tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75036285348729012662024-03-12T21:24:38.364-07:00I to the VizzoI to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-49753391757041326782013-01-25T03:25:00.000-08:002013-01-25T03:26:29.818-08:00The cuts haven’t worked; it’s time to challenge austerity more strongly<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This week, yet another expert <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/22/austerity-damaged-uk-recovery-adam-posen" style="color: #aa0000; text-decoration: initial;">lined up to warn that</a> that cutting public spending at the rate Osborne insists on has contributed directly to a triple dip recession, and has not helped growth in any way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Among many others, Nobel prize laureates Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz have repeatedly argued that austerity is counter productive to growth, even if we accept – and many don’t – that perpetual ‘growth’ is either realistic or desirable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Figures released <a href="http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/fraser-nelson/2013/01/george-osborne-receives-the-mother-of-all-christmas-overdraft-statements/" style="color: #aa0000; text-decoration: initial;">this week by</a> the Treasury show that both government spending and the deficit are on the rise compared to this time last year. In other words, exactly the opposite of what the government said would happen. The conclusion that the austerity program is ideologically driven is getting harder and harder to dismiss.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The idea of an ideologically-driven government is not a problem in itself, provided that a majority agree with the ideology. That is by no means the case with the austerity doctrine – it was presented as a necessary evil, at a time of general panic over the 2008 crisis, and a deeply exhausted Labour opposition. Even in that climate, Cameron and Co. couldn’t get a proper mandate, and events since have done nothing to build confidence that their ideas have any pragmatic foundation at all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Between now and the next election the burden of proof should shift from the government’s critics to the government themselves. Labour should pursue this more aggressively than they have been doing so far – it’s not enough to dispute some cuts while generally agreeing that deficit reduction is the priority.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ed Miliband and Ed Balls should spend the next two years wresting the agenda back – they should firstly cast doubts on whether we need to reduce the deficit at all. As Stiglitz and Krugman have argued, growth can be better stimulated by keeping more money in the economy via public spending, which can be offset by progressive taxation measures, such as the Robinhood Tax.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Labour should refuse to engage with the idea of benefit cuts and cuts to public spending, except to ridicule it. Francois Hollande’s socialists recently won a majority in France on just such a platform, and at the time of writing, the markets have not brought fire and brimstone to France.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Labour taking such a sharp step to the left may be against the public mood, and there might be a price to pay in the polls, but with two years until they face election, they can afford to pay that price right now. Also it’s impossible to know how many currently disengaged voters would migrate to Labour if they presented themselves as a properly left-wing alternative.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There will be plenty of time to be centrist when the election comes nearer, and by moving to the left now, they could shift the axis of the whole debate. George Osborne has provided them with the perfect starting point. His austerity measures aren’t working – that’s fact – so it’s on Labour to sketch an alternative.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://liberalconspiracy.org/2013/01/24/the-cuts-havent-worked-its-time-to-challenge-austerity-more-strongly/">Originally posted on Liberal Conspiracy on 24 January 2013</a></span></div>
I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-69131518443992877892013-01-22T06:53:00.002-08:002013-01-22T06:53:56.260-08:00Is Lenin still relevant?<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This past week has seen a public <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/16/lenin-body-poll-moving-mausoleum" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">debate</a> in <u></u>Russia<u></u> over whether Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s embalmed body should be removed from <u></u>Moscow<u></u>’s <u></u>Red Square<u></u>, where it has been on public display since his death in 1924, and buried. Embalming has no history in <u></u><u></u>Russia<u></u><u></u>, so this was perceived as a weird thing to do at the time - and went against Lenin’s own wishes - but in the 89 years it has been accessible to the public, the body has become a site of pilgrimage / tourist-attracting oddity, depending on your viewpoint.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The fact that the placing of his body is still a hot topic of discussion in Russia shows the attachment that many still feel both to Lenin as a historical figure, and to the memory of the Soviet Union which he imagined, created, and ruled for its first 7 years. The few remaining communist states today still pledge their allegiance to the set of ideas loosely termed Marxism / Leninism, as do various socialist movements in the rest of the world. So does Lenin still have anything to teach us, or are his ideas a historical curio, like his embalmed body?<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lenin wrote a lot in his lifetime, but some of his key ideas concern the nature of the state. Lenin imagined the state as an instrument of control, both directly – through violence – and indirectly, through politics and culture. He thought that the state sets the parameters of what’s possible, and democracy functions within those parameters. It follows that those who control the state machinery control everything that happens in it, standing above democracy, because they dictate the conditions and parameters that shape democracy.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you think about it, this analysis has a lot of resonance today. In the west, every political party takes it as gospel that international markets reign supreme, and that the role of politicians is to ensure that the markets continue to look favourably on their country. The invariable outcome is that states are run for the benefit of those who are already immensely rich and powerful, As far as mainstream politics goes, there genuinely is ‘no alternative’. Slavoj Zizek eloquently makes <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/west-crisis-democracy-finance-spirit-dictators" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">the same point</a> on Cif last week.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The popular media in the <u></u><u></u>UK<u></u><u></u> - as Owen Jones pointed out in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/08/chavs-demonization-owen-jones-review" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Chavs</a> – constantly perpetuate the caricature of the feckless, irresponsible working class, creating an atmosphere where it’s socially acceptable to hate the poor. In contrast, we have shows like Dragons’ Den and The Apprentice, where the very rich are shown as demi-Gods, with a stream of supplicants coming to degrade themselves in the desperate hope of winning their approval, and becoming – even slightly - more like them.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This cultural zeitgeist makes grossly unfair politics, like the austerity ideology, seem like a reflection of the ‘real world’. In turn, the cultural sphere reflects the political ‘realities’, creating a feedback loop which reinforces the status quo from all sides, and makes real alternatives difficult to even conceive of, let alone implement. Where efforts are made – such as Occupy and the student protests – the state is not above using violent means to suppress them. Lenin, who took it as a given that global communism would become an imminent reality, would be turning in his glass display case.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So what’s the answer? Lenin imagined an intellectual vanguard, which would violently seize the levers of state – in the name of the proletariat - and use them to create a different status quo, which would ultimately benefit everyone. The obvious problem with this is that it jars with our current understanding of human rights, freedom of speech, and democracy. The historical experience of the <u></u>Soviet Union<u></u> under Stalin is a grim testament to where Lenin’s ideas can lead.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But if we accept the premise that the status quo is fundamentally unfair, and that it’s impossible to significantly alter it through conventional democracy, then what else is there?</span></div>
I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-17270910284491212582013-01-11T15:45:00.003-08:002013-01-11T15:47:08.119-08:00Cameron is in trouble over Europe: we can win this debate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">David Cameron has suffered two heavy blows this week, as both the </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">USA</span><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> and </span><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Germany</span><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> strongly criticised his comments on the </span><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">UK</span><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">’s future role in the EU. This follows weeks of media speculation about Cameron’s upcoming speech on Europe – which even Nick Clegg </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/10/nick-clegg-jokes-that-dav_n_2447675.html" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" target="_blank">wants no part of</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> - where he’s widely expected to say that he will use a renegotiation of the </span><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Lisbon</span><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> treaty to repatriate political powers from </span><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Brussels</span><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><u style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></u><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, provided he gets a majority in 2015. Some hope he’ll also announce plans for the long awaited in/out referendum.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Obama’s assistant secretary for European affairs, Philip Gordon, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/09/us-warns-uk-european-union" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">reminded Cameron</a> on Wednesday that the ‘special relationship’ would be considerably less important to the <u></u>USA<u></u> if the <u></u>UK<u></u> decided to break away from <u></u>Europe<u></u>. On Thursday, t<span lang="EN">he chair of <u></u>Germany<u></u>'s European affairs committee, Gunther Krichbaum - who is visiting the <u></u><u></u>UK<u></u><u></u> this week – <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/10/germany-cameron-dont-blackmail-eu" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">waded in to the fray</a>, pointing out that ‘you cannot create a political future if you are blackmailing other states’. These stern-sounding warnings provide a contrast to the soothing words of Herman Van Rompuy, who has spent the past few weeks patiently <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20860312" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">reassuring</a> the <u></u><u></u>UK<u></u><u></u> that we’re loved and respected in the EU, like a parent speaking to a petulant teenager who has just huffed upstairs and slammed their bedroom door.<u></u><u></u></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cameron imagines that the <u></u>UK<u></u> can emulate <u></u><u></u>Switzerland<u></u><u></u>, and enjoy the benefits of the common market while staying out of the political arena. But there’s no reason to think that the treatment enjoyed by Switzerland or Norway – who, after all, might eventually fully join – will be extended to a state which undermines the whole EU project at a critical point in its history by flouncing off. There’s something very cynical and self-serving in seeking to renegotiate the terms now, when the EU is in turmoil and its future is uncertain.<u></u><u></u></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There’s a case to be made that an in/out EU referendum at some point in the future a good idea – if nothing else, it would put the question to rest for another few decades, until the European project evolves into its next stage. And after the dust settles on the Eurozone crisis, it will be possible to see what – if anything – we’d be voting to join or leave. But between now and then, EU supporters need to make their case clearly, loudly and often. Fu<span lang="EN">rther political integration with the other members is a clear path towards eventually plugging European tax havens, which would reduce the risk of capital flight, which would enable us to use progressive taxation. And - as both Clegg and the Obama administration pointed out this week - on all the major global questions, the <u></u>UK<u></u> without <u></u>Europe<u></u> will always be on the margins.</span><u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The consistent failure to make these arguments heard – over decades – has created the current toxic landscape, where the right wing media froth daily about ‘unelected bureaucrats from <u></u><u></u>Brussels<u></u><u></u>’, and otherwise sane people mistake UKIP for a legitimate protest vote. As anger mounts over the ineffectiveness and toe-curling unfairness of the austerity program, and Cameron’s Tories lag behind Labour in the polls, Cameron clearly needs all the support he can muster. But by trying to harness the baseless prejudice and deluded Empire-nostalgia that fuels most Euro-skepticism, he has made himself look ridiculous in front of the whole world.<u></u><u></u></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://liberalconspiracy.org/2013/01/11/cameron-is-in-trouble-over-europe-we-can-win-this-debate/">Originally posted on Liberal Conspiracy on 11 January 2013</a></span></span></div>
