When hate takes hold
Seth Freedman
June 19, 2007 8:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/seth_freedman/2007/06/when_hate_takes_h=
old.html
"Yeah, we've got lots of famous NF leaders on the estate", said the
mother of the household, bursting with pride. "He holds an annual
dinner here, where he raises a lot of money from the neighbours to
fund the NF Youth school over in Burnley." As we continued discussing
the "Paki problem," as she so eloquently put it, she remarked: "me? I
hate all them Pakis. Well, I say all, but not that friendly one at the
corner shop - he's the nicest Paki I ever laid eyes on. But as for the
rest of them ... "
Scratch the surface and the hate coursing through the veins comes
bubbling to the surface - as Josh and I are finding out time and again
on our trip. The above exchange took place this weekend, albeit with
"Arabs" replacing the word "Pakis" and "Kach" replacing "NF", and was
made all the more chilling because of the complete lack of guilt with
which our hostess spoke her piece.
When big equals bad
Greg Anrig
June 18, 2007 10:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/greg_anrig/2007/06/when_big_equals_bad.=
html
As immigration reform advocates continue their frantic interventions
to resuscitate legislation in the Senate, they would be well advised
to observe how a related law - the Real ID Act of 2005 - is already
proving to be unworkable even before it is scheduled to take effect
next year.
Fixing today's dysfunctional immigration system while reversing the
deep erosion in public trust in government won't happen unless
congress stops its relentless pattern of ramming through predictably
unenforceable and counterproductive bills like Real ID and the big
immigration legislation of the past.
Waiting and wondering
Elena Qleibo
June 18, 2007 9:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/elena_qleibo/2007/06/today_is_sunday_17=
th_june.html
Sunday 17th June 2007. It was the first time I had ventured into the
streets of Gaza city since the previous Sunday evening. Last time I
entered my building, the area was manned by various checkpoints and
there were armed men with their faces covered all through the city.
The violence has stopped for now and no shooting can be heard, well,
almost no shooting. Various funeral stands with mourners are on the
streets. There is a lot of pain left behind and confusion about the
killings and about the future.
The view from the summit
Joschka Fischer
June 18, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/joschka_fischer/2007/06/the_view_from_t=
he_summit.html
Two weeks after the G8 leaders met in Germany an impression remains
that they wrought a political miracle in Heiligendamm. Three things
were supposedly saved at the G8 summit: world climate, Africa, and
relations between Russia and the United States.
It seemed that a world government had met on the shores of the Baltic
Sea. In the face of European unity, George Bush was transformed from a
notorious sinner against the world's climate to a born again climate
protector. Some bold observers, indeed, regard this change of heart by
Bush as a clear indication that Europe had assumed a new role in world
politics. But no real miracles occurred; instead, the G8 will need a
miracle not to lose its relevance.
Weakness in numbers
Nasrin Alavi
June 18, 2007 8:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/nasrin_alavi/2007/06/iran_2.html
As reported in the Guardian on Saturday: "The British embassy in
Tehran is expected to lodge a diplomatic protest after Iranian guests
were attacked by demonstrators and detained by police following a
reception to celebrate the Queen's birthday." By all media accounts it
seems to have been a typical wild and brutish night in Tehran as
"dozens of guests turned back after being confronted by angry
demonstrators chanting insults".
Robert Bork's downfall
Lisa Nuss
June 18, 2007 7:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lisa_nuss/2007/06/robert_bork.html
Remember Robert Bork, the rigid, reactionary, and more than a little
bit scary judge that Ronald Reagan nominated and the Senate rejected
for the US supreme court in 1987? As described by the New York Times:
[Bork] has long been famous for his lack of sympathy for people who go
to court with claims of race or sex discrimination, or other
injustices. He has gotten particularly exercised about accident
victims driving up the cost of business by filing lawsuits. In an op-
ed article, he once complained that "juries dispense lottery-like
windfalls," and compared the civil justice system to "Barbary
pirates."
Masked crusaders
Frank Fisher
June 18, 2007 6:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/frank_fisher/2007/06/masked_crusaders.h=
tml
On the internet, no one knows you're a dog. Or a paedophile, a
stalker, a paid astroturfer, a Giyus agitpropper or just your common
or garden angry white male with a grudge. Or many grudges, even. Some
brave souls go public in person here on Comment is free - the site's
editor, Georgina Henry, is apparently considering imposing this on the
rest, and unsurprisingly the idea is meeting resistance.
With a few rare exceptions of posters being forcibly outed by the
obsessive types who build dossiers of throwaway remarks seeking true
identities, most of us are anonymous online and release what personal
information we do, because we choose to - for the majority, that seems
to be very little. Over the years, among semi-professional argument-
pickers like myself, I see a pattern of disclosure occurring only when
a poster wishes to nail a particular topic with some clincher of
personal experience, or even identity: a black or gay poster, for
instance, will often toss that nugget into the mix to provide a little
support for their argument - "Hey, I know what I'm talking about!"
