World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk |
- Man dies in London nightclub shooting
- Best theatre of 2013, No 5: Grounded
- Today's response to the Roma is a slur from the past | Tanya Gold
- Haiti hopes miracle moringa tree can help to combat malnutrition | Felix von Geyer
- Egypt bus explosion injures five, reports say
- Can you be too leftwing? | Richard Seymour
- 2014 in film preview: Oscar essentials
- How do I become … a special effects engineer
- National road death toll rises to nine
- From the archive, 26 December 1916: War memories – Christmas, 1914
- The Church of England's unglamorous, local future | Andrew Brown
- Bletchley Park accused of airbrushing Edward Snowden from history
- How to file a story when you are trapped in Antarctic ice – video
- Missing boy: body of Connor Elliott Graham found in river
- Guests evacuated after fire at luxury Heron Island resort
- Japan's Shinzo Abe risks tension with neighbours by visiting war dead shrine
- British man jailed in Malta petitions Europe
- Trapped in Antarctic ice, scientists use unexpected pause for extra research
- Missing boy: police search water for Connor Elliott Graham
- Off-duty firefighter helps rescue children from burning house
- Thailand: election commission urges poll delay after violent clashes
- Start of the 69th Sydney to Hobart yacht race in pictures
- Boxing Day sales still popular in the age of online shopping
- Journalist accused of defaming navy appeals to Thai state governor
- Who invited you to Bali? | Agnieszka Sobocinska
| Man dies in London nightclub shooting Posted: 26 Dec 2013 01:12 AM PST  Man arrested in connection with fatal shooting, which happened at around 3am on Thursday morning at Avalon club in West End A man has died after being shot inside a nightclub in London's West End, Scotland Yard has said. One man has been arrested in connection with the shooting, which happened at around 3am on Thursday morning at the Avalon club in Shaftesbury Avenue. He is being questioned at a south London police station. Police said the injured man died after being taken to hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. A police spokesman said: "Police and London ambulance service attended to find a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. "He was taken to hospital but died from his injuries. "Next of kin have not been informed. We await formal identification." Shaftesbury Avenue has been closed while police investigate. The Avalon Soho describes itself as a cocktail lounge with live DJs every night. The website says it is "a revitalised venue that oozes creativity and class" which brings "a unique and stylish vibe to the heart of West End's party scene". theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Best theatre of 2013, No 5: Grounded Posted: 26 Dec 2013 01:00 AM PST Lyn Gardner: George Brant's searing monologue about an ace US pilot now flying drones, was a gripping analysis of 21st-century warfare       |
| Today's response to the Roma is a slur from the past | Tanya Gold Posted: 26 Dec 2013 01:00 AM PST  On a visit to Yad Vashem, the consequences of continuing to demonise the ancient scapegoats of Europe were all too clear to me There is a document, dated 9 January 1938 in the archive at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. I sat there two weeks ago pondering how printed words segue into mass murder. These particular words, written by a Nazi bureaucrat, suggest "solutions" to the Gypsy "problem", which are necessary, "for reasons of national hygiene, because the Gypsies are known to be suffering from hereditary diseases". They are "habitual criminals and parasites" who do "untold damage to our national organism". So what to do? He sucks his pencil, writes: "Sterilise and intern in labour camps." This is just an opening position, of course; the eventual Nazi "solution" to the Roma "problem" ("Gypsy" is derived from the misconception that they came from Egypt, when in fact their origins are in India) went much further. The Nazis confounded themselves with their ludicrous pseudo-intellectual racial purity laws, which eventually became so complex that you have to laugh at the bureaucrats who tried to codify and enforce them; so they sometimes pardoned "pure" Roma. But by 1945 at least 200,000 were dead, perhaps many more; that we do not know the exact figure is part of the obscenity. There are 1,500 items relating to the Roma at Yad Vashem; the Roma tradition is an oral one, and the Nazis did not count their victims accurately in this case, so the rest is lost. We know that some starved in ghettos alongside Jews; that some were gassed in death camps; that Anne Frank saw some Gypsy girls being herded to the gas chambers, and cried; that more, including very young children, were murdered in Josef Mengele's grotesque "experiments" in Auschwitz, the details of which are too repulsive to detail here. The Roma call it Porajmos – the devouring. Why mention this now? Because the legal restrictions on migration from Romania and Bulgaria to Britain are being lifted, and the tidal wave of filth – to use a phrase I think the Nazis would have liked – washing through the European media in respect (I joke) of Roma is an affront to the discipline of history. Sometimes I think the memorials to the dead (I will not call them Hitler's victims, because the perpetrators were in the millions) are counter-productive, at least to those of us who are not related to the dead. In any case, the German memorial to the Roma was erected only last year. For us, they are a comfort blanket of stone; they reassure us that we have changed. We have buried the dead, we have