Observing tradition
Jonathan Freedland
September 21, 2007 1:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_freedland/2007/09/observing_tr=
adition.html
I've been wondering about the new Chelsea manager, Avram Grant. Not,
like everyone else, pondering whether he'll be able to pull off a win
against Manchester United on Sunday, thereby making an early claim to
keep the job he's just been handed. No, I'm wondering what he'll be
doing tonight and tomorrow - and whether he'll be eating anything.
For tonight sees the start of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and the
most solemn point in the Jewish calendar (the Jewish day runs from
sunset to sunset). Tradition demands that Jews consume no food or
drink for those 25 hours and refrain from all work. So will Grant, the
former Israel national coach, observe that tradition, taking a day off
on the eve of one of the most important moments in his career - or
will he decide the job matters more?
A cowardly response
Yvonne Roberts
September 21, 2007 12:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/yvonne_roberts/2007/09/cowardly_respons=
e=2Ehtml
Is there a collective compulsion within this government to criminalise
every child in the land? Ministers are now urging schools to involve
police in the most serious cases of cyberbullying of pupils and staff
in a new crackdown on the "unacceptable" and "insidious" use of new
technology.
They say some instances might break criminal or civil law protecting
people from threatening communications and could lead to Asbos. Asbos?
Now, there's a change. Police intervention, along with that of mobile
phone and web companies, is apparently needed to track the digital
footprint of perpetrators.
The seven-year solution
Kate Connolly
September 21, 2007 12:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/kate_connolly/2007/09/the_seven_year_so=
lution.html
Ever since the departure of Joschka Fischer from the stage, German
politics has been in need of a colourful character. It seems to have
found one in the shape of Gabriele Pauli, a red-haired motorcyclist
who is hoping to take over the leadership of Bavaria's Christian
Social Union at the end of the month.
The CSU - in what is after all the Pope's homeland - is the most
conservative force in Germany, so it is no wonder that Ms Pauli has
created such a stir within the party - and beyond - with her solution
to one of life's givens - the seven-year itch.
Debt's reckoning
Anne Wollenberg
September 21, 2007 11:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/anne_wollenberg/2007/09/anne_wollenberg=
..html
Personal debt has reached record levels. "Up and down the country,
families are being stretched to breaking-point by their money
worries", Joanna Moorhead writes.
Being in debt is scary. Nobody wants to be afraid of their own
doormat. But when the letters start arriving, you have to ask
yourself: how did you get there? Being in debt is a trap all right,
but it only goes off when you reach for the cheese.
Lost in translation
Inayat Bunglawala
September 21, 2007 11:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/inayat_bunglawala/2007/09/it_is_islamic=
_custom_to.html
It is Islamic custom to try and complete the reading of the Qur'an
during the current fasting month of Ramadan.
Although I attended an after-school madrasa in Bolton in the late
1970's for several years and recited the Qur'an there daily, it left
very little impression on me at the time - mainly, I suppose, because
I could hardly understand a word of the Arabic language I was reciting
it in and it did not appear to have occurred to the teachers at the
madrasa to explain to us the meaning of what we were being asked to
read.
Toy story
Kwame McKenzie
September 21, 2007 10:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/kwame_mckenzie/2007/09/toy_story.html
If a four-year old girl says that she does not like herself because
she is black you might think that she and her family need therapy. If
three-quarters of black school entrants say the same, then perhaps
society is the problem.
That was the conclusion of Americans over 50 years ago. Kenneth Clark,
the celebrated psychologist, used the results from his black-white
doll experiment conducted in the 1930s and 1940s to argue that
segregated schools were bad. In the experiment he gave primary school
kids a choice of two dolls - a white one and a black one. He asked
them questions such as which one they would like to play with, which
one was nice and which one was bad. He finished by asking: "Which one
is like you?"
Remember the members
John McDonnell
September 21, 2007 10:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_mcdonnell/2007/09/remember_the_mem=
bers.html
I read Peter Hain's article yesterday on Cif and thought "God has it
really come to this!" I admit to feeling anger but more so an immense
personal sadness that someone who was such a fine radical as Peter had
come to resort to such self-serving sophistry. Arthur Koestler's novel
Darkness at Noon came to mind. The next steps on from this craven
performance of justifying the leader's every contortion are
confessions of guilt for crimes against the party and show trials.
Why such anger? Well, because so much is at stake - the last vestiges
of democracy in a once great party that was founded to give democratic
voice to those that were powerless and had no voice.
We need a new sexual revolution
Theo Hobson
September 21, 2007 9:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/theo_hobson/2007/09/we_need_a_new_sexua=
l_revolutio.html
Fifty years after the Wolfenden report we need another sexual
revolution, one that brings some honesty.
Honesty about sex is difficult. It is more difficult than the
evangelists of sexual frankness suppose. At present, discussion of sex
resembles a swimming pool: all the noise comes from the shallow end.
It is dominated by giggling shrieking shouting bores. Those who have a
public platform are likely to be "new feminists".
Informing choice
Abdurahman Jafar
September 21, 2007 9:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/abdurahman_jafar/2007/09/informing_choi=
ce.html
As a teenager I experimented by not washing my long locks for over 18
months. The idea was that natural oils would circulate and eliminate
the need for washing. The natural oils did take over but so did a
pungent smell, a disadvantage outweighed by my hair becoming matted
into cool dreadlocks.
Nicky Taylor's excellent experiment in How Dirty Can I Get? went one
step further: she eliminated cleaning and all applications of
cosmetics for just over a month. Not only did Nicky find her skin
"glow" after a month but she found that that the cyst in her eyes
disappeared and her Irritable Bowl Syndrome (IBS) condition had
considerably improved.
The Lebanese labyrinth
Michael Young
September 20, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_young/2007/09/the_lebanese_laby=
rinth.html
Lebanon is poised to hold a presidential election that none of its
contending factions - indeed, none of the rival factions in the region
- can afford to lose.
Let's start with Syria. In 2005, President Bashar Assad's regime was
forced to withdraw its army from Lebanon, following the assassination
of former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq Hariri. Syria is widely
believed to have been responsible for the crime, and domestic Lebanese
and international pressure helped force Syria's pullout. In a speech
soon thereafter, Assad warned that nothing could sever the Syrian-
Lebanese relationship.