A war to remember, a war to forget
Michael White
June 18, 2007 6:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_white/2007/06/a_war_to_remember=
_a_war_to_for.html
Live long enough, they say, and you'll experience things beyond
previous imagining. Listening to Margaret Thatcher's fragile weekend
broadcast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Falklands war, I managed
to feel sorry for her. That was never something anyone ever needed to
feel in Maggie's formidable prime.
And the Falklands war was the overture to her prime, the single event
that, more than any other, established her as a figure on the world
stage, the Iron Lady who turned out to mean what she said. It was a
point that the Argentine military junta had miscalculated to its own
spectacular cost.
All included
Yvonne Roberts
June 18, 2007 5:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/yvonne_roberts/2007/06/all_inclusive.ht=
ml
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards has sold over three
million copies in the US and has just been anointed by Richard and
Judy as one of their summer reads. The book tells the story of twins,
one of whom has Down's Syndrome. The father, a doctor, gives the child
with Down's Syndrome to a nurse and tells his wife the child has died.
The novel follows the impact of this lie on the marriage but it also
gives a positive portrait of growing up with Down's Syndrome. If only
fiction could be fact. A survey published by the charity Mencap today
says that a scandalous eight out of ten children with learning
disabilities in the UK are scared to leave their homes for fear of
being bullied.
Resistance is futile
Dilip Hiro
June 18, 2007 5:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dilip_hiro/2007/06/resistance_is_futile=
..html
Contrary to the popular perception in the west, Hamas scored a victory
in the Gaza Strip last week not over Fatah as a whole but over a
faction led by Muhammad Dahlan who, according to Hamas, had been
advancing an Israel-American agenda in the Palestinian territories by
orchestrating the killings of prominent Hamas members since its
electoral success in January 2006.
Aware of factionalism in Fatah, leaders of the Qassam Brigades, the
military wing of Hamas, had surreptitiously formed an informal
alliance with Fatah's moderate members, present and past. After the
takeover of Gaza by Hamas, one of their leaders, Khaled Abu Helal
welcomed the purging of the "collaborators and traitors" from Fatah by
Hamas.
Cross-examining the attorney general
David Leigh
June 18, 2007 4:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_leigh/2007/06/crossexamining_the_=
attorney_ge.html
The attorney general is to face the constitutional affairs committee
of the Commons in the short time that remains before Gordon Brown
takes office at the end of the month and reshuffles his cabinet.
Will he have to answer some tough questions about the BAE corruption
inquiry, or will he - as is, sadly, so often the case with these
backbench sessions - end up merely being tortured with a feather?
Strawberry sarnies forever
Ellie Levenson
June 18, 2007 4:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ellie_levenson/2007/06/strawberry_sarni=
es_forever.html
Oh joy, or as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says, "Oh, yes." I was
delighted to see his recipe for a strawberry sandwich in the paper
this weekend, not because I need help making one (take bread, put some
cream, some strawberries and some sugar between it, eat) but because
it's nice to be given permission by a proper cook to eat something
that somehow seems a bit naughty.
A friend of mine always laughs at me because when we are discussing
how weird it is to be grown up. Other people's examples are along the
lines of policemen looking young, or mums pointing at us and telling
their children to get out of the way for the lady, but for me it's the
idea that if you want to eat your pudding first, well, you can.
Europe's future: rising to the challenge
David Clark
June 18, 2007 3:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_clark/2007/06/europes_future_risi=
ng_to_the_challenge_.html
The second of the Robin Cook Europe Debates took place at the London
School of Economics last week and broke new ground by becoming the
first event of its kind to be held simultaneously in the virtual world
of Second Life. The webcast of the debate can be seen here, including
a version that can be seen by users of Second Life.
The title of the debate was "Globalisation: what role for Europe?",
but perhaps inevitably, given its timing, a large part of the
discussion was given over to the prospect of a new "mini-treaty" to
replace the ill-fated European constitution. Former Labour leader and
European commissioner, Neil Kinnock, was in the chair and he was
joined by the commission vice-president Margot Wallstrom, Neil
O'Brien, director of Open Europe, the LSE's own Professor Anthony
Giddens and Elmar Brok MEP, a veteran of every treaty negotiation
since Maastricht.
Romance of the French left
Colin Randall
June 18, 2007 3:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/colin_randall/2007/06/romance_of_the_fr=
ench_left.html
The late socialist revival in France is good news for democracy, bad
news for the great Nicolas Sarkozy project, which clearly has a
mandate but can hardly be said any longer to carry emphatic electoral
support.
Far from inspiring a blue wave, Sarkozy and his prime minister,
Fran=E7ois Fillon, emerged from the second round of the legislative
elections with a majority that, while mathematically comfortable,
falls substantially short of the predicted landslide.
They don't want peace
David Cox
June 18, 2007 2:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_cox/2007/06/they_dont_want_peace.=
html
As discord deepens in Palestine, hand-wringing starts in Europe. Is
the west to blame for the apparent evaporation of peace prospects in
the Middle East? Should we have backed the Hamas government, or
perhaps forced Israel to demolish its wall and West Bank settlements?
