Modern Britain is being defiled by a growing brutality
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2031415,00.html
Conflict abroad, crackdown at home, a nervous nation is caught in
rising levels of beatings, belligerence and vigilantism
Mary Riddell
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
Look at what happened outside the Niche nightclub in Sheffield. See it
as an optical illusion. The CCTV footage from the night of Toni
Comer's birthday shows her legs twitching and the staccato beat of a
policeman's fist striking her as hard as he could. That tableau is a
snapshot of modern Britain. But which nation does it show? To some,
the picture is one of police brutality. To others, it portrays a
dubious scandal exploited by liberal witch-hunters. The black race
campaigner who helped bolster Ms Comer's complaint has a criminal
record himself, they point out, while she, blind drunk, had smashed up
someone's car to the tune of =C2=A33,000.
These mocking artists have no principles
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2031234,00.html
They talk about a free society and love attacking our leaders, but
religion makes them run
Nick Cohen
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
In 1997, Tony Blair's media minders would never have allowed him to
appear at the bottom of the 182ft slide in the yawning entrance hall
of Tate Modern. Ten years on, with the Metropolitan Police
interrogating so many of his advisers, there's no one with the time to
worry about a subliminal impression that the Prime Minister has fallen
from a great height. So on Tuesday, he walked out to talk about arts
policy in front of an ominous backdrop.
David Cameron gets it - many in his party still don't
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2031197,00.html
The Tory leader acted robustly over the Mercer affair, but the anger
of some Conservatives shows how far his party still has to go
Andrew Rawnsley
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
Ashika Chandiramani is the sort of woman about whom David Cameron has
fantasies. Asian, female, smart, sexy, charming and Cameroonian from
top to toe, she is a brilliant advertisement for how he is changing
the Tory party. Ashika has triumphed against the odds and the
prejudices. Competing with a bunch of white, male chinless wonders and
village idiots, she bested them all to win selection as a Tory
parliamentary candidate even though the Conservative association which
picked her was very traditional and very provincial.
How Europe can save the world
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2031196,00.html
The EU's landmark deal on carbon controls must be the model for a new
Kyoto agreement
Will Hutton
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
Of the many noxious legacies of Mrs Thatcher, perhaps the most
poisonous is the idea that somehow the British are not European. She
taught her party, the media and a large part of the country that any
European initiative was necessarily hostile to our interests and
originated in a mindset of which we are not part. The British may be
geographically European; culturally and politically, we are different.
It was nonsense. This weekend, the European Union has struck a deal
which is arguably the most important since its foundation 50 years ago
- which was how some in Brussels described it to me - and should help
persuade even the most Eurosceptic curmudgeon that the EU has
crucially important uses. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, emerging as
a European politician in the great tradition of Adenauer, Brandt,
Delors, Mitterand and Kohl, has used the current German presidency of
the EU to mastermind an epic commitment on tackling climate change and
energy security.
My dad was called a 'black *****' too
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2031402,00.html
Nirpal Dhaliwal's father served in the army and knows that racial
abuse hurts far more than insults about the colour of your hair
Nirpal Dhaliwal
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
Patrick Mercer was dismissed from his post as shadow home affairs
spokesman last week, following his offhand dismissal of racism in the
armed forces. The MP, a former colonel, suggested that racist abuse
was a normal occurrence in military life and that being called a
'black *****' was no worse than being baited for being fat or red-
haired.
My father, Harnek Singh Dhaliwal, was a soldier in the British army in
the late Sixties and early Seventies. 'Harry', as he came to be
called, served in an era when racism wasn't discussed, let alone dealt
with. He will never forget his commanding officer calling him a 'black
*****' in front of the entire platoon. My dad had mistakenly stepped
on a trailer while trying to climb into the back of a lorry. 'I was
gutted,' he told me. 'I expected to hear that sort of thing from the
regular soldiers, but not from an officer.' The officer had grossly
insulted him and legitimised such insults among the men my father had
to serve with.
