All entries by this author

Artist to Recreate Bamiyan Buddhas With Lasers *

Aug 9th, 2005 | Filed by

The images would remind us of what the Buddhas once looked like.… Read the rest



Fear That Iraq’s Charter Will Erode Women’s Rights *

Aug 9th, 2005 | Filed by

‘It’s really a huge setback,’ said Shirouk al-Abayachi of Iraqi Women’s Network.… Read the rest



IT Giant India Has Feet of Chalk

Aug 9th, 2005 | By Rajesh Kumar Sharma

Has information technology arrived in India? I doubt it has.
Notwithstanding the booming software exports, burgeoning BPO services
and mushrooming software parks.

Let us climb out of our fantasy balloons and do a reality check.

Information technology has not affected people’s lives in any
significant way. Apart from a small e-lite segment of the digirati,
most people have no access to a PC and the internet. Nor has
information technology enhanced the quality of their lives. Other than
remix music, Bollywood stunts and special effects, online train
reservations and a few pilot projects in telemedicine, precious little
has happened that touches people’s lives. E-governance has just not
taken off. Public servants and services remain as inaccessible as they
were two … Read the rest



Ripping off the Mask

Aug 9th, 2005 12:00 am | By

Then there was that Nick Cohen piece answering that excommunication by Peter Wilby that I commented on last week. He criticises the same thing I did.

The least attractive characteristic of the middle-class left – one shared with the Thatcherites – is its refusal to accept that its opponents are sincere. The legacy of Marx and Freud allows it to dismiss criticisms as masks which hide corruption, class interests, racism, sexism – any motive can be implied except fundamental differences of principle. Wilby went through a long list of what could have motivated mine and similar ‘betrayals’. Perhaps we became right wing as we got older. Perhaps we wanted to stick our snouts into the deep troughs of the

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Call Out the Women

Aug 8th, 2005 8:40 pm | By

Johann Hari had a good column the other day.

But in among the bad reasons for opposing multiculturalism – hinted at by Davis – there are some good reasons, and it is time we overcame our nervousness and heard them. I am the child of an immigrant myself, and I believe we should take more immigrants and refugees into Britain, not fewer. But it is increasingly clear that, forged with the best of intentions, multiculturalism has become a counter-productive way of welcoming people to our country. It promotes not a melting pot where we all mix together but a segregated society of sealed-off cultures, each sticking to its own.

Which used to sound good, or at least okay. Vibrant, … Read the rest



Michael Walzer on Just War and Torture *

Aug 8th, 2005 | Filed by

The struggle against terror in the intermediate zone hasn’t been theorised much.… Read the rest



Edmund Wilson Was a Journalist Not a Critic *

Aug 8th, 2005 | Filed by

Alfred Kazin and Richard Hofstadter used to read aloud famous ending of Proust chapter.… Read the rest



Why Aren’t Movies Better? *

Aug 8th, 2005 | Filed by

Because the global market is the youth market.… Read the rest



Denis Dutton on Bovary’s Ovaries *

Aug 8th, 2005 | Filed by

Book on evolutionary psychology in literature is interesting but leaves too much out.… Read the rest



Michael Kazin Reviews Christopher Hitchens *

Aug 8th, 2005 | Filed by

Nearly all his writing full of sly observations as well as something to disagree with.… Read the rest



More on Eccentric Reportage

Aug 7th, 2005 11:12 pm | By

The Guardian on Dilpazier Aslam and his critics, part 2. Scott Burgess pointed out this article by Shiv Malik in the New Statesman.

What readers of the Guardian were not told was that Aslam is a member of the extreme Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. Though it publicly dissociates itself from violence, Hizb ut-Tahrir is shunned by most British Muslims and banned from many mosques…My strongly held view is that members of such a group should not be allowed to write on this subject in the national press (just as the British National Party, which also claims to be non-violent, is very rarely given space), but if they do their connection should be made clear, preferably at the beginning of the

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Johann Hari on Multiculturalism *

Aug 7th, 2005 | Filed by

Multiculturalism demands tolerance and respect for reactionary traditions. … Read the rest



Salman Rushdie on Need for Reform in Islam *

Aug 7th, 2005 | Filed by

Closed communities are places where young men’s alienations can easily deepen.… Read the rest



Ni Putes ni Soumises *

Aug 7th, 2005 | Filed by

Neither sluts nor submissives: Fadela Amara offers respect instead.… Read the rest



Ian Buruma Talks to Ayaan Hirsi Ali *

Aug 7th, 2005 | Filed by

‘I have nobody to accuse me of being decadent, westernised, a traitor, a… slut.’… Read the rest



No, It’s Not About Boredom *

Aug 7th, 2005 | Filed by

Watching the left suck up to Islamism inspires anger and scorn, but not boredom.… Read the rest



Worries About Religious State Schools *

Aug 7th, 2005 | Filed by

Labour MPs worry religious schools may exacerbate religious divides.… Read the rest



Robin Cook Dies *

Aug 7th, 2005 | Filed by

Collapsed while hill-walking in Scotland.… Read the rest



A Staff Reporter

Aug 7th, 2005 1:02 am | By

Remember that peculiar article in the Guardian after it fired Dilpazier Aslam? It was two weeks ago now, but I want to mumble a few belated words.

Rightwing bloggers from the US, where the Guardian has a large online following, were behind the targeting last week of a trainee Guardian journalist who wrote a comment piece which they did not care for about the London bombings. The story is a demonstration of the way the ‘blogosphere’ can be used to mount obsessively personalised attacks at high speed.

That’s peculiar stuff. There were leftwing bloggers not from the US who criticized Aslam. And why call it ‘targeting’? (To make it sound illegitimate, that’s why.) And ‘did not care for’ is a … Read the rest



Galloway on Today [audio] *

Aug 6th, 2005 | Filed by

Typical measured, reasoned, cogent exposition of his views.… Read the rest