Whatever, it's obviously all about us. Our task now is clearly to dust
off that road map and redouble our efforts to provide Jew and Arab
with the enduring peace for which they must obviously yearn.
Except that they don't.
Courting failure
Julie Bindel
June 18, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/julie_bindel/2007/06/courting_failure.h=
tml
"Men who have sex with drunken women risk being convicted of rape -
even if it appears consent was given. Ministers will unveil the
controversial proposal this week in a bid to boost conviction rates
for sex offences. The legislation would place a heavy responsibility
on men to be certain that a woman is sober enough to know what she is
doing. At the moment, a drunken woman is deemed to be capable of
giving consent so long as she is not unconscious."
Or so claims the Daily Mail, that great defender of women's rights.
Once again, much of the press seems to have got it wrong about the
proposed changes to court procedure in rape and sexual assault cases.
All that will happen, if the proposed changes go through (which we
have been promised for some time now by Mike O'Brien, the solicitor
general), is that judges will have more "discretion" in deciding when
a complainant was capable in giving her consent if drugs and/or
alcohol were involved in the alleged attack.
Risotto or chips?
Open Thread
June 18, 2007 1:35 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2007/06/risotto_or_chips.ht=
ml
Jamie Oliver and his anti-Turkey Twizzler campaign has won yet another
convert: Thornhill primary school in north London has dispensed with
its traditional school dinner menu and joined forces with a local
gastropub. Gone are chips, spaghetti bolognaise, baked beans and fish
fingers; here to stay are such meals as risottos, lentil burgers,
venison casseroles and salmon and Pollock pies.
Let Hamas govern
Samir El-youssef
June 18, 2007 1:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/samir_elyoussef/2007/06/hamas_is_the_ac=
tual_power.html
Hamas is the actual power in Gaza now. The Palestinian president's
response, dissolving the government of unity, declaring a state of
emergency and then appointing a new government from which Hamas is
totally excluded is hopeless and it would lead to nothing but
destroying Palestinian democracy and farther bloodshed.
Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections of 2006 and it's
about time that Abbas and the Fatah leadership admit defeat and hand
over power - government as much as foreign policy, security forces and
civil services - to the elected party. It was originally their failure
to do so which has led to the current situation. Instead of dragging
Palestinian society into protracted civil war, Abbas must leave office
and most urgently work to re-create Fatah as a national opposition
party and an alternative governing body to the inexperienced and
unsure Hamas.
Show of emotions
Derek Draper
June 18, 2007 12:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/derek_draper/2007/06/show_of_emotions.h=
tml
In my Guardian piece today I appear a little hesitant about the
benefits of TV therapy. That is because I try and present both sides
of the case. But the article is published to coincide with a new
programme called Kyle's Academy, which starts on ITV1 at 2pm this
afternoon, and in which I team up with Jeremy Kyle and deliver therapy
to five volunteers, all on camera. So there's no doubt which side of
the debate I'm on.
I think therapy on TV is a good thing for one big reason - and several
lesser ones. Let's start with these. First, it helps the people
involved. Not always, of course, and I am honest about one volunteer
who really struggled. But two were really helped, and two made
significant progress. Second, it showcases techniques that can be
applied by viewers watching at home with similar problems. The tools I
gave the two volunteers who were having problems with sleep and anger
were particularly effective. These, and a lot more like them, can now
be downloaded. Third, such shows de-stigmatise therapy. If an ex-
soldier and a tough 21-year-old lad can participate and open up,
that's a great positive message. After all, there is evidence that 75%
of people are helped by therapy. It's just a scandal that there isn't
more available. That, by the way, is why a group of us are launching
the Campaign for Therapy. You can find out more and get involved with
this on the Campaign for Therapy website.
Two failed states
Emanuele Ottolenghi
June 18, 2007 11:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/emanuele_ottolenghi/2007/06/already_in_=
its_death_throes.html
Already in its death throes after seven years of futile struggle
against Israel, the Palestinian national movement suffered a fatal
blow last week, when Gaza fell in the hands of Hamas. Now, instead of
a state-in-the waiting, Palestine is two failed states, under two
governments at war with one another.
Hamas in Gaza might still pursue its fight against Israel; and Fatah
in the West Bank might still voice the rhetoric of grievance against
Israel as the occupier. But the two are now locked in a deadly
struggle. Anti-Zionist rhetoric has been waving the ghost of a one-
state solution - implying that Israel might disappear, replaced by a
united binational state comprising the West Bank and Gaza as well as
present Israel. It now looks as though there will be a one-state
solution after all - Israel, alongside two failed states, both
Palestinian, and fighting each other.
A recipe for change
Jonathan Fenby
June 18, 2007 11:02 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_fenby/2007/06/a_recipe_for_cha=
nge.html
In the end, everyone who deserved to managed to emerge with a smile
from the last bout in France's long-running election saga on Sunday.