Whose life is it anyway?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2031396,00.html
Victoria Coren
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
Some people are being sniffy about the new biopic, Becoming Jane. What
were the producers supposed to do? There will always be an audience
greedy for Jane Austen on screen, but she only published six books and
they can't just keep remaking Mansfield Park. The alternative was
trying to film the unfinished Sanditon, but that's a real coach crash
of a novel (in-joke for the diehard Austen fans there).
Besides, we are always inquisitive about great writers' lives. Roland
Barthes tried to sell us 'the death of the author', but you can't just
stamp out human curiosity under one big, humourless French boot. The
personal life of a brilliant woman such as Jane Austen, one suspects,
is bound to make juicy viewing, especially in a world which drowns us
in the moronic minutiae of Big Brother ('Should we buy stock cubes? Or
maybe orange juice? I reckon stock cubes') and footballers'
autobiographies ('Phil came round and we watched a DVD of the FA Cup
again').
Do women make better friends than men?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2031111,00.html
Women form meaningful relationships while men are fickle pals
according to a study by the University of Manchester
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
Karol Sikora
The difficulty with these sorts of studies is how you measure
friendship intensity. This means that there is a huge bias caused by a
subject's willingness to give the expected answers. Women talk more
and will readily share their inner thoughts with others. They also
spend hours in inane gossip. The rise of mobiles and email fuels this
trend. Men are more efficient in their communication, but that alone
does not make them fickle. They are perhaps less willing to admit to
long-term friendships so they score badly in surveys. My wife sends a
sackload of Christmas cards to people I've long forgotten. Does that
make me fickle?
Al-Qaeda: the second coming
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,2031290,00.html
This weekend Osama bin Laden turned 50, probably on the wild Pakistan
border, while Madrid falls silent today to honour its 2004 bomb
victims . But what of al-Qaeda? In a major investigation, an expert on
terror reveals it is evolving into a potent new threat
Jason Burke
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
For his 40th birthday, Osama bin Laden's followers gave their leader a
white stallion. Bin Laden, a keen horseman despite back problems, rode
for hours through the dusty farmland and hills around his base north
of Jalalabad, the eastern Afghan city.
Yesterday the leader of al-Qaeda turned 50. It is unlikely that the
gesture was repeated. Almost all the men who gave their chief the
stallion are now dead, the base has been dismantled and a similar ride
would be to risk detection, identification and a pinpoint missile
strike. Yet, though he may lack horses and veteran associates, bin
Laden is far from finished. Indeed, nine years after his declaration
of war on the West and five and a half years after the attacks of 11
September, 2001, their leader is as present as ever on the world
stage, linked, rightly or wrongly, to violence across half the globe.
Desperate houseowners
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2031052,00.html
The US property boom has shuddered to a halt - and if the resulting
dip in jobs and consumer spending alarms Middle America, falling house
prices will be the least of everyone's worries, writes Heather
Stewart
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
All across Middle America, 'For Sale' boards are creaking forlornly in
the wind, and real-estate agents are slashing prices and throwing in
free gifts to tempt reluctant buyers.
The decade-long boom that has swept American house prices to
extraordinary levels has begun to crumble. It's obviously bad news for
'realtors' and house-builders; but the damage could spread far beyond
the housing market, and fears are mounting that the US economy will be
rocked to its foundations.
Bank to put 'dormant' cash to social use
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2030931,00.html
Nick Mathiason
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
Plans to use up to =C2=A3500m lying unclaimed in British bank accounts to
set up a new Social Investment Bank will be revealed this week.
The Commission for Unclaimed Assets, chaired by former Apax ventures
boss and Labour donor Sir Ronald Cohen, will argue that money lying
unclaimed for 15 years should fund social enterprises and community
regeneration projects in hard-pressed areas.
The move has been long resisted by banks, which until recently have
used this money to flatter their profits.
High-risk lending turns critical as the roof falls in
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2031054,00.html
Bad debts are adding up to a $164bn black hole for American banks. And
Britain's banks are caught up in it, reports Heather Connon
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
Federal investigations, corporate collapses, borrowers who never
manage to make any loan repayments, soaring bad debts ... sub-prime
lending to riskier borrowers in the US has all the hallmarks of an
industry in crisis.
