World Culture Newswire Archive

My Lords, I, too, congratulate my dear and noble friend Lord Eatwell on initiating this debate and I also congratulate him on his speech. I start, as he did, with a quote.

"From time to time in human history there occur events of a truly seismic significance, events that mark a turning point between one epoch and the next, when one orthodoxy is overthrown and another takes its place ... There is a sense that we are now living through just such a time: barely a decade into the new millennium, barely 20 years since the end of the Cold War and barely 30 years since the triumph of neo-liberalism-that particular brand of free-market fundamentalism, extreme capitalism and excessive greed which became the economic orthodoxy of our time ... The global crisis ... has called into question the prevailing neo-liberal economic orthodoxy of the past 30 years-the orthodoxy that has underpinned the national and global regulatory frameworks that have so spectacularly failed to prevent the economic mayhem which has now been visited upon us".

Those words, said in the past week, came from a Labour Prime Minister-not ours, I regret, but Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister.

NATIONAL SQUAT MEET 2009 to be held in the Bristol Area, in March. Come get involved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does that mean he's imperfect? Or that God is imperfect? We've all probably addressed the issue of whether an omnipotent being can change its mind about something, but let's get down to Earth for a moment and address the issue of whether Catholics or anyone should give any respect or deference to a religious idol in the flesh who claims to be the spokesperson for God, but who, from generation to generation, and even within the same tenure, changes his mind on issues due to political and public pressure. In other words, the Pope is and should be treated only as the equivalent of a Prime Minister of a tiny little, but very influential, country tucked away in Rome. So, why do people give him so much credit where it's clearly not due?

Having flicked on the TV over breakfast this morning, I was subjected to the somewhat absurd spectacle of BBC 1 controller Jay Hunt debating the meaning of the word "golliwog", and whether or not it's racist, with the morning news presenters.T he reason for this, of course, was the row over Carol Thatcher's sacking from The One Show for using the word to describe a black tennis player off-air. Hunt pulled out the dictionary definition, which was similar to this definition I just found online – "A doll fashioned in grotesque caricature of a Black male", so any argument for it not being racist was quickly put to bed (and if you want any further evidence, the fourth Google result for "golliwog" involves the BNP trying to argue that banning golliwog dolls is political correctness gone mad).

On January 24th the little-known group Sri Ram Sena (The army of Lord Ram) attacked a number of women who were drinking alcohol in a bar in Mangalore: "The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says the attack - which was filmed and then broadcast on national television - has shocked many Indians. Television pictures showed the men chasing and beating up the panicking women - some wearing skirts. Some of the women, who tripped and fell, were kicked by the men."

the struggle never ends

As someone who has never really been entranced by the internal combustion engine fad that has swept through the world in recent decades, I tend to walk most places. However, given the snow on the ground today, I, along with many others, was presented with a number of ethical and practical issues; namely, how to deal with snowballs.

An important rticle from Italy

Is there anyone left out there who hasn't been sucked into TV Land – British (or American) style – who can still attest to life devoid of the culturally (politically) requisite 3.75 hours of daily TV watching, or 26.25 hours per week? It's worth noting that Deborah Orr tells us within her below article, published in today's Independent newspaper, that these figures only include broadcast television, not watching DVDs, films in cinemas, YouTube or other internet-broadcast content.

The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) is cracking down on movie producers using animals in their films. The AWBI has banned the use of monkeys, tigers, panthers and lions in movies and issued 26 guidelines to producers.

[Milano - Italy]
The 22nd of January 2009 at 7.00 am, about a hundred policeman has entered and cleared out the Cox 18 - Conchetta Squat, occupied more than 33 years ago, where has place the Calusca library, created in 1971, and the precious and historical archive Primo Moroni.

I left the religion in the backburner for several years. Not that my views about religion had changed or I didn't consider myself religious any more. I just had so much to do that expending time on religion had become scarce. I simply lived the way I thought I was supposed to live according to my understanding of how a good Muslim should be. Meanwhile I learned more about democracy, human rights and other values like equality of rights between men and women and I liked what I learned.

Open at 7pm, film starts 8.30
Thursday 29th January at Kebele Social Centre
14 Robertson Road, Easton
Free entry

Lowkey expressing his anger at the situation in Gaza via rap/poetry at the stop-the-war demo in London on 10th Jan 2009.

Despite rumours to the contrary, rampART Social Centre and Creative Space is very much alive, well and ready to connect.

Cops threaten gay catholic shop owner with jail for displaying a poster of the Pope.

one solution

A SIZEABLE number of people turned out for the Nottingham Mayor Christmas Cheer fund, earlier Regis Manyanya had interviews with various radio stations. The message was clear and straight forward Zimbabwe is in dire need of aid.

Amsterdam – Antonio Maria Costa, the Italian Executive Director of
the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, is seriously embarrassed because of
a solo-action by Amsterdam psychiatrist Fredrick Polak. In an open
letter published today, Polak demands an answer to a simple question.
Despite earlier promises the global drug czar has been dodging the
question for exactly one year.

Early on Monday morning, Oaxaca's newest social centre was attacked by State and Municipal Police.