OT: Tell me no secrets ...

[maff]

Tell me no secrets ...
John M Morrison
April 25, 2007 11:30 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_morrison/2007/04/tell_me_no_secrets.html

I hope that the 85% turnout in the first round of France's
presidential election may lead to some fresh scepticism here about
postal voting on demand. Since it was first introduced here in 2000,
we have been told repeatedly that busy modern lifestyles mean that
postal voting is essential to revive flagging voter participation.
That's nonsense, and the French election has just proved it. The
French also have busy modern lifestyles, but aren't allowed to vote by
post, only by proxy if they can't get to the polls. And to get a proxy
vote, they have to apply in person. Sunday's turnout proves that given
a real political choice, voters are prepared for a bit of
inconvenience. It has nothing to do with lifestyles.

So what's wrong with postal voting? The sole argument for it is that
it increases turnout, and this is now the main driver of government
policy. Labour's enthusiasm for it is unsurprising; it is the party
that benefits most when turnout rises. The opposition parties' support
for it is less easy to explain, though neither Conservatives nor
Liberal Democrats wish to be seen to be discouraging people from
voting. Two years ago at an election court about postal voting fraud,
a judge in Birmingham famously referred to the UK becoming an
electoral "banana republic". The Birmingham case may have looked
exceptional but it was symptomatic of the Labour party's determination
to prop up its inner-city strongholds by weakening the integrity of
the electoral process. Since then, the law has been tightened at the
margins, but postal voting on demand still undermines the integrity of
our elections in ways that are hard to detect.

A toast to Yeltsin
David Boaz
April 25, 2007 10:30 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_boaz/2007/04/a_toast_to_yeltsin.html

More than any other man, Boris Yeltsin moved the Russian people from
tyranny to a rough approximation of freedom. For that he was one of
the authentic heroes of the 20th century.

In a way he personalises Mikhail Gorbachev's accidental liberation of
the Russian and Soviet people. Gorbachev intended to reform and
reinvigorate communism. He brought Yeltsin from the rural region of
Sverdlovsk in 1985 to shake up the stagnant party as the Moscow party
boss. But Gorbachev set in motion forces that he couldn't contain.
Once people were allowed to criticise the communist system and glimpse
an alternative, things moved rapidly - partly because of Yeltsin's
unexpectedly radical leadership.

The danger of gestures
Padraig Reidy
April 25, 2007 10:00 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/padraig_reidy/2007/04/the_danger_of_gestures.html

Last week, Germany, in its capacity as president of the EU, attempted
to outlaw Holocaust denial in the EU. In the end, the resolution that
emerged was the classic result of hard-fought compromise - that is to
say, nobody got what they wanted. States that already had a Holocaust-
denial law, such as Germany, Austria and France, did not manage to
foist one on countries such as the UK and Ireland, who claimed to be
worried about freedom of speech and inquiry. Meanwhile, those
countries that did not have laws concerning the Holocaust now find
themselves having to pay lip service, as members of the Union, to the
watered down proposal - criminalising "trivialisation" of the
Holocaust.

Even if the majority of nations in the EU do not sign up to this (and
they have every right not to), damage has been done to the EU's self-
image as protector of human rights and free speech, and it is
unsurprising who was among the first to point this out.

To Mars, Jeeves!
Alastair Harper
April 25, 2007 9:30 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/alastair_harper/2007/04/to_mars_jeeves.html

On Monday morning I learned that the future had arrived at my door.
Well, to be precise, I learned that the future had arrived a bathetic
ten metres away. A private company, with the help of the City of
London Corporation, has launched a vast wireless network across the
Square Mile, offering a month's free trial and a promise that you
won't lose your connection over the whole area. "That's where I live!"
I thought with my usual precision. Without pause for breath I gathered
up old copies of the G2 for kindling, placed my broadband modem on top
of the pyre and was poised, match at the ready, when l realised I was,
in fact, literally a stone's throw from where the vast web of tomorrow
gave up the ghost. I patted my modem apologetically and plugged it
back into my USB drive. It spitefully crashed.

Still, the death knell has tolled for my modem and the other
components of our future 1.0 world. Surely it's only a few more days
until wireless will be blasted into our homes from Widnes to Wycombe
and it'll be out with all the fiddly nonsense: the thousands of metres
of cables, the Sky boxes (and their menu music) and the hard drives
that make a sad clunking noise as they let you know your photos from
the last five years have just been demagnetised.

Social porn: the grubbier the better
Paul Taylor
April 25, 2007 9:00 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/paul_taylor/2007/04/social_porn_the_grubbier_the_better.html

A mother appears in court for videoing her children fighting and we
greedily watch a university mourn its dead students. Both are symptoms
of an underlying social pathology - a pervasively pornographic desire
to see other people's raw emotion and hurt. Events at Virginia Tech
were tragic - that simple statement is hardly avoidable given the
media's excessive, tautological coverage. The unacknowledged tragedy,
however, is the way in which this coverage goes beyond the merely
tasteless.

Our obsessive desire for emotional money shots, or just a great image,
has global consequences. In what proved to be a case of premature
capitulation, the west celebrated the Ozymandias-like felling of
Saddam's statue in Baghdad with the US soldiers treating the locals as
movie extras in a display of US military power. It proved to be a
trope for the dangerously delusional effect of images taken out of
context - a symptom of our addiction to social porn.