And the Centre for Responsible Lending predicts that one in five of
all sub-prime loans written over the past two years will end in
foreclosure, the US term for repossession: that's 2.2 million loans
and a cost of $164bn (=C2=A385bn).
Farming giants reap most of EU's benefits
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2030928,00.html
Heather Stewart, economics correspondent
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
Europe's costly system of farm subsidies is becoming increasingly
skewed towards giant agri-businesses. Ninety firms in the UK are each
banking more than =E2=82=AC500,000 (=C2=A3340,000) in taxpayers' cash in a =
single
year, new figures from Brussels reveal.
Jack Thurston of Farmsubsidy.org, which campaigns for full disclosure
about who gets what under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP),
calculates that 85 per cent of the =E2=82=AC32.5bn handed out in direct
payments went to just 18 per cent of Europe's farmers in 2005.
UK under new attack from OECD over bribes
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2030918,00.html
Oliver Morgan, industrial editor
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
The UK this week faces renewed international condemnation over its
decision to halt the Serious Fraud Office investigation into Saudi
arms deals - and the humiliation of a fresh investigation into its
policing of international bribery.
At a three-day meeting starting tomorrow, the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development Working Group on Bribery, which
monitors application of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, will decide
whether to take action against the UK.
Two years ago, the OECD issued a damning report into the UK
application of the convention, which Britain ratified in 2001, and
made veiled reference to concerns over the Saudi case, which involved
allegations of multi-million-pound payments to Saudi officials in an
attempt to win orders for Tornado and Hawk jets made by BAE Systems.
Backlash against the buyouts
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2030935,00.html
Private equity is under scrutiny as never before as concern grows
about tax avoidance and windfall profits. By Nick Mathiason
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
How important is private equity's incursion into corporate Britain?
'It is the most pressing financial issue of our time,' replied Labour
backbencher Tony Lloyd. As chair of the Labour MPs' trade union group,
he has played a pivotal role in a chain of events which has resulted
in the launching last week of two high-level Westminster probes into
private equity.
The Manchester MP questioned the morality of the savage cost-cutting
imposed by private equity, and the windfall profits received by an
elite cadre of financial engineers: 'Some things we have been told are
not illegal, but you have got to question whether it's moral. You
can't say that private equity always leads to asset-stripping or job
losses, but we do know that putting a company in private status does
allow for these things to go on away from scrutiny.'
Listen to Mr Greenspan - there's nothing so fragile as a bubble
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2030937,00.html
William Keegan
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
After the January World Economic Forum I expressed some concern about
the remarkable optimism - nay, complacency - manifested there about
the course of the world economy. Earlier in the month I had quoted
Herb Stein, an adviser to President Nixon in the 1970s (on economics,
not burglary or cover-up). The quotation was: 'If something can't go
on forever, it will probably stop.'
An alert reader challenged the 'probably' (which originated via an
American economist 'correcting' Professor Wynne Godley, who had used
the quotation without 'probably'), and sent me an article written by
Stein himself, in which 'probably' does not appear, and
'cannot' (rather than 'can't') does.
India's poor can join the call-centre revolution
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2030936,00.html
Simon Caulkin, management editor
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
The spanking new steel and glass buildings housing India's exuberantly
growing IT companies could be in Reading or California - until you
visit the dusty, worn emergency staircases at the back, which seem 25
or 50 years older, as in a sense they are. Although new buildings are
mushrooming, along with demand for contact centres to handle the
world's IT infrastructure and customer service needs, cranes on Indian
building sites are rare. Much of the lifting is done by hand or hoist:
hence the worn steps. During construction, the stairs serve as home to
entire families of builders.
Writers who work for nothing: it's a licence to print money
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2031059,00.html
John Naughton
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
On 24 February, a Virgin express train bound for Glasgow left the
rails in Cumbria. The accident happened in a remote spot, the night
was dark and the weather foul, but anyone logging in to BBC News
Online shortly after the accident could see on the website a
photograph taken inside one of the derailed carriages. Underneath it
was the legend: 'Send pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk.'
And that is what had happened. A passenger had taken the picture -
presumably using a cameraphone - and dispatched it via the mobile
phone network to the BBC. It was a striking example of what has become
known as user-generated content. Later we discovered that the
photographer was a BBC executive who happened to be on the train.
