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12th - 18th March 2010
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A less than perfect union
A rabid right wing media, figureheaded by Fox News, suggests Obama's project to heal division is in tatters
“We are not as divided as our politics suggest, we are one people, we are one nation”. Those were of course the eloquent words of Barack Obama just over two years ago in his historic speech to the people of New Hampshire after winning the first primary in his rollercoaster ride to become the 44th President of the United States. Powerful stuff I remember thinking when I first heard them. However, I can’t help but come to a cynical realisation of how hollow those words actually are in today’s America. Indeed two years on many people would find it hard to even agree remotely that the country is “one nation”.
In fact since day one of Obama taking office over a year ago, the partisan animosity between the left and right has reached unprecedented levels. One only has to look at the current debate (or war) over the controversial healthcare reform bill; a bill that has unleashed the full wrath of the Republican Party and the rest… Continue reading...
'The rise of the rest'
The West is in decline and the East is on the up; we should embrace it
Walking around the Student Union, I can’t help but notice the parallels with the international system. Essentials, a microcosm of China, the place where we buy all our goods. The Helpdesk a kind of India, the place where we receive our technical advice. It is littered with ATM machines, a substitute for the World Bank and IMF, the place where everyone gets their loans from. The Green Action Food Co-op a slightly more powerful version of Sweden, nobly trying to ethically make a difference in the world. The Old Bar and the Terrace a student version of Saudi Arabia, the place where the student body / international community receive that most important of fuels, alcohol / oil, that is most essential in keeping our alcohol / oil dependant livers / world economy ticking over smoothly. And of course, the peanut gallery, a smaller, slightly more mysterious and less open version of North Korea, the place where all the communists hang out.
Posted in LS1 » Comment » 'The rise of the rest'
Media mob justice
The media witch-hunt of James Bulger's killers is an appeal to our basest instincts, and warps the course of justice
Tabloid witch hunts have reached an all time high this week with the news that Jon Venables, the killer of toddler James Bulger, has been re-arrested for an undisclosed breech of his probation terms. Bulger’s mother Denise Fergus asserts that Venables is ‘back where he belongs,’ a completely understandable stance from the women who so horrifically lost her child in 1993. But the public should realise that this is not their battle. Denise Fergus is perhaps the only person justified in attacking the morality of the case, but certainly not the 500 hundred protesters that gathered outside South Sefton Magistrate’s Court during the original Bulger trial. The ten-year-olds were inevitably exposed to the waves of hatred and abuse from these grown adults. What would they have done to these two children had they got their hands on them? The public outcry was predictable, as it is now almost two decades later. But this tabloid propaganda, combined in no small part with a morbid public fascination and a reluctance to let go of this story that profoundly affected the way our generation viewed society, has stimulated a departure from the proper procedures of justice.
Read morePosted in LS1 » Comment » Media mob justice
Bruni, Breasts and Burkas
Carla Bruni has faced criticism for immodest outfit choices, but what right does anyone have to tell a woman, any woman, what to wear
Two alarming items in the news recently made me ask myself whether society’s perceptions of women are becoming increasingly philistine and prejudiced.
Read morePosted in LS1 » Comment » Bruni, Breasts and Burkas
Iraq's lesson for the apathetic
In Iraq millions defied terror threats to cast their vote in last week's elections: a timely reminder to us never to take our vote for granted
While it may not have garnered enough attention to push it above the Oscars in the press stakes, an extremely important event took place last weekend; the second general election in Iraq.
Read morePosted in LS1 » Comment » Iraq's lesson for the apathetic
Gagging orders in the Union
Calls to shut the Peanut Gallery and the three-week ban of the Palestinian Solidarity Group suggest an anti-political Union Exec
The recent events surrounding the LUU Activities Executive’s dealings with the Palestine Solidarity Group, and some of the proposed referendum motions, convey mixed messages. Not only those that contradict one another; for instance, advocating the closure or expansion of the Peanut Gallery, only one of which may be put to referendum; but also those that seem to fly in the face of a democratic and principled union.
Read morePosted in LS1 » Comment » Gagging orders in the Union
What PSG ban means to me
Individuals have been left feeling unrepresented and victimised by LUU
With Israeli Apartheid week drawing to a close and a banned Palestine Solidarity Group to contend with, I find myself dealing with domination. Again. Having lived in Jerusalem for most of my life, being classed as an Arab, almost all my memories are of a domination of one type of people over another.
Read morePosted in LS1 » Comment » What PSG ban means to me
Why Fairtrade is far from fair
It's a mainstay of the middle-class ethical grocery shop but the Fairtrade Foundation skews the market and creates poverty
In a remarkably candid moment for the Fairtrade Foundation, its patron George Alagiah summed up their goal as being to ‘take out some of the unpredictability of being a farmer’.
Read morePosted in LS1 » Comment » Why Fairtrade is far from fair
Anti-cuts movement needs you
Leeds University Against Cuts, now an officially recognised LUU society, is no extremist movement; it wants to represent you
Cuts never seem to be out of the paper these days. Protests, sit-ins, strikes, demos, condemnations, arts nights; it’s all kicking off. The core membership of Leeds University Against Cuts are a dedicated band of individuals from very different political backgrounds coming together to offer the bulk of organization and effort into maintaining and running the group. But there’d be no point in us devoting our time to this issue if the mass majority of students weren’t behind us. In my experience, you chat to a student on the matter and you’ll find they oppose cuts, specifically job losses. No one likes cuts, who wants cuts? Only the villains over at Leeds University For Cuts.
Read morePosted in LS1 » Comment » Anti-cuts movement needs you