Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: News and politics

  • What’s Sauce for the Goose…

    The serious assault on a CBS journalist, Lara Logan, in Tahrir Square has rightfully drawn widespread condemnation from many quarters, including women’s rights activists and pro-change protesters in Eygpt.

    Of course, there were some commentators, such as Debbie Schlussel, who got into the “blame the victim” game, saying that the attack was partly Logan’s fault. That deserves the contempt that Schlussel got for her comments.

    However, there was a reaction from Heather Blake, of Reporters Without Borders, reported in the Guardian’s story that I found rather interesting. She said:

    “At the moment, female and male journalists have the same training. The truth is that female journalists need to be taught about different cultures and the ways in which men behave in those cultures. They need to know about gender-specific expectations in different countries, from what they wear to how they interact with those they met.”

    I’m not sure that I agree with that. I think that both men and women journalists need to be taught about different cultures and the ways in which men behave in those cultures. It seems to me that consciousness-raising is just as important, perhaps even more so, to members of the male gender, who are often blithely unaware of, or complicit in, the various forms that oppression of women can take.

  • Dinner Table Talk

    Mo seems to have captured the false logic expressed by Baroness Warsi to a tee.

    As Ophelia points out, Anthony Andrews has also demolished the Baroness’s claims quite effectively:

    She wants to give greater voice to religion in the political arena, yet she also wishes there to be less criticism of religion, in other words, power without scrutiny.

  • Religious Poison

    Very depressing news from Pakistan about Salman Taseer being shot by one of his own bodyguards. While the bodyguard was clearly influenced by his religious beliefs to commit cold-blooded murder, it would seem that he’s had ample encouragement from his religious leaders as well:

    A prominent group of Islamic scholars said that the funeral prayers should not be offered and warned that anyone who expressed grief for Taseer could suffer the same fate.

    The Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan group represents scholars from the mainstream Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims. Although considered moderate, they have led protests in favour of the blasphemy law.

    “More than 500 scholars of the Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat have advised Muslims not to offer the funeral prayers of Governor Punjab Salman Taseer, nor try to lead the prayers,” the group said.

    “Also, there should be no expression of grief or sympathy on the death of the governor, as those who support blasphemy of the prophet are themselves indulging in blasphemy.”

    At times like this, it’s hard to disagree with Christopher Hitchens’ view that “religion poisons everything”.

  • Political Ska

    Although I no longer live in the UK, I still follow what’s happening there. And the acts of the new coalition government fill me with despair. We seem to have learned nothing since Thatcher. Here’s a musical take on the situation.

  • Hitchens and Paxman

    Last night, BBC Two had a terrific interview of Christopher Hitchens conducted by Jeremy Paxman. It was a joy to listen to Hitchens laying out his ideas and thoughts on his life and politics. What was not a joy was to look at him and realise that he is not long for this world. He has a particularly virulent cancer that gives its hosts only a 5% chance of pulling through more than five years.

    Still, at least we will have the record of his work to remind us of the need to keep fighting for reason and the Enlightenment against the forces of superstition and theocracy. And for the moment, at least, we still have Hitch.

    …and here’s to KBO…

  • “Treating People Like Pigeons Really Does Work”

    Adam Curtis has another fascinating blog entry. This time he takes as his cue the Behavioural Insights Unit recently set up by David Cameron to advise the UK Government. Curtis argues that this unit is built on the Operant Conditioning ideas of B. F. Skinner.

    It makes for fascinating, and somewhat unsettling, reading. Do check out the videoclips that Curtis includes, particularly the one of the two market researchers and the final comment from Lewis Mumford.

  • The Answer Is No

    There’s an article in today’s Observer that asks: Has Strictly made a national treasure of Ann Widdecombe?

    For those of you unfamiliar with both British politics and the BBC TV entertainment show Strictly Come Dancing, I should perhaps point out that Ms. Widdecombe is a former British politician of the Conservative stripe, and Strictly is an entertainment program that partners professional dancers with “celebrities”.