Time to join the party people
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2031056,00.html
It's famous for its exclusive hideaways, pleasure-filled nights and
leisurely days. Justine Vergeld looks at Barbados's expanding appeal
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
On a Caribbean island famed for providing leisure and pleasure, almost
everyone seems to be hard at work. After last year's celebrations
marking 40 years of independence, followed by December's successful
staging of the Golf World Cup, Barbados is today busy putting the
finishing touches to the biggest event since independence itself: the
Cricket World Cup.
The global sports fest will again focus the world's attention on a
small nation with big ambitions: to rank among the world's top
'developed' countries by 2020, to take the lead in the CARICOM Single
Market and Economy launching next year and, crucially for its economy,
to develop its resources as a gateway for the region's burgeoning
tourist industry.
Never mind the sugar - new prospects are even sweeter
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2030943,00.html
Regional integration is just one factor speeding economic
modernisation. By Ian Rich
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
The cross-border co-operation within the West Indies driven by the
Cricket World Cup will provide a useful pointer towards progress
toward the region's proposed economic integration. Barbados's Prime
Minister Owen Arthur is spearheading the push towards a single market
that it is hoped will usher in a 15-strong union ready to take on the
competition of a globalised economy. The way the West Indies works its
World Cup magic could be a perfect precursor to how the CARICOM
(Caribbean Community) states may make history with an EU-style trade
bloc.
'Smart' rebels outstrip US
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2031172,00.html
Top American generals make shock admission as Iraq leader pleads with
neighbouring countries to seal off their borders
Paul Beaver in Fort Lauderdale and Peter Beaumont
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
The US army is lagging behind Iraq's insurgents tactically in a war
that senior officers say is the biggest challenge since Korea 50 years
ago.
The gloomy assessment at a conference in America last week came as
senior US and Iraqi officials sat down yesterday with officials from
Iran, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia in Baghdad to persuade Iraq's
neighbours to help seal its borders against fighters, arms and money
flowing in. During the conference the US, Iranian and Syrian
delegations were reported to have had a 'lively exchange'.
Chavez baits Bush with 'Gringo go home' calls
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2031173,00.html
Rory Carroll in Caracas
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has upstaged George Bush's Latin
American tour in a show of political theatre that this weekend saw
insults hurled across the River Plate.
The socialist firebrand turned a rally in Buenos Aires, Argentina's
capital, into a platform to assail the US President as he flew into
neighbouring Uruguay, 30 miles away, for the second leg of his five-
nation tour.
'The little imperial gentleman from the north must be across the river
by now. Let's send him a big shout: Gringo go home,' Chavez told
thousands of people gathered at a football stadium on Friday night,
prompting roars of 'Gringo go home'.
Resistance hero awaits death camp son's DNA
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2031183,00.html
Alex Duval Smith in Paris
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
Two resistance operatives met, for a night, in a hideout near Lyon in
1944. They made love, and parted. Bob survived the war. Paulette died
in a German labour camp. Now, more than 60 years after the one-night
stand, a court in Nancy has authorised DNA tests to ascertain whether
a man whom Bob has never met but who bears his name is his son.
The story of the two Robert Nants - one a survivor of birth in a camp,
the other a Resistance hero - has so enchanted French lawyers and
judges that they admit they are dreading the outcome of the tests.
'Whatever happens, I'm going to take care of him,' said Bob, 83. 'All
I can do is hope,' said Robert, 61.
FBI hunts last of the lynchers
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2031107,00.html
In an effort to close a chapter in America's history of race hate,
Washington is bringing elderly Klansmen to justice for killings
carried out up to 60 years ago
Paul Harris in New York
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
When the mutilated bodies of Henry Dee and Charles Moore were dragged
up from the waters of the Mississippi in 1964, they were tied to the
engine block of a Jeep. The Ku Klux Klansmen who killed the black
teenagers had intended their bodies never to be found.
In the Fifties and Sixties, black men, women and children were often
killed with impunity by southern whites who believed they would get
away with murder. But they were wrong in the case of Dee and Moore,
who were both 19.
