OT: Toasting Yeltsin
maff
Mark Simpson
April 25, 2007 9:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mark_simpson/2007/04/toasting_yeltsin.html
Why, I wonder, was Boris Yeltsin, one of Russia's most disastrous
leaders ever, so cherished and lionised in the west as a "hero" and
"giant: of the 20th century and a beacon of "freedom'"
The Yeltsin many Russians will remember was rather different. A
drunken opportunist who immeasurably impoverished much of his country
while fantastically enriching his clique. A president who robbed an
entire generation of their pensions, put living standards into free-
fall and knocked decades off Russian male life expectancy, making it
the lowest in the developed world, beginning a process of depopulation
of Mother Russia that continues to this day. A man who started his
populist career campaigning against the relatively small-time
corruption of party bosses and then presided over an era of corruption
and gangsterism so vast it is without historical precedent.
Getting over the gap
Louise Marie Roth
April 25, 2007 9:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/louise_marie_roth/2007/04/gender_gap.html
A new report from the American Association of University Women (AAUW)
confirms what many gender equity scholars have demonstrated for
decades: while women are more highly-educated than men, they study
different subjects in university and enter different jobs after
graduation; they must confront more difficulties in workplace
negotiation; and they face greater burdens when it comes to balancing
work and family. As a result, a pay gap begins as soon as women leave
university and widens over time, and a substantial pay gap remains
even when you compare men and women who work the same number of hours,
have the same work experience and credentials, and have the same
marital and parental status.
In the AAUW report, some of this is attributed to women's choices, but
it's important that the issue of "choice" not be overblown. Our
culture tends to emphasize choice, and most people embrace this idea -
no one wants to think they don't have choices; it's disempowering. But
research by Jerry Jacobs has shown that women frequently enter male-
dominated university majors and occupations, only to find them
inhospitable and end up leaving in a "revolving door" pattern. The pay
gap doesn't just exist because women choose careers in education or
social services instead of science - they are often actively pushed to
make those choices and discouraged from entering science, mathematics
or technical fields. The revolving doors continue to rotate women in
and out of male-dominated jobs long after graduation. This might
create the impression that women are making "choices" to focus more on
their families than their jobs, but the push factors are there -
employers and employees are wrong to view it as a simple matter of
choice.
The Dwight stuff
Richard Adams
April 25, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_adams/2007/04/the_dwight_stuff.html
Dead presidents are fashionable in Washington. On Saturday night, at
the glitzy White House correspondents' dinner, the entertainment was
an act consisting of impersonations of Ronald Reagan and Richard
Nixon. A few days later Barack Obama did his best impression of Dwight
Eisenhower.
The difference is that Obama was serious. Obama was attempting to add
some meat to the bones of his campaign to be the Democratic party's
presidential candidate by laying out his foreign policy objectives.
His previous heavyweight speeches on the subject focussed on Iraq and
the pressing need to draw a line under the US's military involvement
there. But this week - speaking to the Chicago Council on Foreign
Affairs - the Illinois senator wanted to show the big picture of how
the US would relate to the rest of the world under an Obama
administration.
A bad-looking model
Ilana Bet-El
April 25, 2007 7:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ilana_betel/2007/04/a_bad_looking_model.html
US and EU officials have been clocking up a lot of soundbites lately,
explaining how independence for Kosovo would not set an international
precedent. They are wrong: an independent Kosovo would be a precedent
in many ways - theoretical, political, moral, to name a few - and an
exceedingly dangerous one at that.
Separatist movements around the globe could and probably would seek to
redraw maps based on the Kosovo model, not least in the already strife-
ridden Iraq, where the three main ethnic groups - the Sunni and Shia
Muslims, and the Kurds - could each or all use the precedent to demand
independence. And especially with regard to the Kurds, this could have
exceedingly negative implications on both regional and global
stability.
The delusion confusion
Pete Tobias
April 25, 2007 6:45 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/pete_tobias/2007/04/the_delusion_confusion.html
The conflict between the professor (Dawkins) and the lord (Winston)
seems to be a metaphor for the basic distinction between religion and
God. Professor Dawkins insists that the human need for God is based on
a delusion and that we need to rid ourselves of such superstitious
notions in order truly to fulfil our human potential. His opinions are
echoed by many scientists and philosophers; particularly the
philosopher AC Grayling who, we are told, assures us that: "Belief in
supernatural entities in the universe ... is false, and in the light
of increasing scientific knowledge about nature has definitely come to
be delusional."
