Moving on from Montreal
Richard Benedick
September 16, 2007 11:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_benedick/2007/09/moving_on_from=
_montreal.html
The 1987 Montreal Protocol, considered the most successful
environmental treaty in history, turns 20 on September 16, and its
achievements will be duly celebrated by over 190 nations at a
conference of parties in Montreal. In 1988, President Reagan hailed
the protocol as "a monumental achievement of science and diplomacy"
and the US senate ratified it unanimously. Later, the heads of the
World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations
Environment Programme declared that "the action to defend the ozone
layer will rank as one of the great international achievements of the
century." Given the implications of ozone layer destruction for
health, environment and the economy, few would challenge their
assessment as hyperbole.
And the treaty has more than lived up to its promise. The protocol has
done a remarkable job in protecting the fragile stratospheric ozone
layer from manmade chemicals and thereby preventing harmful solar
radiation from reaching planet Earth. Millions of deaths from skin
cancer will be averted and billions of dollars in health benefits will
be secured. Because of the treaty, production and consumption of
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-depleting substances have
dramatically declined, and the ozone layer is well on the road to
recovery.
Enabling atrocity
Tom Porteous
September 16, 2007 10:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tom_porteous/2007/09/enabling_atrocity.=
html
Two years ago today, over 150 nations signed up to the "responsibility
to protect," the principle that governments have a duty to intervene
to protect civilians threatened by war crimes, crimes against
humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.
The grotesque atrocities committed in Darfur, documented by Human
Rights Watch and others, have been an early test of that principle.
There is no doubt that it is a challenging test. There are no obvious
or easy solutions to the crisis in Darfur. The practical and
diplomatic obstacles are complex and real.
Obama needs an ace
Tim Watkin
September 15, 2007 5:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tim_watkin/2007/09/obama_play_ace.html
"I say O, you say Bama," the woman yells.
"O..."
"=2E..Bama!"
"O..."
"=2E..Bama!"
So went the warm up act last week, when I saw Barack Obama speak in
San Francisco to an adoring crowd of thousands. It was my first US
Presidential rally, and a fascinating look at the fervour of American
politics. The crowd yelled back their "Bama!" with unbridled vigour.
And this was at lunchtime on a week day.
Saving Zimbabwe is not colonialism, it's Britain's duty
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2170244,00.html
John Sentamu
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
In one of his last actions as Prime Minister, Tony Blair visited
Africa to defend his 'thoroughly interventionist' foreign policy
towards the continent. At the end of his trip, at a press conference
with South African President Thabo Mbeki, the Prime Minister admitted
that when it came to the issue of Zimbabwe, only local pressure would
do the job. 'An African solution,' he said, 'is needed to this African
problem.'
Yet as the BBC's Sue Lloyd-Roberts demonstrated so vividly on
Newsnight last week, in a remarkable piece of television journalism,
Zimbabwe cannot any more be seen as an African problem needing an
African solution - it is a humanitarian disaster.
Clueless students? Blame the parents
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2170288,00.html
Cristina Odone
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
How often should you change your sheets? How much is a pint of milk?
What should you do if you lose your credit card? Ask teenagers these
questions and see what they answer. Ask them now, because soon a huge
number of them will be starting university.
Dons bemoan a dismal level of reading, writing and arithmetic among
some undergraduates. But equally alarming is the anecdotal evidence
that reveals how many students fail even the briefest quiz, like the
one above, taken from Grow Up!, a handbook for children leaving home.
Our sex lives are our own business
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2170252,00.html
Once again, the state attacks our individual rights, while ignoring
real social problems
Henry Porter
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
It was bound to happen. As surely as the bluebottle takes wing from
the maggot, Labour makes another move into the personal sphere. Not
content with founding the most sophisticated surveillance society in
the history of the world, ministers propose new laws about the
purchase of sex by men from women. Not sex purchased by men from men,
mind you, or women from men (it happens, Harriet) or women from women.
While left and right bicker, the underclass sinks
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2170207,00.html
Jasper Gerard
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
When the Archbishop of Canterbury praises a politician for his
insight, you know the establishment has run out of ideas. Rowan
Williams endorses David Cameron's view that society is 'broken'. And
many on the left agree about the violence and vulgarity that blights
modern life. The right blames parents and the left blames inequality,
but they come to the same mournful conclusion: there is nothing much
we can do to tame the feral beast; it is too big, too bad.
So why that red dress and those TV cameras, Margaret?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2170231,00.html
Malcolm Rifkind MP
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
It is difficult to imagine Margaret Thatcher inviting Ted Heath to tea
at Number 10. It is even more difficult to imagine him accepting. He
loathed her and she had no time for him.
