| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
22 Sep 2007 06:33:41 PM |
| Object: |
OT: Their hands in our pockets |
Their hands in our pockets
Prem Sikka
September 22, 2007 4:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/prem_sikka_/2007/09/their_hands_in_our_=
pockets.html
The news that supermarkets like Asda, Morrisons, Safeway, Sainsbury's
and Tesco and various suppliers colluded to fleece customers of =C2=A3270m
through price fixing is just another example of the predatory
enterprise culture. The enterprise culture is out of control and
continues to pick our pockets with great regulatory.
In neoliberal folklore "customer is king" and competition offers
choice, but numerous companies have operated price-fixing cartels to
reduce consumer choice, create private monopolies and earn excessive
profits. Examples include companies colluding to fix the price of
toys, school fees, footbal shirts, air fares, perfumes, beer,
medicines, computer chips, audit fees and almost anything that company
executives can get away with.
Don't look back
Harold James
September 22, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/harold_james/2007/09/dont_look_back.html
Every financial crisis is inherently unknowable - before it occurs,
and as it occurs. By contrast, we understand past crises very well.
Accountants go over the books, the participants tell their tales to
the newspapers (or sometimes before a judge), politicians explain why
they are sorting out a mess, and in the end historians put together a
story.
Because the past is knowable, the best way of understanding a current
crisis is to search for a model in past experiences, even those that
are long past. But which is the right template?
Take back the roads
Natalie Bennett
September 22, 2007 11:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/natalie_bennett/2007/09/take_back_the_r=
oads.html
Cycling England says that a tiny (by the standards of billion-pound
road projects) =C2=A370m a year investment in making cycling easier and
more accessible would have a huge impact. Fine so far as it goes, but
why are they thinking so small?
This Sunday many of the streets of central London will be closed for
Freewheel, which has been hugely oversubscribed; 38,000 have signed
up, although the original limit was to be 30,000. That's a small
representation of the huge pent-up demand for being able to cycle in
safety and without fear - to be able to use the roads as a right, a
right that of course already exists every day in law, but which is not
acknowledged by many drivers.
Why believe Greenspan now?
Ian Williams
September 22, 2007 10:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_williams/2007/09/why_believe_greens=
pan_now.html
Alan Greenspan has benefited considerably from the the US media's
customary deference to any significant figure, such George Bush or
General David Petraeus, "drest in little brief authority." At times,
hagiography is the natural medium for mainstream pundits. And so it is
for Saint, or rather Sir Alan, since his knighthood.
So I suppose it is not too surprising that so many jumped on his
quote: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to
acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."
A day in Ramallah
Seth Freedman
September 22, 2007 9:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/seth_freedman/2007/09/a_day_in_ramallah=
..html
My first trip to Ramallah took place during my pre-Cif days, one month
after I'd demobbed, and was one of the most sobering experiences of my
three year sojourn in Israel. Having spent the previous 15 months
swaggering round the West Bank clutching a shortened M16 to keep my
nerves at ease, being confronted with tooled-up Palestinian militiamen
as I slunk unarmed around the city was quite a shock to the system,
and one I was in no hurry to repeat any time soon.
However, yesterday - after an aborted attempt to visit a museum in Abu
Dis which was closed for Ramadan - a recently-emigrated friend and I
bit the bullet and headed back into the heart of the Palestinian
Authority. With no agenda other than wanting to soak up the sights and
sounds of such an off-limits neck of the woods, we brandished our
British passports and headed tentatively into the lion's den.
Giuliani and the fear card
Eric Alterman
September 21, 2007 7:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/eric_alterman/2007/09/giuliani_and_the_=
fear_card.html
Last week in this space I wondered if Hillary Clinton had, barring an
act of God, already put herself on perfect path to the 2008 Democratic
presidential nomination. Picking Hillary may or may not be a good idea
for the Democrats, but one can, at least, understand its underlying
logic.
On the Republican side, however, a certain illogic continues to stalk
all the putative candidates. Rudy Giuliani is of course, opposed to
the Republican base on almost all of their hot-button issues. He's pro-
gay rights, pro-choice, pro-immigration reform and anti-gun, and he
does not even claim to be such a hot Catholic.
Battling the elements
Conor Foley
September 21, 2007 7:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/conor_foley/2007/09/battling_the_elemen=
ts.html
It has not rained for six months here in Brasilia and life is becoming
unbearable. Of course I do not actually mean that literally. There has
been an outbreak of forest fires around the city, the reservoirs are
very low and many people are suffering from dehydration, but I doubt
if anyone has actually died here in the capital because of it.
It is a different story in the north-east of the country where drought
is destroying thousands of people's livelihoods and forcing another
wave of emigrants to abandon their homes in the countryside. Most will
probably end up in the favelas around the big cities.
Dying inside
Juliet Lyon
September 21, 2007 6:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/juliet_lyon/2007/09/dying_inside.html
For someone on the edge of suicide or self-harm, no one would
prescribe continuous upheaval and movement, high levels of uncertainty
and stress and regular doses of isolation in bleak, understaffed
institutions.