Nicolas Sarkozy got a big parliamentary majority. The left, and in
particular, the Socialists did a good deal less badly than they had
feared. The tiny centrist group of Fran=E7ois Bayrou managed to scrape
together three parliamentary seats, a far cry from his 19% score in
the first round of the presidential poll but still three times what
had been predicted after the first round of legislative voting a week
earlier.
Atheists: stand up and be counted
Adam Rutherford
June 18, 2007 10:35 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/adam_rutherford/2007/06/atheists_stand_=
up_and_be_counted.html
Recently on these very pages, Theo Hobson called me pretentious and
cowardly. It was not directed personally, but to all atheists, and
particularly to those he describes as "militant".
One of those so-called "militants", AC Grayling, dealt quite
adequately with Hobson's muddled and unnecessarily straw-clutching
logic, and I need not add to Grayling's reply or the staggering 971
responses that the original comment generated.
Children's health is coming second to the profits of baby formula
peddlers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2105960,00.html
In Britain, too, corporate muscle and government weakness means
mothers are gulled into swapping the breast for the tin
George Monbiot
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
Like most of the world, I was mistaken. I thought that the aggressive
promotion of baby formula was a problem confined to the poorer
nations, where weak or complicit governments are pushed around by
corporations, and mothers are gulled into swapping the breast for the
tin. But after I wrote about the bullying of the government of the
Philippines by baby formula companies a fortnight ago, the National
Childbirth Trust and Baby Milk Action got in touch to tell me a story
much closer to home.
The no-longer-nasty party is in denial about immigration
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2106091,00.html
David Cameron is not alone in avoiding an issue that preoccupies many
in Britain. But it has to be faced before the election
Max Hastings
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
If you believe the headlines that trailed his speech to Tory
candidates and party faithful in Tooting yesterday, David Cameron
unveiled a "blueprint for Britain". His theme was "our society, your
life". His message was that his party in government would offer
personal choice, not state direction. Many of the Tooting audience
privately think him wet. But they grudgingly recognise the purpose
upon which everything he does is fixed: to win a general election by
entrenching himself in the centre ground, rejecting every demand for
red meat from the Baskerville hounds of the right.
Stick it to these City caesars - for the sake of the nation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2106094,00.html
While our tax revenues haemorrhage, private equity bosses bank fat
profits. May they be put in their place tomorrow
Polly Toynbee
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
Tomorrow the Treasury select committee confronts five golden princes
of private equity. Watch the clash between the power of capital and
the rights of democracy, between tax fairness and free markets. It
will expose the old conundrum: how far dare the state rein in the
volcanic eruptions of earnings at the top without doing more harm than
good to the prosperity of everyone else?
Last week the committee slaughtered the chief executive of the British
Venture Capital Association, who put up such a weak defence he had to
resign straight afterwards. It won't be so easy this time. Leading the
private equity pack is Damon Buffini, the head of Permira, which has
eaten up the AA, Birds Eye and Homebase. With an estimated wealth of
=A3200m, he can afford the very best consultants. The committee, on the
other hand, has just one economic researcher on any given report, but
needs the sharpest armoury of fact and argument. These under-resourced
Commons committees tackling great issues and multibillion-pound
interests urgently need strengthened power and capacity in Gordon
Brown's constitutional review.
Let's talk about arms
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2106093,00.html
One person a minute dies from a gunshot. Now we have a chance to
reduce weapons trading
Hilary Benn
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
Small arms kill one person every minute. I believe this is neither
inevitable nor acceptable. So today I am calling on the world to take
action to stop weapons getting into the wrong hands and to prevent
thousands of brutal, unnecessary and unjust deaths.
There is an opportunity - for the first time - for a global deal to
control the movement of small arms, such as AK47s and anti-aircraft
rocket launchers, as well as heavier weapons like battle tanks. Next
year, the United Nations will examine the case for an arms trade
treaty. And right now, we have the chance to shape that treaty, with
the potential to reduce armed violence in Africa, in Asia and in every
continent.
Too many parents still fear for their jobs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2106292,00.html
Bosses must recognise that flexible working helps business, and
communities, says Sarah Jackson
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
Has David Cameron really "risked a clash with business leaders" in
calling for an extension of the right to request flexible working
(Cameron seeks flexible working for all parents, June 15)?
As the CBI notes, many employers have already embraced the benefits of
flexible working, and recognise the business case; and Cameron is
right to comment that flexible working can be a tool to "competitive
advantage and commercial success". Research shows the impact on
productivity, absenteeism and turnover of allowing workers to balance
the demands of working and caring. Good employers know this, and act
on it.
How the Romans became our favourite villains
Jonathan Jones
June 18, 2007 3:09 PM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2007/06/how_the_romans_became_our_favo.html
The ancient Romans have become favourite villains of every
archaeologist seeking to put an anti-imperialist spin on an exciting
new find or of every TV historian drawing cheap parallels with George
Bush's administration. It seems that ancient Rome was essentially the
British empire with gladiators. Or even a predecessor of the Third
Reich, according to such overstated attacks as made in the
archaeologist Francis Pryor's book, Britain BC, which denounces the
Roman invasion of Britain as "a black moment". Well, if you think
literacy and bathing are oppressions...
