Archive for August, 2010
08 22nd, 2010
I’ve just found on You Tube my BBC Our World film last year which traced Graham Greene’s Journey Without Maps through Sierra Leone and Liberia.
08 21st, 2010
I have yet to see a Western leader actively engage in the debate now being led by Paul Kagame in Rwanda:-
In the Financial Times, Kagame writes: “Those who look in from the outside ignore the fact that competitive democracy requires sustained social cohesion……No country has moved from genocide to confrontational politics overnight…..Many also fail to understand that it was precisely a system of pluralistic politics that played a major role in the genocide as newly formed parties with shared extremist ideology outperformed the one-party state in mobilising the population to commit mass murder.”
Until the view of Kagame and others is openly debated the West will continue to make mistakes in the developing world.
08 18th, 2010
China’s plans to sell Pakistan two new civilian reactors are progressing apace, adding another chapter to the long and troubled history of nuclear trade between the two countries. Alarm is rightly on the rise in foreign capitals, especially given Pakistan’s fragile political leadership. The United States must take the lead in urging China to rethink its plans.
Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment on the growing global conundrum of nuclear legitimacy.
08 18th, 2010
The growth of China’s military is shrouded in secrecy which could give rise to “misunderstanding and miscalculation”, a US defence department report says. China has been upgrading its land-based missiles, expanding its submarine force and nuclear arsenal, the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress said. The report confirms US concerns about the rapid growth of China’s military.
08 17th, 2010
I have just coming from chairing a Front Line Club debate on the brilliant book by Steve Cranshaw and John Jackson describing anecdotely how a bit of courage, tenacity and inegnuity can change the world. The nub of Small Acts of Resistance is that activists have to be cleverer than their oppressors. They must outfox them and refrain from using violence. The house was packed, the debate furious and two images of resistance linger in my mind. A mass of naked women in Africa telling their oppressor enough is enough, and a picture of two ATM machines in apartheid South Africa where a graffitti artists had sprayed ‘White’ on top of one and ‘Black’ on top of the other.
08 17th, 2010
China has eclipsed Japan as the world’s second-biggest economy after three decades of blistering growth that put overtaking the US in reach within 10 years.
Click here: Democracy Kills Click here: The Third World War — A Future History
08 15th, 2010
Date: August 17, 2010 7:00 PM
Can everyday people change the world?
With conflicts raging across the world and European governments imposing stringent austerity measures, people are wondering more and more how they can play a role in shaping their future. Steve Crawshaw, author of a new book to be published in September entitled Small Acts of Resistance: How Courage, Tenacity, and Ingenuity Can Change the World, will be discussing the potential for individuals to take on injustice and oppression in the world today.
Looking at current examples including Iran and Burma we will be discussing what people are able to achieve in the face of the powerful who have armies and police on their side. Are we powerless to change anything or are there acts of defiance, some of which are so small they are missed by the mainstream media, that can make a big difference?
Chaired by Humphrey Hawksley, leading BBC foreign correspondent, author and commentator on world affairs.
With: Steve Crawshaw, international advocacy director Amnesty International;
Saeed Kamali Dehghan, Iranian journalist who writes frequently for the Guardian;
Tin Htar Swe, head of the BBC Burmese Service;
http://frontlineclub.com/events/2010/08/can-unarmed-people-still-change-the-world.html
08 12th, 2010
Amazon has now launched its UK Kindle version. Britain is some years behind the US in taking up e-books, but I predict that within a few years this will be predominant with many more books being sold. Democracy Kills comes in out in e-book format next month.