In our overcrowded prison system, while remand prisoners must be kept
close to the court, sentenced prisoners will be moved on time and
again. An average stay for a sentenced young man at Feltham has now
been whittled down to about 10 days, before they move on, to another
young offender's institution. Just days after you have arrived, and
perhaps tried to get to know other prisoners or staff, you find
yourself back in an unyielding metal box in a van with no seatbelts so
you don't try to throttle yourself.
Yes, but is it kosher?
Alex Stein
September 21, 2007 6:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/alex_stein/2007/09/yes_but_is_it_kosher=
..html
Is it good for the Jews? This is supposed to be the stock response of
members of my tribe to world events. And the parting of the ways
between Jose Mourinho and Chelsea Football Club is no different. Truth
be told, we had been following events along Fulham Road ever since
Roman Abramovich emerged from the wastelands of Siberia to lay claim
to west London's most precious footballing asset. Here was a man who
ticked all the boxes. Shady background, dodgy business interests,
political intrigue. Having made billions in oil during the aftermath
of the collapse of the Soviet Union, he seemed to be the cunning Jew
par excellence. And then he goes and buys a club with a bit of a
reputation for anti-semitism. We revelled in the irony, but worried at
the consequences of what might happen if he jumped ship.
But success soon followed. The special one bought title after title to
Stamford Bridge, keeping the locals happy, despite a distinct lack of
panache. And it is this lack of style, we are constantly told, which
led to his downfall. Buying a football club always seemed like a bit
of fun to Mr Abramovich. For fantasies of European glory, most mortals
play Championship Manager. Roman did it for real. Winning trophies was
one thing, but he wanted adoration as well. The budget for champagne
football was there, but Mourinho rarely produced it.
Musharraf's last ally
Adrian Levy
September 21, 2007 5:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/adrian_levy/2007/09/musharrafs_last_all=
y=2Ehtml
Being president of Pakistan rates along with riding the Wells Fargo
stagecoach as one of the all-time most dangerous jobs in the world.
And now, with Osama bin Laden adding his voice to the throng calling
for his overthrow, who would want to be Pervez Musharraf?
Of course, bin Laden's entreaty earlier this week was a piece of
mischief-making. Having re-settled in Pakistan, along with his
rejuvenated al-Qaida organisation, the audiotape was literally playing
to the home crowd. It also pressed on the raw nerve of the Lal Masjid,
where last July, Pakistani commandos ousted Taliban surrogates and in
so doing smashed up a mosque in an Islamic republic on live TV.
Equality saves money
Simon Woolley
September 21, 2007 5:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_woolley/2007/09/equality_saves_mo=
ney.html
In this age of media overload it seems we find it difficult to take in
much more than a sound bite or headline. This was particularly true
when the authors of the Reach report - including me - along with Hazel
Blears, launched our findings last month in Manchester. Our "sprat to
catch a mackerel" headline was the call for more black role models
wider than the usual sporting and musical icons. The aim of the
headline was to raise the reports profile so that its full content
could be read, understood and hopefully implemented, by national and
local government. With unprecedented national and local media coverage
the headline worked beyond our expectations in grabbing media
attention, but getting journalists and commentators to see beyond
their own view of the headline proved to be a little more challenging.
Many wrongly believed we were rejecting a black celebrity class for
just a highly professional class. It was therefore, extremely
refreshing when I met with the civil rights icon Jesse Jackson, who
greeted me with the proclamation: "Mr Woolley, I've read the Reach
report and it is truly awesome. Anybody, that cares about finding real
solutions to some of the challenges facing black boys, black families
and wider society should read and absorb this report."
What impressed him was the report's factual base that highlighted the
structural inequalities, particularly within the criminal justice
system, that black boys and young black men face in the UK today. He
was equally impressed with the reports cost analysis - undertaken by
PricewaterhouseCoopers - that suggests we lose =C2=A3808m a year as a
result of their marginalisation. "It makes good business sense," Rev
Jackson argued, "as well as moral sense to give these young men a fair
opportunity in life."
Starting a new relationship
Tim Horton
September 21, 2007 4:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tim_horton/2007/09/starting_a_new_relat=
ionship.html
Labour party reform is always controversial. Gordon Brown's proposals
- to be debated at his first conference as leader - have not generated
anything like the level of controversy faced by predecessors such as
John Smith, Neil Kinnock and Hugh Gaitskell. But there have still been
rumblings of discontent - over reforms to the party conference, in
particular.
Successful reform must be rooted in a clear vision of why change is
needed. Otherwise, power struggles between different interests will
dominate. In the 80s and 90s, the overriding priority was to return
Labour to power. The challenge today is different. Labour has learnt
how to win elections, but has been less good at achieving long-term
shifts in public opinion. Embedding a "progressive consensus" in
British politics will require rejuvenating the party and reconnecting
it with the communities it serves.
Case study
Tim Footman
September 21, 2007 4:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tim_footman/2007/09/case_study.html
The other day, I was reading an essay about the social class
distinctions between networking sites. Thrilling as it was, my
attention was diverted by the author's name: danah boyd.
That's right "danah boyd", with no capitals. And she's not the only
one to take e.e. cummings as a role model: the writers bell hooks and
l=C3=AA thi diem th=C3=BAy do the same.
