and shrinking. Ours is
a century of large states, and the further rise of China, India, the
United States, and Japan will soon make the largest European powers
look puny. Even today the three largest EU members barely manage to
offset Europe's loss of political weight, much less to stem the tide.
Without a strong EU, this development will only intensify.
Not in my name
Seth Freedman
June 1, 2007 8:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/seth_freedman/2007/06/not_in_my_name.ht=
ml
There is a beautiful symmetry in yesterday's decision to boycott
Israeli academics and today's proclamation by the former Chief Rabbi
of Israel that we should "carpet bomb Gaza".
Whilst I wholeheartedly abhor the boycott for a myriad of reasons, the
fact that lecturers voted the way they did is somewhat less surprising
when you consider the type of zealots who publicly drag Israel's name
through the mud.
Brazil does it better
Lula da Silva
May 31, 2007 11:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_=
sustainable_d.html
The findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
underscore an enormous challenge facing the planet earth: how to
reconcile the wellbeing of the world's six billion inhabitants with
the growing threat to the global environment. The IPCC reports convey
a clear and dramatic warning about the downside to modernity and
industrialisation. Clearly, we can no longer remain indifferent to the
impact of climate change on human communities and the biosphere.
Harmonising economic growth and environmental protection is
particularly challenging to poor countries, which are most vulnerable
to the impact of global warming. Energy conservation and, most
importantly, the pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
resulting from the burning of fossil fuels, are key elements in the
growing international endeavour to reduce climate change.
Why Cindy Sheehan 'retired'
Laura Flanders
May 31, 2007 10:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/laura_flanders/2007/05/why_cindy_sheeha=
n_retired_1.html
Cindy Sheehan's done it again. In 2005 she made the invisible visible.
The bereaved mom of a US soldier killed in Iraq, Sheehan cried in
public, cursed in public and gave public voice to what for many was
until then a private question. Why did my son die, she asked the
president: "What is the noble cause?"
Two years later, Sheehan's pushed another question into the public
glare. Quitting the Democratic Party and resigning from the front
ranks of the US anti-war movement, Sheehan said out loud what hundreds
of Democratic voters have been muttering: Democrats in Congress -who
do you think you're working for?
The next president cannot rebuild Humpty Dumpty
Sidney Blumenthal
May 31, 2007 9:35 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sidney_blumenthal/2007/05/the_next_pres=
ident_cannot_rebu.html
When president John F Kennedy, in his inaugural address, spoke of "a
long twilight struggle," he signalled that the cold car was the
challenge and framework defining US foreign policy, as it already had
been through previous Republican and Democratic presidencies.
But president George W Bush's conception of a global war on terror is
not the cold war. There is no consensus around its assumptions. On the
contrary, its premises have been refuted by their own applications.
The collision of Bush's fantasies with reality has stripped them bare.
US supreme court v women
Sarah Blustain
May 31, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sarah_blustain/2007/05/us_supreme_court=
_v_women.html
As we count down the minutes until the Roberts court's first rulings
on affirmative action, Exhibit A in the argument for diversity should
be the supreme court itself. Two times in as many months and in two
gender-based cases, associate justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stood
against a majority in arguing that the court, simply put, does not
understand women.
On Tuesday the court decided to impose a rigid statute of limitations
on claims of pay discrimination. The decision revolved around the
claims of Lilly Ledbetter, an employee of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber
Company who discovered that she was making significantly less money
than any male working in her department: $3,727 per month, compared
with $4,286, the salary of the lowest paid male employee doing the
same job (a difference of $6,708 per year).
Preparation is everything
Conor Foley
May 31, 2007 8:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/conor_foley/2007/05/preparation_is_ever=
ything.html
Earlier this year Mozambique was hit by severe flooding in its Zambezi
valley, which destroyed the homes and crops of almost 300,000 people.
Ten days after the floods, tropical cyclone Favio hit its southern
coast, affecting almost 150,000 more.
The headlines that followed, warning of food shortages and the threat
of disease, were predictable and international humanitarian agencies
geared themselves up for an emergency response. Bad news just keeps
coming out of Africa.
Raising the bar
Susan V Berresford
May 31, 2007 7:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/susan_v_berresford/2007/05/raising_the_=
bar.html
Philanthropy today is grabbing headlines, due in part to the rapid
growth of the giving pool along with the celebrity and generosity of
some of its newest donors. In Spain, which this week hosts the
European Foundation Centre's annual conference, there has been
remarkable growth in philanthropy over the past decade, with an
average of 400 new foundations appearing each year. Philanthropy made
the cover of the Economist not once but twice last year and countless
column inches have been dedicated to the topic in the major dailies on
both sides of the Atlantic - not all of it flattering.
Media scrutiny of what private institutions do for the public good has
thrown a very bright spotlight on questions of regulation and
accountability, of investment practice and good governance, and the
sector, at times, has been found wanting. We should not be surprised.
As with business and government, the performance bar has been
significantly raised.
