Opinion and Analysis Archive

29.07.2005 The bomb attacks in London are the latest manifestation of a rooted culture of ignorance and intolerance in the Muslim world. Only reform can save Islam from itself, says Maruf Khwaja.

28.07.2005 Omar Deghayes is a British resident who is being held in Guantánamo Bay on evidence that is demonstrably false, says lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, three years after Deghayes was seized and disappeared into the ‘legal black hole’ of Camp Delta.

27.07.2005 Campaigners and police in Kenya have started advertising ‘rape red spots’ on the city’s billboards to warn and protect women. Winnie Onyimbo reports for InterWorld Radio on whether it’s doing any good. (realPlayer required)

26.07.2005 Unnoticed by the mainstream media, the man who might hold the key to a political solution of the war in Iraq recently met US government officials and experts. Those looking for an exit strategy for Iraq take note.

22.07.2005 The FBI has been working hard, gathering files on potential threats to the President under the administration's anti-terrorism laws. But the files weren't all on Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. It has come to light that Greenpeace, the American Civil Liberties Union and a range of domestic critics of George Bush may be the new "axis of evil".

21.07.2005 The worst response to terrorism is more violence, argues Scilla Elworthy. She proposes a better way.

19.07.2005 The fascination with mobile phone footage of the London bomb attacks reflects a deeper cultural morbidity, says Jennie Bristow.
* For details of debate on Do mobile phones invade our privacy? see OneWorld Events.

15.07.2005 How about an economic boycott of the US - targetting the US Empire, not the US Republic? Johan Galtung considers what it would mean to to keep away from Coca Cola, military hardware, the dollar, US credit card companies and other corporations.

14.07.2005 Gleneagles may represent a real shift in the United States' attitude to climate change, argues Dr. Jonathan Pershing.

13.07.2005 The passionate protests of the rock stars have now become a product to be downloaded from AOL. The activist army has gone home. Conservatives insist George Bush has done more for Africa than any president in history. What now? asks The Media Channel’s Danny Schechter.

12.07.2005 "Global warming has been downgraded from a 'threat' to a mere 'challenge' putting it in the same intellectual box as graffiti in town centres and improving school dinners," says environmental campaigner and journalist Mark Lynas.

11.07.2005 "I began to realise how much trouble we were in when Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for International Development, announced that he would be joining the Make Poverty History march," says George Monbiot.

07.07.2005 There can be no hesitation in condemning the bombing of innocent civilians. But our condolences and horror at the attacks should not blind us to the dangerous political uses to which they will be put, argues Oscar Reyes.

07.07.2005 "The Scottish woman on the coach said that a cabbie had told her of having nervously picked up a group of 'scruffies', only to find that all of them had police badges."
Alex Nunns on the strange affair of the G8 Alternatives demo at Gleneagles.

06.07.2005 * Could doubling aid to Africa do more harm than good?
* Could 100 per cent cancellation of Africa's debt end up being little more than an accounting exercise?
Check out the ODI blog for the complexities behind the issues at stake at the G8 summit.

05.07.2005 The young man vaguely knew the name Blair, but could pronounce it only with difficulty.
“He is the chair of the Commission for Africa," Msechu told him.
"Sasa bwana Toni ndio mwenyekiti?" ("So Mr. Tony is the chair?") he asked, in Swahili.
"Yes."
"Which village was he born in?" the man asked.
It did not occur to him that the chair of the Commission for Africa is not from Africa but is a white British male.

01.07.2005 Western NGOs’ desire to help Africans has led them into unhealthy relationships with host countries, donor governments, and media, says Michael Holman. The result is that they share responsibility for Africa’s development disasters.