Go away Jose
Dave Hill
September 21, 2007 3:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dave_hill/2007/09/go_away_jose.html
I'm glad Jose Mourinho has ceased to be team manager of Chelsea
football club. With luck he'll be employed overseas any time soon and
I'll be spared the daily chore of closing my eyes and ears to the
unending inanities of the special one soap opera, the football media's
pathetic slavering over his every pronouncement and tantrum, its
simpering gratitude for his press conferences being "good value", its
dismal preoccupation with the "mind games" he engages in with rivals;
and all this at a time when the English game has never been more
deserving of detached, critical scrutiny and exposure as the
debauched, imperial procession it has become.
The reason for the departure of the performing Portuguese is that
relations between he and the club's owner Roman Abramovich have broken
down. Month upon month of picking-over of this tiff has demonstrated
that the entertainment Big Football provides off the field can be
every bit as numbingly and gracelessly predictable as the fare
provided on it in stadiums only the prosperous and obsessive can
afford to sit in and where the egos of buccaneer capitalists and tax-
dodging oligarchs are gratified. The Abramovich-Mourinho era at
Chelsea has been a melodrama of super-rich self-indulgence set in an
arena of national life where its inequality, ruthlessness and
consumerist docility is vividly displayed.
Taking the biscuit
Justine Hankins
September 21, 2007 3:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/justine_hankins/2007/09/taking_the_bisc=
uit.html
Former Blue Peter editor Richard Marson has been sacked by the BBC
over the crucial matter of what to call the programme's cat. The
viewers voted for Cookie, but Marson thought it wiser to plump for
Socks, which polled second.
The thing that troubles me about this whole Cookie-gate episode is not
so much that one of our most trusted institutions has been caught out
once again in a dastardly act of deception. What's bothering me is
simply this: why did he do it? Why would you risk your career and
reputation over a cat's name?
Jena: the next step
Gary Younge
September 21, 2007 2:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/gary_younge/2007/09/jena_the_next_steps=
..html
Yesterday's demonstration in Jena was a great success on many fronts,
but still has two important goals to achieve.
First the successes. It brought the argument to the people who needed
to hear it. I'm sure it convinced very few white people in Jena that
hanging nooses is more than a prank or that the judicial system is
weighted against African-Americans. From most of the quotes I've seen
they are still in denial. But I'm equally sure that it made any
administrator, legislator, judge or attorney there realise that much
of the world does not share their standards. This message reverberates
beyond Jena. The notion that what happens in small towns stays in
small towns no longer holds. No local official wants a "Jena" on their
hands.
Tartan types
Lesley Riddoch
September 21, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lesley_riddoch/2007/09/tartan_types.html
Forget Sean Connery, Ewan McGregor, Rod Stewart or even Scottie from
Star Trek - for many Americans, Scotland is summed up by grumpy,
aggressive Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons.
Despite all the promotional efforts, research funded by the Scottish
government finds Groundskeeper Willie is the character most Americans
associate with Scotland.
Conference calling
Open Thread
September 21, 2007 1:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2007/09/thanks_for_all_the_=
questions.html
Thanks for all the questions you posted for the Guardian/Comment is
free debate at the Liberal Democrat conference. Now we'd like you to
to post questions for us to feed into the debate on Tuesday at the
Labour conference in Bournemouth.
"Fourth term or bust?" is the proposition this time, to be debated by
MPs Jon Cruddas, Tessa Jowell and Ed Miliband, plus Phil Collins, Tony
Blair's former speechwriter.
This financial crisis could be a historic chance for Brown
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2174632,00.html
If the PM dares, a radical course would be to claim Northern Rock
proves government intervention is good for markets
Martin Kettle
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
In the long history of Labour as a governing party, nothing - but
nothing - has been as politically destructive as financial crisis. The
slump of 1931, the devaluations of 1949 and 1967 and the IMF bail-out
of 1976 inflicted mortal wounds that destroyed four Labour prime
ministers and sent four Labour governments to their electoral graves.
Collectively these events had an even more devastating effect,
cumulatively undermining the plausibility of the entire 20th century
Labour governmental project and barring the way to a sustained British
social democratic settlement on European lines.
The flip side of a miracle
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2174628,00.html
The joys of our economic boom are lost on the migrant workers I met in
the making of this film
Paul Laverty
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
At the premiere of It's a Free World, Kierston Wareing and Juliet
Ellis, two wonderful actresses, climbed the steps of the Venice Film
Festival's Sala Grande looking so gorgeous I had to chuckle at the
thought of them in our film, squeezing migrant workers into the back
of an old van at 6am in the East End of London. Inside, as they always
do at premieres, questions came to mind: how much of what we have
seen, uncovered, wrestled with over the past two years could we
communicate in a fictional story? Can our made-up characters do
justice to the complexity of what they confront?