But there is a distinction to be made between what religion originally
was and what it has become. Thousands of years ago, our ancient
ancestors understood virtually nothing about their world. Every
unexplained phenomenon - which for them was just about everything -
was a mystery and carried with it an apprehension of some invisible
outside involvement. The ancient wisdom seekers, who were effectively
the scientists of their day, sought to explain these phenomena and
construct strategies, individual and communal, for managing them.
Another brick in the wall
Daniel Levy
April 25, 2007 6:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/daniel_levy/2007/04/israel_and_the_wall.html
A lead story out of Iraq in recent days has been the construction of a
12-foot high and three-mile long wall in the Adhamiya district of
northern Baghdad. It represents the latest tactic used to quell the
ever-spiralling sectarian bloodshed. Standing alongside Arab League
Secretary Amr Moussa in Cairo, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki
announced that building of the wall would be halted, while US generals
continue to explain that the matter was under discussion with their
Iraqi counterparts. To make the situation even more awkward, coverage
of the wall issue began just as US defence secretary Gates arrived in
Baghdad as part of a regional swing-through that included a stop in
Israel. Comparisons were inevitably drawn locally and internationally
between Israel's separation barrier and this latest addition to the
Baghdad skyline. Separation walls are a very sensitive issue in the
Arab Middle East right now. One Baghdad pharmacists was quoted as
asking, "Are we in the West Bank?"
Indeed, there are certain similarities - both the Americans and the
Israelis are pursuing military, or even architectural, palliatives
where political solutions are required. In both instances the barriers
may temporarily decrease violence before new, and perhaps more
devastating, means are used (missiles come to mind). American Generals
used the seemingly over-laundered phrase "gated
communities" (presumably golf courses will be added later), while
Israel refers to a security fence. But in both instances this gentler
language unsurprisingly fails to mitigate local anger. Secretary
Gates' visit came at the halfway point between two rather unwanted
Middle East anniversaries, the four-year anniversary of the US
occupation in Iraq in March and the forty-year anniversary of the
Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories coming up in June.
A regrettable regression
David Hencke
April 25, 2007 5:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_hencke/2007/04/a_regrettable_regression.html
This Friday a determined attempt will be made again by MPs to smash up
the government's fledging Freedom of Information Act when a bill to
exempt parliament and MPs' correspondence from the legislation will be
debated in the Commons.
This extraordinary self-serving measure would mean MPs and peers alone
among public bodies would be above the law and not be required - like
every other public servant - to declare how much money taxpayers give
them for their travel, second homes, and office costs. It would also
mean that an MP's letter (often on matters of enormous public
interest) would become a secret document that only they could release.
Jumping on the bandwagon
Matt Wells
April 25, 2007 4:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/matt_wells/2007/04/the_main_reason_mps_like.html
The main reason MPs like to sit on the Commons media select committee
is that it is one of the few parliamentary scrutiny groups that gets
plenty of column inches. That, and the occasional invitation to
glamorous TV industry parties.
Otherwise, the committee is much like any other. Worthy, a bit dull,
enlivened only by the occasional tendency of one or two of its members
to jump on a passing bandwagon.
Aid expectations
Madeleine Bunting
April 25, 2007 3:15 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/madeleine_bunting/2007/04/aid_expectations.html
This is truly dreadful: the G8 pledges of Gleneagles of 2005 have
reached only 10% of their promised total. All that fanfare, all that
rhetoric, all the campaigning, all the celebrity effort of 2005 has
produced so little. Remember that was the year in which we were told
that we could "make poverty history"; it was always an absurdly large
ambition but it seems we have fallen much further short of achieving
it than we could ever have dreamt in the heady days of July 2005. Aid
flows in 2006 even fell for the first time in a decade once the debt
deals for Iraq and Nigeria were stripped out.
Inevitably, there is now a blame game - who is responsible for this
backsliding - and Bob Geldof has pointed the finger at Italy and
Germany. He's got a point: Italy has done some major backsliding.
Despite signing up to pledges to double aid by 2010 to $50bn a year,
Italy's aid in 2006 fell by a whopping 30% on the previous year. Italy
is now way off reaching the EU target of 0.33% of GDP in aid by 2012.