Egypt in the dock over tactics of police torturers
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2031176,00.html
Dissidents tell of cattle prods, whips and beatings as Cairo rejects
US criticism of abuses in Mubarak onslaught on opposition
Conal Urquhart in Cairo
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
The man's face crumples in agony and his screams grow louder. He
shouts, 'enough, stop', but the police around him go on insulting him
and assure him that everyone will see his humiliation.
One policeman uses his mobile phone camera to record the torture and
then shows the images unashamedly. The clip will join dozens of others
on the internet - graphic illustration of the brutality of the
Egyptian police.
On Friday, Ahmad Aboul-Gheit, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, reacted
angrily to a report by the US State Department that Egypt, a close
Western ally, routinely abused human rights. 'The government's respect
for human rights remained poor, and serious abuses continued in many
areas,' the report said.
Gay rights furore over MP's garter
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2031106,00.html
An Italian senator who belongs to Opus Dei and is known for her anti-
homosexual views admits wearing spiked metal chain
Tom Kington in Rome
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
A battle over legal rights for gay couples in Italy has focused on a
gruesome-looking metal garter belt.
With Pope Benedict thundering against the demise of the family and lay
politicians fighting to keep religion out of politics, the debate took
a bizarre turn when a staunchly Catholic politician, renowned for
denouncing homosexuality as 'unnatural', admitted that she wears the
spiked metal chain around her thigh to recreate the suffering of
Christ.
Bollywood set for the ultimate wedding
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2031178,00.html
Forget Liz and Arun. The union of India's real movie royalty is
generating $100m
Dan McDougall in New Delhi
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
When steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal staged a =C2=A330m wedding for his
daughter and 1,500 friends in the Palace of Versailles in 2004,
complete with Kylie Minogue as the star turn, the message to the world
was clear: in terms of opulence and excess, India's new breed of
billionaire businessmen were equal to the Moghuls.
But in a country where industrialists are feted like rock stars, the
subcontinent's true 'royalty' are the stars of Bollywood, and in a few
weeks' time more than a billion Indians worldwide will celebrate what
is expected to be the greatest wedding in their nation's modern
history.
Model's 'monkey' jibe fuels race row
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2031210,00.html
Miss Scotland becomes the latest celebrity forced to apologise after
an offensive on-air comment about a black singer
Jamie Doward and Anna Kessel
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
The reigning Miss Scotland was embroiled yesterday in the latest
racism row to be played out in the media after she called the black
singer and actress Samantha Mumba 'a monkey' on a live radio
programme. Nicola McLean, 22, later insisted she was 'not racist' and
apologised for her remarks. She joins a string of politicians and
celebrities who have had to apologise recently for inappropriate
language on race.
At the end of a week when Patrick Mercer, the Conservative's homeland
security spokesman, was sacked following a furore prompted by his
remarks about 'idle and useless' ethnic minority soldiers, McLean's
outburst has fuelled the debate around race and language.
Climate scientist 'duped to deny global warming'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2031455,00.html
Ben Goldacre and David Adam
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
A Leading US climate scientist is considering legal action after he
says he was duped into appearing in a Channel 4 documentary that
claimed man-made global warming is a myth. Carl Wunsch, professor of
physical oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
said the film, The Great Global Warming Swindle, was 'grossly
distorted' and 'as close to pure propaganda as anything since World
War Two'.
He says his comments in the film were taken out of context and that he
would not have agreed to take part if he had known it would argue that
man-made global warming was not a serious threat. 'I thought they were
trying to educate the public about the complexities of climate
change,' he said. 'This seems like a deliberate attempt to exploit
someone who is on the other side of the issue.' He is considering a
complaint to Ofcom, the broadcast regulator.
The prince married a man, and lived happily ever after
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2031223,00.html
Religious groups attack circulation of books raising gay issues among
primary school pupils
Anushka Asthana, education correspondent
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
A pilot scheme introducing books dealing with gay issues to children
from the ages of four to 11 has just been launched in England's
schools.
It is being argued that the books, one of which is a fairytale
featuring a prince who turns down three princesses before falling in
love and marrying a man, are necessary to make homosexuality seem
normal to children. Fourteen schools and one local authority, backed
by teaching unions and a government-funded organisation, are running
the controversial scheme, which has been attacked by Christian groups.