Mervyn's terrible misjudgement
Will Hutton
September 20, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/will_hutton/2007/09/mervyns_terrible_mi=
sjudgement.html
A few days ago Britainwas witnessing the first public run on a bank
since the crisis at Overend Gurney in 1866. For 150 years the banking
system has survived wars, depressions, oil shocks, national strikes
and the inflation of the 1970s without even the threat of a bank run.
Americans, Europeans and Japanese have suffered them but not the
British -- one of the important reasons for confidence in London as a
financial centre. But the banking system's reputation has not survived
the tenure of Mervyn King as governor of the Bank of England.
On Monday there was a grave risk the flight of depositors from
Northern Rock would spread, engendering a full-scale banking crisis
with the most serious economic implications. Then came the U-turn that
reversed the Bank of England's statements. Northern Rock was bailed
out, every depositors' cash would be safe in full as would other
depositors in banks in trouble, and yesterday we learned mortgage-
backed commercial paper (lines of credit) could be presented at the
Bank's discount window, a key measure to get the money market between
London's banks working again.
Raising the red flags
Quin Hillyer
September 20, 2007 8:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/quin_hillyer/2007/09/raising_the_red_fl=
ags.html
I can just hear the newscast now: "And in other news, Paris Hilton has
been adjudged a model of modesty, Jack the Ripper was a hero of the
women's rights movement, and Vlad the Impaler was really a convivial
kebab chef in Soho ..."
All nonsense, of course - but no more nonsensical than an absurdly
tendentious article in the September 19 front section of the
Washington Post that somehow equates the Red Army in the second world
war with freedom fighters. Naturally, the point of the bizarre article
is to attack a Republican: the article's intended target and its
strange statement of supposed "facts" about the Red Army both provide
a perfect case study for why American conservatives take such umbrage
at the so-called "mainstream media" establishment here.
The nuclear culprits
John Gittings
September 20, 2007 7:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_gittings/2007/09/the_nuclear_culpr=
its.html
Can there possibly be a current global issue on which the United
States and North Korea, plus Iran and China and just six other
countries, line up against the rest of the world? Even professionals
in international affairs might rack their brains, but the answer can
be found this week at an under-reported conference in Vienna.
More than 100 countries are attending the meeting of the Comprehensive
Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) organisation, the fifth held since it
was signed in 1996. They are trying to persuade 10 countries whose
refusal to sign and/or to ratify the treaty means that it cannot take
effect.
Decadent perversity
Sidney Blumenthal
September 20, 2007 7:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sidney_blumenthal/2007/09/decadent_perv=
ersity.html
There has never been a moment when we were not winning in Iraq.
Victory has followed victory, from "Mission Accomplished" to the
purple fingers of the Iraqi election to, most recently, President
Bush's meeting at Camp Cupcake in Anbar province with Abdul-Sattar Abu
Risha, the Sunni leader of the group Anbar Awakening (who was
assassinated a week later).
Turning point has followed turning point, from Bush's proclamation two
years ago of his "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" to his
announcement last week of his "Return on Success". "We're kicking
*****," he briefed the Australian deputy prime minister on Sept. 6 about
his latest visit to Iraq.
Iran executes more Arabs
Peter Tatchell
September 20, 2007 6:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2007/09/iran_executes_mo=
re_arabs.html
The Islamic Republic of Iran has executed three more Arab political
prisoners, just days after a visit from the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Louise Arbour. In further defiance of the UN and
international law, four more Arabs face imminent execution.
There have been no protests from Britain, the EU or the UN. The UN's
silence comes on top of the truly appalling vote by UN Human Rights
Council to abandon its monitoring of human rights abuses in Iran.
Protecting our assets
Daniel Davies
September 20, 2007 6:15 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/daniel_davies/2007/09/protecting_our_as=
sets.html
I've been reading Dan Hind's excellent book "The Threat to Reason".
One of the main themes of the book is that the term the Enlightenment
is being quite badly abused by some people who have half a grasp on
the concept, but who seem to be using it simply as branding for their
own personal program of picking fights. This, of course, rather
devalues the Enlightenment itself - if all that the Enlightenment
means is us picking a fight with the ignorant barbarians of the world,
it's not surprising that support for it is rather half-hearted.
Dan's argument is that the Enlightenment needs to be reclaimed as a
project of openness and scientific inquiry - that supporters of the
Enlightenment need to walk the talk when it comes to their commitment
to rationalism and liberty, not just accept the spraying-on of these
values to the latest piece of war propaganda or corporate marketing
material. The values of the Enlightenment are the public property of
all of us, not the private property of a small group of neoliberal
interests.
Sir Richard loses his virginity
Alastair Harper
September 20, 2007 5:45 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/alastair_harper/2007/09/sir_richard_los=
es_his_virginit.html
Sir Richard Branson has sold up his first love, the Virgin record
store chain, and left it in the hands of his management. The new
owners are led by the old managing director, Simon Douglas, and the
finance director Steve Peckham, stepping out of beardie's shadow and
roaring their own financially secure cry of freedom.
Presumably the first thing they did on being given the keys to the
castle was to erect a bonfire built on unsold New Kids on the Block
vinyl in the middle of the office and place an effigy of their former
master on to the black, stinking chemical flames. We know what the
second thing they did was: to take down the old king's colours. By
November the name Virgin will have vanished from all the stores to be
replaced with the new title Zavvi.
The Ming thing
Martin Kettle
September 20, 2007 5:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/martin_kettle/2007/09/the_ming_thing.ht=
ml
Politics is a cruel trade. Sit and read the text of Menzies Campbell's
leader's speech to the Liberal Democrats in Brighton and you will read
a meaty and distinctive liberal address in a long and great tradition.
The speech had big themes - the bold distinctiveness of the Lib Dem
vision, the willingness to plough an independent furrow rather than
follow the media consensus, the need for the party to be on an
election footing.