Gene genie
Alastair Harper
May 31, 2007 7:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/alastair_harper/2007/05/gene_genie.html
Robert Winston is explaining a procedure that could halve the
incidence of a genetically inherited degenerative disease: "A simple
injection into the testicles would remove the threat within one
generation." There is a murmur from the audience, one of concern
rather than boredom. Winston peers out over his spectacles.
"Is everything all right?"
The call of duty
Julian Baggini
May 31, 2007 6:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/julian_baggini/2007/05/call_of_duty.html
"It is easy for people to mock the pretensions of an interventionist
policy," said Tony Blair in South Africa today. As easy as falling off
a log, in fact. The Blair paradigm is of the Samaritan crossing over
to the other side; opponents prefer to talk of the road to hell, paved
with good intentions - that's if they can allow themselves to accept
that his intentions are indeed honourable.
Intervention is dismissed as imperialism by stealth, control from a
distance now that we cannot control in situ. It is also portrayed as a
misguided response to a racist white western guilt which cannot accept
that anywhere in the world is better off without us.
Together we can prevail
Viktor Khristenko and Ko=EDchiro Matsuura
May 31, 2007 6:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/viktor_khristenko_and_koichiro_matsuura=
/2007/05/sharing_the_energy_by_viktor.html
The leaders of the world's richest countries, the G8, will meet for
their annual summit, in Heiligendamm, Germany. Every year, these
summits generate high hopes, and expectations too. Two years ago at
Gleneagles, poverty in Africa was the major focus; last year in St
Petersburg, energy security topped the agenda.
This year marks an opportunity for the G8 to advance on both issues,
and to keep their promises - to those who need guarantees of stable
energy supplies, and to those so poor that they have no electricity
supplies at all.
Losing my Hay virginity
Sarfraz Manzoor
May 31, 2007 5:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sarfraz_manzoor/2007/05/losing_my_hay_v=
irginity.html
I am a Hay virgin, but I am making up for lost time by presenting a
daily podcast for the Guardian as well as discussing my book at a
session that was scheduled rather unpromisingly for 10 o'clock on a
Tuesday morning.
Appearing alongside me was the historian David Kynaston whose book
Austerity Britain has been lathered in lavish praise. When I learnt I
was going to be on with Kynaston I was at first crushed at the
realisation that absolutely nobody in the room would be there
specially to hear my ruminations on life in 1980s Luton. It then stuck
me that once the lure of a heavyweight such as Kynaston had tempted
the Hay faithful I would at least have a captive audience who would
have no option but to hear me reflect on Springsteen concerts I have
enjoyed through the years.
An exploited workforce
Brendan Barber
May 31, 2007 4:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brendan_barber/2007/05/shining_a_light_=
on_britains_ex.html
This government has much to be proud of when it comes to protection of
people at work. The minimum wage is now part of political common sense
- although it was not that many years ago when employer organisations
were saying that it would cost millions of jobs.
Thanks to Europe, there are holiday rights, equal treatment for part-
timers and working time rules. New parents in particular have won more
time off, better pay and rights to request flexible working.
Vetting in practice
Tony Greenstein
May 31, 2007 4:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tony_greenstein/2007/05/vetting_in_prac=
tice.html
One of the most damning conclusions of the all-parliamentary inquiry
into anti-semitism was that "Jewish students feel disproportionately
threatened in British universities" (page 54, paragraph 25). Yet in
his evidence to the inquiry, Mitch Simmons of the Union of Jewish
Students admitted that when it comes to actual anti-semitic incidents,
there were only 11 in one year, most of which, even if true, were
relatively trivial.
The real concern of Simmons and the UJS, as described in the evidence,
was the "anti-semitism" of "the far left and pro-Palestinian groups"
rather than the BNP and neo-Nazis.
The hardliners lose a round
Laura Rozen
May 31, 2007 3:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/laura_rozen/2007/05/the_hardliners_lose=
_a_round.html
In the latest sign that state department pragmatists are wresting
control of Bush administration policy toward Iran from hardliners, the
shadowy Iran-Syria Policy Operations Group (ISOG), a US interagency
coordination group that was rumoured to be conceiving plans to
destabilise the Iranian regime, has been shut down.
Undersecretary of state Nick Burns informed a junior senate foreign
relations committee member of the move in writing on May 29. "The ISOG
was established in March 2006 and disbanded in March 2007 in favour of
a more standard process of Policy Coordinating Committee
coordination," Burns wrote to Senator Robert Casey, in a response to
questions from the senator about US policy toward Iran. The Boston
Globe reported on the closure over the weekend.
Seek and ye shall not find
Natalie Bennett
May 31, 2007 3:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/natalie_bennett/2007/05/seek_and_ye_sha=
ll_not_find.html
Just as you don't get to choose your relatives, you don't get to
choose your country of birth. But you do get the chance to move away
from it, and that's what I've done from Australia. There are many
reasons for that, but one reason why in recent years I'm pleased to
have done so is its horrific, inhuman treatment of refugees and asylum
seekers.