It seems that no such constraints have inhibited Gordon Brown or Lady
Thatcher. Only Maggie Smith's portrayal of the British ambassador's
widow in Tea with Mussolini was as brazen as Maggie Thatcher's
acceptance of tea with Gordon.
The official line from her office was that she has enormous respect
for the office of Prime Minister and when you are invited to Number 10
it is proper to accept. That is, of course, true, but the timing and
the manner of her visit were her decision and that of her office.
Don't let science fall foul of the yuck factor
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2170243,00.html
Robert Winston is the latest scientist to find that potential life-
saving research is thwarted by a misplaced public outcry of moral
outrage
Carol Sarler
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
So farewell then, Professor Robert Winston: pioneering doctor,
ennobled scientist, doyen of fertility treatment, visionary researcher
- but, last week, just another pissed-off bloke who's had it up to the
back teeth. His current project, designed to do no more and no less
than save human lives, involves the breeding of genetically modified
pigs that might eventually be used for organ donation for the
thousands of Britons on our lamentably long waiting lists. But ever
more government stalling, more restrictions and more red tape have
forced the work on to so many back burners that Winston and his team
have called time. They are packing up their porkers and taking their
research to Missouri; our loss is most certainly America's gain.
Inflationary spiral could spell an end to era of cheap food
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2169918,00.html
The market is rebalancing as fields are turned over from fuel crops to
biofuel
Heather Stewart and Nick Mathiason
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Parisians are bemoaning the price of a baguette, Italians have
organised a pasta boycott and the Mexican public have held street
protests about the cost of tortillas. Rocketing food prices are
infuriating consumers and pressurising politicians worldwide. But is
this a temporary blip, or has the era of cheap food come to an end?
Part of the problem is short term. Catastrophic droughts and very poor
harvests in many of the world's big food-growing regions, including
Australia, have driven up the price of grains, particularly wheat. In
Britain, meat prices could also rise if the foot-and-mouth crisis
continues.
How Anita made green the colour of the season
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2169922,00.html
The Body Shop founder, who died last week, was once the lone voice of
ethical capitalism. Zoe Wood looks at the generation of entrepreneurs
she inspired
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
That green should be the colour this season is sadly ironic, because
for much of Anita Roddick's life her ethical business credo was deeply
unfashionable.
Retailers were quick to copy the Body Shop's 'natural' beauty products
but have taken a lot longer to copy her thinking. It is only now, more
than 30 years on, that her concerns about the environment and ethical
business practices have truly reached the mainstream, with the
country's biggest retailers, such as Tesco and Marks and Spencer,
jockeying for supremacy on the issue.
Small companies prosper by travelling light
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2169927,00.html
Simon Caulkin
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Like birds that forage on the back of rhinos, a key success factor for
small firms is the ability to move smartly to avoid being crushed by
giant competitors or customers. This is doubly so in information
technology, and double again when the company operates in the public
sector. Take System C Healthcare, which specialises in the dangerous
terrain of healthcare IT, working primarily with the NHS.
System C is at the heart of healthcare computing, working in four out
of five of the regional programmes in Connecting for Health, the
beleaguered =A37bn national programme to computerise the NHS. It is
installing its own software in a =A37.5m contract to replace the Isle of
Man's healthcare systems and is also growing rapidly in the
independent healthcare sector through work on the NHS's new diagnostic
centres. But getting there has required it to develop a sidestep as
sharp as Jonny Wilkinson's.
You can have any gadget you like so long as it's an iPod
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2169931,00.html
John Naughton
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
The iPhone madness continues apace. Last week, the company that had
developed the first software tool for releasing the Apple phone from
its enslavement to AT&T called the bluff of AT&T's lawyers and began
selling iPhoneSimFree - an iPhone unlocking program - for $99.
Someone then bought iPhoneSimFree's software and 'reverse engineered'
it (ie figured out how it managed to alter the phone's internal
configuration). Once the trick was discovered, it was easy to
replicate, and in no time free iPhone unlocking software was
circulating on the net, leaving in its wake two enraged parties: AT&T
(which had hoped that its 'exclusive' deal with Apple would have given
it a competitive advantage), and the iPhoneSimFree folk (who had hoped
to profit from their engineers' ingenuity). The really delicious thing
was that intellectual property law offered neither party comfort or
redress because the trick turned out to be a fact about how Apple's
software worked: something not copyrightable by iPhoneSimFree, and not
patentable in practice.
Darfur: a glimmer of hope on horizon
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170236,00.html
UK envoy finds renewed optimism that UN peacekeepers could bring an
end to the slaughter
Tracy McVeigh, foreign editor
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
A real and unprecedented opportunity for peace in Darfur is emerging
after breakthrough talks between Britain and Khartoum last week,
according to the UK's key envoy to the region, Mark Malloch Brown. A
new optimism is building ahead of next month's crucial talks between
some 13 rebel factions and the Sudanese government in Libya.