Germany played a sleight of hand by conflating the two figures for aid
and debt relief, and producing a modest 0.9% increase, but strip the
debt relief out and aid fell slightly.
The dark side of Facebook
Alex Hilton
April 25, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/alex_hilton/2007/04/the_dark_side_of_facebook.html
Over the last three months, it seems like the bulk of the British
political and media establishment has moved on to the social
networking site, Facebook. And I'm not just talking about politicians
jumping on a new way to meet voters - journalists and commentators
from Hugo Rifkind to Andrew Neil and Jonathan Dimbleby are Facebook
members.
"Site" seems like an off-hand description. With more than 20 million
registered users, "phenomenon" is perhaps more appropriate. Facebook
is a small but active battlefield in May's elections, and perhaps more
so for the Labour party leadership and deputy leadership elections. It
provides the facility to organise your contacts and events and to
network and discuss issues with people who share similar interests,
whether they be serious or trivial.
Brown Britishness
Martin Kettle
April 25, 2007 1:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/martin_kettle/2007/04/brown_britishness.html
Gordon Brown always makes Britishness sound so simple - though never
unproblematic. The elements of his Britishness campaign are familiar
by now: an identity based on shared values of fairness and tolerance,
a stronger collective historical narrative and some new rituals of
national identity - national days, flags over the front porch,
citizenship ceremonies for new Britons and so on. If Scotland elects a
more separatist government next week expect to hear very much more of
this Brown Britishness.
There are two very big practical difficulties with Brown's approach -
and they are two sides of the same coin. The first is that Brown's
Britishness is too simplistic - the shared values he extols are not
distinctively British at all, the historical narrative is not a place
of convergence but a battleground (as the slavery abolition
commemorations have recently shown), and the new rituals are clunky
off-the-peg Americana with no vernacular resonance here.
Hegel, shmegel
Julian Baggini
April 25, 2007 12:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/julian_baggini/2007/04/hegel_shmegel.html
Who said Britain was dumbing down? Yesterday, GWF Hegel was in da
house - the House of Commons that is. Asked whether we were winning
the battle against crime (not to be confused with the war on terror)
Dr John Reid referenced the German Idealist philosopher, saying: "I
think the Owl of Minerva will spread its wings only with the coming of
dusk." He didn't get that PhD for nothing.
The Home Office bruiser had silenced his critics with a double blow.
First, MPs are confident when scrapping with Reid, but who has the
stature to argue with a great philosopher? Second, no one had a clue
what it meant, but to admit it would have revealed their ignorance, so
instead, they just nodded sagely.
Like it or loathe it, after 10 years Blair knows exactly what he
stands for
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2065453,00.html
Sitting in the Downing Street garden, I ask him what is the essence of
Blairism in foreign policy. 'Liberal interventionism'
Timothy Garton Ash
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
Tony Blair bounds into the garden of 10 Downing Street, looking as if
he's ready for another 10 years there. He says he's enjoying his last
weeks and is "busier than ever". The outgoing prime minister seems
full of energy, mental vigour and that almost compulsive passion to
convince which he shares with Nicolas Sarkozy. As he approaches the
10th anniversary of his moving in to No 10, next Wednesday, and then
the announcement of the timetable for his retirement, he talks about
his decade of shaping British foreign policy with an ease and
frankness that was not apparent earlier in his premiership - at least,
not when talking on the record. In the old British army slang, I'd say
he was demob happy.
The puppet who cleared the way for Iraq's destruction
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2065440,00.html
Paul Wolfowitz must bear a large part of the responsibility that is
usually laid at the door of his superior alone
Andrew Cockburn
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
Among those relishing the exposure of World Bank president Paul
Wolfowitz's manoeuvres on behalf of his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, in
recent weeks was almost certainly the former US defence secretary,
Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld was driven from public life thanks to the
catastrophe of Iraq, and for the moment at least lurks in obscurity.
Wolfowitz, his deputy until 2005, contributed in almost equal measure
to the debacle, yet managed to slide from the Pentagon into the
presidency of a leading international institution with every chance to
redeem himself. Blame for torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo,
bungling over troop levels, chaos in Iraq's reconstruction, and the
general meltdown in Pentagon management has all too often been laid at
Rumsfeld's door alone. However, Wolfowitz was an energetic enabler of
these outrages and many other notorious initiatives.