They've been dumped out in the worst of the Australian outback, on
bits of land even a hardened bushie would call tough, with scant
support or hope of their ordeal ending. It was a situation that
produced, to me, one of the defining images of Australia of recent
years: the close-up photos of some of those asylum seekers who had
sewn their lips together in a silent but eloquent protest.
The cautious approach
Matthew Holt
May 31, 2007 2:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/matthew_holt/2007/05/the_cautious_appro=
ach.html
Even though Iraq seems to have sucked all the oxygen out of American
political life at the moment - even Cindy Sheehan has given up and
gone home - healthcare does remain the largest domestic issue.
Several weeks have passed since the Democratic candidates for
president had a debate about healthcare. It's interesting that despite
an attempt by probable Republican candidate Fred Thompson to take on
documentary filmmaker Michael Moore over the topic, none of the front
runners on the Republican side have made much mention of healthcare at
all. This is doubly curious as one of them, former Massachusetts
Governor Mitt Romney, left office having the least partially helped
make his state the most advanced healthcare reform " laboratory" of
them all. But apparently among the conservatives and evangelicals who
dominate the Republican primaries, the issue of universal healthcare
is not seen as a great vote-getter - a worldview the Republicans might
come to regret.
Asking the wrong question
Soumaya Ghannoushi
May 31, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/soumaya_ghannoushi_/2007/05/asking_the_=
wrong_question.html
"Is Islam incompatible with democracy?" was the title of a discussion
panel (sponsored by the New Statesman) at the Hay Festival last
weekend. This clich=E9d question, which keeps scores of journalists and
writers busy today, is in reality the product of stereotypical
understanding of "Islam" and "democracy".
"Islam" here appears as a self-enclosed religion that recognises no
will but the will of the omnipotent God, leaving no room for the
individual, his/her freedom and autonomy. This solid block confronts
"democracy" as its other; "democracy", the prodigal child of the
liberal values of subjectivity and individualism, secularity and
rationality.
The wit and wisdom of Tony Benn
Matt Seaton
May 31, 2007 1:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/matt_seaton/2007/05/the_wit_and_wisdom_=
of_tony_benn.html
Not many speakers at the Hay Festival get standing ovations, but Tony
Benn - underlining the national treasure status achieved by his post-
parliamentary career as the thinking person's Michael Parkinson -
wowed his audience this morning. When it comes to words, it's hard to
upstage the 82-year-old veteran socialist with a mere blog, so the
only proper thing to do is to bow to the master of political oratory
and give you a sampler of the wit and wisdom of Tony Benn:
Drawing conclusions
Brian Whitaker
May 31, 2007 12:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brian_whitaker/2007/05/drawing_conclusi=
ons.html
With five abstentions, a divided UN security council decided yesterday
to set up a special international court to try suspects connected with
the assassination of former Lebeanese prime minsiter Rafik Hariri. The
government in Beirut now has until June 10 to agree to it, otherwise
the court will be set up regardless - and the security council's
decision was taken under Chapter VII of the UN charter which allows
the use of military force to implement it if necessary.
The move is apparently aimed at breaking the political deadlock in
Lebanon which has paralysed the Saudi-American backed government for
months, partly over the issue of an international court.
Gaia liberation
Matt Seaton
May 31, 2007 11:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/matt_seaton/2007/05/gaia_liberation.html
It is difficult not to admire Mary Midgley. At 86 and white-haired,
she is still going strong: cogent, vigorous and impassioned. Clad in
brilliant fuchsia jacket, she shone the beam of her moral
philosopher's intellect on how the perception of (her contemporary)
James Lovelock's concept of Gaia has evolved. It is no longer, she
said, "a Californian fancy", the plaything of well-meaning eco-cranks.
The instrumental idea that, at bottom, only the economy is "real", and
the rest of human affairs just window-dressing, has been exploded, she
argued. Faced with the evidence of climate change, few people in
public life can now maintain that we can go on treating the planet as
a bottomless pit of inert resources, rather than a systemic whole of
interdependent ecologies and living organisms.
Foreign ties
Imogen Fox
May 31, 2007 11:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/imogen_fox/2007/05/foreign_ties.html
So, Tony Blair is going to star in super-glossy US title Men's Vogue.
Time for the uninitiated (and, of course, the Daily Mail) to get
sniffy about how demeaning it is for an outgoing prime minister to
lower himself into appearing on the pages of a fashion magazine. But
it isn't hard to see why Blair was seduced by the idea.
Image and politics, style and power have long been perfect bedfellows,
and there is certainly much precedent for politicians appearing in
Vogue. Recently Nancy Pelosi, the US speaker of the house with a
penchant for Armani suiting was featured in the sister US Vogue title.
Because, hard as it is for some to believe, glossy magazine readers
who care about the latest catwalk collections can simultaneously be
interested in politics.