A matter of life or death
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2174631,00.html
Millions of people with HIV hope that the G8 will remember its pledge
to them next week
Elton John
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
When I set up the Elton John Aids Foundation 14 years ago, Aids was a
death sentence. During the 1990s the foundation provided palliative
care, information, and emotional and financial support to
thousands ... and prayed for a cure. Today, life-saving antiretroviral
treatment is affordable and entirely viable in the developing world. I
have met wonderful, courageous HIV-positive Africans who are thriving
because my foundation, like many other organisations, has grasped the
chance to use these medicines in groundbreaking programmes.
Face to faith
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2174610,00.html
Adverts for National Quaker Week signal a U-turn for the usually
reticent religious group, says David Boulton
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
The million-plus travellers using London's tube trains next week will
find themselves advised to "Live adventurously", or asked: "Are you
working to bring about a just and compassionate society?" Not thoughts
that naturally spring to mind in the hell of the daily rush hour, deep
in the bowels of the city.
The advice comes in the form of ads placed by the Quakers as a
contribution to their National Quaker Week, which begins this weekend.
It's quite a U-turn for a religious group known for its aversion to
"come-and-join-us" evangelism and for hiding its inner light under the
proverbial bushel.
Iraq's hired hands under fire as the pot of gold starts to run low
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2174486,00.html
Security boom ends amid complaints about civilian killings and
immunity
Ewen MacAskill in Washington, Richard Norton-Taylor
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
They needed to be hired fast after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. With too
few US soldiers on the ground, demand for private security guards was
at a level not seen since the mercenary heyday of Congo in the 1960s.
Former special forces soldiers from the US and Britain, with their
wrap-around shades and swagger, had to be supplemented by Chileans,
Colombians and Jordanians.
Iraq was awash with billions of dollars from the US, and company
profits soared, while those on the ground were earning much more than
US and British soldiers.
Fujimori faces jail after losing extradition battle
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2174478,00.html
=C2=B7 Chile to deport former Peru president to stand trial
=C2=B7 Human rights group celebrates unique victory
Jonathan Franklin in Santiago and agencies
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
Alberto Fujimori, the former president of Peru, faces up to 25 years
in prison after losing his long-running battle to avoid extradition
from Chile to face corruption and human rights charges.
The decision by the supreme court in Santiago yesterday is final, and
Mr Fujimori is expected to be placed under arrest and flown to Peru
immediately. Human Rights Watch said yesterday it was the first time a
court anywhere in the world had ordered the extradition of a former
leader to be tried in his home country for human rights violations.
Spy left out in the cold: how MI6 buried heroic exploits of agent
'Griffin'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/secondworldwar/story/0,,2174648,00.html
Campaigners demand recognition for Austrian who exposed Nazi nuclear
plans
Owen Bowcott
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
The mystery of how one of Britain's longest-serving and best-placed
spies smuggled scientific documents about Hitler's nuclear weapons
programme out of Nazi Germany are concealed, it is alleged, within the
secret service's archives.
Cherie Booth QC, the former prime minister's wife, appeared in court
yesterday in an attempt to rescue the reputation of Paul Rosbaud -
reputedly the longest-serving and best-placed spy working for Britain
during the second world war - from oblivion.
Ferrero loses monopoly over Kinder sweets
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2174480,00.html
Kate Connolly
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
The confectionery giant Ferrero has been left with a bitter taste
after being banned from keeping its monopoly over the word kinder, the
German word for children, on its popular Kinder Surprise eggs.
The ruling by a German court ended a lengthy battle between sweet
manufacturers that had raged for years and marked one of the most
significant business copyright rows of recent times.
Censorship claim over book on Japanese princess
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2174484,00.html
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
The author of a controversial biography of Crown Princess Masako
yesterday accused the Japanese government of censorship after
newspapers refused to carry advertisements for the book.
The release of the English version of Princess Masako: Prisoner of the
Chrysanthemum Throne this year sparked protests from the Japanese
foreign ministry and the imperial household agency, which accused the
author of insulting the royal family and demanded an apology.
Taiwan loses Olympic torch relay
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2174483,00.html
Charles Hutzler in Beijing
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
Bickering between rivals China and Taiwan forced Olympic officials to
abandon plans to include Taiwan in the torch relay for next year's
Beijing Olympics, with both sides accusing the other of playing
politics with the event.
After 10 months of plodding bargaining during which Beijing announced
Taiwan's participation in the relay only to have Taipei deny it, the
International Olympic Committee notified both sides on Thursday that
the Taipei leg would be dropped. Yesterday, the Taiwan president, Chen
Shui-bian, said: "China was not acting in good faith."
Socialists belittle Sarkozy over reform
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2174479,00.html
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
France's Socialist party yesterday accused Nicolas Sarkozy of
suffering from "small man syndrome", saying this explained why the
president proclaimed his reforms the biggest in decades.
The Socialists, who are still trying to recover from their defeat in
presidential and parliamentary elections this year, have criticised
the pensions, social and civil service reforms Mr Sarkozy announced
this week.
Dutch PM faces defeat over EU treaty vote
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2174487,00.html
=C2=B7 Referendum issue splits country and coalition
=C2=B7 Netherlands could again sabotage EU initiative
Ian Traynor in Brussels
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
The Dutch government rejected mounting calls for a referendum on
Europe's new reform treaty last night, two years after Dutch voters
killed off the European constitution in a referendum that stunned the
EU.
