Latin America is preparing to settle accounts with its white settler
elite
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1947770,00.html
The political movements and protests sweeping the continent - from
Bolivia to Venezuela - are as much about race as class
Richard Gott
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Guardian
The recent explosion of indigenous protest in Latin America,
culminating in the election this year of Evo Morales, an Aymara indian,
as president of Bolivia, has highlighted the precarious position of the
white-settler elite that has dominated the continent for so many
centuries. Although the term "white settler" is familiar in the history
of most European colonies, and comes with a pejorative ring, the whites
in Latin America (as in the US) are not usually described in this way,
and never use the expression themselves. No Spanish or Portuguese word
exists that can adequately translate the English term.
The freedom to find things out
David Hencke
November 14, 2006 10:25 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_hencke/2006/11/post_634.html
Sir Christopher Meyer, chairman of Britain's Press Complaints
Commission, has made an extraordinary claim. He said that it was now
more difficult to get information out of the government than 10 years
ago. He went on to lament the departure of the " old style"
unattributable political briefings when government spokesmen such as he
and Bernard Ingham could give " nudge, nudge, wink, wink " briefings to
lobby journalists at Downing Street.
I don't know what planet our former ambassador to Washington is on. But
both statements are horribly wrong. The first is untrue, the second is
some romantic rose-tinted view of the old way of doing things. Having
attended both type of lobby meetings, I know that the amount of
information revealed to journalists from Number 10 has always been
pretty sparse whether unattributable or not.
Dangerous medicine
Dan Glaister
November 14, 2006 09:23 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dan_glaister/2006/11/post_633.html
Not long after I moved to the US in early 2004, I sat down to watch the
president being interviewed on TV by Tim Russert. This, I thought,
would give me an insight into the political process, to the personality
of the president, to the culture of deference surrounding his office.
All those lofty notions went out of the window as the broadcast cut to
the first of its innumerable commercial breaks. We viewers were whisked
from the decorum of the White House to an advert for a drug to address
erectile dysfunction. For a newcomer it was a shock, shocking, even.
The persistence of the disembodied voice discussing priapism over
footage of glowing mid-life couples staring longingly - hornily? - into
each other's eyes stayed with me long into the president's
reappearance. When Bush and Russert came back, all pretence at dignity
had been stripped from the proceedings. Why was George smirking? Was
the =FCber-fit president not a little like the man in the ad who had
just taken the medication, while poor portly Tim wallowed in his
non-medicated state of denial?
Excuse me while I don't laugh
Peter Franklin
November 14, 2006 07:23 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_franklin/2006/11/what_if_borat_wa=
s_from_pakista.html
Right class, I want you to find Kazakhstan on a map. It shouldn't be
too hard - it is the ninth largest country in the world after all. Oh,
come on...how inconspicuous can a million square miles actually be?
Well, if nothing else, Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat has put the former
Soviet Republic on the map. The consequent outrage of the Kazakh
government has caused as much amusement in the western media as the
film itself. While I hold no brief for the Nazarbayev regime, I do
think its various outraged spokesmen have a point - the portrayal of
their country is truly grotesque.
Same old, same old
Robert Fox
November 14, 2006 06:34 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/robert_fox/2006/11/post_627.html
Tony Blair has tried to give us a new view of Britain's position in the
world and hints of a new strategy to get us out of the mess in Iraq and
Afghanistan, in his latest, and last, speech on foreign affairs at the
lord mayor of London's annual banquet. In truth he gave us a lot of his
old ideas and a laundry list of problems across the world.
The biggest of these is terrorism, which he tries to describe in a
geopolitical equivalent of Einstein's grand unifying theory of science
- one principle and dynamic that explains everything. The problems of
Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel, Somalia - you name it -
terrorism. In Iraq terrorism is generated from within and without the
country, which is a fair enough explanation up to a point. But it
doesn't take us much further on what to do about it.
The big tease
Robert Tait
November 14, 2006 04:53 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/robert_tait/2006/11/post_630.html
It is not known if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is familiar with the word
schadenfreude, the phonetically satisfying German expression signifying
pleasure at the misfortunes of others.
But whatever his knowledge of modern European languages, Iran's
ever-combative president could not resist indulging this most visceral
of human urges today in a nationally televised press conference.
At least he spelled my name right
Christopher Monckton
November 14, 2006 04:35 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/christopher_monckton/2006/11/at_least_h=
e_spelled_my_name_ri_1.html
It's a shame that George Monbiot didn't check his facts with me before
using his column to describe my two recent Sunday Telegraph articles on
climate change as "nonsense from start to finish". He implies that a
classically trained peer ought not to express scientific opinions. It's
still a free country, George. And at least I got the science right.