There was an impressively large rhetorical idea and a powerful sense
of history, in which Campbell set out the case for the "five freedoms"
of opportunity, good health, personal security, prosperity for all and
a clean environment as a counterpoint to Beveridge's famous "five
giants" of want, disease, ignorance, squalor and ideleness. The speech
didn't dwell overmuch on yesterday's achievements on Iraq, on which
Campbell's record is so strong, and had nicely honed tweaks on some of
the party's special interest subjects, such as farming or Scottish
devolution. There was plenty of strong liberal principle, on civil
liberties, internationalism, local control and climate change. It was,
in short, a fine address which showcased why, across the board, the
Liberal Democrats offer something necessary, good and different from
the other parties.
The Lib Dem conference: the bloggers' view
Mary Clarke
September 20, 2007 4:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mary_clarke/2007/09/lib_dems_the_blogge=
rs_view.html
Stephen Tall thinks coverage of the Lib Dem conference this year was
too caught up in the debate over Sir Menzies Campbell's leadership.
Shane Greer is one of those: he notes that in the runup to possible
snap election Ming Campbell is "simply hobbling down the path of
political oblivion at an ever more depressing (for the Lib Dems at
least) rate." But at least he's blissfully unaware of the situation.
The questions casting a shadow over proceedings in sunny Brighton this
week were "Is Sir Menzies Campbell's time up?" "When will he go" and
"Who will replace him?" A distracting line of questioning not helped
by Ming's unfortunate photocall or the money quote in his question and
answer session with Sandi Toksvig "Well, I must be a failure then".
A new kind of politics
Peter Hain
September 20, 2007 4:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_hain/2007/09/a_new_kind_of_politi=
cs_1.html
In the good old days Labour party delegates used to go to annual
conference with well-organised strategies to defeat the leadership. As
we often did.
While those may have been exciting times for delegates, recalled today
with fondness, the outcome was awful for Labour supporters. The long
nights spent in meetings drafting composites did not lead to the
implementation of those carefully crafted, idealised policy positions.
Instead, they consigned us to 18 years of gloriously argumentative
opposition.
The ties that bind
Fiona Millar
September 20, 2007 4:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/fiona_millar/2007/09/the_ties_that_bind=
..html
Its that old school tie again. It pops up everywhere. Even after 10
years of vaguely progressive education policies, the top private
schools get proportionately more students into the top universities.
Forget decent A level results. Even the best grammars and those
comprehensives that parents move, rent, lie and start taking holy
communion for are swamped when it comes to Oxbridge entry.
Hornets' nest in the Horn of Africa
Simon Tisdall
September 20, 2007 3:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_tisdall/2007/09/hornets_nest_in_t=
he_horn.html
Eritrea looks set to be designated the world's newest "rogue state" as
the list of Bush administration grievances against the tiny Horn of
Africa country lengthens. But growing US pressure may succeed only in
fuelling and conflating barely contained regional conflicts, including
Somalia's civil war, separatist strife in the Ogaden and the long-
running Eritrea-Ethiopia border dispute.
Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for Africa,
complained during a visit to Addis Ababa this month that Eritrea's
capital, Asmara, was becoming a safe haven for Islamist terrorists
from across east Africa. Ms Frazer took particular exception to a
recent conference there of Somali opposition groups including Sheikh
Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts
movement that was forced from power last winter by invading Ethiopian
troops.
Slow progress
Sunder Katwala
September 20, 2007 3:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sunder_katwala/2007/09/slow_progress.ht=
ml
That the Liberal Democrats are a party whose heart beats on the centre-
left has been clear from this week's party conference debates.
The party is becoming as evangelical about climate change as it has
long been about constitutional reform. Vince Cable's central theme was
the need to redistribute the tax burden to address inequality (though
his leader today champions a populist tuition fees policy which fails
the redistribution test). Nick Clegg's thought-through proposals on
earned citizenship have put the difficult, but probably unavoidable,
issue of regularisation of illegal immigrants into the political
mainstream. The overall tone has been notably different from the
Orange Book mania of three years ago.
How Jim Callaghan changed the world
Neil Clark
September 20, 2007 2:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/neil_clark/2007/09/how_jim_callaghan_ch=
anged_the.html
Twenty nine years ago this month, a decision was made by a Labour
party leader whose consequences still reverberate around the world
today. Prime Minister James Callaghan stunned the nation by announcing
that he was not going to call an autumn election. Instead, he
announced he would carry on until the following year. It was to prove
a catastrophic misjudgement.
Suppose Callaghan had called an election in September 1978 and won- as
most opinion polls said he would. How might things have been
different?
Which way, Jose?
Simon Hattenstone
September 20, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_hattenstone/2007/09/which_way_jos=
e=2Ehtml
I've always wanted to say this, and now's my big chance. YOU READ IT
HERE FIRST. Yes, good readers, I did write these very words but two
weeks ago in the Guardian newspaper, just after Boss Abramovich walked
out on Chelsea when they were losing at Villa.
"=2E.. it's hard to picture [Mourinho] bowing and scraping his way back
into Boss Abramovich's favour. I sense another walkout looming at
Chelsea."
Mutually inclusive
Jackie Ashley
September 20, 2007 1:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jackie_ashley/2007/09/mutually_inclusiv=
e=2Ehtml
You don't get many nationally significant moments at a Lib Dem
conference. It isn't their fault; it's just true. But there was one
such moment on Wednesday evening in Brighton. We got our first proper
sight of an organisation that will be at the centre of national
arguments, and perhaps solutions, for many years to come.
It has a slightly cumbersome title, the Commission for Equality and
Human Rights, though CEHR may eventually become almost as well-known
an acronym as TUC or NHS. It is formally launched on October 1, will
be based in Manchester, not London; and in Trevor Phillips it has a
boss who is already a well-known national figure. But above all, it
has an extraordinarily ambitious role. It's going to provoke plenty of
front-page stories and passionate rows.
Lucky number 10,000
Open Thread
September 20, 2007 1:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2007/09/lucky_number_10000.=
html
After just 18 months of service Comment is free is on the brink of
publishing its 10,000th blog. Just before we cross this important
marker and begin hastily commissioning another 10,000 blogs, we
thought we would pause for a moment of reflection.
Nice try, but ...
