Is that what we fought for? Gaddafi's legacy for Libyan women
Women played a largely unreported role in last year’s revolution in Libya. Now they have to fight both Islamist and secular men if they’re to have any influence in the new Libya, says Lindsey...
View ArticleDesolation and despair in Libya: the murder of Salwa Bugaighis
Looking back, it feels as if Salwa Bugaighis embodied not the hopes and aspirations of the majority of her country's people but a dream of revolution, shared by a minority of educated Libyans and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Privatisation leads to top down services. Public control should mean the...
A new paper from the New Economics Foundation argues that public services should be taken back into public control - and the public should be given a real say.Aneurin Bevan addresses a crowd just...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Putin versus the NGOs
The Kremlin is busy dismantling the institutions of civil society. How can NGOs develop, now that the rules have changed? Putin versus the NGOsRecent developments in Russian laws concerning NGOs have...
View ArticleThe environmental and economic case against Donald Tusk’s energy union
Some European leaders, such as Polish PM Donald Tusk, are using the Ukraine crisis as a pretext to revive national fossil fuel industries in defiance of EU emissions targets.Last April, at the height...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Grillo-Farage connection
Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement has formed an alliance in the European Parliament with Nigel Farage's UKIP. We should have seen this coming.Beppe Grillo and Nigel Farage. Flickr/Politica Italia. Some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Recording the broken records
Julian Sayarer, bike courier and oD author, cycled around the world chasing a record. And his record of this record, Life Cycles, is an even greater achievement, a cross between Kerouac and Dervla...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Let’s talk about religion
Many human rights advocates work with people and/or communities who believe in a God or gods, but few are actually talking about the specifics of those beliefs. Understanding the people and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New shots heard 'round the world
A somewhat bleak survey of American democratic prospects for this American Independence Day begins by reminding us what America was meant to be all about. By the rude bridge that arched the flood,Their...
View ArticleDay 138 - Atchafalaya - 14.438 Miles
Extracted from "Life Cycles" (reviewed here), in which Julian, racing around the world on his bike, accepts the hospitality of the bayou-dwelling Lemoine family, and confronts the contradictions of...
View ArticleBurundi: a democratisation from which violence may stem
The international community has indirectly contributed to making Burundi a facade democracy, now prey to a political and even a security crisis. FrançaisWhile the president of Burundi, Pierre...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ethiopia : a leadership in disarray
It may be that, in Ethiopia, history is so powerful that the past permeates the present, and it repeats itself. In this case, what we see today is simply another interregnum between two powerful...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Anti-representative democracy: how to understand the Five Star Movement
The ideas of the Five Star Movement are best understood through their commitment to anti-representive democracy - a radical stance against traditional structures and institutions of representative...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Israel's self constructed image is crumbling
Shockingly, to the west, some of the violent outbursts coming out of Israel are being made by senior Israeli officials, including current ministers.July 3, 2014. Palestinians inspect damages following...
View ArticleFeeble captain in troubled waters: Algeria’s foreign relations after...
The current triple crisis also constitutes a chance for Algeria. More than ever it becomes clear that the country is indispensable for a solution of the security problems in the region.After the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Guilty of choosing the wrong friends: the relentless injustice of 'joint...
Powers intended to tackle gang-related violence are ruining the lives of young people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong timeA scene from Jimmy McGovern's 'Common', BBC1 Sunday 9pmJimmy...
View ArticleThe Uyghur dilemma, 2009-14
Five years after ethnic tensions in western China's Xinjiang province exploded into violence, the political situation there remains troubled. Five years ago, on 5 July 2009, news emerged of rioting and...
View ArticleEgypt's government by bullying
British-led international dismay at Egypt’s chilling court verdicts is entirely justified, but entirely misses the point.Most reactions to the farcical convictions of Australian journalist Peter...
View ArticleClik here to view.
To be or not to be – Diana Coyle as the next BBC Trust Chair?
Diana Coyle has the brains and clear-sightedness to be what the BBC needs next.Diana Coyle/wikimediaDiana Coyle is Acting Chairman of the BBC Trust and she made a speech on the 23rd of June at the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A do and don’t do list for the new High Commissioner
A new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has just been appointed - Prince Zeid, Jordan’s UN Ambassador in New York. He will need to move quickly to improve the visibility and viability of the...
View Article