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# Celebrations, forgotten pasts and dire warnings: July 2nd - 8th on openDemocracy
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/celebrations-forgotten-pasts-and-dire-warnings-july-2nd-8th-on-opendemocracy/
- Published: 2012-07-08T11:07:54.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-23T01:07:32.000Z
- Description: Some celebrate while others crumble – some do both simultaneously. openDemocracy’s writers reflect and eulogize; analyse, warn and deconstruct.
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: The Week in 1 Minute, #Migrated, #en, #Import 2026-04-09 17:27, #appended-excerpt

**A war on Iran is not imminent, but neither is it far-fetched.** Looking at hardware and timing, Paul Rogers shows that the[ US is planning more seriously for the scenario than is widely realized.](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/b32d6a22cc&ref=opendemocracy.net) He then looks to Africa, where [radical Islamism in Mali](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/5d8434dc97&ref=opendemocracy.net) raises the possibility of another foreign intervention.

Staying on the continent from which we all hail, Moez Ali looks at the [developing resistance in Sudan](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/b67263de06&ref=opendemocracy.net), and **finds little reason to cling to the current regime**. Stephen Zunes notes that the long [nonviolent, pro-democracy tradition](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/cfc696bd88&ref=opendemocracy.net) could help topple it. In honour of fifty years since Burundi gained its independence, openDemocracy turned part bilingual, running Lyduine Ruronona’s sobering reflection on the country at 50 in [French](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/c6b5aa6c56&ref=opendemocracy.net) as well as [English](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/d17eeba59a&ref=opendemocracy.net).

As another nation’s celebration fades with the 4th of July fireworks, [Ruth Rosen explores](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/293b961262&ref=opendemocracy.net) the construction of **American narratives that make ‘Obamacare’ hated by so many**. Novelist James Warner finds unexpected similarities in polar opposites in the books of [Gilad Atzmon and David Mamet](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/ab52ae75fc&ref=opendemocracy.net).

**Matilda Moreton eulogizes beautiful Russian villages**, [the past of a great nation crumbling](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/930f4ef8f6&ref=opendemocracy.net) while the present shrugs. In Tbilisi, Georgia, “restoration” means the [disappearance of iconic buildings](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/d838312157&ref=opendemocracy.net). Both stories are illustrated with photographs of the unique beauty being lost to time and indifference.

**In Britain, the BBC got its new Director General** [**(at a price)**](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/7fca730da4&ref=opendemocracy.net), and Peter Oborne asks if the choice is fuelling an [unhealthy parochialism](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/eeba2e0524&ref=opendemocracy.net). Another appointment, to the UK’s Supreme Court, shows that the justice system [refuses to take diversity seriously](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/0c59f75882&ref=opendemocracy.net), writes Geoffrey Bindmann.

There’s something for followers of bank dramas too. Tony Curzon Price [picks apart](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/76ccc600ed&ref=opendemocracy.net) Bob Diamond's “bent for the job” defence; **if banks need lies to survive, we should find an honest replacement.** Meanwhile, EU hopeful[Montenegro](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/bdf2fde68b&ref=opendemocracy.net) has its own problems with banks and lies. Balancing the theories as well as the books, [Gerald Holtham explains](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/c2611742aa&ref=opendemocracy.net) how a National Unit of Account would allow both the euro and devaluation, while Linsey McGoey [marvels](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/6c81901ac0&ref=opendemocracy.net) at how the easily the economists have weathered the storm of their own failures.

Susan Schuppli traces [an ominous line between the wartime death camps of Prijedor in Bosnia and London’s upcoming Olympics](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/1abc3f350e&ref=opendemocracy.net); we learn of the novel methods being used [to tackle domestic violence in India](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/44185928d0&ref=opendemocracy.net), and what [the death of the dream of home ownership](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/92109c83ea&ref=opendemocracy.net) in the UK means for the future of communities.

More celebrations, and more crises, are surely in the works.

**Elsewhere on the web**

The European Parliament surprisingly proved to be where controversial ACTA went to die last week. [Internet activist Richard Falkvinge explains, celebrates and warns.](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/9ffa48d230&ref=opendemocracy.net)

[Numbers speak clearly in the New York Times: the War on Drugs is an utter failure](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/af3ef47dcc/%5Fr=1&pagewanted=all&ref=opendemocracy.net)

[Wikileaks have procured a large cache of emails from the Syrian political elite](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/e10a9cf153&ref=opendemocracy.net)

[Mother Jones explains what is going on with the Mexican elections](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/56e9394bc7/b5696a98c8/682f2b45a3&ref=opendemocracy.net)

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**Some celebrate while others crumble – some do both simultaneously.** openDemocracy’s writers reflect and eulogize; analyse, warn and deconstruct.