George says my physics is "bafflingly bad" and contains "downright
misrepresentation and pseudo-scientific gibberish". Yet he himself
nonsensically refers to "lambda" as a "constant" in the
Stefan-Boltzmann radiative-transfer equation. Lambda is not a constant,
and it's not a term in the equation.
Your starter for 10%
Victor Keegan
November 14, 2006 04:28 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/victor_keegan/2006/11/the_tipping_point=
..html
What do Australia and France have in common? Not a lot (fine wines
apart) except for one curious thing: neither country has a culture of
leaving tips in restaurants. Most of the rest of the world is in a
remuneration jungle with tips ranging from 15% added on to your bill in
Canada to Germany where it is customary to leave 10% even though
service is supposed to be already included. In America a recent survey
by Zagat found that the average restaurant tip had gone up from 18% in
2000 to 18.7% this year. In a San Diego court, Starbucks is being sued
because it distributed tips to supervisory staff and not just ordinary
workers.
But at least they are distributing the tips. In Europe the EU has ruled
that when tips are paid with a credit card, as they usually are, they
legally belong to the restaurant and not the waiters. So how can we be
sure that the tips we leave are actually going to the people who serve
us? What do we do if we are served by three waiters, two of whom were
awful and the third one great? Suppose we loved the food but hated the
service (or vice versa) - how do we make that known in our tipping
policy? And how do we know that the person who picked up the tip, if it
is in cash, will share it with the others? And why should we have to
pay an extra 10% to 15% for the extraordinarily difficult task of
taking a cork out of a bottle irrespective of whether the bottle costs
$5 or $50?
Left behind, playing the fool
Jonathan Fenby
November 14, 2006 03:49 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_fenby/2006/11/avoiding_a_crash=
..html
In the 1980s, intelligent French conservatives wondered why their
country was saddled with "the most stupid right wing" in Europe. Is the
epithet now moving leftwards?
Twenty years ago, Fran=E7ois Mitterrand's life was facilitated by the
fratricidal struggle between Val=E9ry Giscard d'Estaing, Jacques Chirac
and Raymond Barre, with the president tossing an extra bone into the
pot with his electoral boost for the National Front and Jean-Marie Le
Pen. Now, at a time when the left should be able to capitalise on the
flop of Chirac's second term, the danger looms that ambition and
score-settling will hand the =C9lys=E9e Palace to the rightwinger Nicolas
Sarkozy in the presidential election next April.
Hats off to the Nats
Iain Macwhirter
November 14, 2006 03:20 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/iain_macwhirter/2006/11/post_625.html
Why is it the Scottish National party that is making the running on so
many issues in Westminster right now? What are the other 644 members of
parliament doing? I think we should be told.
It was the SNP MP Angus Brendan MacNeil who made the original complaint
to the Metropolitan police over those secret loans from subsequently
ennobled businessmen. That action has provoked a crisis within No 10
and brought to light a corrupt system which has not only made Lords
reform inevitable, but has also raised serious questions about the
integrity of the prime minister.
A comedy of errors
Marcus Brigstocke
November 14, 2006 02:44 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/marcus_brigstocke/2006/11/marcus_brigst=
ocke.html
Iannucci, Hare, Bennett and Brigstocke ... Yes! I've made it. Thank
you, David Aaronovitch for including me, the lowly host of BBC 4's The
Late Edition, on such an exalted list of satirists and playwrights -
albeit in a column that made about as much sense to me as the plot of
Lost.
Much like the brightly coloured island drama, Aaronovitch's article (on
politics and the extent to which comedians and satirists understand any
of it) kept starting exciting and engaging ideas, and then ... oh, look
over there: another half-finished, half-remembered, half-arsed idea.
Who are the others, and what do they want, anyway?
Water, water everywhere ...
Ellie Levenson
November 14, 2006 02:15 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ellie_levenson/2006/11/water_water_ever=
ywhere.html
Say what you like about Starbucks, Caff=E9 Nero and the chain coffee
shops (and what I say is at least they recognise the importance of
armchairs), but one of the best things about them is that they don't
quibble when you ask for a glass of water to go with your coffee.
I stopped for coffee the other day in a little cafe on the south side
of the Thames near Lambeth Palace, and as well as a hot drink I wanted
a glass of water. They were loath to give it to me, suggesting instead
that I buy a bottle of still water. Well of course they would, they are
running a business. But I resent paying over the odds for water, and
instead pointed to their tap and said that would do. The people in the
caf=E9 were not keen. "It's not nice water" they said, "it doesn't taste
nice and it's bad for you." I was a bit worried about this, given that
the same water was being used for their washing up and presumably to
make the tea. I insisted and promised not to hold them responsible if
it tasted bad or made me ill. As the cafe backed directly onto the
Thames I did wonder if perhaps I was going to get a glass of murky
brown stuff, filled with splinters of driftwood and other things found
in the river - the odd whale perhaps, or human body, though actually of
course it was perfectly fine.
