The sleek Apple iPhone comes with a bad connection
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2160490,00.html
John Naughton
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Three months ago, Apple launched the iPhone, the device that CEO Steve
Jobs proclaimed would redefine the mobile phone industry in the same
way that the iPod revolutionised the music business. US consumers have
had a chance to get to grips with the device, so now seems a good time
to compile an interim report.
Jobs's pitch for the phone was characteristically audacious: the
device cost an arm and a leg - $499 for 4GB and $599 for 8GB - and
that's just for starters. Apple had struck a deal with AT&T, which
meant that in addition to shelling out for the handset, you had to
sign up to an AT&T contract for 18 months. The phone was locked to the
AT&T network - and you didn't even get 3G connectivity. In fact, most
of the time you got the kind of connection speeds that made one think
fondly about dial-up modems.
Short on hope and long on growth
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2160481,00.html
Crispin Odey is not optimistic. And as one of the City's longest-
lasting and wealthiest hedge-fund bosses, his opinion counts.
Richard Wachman
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Crispin Odey is a far cry from the stereotypical hedge-fund manager.
He is neither young and brash, nor fresh out of business school with a
tendency to speak with a transatlantic twang.
Educated at Harrow and Oxford - going up when he was only 16 - he
started in the Square Mile during the 1980s, working for Framlington
fund managers then moving to Barings Bank. He left some years before
it was brought to its knees by Nick Leeson and now runs Odey Asset
Management.
We can trust the BBC - if only they'd stop talking about it
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2160487,00.html
Peter Preston
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
It's 13 years and 11 long reports since John Major first summoned the
committee on standards in public life to restore 'trust' to British
governance. Thereafter, hundreds of committee recommendations have
been implemented and most areas of public existence - from your local
council up - turned inside out. But trust? Nah! The polls are as
grisly as they were in 1994, the high-water mark of Tory sleaze. Which
brings us straight to the BBC at low tide.
Listen. It's GE's secret for a successful marriage
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2160477,00.html
Simon Caulkin
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Last year, companies engaged in =A31.9 trillion worth of mergers and
acquisitions. Most of them - perhaps two-thirds - will destroy or fail
to create value, provoking an exodus of customers and employees and
ruining the very things that prompted the companies to buy. Like much
in management, just because mergers are obvious and common doesn't
mean they're easy. On the contrary, they are fraught with difficulty -
which is why success is rare.
Named and shamed: City's ethical dunces
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2160469,00.html
Which is the least responsible firm in Britain? In Part Two of our
exclusive guide, Ruth Sunderland, Heather Stewart and Zoe Wood report
on the firms that appear to care little about social issues
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
If there were business Oscars, no chief executive would wish to make
an acceptance speech for winning 'Britain's least ethical firm'.
But this week we reveal the bad and the downright ugly, the 20
companies who fare worst according to our ethical scoring of the FTSE
350. Last week we identified good corporate citizens, the companies
who invest time and effort developing sound social and environmental
policies. This week we consider the firms who have broken the codes of
behaviour expected by ethical investors, whether unintentionally or
because they have simply given the two-fingered salute to such
concerns.
US motorists drive for dollars in advert cars
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2160461,00.html
James Doran in New York
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Cash-strapped Americans, straining under the burden of the housing
market crisis, are plastering their beloved SUVs and cars with
magnetic advertisements, collecting hundreds of dollars a month in an
effort to make ends meet.
Free Car Media, an advertising firm based in Los Angeles, came up with
the scheme to give big-brand clients a new method of reaching
consumers with direct marketing. Anyone with a reasonably new car, who
fits the demographic of the brand, can make as much as $800 a month
for driving a vehicle dressed up to match whatever product happens to
be on offer.
Net charges may hit BBC's iPlayer
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2160454,00.html
=B7 Internet service providers pondering pricing scheme to cut broadband
congestion
=B7 Move threatens corporation's online strategy
James Robinson, media correspondent
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
The BBC'S iPlayer could be hit by an industry-wide move to charge
companies and consumers according to the size of files downloaded
online.
