> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Week in 400 words, 16-23 June - URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/week-in-400-words-16-23-june/ - Published: 2012-06-23T20:06:48.000Z - Updated: 2026-04-23T01:06:01.000Z - Description: There are many women writers on openDemocracy this week, and two new debates which have us pinching ourselves: is this the twenty-first century? The first, on AIDS 2012 sees the US banning people with HIV from attending a conference plus the ongoing Sisyphean task of giving women informed choices. - Author: openDemocracy Supporters - Tags: The Week in 1 Minute, #Migrated, #en, #Import 2026-04-09 17:27, #appended-excerpt OurKingdom’s [continuing campaign](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/e5522f031d&ref=opendemocracy.net) on [G4S](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/e4f5b848de&ref=opendemocracy.net) focuses people’s minds on what is [really going wrong](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/3f952bcd0b&ref=opendemocracy.net). It coincides with a heartfelt appeal for a public moral [debate on immigration](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/74c35a8e86&ref=opendemocracy.net); [Vron Ware’s insights](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/3796b37a78&ref=opendemocracy.net) into a broader strategy to integrate military into civilian life in the UK; how the UK inspired [South Africa’s militarisation of border defence](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/22359d745f&ref=opendemocracy.net) with similar dress rehearsals around sports activities, [Sir Richard Jolly](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/63c6693dfb&ref=opendemocracy.net) on the lack of vision regarding demilitarisation in today’s world, and a huge question mark over [the probity of UK arms sales to the Middle East.](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/9a9729867e&ref=opendemocracy.net) [This week’s window](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/60e2875274&ref=opendemocracy.net) on that region wonders how much can we hope for? Were the elections [the easy part in Libya](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/6f6e8e5e0b&ref=opendemocracy.net)? Have Palestinians [expected too much from the new Egypt](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/6371d03e47&ref=opendemocracy.net)? And in whose interests is the big push on [the securitisation of Yemen](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/544450fb8d&ref=opendemocracy.net) that is under way? Rita writes from Damascus, not so long ago considered [the safest place in Syria](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/ac0d866376&ref=opendemocracy.net). As the world’s [newest state struggles to survive](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/9eb00fc103&ref=opendemocracy.net), [Michael Gardiner](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/4ec7253084&ref=opendemocracy.net) warns against a BBC that serves the state rather than the nation; the [Balkans suffer](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/3f3bbe53e1&ref=opendemocracy.net) from a mixed message; [Lammert de Jong](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/a4076fdbd1&ref=opendemocracy.net) wants to see an end to ‘state sovereignty’ in Europe, while [Lorenzo Fioramonti](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/8e257d7cf3&ref=opendemocracy.net) calls for a new bottom-up, regional solution. As we reach the [anniversary of Breivik’s Norway massacre](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/345bfc65f0&ref=opendemocracy.net), we are torn over a notion of evil which religion, morality and psychiatry fail to explain. Is this a lone act, or a [collective, political reproach](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/a1dcf32e60&ref=opendemocracy.net)? Take the way [banks have been risk amplifiers](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/9eca2ce210&ref=opendemocracy.net) since Lehman’s went bust; at how to banks, [money is real, but it is we who do not exist](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/576897d85b&ref=opendemocracy.net); how corporate power distorts aid and development in [India and the UK](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/db385a75dd&ref=opendemocracy.net). Isn’t it odd that one of the most important responses we might make is to [resist the narcissistic vision of *homo oeconomicus*](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/09248bfe02&ref=opendemocracy.net) assumed by modern economists? Meanwhile, Paul Rogers reminds us that in the twenty-first century world war can [break out by accident.](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/662ab7bad0&ref=opendemocracy.net) Don’t miss: [The Plague of Thugs](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/08677f4989&ref=opendemocracy.net): dictators using hoodlums in the Middle East [Conspiracy theories](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/09ccefd0bc&ref=opendemocracy.net) at home and abroad as Clinton is jeered in Egypt Adam Curtis’ [history of the US love affair with counter-insurgency](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/7b9a5ed285&ref=opendemocracy.net) There are [many women writers](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourbeeb/alice-bell/in-search-of-nuance-grappling-with-accuracy-balance-and-expertise-in-bbc-science-) on openDemocracy[ this week](https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/rawa-gafar-bakhit/women-in-sudanrevolts-heritage-of-civil-resistance), and two new debates which have us pinching ourselves: is this the twenty-first century? The first, on [AIDS 2012](https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/alice-welbourn/hiv-and-global-plan-turning-tide-or-wash-out-for-women) sees the US [banning people with HIV](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/8fbe064be8&ref=opendemocracy.net) from attending a conference plus the ongoing Sisyphean task of giving women [informed choices](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/6c6169371b&ref=opendemocracy.net). The second launches ‘[Stories you weren’t meant to hear: women, tradition and power in Russia’s North Caucusus’](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/727be0d456&ref=opendemocracy.net), an [astonishing unfolding](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/b4db63d39a&ref=opendemocracy.net) of tragic lives from [Chechnya](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/89071651d0&ref=opendemocracy.net), [Dagestan](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/6df80b5705&ref=opendemocracy.net), [Ingushetia](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/1bcece23bb&ref=opendemocracy.net), and a man’s world few Russians have heard of, in [Kabardino-Balkaria](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/ef111acfbd/b5696a98c8/b106a2d016&ref=opendemocracy.net).