The real Yeltsin legacy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2065439,00.html
Far from introducing freedom and democracy, the late president helped
discredit them in Russia
Archie Brown
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
No one can ever take away from Boris Yeltsin the fact that he was the
first Russian leader to be elected by the whole people. Equally, no
one should forget that he would have remained a little known regional
party boss had not Mikhail Gorbachev introduced a vast range of new
freedoms and then competitive elections, making the Soviet political
system different in kind.
Yeltsin had his merits and some major achievements. He was courageous
and was not one of nature's subordinates - as his would-be patron,
Yegor Ligachev, the conservative second secretary of the central
committee, found to his cost when he recommended Yeltsin's promotion
to Moscow in 1985 from his post as party secretary in Sverdlovsk.
Yeltsin's finest hour, by common consent, was when he led the
opposition to the 1991 coup by those who wished to turn the clock back
to pre-perestroika times.
Queerer than we suppose
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2065441,00.html
>From life on Mars to the creation of memory, the science book
shortlist offers the best non-fiction
Tim Radford
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
History books can be shockingly partisan. Biographies tend to depend
on a bit of educated invention. Autobiography, by definition, is
highly subjective. Non-fiction's best shot at not being fiction is the
science book. In principle, science writing is the closest approach to
objective truth through a cloud of words.
A good science book is an attempt to provide the most reliable account
of knowledge at the time of writing. And there is no limit to such
accounts of reality. In the 19 years since the Royal Society launched
the science book prize, shortlisted contenders have addressed an
astonishing range of themes, among them how life began, where humans
came from, how language happens, and when consciousness begins.
There is no neocon conspiracy behind the crisis in Ukraine
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2065414,00.html
This power struggle is a matter of domestic politics to be resolved by
fresh elections, says Nat Copsey
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
I can find no basis for Adam Swain's claim that the decree by the
Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko, to dissolve parliament and
call early elections is an "attempted coup d'etat ... aided and
abetted by western powers" (A western-backed coup, April 17).
Ukraine's political crisis may have some international ramifications,
but it is purely domestic in origin. The problem at its simplest is
the inability of president and parliament to work together
constructively to deliver key reforms in public services, state
bureaucracy and the judiciary. Swain's implication that the president
is the pawn of [unspecified] "western backers" is a little fanciful.
The crisis is certainly not the result of a neocon conspiracy.
The greatest story ever danced
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2065516,00.html
Sanjoy Roy on how the 100,000-verse Mahabharata was turned into
physical theatre
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
It is the world's longest book, 15 times the length of the Bible, and
the full Sanskrit text stretches to 100,000 verses. The tales it
tells, which took several centuries to compile, run the whole gamut of
human feeling - exultation, bitterness, loyalty, lust, compassion. So
how do you make a stage version of the Mahabharata?
"Instead of a concept, I began with practicalities," says director
Stuart Wood. "It couldn't be 12 hours long, and it couldn't be just a
text version otherwise it would just end up as a trivialised mini-
Mahabharata. But it still needed text to give it depth. In the end, a
dance-based or a physical-visual theatre work seemed the way to go."
Killers and censors bring fledgling media under fire from all sides
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2065443,00.html
US and Kabul officials get tough with journalists amid growing
insurgent violence
Declan Walsh in Kabul
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
A day after being freed from captivity by the Taliban, the Italian
journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo stepped off a plane in Rome, beaming
with relief and raising his arms in a victory salute. But back in
Afghanistan his translator, Ajmal Nakshbandi, remained in Taliban
hands.
The omens were bad: Mastrogiacomo's driver, Sayed Agha, had already
been beheaded, and a week later 25-year-old Nakshbandi was also dead,
his throat slit and his body dumped in the desert.
Body double Robot designed in maker's image
http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,,2065611,00.html
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
If you have ever wanted to be in two places at once, the answer may be
sitting in a Japanese laboratory, muttering, flinching and scowling at
passers-by.
Geminoid is a modern variant on an old idea, a humanoid robot designed
in his creator's image, down to the tiniest of details. The skin tone,
the spectacles, and even the lengthy hairs on its head are the same as
Hiroshi Ishiguro's, a robotics expert at the Osaka University who
built his doppelganger as a stand-in for when he is otherwise engaged.