Peter Tatchell
September 20, 2007 12:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2007/09/nice_try_but.html
Whatever you think of Gordon Brown and New Labour, it was in many ways
a bold, brave move for the prime minister to declare that he will
unilaterally boycott December's EU - African Union summit in Lisbon if
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is allowed to attend.
At last, some moral leadership from a government that has been rather
short on principles in recent years. Is this the first sign of a
welcome revival of the long discarded ethical dimension to Labour's
foreign policy? We live in hope, but my advice is: don't hold your
breath.
Greece at the crossroads
Helena Smith
September 20, 2007 12:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/helena_smith/2007/09/greece_at_the_cros=
sroads.html
The matter of governance in Greece is never easy. First, there are its
citizens who invariably view the men and women who lead them with a
cynicism that borders on downright disregard.
Then there is the apparatus of state, revealed under the fierce glare
of the country's recent forest fires as cumbersome, nepotistic and
hopeless in a crisis. Though the state is a force to be reckoned with
as the Greeks' biggest employer, and the source and lever of political
power, few could count on it when the deadly flames erupted.
The art of confrontation
Jakob Illeborg
September 20, 2007 11:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jakob_illeborg/2007/09/the_art_of_confr=
ontation.html
There is something about Scandinavians and prophet cartoons. Nerikes
Allehanda, a local newspaper in Orebro, a mid-sized town by the great
lakes in central Sweden (think Coventry or Wolverhampton) last month
printed a cartoon depicting the head of Muhammad on the body of a dog.
The cartoonist, Lars Vilks, has now had a $100,000 price tag on his
head, with the promise of a rise to $150,000 should Mr Vilks be
"slaughtered like a lamb". The death threat, made by the al-Qaida in
Iraq leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, is of course completely and utterly
unacceptable, but unfortunately people like Mr Baghdadi are all too
real, and Swedish police have had little option but to move the
cartoonist and the editor of the small and insignificant local paper
to a safe house and keep them under 24-hour protection.
The developments are the latest in a sequence of events that in many
ways are all too similar to the prophet cartoon crisis in Denmark that
started two years ago. As in the Danish case, we have had protests and
flag burning. But there are some notable differences too. The Swedish
government has looked at some of the mistakes made by the Danish
government back in 2005-06 and has tried to apply Swedish calmness to
the whole incident. The prime minister, Frederik Reinfeldt, has called
for mutual understanding between various religious and ethnic groups
again and again and calmly defended freedom of speech while asking
consideration of religious minorities. This strategy seemed to be
working alright until Abu Omar got news of the completely harmless
incident and succeeded in once again making the appalling al-Qaida
agenda into a greater Muslim cause in the minds of many Scandinavians,
with repercussions for all the Muslims whose religious beliefs wrongly
are being depicted as incompatible with western democracy.
The topless apostles
Mark Simpson
September 20, 2007 11:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mark_simpson/2007/09/the_topless_apostl=
es.html
As a sodomite, being knocked up by Mormon missionaries isn't always an
experience I look forward to. I don't know about you, but that air-
conditioning salesman look doesn't really do it for me.
But what if, instead of wearing those tightly buttoned-up starchy
white shirts and ties and clutching Bibles they turned up wearing abs
you could do your laundry on, pectorals you could feed a family of
five on and a come-hither smile that would defrost your freezer?
Hallelujah! My prayers have been answered. Here comes the Men on a
Mission calendar full of topless, buffed, young male Mormons keen to
please and show you the beauty of God's creation.
Humanitarian errors
Conor Foley
September 20, 2007 10:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/conor_foley/2007/09/humanitarian_errors=
..html
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the war between Biafra and
Nigeria, whose tragic story was told by Rosa Davies a couple of weeks
ago here. This is also widely recognised as a seminal moment in the
history of international humanitarianism and has some lessons for how
we deal with contemporary crises such as Darfur.
The Igbo of Eastern Nigeria established their own state, Biafra, in
1967, following attacks carried out on them mainly by Muslims in the
north, and appealed to the world to recognise their legitimate right
to self-determination. The war was to last for nearly three years and
cost at least a million lives.
Northern crock
Iain Macwhirter
September 20, 2007 10:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/iain_macwhirter/2007/09/northern_crock.=
html
As the dark clouds dissipate from over the British banking sector,
after the Northern Rock debacle, the Scottish Labour party is looking
for silver linings. After the first run on a British bank in over a
century, the Scottish opposition parties are hoping that the next run
will be on the SNP's fiscal credibility. That queues will be forming
of Scottish voters determined to withdraw their credit from the Bank
of Independence and lodging it back with good old Northern Labour.
It was always going to be a very tough comprehensive spending round,
with the new chancellor, Alistair Darling, reining in spending to
inflation plus 2% over the next three years. The SNP are already
complaining that they are being held to 1% above inflation, a long way
short of the 3% that the previous Liberal-Labour executive enjoyed and
considerably less than the UK average. This means that it could fall
to the SNP finance minister, John Swinney, to have to announce the
biggest public spending cuts since devolution when he makes his first
budget statement in November.
In the other camp
Brendan O'Neill
September 20, 2007 9:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brendan_oneill/2007/09/in_the_other_cam=
p=2Ehtml
When the British Airports Authority sought a legal injunction against
the Climate Action Camp at Heathrow in August, there were howls of
protest from environmentalists. "BAA is undermining the right to
protest," green activists claimed.
They were right, of course. I was no supporter of the Climate Action
Camp, describing it as, "the most killjoy, conservative and
curmudgeonly demonstration that has taken place in years," yet as I
argued on my website spiked: "Even no-fun, anti-flying eco-
miserabilists should have the right to assemble."
Democracy, not terror, is the engine of political Islam
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2173828,00.html
Neocon policies designed to promote liberal opinion in the Middle East
have in fact played into the hands of the religious parties
William Dalrymple
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
Six years after 9/11, throughout the Muslim world political Islam is
on the march; the surprise is that its rise is happening
democratically - not through the bomb, but the ballot box. Democracy
is not the antidote to the Islamists the neocons once fondly believed
it would be. Since the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been
a consistent response from voters wherever Muslims have had the right
to vote. In Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey
and Algeria they have voted en masse for religious parties in a way
they have never done before. Where governments have been most closely
linked to the US, political Islam's rise has been most marked.