After a cabinet meeting yesterday of the coalition of Christian and
Social Democrats, the Christian Democrat prime minister, Jan Peter
Balkenende, announced that a second referendum was not needed on the
grounds that the new treaty was not a constitution and that Dutch
concerns had been assuaged in the treaty negotiations this year.
Poland starts campaign to bring back plumbers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2174477,00.html
Kate Connolly in Berlin
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
The Polish president has launched an advertising campaign to lure home
an estimated 2 million young people who have emigrated abroad.
Focusing mainly on Britain where an estimated 600,000 Poles work,
President Lech Kaczynski said he wanted to attract as many of his
compatriots as possible.
Sold down the river
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2173083,00.html
Bags of sugar and a few bars of soap - with these the rights to one of
the greatest forests in the world change hands. And while foreign
loggers rake in the profits, the local people now face losing
everything. John Vidal reports from Congo
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
If there is one person who has shaped the way the west has seen Africa
for 100 years, it is Joseph Conrad who travelled up the river Congo as
a seaman in 1890 and then wrote his short classic, Heart Of Darkness.
The book chronicles a European merchant's journey to a town on the
equator that the Belgians called Stanleyville but is now Kisangani.
There he finds Kurtz, a trader losing his sanity and soul as he
exploits the local people. The Kurtz character and the river at
Kisangani also informed the films Apocalypse Now and The African
Queen.
The leap from Pele to ballet
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2173082,00.html
As a boy in Havana, he would skip school to hang out in gangs -
breakdancing and dreaming of being a footballer. So his father forced
him into ballet school. And now he's one of the best dancers in the
world. Carlos Acosta tells his story
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
I grew up in Los Pinos, a neighbourhood in the suburbs of Havana, a
combination of asphalt streets, wooden houses and vegetation. Most of
our neighbours were workers, country people, hawkers and street
traders. When the stores had food, we would queue with our ration book
from early in the morning. People would play dominoes, drink rum and
dance salsa together. You lived as part of a community and were
grateful for the achievements of the Revolution, even though you might
secretly listen to the rock music that was synonymous with
imperialism.
Where time stands still
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2174178,00.html
Simon Schama's book Rough Crossings records the lives of those who
suffered as slaves on Bunce Island. Caryl Phillips, who has adapted
their stories for the stage, recalls his pilgrimage to 'this miserable
place'
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
I had been idling on the grounds of the Freetown Aqua Sports Club for
nearly an hour and was beginning to give up hope. A few minutes
earlier, a white South African had approached and assured me that he
could "fix things". He claimed that he would "see if it's possible"
and then he sped off in his jeep, throwing up clouds of dust in his
wake. I did not expect to see him again. I watched two lethargic men
stringing up a sign that read "Happy Birthday" on the front of the
building. To the side of the club, a sagging electrical wire spanned
the gap between two palm trees; it boasted a yellow bulb, a green bulb
and an empty socket. Beneath the wire, stone tables and chairs were
formally grouped, their dignity undermined by the odd plastic chair
that had been carelessly tossed among them. The swimming pool was half
full of filthy water, and near the steps that led down into the pool
lay a pair of abandoned flip-flops. Up above, the buzzing of a
helicopter competed with the tinny rhythms of hip-hop that emanated
from the inadequate speakers that flanked the empty bar. Here, on a
tranquil Sunday afternoon in Freetown harbour, in the shadow of high
wooded hills that rose dramatically behind me, I, too, felt abandoned.
Basic instincts
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2174175,00.html
Steven Pinker caused outrage by arguing that everything from adultery
to altruism has its roots in natural selection. His work on irregular
verbs still provokes hate mail
Oliver Burkeman
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
This summer, the linguist and evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker
flew to London on the kind of mission that is all part of the job,
when your job is the nebulous one of "intellectual rock star". His
publishers had arranged for him to be the headline act at a gathering
of senior buyers in the book trade, and his presence was intended to
let a little of his glamour rub off on the rest of the firm's titles.
Pinker, who has just turned 53, seems built for the limelight to an
almost parodic degree, with his Roger Daltrey hair, prominent jawline,
and fondness for jeans and leather boots. His latest book, The Stuff
of Thought, revels in its mass appeal, drawing conclusions about the
human brain from the cute mistakes that children make ("we holded the
baby rabbits") and the rich lexicon of swearing. "Think of the
transitive verbs for sex ... *****, screw, hump, ball, *****, bonk,
bang, shag, pork, shtup," Pinker writes in one typical section.
"They're not very nice, are they?"
Power to the people
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2174411,00.html
Matthew Collin tells how revolutionary youth movements from Serbia to
Ukraine have made their mark in The Time of the Rebels, says Jon
Savage
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
The Time of the Rebels
by Matthew Collin
224pp, Serpent's Tail, =C2=A312.99
At dawn on October 5 2000, thousands of young Serbs descended on
Belgrade, the capital of Slobodan Milosevic's regime. Some had armed
themselves with petrol bombs and clubs, others were intent on less
violent forms of protest: when one group met a roadblock on the edge
of the city, they simply lifted the policemen - who had disobeyed
their orders to fire on the protesters - and dumped them by the side
of the road.