Heat turned up on Rice
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2007/04/26/heat_turned_up_on_rice.html#more
News blog: Condoleezza Rice has been served with a subpoena to force
her to testify on the White House's pre-war claims that Iraq was
trying to buy uranium.
Campaigners celebrate as Mexico City legalises abortion on demand
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2065568,00.html
· Terminations allowed in first 12 weeks of pregnancy
· Liberalisation may spread as church influence wanes
Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
A new law for Mexico City permitting abortion on demand in early
pregnancy was hailed yesterday as a landmark in the fight for women's
rights across Latin America.
The legislation, approved on Tuesday by the leftwing majority in the
capital's local parliament, instructs local health services to provide
abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, no questions asked.
The law does not restrict who can offer the service, opening the door
for specialised private clinics.
UN accuses Iraq of covering up rise in civilian deaths
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2065633,00.html
· Maliki office calls report on sectarian toll inaccurate
· UK denied transit visa to co-author of Lancet study
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
The UN yesterday accused the Iraqi government of trying to cover up a
rise in civilian casualties from sectarian violence since the troop
surge ordered by George Bush earlier this year.
Iraq's government had withheld civilian casualty statistics because it
feared the data would be used to depict a "very grim" security
situation, claimed the UN officials in Baghdad.
US presidential debates go online
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/story/0,,2065598,00.html
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other 2008 Democratic presidential
contenders will line up in South Carolina tonight for the first of a
series of traditional debates.
In autumn the candidates will line up again, but next time they will
not be in the same room. It will be a virtual debate orchestrated by
the Huffington Post political blog with other websites, Yahoo and
Slate. There will be one for the Democrats and one for the
Republicans.
Spain feels the heat: UK investors left vulnerable as fears of a crash
spread
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2065423,00.html
Panic sweeps through construction sector and wipes up to 65% off
shares in a week
Giles Tremlett
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
Britons pursuing their dream of a house in the sun were warned
yesterday that an outburst of panic in the Spanish construction sector
would see the value of the overpriced properties they have bought in
recent years plunge.
"This is not good news for UK investors in Spain," said Diana
Choyleva, chief economist at Lombard Street Research. "We have had
over-investment on a gigantic scale."
A wave of panic spread through the Spanish bourse over the past week
as property developers saw up to 65% of their share price wiped out in
frantic trading. The loss of confidence came amid growing signs that
the market was already suffering from overbuilding and rising interest
rates on euro mortgages. "We will definitely see house price growth
stop and a fall in nominal prices is likely in Spain over the next 12
to 18 months," Ms Choyleva said.
Gambia accused of Aids subterfuge
http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,,2065663,00.html
Sarah Boseley
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
One of Africa's leading Aids specialists has accused the Gambian
government of covertly obtaining blood tests from his laboratory to
try to convince the world of the efficacy of the Gambian president's
herbal remedy for the disease.
Since January, President Yahya Jammeh has been treating people with
HIV in the compound of the presidential palace with his herbal rubs
and drinks, which he claims are a cure. To the alarm of the
International Aids Society, which represents doctors and others
fighting HIV/Aids around the world, his patients have stopped taking
antiretroviral drugs.
Bayrou, France's kingmaker, refuses to take sides
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2065651,00.html
· Centrist cements gains by forming new party
· Poll shows Royal gaining on frontrunner Sarkozy
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
François Bayrou, the centrist whose voters hold the key to France's
presidential election, yesterday refused to officially endorse either
candidate and announced he was forming a new political party.
The breeder of thoroughbred horses who heads the centrist UDF party
won the support of 7 million voters in Sunday's first-round vote. The
broad mix of traditional Christian democrats, trendy urban liberals
and well-educated professionals who voted for his message to deliver
"electric shock treatment" to France's political elite are being
desperately courted by the rightwing Nicolas Sarkozy and the Socialist
Ségolène Royal.
Former Israeli Arab MP suspected of helping enemy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2065659,00.html
Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian
One of Israel's most outspoken Arab politicians, who has left the
country and resigned, is being investigated on suspicion of helping an
enemy during war, Israeli police said yesterday.
Azmi Bishara was questioned twice by police before he left Israel a
month ago. In Cairo this week, he resigned his position as a member of
the knesset, the Israeli parliament. A court order preventing any
mention of the investigation was partially lifted yesterday.
