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Comment and analysis |
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Those who marched and partied this weekend can tell themselves that they have made a difference, that the world has changed.
But we said that after Live Aid, and Sport Aid too, and it did not do so then, though the will was there, because the wrong solutions were adopted, because doing the wrong thing was considered better than doing nothing at all.
Geldof may not like critics, and he is very good at shouting down those who voice their doubts. But sometimes it pays to listen, too. |
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Selection |
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FIRST there were weapons of mass destruction that could be launched within 45 minutes, posing a threat to mainland Europe. But they became battlefield WMDs which could threaten only troops attacking Iraq. In time, they metamorphosed into programmes for the production of weapons that could or could not be used against coalition forces at some unspecified point in the future. And now it seems they may never have existed at all.
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A time to remember and say thank you
IT IS the unexpected tear forming in the corner of the eye, the catch in the throat when it comes to speaking the words "we will remember them" that catches out the unguarded. |
The UN might just as well have presented Khartoum with a sack of weasels and given it a month to teach them to tap-dance. It cannot do it, and it does not want to.
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FIRST, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad alienated the rest of the world with his religious extremism, nuclear ambitions and global grandstanding. Now, due to domestic failures and economic incompetence, he is doing the same to ordinary Iranians. |
WE are sitting on wicker chairs in a small, open-sided structure at the edge of an immaculate lawn as dusk falls. What appears to be a one-legged bird is hopping clumsily across the grass, pecking industriously at the grass. Away to the east, the elephants that plough up and down the shore of the lake that surrounds the Jai Mahal palace are nearing the end of their working day.
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Russia is determined to recover its status as a global superpower. The message to the West is clear: the days of being able to dismiss Russia as a spent force are over. Bolstered by the cash from sales of oil and gas and President Putin's steely determination to re-establish the country on the world stage, the Russian military machine is back in business.
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Since his election 100 days ago, Nicolas Sarkozy has swept like a whirlwind through France and across the international arena. But is there a touch of Napoleon in the little president? |
I noted with bleary-eyed alarm the notice at the start - Welcome to Bear Country, or something equally disconcerting - and the long list of things to avoid doing, which encompassed just about every human function. It did not mention jogging, presumably because the writer never envisaged that anyone would be that stupid. I lurched on for 20 minutes or so, casting nervous glances around me, before becoming aware of the presence of several large animals ahead on the path.
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HOMELESS, hungry, hopeless. The people of Darfur, those whose skin is the wrong colour for their government's liking, huddle in makeshift camps, driven out of their villages, many driven from their own country. They have run from the death squads and they have cowered as the bombs exploded around them. They wait for the world to help them. And the world looks away.
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This is not living. It is slow death. It is ethnic cleansing. It is the destruction of a people. |
"ERE... Look at that." The policeman outside the steel fence surrounding the G8 summit site at Gleneagles was pointing at the rear panier of the bike in which I was sitting, waiting patiently for a small gap in the protesters around me to open and allow me to squeeze through. "That's the easiest one to spot so far." His colleague looked over, and started to chuckle. I looked down. They were pointing at the writing on the panier. The pair had about them the look of men who would find amusement in home video out-takes, but I suppose I was asking for it. In big writing, it read: "Two Wheels Demonstrator".
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THE price of the United Nations' procrastination over the genocide in Sudan is revealed today in stark human terms: 35,000 further deaths since the UN Security Council first warned Khartoum to clean up its act. As the 15-strong Security Council meets in special session in Nairobi to debate Sudan, the crisis in Darfur is worse than on 30 July when the first resolution was approved by 13 votes to 0. Every five minutes, another person dies. UN staff say the Khartoum government's armed forces have continued to attack their own people. Refugees have been beaten while UN workers stand by helplessly. Women and children have been gunned down in Darfur's marketplaces. The world's worst humanitarian crisis is getting worse. |
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THE phoney war in the race to become American president is over. For a couple of fleeting moments, it looked like the underdogs might do it. But this isn't a Hollywood movie and the good guy doesn't get to ride into the sunset. In the real world, it's the men with the biggest wallets who win. |
THE new movie Cats And Dogs alleges that our humble household pets are at loggerheads, with man's best friend trying to stop the monster moggies in their fight for world domination. So if this battle were really to take place, who would win?
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A society has to understand that it is not possible to mount a complete defence against terrorism while maintaining the civil liberties to which it wishes to cling. There has to be a level of risk which is deemed acceptable, a level beyond which the adverse effect on the civil liberties of those protected outweighs the effect on those liberties of a terrorist attack. |
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Waging war as a world terrorist franchise
I no longer believe that Santa Claus brings me Christmas presents and I'm not so sure that Osama bin Laden and his little elves personally deliver every bomb attack. In this, I am clearly at odds with Sir Ian, the British intelligence services and the government, whose determination to prove that the London bomb attacks of the past couple of weeks are the work of bin Laden smacks almost of desperation. |
Staring at their results from the Linear Observatory's automated sky survey programme in New Mexico three weeks ago, US astronomers noticed something which prompted them to put down their cups of Starbucks' finest, sit up and pay attention. Lurking among the reams of data they had spotted a small - by the standards of an infinite universe - lump of rock, barely two kilometres across. Compared with the quasars, supernovas and black holes which make the life of an astronomer so exciting, it had little to recommend it as an object worthy of another moment's thought, apart from one small detail ... it appeared to be travelling uncomfortably close to the Earth |
IF there is a soundtrack to the war on terror, it is the echo of stable doors slamming shut.
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Survival of the fittest in Hong Kong
Ten years ago, as Britain handed over Hong Kong to the Chinese, the predictions for its future were uniformly bleak. So far, however, the pessimists have been proved wrong.
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For the Ford motor company, preparing to launch its new Fiesta model at the Frankfurt Motor Show, things couldn't have been better. A complete revamp of one of Britain's most popular cars was certain to secure a good few column inches, complete with flattering pictures, in broadsheets and tabloids alike. The company had lavished millions of pounds on the new model and was pinning its hopes on the launch. Then at 1:46pm, Mohammed Atta flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. New cars were suddenly the last thing on anyone's mind.
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Britským flegmatismem proti teroru
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN, britský novináø Britové jsou národ flegmatikù. Pøíliš se nièím nenechají rozrušit, a to ani když v jejich hlavním mìstì dojde k sérii bombových útokù. Tím se asi vysvìtluje, proè i ve chvílích, kdy policie a záchranáøi v pátek ráno (den po útocích) ještì stále vyprošovali tìla z trosek stanic metra, lidé dál chodili do kanceláøí. Dìlat cokoli jiného by bylo krajnì nebritské. V Londýnì podle pamìtníkù panuje stejná atmosféra jako za nìmeckých náletù. Lidé stejnì jako tehdy pokrèí rameny a nenechají se vyvést z míry. Zní to trochu jako klišé, ale je v tom víc než zrnko pravdy.
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Putin
rearms his Cold War military