Malloch Brown, the Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, met Sudan's
President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday. He said that the meeting had run
on for twice as long as scheduled and that the two men had discussed
'with some emotion' the ancient ties between Britain and Sudan and
prospects for lasting peace in the troubled Darfur region. 'There
suddenly seems a lot of straws to grasp at,' said Malloch Brown. But
he emphasised: 'The Sudanese government did some terrible things and
we stood up against them,' adding: 'There is no room here for blind
trust or naivety.'
Greenspan admits Iraq was about oil, as deaths put at 1.2m
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170237,00.html
Peter Beaumont and Joanna Walters in New York
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
The man once regarded as the world's most powerful banker has bluntly
declared that the Iraq war was 'largely' about oil.
Appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1987 and retired last year after serving
four presidents, Alan Greenspan has been the leading Republican
economist for a generation and his utterings instantly moved world
markets.
In his long-awaited memoir - out tomorrow in the US - Greenspan, 81,
who served as chairman of the US Federal Reserve for almost two
decades, writes: 'I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to
acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.'
Archbishop hits out at policy on Zimbabwe
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170385,00.html
Nicholas Watt, political editor
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
The archbishop of York has launched a sustained attack on the
government's policy towards Zimbabwe, demanding that Gordon Brown end
Britain's 'colonial guilt' and spearhead a campaign of sanctions
against the 'racist' dictatorship of Robert Mugabe.
In an outspoken intervention in which he says that Tony Blair's
'ethical foreign policy' is a distant memory, Dr John Sentamu warns
that Britain can no longer stand by while Mugabe follows the example
of Idi Amin and destroys his country.
Was Israeli raid a dry run for attack on Iran?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170188,00.html
Mystery surrounds last week's air foray into Syrian territory. The
Observer's Foreign Affairs Editor attempts to unravel the truth behind
Operation Orchard and allegations of nuclear subterfuge
Peter Beaumont
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
The head of Israel's airforce, Major-General Eliezer Shkedi, was
visiting a base in the coastal city of Herziliya last week. For the 50-
year-old general, also the head of Israel's Iran Command, which would
fight a war with Tehran if ordered, it was a morale-boosting affair, a
meet-and-greet with pilots and navigators who had flown during last
summer's month-long war against Lebanon. The journalists who had
turned out in large numbers were there for another reason: to question
Shkedi about a mysterious air raid that happened this month, codenamed
'Orchard', carried out deep in Syrian territory by his pilots.
Sarkozy digs in as winter of strikes looms
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170157,00.html
Jason Burke in Paris
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
The battle lines are being drawn, the tear gas and the placards
stockpiled. France is preparing for a political war that is unlikely
to be over by Christmas.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the hyperactive new President, is taking on the self-
proclaimed defenders of the rights of the French worker, the unions.
Not any old unions either, but the railway workers, miners, fishermen,
employees of the vast national electric company and many of the
country's bureaucrats who, as they have proved on numerous occasions,
are capable of paralysing the country.
Musharraf will be re-elected, says his party
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170195,00.html
Associated Press
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
President General Pervez Musharraf will be elected by the Pakistani
parliament for another five-year term in early October, a senior
official of the ruling party said yesterday.
'The presidential election is likely to be held in the first week of
October, and we have enough votes to re-elect President Musharraf for
a new term,' said Mushahid Hussain, the secretary general of the
Pakistan Muslim League.
The electoral college to make the choice will comprise members of the
national assembly, members of the senate and votes from each of the
four provincial assemblies.
Belgium divided as Flanders pushes for a messy divorce
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170156,00.html
Alex Duval Smith in Rhode Saint Genese, Flanders
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
The mayor is a little uncomfortable. 'Could we go somewhere more
private to talk?' begs Myriam Delacroix-Rolin. 'This cafe is Flemish-
owned. These days things have become so sensitive. I should not be
heard speaking French in there.'
On Tuesday, Belgium marks its first 100 days without a government.
There is every reason to believe that the Belgians, and the rest of
us, will have to get used to it. The questions now are how will the
divorce of Flanders and Wallonia be consummated, and what will become
of Brussels, home to the EU and Nato? More worryingly, the demise of
Belgium - a sticking plaster over the faultline between Europe's
Protestant north and Catholic south - could make Europe a more
dangerous place.
Cape Town's white mayor goes to war on drug kingpins
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170177,00.html
Nick Kotch in Johannesburg
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Helen Zille, the white mayor of Cape Town trying to make the
opposition relevant in the new South Africa, will take her campaign to
root out drug dealers back to the streets today, a week after she was
arrested over her participation in another protest.