Deliberate acts of deceit
Kevin Tillman
April 24, 2007 10:20 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/kevin_tillman/2007/04/deliberate_acts_of_deceit.html

Kevin Tillman, the brother of Corporal Pat Tillman who was killed by
friendly fire in Afghanistan, gave the following testimony to a
congressional hearing in Washington.

Two days ago marked the third anniversary of the death of my older
brother, Pat Tillman, in Afghanistan.

Change for the worse
David Pallister
April 24, 2007 9:30 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_pallister/2007/04/change_for_the_worse.html

I reported in the Guardian 24 years ago that the Nigerian elections
were fatally flawed by widespread irregularities and incompetent
organisation; that the electoral officers often failed to turn up at
the polling booths; that some areas didn't receive ballot papers and
many names were missing from the registers; that ballot boxes had been
blatantly stuffed. And then there was the violence and intimidation.
The numbers killed were difficult to assess but they certainly ran
into the scores.

Does nothing change? Yes, this was Nigeria in 1983 when President
Shehu Shagari was re-elected for a second term only to be ousted in a
military coup four years later. A decade later, I witnessed again the
weird and wonderful world of Nigerian electioneering on the campaign
trail with Chief Moshood Abiola, the certain winner, who died in
prison after the contest was annulled by the military. The
extraordinary events during this week's elections suggest that things
have only got worse. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart was never more
apposite. This time the fatalities are reported to be in the hundreds.

A price worth paying
Alex Stein
April 24, 2007 8:30 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/alex_stein/2007/04/a_price_worth_paying.html

This week Yom Hazikaron, Israel's memorial day for fallen soldiers,
has turned thoughts once again to how to secure the release of the
Israeli soldiers held by Hizbullah and Hamas. Releasing those involved
in violent attacks on Israelis has often been seen as a taboo. But
this seems set to change. Speaking on Yom Hazikaron the Israeli prime
minister, Ehud Olmert, vowed "never to repeat the mistakes made in the
past, the result of which was an increase in terrorism and the return
of released terrorists to acts of terror, which took the lives of many
Israeli citizens". Of more importance, though, was the dog that did
not bark. Olmert quite clearly stopped short of saying that leading
terrorists would not be released.

The most-talked about candidate for a high-profile release is Marwan
Barghouti. As jail experiences go, his isn't so bad. He's a celebrity
and a kingmaker, a man who issues regular pronouncements on
developments between Israelis and Palestinians, a man who may yet lead
his people to the promised land. Sentenced to five life sentences for
his role in the Second Intifada, the negotiations over captured
soldier Gilad Shalit have once again raised the prospect of his
release.

Talking up a storm
Dilip Hiro
April 24, 2007 8:00 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dilip_hiro/2007/04/talking_up_a_storm.html

When two countries find themselves in a battle - of words or weapons -
their governments invariably resort to spinning - distorting,
exaggerating or even inventing facts, and publicising them to further
their clashing interests.

Such is the case now with Iran and America. Their antagonist positions
revolve round Tehran's continuing enrichment of uranium, and
Washington's allegation that Iran is meddling in Iraq's affairs by
supplying weapons to Shia militants as well as Sunni insurgents - a
charge it recently extended to Afghanistan.

The devil's buttermilk
Michael White
April 24, 2007 7:30 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_white/2007/04/the_devils_buttermilk.html

Boris Yeltsin would not have approved of the lunch I had today with an
up and coming Labour minister. With his vegetarian curry my minister
chose a healthy glass of fresh orange juice. I had a beer, but only
one. My daredevil contact had a second glass of juice, but I bottled
out.

To the despair of reformers, politics in Russia has always had its
boozy Yeltsin dimension, under the Tzars, the Soviets and more
recently, as today's jovial obitutaries of the former president
confirm. British politics were much boozier when I started out 30
years ago than they are now. Ministers would split a bottle of wine
over lunch, sometimes more. It rarely happens now.

Net effects
Mark Honigsbaum
April 24, 2007 7:00 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mark_honigsbaum/2007/04/net_effects.html

We've had charity goats and chickens, charity tree-seeding kits, and,
if you really want to make a difference to the lives of poor Africans,
water tanks that can supply clean water to up to 3,000 villagers at a
time. Now, comes the latest in charity gift chic: the insecticide-
impregnated bednet.

This week, Laura Bush is calling on every American to donate $10 -
that's £5 at current exchange rates - to fund the purchase of an anti-
malarial bednet for a child in Africa.

Not another digital villain
Hannah Green
April 24, 2007 6:30 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/hannah_green/2007/04/not_another_digital_villain.html

Last autumn the Good Childhood Inquiry was launched by the Children's
Society in response to rising anxiety about children's wellbeing. A
range of experts drew attention to the "toxicity" of modern children's
lives, many highlighting issues around obesity and mental health. We
heard that technology had taken over children's lives and created a
generation of over-stimulated and addicted young people.

This pessimistic outlook got a further boost yesterday from the gloomy
predictions of Dr Aric Sigman, an associate fellow of the British
Psychological Society. Speaking to a Westminster audience he suggested
that television is responsible for all manner of ills among children
including attention deficit disorder, autism and obesity.