Resistance is fertile
Open Thread
November 14, 2006 01:43 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2006/11/tax_aversion.html
An ex-soldier, Richard Fitzmaurice, 75, was imprisoned last night for
refusing to pay his council tax. Mr Fitzmaurice withheld his community
charge in protest at rising bills. "The council tax is unfair, he said.
It is rising faster than the rate of inflation and pensioners cannot
keep up." He added, "I am quite prepared to go to prison. It's a matter
of principle."
Misfortunes of war
Robert Fox
November 14, 2006 01:05 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/robert_fox/2006/11/post_626.html
The veterans minister, Derek Twigg, has announced elaborate ceremonies
and events to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Falklands
conflict next year. I must say I am a bit taken aback at the fuss.
Don't get me wrong; some 24 years on I have every sympathy with the
bereaved and injured, the maimed and bewildered from that strange
episode. The three-month campaign cost the lives of 777 Argentine
servicemen, 252 British servicemen and three civilians. My sympathy
goes to most of the Argentines I met - almost all were decent and
honourable, cruelly deceived by a daft and nasty tin-pot military
dictatorship.
For Bush, a trade struggle in Asia
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldbriefing/0,,1324846,00.html
Simon Tisdall
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Guardian
As a young man, he was less than keen to go to Vietnam. But after his
midterm "thumping", George Bush may welcome the chance to hole up in
Hanoi at this Friday's 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(Apec) summit meeting. Vietnam is a one-party state. After last week,
the US no longer is.
Escape from America or not, Mr Bush's attendance in Hanoi is
necessitated by ongoing efforts to maintain US influence in a region
increasingly dominated by China. Critics say Apec is being outstripped
by rival organisations. Next month the Philippines will host the latest
East Asia Summit, a new Beijing-backed group that excludes Washington.
A chance to break with our record of war and inequality
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1947833,00.html
A Queen's speech which offers more of the same will further alienate
voters. Labour could instead use it to offer real leadership
John McDonnell
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Guardian
Governments running out of steam do not shape events, they react to
them. Politicians focus on ambitions rather than providing leadership.
That, in a nutshell, is the story of today's Queen's speech. The rapid
draining of authority from the prime minister means that Tony Blair's
last Queen's speech will certainly fail to set the agenda for the
decade, as he once hoped.
Instead it will pay lip service to climate change, the continuation of
a Daily Mail law-and-order agenda and the next obsessive wave of
privatisation of our public services. Gordon Brown will make supportive
noises off, seeking to demonstrate prime ministerial breadth, and John
Reid will relish a fresh assault on civil liberties as he positions
himself for a potential populist leadership bid.
Why stop the Great Satan? He's driving himself to hell
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1947837,00.html
Tehran can sit back and watch its tormentors sweat. But the US and
Britain must start from diplomatic ground zero
Simon Jenkins
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Guardian
For axis of evil, read axis of hope. The frantic scrabbling for an exit
strategy from Iraq now consuming Washington and London has passed all
bounds of irony. Help from Syria and Iran? Surely these were the
monsters that George Bush and Tony Blair were going to crush, back in
2003? Surely the purpose of the Iraq adventure was to topple these
terrorism-sponsoring, women-suppressing, militia-funding
fundamentalists in favour of stability, prosperity and western
democracy? Can the exit from Iraq really be through Tehran and
Damascus? Was that in the plan?
This wasn't gibberish. I got my facts right on global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1947724,00.html
There are many questions about climate change which still need answers,
says Christopher Monckton
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Guardian
It's a shame that George Monbiot didn't check his facts with me before
using his column to describe my two recent Sunday Telegraph articles on
climate change as "nonsense from start to finish" (This is a dazzling
debunking of climate change science. It is also wildly wrong, November
14). He implies that a classically trained peer ought not to express
scientific opinions. It's still a free country, George. And at least I
got the science right.
China must be consumer society, says World Bank
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1947799,00.html
Phillip Inman
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Guardian
China must make greater efforts to encourage consumer spending in the
hope of reining back its surging trade surplus before it creates dire
consequences for the local environment, the World Bank said yesterday.
The development bank also warned the country's export-led boom would
cause imbalances in the economy. To keep up growth averaging 10%, the
bank said, Chinese leaders depended on an unsustainable increase in
manufacturing output.
