Saving NHS money - or a bonanza for Big Pharma and Big Tech?
Are big NHS changes in England including local closures and more ‘care at home’ driven by the need to save money - or something else? The second of our View from the Grassroots series.The area around...
View ArticlePodcast: 2014 Matters: independence and global poverty
A discussion in Edinburgh of what Scottish independence will mean for international development. Jim Murphy MP (UK Shadow Secretary of State for International Development), Humza Yousaf MSP (Scottish...
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Russia’s invisible youth
A new documentary from Russia will have its UK premiere at the closing gala of Open City Docs in London (17-22 June 2014). Footsteps echo through the hallways of an undisclosed school in Russia; a...
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A cold reception: the rise of anti-Islamic sentiments in Iceland?
A row over the planned construction of Iceland’s first purpose-built mosque has dominated the county’s most recent elections and comes in the wake of a spate of anti-Islamic initiatives that point to...
View ArticleBattling prejudice in Europe
Prejudice is not necessarily the result of conflicting interests, poverty and unemployment. It is more likely fueled by perceptions of illegitimacy, pushed forward by far-right politics.It is sad to...
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Iranian love of cinema
Film can illuminate what it is to be a misfit in society, with all the anxieties that this position entails. Is it a perspective or a reality? Iranian film answers that it must be both. Film essay.Open...
View ArticleThey got up, they stood up: the Global Day of Citizen Action
Activists around the world have been standing up for their rights and freedoms. Photoessay. On 7 June individuals and organisations from around the world took part in in the first Global Day of Citizen...
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Avi Mograbi and conflict
He makes films about his people, his history, his politics and so ultimately he is making a film about himself. Film review.Avenge But One of My Two Eyes is an astute exploration of the...
View ArticleIraq, and the 9/11 echo
The lightning advance of Islamist fighters across northern Iraq has dangerous echoes of the founding event of the "war on terror" .The pace of events in the war-torn "greater middle east" is...
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Nagorno-Karabakh: Crimea’s doppelganger
Crimea and Nagorno-Karabakh, two regions with similar histories, took very different paths after the Soviet Union broke up; until now.Parallel provincesCrimea and Nagorno-Karabakh have shadowed each...
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Jordan’s Muslim Brothers: the last of a dying breed?
Jordan is unlikely to follow Saudi Arabia and ban its Muslim Brotherhood. Fraught with internal divisions, the Kingdom’s largest opposition party poses a weak threat. When Tayseer first joined Jordan’s...
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The Arab World: between liberal imperialism and liberal oppression
It is essential not only to expose the ideological weaknesses of the current order, but to link the current political order with international neo-colonial ideology, replacing it with one based on the...
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Only in Egypt’s media: women raped because the “guys were having good time”
A long battle lies ahead. People need to start taking responsibility and stop trying to find scapegoats, whether the Muslim Brotherhood, the culture, women’s clothing’s, etc… We all need to stand side...
View ArticleThe no-State solution for Israel and Palestine
As the latest talks on a two-state solution sputter, the concept of one state for Palestinians and Israelis is gaining traction among those looking for an alternative way forward. But a real...
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Chronicles from Istanbul's uprising
“Gezi is like falling in love. When you aren’t there, all you can think about is being there. When you are there, you don’t want to be anywhere else in the world.” A memoir of the Gezi Park protest,...
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Democratic Islam Congress and the Middle East
The Democratic Islam Congresses called for by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan are promoting an interpretation of Islam that bolsters Kurdish nationalist aspirations, but it remains to be seen exactly how...
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Slavery and trafficking: beyond the hollow call
It is only by being utopian that we'll be able to overcome the low-cost, high-volume retail business model that currently reigns supreme.Arrest for illegal fishing of four crews of Thailand fishing...
View ArticlePassports vs ESA assessments - guess which one matters
The current furore over passport delays brings into sharp focus the almost total disregard for ESA claimants from the political and media class.Two headlines on the BBC website yesterday.‘Up to 30,000...
View ArticleLebanon and Syria-Iraq: who is more fragile?
The depiction of Lebanon as the most brittle and even artificial nation in its region is based more on myth than reality, says Hazem Saghieh.Several observers have noted an interesting comparison...
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Is ISIS on the march in Iraq?
The remarkable resurgence of Sunni-fundamentalist violence in Iraq has taken the west by surprise, yet it is a symptom of the long-evident inability of the Shia-led government there to exercise...
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