A Parisian snapshot
Agnes Poirier
April 24, 2007 5:30 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/agnes_poirier/2007/04/a_parisian_snapshot.html

They got on at Nation, on Line 1 of the Paris Metro. An amorous couple
in their mid-40s, they were on their way to work. They kissed many
times between Nation and Reuilly Diderot, but things turned sour at
Bastille. When, 20 minutes later, they got off at Franklin-D
Roosevelt, red-cheeked and angry, they parted without a word. The
ghost of Sarkozy had come between them, and everybody else on the
train.

Their quiet conversation, which soon turned into a heated dispute, was
followed by everybody around them, with an attention which could only
betray our own dilemmas.

Fat and fiction
Shelley Bovey
April 24, 2007 5:00 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/shelley_bovey/2007/04/dont_take_this_man_of_little_b.html

I am chuckling as I write this. The last time I was told by a company
executive that he would not employ fat people was when I was a guest
on a Five Live phone in. Like Duncan Bannatyne, the Dragon's Den
entrepreneur who caused a storm over the weekend by declaring that
overweight workers were lazy, he was certain that fat people were an
inferior species in the workplace and could not possibly work as well
as his thinner employees. Secure in the belief that he was only
identifiable by his first name, he poured out his venom against fat
people. A tabloid newspaper tracked him down, outed him and he left
the country.

When I was in hospital a few years ago, I had reason to be deeply
grateful to the nurses there for the care I received. Not least among
them was a woman weighing, I would guess, around 17 stone. Like her
colleagues, she rushed about all day long, upstairs and down, in and
out of wards and offices. She didn't tire unduly, move slowly or bump
into the furniture. In every way she was the equal of the other
nurses, which was probably why she held a senior position.

Cheap milk costs dear
Felicity Lawrence
April 24, 2007 4:30 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/felicity_lawrence/2007/04/cheap_milk_costs_dear.html

We're used to the poorest nations having crises over food security,
but there was a stark warning this week of how precarious supplies may
quickly become in even the richest countries, as the impact of climate
change is felt. The Australian government said it would have to turn
off the irrigation to half the country's agricultural land if the
worst drought in a century continues for another month. That would
mean wiping out nearly all of Australia's vegetable and fruit
production, decimating vineyards and losing large parts of its wheat
and beef exports. But Prime Minister John Howard said it may soon come
to a choice between water for people to drink and such drastic action.
Food prices rose immediately. As China loses more of its arable land
to environmental damage, it too is worrying about food security.

Strategic planners can see that the threat from global warming and
peak oil means there will be fights over land use sooner rather than
later - will we use it for growing food or fuel? How we feed ourselves
as a nation may soon become as urgent a question as it did during the
second world war.

Tear down this wall
Spencer Ackerman
April 24, 2007 4:00 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/spencer_ackerman/2007/04/tear_down_this_wall.html

The Iraq war has lacked a lot of things - sufficient troops, for
instance, or vehicle armour, or international legitimacy - but one
asset it's always had in abundance is euphemism. Shock and Awe
decapitated the Saddam Hussein regime (if it conveniently neglected to
address what would govern Iraq in its place). Electorally-confirmed
sectarianism is known around the White House as Iraqi Democracy.
Clear, Hold and Build is a carousel in which little of lasting value
gets built; holding ground is difficult and some place always needs to
be cleared again. But nothing within the lexicon of the Iraq war has
been as cynical as the latest addition: the Gated Community.

In the United States, a gated community is a well-manicured blend of
anomie and class resentment. Within the gates reside the right people:
cordial, law-abiding, gainfully employed and concerned for their
children's wellbeing. Beyond the gates lurk the criminals, predators
and poor golfers. Much effort, property value, and private security go
into maintaining a strict distinction.

Bullying for England
Dave Hill
April 24, 2007 3:30 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dave_hill/2007/04/bullying_for_england.html

I was eating a salt beef sandwich in a cafe yesterday when in came an
Englishman of a particular variety - a performing cockney. White,
sixty-odd and buzzing with a slightly over-acted bonhomie, he was
making a food delivery of some kind and also had a message to convey.
He announced for all to hear that he'd just been in west London and on
the street he'd spotted Tony Blair. "I shouted to him, 'Where are all
the flags?' He just shrugged!"

His point was, of course, that we English weren't making enough of St
George's Day and that the government was partly to blame. This has
become a commonplace complaint - at least, it has in some newspapers
and elements within society. Most of the moaners have nothing new to
say. In the Sunday Telegraph Damian Thompson used the Christian think
tank Ekklesia's ideas for reviving St George's Day as an excuse to
lambast - surprise everyone! - "the PC brigade", blah-de-blah, white
poppies, dum-de-dum, and even government immigration policy.
Yesterday, the bold Sir Dickie of the Mail had one of his routine
hissyfits, bitching on about "the revisionists" from whom "nothing is
safe". Bleat, bleat, bleat, meet the Columnist As Sheep, seeing any
deviation from bland Georgeist orthodoxy as turning the dragon-slayer
into the "patron saint of the Guardianistas". Oooh, vicious! And you
thought Elizabeth was a queen.