Major internet service providers are believed to be considering plans
to introduce a pricing system designed to ease broadband congestion.
If the move goes ahead, the cost of running services like the iPlayer,
which allow users to download television programmes or watch them
online, will increase hugely.
Although broadband penetration is increasing rapidly - more than half
of all UK homes now have access to a high-speed internet service - the
global telecoms and internet giants that provide it fear there is not
enough space to cope with a huge upsurge in demand for new audio and
video services, which take up a vast amount of bandwidth.
America is braced for the general's verdict
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2160652,00.html
When David Petraeus delivers his report on the 'surge', his assessment
will be studied across the world. It won't stop the fighting in Iraq -
but it will galvanise the battle for the White House. By Paul Harris
and Peter Beaumont
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Two decades ago, General David Petraeus, the man charged with winning
America's second war in Iraq, wrote a thesis for his PhD in
international relations at Princeton.
Its 328 pages were an intense study of the legacies of a war that had
stretched the US military, riven world opinion and deeply divided
American political life. It was entitled The American Military and the
Lessons of Vietnam. In one passage, the young officer took on the idea
that public opinion in the US could not abide a military quagmire.
'Vietnam was an extremely painful reminder that, when it comes to
intervention, time and patience are not American virtues in abundant
supply,' Petraeus wrote in 1987. Now Petraeus is delivering another
survey of an unpopular, divisive war. Only this time his audience is
not a college tutor: it is the whole world.
The movie has landed and US basks in the moonglow
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2160722,00.html
A British director's documentary on the Apollo missions is set to
provoke a surge in American patriotism, recalling a time when a nation
lifted its eyes with pride to the skies. Robin McKie and Paul Harris
in New York report
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
This week four men in their seventies will gather at the American
Museum of Natural History in the glitzy Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Each looks fit though otherwise unexceptional. The men share only one
key feature, albeit a remarkable one: they all travelled to the Moon
more than 30 years ago.
On Wednesday, the four former lunar astronauts will be guest stars at
a gala premiere for a remarkable cinematic celebration of their
achievement, In the Shadow of the Moon, by British director David
Sington. The film has generated rave reviews in the United States and
has triggered widespread national interest. Many observers believe
that in coming weeks it may trigger a badly needed bout of national
pride in America.
Behind Gadaffi's facade of freedom
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2160642,00.html
As Libya's dictator celebrates 38 years in power, the West is beating
a path to his door. Jason Burke reports from Tripoli
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Just behind the bagpipe band, in the ranks of unarmed conscripts in
ill-fitting uniforms, and opposite the row of sweating foreign
dignitaries, Nadia Ibrahim Calipha, 19, with thick black hair braided
under her baseball cap, was awaiting her turn to march.
'I am proud to be here, proud of our Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, proud of
my country,' she said brightly. From the wall of the old citadel a
hundred yards away, the stern features of the Supreme Guide of the
Revolution himself, 8ft high on a green banner, looked over Tripoli's
central square, a thin crowd of spectators, some haphazard fireworks,
Nadia and the Mediterranean.
The German heroes who helped Allies against Hitler
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2160752,00.html
A new book reveals the bravery of the men who joined the British
forces to liberate Europe
David Smith
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
He was born Claus Ascher in Berlin in 1922. His patriotic father had
fought for Germany in the First World War. His blonde mother 'couldn't
have been more Aryan if she tried'. When the Second World War broke
out, Ascher, then 18, was quick to volunteer.
But he was not fighting for Hitler. His name was now Colin Anson and
he was a Royal Marines commando who swore allegiance to king and
country. It was the same for Horst Herzberg, now Bill Howard; Ignaz
Schwarz, now Eric Sanders; and Helmut Rosettenstein, now Harry
Rossney.