Now, as the British Museum in London reopens its Romans in Britain
galleries on June 21 after extensive refurbishment, instead of listing
what the Romans did for us I'd like to point out a more subtle reason
why such denunciations are misguided.
Rushdie's honour is richly deserved
Lisa Appignanesi
June 18, 2007 2:16 PM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/06/an_honour_richly_deserved.html
It is hardly unexpected, yet nonetheless bizarre, that the Queen's
recognition of Salman Rushdie's achievement by honouring him with a
knighthood should raise such a storm of controversy.
Judged purely in cultural rather than in political terms after all,
Rushdie is undeniably amongst the greats of British literature. He is
the Dickens of our times. A visionary realist, his superbly inventive,
grandly comic stories chart the great social transitions of our
globalising, post-colonial world, with its migrations, its teeming
hybrid cities, its clash of unlikenesses, its extremes of love and
violence. They do so with a richness of language and narrative which
is unsurpassed.
And? What's so bad about writing a 'new' sequel?
Alyssa McDonald
June 18, 2007 8:01 AM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/06/and_whats_so_bad_about_sequels.ht=
ml
News that a second sequel to Gone With The Wind will be published this
autumn - more than 50 years after Margaret Mitchell's death - has not
exactly set the literary world alight. To be fair, the New York Times
could have been more supercilious. Still, I doubt the author of Rhett
Butler's People, Donald McCaig, will be describing himself as a
"former advertising copywriter turned Virginia sheep farmer" on the
book's dust jacket.
The lack of journalistic enthusiasm for the novel is hardly startling.
Sequels by authors who didn't write the original books are almost
universally dismissed as artless cash-ins, imitating successful books
in the interests of making a quick buck.
The weekend's TV: Sex, the City and Me
Lucy Mangan
June 18, 2007 8:42 AM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/06/the_weekends_tv_sex_the_city_a.html
So, it turns out that life is not so funny in a rich man's world,
after all. Sex, the City and Me (Sunday, BBC2) was a one-off drama
about the rampant sexism and female victimisation that goes on in the
testosterone'n'money-soaked world of banking.
We first meet respected, successful merchant banker Jess Turner
(played by the always estimable Sarah Parish) as she is angling for
the business of potential new client Mr Moran, an American businessman
who is, at a conservative estimate, approximately 20 times richer than
God. To seal the deal, she, Moran, Michael the Boss and the rest of
her team all head off to a lapdancing club, where Jess laughs off
Moran's drunken advances before disappearing into the back room with
one of the dancers, ostensibly to titillate Moran but really to get a
nice sit-down. Bearing the weight of the world's sociocultural issues
and contradictions is very hard on a character's calves.
This is not about sex
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2106032,00.html
A potentially life-saving vaccine against cervical cancer could be
offered to all girls in their first year of secondary school. So will
people please stop claiming that it's a green light to underage
intercourse, says Kira Cochrane
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
It is rare to read a news story that describes a win-win situation,
but occasionally one comes along that, on the face of it, is entirely
good. This weekend, for instance, it emerged that a government
advisory group, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation
(JCVI), looks likely to recommend giving a vaccination against the
human papilloma virus to all 12-year-old girls. HPV is the extremely
nasty sexually transmitted disease that causes 70% of cervical cancers
- a cancer that affects approximately 3,000 women in the UK annually
and causes 1,120 deaths.
The man in the middle
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2106033,00.html
Fear of jail or execution drove Dinaw Mengestu's family out of
Ethiopia, and he has never quite fitted in anywhere ever since. But is
that sometimes a good thing for an author? He talks to Aida Edemariam
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
When Dinaw Mengestu went home to Addis Ababa for the first time in 24
years, there were some misunderstandings. He looks Ethiopian, he was
born there, but he grew up in America, so even the simplest
transactions - buying a Pepsi, for example - were a minefield." I
didn't know, of course, that you couldn't take the Pepsi bottle and
walk away with it." (They are recycled at the shop.) "So I started
doing that, and the woman behind the counter started yelling at me and
came after me, and then a bunch of kids all came after me, and then
once they realised I couldn't speak [Amharic] it was just a dozen kids
all coming up to me and yelling ferenj! ferenj! ferenj! [foreigner!
foreigner! foreigner!]. And everybody had their hands out, and I just
stood there shocked. Then I kept walking, because I just needed to get
away. It started raining, and it took me three and a half hours to get
home - I was thoroughly soaked and I had no idea where I was, and I
refused to ask anybody, because I didn't speak the language, and the
only thing I could take comfort from was that if I walked and no one
could hear me speak, then I was Ethiopian."
Going cheap: the 43rd president of the United States
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2106029,00.html
Ravi Somaiya
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
George W Bush (approval rating: 29%) is used to being unpopular with
the US electorate. But now he is even losing the support of the
rightwingers in his party - and they're showing their displeasure in
dollars, not just percentage points.