The science of belief
Inayat Bunglawala
May 31, 2007 10:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/inayat_bunglawala/2007/05/the_science_o=
f_belief.html
It is almost seven years since the then US president Bill Clinton
spoke in a suitably reverential tone concerning the completion of the
first draft of the decoding of the human genome:
"Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever
produced by humankind ... Today's announcement represents more than
just an epoch-making triumph of science and reason. After all, when
Galileo discovered he could use the tools of mathematics and mechanics
to understand the motion of celestial bodies, he felt, in the words of
one eminent researcher, that he had learned the language in which God
created the universe. Today we are learning the language in which God
created life. We are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the
beauty, the wonder of God's most divine and sacred gift."
But was Clinton wrong in this instance to refer to God? Wasn't this
just a rather opportunistic attempt to curry favour with America's
believing millions? Francis S Collins - the man who headed the Human
Genome Project's stunning sequencing of the code of life and stood
next to Clinton when he delivered his speech, believes strongly that
Clinton was right.
Prison isn't working
Richard Garside
May 31, 2007 10:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_garside/2007/05/prison_isnt_wor=
king.html
In 1998, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee argued that the
"huge rise in the prison population during the last five years is
unsustainable". Something must be done or it would "end badly". Having
oscillated between 40,000 and 50,000 during the 1980s and early 1990s,
prison numbers in England and Wales rose to more than 60,000 by the
time Labour came to power in 1997.
At the time of this stark message the prison population stood at
around 66,000. It now tops 80,000. The argument that "prison works"
might once have been a rather disreputable stance. Today it is
becoming positively de rigueur to celebrate high prison numbers and
call for even more.
The selfish geneticists
John Harris
May 31, 2007 9:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_harris/2007/05/the_selfish_genetic=
ists.html
Professor Robert Winston came to Hay with an impassioned plea. It came
at the end of his allotted hour, before which we were escorted through
- and inevitably, these are edited highlights - the Old Testament's
subtexts about infertility, the pain and dysfunction that condition
causes, the stripped-down history of IVF, and the developments at the
cutting-edge of genetic medicine. But we got there in the end. "We
have to be engaged," he told us. "That's why I've written this book [A
Child Against All Odds]. We need your input."
His point, essentially, was that the manipulation of human
reproduction has become so sophisticated that if left to themselves,
its practitioners will soon be fumbling into techniques that could
gravely threaten our future. What might prevent that happening, he
implied, was ensuring that the ethical questions thrown up were
discussed and debated by all of us. If that happened, those who would
irresponsibly tinker would feel the chill wind of a kind of cultural
accountability.
End the Euro haggling
John Palmer
May 31, 2007 9:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_palmer/2007/05/stop_the_euro_haggl=
ing.html
In the twilight world of Tony Blair's long farewell, a bizarre,
totally secret but potentially important negotiation is still taking
place between the shortly-to-be former prime minister and the prime
minister in waiting which will have far reaching consequences for the
people of both Britain and the wider European Union. In preparation
for the heads of government summit next month which has been called by
Germany's EU presidency to find a way through the impasse over the
proposed constitutional treaty No 10 and No 11 Downing Street are
still haggling over the precise line to be taken at the summit.
It is common knowledge that the new treaty under discussion will drop
all pretence to be a new "constitution". Out will go all the words,
symbols and paraphernalia which had been designed to give the union an
identity which citizens could relate to as well as at least some of
the democratic rights which constitutions bestow. Abandoned also will
be the attempt to integrate into one treaty all the previously
existing treaty and treaty amendments which the public has found so
esoteric and confusing. These are issues which will have to be decided
in the future.
Humanity must recognise our entire way of life is chronically short-
termist
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2092709,00.html
The costs of tackling climate change are too high and the benefits too
distant for us to think we can make any difference
Peter Wilby
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
In my lifetime, the human race has faced two threats to its survival.
Against the odds, it has so far defied the first: the danger of
nuclear war. I see no hope of it overcoming the second: global
warming. Catastrophe is inevitable because, this time, our survival
depends not only on politicians - and even President Bush yesterday
moved a few steps forward on the need to fight climate change - but
also on consumers, business people and scientists. Only a few people
have access to nuclear weapons, and they have developed conventions
and safeguards that enable them to handle the dangers. But because
everybody uses things that increase carbon emissions, we all have to
sign up to slowing down global warming. Dissenters and backsliders
need to be as rare as those who supported peace with Hitler in the
second world war or left the lights on during blackouts.
Celtic nationalists should invest in their heritage instead of
flogging it off
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2092781,00.html
A pretence of local pride hides what UK devolutionists are really
after - money. And their countryside is suffering
Simon Jenkins
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
Where is the heart of the new "nationalism" sweeping Britain's Celtic
fringe? So far it has seemed little more than a bid to spend British
subsidies more generously than the English can. The Scots revel in
freeing their students and elderly of fees. The Welsh give away
prescriptions. Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams refuse to speak to each
other until their mouths are stuffed with English gold. This is
pocketbook devolution. Read the nationalist manifestos and they are
little more than shopping lists. Take away the British exchequer and I
sense they would collapse like scarecrows without sticks.
