Pushing the Right Bhutan
"His Royal Highness Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck" was an address label that stood out when I was distributing JCR Freshers Handbooks this summer. There was, however, no need for a red carpet, three butlers and a chauffeur-equipped limousine to ferry him around: "I have a modest nature, I don't walk around showing off 'I'm the Prince of Bhutan', I want people to know me for who I am, not what I am". Indeed, the topic has rarely been a source of discussion with peers at his college....
Comment: Sexuality forums - a Church near you
"The best way we can love homosexual people is to chastise them."
Comment: Patently Misanthropic
It doesn't take a genius to recognise that something is wrong with the international pharmaceutical market. We in the West have the means to prolong the lives of an estimated six million people with AIDS in the 'developing' world and yet monopolistic pricing strategies ensure this does not happen.
Comment: The war of the words
"The whole premise of the weapons of mass destruction was total bullshit. The reasons were and always have been oil." Accompanied by an unflinching gaze from a man who has continually probed what we are given to believe through 30 years of front-line reporting. His stern look challenges me to the point that I am forced to look away. The tension breaks and my panic subsides as he quips "How come you aren't taking any notes?" before spotting my notepad perched on my knee under the desk and breaking into a wry smile and a wink....
Comment: If We Tell You, Terrorists Will Kill You
Among George W. Bush's many great gags is the now-famous line, "The war in Iraq is really about peace". In Weapons of Mass Deception, John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton set out to catalogue some more of Bush's dark humour. Along the way, they give an account of the sometimes extraordinary half-truths, exaggerations and lies told by the American press, PR merchants and politicians about the Middle East. The style is determinedly matter-of-fact, with 'shock and awe' being provided by the transcriptions of interviews on Fox News, and excerpts from off-the-record remarks by notables like Donald Rumsfeld. For a naïve European like me, who does not regularly watch American news media, this was sometimes not only an abhorrent but an entirely astonishing experience....
Comment: Emancipation Protestation
Slavery in the British Empire ended in 1833. In the USA it ended 35 years later. In all forms and in every country of the world, it is illegal. Why, then, are there 27 million slaves in the world?