Yeltsin's legacy: us and them
Mark Ames
April 24, 2007 3:00 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mark_ames/2007/04/yeltsins_legacy_us_and_them.html

Perhaps nothing is more telling about the significance of Boris
Yeltsin's death than the different ways it has been represented in the
western and Russian media.

On BBC and CNN International, there was non-stop coverage about
Yeltsin's "mixed legacy" and "complex character" from the moment when
his death was announced.

Who cares about Metal Mickey?
Tim Radford
April 24, 2007 2:30 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tim_radford/2007/04/who_cares_about_metal_mickey.html

So we should forget about rights for robots. Robots present a moral
and ethical problem all right, but not because they might one day have
consciousness, awareness, intelligence and feelings, but because they
are inhuman. It is their inhumanity that is both the problem and the
big attraction. Robots don't get bored, don't nod-off on the job,
don't get bolshy, don't make mistakes, don't drink or slope off for a
quiet smoke, don't answer back and don't send mischievous emails. So
they make good workers (which is where the word robot comes from, when
Karel Capek first had the idea 87 years ago). They make such good
workers that even in India, robots have for years taken on the routine
work in car factories. If robots are a good investment in a country
where most people think they are doing all right if they can be sure
of a couple of pounds a day, we should be worried about future rights
for humans everywhere, not about the morality of manipulating
machinery.

Music for the soul
Mark Braund
April 24, 2007 2:00 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mark_braund/2007/04/music_for_the_soul.html

The London premiere of Philip Glass's 1980 opera, Satyagraha (at The
Coliseum until 1 May) provides a timely reminder of the considerable
political achievements of the 20th century. And it begs the question,
what would Gandhi have made of the world today?

Satyagraha (Sanskrit for "truth force") was the name used by Gandhi to
describe his political philosophy - a philosophy underscored by the
belief that nothing can be achieved through violence; that only
through nonviolence can oppression and injustice be successfully
challenged.

The appliance of kitchen science
Jay Rayner
April 24, 2007 1:00 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jay_rayner/2007/04/the_appliance_of_kitchen_scien_1.html

Being a restaurant critic is not all foie gras and truffles. Obviously
most of the time it is, but sometimes, as I reported in this week's
Observer, it's also Vindaloo ice cream - quite possibly one of the
worst ideas in culinary history. Be grateful: I ate it so you didn't
have to.

If we were looking for someone to blame for this calamity we could do
worse than finger the great Heston Blumenthal whose restaurant, the
Fat Duck in Bray, was last night named second only in the world to El
Bulli in Spain, in the annual World's 50 Best Restaurants list.
Blumenthal has put more than enough savoury ice creams on his menus
over the years and as he himself said in an interview with me last
autumn, someone would eventually be inspired to do something really
stupid by his example.

Can Cyprus reunify?
Geoff Hoon
April 24, 2007 12:30 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/geoff_hoon/2007/04/can_cyprus_reunify.html

Most British people know Cyprus from their vacations. Travel brochures
describe "an island of legends that basks in the light of the warm
Mediterranean sun". But many visitors will be surprised to find an
island divided and a capital city, Nicosia, split in two. Cyprus is
not written about in our newspapers so much these days. Indeed, in
many ways it is a forgotten island.

Cyprus has made huge progress in recent years, especially with the
achievement of membership of the European Union in 2004. It is no
exaggeration to say this was largely thanks to the determined efforts
of Robin Cook during his period as foreign secretary. I witnessed
Robin's commitment myself when I worked with him as a minister in the
Foreign Office in the late 1990s. As he said "it would have been much
better if Cyprus were brought into the European Union as a united
island rather than divided" but he was extremely proud that it was
Britain's voice that was instrumental in ensuring that reunification
was regarded as desirable "but was not an essential condition for its
membership of the European Union".

The hero of his time
Nina Khrushchev
April 24, 2007 12:00 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/nina_khrushchev/2007/04/hero_of_his_time.html

Boris Yeltsin was utterly unique. Russia's first democratically
elected leader, he was also the first Russian leader to give up power
voluntarily, and constitutionally, to a successor. But he was also
profoundly characteristic of Russian leaders. Using various mixtures
of charisma, statecraft, and terror, Peter the Great, Catherine the
Great, Alexander II, Peter Stolypin (the last tsar's prime minister),
Lenin, and Stalin all sought to make Russia not only a great military
power, but also an economic and cultural equal of the west.

Yeltsin aimed for the same goal. But he stands out from them in this
respect: he understood that empire was incompatible with democracy,
and so was willing to abandon the Soviet Union in order to try to
build a democratic order at home.

Why I'm with Sarkozy
Janine Di Giovanni
April 24, 2007 11:30 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/janine_di_giovanni/2007/04/why_im_with_sarkozy.html

At 7:58 pm last night, I stood on the 9th floor of a building on the
Champs d'Elysee overlooking the Eiffel Tower. I was in the Paris
bureau of CNN and in two minutes time, the battle for France would
begin.

Or rather, begin to begin. The CNN anchor, Hala Gorani, was waiting to
announce the results of who had made it to round one of the
presidential campaign. Not much surprise, Ségolène 26%, Sarko 29%.
Poor old François Bayrou. His rural appeal had bombed, and he trailed
behind further than we thought.