Zille's Democratic Alliance says today's march in the poor community
of Atlantis, outside Cape Town, has police permission but under the
same tight conditions that she and a dozen other activists were
accused of breaching last weekend in the crime-ridden township of
Mitchells Plain. She will appear in court on 26 October.
First memorial to black victims of Nazi genocide
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170159,00.html
Michael Leidig in Vienna
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
In the vast, agonising mosaic of the Holocaust, Mahjub bin Adam
Mohamed was simply one more piece, one of millions of the Nazis'
victims lost to obscurity without a funeral or a grave.
Now bin Adam is to make history in Germany by becoming the first black
person to be given a memorial in his adopted country as an individual
victim of the genocide of the Third Reich. A Stolperstein - a bronze
'stumbling block' - will be erected on the ground outside the house in
Berlin where he lived.
Gingrich plots revenge on Clintons
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170155,00.html
Firebrand Republican threatens last-minute White House run to end
primary 'chaos' - and stop Hillary
Joanna Walters in Washington
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
One of the most divisive figures in American politics during Bill
Clinton's presidency is contemplating a 'wild-card' run for the White
House in a desperate bid to oppose his old enemy's wife - Democrat
front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Republican Newt Gingrich is so unimpressed with his own party's
'chaotic' line-up of candidates to replace President Bush in the 2008
elections that he has threatened to make a dramatic late entry into
the race.
They're best friends. So why are they separated when the school bell
rings?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170303,00.html
Children forced to stay at home after Irish immigrant education muddle
Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
An emergency all-black primary school set up to teach the children of
African immigrants who have failed to get places in the overloaded
Irish education system has cancelled its launch tomorrow because it is
massively over-subscribed.
The school was originally due to cater for 30 pupils and was supposed
to open tomorrow morning in Balbriggan, a coastal town north of
Dublin. But the education authorities have had to keep the school
gates locked for another week because the families of 120 immigrant
children have applied for places and more classrooms need to be
created.
Troops 'kill civilians'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170196,00.html
Associated Press
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Government troops have committed the worst atrocities of a simmering
conflict in the Central African Republic, burning villages, killing
civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes, a human
rights group said in a report on Friday.
World peace? We can lick that too
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170341,00.html
Ben and Jerry head to London for a UN-backed 'ceasefire' concert
Audio: Ben and Gerry talk to David Smith
David Smith in Burlington, Vermont
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
When they passed a $5 correspondence course on making ice cream and
opened their first shop in a deserted petrol station, Ben and Jerry
were seen as hopeless optimists for believing business could have a
social conscience beyond the bottom line.
Thirty years later and now multi-millionaires, Ben Cohen and Jerry
Greenfield believe the world has caught up. In a rare interview in
their home town in Vermont, the pair identified the rise of ethical
shopping, environmentalism and social activism as proof the creed of
selfish consumerism has had its day.
Stars back the clean green road machine
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170227,00.html
BMW banks on the Arnie factor as it launches new breed of hydrogen car
Ned Temko
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Angelina Jolie has done it. With Brad Pitt, as it happens. But then,
so has Christian Ude, who is staid, 60 and the mayor of Munich. They
have all driven the latest bid by the world's car makers to develop a
'hydrogen car' - in this case, a 'clean energy' version of BMW's top-
of-the-range 7 Series. A hundred of the cars, which can alternate
between hydrogen and petrol power, have rolled off the company's
assembly line in Germany since the end of last year.
Faith schools 'cherry picking'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2170337,00.html
Report reveals that London schools are selecting proportionately more
white, middle-class pupils
Jamie Doward and Anushka Asthana
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Faith schools are 'cherry picking' too many children from affluent
families and contributing to racial and religious segregation,
according to the most extensive research of its kind, based on the
government's own data.
The findings - which last night drew a fierce response from the Church
of England - will reignite the debate about the role of religion in
the education system and come as the government attempts to reassure
critics that faith schools do not favour the selection of middle-
class, white pupils.
Costs deter foreign students
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2170262,00.html
Growing numbers say British university courses do not provide value
for money and look to US for education, study finds
Anushka Asthana, education correspondent
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Britain's reputation as a world-leading destination for international
students could be under threat as new research reveals that almost 30
per cent do not think the education they receive is worth the money.
As competition from universities in the United States, Australia and
the rest of Europe heightens, the study by the Higher Education Policy
Institute (HEPI), released later this month, will not make comfortable
reading for vice-chancellors who depend on income from overseas
students.
Bishop warns that Muslims who convert risk being killed
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2170160,00.html
Jamie Doward, home affairs editor
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
One of the Church of England's most senior bishops is warning that
people will die unless Muslim leaders in Britain speak out in defence
of the right to change faith.
Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, whose father converted
from Islam to Christianity in Pakistan, says he is looking to Muslim
leaders in Britain to 'uphold basic civil liberties, including the
right for people to believe what they wish to believe and to even
change their beliefs if they wish to do so'.
Was God the real creator?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2170009,00.html
Lively, erudite and combative, Peter Conrad's Creation explores the
controversial field of artistic inspiration and divine intervention,
says Richard Harries
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Creation: Artists, Gods & Origins
by Peter Conrad
Thames and Hudson =A324.95, pp592
Towards the end of his life, Matisse designed a chapel near his villa
at Vence in the south of France. On the white ceramic tiles, he
quickly drew some stations of the Cross in black paint. When a
Dominican suggested that the artist had been inspired by God, Matisse
replied with a serious joke: 'Yes, but that god is me.'
How Hitler got away with murder
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2170013,00.html
Saul Friedlander's The Years of Extermination traces the Nazis'
insidious campaign of genocide and Europe's failure to stand up for
the Jews, says Tim Gardam
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews 1939-1945
by Saul Friedlander
Weidenfeld & Nicolson =A330, pp896
In the summer of 1941, Herman Kruk was living in Lithuania. He had
fled Warsaw two years earlier to escape the German invasion. This time
he decided to stay, and wrote in his diary: 'If I am going to be a
victim of fascism, I shall take pen in hand and write a chronicle ...
The Germans will turn the city fascist. Jews will go into the ghetto -
I shall record it all. My chronicle ... must become the mirror and the
conscience of the great catastrophe.'
Take the rough with the smooth
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2170015,00.html
Nigella Lawson's Nigella Express goes head to head with Jamie Oliver's
Jamie at Home, says Paul Levy
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Nigella Express, by Nigella Lawson. Chatto & Windus =A325, pp400
Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life, by Jamie Oliver.
Michael Joseph =A325, pp408
Here's a test of the claim, which dates back to Apicius and antiquity,
that male cooks write better books than females. In Nigella Lawson's
and Jamie Oliver's new books, we have contrasting visions of the
foodie good life. Jamie's introduction indeed acknowledges the
influence of The Good Life's Barbara and Tom, 'the couple who didn't
have much, but grew everything themselves', and contrasts their lot
with 'the posh couple called Margo and Jerry'. 'Who,' he asks, 'did we
all aspire to be?'
An honourable heir to Joseph Conrad
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2170018,00.html
Ronan Bennett's Zugzwang, first serialised in The Observer, offers an
intense analysis of life under the tsars, says Nick Greenslade
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Zugzwang
by Ronan Bennett
Bloomsbury =A314.99, pp334
'Cruelty and violent death were not just part of St Petersburg life in
the way they are routinely in any great capital, but were the very
essence of a city stalked by revolution.' With these words, Dr Otto
Spethmann, psychoanalyst, narrator and protagonist, sets the scene for
Zugzwang
The year is 1914. The Russian poor live in squalor and revolutionary
Bolshevism is stepping up its assault on the regime. Bomb explosions
are almost daily occurrences. Whispers of conspiracies and counter-
conspiracies, not all of them the work of informers run by the secret
police, the Okhrana, blow through the streets and restaurants. Within
the tsarist court, factions vie for influence, their rivalry given
added intensity by the imminence of war and whether the country should
side with France or Germany.
With a little help from your friends
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2170017,00.html
The bold new vision of Wikinomics by Dan Tapscott and Anthony D
Williams is hamstrung by leaden prose, says Ruth Sunderland
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
by Dan Tapscott and Anthony D Williams
Atlantic Books =A316.99, pp324
Wikinomics, billed by the authors of this book as 'the new art and
science of collaboration', is the idea that in the future, bosses
will, metaphorically, have to knock down the walls of their companies
in order to succeed. Instead of relying on limited internal resources
to innovate, they will use mass collaboration and open-source
technology such as wikis. The word 'wiki', from the Hawaiian for
'quick', means software that allows users to edit content on the
internet; online encyclopedia Wikipedia is the best-known example.
The Thames it's not a-changin'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2170031,00.html
Peter Ackroyd's Thames is an accomplished account of the capital's
oldest artery, says Tim Adams
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
Thames: Sacred River
by Peter Ackroyd
Chatto & Windus =A325, pp490
The Thames is one of the few places left where you can still hear the
cries of a bygone London. Take a riverboat from Embankment to
Greenwich and you'll be rewarded by the immemorial strains of the
capital's oldest jokes, passed down among the watermen from father to
son. As you chug past an office block clad entirely in glass, for
example, one of these fine chaps will tell you it's the headquarters
of the window cleaners' union.