expiated it, we have learned the lessons, and will not sin again. Except we have not: we listen, and by our silence, collaborate in a resurgence of anti-Roma rhetoric, fuelled by austerity (what's new?) and migration – and who speaks out? Here are a few examples, from newspapers whose editors, I suspect, do not know about the old practice of Roma hunts in Saxony, the judicial murders of Roma in Prussia in the 18th century, enabled by the psychotic king Frederick William, the forced sterilisation of Roma by the Swedes, or the removal of Roma children from their parents in Switzerland, even as recently as the 1970s. When a people is persistently nomadic and suspicious of the settled majority, and tends to cling to its status of outsider, it is always worth asking why. And now, here, headlines echo loathing, snobbery and paranoia: "Villagers' 10 days of Gypsy hell"; "Parents and children returned from the half-term break to find gypsies had taken over their school's CAR PARK" (the capital letters are not mine); or, worse, on the cover of a Swiss magazine in 2012, a young Roma boy with a gun and the caption, "They come, they steal, they go." This kind of negative press coverage brings forth violence – there is always employment for a scapegoat in Europe, when hatred is stirred up. This is the demonisation of an ancient, marginalised underclass. They are the fastest-growing, and most persecuted, minority in Europe, and our response to them is a slur from the past. It is fuelled by politicians, who are happy to vent, but unhappy to plan – the government has axed its Migration Impacts fund, which existed to ease pressure on local services, and there is no Roma member of the UK Ethnic Minority Employment Stakeholder Group. Nick Clegg called them "sometimes intimidating, sometimes offensive", David Blunkett predicted anti-Roma riots if they did not amend their behaviour. It is so much easier, of course, to flounder into violence than to think – so we have a Roma family chased out of their home by a mob whipped up by a local mayor in Hungary, who then threatened to burn it down so they could not return, two blond children removed from her dark-haired parents in Ireland, an abduction that would surely make the author of the document in Yad Vashem smile. It is always worth remembering, even if you forget everything else, that before murder is committed, dehumanisation must occur. Twitter: @TanyaGold1 theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Haiti hopes miracle moringa tree can help to combat malnutrition | Felix von Geyer Posted: 26 Dec 2013 01:00 AM PST  The government is promoting the cultivation of a tree rich in vitamins, minerals and calcium to tackle food insecurity Rich in vitamins, potassium and calcium, Haiti is promoting the moringa tree to address the country's chronic malnutrition. The poorest country in the western hemisphere, 75% of Haiti's population lives on less than $2 a day, half on less than $1 a day, according to the UN World Food Programme. It imports 80% of its rice and more than half of all its food, despite 60% of Haitians working in agriculture. An estimated 7 million of the 10 million population are food insecure and USAid estimates that up to 30% of children are chronically malnourished. USAid continues to roll out its $88m five-year Feed the Future North project that looks to expand farmers' yields of primarily five key crops – corn, beans, rice, plantains and cocoa. Meanwhile, Haiti has rediscovered moringa oleifera, native to India but commonly found in sub-Saharan Africa, as the miracle crop under its very nose, after its forgotten introduction to the country a century ago. Locally known as doliv or benzoliv, moringa olifeira is rich in vitamins A, B, C, D and E while containing minerals plus calcium, potassium and protein. The leaves can be eaten raw, sauteed with oil and garlic or added to rice and stews. As Haiti continues its reconstruction after the 2010 earthquake and 2012 hurricanes, the moringa tree could also provide shade for coffee plantations, according to Michel Chancy, the secretary of state for animal production. Coffee provides the main source of income for more than 100,000 farmers while crucially sustaining much of the remaining tree cover – less than 1.5% of land – according to the Clinton Foundation, which is redeveloping the role of coffee in Haiti's economy. Chancy says the government's moringa campaign has targeted 500 schools in recent months, including the use of nursery gardens to promote moringa's benefits and cultivation. A National Moringa Day was held on 5 June. The tree's nuts can be grilled and eaten like chocolate, while powdered moringa leaves are given to people with HIV and Aids, says Chancy. In Senegal and Mali, moringa is used to combat rickets. The plant is estimated to contain twice the protein and calcium content of milk, several times the potassium of bananas, more iron than spinach and several times the vitamin C of oranges. Moringa's high vitamin A content, almost four times that of carrots, is recognised as a potent micronutrient source to achieve the 2015 millennium development goal to reduce child mortality by two-thirds. Worldwide, an estimated 670,000 children die annually from Vitamin A deficiency. In Haiti, moringa's role could also be vital for rearing goats and chickens, increasing milk production, and for fish farming, said Chancy. Yet the government faces a challenge to increase the planting of moringa and is trying to provide risk capital to further develop moringa plantations. Timote Georges, of the Smallholder Farmers' Alliance, says his members are crucial in cultivating moringa but need better processing techniques and market access for their products. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Egypt bus explosion injures five, reports say Posted: 26 Dec 2013 12:44 AM PST  Blast believed to be caused by an explosive device occurred as bus passed through Cairo's eastern Nasr City district An explosion has hit a public bus in Cairo, wounding five people, according to Egyptian state television. Officials say the blast happened on Thursday morning as the bus passed through Cairo's eastern Nasr City district. They said the cause was still uncertain but they suspected an explosive device was thrown at the bus or set nearby. Egypt has seen a wave of attacks blamed on Islamic militants since July's ousting of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi and the subsequent crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood group. On Tuesday, a suicide car bomber struck a police headquarters in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, killing 15 people – the worst bombing yet. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Can you be too leftwing? | Richard Seymour Posted: 26 Dec 2013 12:00 AM PST  If you're so stereotypically 'leftwing' that it impedes the achievement of your goals, perhaps you've gone wrong At the risk of making myself immediately unpopular, I don't think being too leftwing is likely to be a problem with many Guardian or Comment is free readers. You may think you're far out because you reuse shopping bags, but we'll see how you react to the expropriation of your property. How can one be "too leftwing"? Relative to what? There is a tradition of vituperation towards those to one's left, about which one has to take great care: think of the Stalinist trope about "left deviations" from the path of scientific socialism. In the light of the historical experience of "actually existing socialism", and the collapse of confidence in the scientific nature of any variety of socialism, it would be rash to go down this road. A better way to approach this is to apply an immanent standard. If you're so stereotypically "leftwing" that it impedes you in the achievement of your goals, you may be "too leftwing". At a superficial level, this is a question of culture. The left often seems too tied up in dogma and inter-sect rivalries to pursue its own agenda effectively. It is all too often subculturalised, dependent on forms of sociality and on shibboleths that are exclusive and tend to repel new participants. Sure, the fragments of the left in Britain sustain a facade of ostentatious normality by consuming copious quantities of alcohol or evincing an interest in sport. But get them in a room together and watch them reveal their real selves, as they talk about "the class", and hold forth on "the dialectic". (I know. I am one of those people.) However, the problem goes deeper than that. To make this concrete, it is worth asking a very basic question: why, in more than five years of turmoil for the global capitalist system, has the left made such a practically negligible impact? Part of the answer is simply that the left is weaker than it has been for some time. In any crisis, Gramsci pointed out, the "traditional ruling class" and its allies are far better placed to adapt and respond. They have their forces in the media, in the dominant political parties and in business, and can mobilise money, intellectuals and politicians far more quickly than their opponents. By the time oppositional forces work out an analysis of what is happening, figure out some tactics and get their people in motion, the terrain has already been occupied by those in power. However, that takes us only so far. I would suggest that there is a problem with a certain cliched way of being leftwing, which consists of a backwardness, a refusal to accept unyielding realities, which undermines one's ability to respond to emerging situations. Neoliberalism emerged in the context of a profound civilisational shift linked to the internationalisation of capitalism and the emergence of new, decentralised production methods. By organising these changes under the ideology of "the market", by breaking up the old modes of social solidarity and defeating the big battalions of the left and labour movement, neoliberalism forced the left either to rethink or to bunker down and defend orthodoxy. For those who were prepared to move to the right, it was easier to face some of these new realities. Advocates of the ideology of "New Times", associated with the Communist party publication Marxism Today, considered it de rigeur to dispense with old dogmas – though this tendency arguably introduced new dogmas in their place, and fed into a great deal of what was wrong with New Labour. Those who wanted to preserve a traditionally socialist left were often forced to deny the changes that were taking place, and to shoot the messenger. The problem was not that working-class capacities were being decimated, that neoliberalism had effectively made capitalism boom again, or that globalisation was utterly transforming the terrain of political action: the problem was with the people who diagnosed these changes. There was a rational element to this stance, as it meant refusing to be swept along by fashion. However, the effects of denial are still with us. One key manifestation of this is the tendency to see in each developing situation, be it the student protests or a major strike, the key that will suddenly transform the situation in the left's favour. The legacy of inherited defeat is far more a part of the left's situation than would be implied by such expectations. Another is the conviction that the "weakness" and "crisis-ridden" nature of capitalism and its dominant parties necessarily provide an advantage for the left. It could do so. However, all weakness is relative, and it makes no sense for the left to take comfort in the weakness of its opponents if it is unable to exploit that weakness. A third manifestation is the commitment to sustaining old methods of organising and old organisational divisions, no matter how thoroughly inadequate to today's situation they are. Whether one is in the Labour party or in a groupuscule of some kind, it should be evident by now that the institutional formats that worked in the 20th century no longer do. All too often these positions are conveyed as ostentatiously leftist, safeguarded against revisionism and betrayal. But if the result is that little is achieved, such positions are not leftist; they are useless. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| 2014 in film preview: Oscar essentials Posted: 26 Dec 2013 12:00 AM PST  Continuing our look ahead to the big releases of 2014, we preview the 10 awards contenders released in the UK in the crucial first two months of the year 12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
Labor Day
Mandela: A Long Walk to FreedomThe man himself died on the night of the London premiere – and it will be interesting to chart the effect such timing has on Justin Chadwick's epic, respectful biopic. Idris Elba has won great notices in the lead, with Naomie Harris as Winnie and dialogue from Oscar-winner William Nicholson. August: Osage CountyJohn Wells's adaptation of the Tracy Letts Pulitzer-prize winning play takes more top thesps than you can shake a stick at - Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sam Shepherd - then sticks them in a house together for two-a-half-hours in the height of summer, for a wake. The results were greeted with a mixed reception in Toronto but since then Wells has apparently made some adjustments, meaning this slice of stage at the cinema is still a major contender. Dallas Buyers Club A giant shove in the back for those who still need a push towards Matthew McConaughey's corner. This real-life drama sees the Texan 'Pectacular play Ron Woodroof, a homophobic rodeo cowboy who contracted Aids and setup an illegal supply chain for anti-viral drugs, which he sold to Dallas' gay community. McConaughey's undeniable brilliant, but watch out too for Jared Leto, who plays his business partner, a transexual called Rayon. He's on course for an Oscar nomination at the least. Out of the FurnaceChristian Bale's second shot at the Oscar this year is potentially yet more credible than his turn in American Hustle. Here he's a well-meaning steel worker grappling with a dying dad, a scrappy sibling (Casey Affleck) and a run of bad luck that means he comes into the crosshairs of Woody Harrelson's crack-dealer bare-knuckle gangster. Atmospheric stuff from Crazy Heart director Scott Walker. Inside Llewyn DavisThe Coens' black-and-white ode to early 1960s folk scene in Greenwich village was met with much whooping when it premiered at Cannes last May. Many months have elapsed but in holding their prize puss back for so long, StudioCanal have managed to sustain momentum for a delicate drama that might have got trampled in the rush. The Invisible Woman
HerSpike Jonze's tale of the love affair between a depressed personalised-letter writer in the near future (Joaquin Phoenix) and his computer operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) is the dark horse of this season. Might Jonze's screenplay or sleek direction sneak off with a prize? Might Phoenix find the best actor award he missed last year? Either way, this is smart, funny, innovative storytelling. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| How do I become … a special effects engineer Posted: 25 Dec 2013 11:30 PM PST  A love of computers and programming – rather than a specific interest in rat hair and dinosaur skin – helped Sanjay Bakshi get his role at Pixar Sanjay Bakshi has spent a lot of time with monsters. He knows precisely how their hair moves as they terrorise humans, how their eyeballs swivel when they sight their prey, and how their fangs gnash when they eat. As technical director for Disney's Monsters University he led a team responsible for visualising a population of suitably monstrous students, and then animating them. "The directors gave us some loose drawings to go by, and we had to build them into characters," he says. "There were hundreds so, to distinguish them, we had to give them each a name – so we used the names of the crew. Each crew member therefore has their own monster." Once, special effects work involved substituting chocolate syrup for blood and experimenting with ladies' hosiery to create the illusion of a tornado; now most of the wizardry on screen is created with computer graphics. It's Bakshi's job to manipulate software to make fantasies look real, and even the most trivial details can require weeks of plotting. "In Finding Nemo there is a scene where a fish tank gets silted up," he says. "It was my job to figure out how to make Nemo's body look gradually dirtier and, although it sounds simple, it was quite a technical exercise." Bakshi, 42, acquired a passion for computer algorithms as a schoolboy when the science was still in its infancy. "I loved the spectacle and impressing people with images," he says. "My school only had three computers, all Apple 2s, so I would stay in after classes to experiment." He completed a bachelor degree in computer science and a masters in computer graphics at the University of Saskatchewan and started work at Alias, the company which built