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I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-10360275213617819642011-10-21T08:30:00.000-07:002011-10-21T08:30:11.360-07:00Mitt Romney and the Latter Day Saints<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While shivering at a bus stop on the outskirts of Rochdale last night, I was approached by two smiling teenage boys wearing ties and nameplates declaring them ‘elders’ of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They were so earnest and eager to talk that I felt embarrassed about trying to shoo them on with the plainly absurd claim that I’m busy - an impulse reaction to any stranger not asking for directions or the time - and instead stood talking to them until their bus arrived.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Latter Day Saints - or Mormons - have been the subject of some debate in the USA recently since Mitt Romney entered the race for Republican Presidential candidate in the 2012 elections. A 6th generation Mormon, Romney has largely declined to discuss the specifics of his faith. He addressed the issue in 2007, shortly before losing the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination to John McCain, by invoking JFK’s reassurance that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he ‘will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office.’ Despite this, a </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/behind-the-numbers/post/will-romneys-mormonism-hurt-him-in-republican-primaries/2011/10/07/gIQAQCqF1L_blog.html" style="color: #406480;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">recent poll</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> showed that 20% of the Republicans polled were uneasy about Romney’s Mormonism, with 40% viewing it as not a Christian religion.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The young men I spoke to were also a bit uneasy about the label, flinching slightly at my use of the word ‘Mormons’. Their principal concern was that I agree to read the Book of Mormon, which one of them swiftly produced from his pocket, and after some less-than-committal noises on my part, the conversation turned to the provenance of the book. Mormons believe that their religion’s founder, Joseph Smith Jr, was visited by an angel who led him to the book - written on golden plates - which he then translated and published in 1830 as the Book of Mormon. Needless to say, the plates were never seen by anyone else.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was interested to see how they arrived at their belief in this story over the competing explanation, that Joseph Smith Jr simply wrote the book himself. They countered that I can’t know either way, which is true, but as I explained to them, there is a countless number of documented instances throughout human history where people have written texts, but not a single documented instance where an angel has appeared. So by that logic, one explanation is much more likely than the other - we can’t know for sure, but we can gauge the relative validity of the two competing explanations. At this point the two elders were visibly glazing over, and seemed relieved when their bus pulled around the corner. In parting they gave me a card showing a picture of Joseph Smith bathed in divine light, and giving details of their </span><a href="http://www.lds.org.uk/" style="color: #406480;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">website.</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If Mitt Romney is successful in his bid to be President of the USA, he will have his finger on the trigger of the largest military arsenal in the world. He will make decisions that could shape world history for generations. After the two elders left, I was left wondering what impact these beliefs - which are a bit outlandish even for Romney’s fellow Christian Republicans, who regard Mormonism as being on a par with Islam in terms of distance from their own beliefs - would have on his decision making process. If Romney wholly accepts, as he presumably does, that God appeared in New York in 1830 to tell Joseph Smith to avoid established churches - an odd and confusing message, coming from God - then what else will he accept? </span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The young men I met were clearly uneasy with my questions, and were glad to get away. They seemed pleasant and harmless on their patrol of suburban Rochdale, but the notion that someone who shares their odd aversion to simple logic could become capable of shaping the global narrative for up to eight years is frankly terrifying. I’m sure that Romney would do his best to separate his religious views from the duties of the office he aspires to, but the fact remains that his decisions would be percolated and shaped in the same mental space that has been cleansed of the capacity to differentiate between absurd propositions and logical ones.</span></span></span>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-19080241798068367302011-06-21T07:30:00.000-07:002013-01-11T15:48:20.707-08:00Labour should take a stand on its principles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Y5Nl0aULFbfCGJLfWGHEiHYnUu0-Rx-YAu7cSnJ5i1uDK9WwJM9Foj9YdDGMtMsLaa18mkOUcWSNzA7_BLJVREinHDo2jbQqjbwdHrYwYGmIyO3A0xrv_99PxBpfyr4G2ckswg1IFws/s1600/red+ed.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Y5Nl0aULFbfCGJLfWGHEiHYnUu0-Rx-YAu7cSnJ5i1uDK9WwJM9Foj9YdDGMtMsLaa18mkOUcWSNzA7_BLJVREinHDo2jbQqjbwdHrYwYGmIyO3A0xrv_99PxBpfyr4G2ckswg1IFws/s320/red+ed.JPG" width="236" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Earlier this week, Liam Byrne outlined </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jun/08/voters-tough-agenda-ed-miliband" style="color: #aa0000; text-decoration: none;">the results of</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> a new policy review to the Labour front bench. While the results are fairly predictable, the recommendations Byrne is making should cause alarm to anyone hoping that Ed Miliband won’t follow the New Labour approach of trying to be all things to all people. As Don Paskini </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/06/08/do-voters-really-want-labour-to-be-more-right-wing/" style="color: #aa0000; text-decoration: none;">pointed out on LC</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">, the views expressed in the review aren’t really aligned with New Labour policy or ideology. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Liam Byrne said: “The first priority for Labour this year is to get back in touch with voters – whose trust we lost at the last election…that’s why this year we’re starting our policy review, with the No1 focus on getting back in touch with voters – and changing our party to make sure we don’t lose that connection again.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But Byrne’s implication that Labour should adjust their philosophy in response to the zeitgeist is very New Labour. By the time the 2010 election came around, Labour had shifted ground so many times that they were totally unrecognisable as a left-wing alternative.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Respondents to the review have expressed concern around cuts to policing and youth services, but I’m less inclined than Don to read a leftist bias into this – it seems like concern for the safety of the respondents and their property, rather than concern for the vulnerable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Added to the worries around immigration and the EU-scepticism, I’d say it’s safe to conclude that the review points to a right-wing bias in the respondents. This is not especially surprising, but it does throw up a question about how Labour should react. Should they move to the right in order to connect with voters? Only if their key aim is getting into power, rather than influencing opinion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What Labour should do is ignore the focus groups, ignore Liam Byrne and take a stand on an unashamedly statist, pro-EU, anti-cuts, redistribution-based platform. They say a week is a long time in politics, so 2015 may as well be a millennium away – why not risk unpopularity in the short term if it’s going to help stimulate debate, and possibly shift the public mood – even slightly – further to the left?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Also, as Don points out, the respondents to the review aren’t necessarily representative of the electorate, so a hard shift to the left may draw in those voters who have already disengaged because their views aren’t being represented at parliament level.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There will be time for Labour to adjust their platform when the election draws nearer, but in the meantime they could try to revitalise – and perhaps even influence – the debate by doing the unpopular thing and wearing their statist heart on their sleeve.</span></div>
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<a href="http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/06/11/labour-should-take-a-stand-on-its-principles/"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Originally posted on Liberal Conspiracy on 11th June 2011</span></a></div>
I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-5271108412848830362011-01-17T10:31:00.000-08:002011-01-17T10:32:24.878-08:00The Land of Easy Money<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVS3C-hRSKhj5ex7d1YLBBkIgNOf93rKAZpcBJH7ElUyEqtDUYY_VS3c1SDIXw90zKpu55GeVOCFPVV89VrONUFNgsi-K2pe8t5dOI9yeSRO9894E-nmsU1fU_3m1yTeH4tv75ZUn_Z1o/s1600/immgrant.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVS3C-hRSKhj5ex7d1YLBBkIgNOf93rKAZpcBJH7ElUyEqtDUYY_VS3c1SDIXw90zKpu55GeVOCFPVV89VrONUFNgsi-K2pe8t5dOI9yeSRO9894E-nmsU1fU_3m1yTeH4tv75ZUn_Z1o/s320/immgrant.JPG" width="208" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of all the news you have read this week, perhaps the most surprising might be that we’re living in ‘the land of easy money’. This was the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1347297/Somali-250k-benefits-cheat-Ayan-Abdulle-described-Britain-land-easy-money.html?ito=feeds-newsxml" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">description</span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of the UK attributed to Ms. Ayan Abdulle, who incensed the Daily Mail last weekend after fraudulently extracting over £250,000 in various state benefits between 2004 and 2010. Ms. Abdulle has been jailed for four and a half years by a Harrow court for lying in her asylum claim, in which she described being attacked by militia in Somalia in 1998, when in reality she had been claiming asylum in Sweden around this time. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The phrase ‘bogus asylum seeker’ has become a sort of shorthand for the Daily Express and Daily Mail’s stance - it combines anger at the perceived laxity of the UK asylum system with a sort of general, undefined xenophobia. Invariably the stories eschew statistics in favour of individual stories like Ms Abdulle’s, and the language is heavy with allusion - references are made to the fact that Ms Abdulle has six children (read ‘feckless’), and a claim that she left Sweden because she ‘couldn’t be bothered’ to learn Swedish (read ‘lazy and insular’).</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Left-leaning publications are equally prone to this sort of myopia when it comes to asylum and immigration. Instead of focusing on ‘bogus’ claims, the Guardian and the Independent are more likely to report a case where a legitimate asylum seeker has been failed by the system and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/dec/27/asylum-seekers-living-on-street" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">made destitute</span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, or give a platform to an asylum appeal like </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/21/judge-decides-children-asylum" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peace Musabi</span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’s. It’s likely that the horrors these people have run away from will be described in full, morbid HD. The intention of this type of selective reporting is no less politically loaded than the Daily Mail stories - the aim here is to place human rights above all other concerns, and to appeal to empathy. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Both the Mail’s and the Guardian’s stances are legitimate attempts to set the terms in which asylum and immigration are viewed by the general public, and in a healthy democracy it’s important to have opposing views expressed loudly and often. Failures in the asylum system which lead to human suffering need to be flagged up, as do flagrant abuses of the system. But there is a danger that the ideologically-motivated noise from both sides may drown out the more difficult questions that are best addressed somewhere in the middle, without individual examples, and with the rhetoric turned down to a background hum.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For example, is it possible to believe in the universal right to express one’s sexuality without fear of attack, while at the same time questioning the practical implications of offering asylum to anyone who self-identifies as gay? There will never be a way of verifying such claims, and while the standard of living in the UK remains significantly higher than in, say, Uganda there will always be a powerful motivation for people to abuse the system. But should this mean that we turn a blind eye to every such claimant, even if their lives are endangered on their return? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Or, can we balance the right of immigrants to the UK to retain their own cultural practices and religious beliefs while at the same time promoting their integration into mainstream British culture? Is ‘integration’ as a concept tainted with cultural imperialism, or is it a necessary process in creating a non-ghettoised and ethnically harmonious society?</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unsurprisingly, I don’t have any definitive answers to any of the above. But it seems clear that rigid ideology isn’t very useful in trying to reach any answers. Both online and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=irl" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IRL</span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, talking about immigration or asylum in less-than-absolutely-certain terms can result in being called either a heartless xenophobe or a woolly-minded fantasist (or much worse), depending on who you’re talking to. But ambiguous questions require ambiguous approaches, and the immigration and asylum debate has been polarised along ideological lines for too long.</span></span></span>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-2662973456206055752010-10-25T02:15:00.000-07:002010-10-25T02:19:50.296-07:00Is Cameron also signalling a shift in our defence policy?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidOz7OkoJq5dL6G2jkD0XR0JlK1ki4jXzdoy1WAvhRKw3ploSehty3eQlGVKfAUzdQb1G29KuedmUuQ-81x_2JIYBE-VueEqNosd9STGeP3Tz5YWUEEoia4qnLu11x9KY9WxzUHixkI_8/s1600/11-cam-monty415.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidOz7OkoJq5dL6G2jkD0XR0JlK1ki4jXzdoy1WAvhRKw3ploSehty3eQlGVKfAUzdQb1G29KuedmUuQ-81x_2JIYBE-VueEqNosd9STGeP3Tz5YWUEEoia4qnLu11x9KY9WxzUHixkI_8/s320/11-cam-monty415.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.6653900661040097" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The recently announced 8% cuts in the defence budget have brought out a raft of ideological commentary across the media. The Mail </span></span></span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1321201/Defence-cuts-latest-Two-carriers-jet-fighters-iconic-Harrier-axed.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">frets</span></span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> about the danger of a ‘fresh Argentinian invasion’ of the Falklands following the downsizing; the Guardian </span></span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/19/uk-can-no-longer-mount-military-operations-like-iraq"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">heralds</span></span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> the end of Tony Blair’s liberal interventionism doctrine with barely disguised glee.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The 8% cuts at first glance seem small compared to the slash-and-burn other government departments have been subjected to, but in context they are not insignificant. The UK will now be spending a lower percentage of GNP on defence (just under 2%) than at any other time since records began, and will have the ability to deploy about two thirds of the troops committed by Blair to Helmand and Iraq. In that context, it’s unsurprising that reactions have been mixed.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whatever your position, one thing is clear - the defence cuts mean that the UK will have to reappraise its role on the world stage, and the interventions which characterised the Blair years will become much less viable, at least with the UK leading the charge. It’s the liberal philosophy of localisation writ large - overseas problems will no longer be our burden to bear. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is this a good thing? Many on the left were unanimous in opposition to Blair’s wars, but as Nick Cohen has argued, progressive values are not geographically or culturally limited, but universal. This was always the moral foundation of Blair’s liberal interventionism. It’s all well and good for progressives to argue for improvements in the UK democratic system, but surely that carries a duty to spread democracy in those places in the world that have none? </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think yes, you may disagree. But the self-perception of the UK as a major global power needs to be put to bed, and that’s one good thing that could come out of these cuts. If we are going to influence global events in the future, and I believe we should aspire to do so, then we need to do it as a part of a more integrated Europe. The aim of interventionism is to spread progressive ideas in places where they haven’t taken root organically, so the best way to do that (within the new fiscal constraints) is in concert with other states who share the same ideas.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As ever, these natural allies are to be found not over the Atlantic but across the channel. The Liberal Democrats may seem neutered in this government, but they remain the most intuitively pro-European political force in the UK. That’s why Clegg should use whatever remaining influence he has to leverage the unease around the defence cuts into an argument for greater EU integration - you know it makes sense, Nick.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/10/23/is-cameron-also-signalling-a-shift-in-our-defence-policy/">Originally posted on Liberal Conspiracy on 23rd October 2010</a></span></span></span></div>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-90302715464434126142010-10-21T14:12:00.000-07:002010-10-21T14:32:55.621-07:00The Curious Case of the Ahmadiyya<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAiFNphvCRahSsSLgBdQnwoRale9gyc5arHXgOX4WrfDMfUp4ONcvUAWGbGW8FvlZUDMuWh1EQ8OQorGCPlF_2NCEDiAkzcZ4C0HNMa6DDA88yLIL9LA3xH_S7SzeCB-ug_bQhyP1DlRQ/s1600/ahmadiyya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAiFNphvCRahSsSLgBdQnwoRale9gyc5arHXgOX4WrfDMfUp4ONcvUAWGbGW8FvlZUDMuWh1EQ8OQorGCPlF_2NCEDiAkzcZ4C0HNMa6DDA88yLIL9LA3xH_S7SzeCB-ug_bQhyP1DlRQ/s320/ahmadiyya.jpg" width="320" /></span></span></a></div>
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.6312052977737039" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Independent</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> has run a</span></span></span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hardliners-call-for-deaths-of-surrey-muslims-2112268.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #2187bb; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">long article</span></span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> today outlining their recent investigation into the escalating tensions between Britain’s Ahmadi Muslim community and adherents of more orthodox strains of Islam. </span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">According to their findings, recent leaflets and TV announcements have encouraged Muslims to attack and murder</span></span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmadiyya"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #2187bb; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the Ahmadiyya</span></span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, following an outbreak of violence in Pakistan where two Ahmadi mosques were bombed by the Pakistani Taliban. </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Ahmadiyya have long been controversial within the Islamic world. Indeed, in Pakistan it is illegal for them to call themselves Muslims, which explains why they are disproportionately represented in Britain’s Pakistani diaspora. They believe that their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835 - 1908) was the Mahdi, a prophet eagerly awaited by Muslims worldwide, who - according to some, but not all, Islamic scholars - comes to Earth to guide mankind back to the true path of Islam. Incidentally, Iran’s inimitable president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad belongs to a different sect which is still awaiting the Mahdi, or</span></span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_imam"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #2187bb; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Twelfth Imam</span></span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> as they’d have it. Reportedly Ahmadinejad has ploughed major resources into a Mosque in the Iranian city of Qom to prepare for the Mahdi’s arrival. But I digress.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Ahmadiyya’s belief that their sect’s founder was a prophet comes into conflict with the established orthodox Islamic notion that there can be no more prophets after Mohammed. There are other differences of opinion, notably over the question of whether Jesus was actually a prophet - the Ahmnadiyya aren’t so sure, whereas orthodox Muslims believe that he was.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I summarise all this to give some flavour of the dispute that has arisen in the subcontinent and spilled into the UK and Europe. To flesh this out further, here’s a summary of a debate held on the satellite Ummah channel, cribbed from the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Independent</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> article:</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #999999; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span></span></span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When a caller named Asim asked for a scholar to explain whether Ahmadis were legitimate Muslims the imam replied: "Since the time of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) the Sahiba [knowledgeable scholars] have confirmed that anyone who believes in a prophet after the Holy Prophet is a kafir [unbeliever], murtad [apostate] and Wajib-ul Qatal [liable for death].</span></span></blockquote>
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What is not mentioned here, by </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Independent</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> or by any mainstream outlet, is that it’s completely immaterial what difference of theological opinion exists between the Ahmadiyya and other Muslims - the point is, they’re all wrong. It’s as simple as that, and that </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> simple. </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The whole debate is reminiscent of the Thomas Aquinas project to ascertain how many angels can dance on the head of a pin - the question itself is null and void, since there are no angels in existence. Similarly it makes no difference if Ahmad is considered a prophet or not, since neither he or Mohammed ever had any revelation from God - whether some ‘believe’ that or not is neither here or there.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Since </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The God Delusion</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> there has been an extensive backlash against Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris et al - often dismissed as the ‘militant atheists’, usually followed up by the asinine claim that they are just the same as religious fanatics in their zeal for atheism. But this latest spate of sectarian hatred between the Ahmadiyya and orthodox Muslims just shows how right the ‘new’ atheists were - it really is nonsensical to humour this sort of thing. The real-world consequences of these absurd ideas are very often harmful, so why should it be considered ‘insensitive’ to point out that neither side is ‘right’ in any meaningful sense?</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It’s a debate between equally unprovable and nebulous assertions - we’ll never ‘know’ whether Ahmad was a prophet, but we do know for sure that there has never been a recorded and proven case of a human hearing a divine revelation. Surely the free press in secular societies should re-enforce this sort of rational perspective, instead of condescendingly worrying about offending this or that community’s beliefs? </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When complaints were made about the Ummah channel debate, Ofcom ruled that the channel was guilty of </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">abusive treatment of the religious views and beliefs of members of the Ahmadiyya community”. Not ‘incitement to violence on the grounds of fantasy’, not ‘abusive treatment of the concept of logic’, but crimes committed against the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">beliefs</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> of the Ahmadiyya community.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Free speech should enable the Ummah channel pundits to give their opinion on the Ahmadiyya, but it should also allow mainstream secular pundits to describe the whole situation as they see it in the cold light of day - completely divorced from reason or any known reality. It’s an argument between people who believe a 7th Century myth and people who believe in a 19th Century myth. </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It would all be harmless, and just a waste of intellectual energy, if it was constrained to TV studios and theology departments in universities - but this debate has already cost lives in Pakistan, and has threatened lives in the UK. Dawkins was right all along, and it would be an error to let his detractors set the tone - ‘respecting’ these harmful ideas only gives them room to breathe and disseminate, resulting in more lives endangered or lost.</span></span></span></div>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-52464019664824810992010-09-23T03:08:00.000-07:002010-09-23T03:10:32.962-07:00An ethical foreign policy? At least admit past mistakes, Mr Miliband<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQuyS21Y4cM0DW6G3RsndA2psVnnqYeXihLEh5dclJIkJ3nphpaqtl7EjEDkNe2xq1iMVoLmbDhcj2sEcAXYmMy3xqKhS2EMwDDLF3Sl2dlW-cZkQ4OVSKVWpI6bJm9zwFiaHXlD-IXMM/s1600/D-Mili.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQuyS21Y4cM0DW6G3RsndA2psVnnqYeXihLEh5dclJIkJ3nphpaqtl7EjEDkNe2xq1iMVoLmbDhcj2sEcAXYmMy3xqKhS2EMwDDLF3Sl2dlW-cZkQ4OVSKVWpI6bJm9zwFiaHXlD-IXMM/s320/D-Mili.