South Korea paid $20m to secure hostages' release, say Taliban
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2160657,00.html
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
The South Korean government paid Afghanistan's Taliban a ransom of
more than $20 million (=A310m) to secure the release of 19 missionaries
held hostage since mid-July. The claim by a senior Taliban leader was
made yesterday, but denied by South Korea, after the Taliban vowed to
use the funds to buy arms and mount suicide attacks.
The hostages flew out of Afghanistan on Friday to Dubai en route for
South Korea - where they face an uncertain reception.
Gun-happy police add to Jamaica's killing spree
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2160641,00.html
On election eve, James Brabazon in Kingston reports on the link
between gangs and politicians
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Election season has coincided with hurricane season in Jamaica.
Hurricane Dean's recent visitation was mercifully brief and the damage
is almost cleared up. But the forces whipped up before the country's
general election tomorrow are less easy to tackle. A culture of
political violence has crippled the island's development and sent
crime rates soaring.
Away from the beaches of all-inclusive resorts, Jamaica has one of the
world's highest murder rates. In 2005 - a record year - 1,674
Jamaicans were killed, the majority young men gunned down in gangland
shootings. The World Bank has concluded that, if the country reduced
its murder rate by a third, its economic growth would double.
I'm going home, says Benazir
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2160818,00.html
Tracy McVeigh
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Former Pakistan leader Benazir Bhutto vowed yesterday to return from
exile after admitting that power-sharing talks with President Pervez
Musharraf had stalled, writes Tracy McVeigh.
Bhutto had been in talks to become Prime Minister again, with the
beleaguered Musharraf quitting as army chief but seeking a new term as
President. At a news conference in London, Bhutto admitted that no
agreement had been reached following opposition from members of the
ruling regime who have rejected working with her Pakistan People's
Party. 'I will be going back to Pakistan very soon, but the date is
going to be announced from the soil of Pakistan,' Bhutto declared. She
has yet to win a public commitment from Musharraf that he step down as
army chief and give up the power to dismiss the government and
parliament.
Loach film stirs new controversy
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2160806,00.html
Director's Venice launch highlights plight of migrant workers.
Jason Solomons in Venice
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Veteran director Ken Loach called for a repeal of anti-trade union
laws and tighter health and safety controls in Britain as his latest
film emerged as a leading contender for the top prize at the Venice
film festival last night.
Speaking to The Observer, Loach criticised what he called British
exploitation of cheap foreign labour. 'We've allowed the working
infrastructure of our country to disintegrate,' he said. 'Workers in
our factories and supermarkets, in the agriculture and manufacturing
industries, have no protection and no voice.
Children who cannot escape the poverty trap
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2160716,00.html
Inequality in Britain is worse than ever, warns a brand-new study on
childhood
Anushka Asthana, education correspondent
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
A child born to a labourer is six times more likely to suffer extreme
poverty by the age of 30 than one born to a lawyer, a major study has
revealed.
In a remarkable portrait of childhood in Britain, academics have
exposed a society in which inequalities are entrenched and social
mobility is a myth. Millions of bright children face 'multiple
deprivation' in adulthood simply because of the circumstances of their
birth.
Gambling addicts on the rise
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2160731,00.html
Ned Temko
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Gambling addiction in Britain is on the rise, fuelled by an explosion
in internet betting, a major study has found. The revelation coincides
with the introduction of controversial new gambling legislation this
weekend.
The results of the Gambling Prevalence Study, to be published this
month, will increase pressure on ministers to crack down on sites that
target young or vulnerable users.
The investigation was commissioned two years ago as a follow-up to a
1999 study which found 'relatively low' levels of addiction in the UK.
But this time researchers say they have found a significant increase
in problem gambling, with a particularly steep rise in online betting.
This confirms other research which has found a sharp rise in online
betting.