    I confess that I have found it strange to understand the adulation heaped upon Ms. Widdicombe in the program. She clearly has no talent for dancing whatsoever. And while the British might like rooting for the underdog, I cannot let the memory of her politics go. Her views I find simply abhorrent.

    It’s rather as though I was watching a Geert Wilders or a Tariq Ramadan pirouetting in a celebrity dance contest. Forget what they have done and what they represent? Become blinded by the sequins and the feel-good factor? Nope, I don’t think so.

  • All Passports Are Equal…

    …Except when they’re not.

    We’re currently experiencing a local disturbance in the ether here in the Netherlands. After months of wrangling, we’ve finally got a new coalition government (I didn’t vote for any of them, but that’s by-the-by). However, it turns out that the new Junior Minister for Health, Marlies Veldhuizen van Zanten, holds dual nationalities, Swedish and Dutch. She was born in Gothenburg and her father is Swedish.

    Cue much breast-beating over whether government ministers can hold dual nationalities. Needless to say, Geert Wilders is agin it, what a surprise. But then it appears that this issue is giving ample rein to our new Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, to demonstrate his shortcomings. 

    He’s on record as stating that a minister in the last government should have given up her second nationality, but now he’s backtracking and saying that it is not a problem for van Zanten.

    And he’s now opened his mouth to change feet by saying that the reason is that a Swedish passport is not the same as a Turkish passport. Quite honestly, the man appears to be a hostage to fortune, No wonder that Wilders is loving every minute of it. By the way, I wonder if Wilders’ wife still holds her Hungarian passport?

    As someone who wants to continue to hold both Dutch and British nationalities, I obviously have some skin in the game, but frankly, the presumption that because someone holds dual nationalities that they are obviously suspect is beyond contempt.

  • A Small Ray of Sunshine

    In amongst my gloom over the fact that Geert Wilders’ right-wing PVV has made substantial gains in yesterday’s Dutch elections, comes one small ray of sunshine. Rita Verdonk, another right-wing populist, has lost her seat. To celebrate the fact, I present to you her amazing campaign adverts, which quite beggar belief…
     
       
     
    "Trots op Nederland" ("Proud of the Netherlands") was the name of her putative political party. RIP, please. Pity I can’t say the same about the PVV. Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

  • We Are In Hell

    I’ve just seen Geert Wilders arrive and give his speech at his election party. It seems clear that his PVV party has won a substantial number of seats in this election. I feel sick at heart. As Craig Murray wrote about the Netherlands:
    It has gone on a remarkable journey in the last decade, from a liberal society to one as poisoned with fascism as their Flemish neighbours.
    I really fear for the future of this country, and for the society within. 

  • Going To Hell in a Handbasket

    The Netherlands has a general election tomorrow, when a new Parliament will be elected by the voters. On the eve of the election, a good chunk of Dutch primetime television is being given over to a televised debate between the leading candidates of the various political parties. I tried to watch the programme, but I’ve given up in disgust. It is coming across as more of an entertainment show than a serious attempt at laying out and debating the issues. Perhaps it’s inevitable in this day and age that it would turn out to be a circus, but I had hoped for something better than this dross.

    Update: The second half is turning out somewhat better. The debates are better controlled by a more experienced pair of chairpersons. We are still getting irritating cutaways to someone who gives pointless updates on what the Twittersphere is saying – as if I could give a damn. However, on balance I am just about sticking with the programme. Wilders is still as annoying as ever, however.  

  • Hoist By His Own Petard

  • Is There An Echo In Here?

    Is this pure coincidence, or was there something else going on? At the very least, it’s a bit creepy.
     
     
     
    Hat tip to Craig Murray.