King for a day
Jo Wood
April 24, 2007 11:00 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jo_wood/2007/04/king_for_a_day.html

America, this week, is divided by the decision of Fresno, a
Californian high school, to allow Cinthia Covarrubias, a transgender
woman, who prefers to dress in baggy shorts, has cropped hair, and
sometimes refers to herself as Tony, to run for prom king. She has no
plans to have a sex change, but says in her freshman year she "just
started feeling different". Now I don't have first hand experience of
proms, being of English variety, but from what I understand, it's a
pretty big deal in the US, where the American dream is an existence to
strive for. Girls dress like women, and boys like men, they pick a
mate and date like grown-ups. It must be every transgender person's
nightmare, let alone for boy-boy or girl-girl couples.

Lawyers recommended that Covarrubias be entered to the ballot,
complying with a state law "protecting students' ability to express
their gender identity on campus". The Gay-Straight Alliance Network
believe this to be the first case of a transgender student being in
the ballot for prom king or queen. It is curious that this should
first happen in a state not renowned for its liberalism.

Not-so-bad Boris
John M Morrison
April 24, 2007 10:30 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_morrison/2007/04/not_so_bad_boris.html

When I was casting around for a subtitle for my biography of Boris
Yeltsin in 1991, I finally chose "From Bolshevik to Democrat". I
remember joking with my editor that for the next edition, I could
always add " ... And Back Again".

With the benefit of hindsight, I don't regret pinning the label
"democrat" on to Big Boris, though I was writing at the time the
Soviet Union was breaking up and it appeared that a multitude of
disasters was just round the corner. "Koshmar!" ("It's a nightmare!")
Russians would exclaim at every opportunity. Yeltsin's mistakes as
Russian president were numerous, but in the early part of his rule in
the 1990s he got the big things right. His mistakes, such as the war
in Chechnya and the anointing of former KGB agent Vladimir Putin as
his successor, came as a result of his mental and physical decline.

Change, not compensation
Yvonne Roberts
April 24, 2007 10:00 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/yvonne_roberts/2007/04/change_not_compensation.html

A recent survey by Price Waterhouse Coopers shows a 40% fall in women
holding senior management positions at the 350 biggest companies
listed on the stock market. It blamed the rising cost of childcare and
a new-found entrepreneurial streak among women. Nothing to do with the
bosses' attitude, then.

In survey after survey, the Equal Opportunities Commission has found
that at the less well-heeled end of the working pile, women working
part-time are vastly overqualified for the jobs they doing - a trade-
off they are forced to make to allow the flexibility to care for a
family.

Staying underground
Josh Freedman Berthoud
April 24, 2007 9:30 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/josh_freedman_berthoud/2007/04/staying_underground.html

Art critics nationwide were up in arms on Friday over the revelation
that yet another Banksy mural had been painted over. Those Philistines
at London Transport, with their total lack of respect for good taste,
had removed the offending article from a wall in east London. A
spokesman claimed that the Old Street mural, like all graffiti,
portrayed a "general atmosphere of neglect and social decay, which in
turn encourages crime." Now while this typically English sense of
health, safety and the letter of the law can be quite irritating,
those who bemoan the loss of an iconic work of art are equally missing
the point.

Boycott no more
Conor Foley
April 24, 2007 8:30 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/conor_foley/2007/04/boycott_no_more.html

The decision by the National Union of Journalists to call on its
members to boycott Israel is wrong-headed for all of the reasons that
Jonathan Freedland outlined. The only thing I would add are the names
Seth Freedman, Alex Stein and Josh Freedman Berthoud, whose articles
here over the last few months here have given us all a better insight
into the progressive side of Israeli politics.

As one of the commenters on the thread below Jonathan's article noted,
a decision by British journalists to stop buying Israeli goods en
masse will probably not have a huge economic impact, because the sale
of alcohol and cigarettes are not a significant proportion of the
country's export market. Like the similarly misguided "academic
boycott," which the lecturer's union voted for last year, it is mainly
designed to send a symbolic signal.

Leave religion out of it
Anas Altikriti
April 24, 2007 8:00 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/anas_altikriti/2007/04/murder_has_no_faith.html

When I first heard that someone had shot and killed 32 people on an
American university campus, the first thought that came to mind was:
Please God, let it not be a Muslim! By the time the full details of
the horrific tragedy unfolded, it was clear that he wasn't, although a
brief moment of dread emerged when the shooter was described as Asian.

Of course to the victims of that massacre on that campus in Virginia
and to those who loved and knew them, it wouldn't have mattered one
way or another what faith the killer followed, which nationality he
belonged to or what ideology, if any, he subscribed to.

Uncertain times
Timothy Sowula
April 24, 2007 7:30 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/timothy_sowula/2007/04/uncertain_times.html

Bangladesh is rapidly moving from being the world's fifth largest
democratic state, to the world's largest state of total uncertainty.
Since January 11, when the military stepped in to avert certain chaos
and cancelled January's scheduled but highly contentious general
election, imposing a caretaker government under a state of emergency,
the caretaker government, whilst initially very popular here, is
beginning to look less military-backed and more military-run.

On Sunday in London the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, the
leader of the Awami League (AL) was humiliated when she was turned
back from Heathrow trying to board a flight home as the military
stated they would refuse to let her re-enter the country. Her bitter
rival Khaleda Zia, the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist party
(BNP) and the most recent prime minister, is desperately fighting
against exile to Saudi Arabia with her family. The coup began by the
military is near completion.