Historians clash over Churchill 'anti-Semitism'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2031292,00.html
David Smith
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
Winston Churchill's views on anti-Semitism were at the centre of a row
last night after Cambridge University claimed to have discovered a 70-
year-old document in which the future Prime Minister wrote that Jews
may 'have been partly responsible for the antagonism from which they
suffer', inviting terms of abuse such as 'Hebrew bloodsucker'.
Dr Richard Toye, a Cambridge historian, said he chanced on a typed
article, written by Churchill in 1937 but unpublished, among proofs
and press cuttings at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge. The
university issued a press release trumpeting, 'Uncovered: The "lost"
paper Churchill kept from publication,' and promoting a book by Toye
which is to be published later this month.
Beware, the walls have ears
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2030955,00.html
The Lives of Others, a powerful tale of life in East Germany, won the
Oscar for best foreign film last month. But how faithful is it to the
memory of existence under the all-seeing eye of the hated secret
police? Neal Ascherson, The Observer's Berlin correspondent at the
height of Stasi rule, is transported back to a world of mistrust and
fear
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
How can a smell become extinct? A country, yes. East Germany, the
Communist state named 'the German Democratic Republic', vanished from
the atlas in 1990. Created out of what had been the Soviet occupation
zone of Germany after Hitler's defeat, it became a heavily armed
dictatorship but never looked as if it could survive without Soviet
backing. And yet it did have its own authentic scent, a spicy reek
brewed out of People's Cleaning Fluid, two-stroke petrol, brown-coal
briquettes and cheap police tobacco.
Mistaken identities
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2030874,00.html
Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist is set in the atmosphere
of suspicion following the 9/11 attacks
Jim Ottewill
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
by Mohsin Hamid
Hamish Hamilton =C2=A314.99, pp192
Mohsin Hamid's second novel is the story of a young Muslim man's loves
and losses, daubed against the tumultuous backdrop of the political
unrest that followed the attacks on the World Trade Centre on 9/11.
Changez is a young Pakistani who has risen to the top of American
society: after graduating from Princeton, he secures a top job on Wall
Street and falls in love with a beautiful American woman named Erica.
But the collapse of the Twin Towers sends Changez spiralling to the
depths of a paranoid crisis of identity. Where does he belong? New
York? Lahore? More important, which side should he be fighting for?
How an article in the 'IoS' led to the conviction of Lewis 'Scooter'
Libby
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2347534.ece
By Raymond Whitaker in London and Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 11 March 2007
A senior White House aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, faces a jail term
this weekend - at the end of a chain of events that began with a
report in The Independent on Sunday nearly four years ago.
Libby, former chief of staff to Vice-President ***** Cheney, was found
guilty by a Washington jury last week on four counts of perjury and
obstruction of justice, and will be sentenced in June. He was declared
to have lied to a grand jury investigating the leaking to the media of
the identity of an undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame.
Geoffrey Wheatcroft: Is Levy a victim of racism?
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2347452.ece
There are anxieties that he may be 'scapegoated as the traditional
outsider-turned-court Jew whose casting-out might finally purge the
corrupt body politic'
Published: 11 March 2007
What with a Tory MP sacked by David Cameron from the front bench after
saying that plenty of ethnic minority soldiers are "idle and useless",
and with footage of policemen punching a young black woman outside a
Sheffield nightclub, it was a vivid week for race relations. But there
was one other story in that field almost more striking, one connected
with the cash-for-honours affair.
After a failed attempt to stifle publication by injunction, we learnt
the latest allegations about Lord Levy, Tony Blair's fundraiser-in-
chief. And we heard another startling allegation from Rabbi Yitzchak
Schochet, Levy's friend and rabbi. Not only was Levy being made a
scapegoat, the case had anti-Semitic overtones. "The Jewish community
is becoming increasingly more sensitive that there's the one Jew
seemingly being hung out to dry out here," he said. This has been said
before. In The Guardian last year, Jonathan Freedland said the "Jewish
community have long detected old-fashioned prejudice" in phrases such
as "flamboyant north London businessman" regularly used about Levy. In
yesterday's Independent, David Rowan, editor of The Jewish Chronicle,
reiterated anxieties that Levy may be "scapegoated as the traditional
outsider-turned-court-Jew whose casting out might finally purge the
corrupt body politic", and deplored "the unashamedly anti-Semitic and
conspiratorial rhetoric surrounding him".