Dr Greer on the warpath
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2160508,00.html
Germaine Greer's impassioned plea on behalf of Ann Hathaway in
Shakespeare's Wife is fatally undermined by a fact-free and
vituperative attack on the Bard, says Peter Conrad
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Shakespeare's Wife
by Germaine Greer
Bloomsbury =A320, pp416
In her latest maenadic outing, Germaine Greer comes neither to praise
nor to bury Shakespeare. Her mission is to dig him up and belabour his
powdery remains. A doggerel quatrain above his grave begs for his dust
to be left undisturbed; Greer ignores the anathema, since what lies
under her bludgeoning feet is only, according to her, a 'heap of
rottenness'. And why, she demands, was such a ban on exhumation
thought to be necessary? She goes on to give a reckless, baseless
answer to her question. If Shakespeare's bones were grubbed out for
forensic examination, they might have revealed signs of the syphilis
that, in her grim and gloating view, is likely to have killed him.
When the left wasn't right
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2160510,00.html
Andrew Anthony's The Fall-Out charts how he fell out of love with
liberalism, says John Lloyd
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
The Fall-Out: How a Guilty Liberal Lost His Innocence
by Andrew Anthony
Jonathan Cape =A314.99, pp320
This is the book of an angry man who, in early middle age, has
discovered that much of what he wrote, spoke about and believed that
he believed has become hollow. Andrew Anthony's belief was in that set
of instincts, reactions and responses that is usually described as
left-liberalism, held, with varying degrees of tenacity, by a very
large proportion of the British population, especially the educated
middle class.
Take that, Henry James and Jane Austen
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2160511,00.html
Even as VS Naipaul's A Writer's People damns certain authors, his
praise of others, when it eventually comes, is both wholehearted and
perceptive, says Chandrahas Choudhury
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
A Writer's People: Ways of Looking and Feeling
by VS Naipaul
Picador =A316.99, pp256
The path leading to VS Naipaul's long-awaited A Writer's People is
littered with a writer's rubble, from targets knocked off their
pedestals in various interviews over the course of this decade. Most
of these are not what you could call small fry. Henry James: 'That
dreadful American man ... the worst writer in the world actually.'
Thomas Hardy: 'An unbearable writer ... doesn't know how to compose a
paragraph.' Ernest Hemingway: 'Didn't know where he was, ever,
really.' EM Forster's A Passage to India: 'It has only one real scene
and that's the foolish little tea party at the beginning.' Jane
Austen: 'If the country had failed in the 19th century, no one would
have been reading Jane Austen.'
In search of a brave new world
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2160553,00.html
Psychotherapist Amy Bloom's new book is a breakneck tale that explores
the American immigrant experience
Liz Hoggard
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
When Amy Bloom confided to a friend that her new novel, Away, was
running late, he replied tartly: 'Oh, darling, expecting a writer to
meet a deadline is like expecting a drag queen to come on time for
dinner. Don't give it another thought.' It's a lovely image - and
rather apt. Bloom primarily writes literary fiction, but five years
ago, she published the non-fiction study, Normal: Transsexual CEOs,
Crossdressing Cops and Hermaphrodites with Attitude. The book, an
extended version of an essay she wrote for the New Yorker, caused a
sensation, partly because she showed there is no such thing as
'normal' on the sexual continuum, but also because she dared to
suggest that the female partners of cross-dressers often have rather a
tough time.
When Daddy's little girl begins to cut up rough
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2160554,00.html
Two Booker-longlisted novels written by Indian-born authors offer
hugely differing tales of achievement, says Soumya Bhattacharya
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Gifted by Nikita Lalwani. Viking =A316.99, pp273
Animal's People by Indra Sinha. Simon & Schuster =A311.99, pp374
The 13-strong longlist for this year's Man Booker Prize is a
celebration of new blood. There are four first-time novelists on the
list (scheduled to be whittled down to six on Thursday) as well as
those who, if not newcomers, are not exactly surefire candidates for
the front tables of chain bookshops.
Nikita Lalwani is one of the first-timers; Indra Sinha wrote one novel
before Animal's People, but it didn't quite set the Amazon bestseller
list on fire. Both writers were born in India and have written novels
that are compelling, heart-wrenching and laced with redemptive hope.