In the run-up to the last two American election campaigns, eager
Republicans lined their party's coffers by paying up to $25,000
(=A312,600) to have the president pose for a picture with them at
fundraising events. Last summer, as his popularity dwindled, the party
was forced to cut the price to $10,000. And now, in advance of the
2008 elections, you can say cheese with the 43rd president for a mere
$5,000.
Why S=E9gol=E8ne's secret was safe in France
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2106027,00.html
Agn=E8s Poirier
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
'I have asked Fran=E7ois to leave home, and to pursue his other affair.
I wish him love and happiness." That's how S=E9gol=E8ne Royal yesterday
made public her break-up with Fran=E7ois Hollande, her partner of 29
years, father of her four children and rival in the French Socialist
party.
So the split of the most famous political couple in France is now
official. She chose the timing, the day after the second round of the
French parliamentary elections. Not that their parting was a secret to
any French political journalist.
Migrant workers boost economy, says TUC report
http://business.guardian.co.uk/economy/story/0,,2106313,00.html
Angela Balakrishnan
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
Migrant workers are boosting growth in the economy and have not
depressed wages or pushed up unemployment among Britons, the TUC says
today.
Despite claims from organisations such as Migration Watch UK that
immigrants place extra pressure on housing and public services, the
TUC says these workers often pay more in taxes than the value of
public services they receive.
The report, entitled The Economics of Migration, says that without
workers from abroad many sectors in the economy would collapse.
China cracks down on illicit lending
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2105810,00.html
Graeme Wearden
Monday June 18, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Eight Chinese banks have been fined for illicit lending, in the latest
attempt by the country's government to cool its booming stock market.
China's banking regulator said today that 4.46 billion yuan (=A3294m)
was loaned to two state bodies, the China National Nuclear Corporation
and China Shipping Group. The money was then invested in stock
flotations and property.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) ruled that the eight
banks had failed to scrutinise the loans, which should have been used
to finance state projects.
North-south divide wider than ever
http://business.guardian.co.uk/economy/story/0,,2106314,00.html
Angela Balakrishnan
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
The north-south divide in Britain is greater than ever despite the
government's aim to reduce the gap, an economic forecasting group says
today. The latest regional planning report by consultants Experian
Business Strategies found that economic growth was increasingly
concentrated in the greater south-east owing to large-scale shifts in
the national economy.
"In the past, the global cycle was heavily associated with
manufacturing and the northern industrial heartlands," said Andrew
Burrell, associate director of Experian. "But as successive recessions
shrank this sector, international finance and the City of London have
become more and more essential to the UK's economic growth."
Washington rallies behind Abbas with end to Palestinian boycott
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2106219,00.html
=B7Emergency government meets in Ramallah
=B7 Immediate US aid for West Bank and Gaza
Rory McCarthy in Ramallah and Simon Tisdall in Washington
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
The Bush administration last night lifted its political and economic
embargo on the Palestinian Authority and said it would contribute $40m
(=A320m) in immediate humanitarian aid to assist Palestinians, including
those in Hamas-run Gaza.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said she had offered full
US support to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the newly
appointed government, whose prime minister, Salam Fayyad, is an
economist favoured by the west, in a phone call earlier in the day. "I
told [Fayyad] the US would resume full assistance to the Palestinian
government," she said.
US failure to pay 'threatens Darfur peacekeeping'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,,2106080,00.html
=B7 Budget plan undermines UN deal with Sudan
=B7 Arrears likely to reach $1bn by end of 2007
Simon Tisdall in Washington
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
A breakthrough agreement to deploy a United Nations peacekeeping force
in Darfur risks being undermined by a shortfall of up to $1bn (=A3504m)
in US contributions to the costs of global peacekeeping, campaigners
said yesterday.
A UN delegation announced on Sunday that Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's
president, had agreed at talks in Khartoum to allow the deployment of
a 20,000-strong UN and African Union hybrid force by next year.
The deal ended months of wrangling and followed a direct threat by
President George Bush to impose additional sanctions on the Sudanese
government.
Rushdie knighthood rekindles 18-year-old controversy
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2106133,00.html
=B7 Outcry after minister's suicide bombing remarks
=B7 Pakistan parliament to make official complaint
Duncan Campbell and Vikram Dodd
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
The honour was intended to recognise the contribution to literature by
one of Britain's most high-profile - and much vilified - writers. But
the government's decision to give Salman Rushdie a knighthood has
generated the kind of international furore that once threatened to
engulf his career and put his life at risk.
Yesterday, indignation at the award for the writer of The Satanic
Verses, spread to Islamabad, with one Pakistani minister reported
yesterday as saying that a suicide bomb attack would be a justified
response to the award of the knighthood.
End of the affair as Royal opens battle for French left
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2106102,00.html
=B7 Split eclipses Socialists' good showing in elections
=B7 Former partners prepare for battle to lead party
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
The break-up of France's biggest political power-couple, the defeated
presidential candidate S=E9gol=E8ne Royal and the Socialist leader
Fran=E7ois Hollande, yesterday sparked a race to reform the French left.
