Del.icio.us links for June 22nd through July 10th:
- Know your enemy – Imagine, for a moment, that Neil Lewington, who is on trial at the Old Bailey for preparing for a “campaign of terrorism” using tennis-ball bombs, was a British Muslim. The story would be splashed across the front page of every newspaper in Britain, and Sky News would be rolling a loop of images of his scowling, bearded, dark face. The reality, however, is that you’ve probably never heard of Lewington (who denies all eight charges of terrorism) because he is not Muslim, or black, or of Asian origin. He is white.
Tags: UK britain terrorism crime justice law race racism islamophobia terrorists - The Leaders of Iran’s ‘Election Coup’ – The rigged presidential election in Iran — a coup d’etat, according to Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a spokesman for the main reformist challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi, and other analysts — has prompted protests both inside and outside Iran. There is, however, little understanding about the ideology and motivation behind the operation.
Tags: Iran politics middleeast history revolution islam - Tikkun Magazine – Was Kosovo the Good War? – As the 1999 NATO war against Serbia reaches its tenth anniversary, it is being recalled with a measure of nostalgia. The Kosovo war is remembered as the “good war” — a genuinely moral military action, which offers a reassuring contrast with the Iraq fiasco.
Tags: kosovo serbia yugoslavia NATO unitednations uk USA billclinton tonyblair ethniccleansing genocide violence war humanitarianintervention - The headscarf martyr: murder in German court sparks Egyptian fury at west’s ‘Islamophobia’ – Woman was stabbed 18 times during hijab trial. Outrage at lack of media coverage fuels protests.
Tags: islamophobia racism germany egypt law justice middleeast murder - Claims that immigrants prioritised for social housing ‘a myth’ – Equalities watchdog heads off BNP rumours as study finds only 1.8% of social tenants have moved to the UK recently.
Tags: uk britain immigration councilhousing racism myths bnp - Paul Gilroy on the state of ‘black Britain’ – Paul Gilroy always likes to be a little bit “disagreeable”, as he puts it, not to say contrarian. And perhaps the bleak prospect before us requires a little discord, after all. It was in this spirit that he addressed the topic of ‘black Britain’ by arguing that he wasn’t sure whether such a place really existed anymore. There is, he argues, no longer any sense of a distinctive black political community.
Tags: britain race racism activism politics liberalism progressives history - Police handling of protests needs national overhaul, says review – There should be a national overhaul of the policing of protests that reasserts the state’s obligation to allow lawful demonstrations, a scathing report into how the Metropolitan police handled the G20 protests recommended today.
Tags: UK britain police metropolitanpolice protest kettling protests - SchNEWS 682 – Coup Blimey – In attempts to quell the escalating resistance the coup leadership has stepped up the repression. On Wednesday, Micheletti passed an emergency decree that ironically stripped Hondurans of a number of constitutional rights, including the right to protest, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of movement, freedom from unwarranted search, seizure and arrest and the rights of due process while under arrest. Under pressure from both the streets and the international community, the military is now also facing dissent from within its own ranks with at least two battalions heeding the protesters chants that “Soldiers, you are part of the people” and refusing to participate.
Tags: honduras coup latinamerica politics resistance repression - The Death of Macho By Reihan Salam – “Manly men have been running the world forever. But the Great Recession is changing all that, and it will alter the course of history.” This is getting linked about quite a bit. Some interesting, some convincing, and some very debatable points therein.
Tags: economics society culture gender recession economiccrisis opinion politics power machismo - Of interest to self-appointed politically correct fascists – The Times has an interesting article about a series of studies performed to determine whether or not female playwrights are being discriminated against. Some results, albeit results filtered through a newspaper’s rhetorical idiom…
Tags: gender publishing theatre writing culture plays musicals - Peter Mandelson abandons plan for part-privatisation of Royal Mail – “The government today abandoned its controversial bill to part-privatise the Royal Mail before the general election, the day after it dropped plans for compulsory ID cards.” Woohoo!
Tags: privatisation UK economy policy government newlabour idcards royalmail - THE HICKEY UNDERWORLD on MySpace Music – Awesome Belgian hardcore band. Check ‘em out.
Tags: band music - Wooden Teeth on MySpace Music – Ex-Lock and Key… sweet!
Tags: band music - tomorrow’s post today – Grooming of young writers by a cadre of publishing professionals & promateurs (the latter basically parroting wisdom received from the former) is one reason why contemporary fiction has so little actual imaginative content.
Tags: writing knowledge education wisdom learning experience experts photography anxiety society - English Russia » The Real S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – These Russian STALKER fans play the game, for real… in radiated areas of Chernobyl.
Tags: russia gaming videogames weird cosplay hobby - English Russia » Fall Out for Real – More Russian roleplayers, this time doing Fallout. They’ve got the environment of urban decay for it, but it looks like this lot avoid heavily irradiated areas…
Tags: russia gaming videogames weird cosplay hobby - Some dogs rekindle their hunting instincts – This series initially seems a genuine betrayal of what the apocalyptic can allow us to think, the processes of construction and becoming collective brought out in the always-hovering move to the post-apocalyptic. In other words, there are no humans left over to work toward becoming a people again.
Tags: apocalypse postapocalypse urbandecay eschatoporn eschatology television humanity - the flimsiness of everyday life – Scurrying around the outer reaches of Woolwich and the Greenwich Peninsula yesterday, between hospital and shopping mall, I reflected, not for the first time, on the flimsiness of everyday life. Or, the furniture of New Labour.
Tags: architecture culture society construction newlabour britain politics landscape furniture designedobsolescence - Can We Blame Our Bad Behavior on Stone-Age Genes? – These have not been easy days for evolutionary psychology. For years the loudest critics have been social scientists, feminists and liberals offended by the argument that humans are preprogrammed to rape, to kill unfaithful girlfriends and the like. [...] That is changing. Evo psych took its first big hit in 2005, when NIU’s Buller exposed flaw after fatal flaw in key studies underlying its claims.
Tags: psychology evolution biology science studies research genetics society crime sex violence - $2.5 billion spent, no alternative cures found – Ten years ago the [US] government set out to test herbal and other alternative health remedies to find the ones that work. After spending $2.5 billion, the disappointing answer seems to be that almost none of them do.
Tags: medicine science health studies research drugs government homeopathy acupuncture