Holding back the years
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2168142,00.html
Ageing is a disease that can be cured. This is the radical claim that
has made biomedical theorist Aubrey de Grey a popular hero of
gerontology - and a maverick among the science community. Tom
Templeton meets the man who wants us to live for 1,000 years
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
The Queen's College, Cambridge dining hall is a Seventies version of
the great dining hall of Hogwarts in Harry Potter. It's the summer
holiday and delegates at the second SENS conference break bread on
long beechwood tables under the oil-paint gazes of great kings and
academics, now dead.
Among these diners are the wizards of the 21st century: molecular
biologists who study the building blocks and mechanisms of the body -
what keeps us alive, what kills us, in essence - in order that humans
might gain greater control over their lives and deaths. The wizards
have their different theories, sources of funding, loyalties and
groups of acolytes. The world of biological research is in some ways a
democratic world of shared humanistic aims, but it is also steeply
hierarchical - from lab technicians at the bottom, up to Nobel prize
winners - and much of the direction in which science travels is
decided by the high-status personalities. These eminent men and women
sit on public and private funding boards that decide where the money
spent on health research and development ($126bn in 2003) should go.
They build their reputations by publishing papers in journals and
presiding over laboratories that make important breakthroughs,
creating something where there was nothing, and changing our futures.
The search for Shangri-La
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2168147,00.html
It is the mythical valley in the Orient which promises sanctuary and
eternal serenity. But Shangri-La is also a tattoo parlour in east
London, a guesthouse in Whitley Bay and a turkey farm in Stevenage.
Danny Buckland hears the stories of five people who have found their
paradise on earth ...
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
In an age of disintegrating certainties, it seems everyone is
searching for sanctuary, a personal Shangri-La. But how do you get
there? Well, the easiest way is down the B6506 and it's just before
you go under the A1 Stevenage bypass ...
For those on the trail of a real Shangri-La, the UK has at least 20 on
offer, though none is quite like the fabled Himalayan valley that
promised tranquillity and lasting youth in the inspiringly hopeful
novel of the Thirties, Lost Horizon. Author James Hilton invented the
name Shangri-La for a paradise on earth in a book that captured the
imagination of a public dealing with financial hardships and the
threat of Nazism.
Dom Joly: Gillette is at the cutting edge of the war on terror
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/dom_joly/article2966897.ece
Published: 16 September 2007
One of the weirdest things my dad ever told me was "never trust a man
with a beard". I've always wondered what happened to him that might
have corrupted his view of hairy faces? He was in the Fleet Air Arm
during the Second World War and I believe that they weren't allowed to
grow beards so maybe he's always associated them with conscientious
objectors. I'd ask him but we're not speaking right now because I have
a three-day growth.
How things have changed. I was listening on the radio the other day to
a soldier who had just returned from Afghanistan. He was being
interviewed because, while out there, he and his comrades had been
told to grow beards in an attempt to "show respect for the Pashtun
culture".
Rupert Cornwell: Out of America
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2966969.ece
It would be easier to promote political freedom around the world if
DC's own citizens were finally able to vote
Published: 16 September 2007
Washington DC is undeniably a gorgeous city. Wander around the
imperial capital and you cannot fail to be impressed by its splendid
vistas and monuments, its elegant public buildings. But all is not
what it seems: shift your eyes for a moment from the white marble
facades to the local car numberplates. "Taxation without
Representation," they say.
This may be the seat of government of the most powerful country on
Earth. But it's also America's last colony, whose inhabitants have yet
to get the vote. Now, more than two centuries after Washington DC came
into being, that may finally be about to change.
Martin Bell: British arms are killing the world's children
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2966896.ece
The Government signed up to the anti-personnel mines treaty, so why
not call for a ban on cluster bombs, which are just as evil?
Published: 16 September 2007
The 10th anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty, which falls on Tuesday,
reminds us that the advocates of arms control do occasionally have
real achievements to celebrate. Ten years after that landmark treaty,
the UK government now needs to find the courage to call an end to the
use of cluster bombs.
The UK was an influential supporter of a ban on the manufacture, sale
and export of anti-personnel mines. As a result of that treaty, the
use of these abhorrent weapons has all but ceased. An estimated 39
million of these devices have been destroyed internationally. The
world is a safer place as a result. This is more than gesture
politics: it is real and effective disarmament.
Victims of the death squads: One family's harrowing story of kidnap
and murder in Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2966961.ece
Nadia Hayali tells Kim Sengupta of the day her family were seized and
she lost her husband, a story that gives the lie to claims that US
forces are succeeding in Baghdad
Published: 16 September 2007
Anyone who believes that the American-led "surge" in Iraq is
succeeding should hear the story of Mohammed and Nadia al-Hayali. Both
fluent in English - Nadia, who was born in Montpellier, also speaks
French - they were the kind of well-educated, modern Iraqis who should
have been the driving force behind a new secular democracy. Yet
Mohammed is believed dead at the hands of kidnappers who seized the
whole family, and Nadia is living the miserable half-life of the exile
with their two children in Jordan.