I'd rather mingle souls by letter than live a life of regret through
email
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2173836,00.html
The tyranny of the medium that replaced the pen eliminates our
humanity and makes automatons of us all
Simon Jenkins
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
This week is the 25th birthday of the emoticon. It was on this day in
1982 that a Pittsburgh professor, Scott Fahlman, noted that the
electronic mail of his students lacked the requisite "body language
and voice tones" to express greeting and humour. The smiley was born,
and with it a copious lexicon of symbols (satirised in a recent
Comment is free open thread) intended to insert normal human emotion
into the frigid alphabet. A-Z might have sufficed for Shakespeare,
Milton, Keats and Shelley, but for today's global nerd it is not up to
scratch.
There is a housing crisis - and building is part of the solution
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2173781,00.html
Insufficient supply is at the heart of one of the biggest problems in
our society, says Adam Sampson
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
Will Simon Jenkins remove his blinkers and accept the obvious fact
that a housing crisis does exist (Home ownership mania is behind this
mass hysteria, September 19)? He launches into the consequences of the
Northern Rock debacle, but comes to the conclusion that the crisis is
a mirage, created by a stampede for home ownership.
"The Northern Rock farrago will pass," Jenkins claims. "It was a
politically manufactured housing bubble that hit one company because
of its borrowing practices. It does not reflect a deep-seated national
weakness." And he adds: "House prices will continue to match the
performance of the stock market in the long term, and thus the
preferences of savers as a whole."
'Celibacy can be rebellious'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2173869,00.html
Celibacy used to be a lonely choice, but now abstinence groups are
springing up across the UK. Most have a strait-laced image - but, as
Naadia Kidy finds out, some women are enjoying a much more rock'n'roll
approach to chastity
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
It seems fair to say that I'm a one-date wonder. It's not that I'm
socially inept - I have my share of charm, intelligence and looks.
It's that I won't have sex and can't be persuaded - an easy way of
sieving out potential boyfriends.
I'm 24 now and over the years I've watched all my friends cross the
bridge into a sex life, most seeming to emerge with a sense of regret.
I've heard a whole array of horror stories, enough to put off even the
most hardened nymphomaniac - let alone a God-fearing Afro-Muslim
emigr=E9e like me. Throughout my life then, I've always stayed on the
celibate side of the grass, even if the other side does occasionally
look greener, sweeter and more satisfying.
Google plans move into UK mobile and broadband market
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2173800,00.html
=B7 Auction poses threat to established networks
=B7 Ofcom wants spectrum from Vodafone and O2
Richard Wray
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
Google is considering a move into the UK wireless market after the
regulator Ofcom yesterday proposed grabbing back more than a third of
the mobile phone spectrum that Vodafone and O2 have been using for 22
years to auction it for new entrants.
Google is already planning to bid more than $4.6bn (=A32.3bn) on
spectrum in the US when it comes up for sale early next year and is
rumoured to be working on its own mobile phone, nicknamed the Gphone,
and a mobile payments service called GPay.
Beirut mourns murdered MP
http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,2174186,00.html
Mark Tran and agencies
Friday September 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Midday update
Beirut mourns murdered MP
Mark Tran and agencies
Friday September 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Thousands of mourners today attended the funeral of an anti-Syrian MP
whose assassination has deepened Lebanon's worst political crisis
since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Mourners packed the streets in east Beirut, waving the white and green
flag of the rightwing Phalange party to which Antoine Ghanem belonged
- as did the former industry minister Pierre Gemayel, who was
assassinated in November.
Party anthems blared from loudspeakers as pallbearers carried Ghanem
and his two bodyguards' coffins, draped in Lebanese and Phalange
flags, to the Sacre Coeur church.
Israel consulted US before Syria strike, report says
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2174292,00.html
Mark Tran
Friday September 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Israel's decision to launch an air strike against a suspected nuclear
site in Syria allegedly set up with the help of North Korea came after
Israel shared intelligence with the US, it was reported today.
The attack on September 6 has been shrouded in mystery, although the
Israeli opposition leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, yesterday confirmed in
a TV interview that such an attack did take place. His admission came
despite a news blackout over the incident.
Enough is enough: racial protest brings thousands to Southern town
Black Americans outraged at unequal treatment of pupils in high school
dispute
Ed Pilkington in Jena
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
Enough is enough: racial protest brings thousands to Southern town
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2174042,00.html
Black Americans outraged at unequal treatment of pupils in high school
dispute
Ed Pilkington in Jena
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
Well before dawn it was already clear that Jena was waking up to a day
unlike any other in its normally quiet Southern existence. Even in the
dark, its narrow roads were gridlocked with a line of coaches and cars
tailing back out of town.
The number plates in themselves told a story, of overnight rides made
from all over the South - Alabama, Georgia, Texas - as well as New
York, Illinois, Ohio, California. One man celebrated his long
sleepless journey with a wry message across his T-shirt: "Have no
fear, Birmingham is here."
'You got rid of one Saddam and you left us with 50'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/middleeast/story/0,,2174304,00.html
Iraq faces new forms of tyranny rooted in its Ba'athist past, a
leading historian tells Ian Black
Friday September 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Updating contemporary history is always a race against time and
deadlines, and although there was a lot of catching up to do when
Charles Tripp came to write a new edition of his acclaimed history of
Iraq, it was easy to decide on one change.
Out went the cover showing Saddam Hussein firing a rifle in the air.
In came a photograph of a graveyard packed with the victims of
sectarian suicide bombings and festooned with flags and posters
showing the bearded and turbaned features of some of the country's new
movers and shakers - who were virtually unknown in 2002, the cut off
point for the last edition.
Burma junta refuses to crack down on monks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2174128,00.html
Haroon Siddique and agencies
Friday September 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Around 1,500 Buddhist monks took to the streets of Burma today for a
fourth day of protests, continuing the most sustained challenge to the
military junta in more than a decade.
The monks were joined by a similar number of onlookers in their
biggest demonstration so far.