Ms Royal explained yesterday that she had asked her partner of 30
years to leave their home in western Paris, hinting that he had had an
affair and should pursue "his love interest" elsewhere.
The sensational admission overshadowed the Socialists' good showing
against President Nicolas Sarkozy's absolute majority in the
parliamentary elections.
EU summit threat as Poland hints at veto
http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,,2106073,00.html
Ian Traynor in Brussels
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
Poland has threatened to wreck this week's EU summit on a new treaty
to replace Europe's failed constitution by calling for the reopening
of talks on how power is wielded within the union.
Amid the worst row in years between Poland and Germany, which is
driving the new treaty and seeking to salvage as much as possible from
the defunct constitution, Warsaw made it plain that it could block a
deal unless its views were accommodated.
Newton papers on show in Israel
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2106128,00.html
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
A collection of 300-year-old manuscripts by Sir Isaac Newton are to go
on show in Jerusalem, the first time they will have been on public
display since they were bought at a London auction in 1936.
Sweden tries to lose reputation as snoopers' paradise
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2106189,00.html
=B7 Personal financial data search site reined in
=B7 Users could track friends' pay anonymously
Esther Addley
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
For those of an inquisitive disposition, Sweden has long been a
paradise. Thanks to its long tradition of openness, tabloid
journalists, employers and ordinary nosey parkers are legally able to
access information on the salaries and tax bills of their fellow
countrymen. But 241 years after its first freedom of information law,
there are signs that Sweden is rediscovering a taste for privacy.
A popular search website has shut down a facility which allowed Swedes
to snoop on each others' salary information anonymously and free of
charge, amid growing public disquiet and pressure from the
authorities.
Talks begin on Zimbabwe crisis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/zimbabwe/article/0,,2106192,00.html
Clare Nullis in Cape Town
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
Representatives of Zimbabwe's government and main opposition party are
holding talks to try to ease the political crisis that reached new
heights this year with the arrest and torture of opposition leaders,
officials confirmed yesterday.
The talks, held under South African auspices, started at the weekend
in the South African capital, Pretoria. "All we can confirm at this
stage is that there are talks," said George Sibotshiwe, a South Africa-
based spokesman for Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Rushdie knighthood rekindles 18-year-old controversy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2106132,00.html
=B7 Outcry after minister's suicide bombing remarks
=B7 Pakistan parliament to make official complaint
Duncan Campbell and Vikram Dodd
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
The honour was intended to recognise the contribution to literature by
one of Britain's most high-profile - and much vilified - writers. But
the government's decision to give Salman Rushdie a knighthood has
generated the kind of international furore that once threatened to
engulf his career and put his life at risk.
Yesterday, indignation at the award for the writer of The Satanic
Verses, spread to Islamabad, with one Pakistani minister reported
yesterday as saying that a suicide bomb attack would be a justified
response to the award of the knighthood.
British investors urged to quit Sudan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,,2106163,00.html
=B7 Oil revenues fund ethnic cleansing, says campaign
=B7 Barclays and Church of England among targets
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
A divestment campaign begins today aimed at British firms and
investors in the Sudanese oil industry, royalties from which are
alleged to fund ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
The Aegis Trust, a group focused on combating genocide around the
world, will publish a dossier listing the companies and investment
groups.
It calls on them to use their financial leverage to persuade the
Khartoum government to comply with United Nations resolutions and cut
its support for the Janjaweed militia, responsible for much of the
bloodshed in Darfur.
Britain competes to attract migrants
http://www.guardian.co.uk/immigration/story/0,,2106148,00.html
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
The government is to promote Britain as a "migration destination" with
an international marketing campaign designed to attract businesses and
people with the right skills.
The immigration minister, Liam Byrne, said yesterday that he also
wanted to explore the potential of Britain's Indian and Chinese
communities to expand trade links by giving them greater access to
financial services.
The government will also try to increase Britain's share of the global
tourism and education markets by making things simpler for visitors to
the UK through "trusted traveller" schemes and special visas for major
events such as the Olympics.
Iraq was on course until 2003 UN bombing, says Blair
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2106175,00.html
Patrick Wintour, political editor
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
Tony Blair yesterday warned the west not to lose the will to win the
conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as he hit back at those who claim
the Iraq war has gone wrong because of a lack of planning.
The prime minister said the real turning point in Iraq came on August
19 2003, when 23 people - including the UN representative, Sergio de
Mello - were murdered when the UN building in Baghdad was blown up by
a truck bomb.
Fees rules hurt refugees
http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,2105630,00.html
Why do universities make some asylum seekers pay three times more than
UK students? Fran Abrams reports
Tuesday June 19, 2007
The Guardian
Mazed Ahmed is 19, and he does the things many bright 19-year-olds do.
He dreams of becoming a civil engineer, and when he has a spare hour
he watches or plays cricket. He is in the midst of A-level exams in
physics, maths and further maths.