While the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, spouted
statistics in Washington last week to indicate that progress was being
made in the Iraqi capital - suicide bombings down, fewer sectarian
murders - what happened to the Hayalis dispels this carefully
constructed impression of greater normality. Simply to recount my
friendship with them demonstrates how far Baghdad has sunk.
Nato comes clean on cluster bombs
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2966970.ece
Eight years on, Serbia is finally told where munitions fell
By Brian Brady, Whitehall Editor
Published: 16 September 2007
Nato chiefs will this week finally tell the Serbian government where
they drop-ped thousands of cluster bombs during the Kosovo campaign,
more than eight years after the bombardment finished.
Allied commanders have bowed to mounting pressure from foreign
governments and pressure groups and will hand over full coordinates
for the hundreds of bombing sorties. Belgrade hopes this could
pinpoint thousands of unexploded munitions still littering parts of
the country.
'I've lost': cocaine warlord's $5m bribe
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2966886.ece
Anti-corruption drive paves way for biggest scalp since Escobar in
never-ending war
By Andrew Gumbel
Published: 16 September 2007
When Colombia's most notorious drug lord, Diego Montoya, was cornered
by a special army commando unit on a remote coastal ranch last week,
he did what came naturally: he offered the soldiers $5m each if they
would let him go free.
The move wasn't quite as desperate as it sounds. As an ever-growing
scandal in Colombia has revealed in recent weeks, Montoya has
successfully bribed a large number of military and police personnel
for years, to facilitate his cocaine shipments to the United States.
To date, 26 officers, both commissioned and non-commissioned, have
been arrested, two generals have resigned and the spotlight has now
turned on an admiral in the Colombian navy.
Briefing: Japan in turmoil as prime minister steps down
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2966899.ece
Opposition Democrats call for election after resignation of Liberal
premier whose government was rocked by 12 months of financial scandals
By David McNeill
Published: 16 September 2007
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe abruptly announced his resignation
last week throwing his party - the ruling Liberal Democrats (LDP) -
into chaos and leaving the world's second-largest economy rudderless.
The party will select a successor next weekend.
'Surge' hit by fresh al-Qa'ida threats
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2966962.ece
By Raymond Whitaker
Published: 16 September 2007
President George Bush, reinforcing the message that the US troops
"surge" is making progress, said yesterday that more American forces
would start moving into a support role by the end of the year. In
December, Mr Bush said in his weekly radio address, the US would begin
a new military phase, in which "our troops will shift over time from
leading operations to partnering with Iraqi forces, and eventually to
over-watching those forces."
Following last week's report by General David Petraeus, the supreme US
commander in Iraq, the Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, suggested
troop levels could fall as low as 100,000 by the end of 2008.
Loaded generation: The lives of Britain's new super-rich
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2962167.ece
They're the new elite, whose vast wealth is changing the social fabric
of Britain. Yet to most of us, the super-rich remain a mystery. Just
how different are their lives to ours? Are they happy? And how would
they feel if they lost it all tomorrow? Here, seven tycoons tell
all...
Introduction by Stephen Bayley
Published: 16 September 2007
I am a millionaire. It sounds grand, but nowadays does not mean very
much. Anybody who owns an even modestly sized house in London has
assets of more than a million. That's the conventional measure of what
it is to be a "millionaire", although there is no strict methodology.
So far as the Oxford English Dictionary is concerned, the term goes
back no later than 1826 and is defined as "a person possessed of a
'million of money' as million pounds, dollars, francs". That's exactly
what I feel. Once you are into six-plus zeros, I am indifferent to the
actual currency.
But, by 2007, the concept of millionaire has been inflated to near
meaninglessness. The old graffitto "as soon as I find out where it's
at, they move it", now applies to the idea of being rich. Today, a
million in assets - even unencumbered assets - is scarcely a measure
of great wealth. When a studio flat in Clapham costs =A3250,000 and the
private bank Coutts expects all new account holders to have =A3500,000
liquid, a starter-pack seven-figure income does not go very far. Maybe
a million in annual income is what we need to qualify. I asked Dennis
Hall of Yellowtail, a financial advisor that specialises in the care
and maintenance of the prosperous, how much money generates a million
a year. He said, "Around =A335m would create a return of about =A31m, with
scope for annual increases in line with inflation and preserving the
capital value. This assumes a mix of assets, an overall tax rate year-
on-year of 30 per cent and a 4-per-cent net yield."