The last thing the Middle East's main players want is US troops to
leave Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2064685,00.html

Across the region, ordinary people want the Americans out. But from
Israel to al-Qaida, political groups and states have other ideas

Hussein Agha
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

Overt political debate in the Middle East is hostile to the American
occupation of Iraq and dominated by calls for it to end sooner rather
than later. No less a figure than King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,
arguably the United States' closest Arab ally, has declared the
occupation of Iraq "illegal" and "illegitimate". Real intentions,
however, are different. States and local political groups might not
admit it - because of public opinion - but they do not want to see the
back of the Americans. Not yet.

Don't punish the scientists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2064684,00.html

Distress over another organ scandal cannot be allowed to feed mistrust
of medical research

James Randerson
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

It is the stuff of conspiracy theorists' dreams - a top-secret nuclear
plant storing organs from its dead workers so that scientists could
use them for covert scientific experiments. And it all happened
apparently without the knowledge or permission of the workers'
families.

When it emerged last week that the Sellafield nuclear plant had
retained organs from 65 people between 1962 and 1991, the story
brought back distasteful memories of the Alder Hey scandal in 1999 -
in which children's body parts were kept in a hospital basement
without their parents' knowledge. Inevitably, the events have a
similar ghoulish ring to them, and many families of Sellafield workers
are understandably distressed and upset that their loved ones' organs
may have been taken without their knowledge.

Anthropology unites humankind rather than dividing it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2064664,00.html

Only by understanding our cultural differences can we hope to get
along on this planet, says Luke Freeman

Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

In claiming that Bob Geldof's upcoming "anthropological" TV series on
humanity risks "drawing unnecessary attention to what divides members
of the human race" (Comment, April 20), Simon Jenkins does a
disservice both to anthropology and to Geldof. His claim that
anthropology "buries itself in rainforests and deserts" in search of
"lost tribes" is a dinner-party caricature that ignores generations of
anthropological research that has gone into showing interconnections
between peoples wherever they may live. A brief glance at the PhDs in
this department over the last 75 years reveals Culture Contact in
South-East Africa (1932); Mexican Immigrant Settlement in Dallas
(1949); and Bangladeshi Family Life in Bethnal Green (2002).

Why whitewashing graffiti is the real vandalism
Ned Beauman
April 24, 2007 3:54 PM

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2007/04/why_whitewashing_graffiti_is_t.html

Graffiti is supposed to be ephemeral. If you want your art seen by
thousands of commuters tomorrow, the price you pay is that it might be
gone by the day after. So it's difficult to believe that Banksy, down
in his secret underground lair full of anarchist rats, is too upset
that yet another one of his urban works has been painted over - he's
probably pleased that it survived so long.

What's more worrying is Transport for London's response to concerns
over their erasure of Banksy's famous Pulp Fiction-inspired mural on
Old Street. When some workmen in Bristol accidentally got rid of one
of the artist's early "throw-ups" in March, the council were quick to
admit that a mistake had been made and their normal policy was to
preserve his work. London Transport, by contrast, insisted that the
Old Street piece had been deliberately removed because graffiti brings
with it a "general atmosphere of neglect and social decay, which in
turn encourages crime".

Why everything's almost free in America (and why it won't last)
http://business.guardian.co.uk/economicdispatch/story/0,,2063523,00.html

The pound may rise even further against the dollar - but it won't be
for long

Larry Elliott, economics editor
Monday April 23, 2007
The Guardian

For Brits, America is part of the high street. Even before the pound
reached the two-dollar level for the first time in 15 years this week,
the United States was cheap. Now it seems a bargain-basement country
for the shoppers merrily piling on to their jumbo jets for a weekend
splurge on Fifth Avenue.

In the City, there is talk that sterling could go even higher as
interest rates rise in Britain to combat inflation at the same time as
they are being cut in the US to boost growth. The feeling is that a
drip-drip of quarter-point rate increases from the Bank of England
could push the pound to $2.10 before too long.

In 2005, G8 pledged $50bn for Africa. Now the reality
http://www.guardian.co.uk/debt/Story/0,,2064919,00.html

West accused of putting lives at risk as fund reaches just 10% of
promised total

Larry Elliott and Kate Connolly in Berlin
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

The west's foot-dragging over aid pledges to Africa was described last
night as "grotesque" and a threat to the lives of the world's poor by
the body set up by Tony Blair to monitor the results of Britain's
Gleneagles summit.

Almost two years after the G8 group of leading industrial nations
promised to boost development assistance by $50bn a year by 2010, the
Africa Progress Panel headed by the former UN secretary-general Kofi
Annan said rich countries were only 10% of the way to their target.

Rambo image was based on lie, says US war hero Jessica Lynch
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2064935,00.html

· Tale of heroics was untrue, Congress hearing told
· Dead corporal's brother says military misled public

Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

A female US soldier who came to personify the US invasion of Iraq
yesterday appeared before a Congressional hearing to reject the
Pentagon's portrayal of her as "Rambo from West Virginia", shot down
in a blaze of glory.