There's gold in that thar web
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2174174,00.html
Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams is an impressive
account of how Web 2.0 is revolutionising business practice, says
Emily Bell
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
by Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams 336pp, Atlantic, =C2=A316.99
In the past 10 years something very frightening has happened to
certain business managers who live outside the heady bubble of
technological progress. They have been alarmed and oppressed by a
rapidly proliferating series of developments to the internet and
worldwide web that have transformed business models and altered
consumer behaviour.
Suddenly their professional worlds have become populated by people who
speak in their own language, who think in a different way, and who
have in some cases achieved immense success and gained colossal
personal wealth in a matter of months - rather than the years it would
have taken to build traditional businesses. The key to this rapid
shift has been the advent of something called Web 2.0, whereby
websites changed from being about "flat content" (words and pictures
with the occasional form to fill in) to a model where anyone could
edit or add to content from any web browser from any location.
Divine monsters
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2174173,00.html
Andrew Brown is exhausted by the breadth of reference in Peter
Conrad's study of inspiration, Creation
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
This is a mountain of a book, and anyone who reaches the last page
without using oxygen can feel a justifiable pride in their
accomplishment. But is there a better reason for making the effort
than because it's there?
It is the work of an extremely learned man, confident that his
opinions on everything are interesting: he quotes Finnish mythologies
as well as - obviously - Babylonian, Norse and classical creation
myths, modernists, dada-ists, Philip Pullman, the 13th-century Abbot
Suger of St Denis, Hazlitt, Goethe, Delacroix and the Wachowski
brothers, who made the Matrix films. Peter Conrad's mind is clearly
one of the world's largest collections of cultural references.
The way we were
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2174408,00.html
Francis Beckett finds Roy Hattersley's Borrowed Time fails to reflect
the clamour of Britain between the wars
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
Borrowed Time: The Story of Britain Between the Wars
by Roy Hattersley
436pp, Little, Brown, =C2=A320
Clement Attlee, reviewing his old comrade and rival Winston
Churchill's A History of the English Speaking Peoples, wrote: "It
might indeed be better called 'Things in history which have interested
me'." Roy Hattersley's Borrowed Time is subtitled The Story of Britain
Between the Wars, but it is nothing of the kind. It is a collection of
interesting, thoughtful, well-written essays on aspects of the 20s and
30s that have caught Hattersley's attention and imagination.
Passage to India
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2174419,00.html
Huw Bowen is impressed by Stephen Taylor's brilliant slice of maritime
history, Storm and Conquest
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian
Storm and Conquest: The Battle for the Indian Ocean, 1809
by Stephen Taylor
380pp, Faber, =C2=A320
Historians often ignore or underestimate the part played by maritime
power in the creation, expansion, and defence of British India. But
the British were always crucially depend`ent upon ships dispatched
from the imperial metropolis to support and sustain their vulnerable
positions on the sub continent. In particular before the dramatic
collapse of the East India Company in 1857-58, an annual fleet of
ships supplied the lifeblood of empire by conveying people,
commodities, information, military stores, and much else between west
and east.
Leading article: This financial crisis should never have been allowed
to happen
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2987813.ece
Published: 22 September 2007
Even by recent standards, it has been a stormy week in the global
financial markets. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis
points to avert recession in the US and world economies. Meanwhile,
the price of gold rose to its highest level in nearly 28 years, a sign
that investors are seeking shelter from the recent market uncertainty.
Events have been even more extreme here in Britain. We saw the first
run on a bank in more than a century, as ordinary depositors queued to
get their money out of branches of Northern Rock. To stem the panic,
the Treasury was forced into the effective nationalisation of the
bank, an action with dangerous implications. Finally, the Bank of
England governor, Mervyn King, underwent an extremely hostile
questioning in front of a House of Commons committee.
Rupert Cornwell: Strange times in war-wary Washington
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2987816.ece
Published: 22 September 2007
Please, Lee Bollinger, do not go wobbly. Mr Bollinger is President of
Columbia University in New York, where Mahmoud Ahmadinejad =E2=80=93 the
President of Iran and Satan, Beelzebub and the anti-Christ combined in
American political demonology =E2=80=93 is due to deliver a speech on Monda=
y=2E
Despite demands from city officials that Mr Ahmadinejad be denied this
opportunity to spout "hate-mongering vitriol" shortly before he
addresses the UN General Assembly next week, Mr Bollinger has promised
the event will go ahead, in the tradition of "robust debate" fostered
by his university. We shall see. Last year, Columbia called off a
similar appearance by the Iranian leader because of "security and
logistical" problems. Those, not by co-incidence, were precisely the
considerations that led the New York police to reject Ahmadinejad's
request to lay a wreath at Ground Zero during his visit.
Stanford campus in uproar over fellowship for Rumsfeld
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2987807.ece
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 22 September 2007
Academics and students at California's prestigious Stanford University
have launched a vigorous protest against the appointment of Donald
Rumsfeld as a visiting fellow to a right-wing campus think-tank,
saying the former defence secretary and architect of the Iraq war
offends their ideals of truth and tolerance.