Nirpal Dhaliwal: The liberal left enjoys a wog joke along with the
best of them
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2347441.ece
You may be horrified by Patrick Mercer's reference to 'niggers'. In my
experience he does not belong to an exclusive club
Published: 11 March 2007
The staggering clumsiness with which Patrick Mercer MP got himself
sacked from the Conservative front benches last week, and the punching
of a black police suspect in Sheffield, has once again raised the
issue of race in Britain. The Conservative former homeland security
spokes-man glibly stated that racial slurs were an ordinary part of
army life, and implied that calling a black soldier a "black *****"
should not be regarded as any more offensive than a white recruit
being taunted for having red hair. But it's not only high-handed
Tories who casually make such offensive comments. I've witnessed
equally distasteful behaviour among paragons of the liberal left.
Recently I was in Mumbai with some prominent names from the British
media. We spent the evening at a swanky party arranged by a literary
festival we were attending.
Sarah Sands: Women make friends, men join clubs
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2347451.ece
Which is why new research shows what women have always known
Published: 11 March 2007
My husband regarded my copy of Hello!, the Liz Hurley wedding issue,
with an expression of helpless anguish. It was not Hurley in
particular, but the notion of a wedding going on and on and on. I
murmured that it was too late for the night sweats because we were
already married. With luck, he need never go through a wedding again.
What appals many men about weddings is discussing a personal
relationship in front of a crowd, many of whom support the same
football team. Even Hurley's tearful husband Arun Nayar stumbled over
the word "betrothed". But for women, hearts laid bare in front of your
mother, your old schoolfriends, your slightly less attractive
bridesmaid, is heaven. The personal made public.
Nicholas Foulkes: Why oh why did he have to bring gingers into it?
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2347442.ece
A follicular footnote to the British race debate
Published: 11 March 2007
Last week I learnt that, far from being a smug, comfortable member of
the British bourgeoisie, I am in fact part of a persecuted minority. I
am, of course, referring to the assertion by the Conservative former
homeland security spokesman Patrick Mercer that, as far as name-
calling in our armed forces goes, a redhead gets "a far harder time
than a black man". Mmmmh.
I had somehow imagined that, coming with centuries of prejudice-laden
baggage, race was more sensitive than hair colour, but it would seem
that this is not the case... at least not in uniform, where the poor
old ginger-haired individual would appear to be guaranteed to have
life made miserable.
Rupert Cornwell: Out of America
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2347440.ece
Amid wall-to-wall soundbites from Hillary and Obama, more sensible
voices are being ignored
Published: 11 March 2007
No reporters are combing the personal finances of Senator Chris Dodd
or Governor Bill Richardson. No one is writing funny stories about
Senator Joe Biden, East Coast born and bred, adopting a preposterous
southern drawl when he addresses a black church audience in Alabama.
More's the pity.
Let me explain. Messrs Dodd, Richardson and Biden are so-called
"second tier" candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination.
All three have glittering credentials, yet you'd be pressed to find a
line about them amid the saturation coverage of the 2008 campaign.
It's all Obama and Hillary - the single-word candidates.
David Rowan: Once again, a Jewish financier is cast as the villain of
the piece
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2344811.ece
Published: 10 March 2007
No, of course anti-Semitism is not what is driving the cash-for-
honours inquiry. Serious allegations merit thorough police
investigation, however awkward that is proving for Lord Levy and the
many anxious Jewish charities with which he is associated.
But what is disturbing Jewish Chronicle readers is the all-too-
familiar role he is being assigned in the swirl of unattributable
briefings and nudge-nudge language of media reports. How very
convenient for No. 10 and its friends in the press if Levy can be
scapegoated as the traditional outsider-turned-court-Jew whose casting-
out might finally purge the corrupt body politic.
.
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