Iraq's oil boom isn't delayed, it's relocated to Canada
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2092750,00.html
As Baghdad burns, destabilising the entire region and sending the
price of oil soaring, Calgary booms
Naomi Klein
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
The invasion of Iraq has set off what could be the largest oil boom in
history. All the signs are there: multinationals free to gobble up
national firms at will, ship unlimited profits home, enjoy leisurely
"tax holidays", and pay a laughable 1% in royalties to the government.
This isn't the boom in Iraq sparked by the proposed new oil law - that
will come later. This boom is already in full swing, and it is
happening about as far away from the carnage in Baghdad as you can
get, in the wilds of northern Alberta. For four years now, Alberta and
Iraq have been connected to each other through a kind of invisible
seesaw: as Baghdad burns, destabilising the entire region and sending
oil prices soaring, Calgary booms.
Most sacred monsters
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2092780,00.html
Moral panic over the sexualisation of child stars is not only a modern
phenomenon
Mark Lawson
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
Next year Shirley Temple will reach 80, always a landmark anniversary
but even more so in someone who became significant for being little.
But the heroine of Little Miss Marker and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
receives an unwelcome early present in one of the summer's big art
shows: a painting that resurrects the bizarre effect that the
Hollywood child star used to have on middle-aged artistic figures.
The Dali & Film show at Tate Modern includes a picture in which the
Spanish artist's usually timeless surrealism includes a toxic
topicality. His 1939 collage called Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most
Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time imposes the head from a black-
and-white newspaper picture of the ringleted movie moppet on the
painted body of a heavy-breasted lioness, coloured deep red apart from
long white claws. A vampire bat sits on Temple's head, while around
her lie the stripped bones from her latest kill. You don't have to
look hard for phallic imagery in Dali and the fact that the skeleton
of the predator's meal has conveniently broken down into single blunt,
curved pieces clearly marks her as a maneater.
I didn't say you'll all go to hell
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2092707,00.html
I was misrepresented, and there's no homophobia or misogyny at my
college, says Richard Turnbull
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
Giles Fraser's comment column on Wycliffe Hall challenges our
integrity, claiming that the hall is part of a "new wave of
reactionary evangelicalism", and that "it has no love in its heart for
the values of learning" (Not faith, but fanaticism, May 29).
Wycliffe Hall is a permanent private hall of the University of Oxford.
It was founded in 1877 for the training of "godly ministers" for the
Church of England within the evangelical tradition. Giles referred to
Wycliffe "drawing upon a long-standing tradition of evangelical anti-
intellectualism", and said "the low esteem in which many evangelicals
hold academic inquiry is a function of fear". This comment lacks the
very academic rigour the author complains is missing from evangelical
scholars. The faculty at Wycliffe has a long record of academic
publication, with a regular flow of books and articles and our
students winning multiple university prizes.
Haycast 07: Tony Benn and AL Kennedy
Sarah Crown
June 1, 2007 11:27 AM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/06/haycast_07_tony_benn_and_al_ke.ht=
ml
In today's show, Tony Benn tells Sarfraz Manzoor what inspired him to
keep a lifetime's worth of diaries. Benn retired from Parliament in
2001 to "devote more time to politics" and he has since thrown himself
into anti-war campaigning, all of which he has carefully chronicled.
Crucible of hate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2092840,00.html
All across eastern Europe, gay people are demanding equality. But in
Russia, Poland and Latvia, their growing confidence is being met with
violent resistance from nationalist and religious groups. What lies
behind this hysteria? Phoebe A Greenwood reports
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
It is Gay Pride season in Europe, with marches in Poland and Russia.
In Latvia, the capital, Riga, is hosting four days of lectures,
classical concerts, parties and film screenings, but the big draw will
be the final parade through the Vermane Garden on June 3. Organisers
are hoping for a turnout of around 400, maybe more if the weather is
as sunny as last year. It's hard to know. What they can expect with
some certainty is that neofascist and ultra-religious
counterdemonstrators will outnumber their marchers by at least two to
one. The police presence will be greater still. As one activist put
it, "It'll be less of a Pride parade than a human rights fight."
India's richest man builds 60-storey home
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2093090,00.html
=B7 =A3500m Mumbai tower for family of six and 600 staff
=B7 High-rise era attacked as dawn of 'new vulgarity'
Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
In the most conspicuous sign yet of India's unprecedented prosperity,
the country's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is building a new home in
the financial hub of Mumbai: a 60-storey palace with helipad, health
club and six floors of car parking.
The building, named Antilla after a mythical island, will have a total
floor area greater than Versailles and be home for Mr Ambani, his
mother, wife, three children and 600 full-time staff.