Many gathered initially at the country's holiest shrine, the Shwedagon
pagoda, in Rangoon, which has served as a traditional gathering place
for anti-government protests, including the failed 1988 democratic
uprising.
Bin Laden tape urges uprising against 'infidel' Musharraf as poll date
is set
http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,,2173917,00.html
=B7 Video incites revolt over storming of Red Mosque
=B7 President seeks further term amid growing protest
Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
Osama bin Laden declared war on Pakistan's president, Pervez
Musharraf, yesterday, calling on ordinary people to rise against their
"infidel" leader in retaliation for the storming by troops of
Islamabad's radical Red Mosque in July.
The fiery denunciation came as election officials announced October 6
as the presidential polling date - when General Musharraf will seek
his own re-election despite a mounting protest and a welter of legal
challenges against him.
Two students shot at US university campus
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2174250,00.html
Fred Attewill
Friday September 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
A gunman has shot two students at a US university campus, leaving one
woman with life-threatening injuries.
A male and a female student were shot in the attack, which happened at
Delaware State University.
Aid agencies launch Africa floods appeal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/naturaldisasters/story/0,,2174242,00.html
Fred Attewill
Friday September 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Aid agencies have launched an urgent appeal after the worst floods to
hit central Africa for decades left up to 1.5 million people needing
emergency help.
Many of those affected in an area ranging from Ghana in the west to
Kenya in the east are subsistence farmers whose crops have been washed
away after weeks of torrential rain.
Brown warns of new Mugabe sanctions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/zimbabwe/article/0,,2173996,00.html
=B7 PM steps up pressure ahead of EU/Africa summit
=B7 Portugal scrambles to salvage key meetings
Ian Traynor and Patrick Wintour
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
Portuguese officials stressed yesterday that Robert Mugabe had not yet
been invited to a summit of European and African leaders after Gordon
Brown said he would boycott the meeting if the Zimbabwean leader
attended.
The prime minister stepped up the pressure on Zimbabwe further
yesterday by revealing that he was calling for an extension of EU
sanctions against leading figures in the Zimbabwean regime, as well as
providing extra humanitarian aid. Sanctions are currently directed
against 130 members of the Zanu-PF regime, and include a travel ban.
Ahmadinejad request to visit Ground Zero gets short shrift
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2174044,00.html
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
A request by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for an
official tour of Ground Zero while he is at the United Nations next
week met a collective response that was classically New Yorker:
Fuhgeddaboutit!
The New York police department turned down Mr Ahmadinejad, citing
security concerns and continuing construction at the scene of the
September 11 terror attacks.
But the White House and the state department were less concerned with
sparing the Iranian leader's feelings. "I can understand why they
would not want somebody who is running a country who is a state
sponsor of terror down there at the site," President George Bush told
a White House press conference yesterday.
Kabul suicide blast kills French soldier
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2174208,00.html
Fred Attewill and agencies
Friday September 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
A suicide bomber killed a French soldier today and injured several
Afghans in an attack on a Nato convoy in the capital, Kabul.
The attack came after two days of fierce fighting in southern
Afghanistan that has left at least 75 Taliban fighters and six
civilians dead.
Show of wealth snares ex-president Fox
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2173904,00.html
=B7 Outrage after Hello!-style article on 'hero's idyll'
=B7 Mexican ex-leader's new riches prompt inquiry call
Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
In a picture of self fulfilment as well as romance, Vicente Fox and
his wife, Marta Sahagun, gaze at each other beside a new lake
constructed in their extensive grounds. Behind, their ranch-turned-
mansion shows off gilded carpets, a desk with stone horse heads for
legs, and life-sized portraits of themselves on the walls.
The photographs, published in the magazine Quien, fit perfectly with
the sugary ethos of a celebrity journal that in Mexico is capable of
giving the magazine Hello! a run for its money. But this peep at the
post-presidential idyll has sparked outrage beyond.
Historians gain access to Japan's imperial tombs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,,2174037,00.html
=B7 Opening of ancient sites could anger ultra-right
=B7 Inspections limited to parts of two mausoleums
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
Some of Japan's mysterious imperial tombs are to be opened to
archaeologists and historians for the first time early next year in a
move expected to anger the country's ultra-conservatives.
Experts have long been denied access to the hundreds of mausoleums and
tombs, which Japan's imperial household agency regards as not so much
cultural relics as sacred religious sites.
Some historians, however, put the agency's reticence down to fears
that close inspection of the burial mounds could reveal evidence that
shatters commonly accepted theories about the origins of the Japanese
imperial family.
Only $1bn? It's not enough for the US rich list
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2173905,00.html
Press Association in New York
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
A billion dollars is no longer enough to secure a place on Forbes'
rich list of Americans, the business magazine said yesterday .
The 25th annual ranking of the wealthiest individuals in the US found
the minimum net worth required for inclusion on this year's list was
$1.3bn (=A3647m), up $300m from last year.
It is the first time that simply having $1bn would not secure you a
place among the top 400 names on the list, and 82 US billionaires
missed out, Forbes said.
Russia says tests back claim to Arctic ridge
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2174029,00.html
Mike Eckel in Moscow
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian
Russia yesterday intensified the international scramble for control of
the Arctic as scientists said that samples from a vast mountain range
under the ocean show that it is part of Russia's continental shelf.
The natural resources ministry said that more geological tests would
be done on the samples gathered by a Russian research ship earlier
this year, but early results showed that the 1,240-mile Lomonosov
ridge is part of Russia.
"Results of an analysis of the Earth's crust show that the structure
of the underwater Lomonosov mountain chain is similar to the world's
other continental shelves, and the ridge is therefore part of Russia's
land mass," the ministry said.
Yes, it's a Hobbit. The debate that has divided science is solved at
last (sort of)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/sep/21/2
=B7 Scientists shed new light on disputed skeleton find
=B7 Bone analysis supports distinct species theory
* James Randerson, science correspondent
* The Guardian
* Friday September 21 2007
It was the most astonishing anthropological find of a generation - a
diminutive new species of human that apparently shared the planet with
us until 13,000 years ago.
But the discovery of the fossilised "Hobbit", as she quickly became
known, has provoked a long-running and sometimes acrimonious debate
among scientists: was she really one of a race of mini-humans or was
she merely one of us, but with a brain-shrinking disease?