Appearing as a witness at the Congressional committee investigating
military misinformation from the battlefield, Jessica Lynch said:
"Tales of great heroism were being told. My parent's home in Wirt
county [West Virginia] was under siege of the media all repeating the
story of the little girl Rambo from the hills who went down fighting.
It was not true."

Mexico City faces court challenge after legalising abortions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2065182,00.html

Associated Press
Wednesday April 25, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Mexico City is facing a run-in with the Catholic church and a likely
court battle following a vote yesterday to legalise abortion.

The city's governing Democratic Revolution party welcomed the 46-19
vote, which requires city hospitals to provide the procedure in the
first 12 weeks of pregnancy and opens the way for private abortion
clinics.

A crowd of party supporters and abortion-rights activists gathered at
a monument to 19th-century anti-clerical reformer Benito Juarez,
chanting, "Yes, we did it!".

US to make history trying alleged child war criminal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,,2065232,00.html

Mark Tran
Wednesday April 25, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

A human rights group today attacked a US decision to file murder
charges against a Canadian national and alleged Taliban fighter who
was captured in Afghanistan when he was 15.

Omar Khadr was wounded by US soldiers during a battle near Khost,
Afghanistan, and taken into US custody in July 2002. He has spent most
of the past five years in the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay.

During his capture he was shot three times and is nearly blind in one
eye as a result of his injuries. The US military says Mr Khadr threw a
grenade that killed a US Green Beret sergeant, Christopher Speer, and
wounded another sergeant, Layne Morris.

Global outcry at Taliban's use of boy in filmed beheading
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2064910,00.html

Declan Walsh in Kabul
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

The Taliban's use of a young boy to behead a man drew international
criticism yesterday, with Unicef condemning the incident as "a
terrible example of how children can be used by adults to commit
heinous crimes in times of conflict".

In the videotape of the beheading the boy, who appears no older than
12, is seen standing over a blindfolded man, brandishing a long knife.
Wearing a combat jacket, oversized sneakers and a white headband, he
denounces the man in a high-pitched voice. "He is an American spy.
This is his fate," he says.

Turkish PM drops out of presidential race to placate army
http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,2064791,00.html

· Foreign minister is less provocative to secularists
· Opposition still threatens boycott of vote

Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ducked a confrontation
with the country's secularists and generals yesterday when he
announced that he would not be standing for the presidency.

Instead he nominated the foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, who has led
Turkey's efforts to join the EU, and who is widely seen as a more
palatable choice to opponents of the ruling Justice and Development
party, of which Mr Gul is also deputy prime minister.

Ethnic Somali rebels kill 74 at Chinese oilfield in Ethiopia
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2064732,00.html

Anita Powell in Addis Ababa
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

Rebels stormed a Chinese-run oilfield in eastern Ethiopia yesterday,
killing 74 workers and destroying the facility, guerrillas and
government officials said.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front, an ethnic Somali group that has
fought alongside insurgents in Somalia, also kidnapped seven Chinese
workers, said an Ethiopian government official, Bereket Simon. "This
was a cold blooded killing," Mr Bereket, a special adviser to the
Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, told Associated Press. "This
was organised."

China could overtake US as biggest emissions culprit by November
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2064725,00.html

· Tipping point for CO2 was not expected until 2010
· Rapid growth confounds global expectation

John Vidal, environment editor
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

China may overtake the United States as the world's biggest source of
greenhouse gases within months, one of the world's leading energy
analysts predicted yesterday.

Dr Fatih Birol, chief economist of the Paris-based International
Energy Agency, said the country's economic growth had been so fast in
2006 and 2007 that the historic global shift of climate-changing
emissions from west to east which was previously predicted for 2009 or
2010 could now happen by November.

Cracks in unity as Hamas ends ceasefire
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2064775,00.html

Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

The first public signs of division within the Hamas movement emerged
yesterday when the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement
fired rockets from Gaza into Israel and announced the end of a
ceasefire.

A spokesman for the Hamas-dominated government, however, said it
wanted the ceasefire with Israel, which has lasted six months, to
continue. Several mortars and crude rockets were fired early yesterday
from the Gaza strip as Israelis celebrated their 59th Independence
Day. Nobody was injured, but for the first time since the November
ceasefire, Hamas claimed responsibility. Dozens of homemade Qassam
rockets have been fired out of Gaza in recent months, but by other
militant groups.

French election rivals battle for centre
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2064940,00.html

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

The battle for the centre ground in France's presidential election
intensified yesterday as the two main candidates offered talks to the
François Bayrou to back them.

The Socialist Ségolène Royal appealed to Mr Bayrou to meet for a
public debate on policy, the first move towards a possible centre-left
alliance to beat the rightwing favourite Nicolas Sarkozy.

Ms Royal said it was her "responsibility" to make an approach to Mr
Bayrou who came third in Sunday's first round vote and whose 6.8m
voters hold the balance of the May 6 deciding round. Ms Royal lags
behind Mr Sarkozy in a political landscape that remains skewed to the
right. She knows she must convince France she is a credible centre-
left reformer and scoop up the centrist Bayrou votes if she is to have
any chance of topping the poll. Yesterday she held talks with the
former president of the European commission, Jacques Delors, a
Socialist who has been hailed as a hero for Mr Bayrou. Romano Prodi,
head of Italy's centre-left government and a Bayrou friend and ally,
will join her at a rally on Friday. Last night she was due to appear
at a rally in Montpelllier, southern France, with the green MEP and
former May 1968 protest leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit who has advised her
to shift to the centre.