Bush kills off hopes for G8 climate change plan
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2093055,00.html
Bush kills off hopes for G8 climate plan US recognises global warming
danger but wants to lead response outside UN
Julian Borger, David Adam and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
George Bush yesterday threw international efforts to control climate
change into confusion with a proposal to create a "new global
framework" to curb greenhouse gas emissions as an alternative to a
planned UN process.
The proposal came less than a week before a G8 summit in Germany and
appeared to hit European hopes that the world's industrialised nations
would commit to halving their emissions by 2050.
A UN-brokered meeting in Bali in December, at which it had been hoped
to agree to keep climate change to a 2C increase in temperature, is
supposed to provide a successor to the Kyoto protocol. All that was
thrown in doubt by the initiative announced yesterday by President
Bush.
Documents claim Israel aided Entebbe hijack
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2093284,00.html
Mark Tran
Friday June 1, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The Israeli secret service and radical Palestinians may have
engineered the hijacking of an Air France plane that flew to Entebbe
in Uganda, according to a claim in newly released government
documents.
This extraordinary interpretation on the Entebbe raid was cited by a
British diplomat, DH Colvin of the Paris embassy, in June 30 1976 as
the world was transfixed by the hostage crisis in Entebbe, which
features in the recent film The Last King of Scotland.
UK may seek Iranian help in finding Iraq hostages
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2092956,00.html
Julian Borger, Richard Norton-Taylor and Michael Howard in Irbil
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
Britain is considering a direct approach to Iran for help in
discovering the whereabouts of four British security guards and a
financial consultant abducted in Iraq and who was responsible for
seizing them. The issue was raised yesterday at a meeting of Cobra,
Whitehall's emergency committee, the Guardian has learned.
Senior Iraqi officials said they were working on the theory that the
gang behind the kidnapping was a rogue faction of the Mahdi army of
the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, possibly operating under the
influence of Iranian intelligence. "We do not think that Sadr ordered
this operation, but we are almost certain that some militia members
who profess loyalty to him were involved," said a senior foreign
ministry official.
Border raid nets No 3 on Bosnian war crimes list
http://www.guardian.co.uk/yugo/article/0,,2092855,00.html
Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
Zdravko Tolimir, a former Bosnian Serb general considered the third
most-wanted war crimes fugitive in the Balkans, was arrested on the
Bosnia-Serbia border yesterday, Serbian officials said.
The spokeswoman for the chief UN war crimes prosecutor for the former
Yugoslavia said they were informed of the arrest by the Bosnian Serb
prime minister, Milorad Dodik. She said Gen Tolimir's transfer to the
UN detention unit near the Hague, in the Netherlands, was "under way".
Armed with only a Bible, preachers confront Rio's most dangerous men
http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,,2092830,00.html
On the frontline of the drugs war, Pastor Dione helps break a barrier
of fear
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
It was just after midnight and outside a tatty corner bar on the
outskirts of Rio de Janeiro a dozen heavily armed drug traffickers
were killing time with a game of cards, a bulging joint and a bottle
of 12-year-old Ballantine's whisky.
From the shadows a muscle-bound hulk wearing a garish yellow shirt and
with a bible wedged under his arm strode in and ushered the
traffickers' leader into the bar. Ten minutes later the leader, an
assault rifle laid across his lap, was in tears.
UK 'politicising' Litvinenko investigation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2093285,00.html
Staff and agencies
Friday June 1, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The Russian foreign minister today accused the UK of politicising the
investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko.
Sergey Lavrov said that "instead of a professional inquiry, we're
seeing an attempt to turn the criminal case into some sort of a
political campaign".
He said the situation was damaging relations between the two
countries. Even before the case, relations were deteriorating, with
the Kremlin accusing the British of spying and backing pro-democracy
groups in Russia.
Syria brands Hariri tribunal as harmful ploy by Washington
http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,2092912,00.html
=B7 Damascus says UN move will destabilise Lebanon
=B7 Last chance for parliament in Beirut to end impasse
Ian Black, Middle East editor
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
Syria has reacted angrily to the UN's decision to set up a special
international tribunal to try the killers of the former Lebanese prime
minister Rafiq al-Hariri, warning that it could worsen the already
volatile situation in Lebanon.
The state media in Damascus yesterday condemned what it called "a
joint move" by the US and Israel to "punish" Syria for its policies on
Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon. In fact, the decision to set up the
tribunal was supported by 10 members of the 15-strong UN security
council, with Russia and China, which have the power of veto veto,
abstaining from the landmark vote in New York late on Wednesday
evening.
Educated women leave east German men behind
http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,2092812,00.html
=B7 Study reveals massive female exodus since 1991
=B7 Record imbalance leads to fears of male underclass
Kate Connolly in Berlin
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
Eastern Germany is facing a demographic crisis as huge numbers of
women abandon the former communist region leaving behind an underclass
of poorly educated, jobless and disillusioned men.
The population imbalance in the former communist state is worse than
anywhere else in Europe, social scientists say. Even communities that
traditionally have more men than women - such as the polar regions of
Sweden and Finland, or the majority of remote Greek islands - do not
have such pronounced male surpluses, according to a study by the
Berlin Institute for Population and Development.