Making a killing: how private armies became a $120bn global industry
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2984818.ece
By Daniel Howden and Leonard Doyle in Washington
Published: 21 September 2007
In Nigeria, corporate commandos exchange fire with local rebels
attacking an oil platform. In Afghanistan, private bodyguards help to
foil yet another assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai. In
Colombia, a contracted pilot comes under fire from guerrillas while
spraying coca fields with pesticides. On the border between Iraq and
Iran, privately owned Apache helicopters deliver US special forces to
a covert operation.
This is a snapshot of a working day in the burgeoning world of private
military companies, arguably the fastest-growing industry in the
global economy. The sector is now worth up to $120bn annually with
operations in at least 50 countries, according to Peter Singer, a
security analyst with the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Fury as Netanyahu confirms Syria strike
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2984789.ece
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 21 September 2007
Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing opposition party Likud,
was chacteristically at the centre of a controversy yesterday after
appearing to be the first Israeli politician to confirm an air strike
against Syria two weeks ago.
With reporting in Israel covoered by military censorship, Mr Netanyahu
startled television viewers - and reportedly shocked the office of the
Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert - by answering a question about the
supposed air strike in an interview.
The real story of Baghdad's Bloody Sunday
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2984819.ece
Six days ago, at least 28 civilians died in a shooting incident
involving the US security company Blackwater. But what actually
happened? Kim Sengupta reports from the scene of the massacre
Published: 21 September 2007
The eruption of gunfire was sudden and ferocious, round after round
mowing down terrified men women and children, slamming into cars as
they collided and overturned with drivers frantically trying to
escape. Some vehicles were set alight by exploding petrol tanks. A
mother and her infant child died in one of them, trapped in the
flames.
The shooting on Sunday, by the guards of the American private security
company Blackwater, has sparked one of the most bitter and public
disputes between the Iraqi government and its American patrons, and
brings into sharp focus the often violent conduct of the Western
private armies operating in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, immune from
scrutiny or prosecution.
100,000 flee violence in Kenya as tribal conflict over land worsens
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2984792.ece
By Steve Bloomfield, Africa Correspondent
Published: 21 September 2007
The scenic slopes of Mount Elgon belie Kenya's hidden crisis. Aid
agencies believe more than 100,000 people have been displaced - the
vast majority of the population of the mountain's Chepyuk area - by a
slow-burning conflict that has intensified in recent weeks.
They are Kenya's ghost villages, where only the most vulnerable
remain. Many huts have been burnt to the ground and others abandoned
in haste with cooking pots still lying on long-cold embers. Near by,
fields full of maize lie untended, the much-needed harvest left to
rot. At least 250 people have been killed, countless women have been
raped and dozens of civilians have been disfigured. In one incident 13
people had their ears chopped off.
Sharpton leads huge protest in Louisiana
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2984795.ece
By Andrew Gumbel
Published: 21 September 2007
It felt like a throwback to the heyday of the 1960s Civil Rights
Movement. In the early hours of yesterday morning, hundreds of cars,
buses and trucks carrying students, black activists and outraged
citizens from halfway across the United States converged on the tiny
town of Jena, deep in the Louisiana backwoods, to demand justice for
six black teenagers put through the legal wringer over a racially
tinged schoolyard fight.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the town, whose
population numbers just over 3,000, to demand the immediate release of
one of the boys, who has been in prison for almost a year, and
exoneration for the other five, who face charges of attempted murder
after they punched a white kid in the face and knocked him out. The
kid was up and about again in a couple of hours.
Confusion reigns as timelord Chavez turns back clocks in Venezuela
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2984796.ece
By David Usborne
Published: 21 September 2007
"Welcome to Caracas and thank you for flying Chavez Air. The time
is... (pause, chuckle, clearing of throat)... the time is... We are
not quite sure. Please move your watches half an hour forward.
Actually, no, sorry, move them half an hour back. Thank you."
So far President Hugo Chavez has not named an airline after himself.
This could, however, be the scene on board airliners arriving in the
Venezuelan capital next Monday, when, in theory at least, the country
will have adopted a new time zone. Whether it will actually happen is
still a matter of confused conjecture.
US to push for support on new Iran sanctions
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2984791.ece
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
Published: 21 September 2007
The US and European states are preparing to consider additional
sanctions against Iran to punish Tehran for failing to comply with UN
demands to allow more time for negotiations on a possible third round
of UN measures, diplomats said.
The UN still remains the "preferred route" of action to force Iran to
halt its uranium enrichment activities, British and French diplomats
said ahead of today's talks in Washington, where senior officials from
the security council's five permanent members - UK, US, France, Russia
and China - plus Germany will gather.
A sprinkling of hysteria as Americans go crazy for cupcakes
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2984793.ece
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 21 September 2007
First came the craze for gourmet coffee. Then, over the past year,
America went nuts for frozen yogurt. Now, the latest craze is a
throwback to childhood, or perhaps a hint of naughtiness disguised as
nothing but all-American wholesomeness - the humble cupcake.
Suddenly, cupcakes are everywhere. In New York, the queues to buy them
at an establishment in Greenwich Village called the Magnolia Bakery
stretch out of the front door. In Los Angeles, Oprah Winfrey and a
gaggle of other stars frequent a Beverly Hills cupcake emporium called
Sprinkles. Parents are serving cupcakes instead of cake at their
children's birthday parties. Courting couples are planning cupcake
weddings instead of the more traditional tiered cakes with white royal
icing. You can buy chai latte cupcakes, mojito cupcakes, cupcakes
filled with chocolate ganache and coated in a light dusting of fleur
de sel, cupcakes made to look like flowers, even cupcake-motif t-
shirts and cupcake underwear.