The invisible women
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2160555,00.html
Virginia Nicholson's Singled Out chronicles the women left alone and
vilified after the First World War, says Hilary Spurling
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men After the
First World War
by Virginia Nicholson
Viking =A320, pp312
'MY, you have put on flesh,' my Irish granny used to say, assessing my
chances on the marriage market like a farmer with an unpromising pig
to sell. 'Stand up when your father comes into the room!' was another
of her favourite sayings, hissed through her teeth and accompanied by
a sharp poke in the ribs. My husband's grandmother was less brutal but
almost as discouraging. 'It's the best thing you've ever done or ever
will do,' she said when my first child was born, 'even though it's a
girl.'
Many unhappy returns for a teenage terrorist
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2160556,00.html
Hari Kunzru's My Revolutions relives the darker side of sixties
radicalism, says Tim Adams
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
My Revolutions
by Hari Kunzru
Hamish Hamilton =A316.99, pp278
Mike Frame is approaching with more than usual dread the 50th birthday
party his partner of 16 years, Miranda, has organised. There are two
specific problems with it: first, he is not Mike Frame; second, it is
not his 50th birthday. Hari Kunzru's third novel is a slowly unwinding
story of assumed identity. Frame's real name is Chris Carver. He was
well known as a student radical at the LSE in the late 1960s, arrested
and imprisoned for violent protest against the Vietnam War in
Grosvenor Square, living in a series of squats around west London,
plotting revolution and free love. Miranda knows none of this. The
closest she comes to the Sixties is in the fragrance of the range of
relatively essential oils she sells for a living.
What price the life of a British soldier?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2160694,00.html
The quite shocking disparity between City bosses and ordinary people
has never been better exemplified than by the case of Lance-Bombardier
Ben Parkinson
Will Hutton
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Diane Dernie's son, Ben Parkinson, lost both his legs in Afghanistan.
Last week, she decided to challenge the Ministry of Defence's award of
a mere =A3152,000 as compensation as an impossibly small amount to pay
for a lifetime of decent care.
The same day, we learnt that average pay for Britain's leading chief
executives had risen by 37 per cent to =A32.85m. I can imagine no more
eloquent commentary on today's values and the noxious impact that our
collective indifference to huge inequality is having.
David Cameron must beware the dangers of doing a Hague
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2160672,00.html
The Tories should know by now they won't win an election by abandoning
the centre ground
Andrew Rawnsley
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
One of our greatest living authorities on how to lose a general
election by a landslide is William Hague. Of all the advice offered to
David Cameron over this sweaty summer for the Tories, the wisest
counsel has come from this predecessor. At the beginning of August, Mr
Hague warned him not to do a Hague.
'The last thing to do is change tack, like I was accused of doing and
to some extent did,' the shadow Foreign Secretary told the Daily
Telegraph. 'We've fought two elections on tax, Europe and immigration
and we know what the results of those elections were.' We certainly
do. The Conservative party has surely tested to destruction the idea
that general elections are to be won by abandoning the battle for the
centre ground and taking the party to the right.
Amy's no pied piper leading girls to ruin
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2160661,00.html
The young celebrities who implode so spectacularly in public are the
victims rather than the agents of our social problems
Mary Riddell
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
There was a time when a rock star could expire without parental input.
Jimi Hendrix took his last sleeping pills unencumbered by paternal
reminders never to exceed the stated dose. History does not record any
anxious relative cautioning Brian Jones to remember his flotation aids
on the day he drowned in a swimming pool.
No such privacy exists for Amy Winehouse, whose life, marred by drink
and drugs, has been dissected by her family on a BBC radio phone-in
programme last week. Giles Civil, the stepfather of her new husband,
Blake Fielder-Civil, reportedly speculated that, if one partner died
through substance abuse, the other might commit suicide. Amy's father,
Mitch, rang in to criticise the Civils, while the soul singer's
mother, who stayed out of this spat, had previously told a newspaper
of her daughter's premonition of an early death.