Rupert Cornwell: Secrets and lies - how war heroes returned to haunt
Pentagon
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2486641.ece
Published: 26 April 2007
Truth, it is famously said, is the first casualty of war. And thus it
has been for two of the most celebrated official heroes of America's
campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One was Pat Tillman, the pro-football star who gave up the NFL's
riches to serve, and ultimately die for, his country. The other was a
young woman from West Virginia whose capture and rescue in the early
days of the Iraq conflict inspired the TV drama-documentary Saving
Jessica Lynch. Now, however, the two stories have returned to haunt
the Pentagon. Both stand revealed as propaganda operations in which
the truth was deliberately distorted to inspire a country and allay
public doubts about the righteousness of the cause. For the US
military they have become a colossal embarrassment; for gleeful
Democrats they are another stick with which to beat an already
battered administration.
Cuba frees political prisoners ahead of talks on EU sanctions
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2486643.ece
By David Usborne in New York
Published: 26 April 2007
Cuba appears to have taken a step towards blunting international
criticism of repression on the island with the release of seven
political prisoners, including the well-known dissident leader Jorge
Luis Garcia Perez. He had serv-ed 17 years in jail and wrote a book
from his cell about his imprisonment. Cuban opposition and human
rights groups confirmed that Mr Perez, more widely known as Antunez,
was freed on Sunday.
On Tuesday, the authorities released another six men, whose arrests in
2005 led to the adoption of sanctions by the European Union, which
have since been lifted temporarily.
The world's youngest political prisoner
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2486615.ece
At the age of five, Gedhun Choekyi Niyama was abducted by the Chinese
from his remote Tibetan village and has not been seen since. His
crime? He was identified by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of one
of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism. As he reaches
adulthood, Peter Popham reports
Published: 26 April 2007
Yesterday, somewhere in China, a boy became a man. Exactly where, only
the Chinese authorities can say, and they are not telling. What he
looks like now we have an idea but only an idea: the only photograph
of him, reproduced here, was taken when he was still a young child,
around the time the Dalai Lama announced he was the reincarnated
Panchen Lama.
That was 12 years ago, in 1995, and for five-year-old Gedhun Choekyi
Nyima, son of the headman of a village in central Tibet, the
announcement meant the end of a normal childhood. He and his parents
were seized by Chinese security forces and taken to a secure and
secret location. None of the three has been seen in public since. They
are believed to be somewhere in the Beijing area. The government
recently denied they are in custody and insisted Gedhun leads a normal
life. But it is the life of a shadow, a ghost, a man whose destiny,
China decrees, can never be fulfilled, for the safety and stability of
the Chinese state.
Ethiopia pledges to track down oil workers' killers
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2486642.ece
By Anne Penketh and Steve Bloomfield
Published: 26 April 2007
Ethiopian soldiers are hunting for seven Chinese and Ethiopian workers
taken hostage after the deadliest backlash against China's burgeoning
interests in Africa left 74 people dead.
The Chinese government yesterday "strongly condemned" the killing of
nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopians by separatist fighters at a Chinese oil
exploration site in eastern Ethiopia.
Gates aims to put schools on US presidential agenda
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2486649.ece
By David Usborne in New York
Published: 26 April 2007
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, has signalled that he intends
playing a supporting role in the American presidential race by
spending a large chunk of his private fortune to pressure candidates
from both parties to pay greater attention to improving America's
schools.
The project, dubbed Strong American Schools, was launched yesterday
jointly by Mr Gates and another of America's richest men, Eli Broad,
the founder of the financial services giant SunAmerica. They will
together spend $60m (£30m) trying to make education a central topic of
presidential campaigns.
Beijing turns to Broadway as curtain falls on oldest opera house
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2486640.ece
By Clifford Coonan in Beijing
Published: 26 April 2007
The fat lady is about to sing for Beijing's oldest opera house.
China's unstoppable long march to progress is bringing down the
curtain on the Beijing Opera stage at the Guanghe tea house, which
dates from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) but has fallen victim to a
growing Chinese fascination with Broadway shows.
The Guanghe theatre is famous as the venue where the Beijing Opera
master Mei Lanfang launched his career at just 10 years of age, more
than a century ago. Mei played a girl weaver in an opera called Palace
of Everlasting Youth: Secret Betrothal at the Magpie Bridgeand it was
ability to play female roles that made his name. The director Chen
Kaige, who dealt with the Beijing Opera in his film Farewell, My
Concubine, is working on a new film about Mei's life.