A problem for Israel's farmers: The seven-year hitch
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2984794.ece
For decades, Israelis have exploited a theological loophole to
continue farming in years when the Talmud forbids it. Now a rabbinical
ruling is making agriculture very difficult indeed
By Donald Macintyre
Published: 21 September 2007
Moshe Amar pauses for a moment before beginning the guided tour of his
greenhouses at Moshav Sharsheret and sums up his side of a dispute
that is increasingly dividing rabbinate from state, Zionist from non-
Zionist, ultra-orthodox from national religious Jews. "In our Torah it
says you should live religiously," he says. "But religion needs to
find a solution for you, and not to make life difficult as the
Orthodox are trying to do. Religion asks us to fulfil the law of
Halacha, but also to live a normal life."
If anyone has fulfilled the old Zionist dream of making the desert
bloom it is Mr Amar, who is one of the biggest vegetable producers in
southern Israel. He has a thriving business here in the heart of the
northern Negev growing 37 acres of prime tomatoes, 13 of sweet red and
purple peppers, along with the flowers, vegetable plants and more than
20 species of herbs in his widely sought-after wholesale nursery. His
international reputation is such that he has worked as a consultant to
farmers as far afield as India and Turkey.
Boycott calls 'could derail Africa summit'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2984767.ece
By Anne Penketh and Daniel Howden
Published: 21 September 2007
The EU commissioner with responsibility for Zimbabwe has expressed
dismay at the consequences of Gordon Brown's threatened boycott of the
forthcoming EU-Africa summit over the presence of President Robert
Mugabe.
There were fears last night that Mr Brown's move could lead to the
total collapse of the Lisbon summit. Zambia's President, Levy
Mwanawasa, said not only would he boycott the meeting if Mr Mugabe was
not invited, but other African leaders may also do so. "I will not go
to Portugal if Mugabe is not allowed. I don't know how many of us
[African leaders] will be prepared to go to Portugal without Mugabe,"
said Mr Mwanawasa.
Leading article: Heightened tensions in a dangerous arena
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2984740.ece
Published: 21 September 2007
Thanks to yesterday's admission on Israeli television by the Likud
leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, we now know there was indeed a strike by
Israeli jets on a target in northern Syria earlier this month. But as
to what that target was, we remain none the wiser.
There are several theories in circulation. One is that a shipment of
arms bound for Hizbollah in southern Lebanon was hit. US sources have
hinted that a secret joint Syrian-North Korean nuclear research
project was the target. Another theory doing the rounds is that this
was a strike on a Syrian chemical weapon installation. This would seem
to be supported by reports of a military accident in the same area
earlier this year in which a number of Syrians and Iranians were
killed. And the recent, carefully-worded statement of the US Secretary
of State, Condoleezza Rice, that the goal of US policy is to stop "the
world's most dangerous people from having the world's most dangerous
weapons" certainly hints that weapons of mass destruction are involved
somewhere.
Dominic Lawson: After turning Mugabe from friend to foe, we have been
haunted by our colonial past
Published: 21 September 2007
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/dominic_lawson/article29847=
38.ece
Robert Mugabe is a much-misunderstood man. I don't mean that he is the
virtuous leader of his own imagination - nothing could be further from
the truth; but he is equally far removed from the caricature African
dictator who eats the testicles of his enemies for breakfast.
A friend who had known him for many years once described him to me as
"urbane, witty, sophisticated, sensitive, thoughtful - and ruthless".
These, presumably, were among the attributes which impressed the
British when they got to know him during the Lancaster House
negotiations of 1979 which paved the way for Mugabe's now 27-year-long
rule in Zimbabwe.
Joan Bakewell: Celebrate the bonds between old and young
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/joan_bakewell/article298474=
3=2Eece
Published: 21 September 2007
Saturday is grandparents' day. There are now some 14.5 million of us
and the day's celebration will mean different things for different
people. All too often it will bring a wistful regret at contacts lost
or relationships strained. But for many, being a grandparent is a
major part of their identity and their lives.
From middle age onwards many of us are given a second go at family
bonds and new relationships, and it can be up to you what you make of
it. It is also up to a lot of other things, too. The ways of being a
grandparent in today's world are many and various. But the word itself
and the role is a benign one. It is worth celebrating.
Like mother, like daughter: The other remarkable Ms Roddick
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2984777.ece
Dame Anita, the Body Shop tycoon and philanthropist, was one of the
world's most colourful activists. But Sam Roddick is an equally
radical figure, and since her mother's death she has seemed determined
to get noticed. By Paul Vallely
Published: 21 September 2007
It was not what you might have expected. A glittering horse-drawn
hearse, pulled by gleaming black-plumed steeds, moved slowly through
the streets of London to St Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday. Behind it
walked the actress Emma Thompson and the sex-shop owner Sam Roddick.
But this was not a funeral. It was a demonstration, its organisers
proclaimed, against sex trafficking. An art installation, they said,
would open in Trafalgar Square this weekend, and then tour the
country.
There might be some who would regard the presence of Sam Roddick at
such an event as rather tasteless, considering that her mother has not
yet been dead a fortnight. But then the desire to shock is something
that has long characterised the behaviour of Anita's Roddick's
youngest daughter who, metropolitan gossip has it, is shaping up to
become a campaigner even more flamboyant than her late mother.
Revealed: How Auschwitz SS got away from it all
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2984787.ece
By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Published: 21 September 2007
The name Karl H=F6cker had almost disappeared from history until a
former US intelligence officer contacted an archivist at the American
Holocaust Memorial Museum last year. Before the former spy died, he
wanted to donate an album of photographs of Auschwitz, which he
discovered in a bombed-out building 60 years ago in Frankfurt,
Germany.
When his package containing 16 cardboard pages with photos on both
sides arrived at the museum's archive room, its significance was
immediately apparent to historians. Here was a set of 116 pictures
showing the lives that the SS officers and their staff lived when not
engaged in murder. Up until that point the only pre-liberation photos
of the death camp were images of the "Auschwitz Album", which shows
bewildered Hungarian Jews arriving in spring 1944.
Tortured Russian conscript wants a career in politics
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2984786.ece
By Alastair Gee in Moscow
Published: 21 September 2007
Andrei Sychyov, the Russian army conscript who came to international
attention last year as the victim of a brutal military hazing that
resulted in the amputation of his legs and genitals, has said he plans
to run in Russia's parliamentary elections in December.
Mr Sychyov's torture and beating horrified Russia, though human rights
activists say hazing is endemic in the country's army.
.
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