Yet Ahmed is different from his classmates in one respect. While most
hope their A-level grades will secure them a place at university, he
faces an uncertain future. For Ahmed is an asylum seeker, and although
he has lived in England for five years he is treated by universities
as an overseas student.
Bush and Rumsfeld 'knew about Abu Ghraib'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2675733.ece
By David Usborne in New York
Published: 19 June 2007
The two-star Army General who led the first military investigation
into human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has bluntly
questioned the integrity of former US Secretary of Defence, Donald
Rumsfeld, suggesting he misled the US Congress by downplaying his own
prior knowledge of what had happened.
Major General Antonio Taguba also claimed in an interview with The New
Yorker magazine published yesterday that President George Bush also
"had to be aware" of the atrocities despite saying at the time of the
scandal that he had been out of the loop until he saw images in the US
media.
The Big Question: Why is Aung San Suu Kyi still under arrest, and is
there any hope of release?
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2675740.ece
By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent
Published: 19 June 2007
Why are we asking this now?
Today marks the 62nd birthday of the pro-democracy leader and Nobel
Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, a woman who has spent much of the last
two decades either imprisoned or living under house arrest at the
command of one of the most repressive regimes in the world.
US expects North Korea to shut down reactor within weeks
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2675739.ece
Published: 19 June 2007
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described as "indeed a good step"
North Korea's invitation to United Nations nuclear inspectors for
talks about the Pyongyang's weapons program.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also said the United States
expects Kim Jong Il's government to shut down its main reactor within
weeks after a breakthrough on a financial dispute that has stalled
disarmament talks for months.
Clinton consolidates her position as Democrat front-runner
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2675735.ece
By David Usborne
Published: 19 June 2007
Senator Hillary Clinton, who has spent recent months trying to handle
an unexpectedly strong challenge from Senator Barack Obama, may now be
consolidating her front-runner status with a new poll yesterday
showing her taking a double-digit lead in the race for the Democratic
nomination.
The poll of USA Today/Gallup showed that Mrs Clinton had a 39 per cent
lead over Mr Obama, and a 26 per cent advantage if the Democratic
primary races were decided today.
In the West Bank, Palestinians revive the 'Jordanian option'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2675766.ece
By Donald Macintyre
Published: 19 June 2007
Mahmoud Abbas may be showered with international support but he will
have an uphill struggle to re-instil hopes of a Palestinian state, to
judge by the four owners of small businesses who gathered for tea and
political argument in the Al Amari Refugee Camp in the West Bank
capital, Ramallah.
Among the middle-aged friends, two now favour rolling back the clock
to before the 1967 six-day war and restoring the West Bank to
Jordanian control. And only one is sticking firmly to the idea of an
Palestinian state made up of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem as
the capital.
Castro vows US 'will never have Cuba'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2675734.ece
By Will Weissert, Associated Press Writer
Published: 19 June 2007
Recuperating Fidel Castro vowed the United States "will never have
Cuba," saying in an essay published yesterday that nearly a year after
emergency surgery left him "between life and death" the island's
communist system is strong and will stay that way.
The essay titled "You will never have Cuba" filled the front page of
the Communist Party daily Granma and other official newspapers. Castro
accused US President George W. Bush of plotting to send troops to Cuba
since 2002 and to "install a direct imperial administration."
Iraq 'has ruined case for liberal interventionism'
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2675774.ece
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor
Published: 19 June 2007
Tony Blair has been told that his foreign policy of intervening in the
world's troublespots to uphold democracy is in tatters because of the
disaster in Iraq.
Senior Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs challenged the Prime
Minister over whether his "liberal intervention" strategy would
survive after he leaves office next week because other countries were
turning against it. They clashed with Mr Blair when he was quizzed for
the last time by the Commons Liaison Committee, which is composed of
the chairman of all the select committees.
Turkish president blocks government move to speed up referendum on
presidency
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2675755.ece
Published: 19 June 2007
Turkey's pro-secular President Ahmet Necdet Sezer yesterday blocked a
measure that would have allowed the Islamic-rooted government to hold
a referendum on a new presidential voting system on July 22, the same
day as early general elections.
Earlier this month, Parliament approved the measure speeding up the
time in which a plebiscite could be held. The government wants Turkey
to elect the next president by popular vote, not in Parliament. Its
presidential candidate was forced to drop his bid in May in a dispute
that highlighted a rift between the government and the military-
backed, secular establishment.
Mary Dejevsky: The 'two-state solution' has just imploded
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/mary_dejevsky/article267574=
6=2Eece
Some of the talk in recent days has not been of despair, but of
opportunity
Published: 19 June 2007
When I revisited Russia in 2001 after a gap of almost eight years, I
asked everyone the same question. What was the worst thing that had
happened over that tumultuous period, and what had been the best? The
answers, from friends, acquaintances and officials, showed surprising
unanimity.
The worst thing was the rouble crash of August 1998, either because
they had personally lost money or because they felt Russia had been
humiliated. And the best? Well, they grudgingly conceded: the rouble
crash. That was when things started to get better. The market started
to work properly; Russians stopped taking ill-informed advice from
foreigners.
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