The study, Too Many Men, paints a bleak picture of young, partner-less
men in the region; for every 100 men aged 25 to 30, there are just 80
women. Hundreds of thousands of eastern Germans of both sexes have
left the former GDR in search of work in western Germany or abroad.
But the exodus of young females (400,000 in the age range 18-29 since
1991) is believed to have more to do with the fact they are better
educated than men and set on improved opportunities away from the
rather depressed climate at home.
Ten nights only: flying circus comes to La Scala
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2092890,00.html
Tom Kington in Rome
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
La Scala, the bastion of Italian opera which has premiered works by
Rossini and Verdi in its 200-year history, is to hand over creative
control to the man who gave the world dead parrots, the Ministry of
Silly Walks and the Knights Who Say Ni.
Terry Gilliam, the Monty Python member and film director, will take on
the world's most knowledgeable and demanding opera-goers next July
with his opera debut, a staging of Umberto Giordano's Andrea Ch=E9nier,
the tale of the poet guillotined during the French revolution.
China admits death in wild of 'pioneer' panda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2092795,00.html
Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
The only captive-bred giant panda to be released into the wild has
been found dead, it emerged yesterday after a three-month cover-up by
scientists running China's breeding programme.
The five-year-old male, Xiang Xiang, was found lying in the snow-
covered forests of south-western Sichuan province on February 19. A
postmortem revealed he had broken ribs and damaged organs.
No information was made public until yesterday, when the country's
biggest panda research centre, at Wolong, announced that Xiang Xiang
had probably been killed in a fight with a wild panda.
Cambodian elite and army accused of illegal logging racket
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2092917,00.html
=B7 'PM and family complicit as troops loot forests'
=B7 Watchdog says world's donors turn blind eye
John Vidal, environment editor
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
Cambodia is being systematically stripped of its natural assets by a
small elite of politicians, relatives of its prime minister, and
businessmen working with the army the government's former official
independent forestry watchdog said yesterday
Global Witness, the UK-based human rights and environment group which
monitored Cambodia's forests for the government until it was thrown
out of the country in 2006, says logging is in the hands of a "small
kleptocratic mafia". In a report today they accuse officials and
senators of misappropriating public assets, extortion, tax avoidance,
looting the forests and managing an extensive illicit economy under
the eyes of the international donors who turn a blind eye but give the
country $600m (=A3300m) annually in aid.
'Dr Death' swaps prison for lecture circuit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2092908,00.html
=B7 Euthanasia champion released after eight years
=B7 Block placed on advising on, or attending, suicides
Ed Pilkington in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
The American lecture circuit will gain a new recruit today with the
release from prison of Jack Kevorkian, the practitioner of euthanasia
dubbed Doctor Death.
Kevorkian will walk from the gates of a prison in southern Michigan
where he has served more than eight years of a 10 to 25-year sentence
for assisting the death of a Michigan man. His lawyer, Mayer
Morganroth, told the Guardian that he planned to spend his freedom
painting, making music and speaking on the lecture circuit in support
of euthanasia legislation.
Toll dodgers tear road through Great Wall
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2092911,00.html
Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
Not much has been allowed to get in the way of China's spectacular
economic development. But when a mining company knocked down part of
the Great Wall so its trucks could deliver coal more efficiently, it
was a step too far, even for the pro-business government in Beijing.
The state media said yesterday that the authorities have launched an
inquiry into the destruction of a 400-year-old section of the world
heritage site near Hujiayao village, on the border between the
northern province of Shanxi and inner Mongolia.
The Gaul of it! Asterix too French, says watchdog
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2092918,00.html
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
He is the moustached crusader bravely defending the customs of ancient
Gaul from stereotyped foreigners - from Brits who drink hot water with
a dash of milk to the militaristic Germans and the short Portuguese.
He has ribbed the Corsicans for being work-shy, violent and producing
explosively smelly cheese, and Normandy villagers for lathering their
food with cream. But now it seems that Asterix the Gaul is just too
much of a "Gaul" for modern, multicultural France.
New theory rejects popular view of man's evolution
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2093001,00.html
=B7 Ancestors learned to walk in trees, says UK team
=B7 Researchers base claims on watching orang-utans
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
Humanity's earliest ancestors did not drag their knuckles along the
ground before mastering life on two feet, but learned to walk upright
while still living in the trees, according to a team of British
scientists. The claim challenges the belief that humans evolved from
chimp-like creatures that descended from the trees to roam the
savannahs of east Africa, using their knuckles for support, before
slowly rising to the upright posture of more modern humans.
The theory marks a dramatic twist in evolutionary thinking that
suggests some of our earliest ancestors may have begun walking on two
legs up to 24m years ago, rather than shortly after the human lineage
split from chimpanzees around 6m years ago. It suggests early humans
adapted rapidly to open landscapes by honing the basic walking skills
they developed to move around the forest canopy.
