The road to democracy is paved with cell phones: Disasters in Myanmar and China may ultimately promote governments more friendly to human dignity. [Mercator]
Am I bovvered? Why the workshy British are losing out to migrants: Low-skilled British workers are losing to foreign migrants in the jobs market because they are unemployable and lack the motivation to work, according to a government report published yesterday. [Times]
Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech: “In much of the developed world, one uses racial epithets at one’s legal peril, one displays Nazi regalia and the other trappings of ethnic hatred at significant legal risk, and one urges discrimination against religious minorities under threat of fine or imprisonment,” Frederick Schauer, a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, wrote in a recent essay called “The Exceptional First Amendment.” “But in the United States,” Professor Schauer continued, “all such speech remains constitutionally protected.” [NYT]
The Friendship Offensive: Peace activists on Capitol Hill hope to stave off war with Iran through cross-cultural contact between ordinary citizens. Leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus show their support. [American Prospect]
Never mind the Chinese—here come the Belgians: COULD anything symbolise America’s loss of economic supremacy more clearly than for its favourite beer to fall into foreign hands? Hitherto, Budweiser has been at the forefront of the Americanisation of the world, often to the dismay of foreign drinkers of traditional beers who regard a Bud as a glass of water spoiled. [Economist]
Gaza ‘genius’ helps beseiged city survive a year of Israel’s blockade: Since then, Gaza has seen continuing conflict, ever-deepening poverty, shortages, unemployment and despair. Against that background, the white Peugeot has become a symbol of Gaza’s suppressed potential. “People who have seen it are even happier than we are,” says Mr Annan. [Independent]
In Rio Slum, Armed Militia Replaces Drug Gang’s Criminality With Its Own: And what they lived through has become a public scandal that has focused attention on the growing danger posed by these militias, which have supplanted drug gangs as the violent overlords who run many of Rio’s slums and their illicit enterprises, often with links to corrupt police officers and politicians. [NYT]
Leave a Comment