Celebratory gunfire broke out in several Baghdad neighbourhoods after polls closed, and senior electoral official Abdel Hindawi said that according to a preliminary estimate, more than 61 per cent of registered Iraqis cast ballots.
“Mother earthism” has complex symptoms. Foremost is a touching belief in the Garden of Eden (further mystified by some as Gaia), the halcyon state of the Earth before the wicked industrial revolution. This balmy, and barmy, garden existed in a state of existential ecological balance, within an unchanging, benign environment.
One of the Radio National world view's more disconcerting features is its enthrallment to apocalyptic science. Sometimes, listening to Fran Kelly discussing the latest portents of global warming, I can almost hear the polar ice melt and rising waters lapping at the front doorstep. No hint of licensed scepticism, no inkling that this may be just one more millennial fantasy, is allowed to obtrude. This is not a radio show. It's a sacramental observance for true believers.
The vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees — mass murders, rapes and beatings — have turned out to be false, or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to key military, law-enforcement, medical and civilian officials in positions to know.
Take the president of the world's most powerful nation. Add two intense and damaging natural storms which bring destruction to that country; then mix in the widely held view that the same nation's environmental policies are partially responsible for those storms.
He became a free market liberal when he learned that free trade had lifted Sweden out of poverty in the 19th century. Indeed, it saved the lives of his ancestors. Looking at today's widespread opposition to globalisation, Norberg wondered why poor countries now should be deprived of the opportunity Sweden had back then, and in 2001 published In Defence of Global Capitalism.
In a cafe on the bank of the Nile, Hisham Kassem, who runs a fiery new independent newspaper, explains that the old days of docility are over. The newspapers are running headlines denouncing Mubarak and his family that would have been unthinkable a year ago. "I'm sure he grits his teeth that we're out there criticizing him, but we can't turn back," Kassem says.
FOR 50 years, the American left complained that we supported dictators instead of backing human rights and democracy. On Sunday, the lefties got yet another dose of what they used to demand: Free elections in Afghanistan, long the victim of tyranny.
Can I convey the deep sense of delight that stole over me when I learned that George Galloway and Jane Fonda were to go on an "anti-war" tour together and that the idea of this perfect partnership had come from Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues?
Political groups see many opportunities after experiment with democracy
Am I expected to tell a homeless woman in Biloxi that she has just been ripped off by an Ay-rab? A scuttle from Iraq or from Afghanistan (where the Kabul-Kandahar highway also took a lot of time and equipment and manpower to build) would add to the number of stricken and broken cities in the world, and not reduce it. If liberalism and humanitarianism do not mean internationalism, they mean precisely nothing. Shame on those who try to turn the needy and the victims against each other.
Some of the commentary almost seems to be rubbing its hands in ‘we-told-you-so’ glee.
BAGHDAD — Iraqi legislators were scheduled to vote on a draft constitution Thursday, even though Sunni Arab leaders continue to voice sharp differences with Kurdish and Shiite lawmakers. That vote has been delayed, a parliamentary spokesman said Thursday
The complete text of the draft Iraqi Constitution, as translated from the Arabic by The Associated Press.
This site conforms to the following standards:
Forgot your password?