Folic acid supplements 'cut stroke risk'
http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/news/0,,2092997,00.html
Polly Curtis, health correspondent
Friday June 1, 2007
The Guardian
Taking folic acid supplements reduces the risk of stroke by 18%,
according to a large study published in today's Lancet.
The findings also suggest that mandatory fortification of flour,
currently being considered by health officials in England, could
reduce death rates from strokes.
One's a Mac, the other is a PC, but really they are the best of
friends
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2600494.ece
By Stephen Foley in New York
Published: 01 June 2007
They didn't introduce themselves by saying "Hello, I'm a Mac", "and
I'm a PC" - but the cheeky Apple adverts ribbing Microsoft were never
far from the surface as the tech companies' founders, Steve Jobs and
Bill Gates, appeared on stage together for the first time in a
decade.
"The art of those commercials is not to be mean. It's for the guys to
like each other," Mr Jobs said, raising a laugh from a Silicon Valley
audience, and a disbelieving look from Mr Gates. "PC guy is what makes
it work, PC guy is great." Mr Gates gave his chin a sceptical rub:
"Well, his mother loves him."
Marquez returns to home of 'magical realism' after 25 years
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2600495.ece
By Daniel Howden
Published: 01 June 2007
It was a scene that might have come straight from one of his novels.
The giant of Latin American literature Gabriel Garcia Marquez arrived
yesterday in the tiny Colombian backwater of Aracatacawith a train-
load of musicians, singers, friends and family and even a government
minister.
It was the Nobel Prize-winning author's first return to his birthplace
in a quarter of a century and marks a journey that his native Colombia
hopes will bring a stream of literary pilgrims to the place that
inspired his early novels.
Suits you, sir! When in Sierra Leone (or Vietnam, or India, or
Indonesia, or Tuva...)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2600487.ece
The Prime Minister cut an uncomfortable figure this week when he
donned a colourful ceremonial robe on his visit to the African
country. But he is not the first VIP to enter into the spirit of a
state visit. By Jerome Taylor and Kate Thomas
Published: 01 June 2007
Tony Blair; Sierra Leone, 2007
Whatever the verdict of the wider world on Tony Blair's legacy, to the
people of Mahera village in Sierra Leone he is a hero. His decision to
send UK troops to stop rebels destroying the country saved Mahera
which lay on the front line. This week the village bestowed upon Mr
Blair the title of paramount chief. Wearing a traditional brown robe
draped over his immaculately pressed suit, Mr Blair looked somewhat
uncomfortable as the village head said the Prime Minister had earned
the honour by defending their settlement against aggressors. "It's
wonderful to be with you here today in Sierra Leone and it's a
particular honour to be made an honorary paramount chief," Mr Blair
responded. "Thank you very much indeed."
Guantanamo 'suicide' was in maximum-security cell
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2600477.ece
By Rupert Cornwell
Published: 01 June 2007
The Saudi Arabian prisoner who apparently committed suicide at
Guantanamo Bay this week was being held in isolation in the maximum-
security Camp Five section.
That disclosure can only add to international pressure for the
facility to be shut down.
Abortion: The hysteria which divides the US
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2600479.ece
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 01 June 2007
Anti-abortion campaigners in the US will tell you their crusade is
about the sanctity of life. But really it is about upholding a
singularly unhealthy tendency in American public life - the
exploitation of a divisive social and ethical issue to further the
ambitions of a single political party whose agenda doesn't necessarily
reflect the interests of the anti-abortion campaigners at all.
Since 1973, when the Supreme Court handed down its Roe v Wade ruling
and asserted that women have a constitutional right to choose to end
an unwanted pregnancy, abortion has been the Republican Party's best
tool for enlisting grass-roots support, particularly among evangelical
Christians.
German brain drain at highest level since 1940s
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2600489.ece
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
Published: 01 June 2007
For a nation that invented the term "guest worker" for its immigrant
labourers, Germany is facing the sobering fact that record numbers of
its own often highly-qualified citizens are fleeing the country to
work abroad in the biggest mass exodus for 60 years.
Figures released by Germany's Federal Statistics Office showed that
the number of Germans emigrating rose to 155,290 last year - the
highest number since the country's reunification in 1990 - which
equalled levels last experienced in the 1940s during the chaotic
aftermath of the Second World War.
Joan Smith: A minority is trying to impose its morality on the rest of
us
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/joan_smith/article2600457.e=
ce
Published: 01 June 2007
Whenever people start talking about abortion becoming a political
issue once again, I know they're speaking in code. What it means is
the religious right has spotted a chance to impose its opinions on the
rest of us, first in the guise of more restrictive criteria for
terminating pregnancies and then in the form of an outright ban.
They don't admit this is their agenda, of course. Calls to criminalise
abortion tend to be left to cardinals, while MPs who are hostile to
abortion talk about the need to tighten up the law. They make emotive
speeches about late terminations, disregarding the obvious fact that
most could be avoided by making abortion easier to obtain in the first
three months.
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