the 3D animation software programme Maya used to create special effects in films and video games. "It was hearing Darwyn Peachey talking about the challenges of producing Toy Story that inspired me to pursue a career in this field, but it took me a couple of years to get the courage to leave a successful company and start again." In 2002 Bakshi made the leap, moving to California as a special effects technician for Pixar Animation Studios, the creators of Toy Story, which is now owned by Disney. One of his early assignments was to spend three-and-a-half years studying rat hair for the film Ratatouille. Using artist's sketches as a model, he had to develop the software to create the style and texture of hair for each rodent. "There were obstacles that would baffle me for weeks – like the fur was in the characters eyes every time they made a certain expression and I couldn't work out where it was coming from. Once you've installed the software the computer takes over details like this and you have to work out how to override it." However fantastical the animations, enormous care is taken to make sure they obey the laws of science. Technicians labour over the effects of light reflecting off a character's fur, or how gravity would effect the flow of a particular river. Sometimes, though, scientifically accurate film has to be adapted for artistic effect. "We cheat all the time with physics," Bakshi says. "One of the main characters in Monsters University is eight foot tall with long hair, and if we let the hair blow about as much as it would naturally do during action scenes it would look distracting on screen, so we might tone effects down or up after filming." His latest project is The Good Dinosaur, and he has been recruited to work out how the dinosaurs' skin responds to their movement. "I am studying elephants to get an idea," he says. Although no specific qualifications are required for a career in special effects, an understanding of art and computer programming is essential. "I picked my knowledge of art up while working at Pixar, and there are others who came from an arts background who mastered computer software on the job," he says. Equally important is imagination, for it is the job of special effects technicians to interpret the concepts outlined by film directors and develop them. Often, numerous different specialists will each work on one aspect of the same scene in order to create one seamless image, and it is this team work that Bakshi relishes. "It's the collaborative spirit that makes the job and stops years being spent on one tiny detail getting too tedious," he says. "I was getting sick of rat hair on Ratatouille, but when I started to see all the different components of the movie coming together, and understood my part in it, it was a thrill." • Disney-Pixar, Monsters University out now on Blu-ray and DVD. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| National road death toll rises to nine Posted: 25 Dec 2013 11:28 PM PST Latest victims are two men who died in a car accident on NSW central coast early on Boxing Day       |
| From the archive, 26 December 1916: War memories – Christmas, 1914 Posted: 25 Dec 2013 11:01 PM PST  Faster than ever we could deal with them these shattered men were coming in, and yet across the few acres of snow before me the busy guns were making more The third Christmas of the war has passed, and we are impelled to hark back to the first, now seemingly so remote, and to recall lugubriously enough the expectations with which we entertained ourselves, our hopes and fears, our recollections of Noëls long past, some in our childhood days, many, as in my own case, under alien skies, and our wonderment of where the next would be. The old town-city of X----- was no stranger to the roar of guns. Two centuries ago the round shot had screamed about the streets and the crackle of muskets resounded in its encircling country lanes. And now this year Noël had descended upon it in its fullest and most splendid robes of state, as though to emphasise the fact that it was not to be baulked by the petty machinations of men. Snow fell all Christmas Eve, descending in large white flakes from an inexhaustible grey sky. It muffled the bells that rang out their defiant carillons in the very ear of slaughter and misery. They vibrated, as they had done for countless quiet years, from the tall belfry in the cobbled market place, and all the houses listened beneath their mantles of white. The tread of feet in the roads was dulled, and horses and guns moved like wraiths in the swirling mist. At that time X----- itself was untouched by shot and shell, the old houses in the square with their quaint red-tiled roofs, irregular as peaks of a sierra, and their higgledy-piggledy doors and windows, were as yet intact. The field ambulance to which I was temporarily attached marched in and established itself in a school near the outskirts of the town. The motor-ambulance was a new thing in war to me then, and it seemed strange to see the great eyes of the headlights loom through the dark and pick their way through the crunching snow to the hospital door. One after the other they came, noiseless as ghosts, the rays from their headlights making silver stabs into the gloom. Each in turn drew up at the door, and the "walking" cases, their arms, heads, and chests in red-dyed bandages, climbed out and staggered into the room. Inside, they grouped themselves around the stove, where an orderly brought them hot cocoa and tea. There were others to whom fortune had been less kind. They came in, borne shoulder-high on stretchers, without a sound. Through the painful movements of