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">24 hours before voting closed for Labour leadership, David Milliband returned to the Home office to study files </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/sep/21/mi6-consulted-david-miliband-interrogations" style="color: #aa0000; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">relating to Brits tortured abroad</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> under his watch as Foreign secretary. His conclusion? That there was no evidence that any ministers had ever asked for any of the men in question to be detained, so any allegations of his own collusion in torture were unfounded.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The statements coming from Miliband and his team are pure legalese, but the overall meaning is clear: ‘</span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">David would never sanction torture</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">‘. D-Mili has been at pains to distance himself from the torture allegations, easily the most toxic part of his career to date.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span id="more-17869"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span> Last month, he wheeled out </span></span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/david-miliband-i-can-build-a-coalition-across-the-party-2064796.html" style="color: #aa0000; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the following truism</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: “The alternative to an ethical foreign policy is an unethical foreign policy, and I don’t believe in an unethical foreign policy.”</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">What does he mean by that non-statement? Even if he is right, and British ministers and operatives never colluded in torture, he has himself never overtly condemned the American policies of enhanced interrogation, extraordinary rendition, the establishment of Gitmo, etc. While he was foreign secretary, foreign policy – in the UK possibly, but in the US definitely – completely diverged from ethical considerations. Why did he not stand up for this belief at the time?</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There is also the inconvenient truth that David fought hard – and lost – the battle to suppress evidence around the British collusion in the torture of Binyam Mohammed. His loyalty to the party paid dividends in career terms, with all the big New Labour figures and their financial backers lining up behind his leadership bid.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">He remains the bookies’ favourite, narrowly ahead of his brother in what has now – predictably – become a two-horse race. Perhaps David might have gained more favour – with the public, if not his line management – by admitting that the UK veered off the moral course during the war on terror, rather than the suspicious-looking evasion and legal jargon he has opted for.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Obama did it – obviously he was heralding a new administration, but in a sense so is D-Mili, in theory at least. He could have used the issue to put clear water between himself and his former bosses. One of the most frequent allegations made against him is that he’s the New Labour continuity candidate, the centrist who would look right at home in the coalition government.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Such an admission may have helped lessen that perception, and made him appear honest about past mistakes.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/09/23/an-ethical-foreign-policy-at-least-admit-past-mistakes-mr-miliband/#more-17869"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Posted on Liberal Conspiracy on 23rd September 2010</span></span></a></div>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-70195119667757915522010-09-20T12:41:00.000-07:002010-09-20T12:51:05.480-07:00Roma debate involves some hard truths<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKAGRAK3TIWrXsSBUHvGVa9bSWwJY4_PUtGHSa7e4bsf17hDQuVpi5BSQ_E_hHoJDEGywqX1vSyCmvhQk0XM7VNXwznJrziWSaKEx_OAXcYtYunieMwTRr-FyLk5w_AZftE30H08fTCA/s1600/france-roma-protest-2010-9-4-12-50-26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKAGRAK3TIWrXsSBUHvGVa9bSWwJY4_PUtGHSa7e4bsf17hDQuVpi5BSQ_E_hHoJDEGywqX1vSyCmvhQk0XM7VNXwznJrziWSaKEx_OAXcYtYunieMwTRr-FyLk5w_AZftE30H08fTCA/s320/france-roma-protest-2010-9-4-12-50-26.jpg" /></a></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Whatever you may think of him, you can't say that Nicolas Sarkozy backs away from the difficult arguments. First he ignited a debate about Islam in Europe with his controversial ban on veils, now he's opened another can of worms with his expulsions of Roma immigrants from France. The EU's justice commissioner Viviene Reding was </span></span><a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fworld%2F2010%2Fsep%2F15%2Ffrance-defends-roma-crackdown&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHOF_PhIjkjZHzbtMJh7S27IYOzAw" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: France defends Roma expulsion policy"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">moved to compare</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> the France of 2010 to the France of Vichy, prompting some heated comments from Sarkozy, and later some back-pedalling from EC president José Manuel Barosso. The recently talkative Fidel Castro also </span></span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/7995746/France-carrying-out-racial-holocaust-claims-Castro.html" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Telegraph: France 'carrying out racial holocaust', claims Castro"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">weighed in</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> to the debate last week, calling the expulsions "another kind of racial Holocaust". Only Silvio Berlusconi has stood up for Sarkozy – probably a mixed blessing, to say the least.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's worth looking at why the Roma in particular present such a political flashpoint. The majority of the Roma being expelled from France are Romanian citizens. As Romania is a recent entrant to the EU, its citizens are subject to an interim agreement under which they have a right to remain in France for only three months unless they have work. Therefore, the majority of the Roma being expelled were in France illegally. France expelled 11,000 (non-Roma) Romanian citizens in 2009 under the same pretext, prompting no comment from Brussels. That was considered business as usual.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So why is this latest round of expulsions any different? Because the Roma are a long-persecuted "people without a land", the victims of countless pogroms throughout Europe, and </span></span><a href="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005219" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="US Holocaust Memorial Museum: Genocide of European Roma, 1939-45"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of the Holocaust</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. The underlying fear is that policies such as Sarkozy's may awaken some of Europe's baser instincts, which are – the theory goes – always simmering just under the surface. That isn't so far-fetched. Far-right politicians in countries such as Hungary and Slovakia frequently take a stand on anti-Roma platforms, and a Euro-stalwart such as France appearing to follow suit may serve to legitimise their views, and help further their agenda domestically.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The problem arises when we consider that as individuals, the vast majority of Roma are not in fact "without a land". They have citizenship in their country of origin, in this instance (mostly) Romania, and also Bulgaria. The </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/13/france-deportation-roma-illegal-memo" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: France's deportation of Roma shown to be illegal in leaked memo, say critics"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">leaked memo</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> telling French police to target Roma encampments specifically, plus some of Sarkozy's rhetoric on the subject, has ratcheted up the tensions unnecessarily. However, the ethnic dimension is secondary to the fact that levels of education and training among the Roma are well below the European average, therefore levels of criminality in Roma communities are higher. I suspect this is why the memo asked French officers to target Roma encampments, not some deepseated ethnic hatred.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sarkozy is to an extent right to point out that some of the fault for the problems surrounding France's Roma communities lies with the governments in Romania, Bulgaria and the other countries where the Roma are coming from. If more policies to bring the Roma into the mainstream had been enacted in these places over the past few decades, then Roma in 2010 may have been less inclined to migrate, and when they did, they may have had more to offer to the societies they migrate to. But can that failure to successfully integrate be blamed entirely on the "host" countries? I'm not sure.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">75% of Europe's Roma are estimated to live below the poverty line. Discrimination – both institutional and societal – will play a meaningful part in that figure, but it's also too easy to construct a narrative where the Roma are seen solely as passive victims, and much of the recent coverage of the expulsions (and some of the EU rhetoric) has tended towards that. It may be worth asking how Roma communities can contribute to their own progress.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There's no doubt that deep-seated prejudices towards Roma need to be tackled, and at least Sarkozy's actions have pushed the issue further up the EU agenda. But Europe's Roma also need to take some of the responsibility for their own integration into the mainstream, and this may mean letting go of some historical and cultural practices.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Rightwing voices will always be able to point to the criminality and social problems that Roma communities bring – because they do. The underlying causes may be complex, but the manifestations are not, and it's these manifestations that resonate most with voters. If the European Commission misses this trick, it will continue to be seen as ineffectual and overly soft, and politicians like Sarkozy will continue to reap political dividends by openly defying them. There needs to be honesty at the European level about the problems that Roma communities not only suffer from, but also cause. If this issue is sidelined for the sake of correctness, then it'll erupt in the form of xenophobia. Education, for both Roma and non-Roma Europeans, is the key.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/20/roma-france-nicolas-sarkozy"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Originally posted on Comment is Free on 20th September 2010</span></span></a></div>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-46415216522497557272010-09-10T04:39:00.000-07:002010-09-10T05:25:46.220-07:00Why Andy Burnham gets my vote<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzzoXCTOX8NdgIiXbywDfefkI1jychZQ71Z6mMyadsI__z9Q-heocHI6kY73jxQP5xypszEyjchq8udT6xnr9Jq2C-aavgaGhdPZnlycT8HJooSxBB5hyphenhypheniG7UuKJXdI_vgi1nQrG0TpL0/s1600/andy-burnham-415x483.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzzoXCTOX8NdgIiXbywDfefkI1jychZQ71Z6mMyadsI__z9Q-heocHI6kY73jxQP5xypszEyjchq8udT6xnr9Jq2C-aavgaGhdPZnlycT8HJooSxBB5hyphenhypheniG7UuKJXdI_vgi1nQrG0TpL0/s320/andy-burnham-415x483.jpg" width="273" /></a></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In all the recent debate about cuts and deficit reduction, one question that should perhaps be asked more is: dude, where's the opposition?</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Labour party's leadership contest has so far failed to generate much excitement, which is not so surprising given the air of inevitability that is gathering around it lately. It now seems </span></span><a href="http://www2.labour.org.uk/leadership-2010" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Labour: leadership candidates"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">all but certain</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> that David Miliband will be the next Labour leader, which is a shame – because a more promising candidate has been almost completely sidelined. That candidate is </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/andyburnham" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: Andy Burnham"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Andy Burnham</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Of all the hopefuls, Burnham has the most distance from the still-toxic legacy of the New Labour project. This has allowed him to be overtly critical of the "</span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/14/labour-factionalism-self-indulgence-burnham" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: 'Labour must end 'factionalism and self-indulgence', says Andy Burnham'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">factionalism and indulgence</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">" revealed in </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/18/peter-mandelson-third-man-memoirs" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: 'The Third Man by Peter Mandelson'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Peter Mandelson's book</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, which is rapidly becoming shorthand for the New Labour-style of government. Conversely, Ed Balls and both Miliband brothers were all key – albeit junior – members of the Blair and Brown teams, so right at the nucleus of government for the last 13 years.