Mr Rumsfeld's appointment as a one-year visiting fellow to the Hoover
Institution was announced two weeks ago. Since then, more than 2,300
people on campus have signed a petition calling for the appointment to
be revoked =E2=80=93 among them an eminent professor of psychology who
specialises in the wellsprings of bestial human behaviour.
Student challenges Gaza lockdown in court
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2987808.ece
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 22 September 2007
A Palestinian student urgently trying to get back to Bradford
University has become the first test case of new restrictions on
movements in and out of Gaza since Israel identified it as "hostile
territory"this week.
The Israeli Supreme Court is to hear a petition tomorrow brought on
behalf of Khaled Mudallal, 22, a British-educated business and
management student who risks losing his third year if he does not
return to Bradford next week.
Iraqi cholera outbreak spreads to Baghdad
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2987809.ece
By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
Published: 22 September 2007
An outbreak of cholera in Iraq, which has so far infected 1,500
people, has now reached Baghdad, the World Health Organisation
reported yesterday.
The disease was first reported in the northern Kurdish areas of the
country and specialist teams were dispatched in an effort to keep the
situation contained. The revelation that cholera has now spread to the
Iraqi capital, with its vast population of internally displaced
refugees and crumbling water and sewage system offering scope for
rther proliferation, is a matter of great worry, say health officials.
Syria strike: US shared intelligence with Israel
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2987810.ece
By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Published: 22 September 2007
Before it bombed Syria, Israel provided the US with intelligence
suggesting that North Korea was secretly supplying Damascus with
nuclear technology, The Washington Post newspaper claimed yesterday.
However, there is considerable scepticism of the intelligence that
prompted Israel's attack, with some proliferation experts querying
whether Syria is even attempting to acquire nuclear weapons. The
quality of the Israeli intelligence is also unknown, as is the extent
of North Korean co-operation. Some people have suggested that a North
Korean ship merely unloaded items it no longer needed.
'Healthy' Castro interviewed on Cuban TV
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2987894.ece
By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Published: 22 September 2007
Fidel Castro unexpectedly appeared on Cuban state television for an
hour-long interview last night, after officials excitedly broke into
scheduled programming.
Mr Castro, 81, who is convalescing from a long illness, had not been
seen in public since 31 July 2006 when he underwent emergency
intestinal surgery. There have been no official photographs or video
shots of him since 5 June.
African leaders accuse Brown of 'arm-twisting'
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2987780.ece
By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent
Published: 22 September 2007
Gordon Brown faces a diplomatic row over his decision to boycott a
major summit between European and African leaders if Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe is allowed to attend.
The Prime Minister was accused of "arm twisting" and was warned that
other African leaders would boycott the talks if President Mugabe was
not allowed to attend.
Fight the good fight: preacher who knows more than most about Bible-
bashing
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2987803.ece
By Emily Dugan
Published: 22 September 2007
In the smoky blue light of a studio a semi-naked fighter steps towards
the camera. With a pair of superman pants peeping out from above his
shorts and a malevolent look in his eye, he proclaims: "I'm Jason Bad
***** Barrett and I'm the best at everything. I'm the son of God and the
son of thunder. I'm super J."
To those not in the know, 31-year-old Bad ***** is a mixed martial
artist who fights in the brutal world of Cage Rage, the UK's version
of ultimate fighting, a violent and increasingly popular mixture of
boxing and martial arts that the British Medical Association wants to
see banned.
Catholic schools bar Amnesty for abortions policy
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2987789.ece
By David McKittrick, Ireland Correspondent
Published: 22 September 2007
Controversy surrounding Amnesty International's new policy of
supporting abortion in certain circumstances has brought it into
conflict with Catholic schools in Northern Ireland.
Two leading Belfast grammar schools which had highly active Amnesty
youth groups have shut them down in protest at the stance of the human
rights organisation. It is the latest sign that the Catholic church
and Amnesty, while agreeing on a wide range of human rights problems,
are at odds on the contentious abortion issue. Amnesty now backs
terminations in some circumstances, replacing its previous policy of
neutrality.
The President, the portrait and the village that dared to say 'non'
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2987801.ece
By John Lichfield in Paris
Published: 22 September 2007
President Nicolas Sarkozy, aka "The Tsarkozy", holds France under his
imperial spell but one village, just like in the Asterix cartoons,
refuses to surrender.
The village of Sannat in the Creuse, in the empty, green heart of
France, has decided not to hang a portrait of the new President in its
tiny town hall.
A portrait of the last President, Jacques Chirac, a man of the right,
will continue to hang there. So will a portrait of the previous
president, Fran=C3=A7ois Mitterrand, a man of the left. Why not President
Sarkozy?
Pope to make climate action a moral obligation
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2987811.ece
By James Macintyre
Published: 22 September 2007
The Pope is expected to use his first address to the United Nations to
deliver a powerful warning over climate change in a move to adopt
protection of the environment as a "moral" cause for the Catholic
Church and its billion-strong following.
The New York speech is likely to contain an appeal for sustainable
development, and it will follow an unprecedented Encyclical (a message
to the wider church) on the subject, senior diplomatic sources have
told The Independent.