Fearful rich keep poor at bay with gated homes and razor wire
http://www.guardian.co.uk/argentina/story/0,,2064918,00.html

Uneven economic recovery is polarising society, and Buenos Aires' well-
off are seeking peace outside the city

Rory Carroll in Buenos Aires
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

The scenes are idyllic. Children cycle care-free through landscaped
neighbourhoods. Parents clink glasses of malbec and polo players
saddle up for practice sessions. During the week, workers resume
building plush houses with gardens and swimming pools, the designs a
kaleidoscope of Tuscan villas, Normandy farmhouses and Spanish
haciendas.

Touring these estates, which are outside Buenos Aires, it is difficult
to imagine that just five years ago Argentina was on its knees, a
country battered by an economic crisis that made millions jobless,
shattered the middle class and turned one of South America's safest
capitals into a hunting ground for muggers and kidnappers.

Move to block emissions 'swindle' DVD
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2064925,00.html

· Climate scientists say film misleads public
· Wag TV producers reject 'contemptible gag attempt'

David Adam, environment correspondent
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

Dozens of climate scientists are trying to block the DVD release of a
controversial Channel 4 programme that claimed global warming is
nothing to do with human greenhouse gas emissions.

Sir John Houghton, former head of the Met Office, and Bob May, former
president of the Royal Society, are among 37 experts who have called
for the DVD to be heavily edited or removed from sale. The film, the
Great Global Warming Swindle, was first shown on March 8, and was
criticised by scientists as distorted and misleading.

The God disunion: there is a place for faith in science, insists
Winston
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2064897,00.html

· IVF pioneer attacks 'patronising' evolutionist
· Claim that insulting tone damages public trust

James Randerson, science correspondent
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

His nickname is Darwin's Rottweiler and he earned it - and a
reputation that spans the globe - with his pugnacious defence of the
theory of evolution.

But Professor Richard Dawkins' strident views, and the way with which
they are delivered, came under surprise attack yesterday from an
equally eminent scientist, though one better known for his more
avuncular style.

Lord Winston condemned Prof Dawkins for what he called his
"patronising" and "insulting" attitude to religious faith, and argued
that he and others like him were in danger of damaging the public's
trust in science. He particularly objected to Prof Dawkins' latest
book, The God Delusion, which is an outright attack on religion.

'Second Earth' found, 20 light years away
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2064843,00.html

Ian Sample, science correspondent
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

Scientists have discovered a warm and rocky "second Earth" circling a
star, a find they believe dramatically boosts the prospects that we
are not alone.

The planet is the most Earth-like ever spotted and is thought to have
perfect conditions for water, an essential ingredient for life.
Researchers detected the planet orbiting one of Earth's nearest stars,
a cool red dwarf called Gliese 581, 20 light years away in the
constellation of Libra.

'Sinful' Church of Scotland told it must accept gays in its ranks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2064873,00.html

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

An influential group of ministers in Scotland's largest Protestant
church has said that its clergy and congregations have been "sinfully"
intolerant of gays and lesbians in its ranks. In a report on
homosexuality, a working party has concluded that the Church of
Scotland has been institutionally homophobic for much of its history,
and urged its 520,000 members to accept that gay and lesbian
Christians have a right to serve in the church, as long as they are
celibate.

Clinton loses black leaders to Obama charm offensive
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2483831.ece

By David Usborne in New York
Published: 25 April 2007

When a mobile phone started to ring on the podium as Senator Barack
Obama was addressing members of the National Action Network in New
York a few days ago, he quickly improvised: "There's something humming
down here. Is that Hillary calling?"

The network is mostly black-based and was founded by the Rev Al
Sharpton, who was also on the stage. The joke brought the house down.
Senator Obama is laying siege to the black support in New York state
that - until recently - Mrs Clinton could take for granted.

Into the deep: Robots explore Earth's hidden depths
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2484219.ece

An intelligent, unmanned submarine is exploring Earth's most
inhospitable places. Next stop: Jupiter's moons. Danny Bradbury
reports on the potholers' project that's taking Nasa to the outer
limits

Published: 25 April 2007

What do potholing, the moons of Jupiter and robots have in common?
Very little at the moment. But a high-tech, unmanned submarine is
changing that. So far, it's been exploring some of the deepest, most
inhospitable potholes on Earth. In the future, it could be doing
exactly the same thing - in space.

Next month, an "autonomous explorer robot" (AER) named DepthX will
face its biggest challenge. The US team behind the AER proved the
machine's worth in February when they sent it to the bottom of a well-
charted sinkhole in Mexico. With DepthX still in test mode, they
attached a fibreoptic cable to the robot, so they could see what it
was doing in the deep, water-filled hole.

'It's our turn to enjoy economic growth'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2483833.ece

By Clifford Coonan in Beijing
Published: 25 April 2007

There were blue skies with wispy clouds over Beijing yesterday, a
spring day like in the old days before the smog hit the city. Still,
everyone was waiting for the next day of yellow-tinged cloud to darken
the sky.

Tell any Beijinger that the International Energy Agency believes China
will overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of
carbon dioxide either this year or next, and they will not be
surprised.