CATEGORY: Global POLEMICS

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

This is an important one. Ali makes an emphatic and unambiguous statement about human rights. It is a clear rejection of the muddle that is cultural relativism so intricately embodied in our notions of multiculturalism. Ali presents a rational argument for the internationalisation of human rights and in particular, women’s rights. The intellectual journey that Ali travels is truly inspiring and one can only hope that her journey is not yet over. As a very minimum, Ali is demanding that Islam undergo its own reformation, jettisoning all that is medieval and barbaric. The western modernity that Ali so marvels at must not, Ali persuasively argues, stop at national borders.

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Bob Crow for London Mayor

Do you ever get the feeling that after listening to Labour politicians, either when in opposition or in government, you cant remember a damn thing they said. They always garble off a shopping list of things they have done or things are going to do, but somehow you never quite feel convinced. And no one thing seems to stick in the mind; it all seems to come across as so much political verbiage. Its different with the Tory MPs. They speak with the arrogance of those who believe they are born to rule. And with that old Etonian, Oxbridge confidence, laced with centuries of paternalistic certainty, they lay out their programme for the benefit of us peasants and toiling proletarians with precision and clarity. Read More…

Syria- Welcome back to 1914

Barack Obama missed a trick when he was first inaugurated; after decades of US jack-booting around the planet, Obama could have declared all war between nations illegal. Not that one simple idealistic statement, no matter who issued it, would have prevented future wars, far from it. We are still far too tribal for that happy day to dawn. But it would have established an historic marker, a line in the sand that implied that all ‘policing’ of disputes between and within nations must be done with the full consent of the United Nations and then carried out only with disciplined troops under UN command.

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The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

‘The White Tiger’, a truly subversive text by Aravind Adiga, one whose relevance sweeps way beyond the shores of its native India. This is a novel that is destined to set a parameter for the 21st century, a novel that sheds light wherever there is a master-servant culture and that of course, is in every country and in every corner of every country. To break out of the ‘chicken coop’, as Adiga describes modern day slavery, that is the never-ending task for all humanity, and the White Tiger of Bangalore is, in his own marvellously compromised way, right in the vanguard of that task.

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Taking On the Trolls, The Guardian

Two articles appeared in the 7/8/13 edition of the Guardian, one by John Henley the other by Hadley Freeman, both journalists trying to make sense of what to do with the internet. It’s generally accepted that the internet is a sort of ‘wild west’, complete with cyber bullying, violent and degrading child pornography, misogynistic abuse by the bucket load, and of course, 24/7 illegal government surveillance. What is not generally accepted is what to do about it. The whole debate revolves around a simple axis; to censor and regulate, or allow the internet to exist as it was originally envisaged an open international democratic forum for all views, all opinions and all proclivities.

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The Steep Approach to Garbadale, by Iain Banks, RIP

Just finished reading ‘The Steep Approach to Garbadale’ by Iain Banks. Like most of his novels and sci-fi works, it was highly competent and engaging. None of the stuff I’ve read by Banks I would consider a true literary classic, but each in their turn throws clear light on the human condition, and each one leaves the reader with a sense that they have been embraced by a true craftsman. If no one novel stands out as truly great, then taken as a whole, Iain Banks work is to be greatly admired and take collectively, Iain Banks is certainly amongst the great British writers of the contemporary era. Read More…

Moscow World Athletics Marred By Medieval Anti-Gay Legislation

Here we go again. Another international sporting event tainted by bigotry and ignorance and once again we are left with the dilemma of how to react. A boycott automatically comes to mind but by adopting that tactic, every international sporting event on the planet would have to be boycotted, for which country on earth can declare itself free of prejudice and injustice. We could equally just shrug our shoulders and resign ourselves to the obvious fact that the world is a bigoted, ignorant and cruelly unjust place. Global sporting events just may help to break down a few barriers so let’s just get on with it.