The descent into madness led to the creative flowering of one of art's
supreme geniuses
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2987777.ece
By Paul Vallely
Published: 22 September 2007
It was on Christmas Eve in 1888 that Vincent van Gogh, exhausted
physically and emotionally after quarrelling with Paul Gauguin, his
friend and fellow painter, snapped under the strain and cut off the
lower half of his own left ear.
From that point onwards, his was a spiral descent into madness, but
with it came the greatest flowering of a creativity which has led him
to be regarded as the greatest Dutch painter since Rembrandt and one
of the formative influences on the development of modern painting.
Record prices for German wine as it sheds old image
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2987802.ece
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
Published: 22 September 2007
Germany's much-maligned wine industry has finally managed to cast off
its reputation as a purveyor of cheap, sweet plonk for mass
consumption once epitomised by the veteran British off-licence labels
"Blue Nun" and "Black Tower".
Figures released by growers yesterday showed that German wines are not
only fetching their highest ever prices worldwide, but that sales of
more expensive bottles are booming in the United States and Britain.
Red lights go out as Amsterdam mayor cleans up his city
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2987804.ece
By Isabel Conway in Amsterdam
Published: 22 September 2007
The narrow streets of the Wallen have been a hangout for hookers and
their clients in Amsterdam since the 17th century when the city was
the hub of a global trading empire besieged by sailors and merchants.
But the scantily-clad women posing seductively in Amsterdam's red-lit
windows will have to find another place to tout for business after a
public housing corporation sealed a =E2=82=AC25m (=C2=A317.5m) deal to buy =
18
buildings and their 51 windows =E2=80=93 a third of the total =E2=80=93 fro=
m a brothel
kingpin.
Neo-Nazis release school newspaper
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2987805.ece
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
Published: 22 September 2007
Germany's main neo-Nazi party has launched a youth propaganda campaign
by distributing newspapers in schools that portray Adolf Hitler as a
Second World War peacemaker and the Allies as warmongers.
State prosecutors in the east German city of Dresden said yesterday
that police had confiscated some 150 of the offending newspapers
circulated by the country's neo-Nazi National Democratic party (NPD)
at schools in the region.
The stones of Paris
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2987806.ece
For centuries, the French have been using a particular local stone to
create the distinctive buildings of their capital. But growing demand
from around the world is threatening to exhaust the quarries in
question. John Lichfield reports
Published: 22 September 2007
They no longer know Paris who only Paris know. To see fine buildings
made from the warm, elusive, cream-grey stone of the French capital,
you once went to the Louvre, or to the Invalides or to the Place de la
Concorde. Now, to contemplate the glories of "Paris stone", you can
also visit Los Angeles or Las Vegas, Kuwait, Knightsbridge or Marlow
in Buckinghamshire.
The stone which illuminates the "city of light" is rolling around the
world.
The Story of India
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/noise/?programme=3Dstory_india
AN ISOLATED GENIUS IS GIVEN HIS DUE
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=3D9B0DE2DF1E30F937A25754C0A9=
61948260&sec=3D&spon=3D&pagewanted=3Dall
..=2E.are finally beginning to penetrate the mind of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
IN some ways, mathematicians are finally beginning to penetrate the
mind of Srinivasa Ramanujan. One hundred years have passed since
Ramanujan...
Former Republican supports Obama
http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/sep/22/former_republican_supports_obama=
16860/
By Brian Hicks (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak, the former Air Force chief of staff, had
always been a solid Republican; he ran the Bob Dole presidential
campaign in Oregon and supported George W. Bush in 2000.
But shortly after Bush became president, McPeak said he realized he'd
made a bad mistake. The administration's foreign policy was arrogant,
he said, showed a lot of hubris and little understanding of how the
world worked.
JFK adviser stumps for Obama in Exeter
http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=3D/20070921/NEWS/70=
9210451
President's speechwriter talks war in Iraq
By Jennifer Feals
jfeals@seacoastonline.com
September 21, 2007 6:00 AM
EXETER =E2=80=94 Like President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s, presidential
candidate Barack Obama uses good judgment, according to Ted Sorensen,
counsel and speechwriter to Kennedy during his presidency.
The characteristic is what makes the Illinois senator the best
candidate for president, Sorensen said during a visit with about 50
residents and community members at RiverWoods on Thursday.
Obama campaign manager: don't count us out
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/09/obama_campaign_mana=
ger_dont_co.html
by John McCormick
As presidential candidate Barack Obama campaigns across southwest Iowa
today, his campaign manager is distributing a new memo that seeks to
dispel any notions that the Illinois Democrat's effort is failing to
keep pace with front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.
"When we got into this race as a largely unknown candidate new to the
national political stage, we never expected that nine months later at
this stage of the race, we would be in tight three way race [in] Iowa;
leading in the money race; have the largest grassroots organization in
modern political history; and have an organizational advantage in the
early states and February 5 over a quasi-incumbent from the most
powerful political machine in modern political history," campaign
manager David Plouffe writes in what might fairly be described as a
run-on sentence.
.
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