withdrawal from the ambulance and the carriage up the two stone steps few of those blanketed gave vent even to a groan. There was the muffled kicking of feet in the snow and against the door-steps, and then that ominous shuffle into the dim room, where already the walls were lined with stricken men. It was near midnight that I stood directing the removal of a convoy of wounded, seeing each waiting car pull up at the door, circle round in the snow, and then disappear again into the night. All were emptied, and I stood for a moment after the last had rolled away and listened to the rising and falling crackle of rifle-fire in the trenches and the thud, thud of bursting shells. Faster than ever we could deal with them these shattered men were coming in, and yet across the few acres of snow before me the busy guns were making more. Of a sudden from the belfry in the square there broke out again a wild midnight peal of bells. It was then I bethought me for the first time that it was Christmas Day. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| The Church of England's unglamorous, local future | Andrew Brown Posted: 25 Dec 2013 11:01 PM PST  The archbishop of Canterbury must acknowledge that disestablishment has already happened, and look to a future that deals with reality The Church of England is already disestablished in all the ways that really matter. Whatever it tells itself, it has drifted to the margins of national life. Outside the upper classes and the traditional professions it's no longer an essential part of the way in which the country understands itself. England no longer capitalises "church". This isn't a problem about belief in God, or atheism. The number of people who call themselves Anglicans has declined a great deal faster in the last 30 years than the number who say they believe in God. Detailed polling shows that the problem gets worse as you move down the age groups, so that more people under 24 believe the church is a force for bad in society than suppose it's a force for good. This isn't a problem with legal establishment – something that isn't a live issue. It is about the role of the church in the country's imagination of itself. And I think it is significant, and worrying for the church that the two huge national ritual self-presentations – the funeral of Princess Diana and the Olympics opening ceremony – show a marked diminution in Christian and especially Anglican content. The Diana funeral was about half Anglican, and half teddy bears. The Olympic ceremony, choreographed by two Catholics, one lapsed, had nothing Anglican in it at all. So what the Church of England needs to do is to re-establish itself in the ordinary life of the country. Its instinct is obviously to do this with grand gestures, speeches, proclamations and debates, but this is entirely wrong. Instead of pretending it is a single coherent entity with clearly defined opinions and policies – something which simply isn't true and never will be – it should just forget about the national level and get on with things locally. This lesson has already been learned slowly and painfully at the international level. The attempt to present the Anglican Communion as a coherent church that could negotiate as an equal with the Roman Catholics has been an unmitigated disaster. When the resulting posturing was not vacuous it was poisonous, especially about gay people. The Anglican Communion is finished now. The schism happened and nobody cared. Individual churches have flourishing links in the ruins and this is a good and vital thing. But this is nothing to do with the Lambeth Conferences, any more than European trade was nourished by the Holy Roman Empire. Now this must also happen at a national level. The General Synod and the "Church of England" as a body capable of having opinions or policies on anything need to shut up. No one cares what they think, except when they say or do something exceptionally crass and repulsive. No one cares what archbishops think, but churchgoers care for the good opinion of their congregations. No one goes to "the Church of England" anyway – people go to their local church. So that's where the effort needs to go. What matters is not doctrine, but the way that faith plays out in everyday life. This is an unglamorous and local future in which the Church of England becomes less coherent and more alive. But it's the only future in which it has a chance. Christianity is interesting only in so far as it is true. Churches are compelling only in so far as they deal with reality. Far too much of the past 30 years has been spent in "voodoo Christianity" – the attempt to summon up importance in the world by performing bureaucratic ritual. Almost everyone in the institutional church knows this today. What Justin Welby has to do is give them permission to admit it, and to act on it. Only by admitting it has already been disestablished can the church hope ever to re-establish itself. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Bletchley Park accused of airbrushing Edward Snowden from history Posted: 25 Dec 2013 11:01 PM PST  NSA whistleblower omitted from new exhibition on cyber security as museum says it does not want to be seen to back his actions MPs have accused Bletchley Park, the wartime predecessor of GCHQ, of trying to airbrush history after it said it would ignore the whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations about mass surveillance by the security services in its museum's new gallery on cyber security. The Buckinghamshire museum, chaired by the former head of MI6, Sir John Scarlett, celebrates the secret work of the second world war codebreakers who cracked the illusive Nazi Enigma code and, in the process, invented modern computing. But according to the Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert and Tory MPs Rory Stewart and Dominic Raab, its reputation risks being dented by a refusal to acknowledge the impact of Snowden's disclosures about modern-day security services, revealed by the Guardian, and the debate they have provoked. In the past year, Snowden has revealed that US and British intelligence agencies use secret programmes to sort and analyse billions of emails, phone calls and text messages. His revelations made public the fact that the amount of personal data available to GCHQ from internet and mobile traffic had increased by 7,000% between 2008 and 2012. The MPs are urging the museum to explore the implications of mass surveillance, but it says it is reluctant to do so, despite planning a huge new installation devoted to the subject of cyber security, for fear that it "might imply it approves of Snowden's actions". Kelsey Griffin, Bletchley Park's director of communications, said the exhibition was likely to avoid any mention of Snowden. "It is not within the remit of Bletchley Park trust to make political statements," she said. "We are very much a heritage institution and involved with education. So that will be the focus of the cyber-security exhibition – drawing lessons of the past for the future." The international cyber security exhibition and computer learning zone is the result of a five-year sponsorship from the US anti-virus software firm McAfee. The content has yet to be decided, but the museum and McAfee are reluctant to acknowledge Snowden's relevance. "McAfee said [it] would not be able to reference Snowden in any activity," a spokeswoman for Bletchley Park said. "Either it's a history exhibition or it's not," said Raab. "The Snowden disclosures are a major event of our time, with enormous impact on the debate over surveillance and privacy. "It's not clear why on earth this is being airbrushed, but it risks tarnishing Bletchley Park's proud reputation." Huppert, who is also a member of the home affairs select committee, said the gallery, which is due to open next June, was an opportunity to examine the implications of the Snowden leaks. "The revelations we got from Snowden and the Guardian are really important to cover as part of that story," he said. Huppert said Bletchley Park could note Snowden's significance without taking sides on whether he was a traitor or a whistleblower. "They should present the facts and let the visitors draw their own conclusions," he said. Stewart, who is a former diplomat, agreed. "I would have thought – almost whatever you think of him – it's impossible to talk about cyber security without mentioning Edward Snowden," he said. Bletchley's codebreaker heroes famously stayed silent about their work for decades after the war. Winston Churchill referred to them as "my geese that laid the golden eggs and never cackled". The museum belatedly celebrated its covert role in shortening the second world war. But Bletchley Park is also the birthplace of modern computing and home to Colossus, the first electronic computer built by the codebreakers in 1943 to crack the Nazi cyphers. It is in this context that Snowden's revelations about the scope of mass surveillance by Bletchley Park's modern-day equivalent should not be ignored, according to Huppert. "Ultimately, it is for Bletchley to decide what would make a full and balanced exhibition," Huppert said, "but to miss out the biggest piece of news in this area for a least a decade would be a shame. It would be very hard for them not to acknowledge the impact of [Snowden's] revelations." Museum consultant and Bletchley Park trustee Hilary McGowan said the trust had not directly discussed Snowden. "We have discussed cyber security and its importance in the modern world – that's as close as we've got to discussing Snowden and what he's done. I'm not sure acknowledging him would be the right thing to do, that might imply we approve of his actions." Last month David Anderson, the independent QC overseeing counter-terrorism, was asked why Britain's reaction to Snowden's leaks had been so muted. "We are very proud of our intelligence services," he told the home affairs committee. "If you wanted my top two reasons, I would say Bletchley Park and 007. We have not had the sort of bad experience that they had in parts of Germany or in eastern Europe with intelligence services and, for that reason, I think people are disinclined to believe that those who have those responsibilities are misusing them." Huppert, who asked Anderson the question, said: "It is an interesting observation. But it doesn't mean we are right to ignore Snowden." theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
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| British man jailed in Malta petitions Europe Posted: 25 Dec 2013 10:00 PM PST  Daniel Holmes, convicted in 2011 for cannabis offences, is alleging 'systemic discrimination' against non-Maltese offenders The family of a British man serving 10 years in prison in Malta for cannabis offences is petitioning the European commission alleging "systemic discrimination" against non-Maltese offenders. Daniel Holmes, from south Wales, was convicted in 2011 five years after his arrest and the sentence was confirmed by appeal court judges in October. The case has fuelled a debate over the country's drug laws, with the opera tenor Joseph Calleja joining protests at what he calls a disproportionate punishment. Critics argue that more serious drug offenders and other criminals guilty of rape, grievous bodily harm and