I find anything to do with Watergate fascinating. It must be the idealistic journo in me struggling to get out ("Keep strugglin', sunshine..."). Great article in today's Guardian linking the events from 1972-74 with the current state of play in the US today. My favourite bit?
For more than 30 years the secrecy around Deep Throat diverted attention to who Deep Throat was rather than what Deep Throat was - a covert FBI operation in which Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward was almost certainly an unwitting asset.
And:
But now George Bush is building a leviathan beyond Nixon's imagining. The Bush presidency is the highest stage of Nixonism. The commander-in-chief has declared himself by executive order above international law, the CIA is being purged, the justice department deploying its resources to break down the wall of separation between church and state, the Environmental Protection Agency being ordered to suppress scientific studies and the Pentagon subsuming intelligence and diplomacy, leaving the US with blunt military force as its chief foreign policy.
Plus, of course, the general anti-Bush sentiment throughout.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Sometimes there are advantages to maintaining this site. For example, today I am going off-topic but when it comes down to it there is no topic so I can post what I want. So as today's Guardian points out if you work in the distribution industry you're going to be forced to become a robot. More so than previously as according to this workplaces are being turned into 'battery farms'. Suddenly, all this technology doesn't seem so benevolent
There's some irony here, because according to a site I chanced across today provides a sort of league table for the uptake of WiFi hotspots. Perhaps it's not an indication of technological progress in the way that the spread of broadband is claimed to be, but it's probably a fair insight. The UK, whilst in second place by a long way, still has nearly twice as many hotspots as Germany, in third place. I would have thought this was encouraging. But if you place it in the context of the UK gulags from the Guardian piece, it becomes a bit depressing. Big brother is watching you. (Clearly a more palatable alternative to the other way round)
What do you think?
There's some irony here, because according to a site I chanced across today provides a sort of league table for the uptake of WiFi hotspots. Perhaps it's not an indication of technological progress in the way that the spread of broadband is claimed to be, but it's probably a fair insight. The UK, whilst in second place by a long way, still has nearly twice as many hotspots as Germany, in third place. I would have thought this was encouraging. But if you place it in the context of the UK gulags from the Guardian piece, it becomes a bit depressing. Big brother is watching you. (Clearly a more palatable alternative to the other way round)
What do you think?
Monday, June 06, 2005
Live 8. Heard of it? Most probably by now as there's not been such blanket media coverage since the bombing of Baghdad. There may even be a joke in there somewhere. In fact, it's fair to say that the more we hear about it the less we remember about what else is going on (One or two ongoing wars immediately spring to mind). This wasn't going to be a rant until the BBC interviewed some students in Leeds this morning and left me seething over my (possibly non-fair trade) coffee. Apparently people want to go to the Live 8 event at Hyde Park so they can say they are a part of history.
What a load of self-serving, hypocritical nonesense (trying hard to avoid swearing). 'I was there on the day' they'll say. Tossers, like that's what counts. If they cared that much, perhaps they'd consider increasing their donation from £1.50 (plus the standard text messaging rate: check with your network operator for details). Oh, it's not about raising money but raising awareness. About making poverty history and giving people the means to support themselves. I'm not saying I'm some heart-on-my-sleeve activist individual with intimate knowledge of the issues at stake, nor am I a complete hard-hearted cynic. Maybe I'll be in Hyde Park too, lighter aloft, although having no credit on my mobile may impact upon my chances of answering the bloody-ridiculously easy question.
For a more measured perspective on this, I tend to agree with the author of this article. It refers to another article in last week's Times (which you can't link to because they charge for access to the archives. Information wants to be free? Knowledge is power? These seem mutually exclusive to me):
In the Times on Wednesday, for example, Bruce Anderson wrote that Geldof "would like his young followers to believe that the west is to blame for all of Africa's difficulties" and that his solution is to "stop encouraging Africa to participate in global trade and content ourselves with providing enough aid". Yet, no doubt to the disappointment of many who will descend on Edinburgh via Seattle, Make Poverty History is manifestly not promoting an anti-capitalist, anti-free trade revolution. Indeed, although it wants developing countries to be able to protect some of their markets, on the whole, its goal is to make trade more free by abolishing punitive import tariffs in the west and ending Europe and America's huge farm subsidies, in order to open up western markets to developing economies.
I'm sure something will inspire me to follow this thread. Later.
What a load of self-serving, hypocritical nonesense (trying hard to avoid swearing). 'I was there on the day' they'll say. Tossers, like that's what counts. If they cared that much, perhaps they'd consider increasing their donation from £1.50 (plus the standard text messaging rate: check with your network operator for details). Oh, it's not about raising money but raising awareness. About making poverty history and giving people the means to support themselves. I'm not saying I'm some heart-on-my-sleeve activist individual with intimate knowledge of the issues at stake, nor am I a complete hard-hearted cynic. Maybe I'll be in Hyde Park too, lighter aloft, although having no credit on my mobile may impact upon my chances of answering the bloody-ridiculously easy question.
For a more measured perspective on this, I tend to agree with the author of this article. It refers to another article in last week's Times (which you can't link to because they charge for access to the archives. Information wants to be free? Knowledge is power? These seem mutually exclusive to me):
In the Times on Wednesday, for example, Bruce Anderson wrote that Geldof "would like his young followers to believe that the west is to blame for all of Africa's difficulties" and that his solution is to "stop encouraging Africa to participate in global trade and content ourselves with providing enough aid". Yet, no doubt to the disappointment of many who will descend on Edinburgh via Seattle, Make Poverty History is manifestly not promoting an anti-capitalist, anti-free trade revolution. Indeed, although it wants developing countries to be able to protect some of their markets, on the whole, its goal is to make trade more free by abolishing punitive import tariffs in the west and ending Europe and America's huge farm subsidies, in order to open up western markets to developing economies.
I'm sure something will inspire me to follow this thread. Later.
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