Pick of the Web
The Great Kouroush
A young Iranian director used the forum of the 'International debate: The Rights and Roles of Young People as Artsmakers' to talk about the oppression students experience in his country. Remembering the old tradition human rights have in Iran he calls upon the power of Art to re-establish these.
We cannot afford to fail
The Iraq Reconstruction Assessment Mission, an independent team of experts commissioned by the Pentagon, recently published a report of their ten-day Iraqi tour. After presenting evidence to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the authors draw on their report to challenge the Coalition’s masters of war to a gargantuan effort of peacemaking and society-building.
Me - an artist
Young people from around the world took part in a London workshop on their roles and rights as artmakers as part of the LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre) 'Family-Friendly Season'. They presented their views at the concluding event in a combination of polemic and performance through their skills in music, dance, poetry and drama. This was followed by a discussion between the participants and the audience, including politicians, policy makers, children's rights specialists, business people, and teachers.
Inderjeed Singh: lost in Kabul
The epic journey of a Sikh man from the Afghan city of Jalalabad to London’s Southall district ended with his deportation to Kabul by the British authorities. If this policy of forced return of Afghans becomes standard practice, what will happen to the legions of the lost in Iran and Pakistan?
But war hurts more
Sierra Leone, torn apart by a decade of brutal civil war, desperately needs the catharsis that truth and reconciliation can bring. But the attempt to establish this process has encountered problems - confusion about the role of the two different commissions, a lack of public engagement and the non-compliance of critical witnesses.
Singing Iraq: poetry by Fadhil Assultani
A few weeks after the war in Iraq, three Iraqi poets read to an audience at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Uncertainty and excitement mingled, as the writers spoke of a time that seemed to be both receding and emerging into view. New freedom was ahead, bringing unheard stories and fresh voices. Identities were shifting just as attention fell upon them. Fadhil Assultani was one of the poets present. These translations of his poems come from Iraqi Poetry Today, the Spring 2003 issue of Modern Poetry in Translation. Poetry by Salah Niazi and Hashem Shafiq will follow soon on openDemocracy, along with the discussion from that evening, which ranged over many of the political, personal and artistic questions these exiled Iraqi writers now face.
The real American model
The US economic model that commands around a third of the world’s wealth fascinates and infuriates Europeans. But both reactions reveal ignorance of its most essential features. The keys to its success lie not in industry, but in those sectors providing social amenities to the middle class – health care, education, housing and pensions: systems of provision that have little to do with the free market.
Iraq: the new England?
Trouble in the evil axis, Islamic anti-capitalism, sexing up Germany
Brazilian future
For most of the 20th century the foreign policy of Brazil has been linked to the extraordinary ‘developmentalist’ adventure which has turned Brazil into one of the largest industrialised economies of the world.
Its growth concentrated income and power, to make one of the most unequal societies on earth. At the same time, for most of the century, Brazil sought to gain from the changing pattern of international politics. It endeavoured to retain the degree of sovereignty required to forge its own development, while rejecting the autarchy of an isolationist approach which its size made tempting.
Far from home, alone
The immense financial costs of war and occupation are putting strains on the United States budget and its army’s manpower resources alike. India’s refusal to send a major troop deployment to northern Iraq is symbolic of the US’s relative isolation. Washington is now facing the painful political as well as military consequences of its Iraq strategy.
Bossi's - and Berlusconi's - last shout?
As Silvio Berlusconi took on Italy’s presidency of the EU, his “kapo” gaffe in the European Parliament gave warning of fireworks to come. It was preceded by his coalition partner Umberto Bossi’s demand for cannon fire on illegal immigrants. Here a long-time observer of the new right in Italy tells the story of the rise of the Northern League, talks to Bossi, and reads the portents for the collapse of Berlusconi’s “House of Liberties”…
The making of a peace activist
Against the deep background of the Holocaust, a secular Zionist education and officer training in the Israel Defence Force shaped Ruth Firer’s identity. The experience of peace education, including research into the influence of school textbooks in moulding national memory, then led her to understand that building trust across divides is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian ‘peace process’.
Taking the anarchists to task
Irresponsible behaviour on peer-to-peer networks will never be significant without intelligent public debate. ‘Anarchy’ on its own will not achieve anything but cynicism and draconian reaction. As for cultural diversity and ‘world music’, Sandy Starr argues that Siva Vaidhyanathan is deaf to the ‘celestial jukebox’ that everyone can share.
Brief encounters in an anxious land
A few months ago in northern Iraq, Ayub Nuri was barely surviving. Now he is engaged as a fixer/translator for the BBC in Baghdad, and has bought a state-of-the-art laptop plus satellite phone. Through the internet he can communicate with the whole world. In this vivid kaleidoscope of current public opinion in Iraq, he foresees difficult times. But intelligent guys seem to be thriving already.
Paul Hirst and the London Consortium
Paul Hirst was a vital influence on a number of institutions, but his polymathic range is perhaps best embodied in the London Consortium. This collaborative educational enterprise connects architecture, film, planning and politics in a dynamic, fertile, intellectual community. Mark Cousins, a co-founder, reflects on the exemplary qualities – as educator, strategist, political thinker with a ‘militancy of temperament’ – which Paul Hirst brought to this unique project.
'Blonde beasts': the political meaning of anti-German prejudice
Italy’s presidency of Europe, and the continent’s summer holiday season, are alike starting in rancour. The diplomatic storm caused by Silvio Berlusconi and Stefano Stefani will pass, says our German columnist; but their routine anti-German prejudice is also emblematic of the condition of Europe. To move beyond it will need time, imagination, and tolerant curiosity on all sides.
Ring of prophecy
A wary platform encounter with a self-styled spiritual warrior offers unexpectedly renewed hope to a weary Omair Ahmad.
Redrawing the Iraqi plan: from war room to street corner
The transition from war to post-war in Iraq is proving more painful and bloody than coalition leaders expected. US and British troops on the ground are forced to adapt quickly from the role of war-fighters to peace-keepers, while strategic planners confront the failures and lacunae of pre-war projections. If lives are to be saved and the reconstruction of Iraqi society is to succeed, an urgent rethinking is needed.
<em>Jihad</em>: how a word became a weapon
‘Jihad’ has become one of the most inflamed and misunderstood words in the political lexicon. How did this happen, and what is the true meaning both of the word and its abuse? A student of Islam tracks the long journey from Islamic theology to global politics, registers what has been lost and found along the way – and asks what can be done to restore truth to language and reason to thought.
From Brazil to the world, or Twenty theses for a democratic theory of the state
Read also in this series:
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This week's guest editors
Our guest editors James Ron, Leslie Vinjamuri, Sophie Arie and Archana Pandya introduce this week's theme of:
Our guest editors James Ron, Leslie Vinjamuri, Sophie Arie and Archana Pandya introduce this week's theme of:
A Turkish Spring?
Woolwich - terror or conflict?
Palestinian borders
Nobel Women's Initiative
Europe from the bottom up
The media in Europe
Mali: the plot thickens
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Remote control war
oDRussia at journalismfestival .com
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Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
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Lis Howell On broadcasting
Dan Hancox Revel, Riot and Rebellion
Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
Jim Gabour Sunday Comics
James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do
Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
Mary Kaldor on Human security
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