  • A Voice of Sanity Stilled

    A bit of bad news from the UK elections: I see that Dr. Evan Harris has lost his seat in Oxford West and Abingdon to the Conservative Nicola Blackwood. It was close – he lost by 176 votes, but it still means that a voice of sanity has been lost from the UK Parliament. The Daily Mail will no doubt be pleased.

  • Just Desserts

    It’s been a long time coming, but I see that the electorate has finally turned on Peter Robinson. All my friends from Northern Ireland will be celebrating tonight.

  • The Scots Have Long Memories

    It looks as though the UK elections have not produced a decisive win for any party. Although the Conservatives made gains, it doesn’t seem to have been sufficient to give them a decisive majority. Those gains have all been in England. In Scotland, as far as I’m aware, they haven’t made any headway at all. I heard one of the TV pundits say this morning that when he asked Scots why they hadn’t voted Conservative, the majority of them said that they remembered what Margaret Thatcher had done to their country. Ah, the sensible Scots – would that the rest of the UK remembered their history.
     
    Over at Obscene Desserts, John points out a creepy coincidence…

  • A Negative Tribalism

    Gary Younge perfectly sums up my feelings about why I hate Tories:
    I don’t have a phobia about Tories. That would suggest an irrational response. I hate them for a reason. For lots of reasons, actually. For the miners, apartheid, Bobby Sands, Greenham Common, selling council houses, Section 28, lining the pockets of the rich and hammering the poor – to name but a few. I hate them because they hate people I care about. As a young man Cameron looked out on the social carnage of pit closures and mass unemployment, looked at Margaret Thatcher’s government and thought, these are my people. When all the debating is done, that is really all I need to know.
    Unfortunately, the Labour Party of today is not the Labour Party that Gary and I grew up with. Nu Labour is now the Labour pot calling the Tory kettle black. I suppose it’s inevitable that Cameron will be the next Prime Minister come the end of the week, but I could almost pray for a miracle, damn my atheistic soul… Give the Lib Dems a chance. They couldn’t be any worse than Nu Labour or the Tories, could they?
     

  • Picking A Leader

    Charlie Brooker considers the personas of the three party leaders in advance of next week’s UK election. I particularly enjoyed his goring of David Cameron:
    Cameron is 100% something. He isn’t even a man; more a texture-mapped character model. There’s a different kind of software at work here, some advanced alien technology projecting a passable simulation of affability; a straight-to-DVD retread of the Blair ascendancy re-enacted by androids. Like an ostensibly realistic human character in a state-of-the-art CGI cartoon, he’s almost convincing – assuming you can ignore the shrieking, cavernous lack of anything approaching a soul. Which you can’t.
     

  • Nailed

    In today’s Observer, Philip Pullman reflects on Tony Blair, and skewers him precisely:
    Tony Blair has a phosphorescent quality. He is a will-o’-the-wisp, an emanation of rotting marsh gas that flares and glimmers in the dark, leading stray travellers into deeper and deeper mires. His power is almost supernatural. He managed to lead an entire party into supporting policies that were utterly alien to its nature; he took a movement that had once been proud to feel itself socialist, and made it into a fervent supporter of low taxes, private finance initiatives, and people getting filthy rich.
    Read the rest, it’s well worth it.

  • The Wilders Trial

    The trial of Geert Wilders began yesterday. Personally, I can’t stand the man, and loathe his opinions, but I am far from convinced that this trial is necessarily a good idea. Russell Blackford also has his reservations. Wilders is clearly guilty of making inflammatory anti-Muslim statements, but the question before the court is whether they are illegal. The NRC published an overview of the situation just before the trial began. The key point is:

    Wilders is charged with slandering a group and sowing hate, and discrimination on the basis of race or religion. He has targeted Muslims on the basis of their religion, the prosecution will argue, and non-western migrants or Moroccans on the basis of their race.

    I suspect that with courtroom theatrics, such as attempting to call Mohammed  Bouyeri (the murderer of Theo van Gogh) as a witness, Wilders will get the oxygen of publicity that he desires.