fraud have received shorter sentences than Holmes, 35. He had hoped to split charges and pleaded guilty to possession and cultivation of cannabis for personal use but was unable to do so and was penalised for importation and trafficking as well. Supporters say he admitted offences on legal advice expecting to receive less punishment. His lawyer had suggested a four-year jail term and the prosecutors had wanted eight. Appeal judges, upholding the sentences including a €23,000 (£19,270) fine, said Maltese law made no distinction "between one dangerous drug and another". Holmes had admitted serious offences, some carrying life sentences, and had more than a kilo of cannabis, they said. Since the appeal court judgment, there has been more anger after a Maltese man, already serving 11 years for trafficking drugs, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and fined €3,000 for growing almost twice as much cannabis as Holmes. Holmes told the Guardian he was buoyed by the Maltese people who had campaigned on his behalf, including on protest marches. "Although I am a foreigner, it is not just [about] my case. It is the whole system and the way it works." Everything "moves so incredibly slowly", added Holmes. "Although I have been pretty much always a cannabis smoker, I have held down jobs and never let it get in the way of my life." Holmes went to Malta in 2005 in the hope of combining work as a chef and his passion for scuba diving but was unable to find work. He and another Briton with whom he shared a rented flat, Barry Lee, were arrested in June 2006. Holmes was freed on bail after 11 days but was arrested the following year for being in a stolen car, though later acquitted and released. Lee was found dead in a prison cell in Malta in 2010. A coroner in Bolton, UK, later recorded an open verdict because he was not convinced Lee intended to kill himself, according to local newspaper reports. Holmes spent about a year in prison in all before finding work at a pub, where he met his now wife Marzena, who is Polish, in 2009, well before his trial. They have a two-year-old daughter Rainbow. "It is incredibly hard," he said. "I have missed enjoying (Rainbow's) first tooth," said Holmes. "She is growing so fast but she was so shy. She asked this time 'Why is Daddy not coming with us?'" Facing another Christmas in jail, Holmes said: "It is not a nice place to be. There are a few of us who try to look on the bright side, play Ludo, have a bit of Christmas cake but it is a very bleak time of year." The British embassy and Foreign Office had been "terrible and maddening" in their lack of support, Holmes said. Apart from channelling money from and to his family, "they have given me no help. It has caused my mum and dad much more stress." Holmes's father Mel, said: "Daniel has now done three years altogether for the crime and that should be long enough." The family was considering further legal action in Malta and, depending on the result, taking the case to the European court of human rights. Mel has also written to the European commission, alleging the justice system was "based on systematic discrimination against anyone who is not Maltese". He and his wife Kate, both retired teachers, have so far spent about £30,000 in financial support for their son including rent, legal fees and travelling to see him. Opera singer Calleja, Malta's cultural ambassador, said via his Facebook page hoped before Holmes's appeal he hoped "good sense and true justice" would prevail. He told the Guardian: "It is in the hands of our politicians to review the laws so that the relevant judges, magistrates whatever, are able to implement them correctly." No one argued Holmes should not have been punished, said Calleja. "What people argue is: 'Is the punishment disproportionate?' I think that it is. More serious drug offenders have received less punishment." What Holmes had done was "stupid" and "illegal" but his own internet research suggested marijuana was less dangerous than cigarettes and alcohol. Owen Bonnici, Malta's parliamentary secretary for justice, said: "The government takes the enforcement of drug laws very seriously." Drug trafficking was "a heinous crime" because it led to the destruction of innocent victims. But when it came to drug possession, said Bonnici, "the government is aware that most of the time the offenders are themselves victims of drug abuse. "This means that a discussion should immediately be undertaken in our country so that people who are accused with the crime of drug possession are effectively helped … to come out of drug abuse. In most of the cases the sending of victims of drug abuse to jail would effectively make their drug abuse problem even worse." Such reforms should be in place by the end of next year. The Foreign Office said: "We are aware of the detention in Malta of Daniel Holmes, and his recent appeal. We continue to provide consular assistance to Mr Holmes and his family." theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
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| Journalist accused of defaming navy appeals to Thai state governor Posted: 25 Dec 2013 08:40 PM PST Australian journalist Alan Morison faces up to seven years’ jail if convicted over story about rights abuses against Rohingya refugees       |
| Who invited you to Bali? | Agnieszka Sobocinska Posted: 25 Dec 2013 07:49 PM PST Agnieszka Sobocinska for The Conversation: Tourists are often a burden on host communities. For decades, Balinese and Indonesians have expressed concern about the cultural degradation brought about by mass tourism       |
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