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There is something dispiriting, and predictable, about automatically promoting the assistants when the bosses have left. It's what tends to happen when no one else applies for the job – much like when Gordon Brown himself got an uncontested promotion in 2007, to lukewarm applause all round.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Diane Abbott is arguably the most left-leaning of all the candidates, but her lacklustre pitch so far has mainly consisted of repeatedly pointing out that her opponents are all Caucasian men. Recently, she varied the riff by calling them "</span></span><a geeks="" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2010/jul/16/diane-abbott-labour-leadership" in="" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" suits:'"="" title="Guardian: 'Diane Abbott labels Labour leadership rivals as "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">geeks in suits</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">". When she does present an argument, it usually comes across as half-hearted, presumably because she knows that she won't really get the job and is now just going through the motions.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Burnham's big idea – "</span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/01/andy-burnham-labour-leadership-socialist-values" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: 'Andy Burnham's Labour leadership bid based on a return to socialist values'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">aspirational socialism</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">" – is too oblique to try to interpret at this point. Like the "big society" before it, it's still only a gift-wrapped package with an only vaguely discernible shape. "Socialism" is a concept in urgent need of a brand detoxification, to be sure, and it seems a risk to even have it on the platform at all. But it's canny to weld it to "aspiration" – it'll hopefully reassure the public that this isn't a regressive, totalitarian sort of socialism, but one more in tune with the zeitgeist. If that seems reductive, it's because soundbites are, but they're no less significant for that.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=14608" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Public Service: 'The race to replace Gordon'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In policy terms</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, Burnham is more explicitly socialist than aspirational, but he still stays reassuringly within a centre-left, moderate framework. In summary: he wants to introduce a financial transaction tax, uphold the 50p tax rate, support the future jobs fund and introduce a national care service for the elderly. His could be an antidote to the ultra-liberal path taken by the coalition, just stopping short of the scary sort of big-state socialism. It's exactly these sorts of arguments that Labour in opposition need to be making, and Burnham is, I would argue, the best placed of the five contenders to put these arguments forward.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">One consequence of Burnham's marginal role in the race so far is that we haven't seen him properly tested yet, both in terms of argument and presentation. He comes across as earnest, perhaps even a little po-faced at times. He makes a point of frequently mentioning the "</span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/video/2010/jul/19/andy-burnham-interview-labour-leadership" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: 'Andy Burnham: 'I want a clear break from this way of running the Labour party''"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">London-centric</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">" politics of his peers in all parties, a difference underlined by his own Merseyside twang. If he became leader, this may play well in differentiating Labour from the overtly metropolitan, RP-speaking government ministers. In the short term, it also differentiates Burnham from his overtly metropolitan, RP-speaking opponents for the party leadership.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There's every reason to think that by 2015 the honeymoon will be well and truly over for the Lib-Con government. The planned cuts will have taken their toll and the novelty of a coalition will have worn off. It seems safe to predict that the Liberal Democrats will be hemorrhaging left-leaning voters. Labour, on the other hand, will have had five years of the relatively easy life of opposition, criticising the government without having to expand any fully worked-out alternatives. In that time, Burnham could have a chance to shed his ingénue image and gain some PM-like gravitas – and after that, who knows?</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Unfortunately, the current Labour big beasts </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/11/jack-straw-david-miliband-labour" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: 'Jack Straw endorses David Miliband for Labour leadership'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">don't agree</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Jack Straw, Alistair Darling and Alan Johnson have all thrown their lot in with David Miliband. Financial backers </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/02/diane-abbott-david-miliband-buying-labour-leadership" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: 'Diane Abbott accuses David Miliband of 'buying' Labour leadership contest'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">have followed suit</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, with Miliband the elder raising six times as much money as the second most-funded candidate (Balls), and more than 100 times more than the least-funded (Abbott). Even if he turns up clutching a </span></span><a href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.stevetierney.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/miliband.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.stevetierney.org/blog/%3Fcat%3D48&h=340&w=384&sz=30&tbnid=sdfRZ4Yk_wIYlM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddavid%2Bmiliband%2Bbanana&usg=__p1LtPe9opJ_rpPsfF3OoJhf5Bn0=&sa=X&ei=YpNrTL_jEs-TjAeP67GIAg&ved=0CCkQ9QEwBQ" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;" title="Steve Tierney blog: David Miliband photo"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">banana</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> in each hand and grinning ear-to-ear at the party conference on 26 September, David Miliband still seems set to walk it.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It's partly this kind of "who-else" appointment that made the previous Labour government seem insular and unresponsive. It would be a missed opportunity if the Labour party continued in the same vein, especially when a proper, credible opposition is needed more than ever. That's why Labour need to give Andy Burnham more room in the limelight between now and the conference.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/21/vote-andy-burnham-labour-leadership">Originally posted on Comment is Free on 21st August 2010</a></span></span></div>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-10110891705942876812010-09-10T04:35:00.000-07:002010-09-10T05:24:40.777-07:00‘National security' Afghan justification doesn't hold<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjztOysJvZDyacUPSPOXhib5uTp8aespV9Zsmc39GYYTGh-4O8EY7ZolRrrfHiyRaM1LpeL1cdcsuDo7iepi7Cd3zzwNONJ9h6T0TnBJGKTU62SAIMpH5uFqlaMOx2dc1m8tlsh30P2r7g/s1600/Liam-Fox-415.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjztOysJvZDyacUPSPOXhib5uTp8aespV9Zsmc39GYYTGh-4O8EY7ZolRrrfHiyRaM1LpeL1cdcsuDo7iepi7Cd3zzwNONJ9h6T0TnBJGKTU62SAIMpH5uFqlaMOx2dc1m8tlsh30P2r7g/s320/Liam-Fox-415.jpg" /></a></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Three words you're unlikely to hear from a UK or US politician these days are "war on terror", but undeniably the phrase has taken its place just behind "yes we can" and "I agree with Nick" in the roll-call of classic political soundbites. The latest instalment of this saga played out on Thursday, when an </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/08/al-qaida-norway-bomb-plot" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: Al-Qaida suspects held over Norway bomb plot"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">al-Qaida cell was apprehended in Norway</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, and some of the details being reported paint a depressingly familiar picture to anyone who follows this sort of thing.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The makeup of the Norwegian terrorist cell – like the failed New York subway bombers and the 7/7 bombers – is notable for its complete and total remove from Afghanistan. It comprises a Norwegian national of Uighur origin, and an Uzbek citizen and an Iraqi who both have indefinite leave to remain in Norway. A fourth suspect was arrested in Germany. Their intended targets are as yet unclear, and speculation as to their motives has inevitably turned to Norway's 500 troops in Afghanistan and the decision by some Norwegian papers to republish the Danish cartoons of the Prophet – a commendable stand for press freedom, which set an example sadly not followed by any UK publication.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When al-Qaida burst into the foreground of western consciousness in September 2001, there was a scramble to understand what sort of entity we were dealing with. The surface picture quickly fell into place – they were a terrorist organisation centred around </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/osamabinladen" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: Osama bin Laden"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Osama bin Laden</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, with infrastructure and training camps in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The response seemed clear cut – remove al-Qaida from Afghanistan, capture Bin Laden and topple his Taliban facilitators so that al-Qaida can't take root there again. There was little dissent from the notion that this course of action would make western streets safer.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Fast-forward nine years, and we all know that the situation was always much more complex. Well, almost all of us – just last week, defence secretary </span></span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10468035.stm" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="BBC: UK set to be among last out of Afghanistan, says Fox"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Liam Fox declared</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> that our engagement in Afghanistan is "a national security imperative", wheeling out once again the time-worn argument that military actions in Afghanistan can reduce the terrorist threat in the west. This issue is proving to be a gift-wrapped package for any politician in opposition – Bob Ainsworth had to hold the same line in the face of mounting Tory derision when he was defence secretary for Labour, and now it's Labour's turn to point and laugh at Fox when he's forced to do the same.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I can understand why Ainsworth felt the need to cleave to the idea that our domestic security depends on a stable Afghanistan, since it was his party leaders that committed us to the invasion. Any admission of doubt would have been politically disastrous for Labour. To a lesser degree, I can understand why Fox cleaves to it too – in for a penny, and all that. But it seems that there's only so far an argument can stand in complete opposition to an increasingly obvious reality, and this one is now stretched to breaking point.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Since 2001, a whole shelf of books have been published about al-Qaida, and the overall consensus is that they are now no more than a </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/30/al-qaida-osama-bin-laden" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Cif: Al-Qaida: an idea, not a cult"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">brand</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, a nebulous idea that anyone can subscribe to. Many existing Islamist groups simply changed their name to "al-Qaida", without necessarily establishing any direct contact with Bin Laden or </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayman_al-Zawahiri" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Wikipedia: Ayman al-Zawahiri"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ayman al-Zawahiri</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Even more impossible to counter militarily are al-Qaida cells such as the 7/7 bombers, who showed that it only takes seven or eight disaffected young men, a broadband connection and some household items (like peroxide and flour) to create an al-Qaida cell. That's not to say that we haven't been successful in uncovering these operations – the Norway episode is the latest in many successes on this front – but it's impossible to see how our engagement in Afghanistan has helped this effort.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So how can anyone still honestly maintain that our involvement in Afghanistan can reduce the terrorist threat level on our streets? Practically every al-Qaida convert in the last nine years has cited the invasion as a galvanising factor in their radicalisation, so in fact our involvement seems to have had the opposite effect. And that's leaving aside the hard-earned lesson that the border between the uncontrollable region of north-west Pakistan and Afghanistan exists largely in our imaginations.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There is a separate argument to be made that a stable, democratic Afghanistan is in the world's best long-term interest, provided you don't think too much about our chances of achieving that goal within the available timeframe. So why is Fox not focusing on that argument alone? Why has the "national security" justification not joined the phrase "war on terror" on the scrapheap of bad ideas? Fox could (just about) afford to do that, whereas Ainsworth couldn't. In one fell swoop he'd not only insulate himself from easy blows from the opposition, but he'd also reassure the UK public that government ministers can take account of widely acknowledged realities when they formulate their arguments.