Let's unlock the potential of the people we lock up
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2160726,00.html
Jasper Gerard
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
'They can shove their offer up their arse.' So concluded one local
union leader addressing striking prison officers, who cheered wildly
at this Prescottian flourish. And then it struck me: how surprised
should we be that prisoners, entrusted to the care of such people, so
manifestly fail to reform while inside?
Are key-jangling jailers models of the ethical, upstanding citizens we
would wish the fallen to emulate? Or should we mark the strike by
posing a question: is leaving prisons in the hands of 'screws', well,
nuts?
Hell is going green in Devon
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2160690,00.html
Cristina Odone
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
I have seen the green future and you don't want to go there. The
environmental elite, led by Zac Goldsmith and featuring celebs such as
Sting and Sienna Miller, preach the horrors of carbon footprints and
airport expansions. The Prime Minister wants to get in on the act. But
have they sampled, I wonder, the torture of train delays, bruised
local produce and limited mobile phone coverage?
We have spent the past fortnight in East Prawle, a seaside village on
the southernmost tip of Devon where Kate Bush and Jennie Bond have
holiday homes. Its unique topography has made East Prawle a favourite
with the Manic Organic crowd: travel by car is arduous and mobile
phone coverage available only to those who risk balancing on top of a
bench on the village green.
Would Orwell have been a blogger?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2160673,00.html
The great essayist would be appalled by the writing, but applaud the
democracy of the web
Robert McCrum
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Most people who bother at all would probably admit that the English of
the worldwide web - verbose, rambling and ill-tempered - is not really
the kind they want to read in a book or a newspaper. But it's
generally assumed that, because this is the web, we cannot do a thing
about it.
Our civilisation has been transformed by the internet in a way
unprecedented since the time of Gutenberg and Caxton and the means of
mass communication, so the argument runs, must adapt to the global
language of 24/7. It follows that any struggle against the abuse and
impoverishment of English in blogs and emails is a sentimental
archaism. Underneath this belief lies the recognition that language is
a natural growth and not an instrument we can shape for or police for
better self-expression.
Let the beauty of rugby shine out in France
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2160660,00.html
Alan Ruddock
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Style comes easily to the French. In 1990, when Racing Club de Paris
faced Agen in the final of the French club championships, Franck
Mesnel led his back line on to the pitch wearing pink bowties. At half-
time, chilled champagne was served in front of a packed Parc des
Princes. Maddeningly for their opponents, these style kings managed to
win as well; the hard men of Agen were put to the sword in Paris.
Is Mandela's heir one of the world's worst presidents?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2160643,00.html
John Carlin
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
No offence was meant, presumably, but it still felt vaguely insulting
to see Nelson Mandela identified in the photo caption of a British
newspaper this week as a 'black leader'. As it would be to see Winston
Churchill or Abraham Lincoln, whose statues are, like his, in
Parliament Square, described merely as 'white leaders'.
To identify Mandela by his race is to diminish him, and to miss the
point of the magnanimous example he has left us. Tony Benn got closer
to the mark at the unveiling of his statue last Wednesday when he
said: 'If Diana was the people's princess, Nelson Mandela is the
president of humanity.'
An art-filled race? I'll drink to that
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2160693,00.html
Ruaridh Nicoll
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
It is important not to get too aggrieved at what others think - water
off a duck's back, better to be talked about than not talked about,
etcetera - but during the Edinburgh Festival it's hard not to bridle a
little.
Take Roy Hattersley, a welcome brother soldier in the battle to defend
the Union. Last week, he offered his views on the arts in Scotland, at
least after he had complained about being banned from taking Buster,
his faithful friend, to visit the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the
Calton burial ground. This, he fumed, in the city of Greyfriar's
Bobby.
