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Witnessing the Truth
BBC correspondent David Loyn asks what happened to the objectivity that underpins good old-fashioned reporting. There should be no 'peace journalism' or 'war journalism', he argues. Reporters can only 'witness the truth'.
Being counted
No political demonstration in British history has ever been larger than half a million – before 15 February. What brought such numbers together? For Rosemary Bechler, it was an act of ‘mass witness’ that signals a new global politics.
The BBC's plans for digital democracy
How future online services will address problems of civic engagement in the UK.
Marching to hell
The London march against war of 15 February was impressive but confused, and desperately naïve. It filled the roads with good intentions and we all know where they lead.
One image keeps cropping up in my mind. It is perhaps the only happy image I have of Saturday 15 February. At the mass mud-caked rally in Hyde Park a single rather unhappy-looking Brit with his misted glasses askew was holding a sign ‘We’ll keep off the grass, Tony, if you keep off the sand’. It was perhaps the only witty comment of the day.
Cherry-picking as the future of the transatlantic alliance
The processes of international action towards Iraq have sundered the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and now Nato. French and German decisions especially have highlighted a crisis in the transatlantic relationship whose source is Europe’s mixture of arrogance and weakness. It is time for US policy-makers to grasp an awkward truth: Europe should neither fail nor be too successful.
Hairiness sounds like this: an Arts & Cultures exclusive
openDemocracy presents an exclusive advance audio preview of ‘Lycanthropy’, Patrick Wolf’s debut album. Click below to listen.
Growing my hair
Specially commissioned for openDemocracy’s ‘hair’ theme, the second of two new poems - the first on shaving; now, long hair.
Time Passing Through My Hair
In the original Chinese, and also translated especially for openDemocracy by Ho Chee Lick, a poem by one of China’s finest women poets, Lew Poo Chan.
War by timetable
The popular protests against US war on Iraq are massive and growing. The US faces acute diplomatic problems over weapons inspection, in Nato, and with Turkey. But the White House hawks and the US military are charting the full moon over Baghdad. There will be war in five weeks.
What would Jed Bartlet do?
With brains, principles and guts the fictional US President Jed Bartlet from the TV series “The West Wing” has all the qualities to deal with a major international crisis. While in the real world the UN is split, Nato falters and worldwide peace marches put political pressure on Bush and Blair (whose staff, apparently, are “West Wing” addicts) how would Bartlett deal with Saddam? Paul Hirst speculates.
Transatlantic meltdown over Iraq: is France villain or hero?
France’s reluctance to support the US’s military approach towards Iraq has drawn bitter criticism from the US and some of its EU partners. But in defending diplomacy rather than advocating a military solution, France is the truer defender both of the European project and, in the long run, of the transatlantic relationship.
Another world for Gaia and her people
Of the two visions that dominate the World Social Forum, our collective survival depends on the minority view.
Mmmmmm, Oilicious!
Our columnist Dave Belden travelled from the Catskill Mountains to New York City on 15 February, companions and children alongside, for the huge peace rally. They never made the rally; the march was that big. The atmosphere was friendly, the homemade signs witty (and one-sided), the feet frozen, the hearts warm. And the numbers? Just don’t ask CNN.
Honour, not hubris: speaking out for peace
Several hundred thousand people gathered in a freezing New York City on 15 February 2003 to demonstrate against war on Iraq. Julian Bond of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gave this speech.
The Turk in English Renaissance literature
Europe’s relationship with Turkey – a country whose historical legacy is at once imperial, martial, Islamic, Asiatic, and European - has always been problematic, and frequently refracted through culture as well as politics. A Turkish scholar traces the fascinating evolution of an alien but also intimate and surprising figure in the English literary imagination.
From a young Iraqi: an open letter to the peace movement
The huge campaign against war in Iraq offers no comfort to this young Iraqi woman. She has no illusions about US power. But in the face of a people longing for liberation from Saddam's terrible rule, how can the peace movement turn its back?
Afghanistan still burns
US war with Iraq remains likely in weeks rather than months. But apart from simmering crises over North Korea and Lebanon, US forces are forced to pay especial attention to the way that renewed militancy in Pakistan is fuelling escalating violence in Afghanistan.
New safety or old danger? UN 'protection areas' for refugees
The UK proposal to confine refugees to designated areas near the regions they have fled is ill-conceived and unworkable. There is a better way, one that requires a holistic approach to the asylum issue.
A game of shadow boxing: Iraq between past and future
Who will be the vultures, and who the carrion, in a post-Saddam Iraq? The Iraqi opposition plans for transition. The country’s neighbours – especially Turkey, Iran and Syria – covet influence and power after ‘regime change’. America is torn between impulses of order and freedom. The decisive role belongs to Iraq’s people. Will they unite, or fragment?
In place of war, open up Iraq
Can you be against war on Iraq without giving succour to Saddam? This is a new version of an old dilemma, says one of the leading voices of the 1980s Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly and European Nuclear Disarmament. Activists who opposed the nuclear arms race while supporting democratisation of the Soviet bloc helped carve a space where freedom could grow. Could the same happen in Iraq?
This week's editor
Europe from the bottom up
European debate
Democratic Wealth
Nuclear non-proliferation
oDRussia at journalismfestival .com
Mali - the plot thickens
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Remote control war
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Conference coverage from 50.50
Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
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Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
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Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
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