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Tony Blair's foreign policy decisions are proving to be like the incomprehensible derivatives that helped bring down the financial system in 2008 – ticking time-bombs that don't reveal their true, noxious nature until it's too late. This particular one can now be seen for what it is, which is why we need to cut it loose.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/09/national-security-afghan-justification">Originally posted on Comment is Free on 9th July 2010</a></span></span></div>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-30098134093749882412010-09-10T04:32:00.000-07:002010-09-10T05:23:46.962-07:00Macedonia and Greece live up to Balkan Stereotype<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUqtYUqCMvY0cUkiK_n-pfnS305qNoaugGVAXnONn82fou59V0thxOuf4LHuQ-LcUqk9_Jdxpt5L0FPb6jtuXL21Uw7Uy0z9kRkzNU8CnVKjZsqRVhzMxd3KJBjh3s6Ng_LQ5kYdarQxY/s1600/greece_fyrom_flags.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUqtYUqCMvY0cUkiK_n-pfnS305qNoaugGVAXnONn82fou59V0thxOuf4LHuQ-LcUqk9_Jdxpt5L0FPb6jtuXL21Uw7Uy0z9kRkzNU8CnVKjZsqRVhzMxd3KJBjh3s6Ng_LQ5kYdarQxY/s320/greece_fyrom_flags.jpg" /></a></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As any fan of Asterix the Gaul can confirm, national stereotypes are funny because they tend to carry a grain of truth. They give us a broad caricature of a people and their quirks, and also, crucially, how those people are perceived from the outside. Asterix is yet to travel to the Balkans, but when he does, he is sure to find the locals embroiled in inexplicable, intractable feuds based on absurd disagreements rooted in the distant past. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This stereotype is often unfairly applied, but - like all stereotypes - it's sometimes roundly deserved. The Greece / Macedonia naming dispute falls squarely in the latter category.</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The latest instalment in this 19-year-old tale of woe unfolded last week, when, despite pressure from various MEPs, the Greek prime minister George Papandreou and his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski failed to reach an agreement ahead of a European Council meeting on the 17th of June. The likely result, predictably, will be another Greek veto of the motion to provide Macedonia with a date to begin EU accession talks. Some insiders </span></span><a href="http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/28799/" title="claim"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">claim</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> that a mutually acceptable agreement on the name now seems more distant than ever.</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Accession to the EU would be an immeasurable help to Macedonia - aside from the sorely-needed economic benefits, governing parties would be forced to comply with EU standards in dealing with the sizeable Albanian minority and the long-oppressed Roma population. It would also put an end to the maddening uncertainty over Macedonia's official legitimacy as a state, which will in turn hopefully quell some of the ultra-nationalistic sentiment that occasionally erupts. It would also be a big step forward in establishing stability in the wider Balkan region.</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Greek concerns over Macedonian expansionist ambitions - over the region of Northern Greece also known as Macedonia - are an obvious red herring. Even if we put aside the fact that the tiny Macedonian army could barely make Athens flinch, there is no conceivable future where Macedonia could garner international support to invade an EU member state. Fears over irredentism are a diversionary tactic - the argument here is really about history and symbolism.</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In 2003, David Cameron and I both paid a visit to Skopje to attend an England / Macedonia football match (separately, I'll hasten to add), and unlike me, he </span></span><a href="http://the-macedonian-tendency.blogspot.com/2007/08/david-cameron-on-macedonia-circa-2003.html" title="wrote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">wrote</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> a Guardian piece about it on his return. In it, he recalls being asked by unnamed Macedonians: 'What will you do to help us?'. His answer was ready: 'From now on I will call our esteemed EU partner "the former Ottoman possession of Greece (Fopog)."</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Of course he won't do that, and he'll be hoping that the Greek government never read his flippant remark - however, Cameron does put his finger on something quite significant with that statement. The 'Greek </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">pettiness' that Cameron disapprovingly notes stems from a deep insecurity over Greece's 400 year subjugation by the Ottomans, during which time Greece, like the rest of the Ottoman lands, was generally referred to in the West as 'Turkey in Europe'. When Greece won their independence in the 19th Century, there was a concerted effort to reconnect the new Greek identity with the fabled Greece of antiquity. </span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This insecurity over heritage initially drove Greek opposition to Macedonia's constitutional name - now it's a bitter slog to wrestle at least some face-saving concessions from the whole mess, as the key argument was lost years ago. Whichever way it plays out, Macedonia will not only feature in the republic's name but it will be the key signifier. That's exactly what Greece wanted to avoid, but they found their position became unsustainable back in 1995 - now the argument centres on whether a compromise name like 'the republic of Northern Macedonia', if agreed, would have to be used by everyone or just by those states who are yet to recognise Macedonia's constitutional name (39% of NATO members).</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For their part, Macedonia under the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE goverment have embarked on a misguided project of '</span></span><a href="http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/analysis/23242/" id="dytu" title="antiquisation"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">antiquisation</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">', or the deliberate appropriation of ancient Macedonian figures and symbols as the foundation of the modern Macedonian identity. To this end, Skopje's Petrovec airport was renamed 'Alexander the Great airport' in 2006. A plan has long been mooted to build a 40 metre Alexander statue in Skopje's main public square, which would be a total disaster in both aesthetic and diplomatic terms.</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="western" style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.02cm; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Like Greece, Macedonia's frantic embrace of all things classical is driven by defensiveness over their identity. Unlike Greece, VMRO don't have the nous to realise how absurd all this looks to international observers, so they haven't thought up a fig leaf for their irrational hysteria - like the 'irredentism concerns' Athens uses. Each new Alexander statue in Skopje or Prilep sends faces into palms in Brussels, and makes a resolution to the dispute that bit more unreachable. Realistically, Macedonia doesn't need any antiquisation. The main argument has been won, and conceding 'Northern Macedonia' is a small price to pay to move forward.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Macedonians of antiquity were Greek in the same sense that the Caesars were Italian – sort of, but not really. Alexander was in fact Macedonian, in a sense of that word that's long dead. He has as much continuity with Papandreou and Gruevski as Cameron has with whoever built Stonehenge. Greece and Macedonia both need to break out of the Balkan stereotype - history should be left to historians, and current realities to politicians.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/25/macedonia-greece-balkan-stereotype">Originally posted on Comment is Free on 25th June 2010</a></span></span></div>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-57610833682069671102010-09-10T04:28:00.000-07:002010-09-10T07:18:24.170-07:00Ed Balls must find room for romance amid EU ambivalence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ0AhGMX-FcP6gSZsYDG_eOy40DhXtDv1dyULsqsQzGwg_jQUaHGH1AjSv8C9Bx8F1AQLDayXIKoYmwo4pvTxkRex5RbmxK96hbAYz6g6_jhtUHlf70tCQNGY1W-lV166bjw8v58VT3mw/s1600/Ed-Balls-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ0AhGMX-FcP6gSZsYDG_eOy40DhXtDv1dyULsqsQzGwg_jQUaHGH1AjSv8C9Bx8F1AQLDayXIKoYmwo4pvTxkRex5RbmxK96hbAYz6g6_jhtUHlf70tCQNGY1W-lV166bjw8v58VT3mw/s320/Ed-Balls-001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In last weekend's Observer, </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/06/ed-balls-europe-immigration-labour" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Cif: We were wrong to allow so many eastern Europeans into Britain"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ed Balls set out</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> his philosophy of "pro-European realism". As an exercise in political positioning, the piece does the job of placing him squarely in the middle ground – the natural habitat of the politician seeking office. In the context of the immigration debate, he comes across as honest about past mistakes, and clear on the way forward. However, in the wider debate about the UK's relationship with Europe, Balls's remarks follow a familiar path, which should give pause to those of us who support the long-term European project.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I realise that Balls needs to be seen as being at least slightly Eurosceptic (ahem, Euro-realistic) since that's the way the wind of public opinion is blowing. But at the same time, he bluntly states: "I am a strong pro-European." In fact, that is his stated "starting point" as a Labour leadership candidate. Despite that, Balls devotes about three short sentences to the benefits of the EU, with the rest of the article being about the potential downsides.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This particular brand of Euro-ambivalence was a defining characteristic of New Labour's approach to the EU question. Tony Blair </span></span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4122288.stm" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="BBC: Full text: Blair's European speech "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">told the European parliament</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> that the EU "is a union of values, of solidarity between nations and people … not just a common market in which we trade". Four years later, </span></span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/5044193/Gordon-Brown-lavish-with-praise-ahead-of-G20-in-most-pro-European-speech.html" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Telegraph: Gordon Brown lavish with praise ahead of G20 in most pro-European speech"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gordon Brown claimed</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> he was "proud to be British and proud to be European". Balls amends that slightly: "I know, like most of my fellow citizens, that I am British before I am European." The three statements in succession show a party edging away from the continent.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Despite the occasional sweet-nothings uttered in Brussels, New Labour failed to sell the potential benefits of the EU back in Britain. Their deep reluctance to engage on this question allowed strongly Eurosceptic voices to enthusiastically fill the void, such as Ukip, certain unreconstructed Tories, and their cheerleaders in the rightwing press. Labour never managed to create a real debate around it (and yes, for lack of trying), instead ceding all the ground to the Eurosceptics. It would be a shame if they were to continue in that vein in opposition.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">At this point it seems fair to ask: what are the potential benefits of greater EU integration? According to Balls: "Europe is our best platform to win the global argument for an open and fair world." I agree. To ask whether the UK should be in the EU is the same as asking whether the UK should have a role on the world stage in the decades to come. How you answer that question largely depends on what you intuitively believe – personally, I think that the UK, along with the rest of the EU, can and should influence future debates on key global issues such as climate change, nuclear proliferation, or distribution of wealth. There will be no future global role for the UK without further integration into some supranational Euro-entity.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By offering economic benefits to aspiring EU members, the EU is able to demand reforms in return, which can improve the lives of millions of Europeans. The UK should play an active role in that process – despite the "going-to-the-dogs" grumbling, the UK is a highly successful nation, economically and politically. We should strive to ensure that all of Europe attains a minimum living standard comparable to our own.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Balls claims to be a "pro-European of the hard-headed rather than romantic variety". Ok, but there's a place for a bit of romance in this argument too, on both sides. Euroscepticism is fed in large part by the romantic notion of British exceptionalism – in the words of Margaret Thatcher: "God separated Britain from mainland Europe, and it was for a purpose." That was in 1999, and many still hold to the same view now, encouraged by the rightwing press and commentariat.