It is an ordinary Sunday afternoon in London. The sun is shining and the roar of the A40 deafens me as I grapple with the ever-present summer problem of noise and “fresh” air in my flat. I am trying to write at my desk when, suddenly, a deafening roar grabs my attention overhead. There, hanging [...]
Detention Without Trial: The 42 day treachery
Gordon Brown, like Tony Blair before him, cried that the Terror facing us must not be underestimated. It was the same battle cry which led us into the Iraq war: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid.
Fear is a fundamental tool in the hands of dictatorships. Without it, there is [...]
“Please, my son, don’t shoot today,
They are kind, perhaps ordinary, our neighbours for so long.
Please, habibte, don’t go out today,
Stay home, eat mana’ich, break bread with your family.
I peer through my broken window onto Hamra Street below,
They are boys, as my own,
Eyes glazed, shoulders solid.
We, and our mothers, gave birth silently, to these children;
They, and [...]
Don’t switch off. Please, just bear with me for five minutes and read on. The Mayor of London race is strll cold, London has barely looked up from its free newspaper gossip on George Clooney being in town. But we have the right to vote, and the obligation to input our views into how we [...]
“The Games have always brought people together in peace to respect universal moral principles. The upcoming Games will feature athletes from all over the world and help promote the Olympic spirit.”
(Official Website of the Olympic Games)
Londoners have woken up today in the throes of a blizzard, white frosting coating their city. Temperatures in Lhasa are [...]
Buenos Aires: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
27th March 2008
After the riot, spectacle and melodrama of Iguazu, we returned to Buenos Aires to see that riots, spectacles and melodrama were hitting the big smoke in our absence. First off, the tail end of a tornado had swept through the city the day before we returned, [...]
The world might shout loudly about Fidel Castro’s official resignation. Here, in Havana however, the news has been received with barely a glimmer of interest. The muted celebrations trumpeted on the front pages of the Miami Herald have had no replica here. The Message from the Commander in Chief (Comandante en Jefe) has been stamped [...]
TWO MINUTES TO SUNSET
It was the call that thousands had been waiting to receive: “Can you make it to the Port of Beirut within three hours?”
Thousands of people now were haranguing their national embassies on an hourly basis. Priority lists seemed to lie in disarray, as those people in close proximity to the embassies in [...]
This is a web page dedicated to some of the things that most matter to me - the war in Iraq, human rights, global politics and development, and sometimes just gorgeous things to make us all smile, like sunflowers, literature, or damn fine food! So enjoy, contribute and let me know what you think!