MPs say illegal migrants should be able to work
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2486647.ece
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
Published: 26 April 2007
A growing cross-party campaign for the 500,000 long-term illegal
migrants in Britain to be given an amnesty with rights to work in this
country will gain pace at Westminster today as MPs call for the
regularisation of "irregular" migrants on humanitarian, security, and
economic grounds.
Jon Cruddas, a candidate for the Labour deputy leadership, is to table
a cross-party Commons motion in support of the changes, which have
received celebrity backing in the form of Nick Broomfield, the
director of a documentary-style film based on the story of the 23
illegal Chinese immigrants who died while picking cockles for a gang
master in Morecambe Bay.
Early texts of monotheistic faiths go on show
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2486622.ece
By Arifa Akbar
Published: 26 April 2007
Religious and artistic similarities between the Jewish, Christian and
Islamic faiths are to be shown in a groundbreaking exhibition of some
of the world's earliest surviving sacred texts.
Sacred: Discover What We Share, opening tomorrow at the British
Library in London, will feature rare and exquisite examples of early
bibles, korans and torahs.
Bayrou hints at poll support for Royal
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2486644.ece
By John Lichfield in Paris
Published: 26 April 2007
Never has a defeated candidate looked so happy or known himself to be
so important. The centrist politician François Bayrou refused
yesterday to give his support to either of the remaining contenders
for the French presidency and announced that he was creating a new
party to break the "undemocratic" left-right mould of French
politics.
However, Mr Bayrou - in a press conference in which he savoured and
weighed every word - accepted an offer from the Socialist candidate,
Ségolène Royal, to meet him for a public debate before the second
round of the election a week on Sunday. Mme Royal later invited him to
join her at a "forum" with the regional press on Friday.
Guernica remembered: Picasso's legacy
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2486616.ece
The bombing of a Spanish market town in 1937 inspired one of the
world's most famous paintings. Seventy years on, reports Graham
Keeley, Picasso's anti-war legacy is the subject of a new furore
Published: 26 April 2007
It was a busy market day in a small town then little known beyond
Spain. The central square was alive with the chatter of the peasants
selling their produce and the noise of their livestock. But at 4.40pm
on 26 April 1937, this bustling scene was reduced to carnage as
Luftwaffe bombers unloaded their deadly cargo on Guernica.
The church bell rang out to warn the townsfolk of their approach, but
though many found makeshift shelters, these offered little protection
from the onslaught. Three hours later, the indiscriminate carpet
bombing of this defenceless civilian population would propel the
ancient capital of the Basques on to the world stage.
Adrian Hamilton: When wearing the veil is a progressive act
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/adrian_hamilton/article2486596.ece
Over the past four, years, Erdogan's Islamist party has revolutionised
Turkey's economy
Published: 26 April 2007
Trust the Turks to pose an ever-pressing problem for Europe - and for
themselves. Just as the French presidentials have thrown up the
possibility of an occupant of the Elysée Palace, Nicolas Sarkozy,
strongly opposed to Turkey's membership of the European Union, the
Turks have produced a presidential crisis of their own which, on the
face of it, would confirm all Europe's worst fears of an Islamist
state besieging their secular portals.
It's a row that is peculiarly Turkish - whether an avowedly Islamic
politician can head a fiercely secular state - but also has much wider
implications as to whether Europe is right to regard Muslim movements
as essentially regressive and whether, indeed, we should be hastening
or stopping altogether Turkey's negotiations to join the EU.
Leading article, Science: The seeds of a great idea
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2486598.ece
Published: 26 April 2007
All life depends on plants. This is a truism, but it is one that most
of us have forgotten. In modern society we have all become so
insulated from the natural world that we now make no connection
whatsoever, as we tear open the plastic packaging of a bacon, lettuce
and tomato sandwich for a rushed lunch, between the edible contents
and the plant universe that is pollination and germination,
photosynthesis and flowering.
But without all those processes happening successfully there would be
no tomato, there would be no lettuce, and there would be nothing to
feed the pig that became the bacon. Plants are at the basis of all
ecosystems; plants are eaten by the smallest animals, which in turn
are eaten by bigger animals, and so on, and on, until you eventually
reach the top of the food chain and arrive at species such as us.