The hidden massacre
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,2160714,00.html
Eleven years ago, thousands of children and adults were left stranded
by the Ulindi river as troops, hellbent on avenging the Rwandan
genocide, closed in. Ruaridh Nicoll returns to a country he left in
1996, to reveal a horrific story of rape and slaughter
Picture gallery: Massacre in Congo
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
There is a long, narrow bridge in the eastern Congo that women cross
before climbing down to wash on the pale rocks below. Beneath its
slatted deck, the sweep of the Ulindi, a tributary of the Congo
itself, starts a slide into rapids. Here, not so long ago, hundreds,
perhaps thousands, were murdered.
'Over on those rocks,' a man who was crossing the bridge said,
fiddling with the cross around his neck. 'That was where they killed.
They threw the bodies into the water.' Another said: 'The refugees
reached the bridge and they couldn't cross and they were driven into
the water.' In their war-weary minds, it was not the bloodletting that
upset the most, but the numbers who drowned.
My week: Julie Delpy
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/7days/story/0,,2160638,00.html
Back in Paris and scripting the life of a mass-murdering, oversexed
Hungarian countess - while wondering why the poor voted for Sarkozy -
the actress's thoughts turn to living in London
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
Here I am at home and all I do is sit and write. When I read things
about this Julie Delpy character - she writes, she acts, she sings -
she sounds fabulous. As if she's running around, doing exciting
things, dressed in a tutu: 'Ah, it's Tuesday, I'm going to put on my
tutu and dance around the apartment.' So why do I feel my life is so
boring? So why am I sitting here in front of this screen? And, sadly,
not wearing a tutu.
Religion shaping race & defining Prez candidates
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/08/26/2007-08-26_religion_sh=
aping_race__defining_prez_can.html
BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
Sunday, August 26th 2007, 4:00 AM
A crowd cheered fervently in Iowa this month as Republican
presidential candidate Sam Brownback quoted Mother Teresa telling him,
"All for Jesus. All for Jesus. All for Jesus. All for Jesus."
Barack Obama's recently launched Spanish-language radio ad in Nevada
tells the targeted Hispanic audience, "Barack Obama is a Christian
man."
Everybody (On Campus) Digs Barack Obama
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/georgetown/2007/08/everybody_on_=
campus_digs_barac.html?hpid=3Dopinionsbox1
The results of my scientific poll of scholars of religion and theology
at various universities (n =3D 14) have now been tabulated. The question
asked was: "With which current presidential aspirant would you most
like to sit down and discuss issues pertaining to faith-Church/State
issues, Gnostic Gospels, Schleiermacher, anything?"
Save one stray vote for former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, every
professor I spoke to expressed a preference for the same candidate.
If, like me, you believe that the titles of classic Jazz albums are
repositories of timeless wisdom and wit, then my campus findings may
be summarized by the title of Bill Evans' 1958 masterpiece: "Everybody
digs Barack Obama."
Obama Gets It!
http://grandmaisanidiot.blogspot.com/2007/09/obama-gets-it.html
In a single sentence, Obama not only made Hillary look like a neo-
KKKon war *****, he also showed that he "gets it." Asked whether he
would move U.S. troops out of Iraq to better fight terrorism
elsewhere, he brought up Afghanistan and said, "We've got to get the
job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that
we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is
causing enormous pressure over there."
Obama Urges More U.S. Involvement in Africa
http://mshale.com/article.cfm?articleID=3D1560
Edwin Okong'o , Mshale Staff Writer
Published 08/31/2007 - 7:00 p.m.
LAS VEGAS - Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, told
a convention of black journalists in Las Vegas that the genocide in
Darfur has continued for the worse because the United States has
failed to intervene.
Violent sexual abuse, brainwashing and neglect: What it's like to grow
up in a religious sect
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2912592.ece
By Lynne Wallace
Published: 02 September 2007
Sisters Kristina and Celeste Jones and and their half-sister Juliana
Buhring are at Kristina's house in Nottingham, getting ready to go
out. Kristina makes up her eyes, Celeste decides she looks all right
as she is and Juliana does her hair. They could be any three carefree
young women getting ready for a night out - but up until now their
lives have been anything but carefree. They are going to the signing
of their new book Not Without My Sister about their experiences
growing up in the abusive Children of God (CoG) cult; the book, to
their astonishment, has become a best-seller.