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Fatherland by Robert Harris

I’ve got a remote impression that I’ve have read this one before, maybe past twenty years ago, but even so, Fatherland makes for fairly absorbing reading. Admittedly, the plot is a little implausible; a cynical and disillusioned police investigator in the German SS pairing up with an American female Journalist and together, outwitting the entire Nazi State. Still, Roberts is clever enough to allow his readers to suspend their disbelief long enough for the plot to successfully unfold. But the plot is, in many ways, simply the means by which Harris takes his readers into a dark and unnerving place.

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Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

I made a mistake a few weeks ago, one I intend not to repeat. I was about a hundred pages through Shantaram when I had the urge to Google some background info on the book. I started reading some reviews, many of which were persuasively negative. So rather than plough through another eight-hundred pages, I thought I would follow their advice and dump the thing and move on to greener pastures. I’d been somewhat sceptical about the book from the very outset anyway, having read that the author had fought for the wholly reactionary Afghan Mujahedeen. But the stubborn fact of the matter, contrary to the reviews and my own reservations, was that I had thoroughly enjoyed the first hundred pages and was instinctively inclined to ignore the reviews and carry on regardless.

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FIFA’s Confederation Cup Reeks of Tear Gas

So it begins. With just under a year to go until the start of Brazil’s FIFA World Cup, and the first real dress rehearsal for that big event now underway, some two million angry Brazilians have taken to streets, and the numbers just seem to be growing by the day. It started, much like it did in Turkey, with a protest over something seemingly as minor as a 20cent increase in the price of a bus ticket. Within a week, hundreds of thousands were on the streets across many Brazilian cities, screaming about a wide range of grievances including corruption, police brutality and inadequate public services. The bus fare increase was simply the spark that started a raging inferno. The fact that billions are being squandered on global sporting jamborees has only made matters worse.

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WW1 Centenary: We have Learnt Nothing

The mini-industry growing up around this sickening centenary is now in full flow. It’s all there, the centenary books, the school trips to the battle fields, the Imperial War Museum exhibitions, and right on cue, the replay of the England-Germany 1914 Christmas truce football match. And guess who has been drafted in to head up the England team no surprises, it’s the recently retired David Beckham. All this would not be quite so stomach-churning if we had genuinely learnt anything from that grotesque imperial slaughter in which an entire generation of young German, Russian, English and French men saw their foolish dreams buried knee deep in imperialist mud and blood.

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The Dark Road by Ma Jian

This is a tricky one. For the most part Ma Jian produces a compelling narrative on the brutal implementation of China’s, One Child Policy, but on occasion Ma allows his dialogue to lapse into crude propaganda against the Chinese Communist Party. It’s not that his criticisms are not merited they probably are. It’s more that he fails to develop the dialectic between the modernising policies of the Chinese Communist Party and the often inhuman implementation of those policies. Too often Ma sets up contrived situations where his characters launch into an unconvincing polemic against all things communist without taking the time to unravel the complexities of China’s breath-taking journey out of rural Asiatic feudalism and into an urban, industrialised modernity.

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The Wall by William Sutcliffe

It’s probably fair to say that every nation has its dirty little secrets, and the more powerful the country, the bigger and more plentiful those secrets tend to be. Successive governments in Australia, for example, have long hidden the truth about the near extermination of its indigenous people and the on-going humiliation of those descendants that have survived. Spain and Portugal have a similar secret in that they have never really come to public terms with their attempted genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas during the creation of their respective South American empires. Britain has perhaps the biggest back-catalogue of dirty secrets of all, most dating back to their colonial empire; the dirtiest secret being the one closest to home; that of its six hundred year subjugation of the Irish peoples. Read More…

A Delicate Truth by John le Carre

First the confession. I have never read a single le Carre novel before this, his latest offering. The best I can boast is having seen the remake of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and probably the original if I care to remember that far back. I’ve also watched the Constant Gardener a few years back without being aware it was based on a John le Carre novel. That’s probably quite a surprising admission given the near ubiquitous nature of John le Carre novels in English popular literature. I have tended to steer clear fearing that Le Carre was profitably buying into all the usual Cold War cliches without offering much of a serious critique. Based on his latest novel, I might well have done the man an injustice. I intend to correct that injustice in the near future but for now here are a few thoughts on A Delicate Truth. Read More…