Rising labour costs and increases in the price of raw materials meant
Chinese companies were spending more to create the same output than
rival countries such as India. The bank said attempts by the government
to squeeze investment growth were helping the situation but needed to
be matched by growth in consumer spending.
Conquistadors' women pardoned in paperback
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,,1947929,00.html
=B7 Debate as authors turn collaborators into heroines
=B7 Critics say novels gloss over rape and savagery
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Guardian
For centuries both women have been reviled as collaborators in Spanish
conquests of the new world that verged on genocide. La Malinche was an
Aztec turncoat who helped Hern=E1n Cort=E9s conquer Mexico; In=E9s Su=E1rez
was a Spanish seamstress who joined another conquistador, Pedro de
Valdivia, in slaughtering the inhabitants of Chile.
Now two of Latin America's female literary giants, Laura Esquivel and
Isabel Allende, have come to the rescue by writing novels casting them
as misunderstood heroines who could be role models for today's women.
Latin American migrants send home =A327bn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1947731,00.html
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Guardian
Money sent home to poor relatives by migrants who have fled Latin
America's struggling economies is increasingly propping up the region
as billions of dollars and euros reach the continent's most far-flung
corners.
Recent migration into Spain has added to the growth in money sent back
to the region's poorer countries from both the US and Europe, which
reached at least $53bn (=A327bn) last year, according to the
Inter-American Development Bank.
"Call it the case of the missing billions," the bank said in a recent
report. "The region is the largest remittance market in the world."
US lawyers challenge clampdown on immigrant rights
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1947931,00.html
=B7 Terrorist suspects could face indefinite detention
=B7 'Enemy combatant' may be applied to any foreigner
Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Guardian
American civil rights lawyers expressed outrage yesterday at a justice
department court motion arguing that immigrants living in the US could
be held indefinitely on suspicion of terrorism and had no right to
challenge their imprisonment in court.
The motion was filed by the administration on Monday in the case of Ali
Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, a Qatar citizen studying in the US who was
arrested in 2001 and accused of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent. He is
being held in a military prison in South Carolina.
Hizbullah leader sees collapse of government
http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1947866,00.html
=B7 Warning comes as more Shia ministers quit
=B7 Nasrallah accuses cabinet of collaborating with Israel
Clancy Chassay in Beirut
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Guardian
The Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah has warned that the Lebanese
government will soon collapse, accusing the US-backed cabinet of
collaborating with Israel during this summer's conflict.
"This government will go and there will soon be a new, clean
government," Mr Nasrallah told residents of Beirut's southern suburbs,
who had gathered on Monday to discuss compensation for homes destroyed
during the war.
Robert Fisk: Conflict in the Middle East is Mission Implausible
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1984418.ece
The UN troops claim they are in Lebanon to protect the Shia. The Shia
think they're there to protect Israel from Hizbollah. Is this because
the peacekeepers are really a Nato army in disguise?
Published: 15 November 2006
The blue and white UN flag looks good in the morning over these soft,
pale hills. For all of 28 years, it has flown beside Irish battalions,
Nepalese battalions, Senegalese battalions, Finnish battalions, all
kinds of battalions, from every worthy neutral nation you can imagine.
But now the flag snaps over French battalions, Spanish battalions,
Italian battalions, German naval units, over the offices of four Nato
generals, two French, one Spanish and one Italian.
Unifil, the United Nations - wait for it - Interim Force in Lebanon, is
now in effect a Nato force which has all this power and anti-aircraft
missiles and tanks and artillery spread over these beautiful hills. It
is a "buffer" force, so it claims to the Shia villages among whom it
lives. It is there to "protect" them from the Israelis who bombarded
them so savagely after the Lebanese Shia Hizbollah army captured two
Israeli soldiers and killed three others last July - and then fought
off the Israeli army for 34 devastating days in which almost a hundred
Israeli civilians and well over a thousand Lebanese civilians were
killed (10 to one being a normal casualty count around here).
Listen to mother
Yvonne Roberts
November 15, 2006 09:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/yvonne_roberts/2006/11/post_629.html
It's easy to mock: the free magazine that comes through our door
devotes an entire page, including an eight-step guide, instructing
parents how to play board games with their offspring - not just for fun
but to "produce brighter children and a happier happy life". Bring on
the Scrabble.
The other pages are stuffed with activities - fun art classes; fruity
tunes; funky moves; little dippers; toddler gym; musical express - as
if the last thing any sane (and affluent) parent would wish to do is
spend time just mucking about with their child. Instead, they drive him
or her to distraction: doing, doing, doing.
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