The Children of God began in Southern California in the late l960s,
founded by self-styled guru and paedophile, the late David Berg. The
CoG believe themselves to be God's elect, offering redemption only to
those who join them and adhere to their strict codes. One of Berg's
edicts was the "Law of Love", which allowed adult males to have sex
with anyone they wanted, including children - Berg called this
"sharing", and anyone who wasn't willing to "share" was accused of not
loving God enough. Girls from the age of 10 were used in recruitment,
offering prospective cult members sex in a practice called "flirty
fishing".
UN: Peace is hampered by West Bank growth
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2919646.ece
The humanitarian outlook for the 2.3 million Palestianians is 'dismal'
if the rising numbers of Israeli settlers are not curbed, says a hard-
hitting report
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 02 September 2007
The United Nations has issued a stark warning on the eve of Tony
Blair's first full working trip as international Middle East envoy
that the steady growth of Israeli settlements in the occupied West
Bank is undermining the prospects for peace.
The hard-hitting report by some of the UN's top Middle East experts
suggests that the break-up of the West Bank into dozens of enclaves
because of the settlements - which, along with the roads and military
apparatus that serve them, take up almost 40 per cent of the West Bank
- is making a two-state solution "elusive". And it underlines the
daunting task facing Tony Blair - who is partly charged with reviving
a Palestinian economy close to collapse - by warning that unless the
settlement issue is tackled "the dismal humanitarian outlook" for the
West Bank's 2.3 million Palestinians "will intensify".
A monument to Mandela: the Robben Island years
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2919567.ece
There is more to Nelson Mandela than the genial old man seen shaking
hands with the great, the good and the famous. Paul Vallely recalls
the persecuted activist and prisoner
Published: 02 September 2007
Every Thursday at one point during Nelson Mandela's long incarceration
on Robben Island he and a group of other black prisoners would be
taken outside and told to dig a trench six feet deep. When it was
complete, they were told to get down into it, whereupon their white
warders would urinate on them. Then they were told to fill in the
trench and go back to their solitary cells.
Years later, when Nelson Mandela was about to be inaugurated as the
first president of South Africa elected by all its people, he was
asked who he would like to invite to his first dinner as president.
The warders from Robben Island, he said. "You don't have to do that,"
his advisers told him. "I don't have to be president either," he
replied. The first time he sat down to break bread as head of state
those same warders were his guests.
Briefing: Ban Ki-moon tackles crisis in Darfur
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2919580.ece
Largest ever UN peacekeeping force set for Sudan mission
By Anne Penketh
Published: 02 September 2007
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is heading to Darfur this week to see
for himself the devastation caused by four years of ethnic cleansing
by Sudanese government forces and allied Arab militia which has left
an estimated 200,000 people dead and two million homeless. He will be
pressing for the early deployment of a UN peacekeeping force, more
relief aid for the stricken province and a political solution to the
conflict.
Fund-Raising: Oprah's Obama Blowout
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20546344/site/newsweek/
Newsweek
Sept. 10, 2007 issue - Oprah Winfrey has said she's not interested in
running for president-but can she help elect one? On Saturday
afternoon, Winfrey will throw the flashiest fund-raiser of the 2008
cycle when she welcomes about 1,500 guests to her Montecito, Calif.,
home to support the candidacy of Democrat Barack Obama. Tickets are
sold out at $2,300 each, the legal maximum for primary-campaign
giving. Hollywood stars Will Smith, John Travolta, Jamie Foxx and
Halle Berry are all on the guest list. Among the musicians who'll
perform: Stevie Wonder and gospel singer BeBe Winans, a Winfrey friend.
.
|