Obama continues to embrace social networking tools
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/09/15/obama-continues-to-embrace-soci=
al-networking-tools/
posted in distributed-learning, dsn, web 2.0, politics |
Dan Pink's latest blog post concerns U.S. Presidential hopeful Barack
Obama and his use of the Linked In social network to query voters with
the following question:
How can the next president better help small business and
entrepreneurs thrive?
As of this writing, Senator Obama has received over 1481 replies.
Just as teachers need to embrace blended learning methodologies to
provide students with differentiated pathways for learning as well as
assessment, politicians (who are smart) need to do the same thing.
Senator Obama, in this context, is modeling "best practices" in the
political realm with the use of social media for communication. Does a
presidential candidate and U.S. senator have time to ask any question
in person to over one thousand people and listen to the answer?
Unfortunately, no. Neither does a teacher usually have time in a 50
minute classperiod to listen to each student respond to a question
requiring reflective thought and discernment.
Obama Supporters March
http://rochesterturning.com/2007/09/15/obama-supporters-march/
by Itchy on September 15, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
Supporters of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama marched
down Monroe Ave today under stormy skies. They were an energetic
bunch, eliciting applause and high-fives from passerbys, and frequent
honking and thumbs-ups from passing motorists. I'm so heartened by
this: a group of Democrats passionately supporting a primary candidate
on the streets of my neighborhood. Some young, some old. Some black,
some white. It was a beautiful sight.
Edwards Calls Obama "Kumbaya" Candidate, While Edwards' Staff
Discriminates Against Black Bloggers
http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2007/09/edwards-calls-obama-kumbaya-can=
didate.html
One of the reasons that many Black bloggers refuse to participate in
the whitosphere is "bloglist apartheid." Many pseudo-progressive
whitosphere bloggers simply refuse to link to any Black blogs in their
bloglists. Although not universal in the whitosphere, some white
bloggers' bloglists evince a clear policy of pretending that Black-
operated blogs ("Black self-determination blogs") don't exist at all.
Tracy Joan says she "works" on behalf of John Edwards at DailyKos.
Look at her bloglist. Because I'm no expert on whitosphere blogs, I
cannot say with utter certainty that none of the blogs on her bloglist
is Black owned and operated. I likewise cannot assert with utter
certainly that none of the blogs on her bloglist is owned and operated
by Latinos.
Middle East McCarthyism
http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=3D26225
Zbigniew Brzezinski is under fire. What better time than the Jewish
New Year to discuss it?
It's The Book brouhaha, take two (and counting).
..=2E. Second degree McCarthyism! Obama didn't do anything. Brzezinski
didn't do anything. But Walt and Mearsheimer wrote a book the lobby
does not like and so Brzezinski must go down for not condemning it.
Plenty of Good News For Obama
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/15/16338/4994
by lovingj
Sat Sep 15, 2007 at 01:03:38 PM PDT
Barack Obama has been making some real headway in the presidential
primaries in the last few days. He leads among all of the
presidential primary candidates in money raised from the military. He
has just recieve four key endorsements in Iowa yesterday from Iowa
State Senators Rich Olive of Story City, Frank Wood of Eldridge,
Representative Helen Miller of Fort Dodge and Representative Janet
Peterson of Des Moines. Finally, the icing on the cake is Barack
Obama being recognize by the League of Conservation Voters as having
the highest environmental rating of any of the presidential
candidates.
Obama doing well with military, environmentalists
http://sambali.blogspot.com/2007/09/obama-doing-well-with-military.html
A report by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics shows that
Barack Obama leads all other presidential candidates in donations from
people in the military. Ron Paul, another candidate who like Obama
opposes the Iraq War, was in second place.
Bush advisers' paths diverge as end nears
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/09/16/0916mckinno=
ndowd.html
Dowd steps back from campaigns; McKinnon still active
By Ken Herman
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Sunday, September 16, 2007
WASHINGTON - They were converts who became true believers in the
anointed son of a Republican patriarch.
One was in charge of spreading the word. The other, with evangelical
zeal and polling know-how, helped target it.
Wonk If You're Wary: Candidates, Policy and Answers in Campaign 2008
http://thinkobama.blogspot.com/2007/09/wonk-if-youre-wary-candidates-policy=
..html
[As I mentioned previously, a comment posted by
ridingonthetrainwithnodoughsucks started me thinking about a few
things, and I decided to explore those ideas in a post, rather than
reply by comment. This may not be the blog norm, but I thought I'd try
it out. Several hours later, I find myself with this extremely long
result. -JN]
The public debate in the 2008 election cycle is putting a great deal
of weight on "THE ANSWERS" to major policy questions. While I'm
certainly not going to suggest that we ought to be nostalgic for a
politics driven by intangible, subjective and manufactured notions of
mythic personality traits, I do think that ridingottwnds' comment
begins with some apt illustrations of how askew our framework for
practical discussion has become.
.
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