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The nations that make up the British Isles are European. Historically, culturally, geographically, ideologically: the UK is comprised of distinctly European nations and cultures. The story of Britain and the story of Europe have always been intertwined, and not always peacefully. It may be a romantic view, but it seems right and correct that the same joint narrative should be projected into the future, but on a peaceful and co-operative grounding.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Despite being the most pro-EU mainstream party, the Liberal Democrats did not wring any meaningful concessions from their Conservative coalition partners with regards to Europe. The appointment of the historically Eurosceptic William Hague as foreign secretary gives some measure of the Tories' own view on the matter. For these reasons, it is especially important that the Labour party now do what they manifestly failed to do in their 13 years in government: make a clear and strong argument for greater UK participation in the EU.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/08/ed-balls-labour-eu-ambivalence">Originally posted on Comment is Free on 8th June 2010</a></span></span></div></span>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-18887799152631875172010-09-10T04:25:00.000-07:002010-09-10T10:30:37.089-07:00Hague should address Human cost of Bombing, not just Torture<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitZRi93DG5NbaoSd7S-XlUTAOOkLC1zgIgfcXHlt2YgrOKgnDcfnA8Ic2XCXhiDN9JoTezFeKQcQpLDeNtQXd-sEDT1BwR43uUyoZrXQzZlj6CrQGHRLBr5-pbueFQtkkMS5nXoQDydrI/s1600/William_Hague_PicGetty_132146170.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitZRi93DG5NbaoSd7S-XlUTAOOkLC1zgIgfcXHlt2YgrOKgnDcfnA8Ic2XCXhiDN9JoTezFeKQcQpLDeNtQXd-sEDT1BwR43uUyoZrXQzZlj6CrQGHRLBr5-pbueFQtkkMS5nXoQDydrI/s320/William_Hague_PicGetty_132146170.jpg" /></a></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">William Hague's recently </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/may/20/torture-william-hague-terrorism" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: Torture claims investigation ordered by William Hague"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">announced inquiry</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> into the UK government's alleged collusion in torture is a move that few observers will find surprising. It serves to draw a clear line between Hague's foreign office and that of his predecessor, David Miliband, as Clive Stafford Smith </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/may/21/william-hague-torture-inquiry" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Cif: William Hague's torture inquiry: a prospectus"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">noted</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> on Cif recently. It also addresses one of the main grievances associated with the old Labour government, which is the perception they sidelined their moral convictions to appease the US in policies relating to the "war on abstract nouns" (as some wits have named it).</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The inquiry is a political move, but the negative cost of the "war on terror" can be measured in moral terms as well as politically. It remains to be seen whether Hague's inquiry will address that in any meaningful way. Personally, I think not.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In his 2005 book The End of Faith, Sam Harris </span></span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-harris/in-defense-of-torture_b_8993.html" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Huffington Post: In Defense of Torture"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">argues</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> that torture is less immoral than aerial bombing, on the basis that bombs kill and maim hundreds of civilians, whereas torture only affects a few people strongly suspected of being terrorists, or of being in possession of vital intelligence. It is also non-lethal, and temporary. He asks: "What, after all, is 'collateral damage' but the inadvertent torture of innocent men, women and children?"</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The question that naturally follows is: if we are prepared to accept collateral damage as a necessary evil to achieve a goal, with all the loss of innocent life that implies, then why are we not prepared to accept torture as a means of advancing towards the same goal? The implications are deeply unsettling but the logic appears sound. Harris follows it through and concludes that torture is, in fact, justified in certain circumstances, including the "war on terror". My own view is that aerial bombing is a blunt, inappropriate tool for fighting "terror", and therefore I personally can't see how bombing </span></span><em style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">or</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> torture could be justified in this context.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If applied to any real-world scenario, Harris's theory quickly falls down. The high level of secrecy around a </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binyam_Mohamed" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Wkipedia: Binyam Mohammed"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">case such as that of Binyam Mohamed</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, for example, makes it impossible for a member of the public to draw their own conclusions about the moral implications of his ordeal. Was he an innocent bystander? A terrorist mastermind? It requires a large leap of trust to believe that his handlers in Guantánamo Bay made their judgements on a sound ethical footing – they may have done, but we can't know. It's not a leap of faith that I would be comfortable making.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the light of the terrible realities of torture (which I can only just begin to imagine), it may seem immoral to pursue Harris's line of thought at all. However, one possible benefit of doing so is to achieve some sort of parity between the way we perceive torture and the way we perceive more acceptable methods of warfare – the gruesome details of a bombing raid are, for some reason, less widely discussed and condemned than the realities of torture.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One explanation for this is intent – collateral damage is by definition unintentional, whereas torture is not. However, the inevitable human cost of bombing raids is known beforehand, so in real terms, how is accepting that cost different from intending it?</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The distant, impersonal nature of bombing also dulls the impact if its horrors. Imagining yourself in the place of a bomber pilot, or a drone operator thousands of miles away from the target, is a much less uncomfortable image than imagining yourself in a torture dungeon. Harris terms this the "disassociation between what is most shocking and what is most harmful". It seems to me that Hague is utilising this tendency for political gain, in seeking to address the most shocking at the expense of the most harmful.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.iraqbodycount.org/" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Iraq Body Count: Current estimates"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Current estimates</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> place the number of Iraqi civilian casualties since 2003 at around 100,000. There are no reliable figures for Afghan civilian casualties, but it's safe to say the number will run into the tens of thousands. By contrast, the number of people allegedly tortured is measured in dozens. I don't mean to imply that the torture allegations should not be fully investigated – of course, they should, and as transparently as possible – but to me it seems perverse to dedicate so much attention to this issue when, in terms of human cost, it is dwarfed by the (still mounting) number of people killed by accepted methods of war. That should be Hague's, and our, main concern when it comes to accounting for our foreign policy errors under the last government.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/may/29/hague-inquiry-torture-bombing">Originally posted on Comment is Free on 29th May 2010</a></span></span></div>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-71711810795902742872010-09-10T04:07:00.000-07:002010-09-10T09:56:24.713-07:00Don't Oversimplify the Bosnian War<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4wfMQEhkTAUOlneiIO0ga4JwivdFZ4M3rwgrllFbst2rHecVM-ZdqCXEqSJgOphPfQsPGcH3MX6YY-UD8DKZiiYn19zVoDW6WR_AkLvi4Yo7VcxgaFqZCIJpHe1mZxopzxV2sDJa4MV4/s1600/Karadzic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4wfMQEhkTAUOlneiIO0ga4JwivdFZ4M3rwgrllFbst2rHecVM-ZdqCXEqSJgOphPfQsPGcH3MX6YY-UD8DKZiiYn19zVoDW6WR_AkLvi4Yo7VcxgaFqZCIJpHe1mZxopzxV2sDJa4MV4/s320/Karadzic.jpg" /></a></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Watching Radovan Karadzic's appearances at his ongoing </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/13/radovan-karodzic-trial-prosecution-witness" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: Radovan Karadzic trial hears first prosecution witness"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">war crimes trial</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> at The Hague, I'm reminded of an absent-minded professor at an employment tribunal. At times he cuts a shambling, comedic figure, a bit like Kingsley Amis's </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Jim" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Wikipedia: Lucky Jim Dixon"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Lucky" Jim Dixon</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> – a picture starkly at odds with the litany of atrocities he stands accused of, most notorious among them the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995 and the siege of Sarajevo between April 1992 and February 1996.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Following the example of his old capo Slobodan Milosevic, Karadzic has elected to defend himself at the trial. His </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/01/radovankaradzic-bosnia-and-herzegovina" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: Radovan Karadzic defends 'just and holy' war at genocide trial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">arguments</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> are pure fantasy, of the sort broadcast on Serbian state TV throughout the early 1990s – the central themes being Serb victimisation and a Nato-backed Islamist conspiracy. The grist of the trial, away from Karadzic's posturing, is establishing firm culpability for individual events. Karadzic may have had overall command of the Bosnian Serb armed forces, but he was always primarily a politician, which makes it very difficult to sift what he personally ordered from what was carried out under the authority of those further down the ladder.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The way the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s will be remembered by future historians is still being established, however in the western media an overall impression is already starting to coagulate from the messy tangle that made up the reality of the conflict. This simplified narrative tends to cast Serbia as aggressors, Bosnian Muslims as victims, Nato as rescuing heroes and Croatia as bemused onlookers. Perhaps it's always the fate of the loser in a conflict to play the bad guy in the resulting film – that certainly seems to be the case with the Bosnian Serbs.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The US state department issued an </span></span><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Milosevic-karadzic-mladic-wanted-poster.jpg" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="'Wanted' poster"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">old-fashioned "wanted" poster</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, casting the Serbian leadership in the popular imagination as the outlaws in a John Wayne film. The 2007 Richard Gere film </span></span><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455782/" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Imdb: The Hunting Party"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Hunting Party</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">went one further, portraying the Karadzic character as an elusive evil genius, a </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyser_S%C3%B6ze" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Wikipedia: Keyser Soze"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Keyser Soze</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> figure, complete with slow-motion-walk shots and a menacing audio signature.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As for the media treatment, at one end are News Corporation outlets that frequently refer to Karadzic as </span></span><a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1494091.ece" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="The Sun: Razorman Karadzic"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Razorman" Karadzic</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> or "The Beast of Bosnia". On the other, more subtle, end of the scale we find more efforts such as </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/14/uk-serbia-balkan-history" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Cif: UK has rewritten Balkan history"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Adam LeBor's piece for Cif</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, in which he points to the UK government's "Serbophilic" decision to arrest former Bosnian president Ejup Ganic, a man accused of war crimes. In LeBor's account, the implication is that being Bosnian automatically equates to being innocent – this is entirely in keeping with the idea that the Bosnians were purely victims of the "evil" Serbs. However, in reality, the Bosnian political leadership made some very bullish moves which escalated the initial situation dramatically.