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a Film Review

An absorbing enough film and watchable in the same way that Homeland is able to hold the viewer’s attention. Admittedly all the leading characters are a little contrived as is the plot, but the film, like Homeland, grapples with issues that are as contemporary as they can be. Terror begets terror and it is left to the viewer to decide who is most culpable, western Imperialism or Islamic fundamentalism. In true Hollywood style, the film attempts to leave the audience with a very reasonable third way which is all right as far as it goes but ultimately whitewashes the economic and political crimes of Uncle Sam and its bloody precursor, British Imperialism. Read More…

Alex Ferguson: From Govan to Global Brand

It’s hard for the hand not to tremble when typing out the statistics thirteen titles in twenty seven years. A staggering forty-nine trophies in a blisteringly successful career. Simply staying in the job for that period in a sport so unforgivingly turbulent is glory enough. But to ratchet up the silverware year after year at national and international level while never losing sight of the need to build and rebuild puts Ferguson in a rarefied world of his own. From hard living, street fighting Govan to managing a highly successful global brand, while still retaining something of his working class, socialist credentials, despite the racehorses and real estate, is achievement indeed.

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The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone

The Global Occupy movement has a new weapon, and what a powerful, incendiary weapon it is. Oliver Stone, better known for his thought-provoking catalogue of films, has teamed up with historian Peter Kuznick to produce a genuine stick of literary dynamite entitled, The Untold History of the United States. Knowledge is power goes the old adage and Stone and Kuznick have done the world’s 99% a massive service in producing what is in effect a succinct and compelling history of US imperialism in the 20th century. OK, Noam Chomsky has already done much of the leg work over the past five decades but Stone, by adding his notoriety status to the project, has made this history that much more accessible. Committed anti-imperialists regularly read Chomsky but now it is hoped millions of main-street Americans will eventually get to read this untold history. Read More…

New Statesman: What Makes Us Human

Ah yes, now that is a question; what makes us human and what indeed separates from the wild beasts in the jungle? The New Statesman has taken a breather from its usual preoccupations and has asked itself, its readers and a few well known personalities to consider that very question and congratulations to it for doing so. The front cover caught my attention so, without hesitation I got myself a copy. It turns out it is to be an on-going series, starting with Jonathan Sacks Chief Rabbi and general purveyor of sickly-sweet home spun morality. Well, you have to start somewhere I suppose, and to be fair to the old Sacks, Judaism has been around for a fair old time so I guess he has as much right to go first as anyone. Read More…

Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel

It goes without saying that Mantel can do historical fiction as good as anyone currently on the circuit. Nobody does court intrigue as relentlessly gripping as Mantel. And by creating her epic Thomas Cromwell trilogy (the final part is still in production) she has, wittingly or otherwise, shone a spotlight on the embryonic development of English capitalism asserting itself at every opportunity, invariably at the expense of the ancient structure of Lords, Earls and Dukes in Medieval England. Cromwell unconsciously represents a new class of money men, growing rich off the proceeds of the rapidly expanding wool industry and of course, something more familiar and contemporary the loaning of money at high interest and the calling in of bad debts.

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The Fix by Damien Thompson

Damien Thompson’s ‘The Fix’ is an outstanding, and if he’ll excuse the pun, addictive account of how our everyday human preoccupations and obsessions are rapidly turning into destructive addictions, made all the more potent by the speed and availability afforded by the internet. When I first learned that Thompson worked for the Telegraph warning bells started to ring. I anticipated some dire reactionary diatribe against modernity and change. My fears proved totally unfounded. Thompson has produced a highly intelligent and thoughtful discussion that is anything but conservative.

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Thatcher Dead, But the Unregulated Market Still Reigns Supreme

Even if we humans manage to live for another thousand years, I’m pretty certain that the dialectic between the individual and the collective, between cooperation and competition, between a long term plan and short term gratification, and between the local and the international, will go on unimpeded. It just seems to be hard-wired into our DNA. But I would suspect that as the years roll by, the pendulum will swing radically in favour of cooperation and the collective good, because I doubt we can survive in an increasingly integrated and crowded planet if egoistic individualism and tribal competition hold sway.

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