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In March 1992, a referendum to decide independence from the Serbia-dominated rump of Yugoslavia was rushed by the Bosnian Muslim leaders before the debate about secession could unfold, and the cases for and against could be properly heard. This resulted in the Bosnian Serbs' disastrous knee-jerk decision to boycott the referendum, leaving them disenfranchised when the electorate resoundingly returned a vote in favour of secession.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Later that same month the </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon_Agreement" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Wikipedia: Lisbon Agreement"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Lisbon agreement</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> was signed, setting up a framework for a multi-ethnic coalition government. The signatories were Radovan Karadzic for the Serbs (representing </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_population_census_in_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Wikipedia: 1991 population census in Bosnia and Herzegovina"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">31% of the population</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), Mate Boban for the Croats (14%) and Alija Izetbegovic for the Bosniaks (43%).</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">However two weeks later, Izetbegovic decided to withdraw his signature and the coalition government was abandoned, resulting in 45% of the population being disenfranchised from government, without any clear explanation as to the reasons why. This event was crucial in escalating an already tense situation into all-out war.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Another important factor which is often omitted from the growing popular consensus on what happened in Bosnia is the uncertain, anything-is-possible atmosphere when Yugoslavia dissolved. It was by no means clear-cut at the time that Bosnia would (or should) be entirely governed and dominated by Bosnian Muslims – it had always had an enormous ethnic Serb/Orthodox Christian presence and influence. When the region was a federal entity within Yugoslavia, this diversity did not lead to much friction, nor was there much of an imperative to define which ethnicity was dominant.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's absolutely right that Karadzic pays the price for any crimes he is found guilty of. However in the rush to assign the simplified roles of aggressor and victim, crucial details are being sidelined – this was not a war of aggression but a civil war, with atrocities committed on all sides. Karadzic and Milosevic did not create the situation but harnessed it, and rode it like a wave. The genesis of the conflict was in the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the rise of aggressive nationalism in the vacuum created by the collapse of Tito's </span></span><a href="http://www.rationalium.com/2010/03/brotherhood-and-unity-reflection-on.html" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Le Rationalium: Brotherhood and Unity: a reflection on the Yugoslav Wars"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Brotherhood and Unity</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> ideology.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If these nuances are left out of the popular accounts of the Bosnian conflict, then the true lessons of it will be lost on the general public. This is already in evidence with the disproportionate focus on a few Serb leaders, as if their capture and trial has somehow solved the problem – it has not. The cautionary tale Bosnia has to teach us is not about "evil" individuals but about the dangers of aggressive nationalism and factionalism, a lesson more relevant than ever in the constantly shrinking world we inhabit.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/10/radovan-karadzic-bosnian-war">Originally posted on Comment is Free on 10th May 2010</a></span></span></div>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7503628534872901266.post-24152865429461767162010-09-10T04:04:00.000-07:002010-09-10T09:56:54.372-07:00Being Macedonian<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBvPHR-5HuPgj_WsFIPrI1cg_6XSKc1YIAlut-Bw53qRDS91CK2aB9xFxyZTbYO_03tvaXNU6bSdiIWlWJ0D6LX8itpbOUubINmdRQp6Z6LEAemm-Xd45gh2Y90Gd3YYh6uof4AUwrZOc/s1600/macedonia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBvPHR-5HuPgj_WsFIPrI1cg_6XSKc1YIAlut-Bw53qRDS91CK2aB9xFxyZTbYO_03tvaXNU6bSdiIWlWJ0D6LX8itpbOUubINmdRQp6Z6LEAemm-Xd45gh2Y90Gd3YYh6uof4AUwrZOc/s320/macedonia.jpg" /></a></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As one of the 9,000 or so Macedonians living in England, I have long been aware of the contrast between the unselfconscious patriotism that is the norm in Macedonia, and the awkward evasion that accompanies the national identity question in England.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Having been in England since the age of 11, I have a foot in both camps – or, more accurately, find myself foreign in both places. I used to speak no English, then accented English, then accented Macedonian, and now I struggle to remember Macedonian words. This duality is no hardship to me – I'm equally happy to apologise when someone steps on my foot as I am to go around the house closing windows to avoid </span></span><a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_promaja" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Wiki Answers: What is promaja?"><em style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">promaja</span></span></em></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">One of the most instantly recognisable Macedonian traits across class boundaries is a fierce devotion to the idea of being "Macedonian". You will not find many in the Macedonian mainstream asking what nationality means because enough questions surround the Macedonian nationality already – and they all come from neighbouring countries. The most persistent of these is a typically Balkan diplomatic deadlock – the 19-year-old </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/04/balkans.greece" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: The row over Macedonia's name rumbles on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">name dispute</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> with Greece.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Accession to the EU is among the Macedonian government's </span></span><a href="http://www.nrc.nl/redactie/Europa/voortgangsrapporten2009/macedonie.pdf" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Commission of the European Communities: The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Progress Report 2009 (PDF)"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">top priorities</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, a process hindered by the </span></span><a href="http://www.mia.com.mk/default.aspx?vId=69543747&lId=2" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Macedonian Information Agency: Greece to decide on third EU veto this year"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">veto</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Greece has on any accessions. Greek objections also mean that Macedonia is referred to in official UN or Nato documents as FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), to much consternation in Skopje. Athens disputes Macedonia's </span></span><a href="http://www.constitution.org/cons/macedoni.txt" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">constitutional name</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (Republic of Macedonia) because they see the term "Macedonia" and the identity it designates as part of their ancient cultural heritage. Some on the Macedonian side argue that, on the contrary, it is the Macedonian people who can claim cultural and ethnic continuity with the ancient kingdom of Alexander the Great, on the basis that those people never went away from the region.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Both Greek and Macedonian </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/04/balkans.greece" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: The row over Macedonia's name rumbles on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">claims to continuity</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> with the ancient kingdom are tenuous at best. Though a Hellenic culture, the ancient Macedonians were not "Greek" in any sense we would understand today, and they certainly weren't Slavic.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Macedonia's Eastern neighbour Bulgaria was among the first countries to officially recognise the Macedonian state. However, they still refuse to recognise it as a nation, seeing the country and its people as prodigal Bulgarians. Many in Bulgaria consider the Macedonian language to be a regional Bulgarian dialect. As with Greece, the Bulgarian ambivalence is rooted in the region's convoluted history – in this case a more recent episode.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In the 19th century, regional revolutionaries such as </span></span><a href="http://www.mymacedonia.net/history/goce.htm" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="My Macedonia: Goce Delcev"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Goce Delčev</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and</span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yane_Sandanski" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Wikipedia: Jane Sandanski"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Jane Sandanski</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> fought the Ottomans, making little headway politically, but attaining near-mythical status among the locals. Both Macedonia and Bulgaria are fiercely possessive of these figures, but cannot agree about their nationality. Both states have towns named after Delčev, and statues of him watch over Macedonian and Bulgarian town squares. A portrait of Delčev hung in my primary school classroom, and both he and Sandanski are name-checked in the Macedonian national anthem.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Bulgarians, like Greece, feel that they would lose a cherished part of their historical narrative if they ceded a </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/07/balkans-greece" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Guardian: A Macedonian identity crisis"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">separate Macedonian identity</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. The confusion is not helped by the fact that the Ottoman bureaucrats who carried out every census in the region before the 20th century did not see the need to differentiate between regional identities – "Christian Slavs" generally sufficed. Later studies are not much more helpful – the anthropologist Robert Newman, travelling through the Macedonian part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1935, found that many locals were happy to be known as Bulgarians, Serbs, Macedonians or Turks – whichever identity seemed appropriate for whatever situation they found themselves in.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In Macedonia today, conversations about politics are </span></span><a href="http://www.maknews.com/" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Mak News"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ubiquitous and heated</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> – the frustration with the diplomatic disputes is palpable, because everyone knows what and who they are and are impatient for everyone else to acknowledge what already exists.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Macedonians drink Turkish coffee, a tar-like espresso; the elderly watch subtitled Argentinian soap operas, while teenagers listen to American pop, and everyone takes Eurovision seriously. Byzantine ruins, Ottoman souks, medieval Orthodox churches and Yugoslav-era concrete sprawls are scattered across the country. As with any nation, the essence is impossible to convey but easy to understand when you're part of it; it is an aggregate of many different things, some good and some bad (as the Roma minority </span></span><a href="http://www.iscvt.org/where_we_work/macedonia/article/a_brighter_future_roma.php" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Institute for Sustainable Communities: A brighter future: helping Macedonia's Roma secure their rights"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">will attest</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">), but all of them inherently Macedonian.</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I have had conversations with Greek and Bulgarian people along the lines of "why do you deny you're Greek/Bulgarian?" I can't remember what my reply was, probably something uninspiring like "erm … not sure?"</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">What I wish I had said to them is this: it makes no difference if Goce Delčev was Bulgarian or if Alexander was Greek and my 19th century ancestors considered themselves Serbs or Turks – I'm not any of those things. To be FYROM-ian is meaningless, and to be Bulgarian is out of the question. Perhaps it is the case that we have taken Greek terms and symbols, added a variant of the Bulgarian language, and fused them to create a nation and people that reflect the region's mixed heritage. None of that alters the fact that the Macedonians living today have never been anything other than Macedonians, and should have the right to be known as such.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/15/madedonia-being-macedonian">Originally posted on Comment is Free on 15th March 2010</a></span></span></div>I to the Vizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12036586593378407853noreply@blogger.com0