Ian McEwan stirs it up in Jerusalem

British novelist Ian McEwan has accepted an Israeli literary prize in Jerusalem while criticising Jewish 'settlements' in the West Bank, despite widespread grumblings about the importance of observing the Boycott, and not only from British and Palestinian writers.

In his lecture on Sunday, McEwan defended his visit to Israel, saying it encourages dialogue. Having inserted himself into Israeli academe, he revealed himself as a bit of a Trojan horse.
At an acceptance ceremony with Israeli president Shimon Peres and the mayor of Jerusalem, for the Jerusalem Prize, McEwan praised Israel's technological and artistic advances but asked: "Where is Israel's political creativity?"
He criticized Israel's 1967 annexation of east Jerusalem, legally outside "Israel" and the part Palestinians claim as the capitol of a future state in the fiction that would be the Two-state Solution.
McEwan is the author of the best-selling Atonement and Comfort of Strangers, and has won numerous literary prizes for his books.
While in the country, on Friday the 18th he joined Israeli author David Grossman at an anti-demolition demonstration in the Sheikh Jarrah district.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/20/AR2011022001600.html

Where were you in the census, Daddy?

Census time is almost here again. What once felt to most of us as a friendly, community activity, even a chance to leave a tiny mark on the page of history. But in the context of the inexorable growth of surveillance systems and methodologies, it increasingly looks a little sinister.

The revelation that the upcoming binge will be handled by a branch of Lockheed Martin can only add to the disquiet. Lockheed Martin builds cluster bombs, mostly known for killing children, and the F16 warplanes that played a central role in the recent destruction of Gaza. They also provide interrogators to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantånamo in Cuba.

More relevant to their projected role in the census, they are involved in surveillance and data management for the CIA and FBI.

We can take it that any government assurances about our data being completely safe, although it will be handled by this company whose major source of income from all sides is the War On Fright, are so much hot air.

Expect a boycott campaign to take flight in the next few days. If you miss out on filling in the 32-page questionnaire by accident or omission as many do, it’s overlooked by Big Brother.

But this time may be the time to go public. It may cost each of us a grand in court, but it’s a rare chance to make democracy come alive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkq9hdGSsXQ&feature=player_embedded

More info about this at http://stopwar.org.uk - soon

Omar Offendum: the Revolution WAS televised

This blog needs some leavening! It's time for some music; but of course at HanleyExpress that will be Meaningful:

Another death at Guantanamo

by Andy Worthington, commondreams.org

The Second World War lasted for six years, and at the end of it prisoners of war were released to resume their lives. At Guantánamo, on the other hand, the prison has just marked the ninth anniversary of its opening, and on Thursday the Pentagon announced that Awal Gul, a 48-year old Afghan prisoner, who had been held for nine years without charge or trial and was scheduled to be held forever, died in a shower after suffering a heart attack. Gul had never been held as a prisoner of war, and despite the US government’s assertions that he could be held forever, no one in a position of authority — neither President Bush nor President Obama — had never adequately demonstrated that he constituted a threat to the United States.

More at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/04-6

More toys for the police

Already regularly carrying, and using, guns and tasers, UK police have added yet another weapon to their armoury. Police chiefs are facing growing criticism after footage obtained by the Guardian showed an officer using CS spray on three ‘tax avoidance protesters’, leaving them needing hospital treatment. CS gas is widely used in Israel against peaceful protesters, and has caused many deaths there; most infamously the recent killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah.

Politicians and trade union leaders described the use of the spray as "extreme" and "aggressive" after seeing the video of the officer using the spray at close range during Sunday's protest organised by UK Uncut.
Lib Dem MP Tom Brake, co-chair of the party's home affairs and justice committee, said - perhaps a little more kindly than was necessary: "The use of CS gas in a public demonstration, unless officers' safety was at risk, is an extreme tactic and would break a long-standing British tradition of policing public protest with minimal [sic] force. This is a road we do not want to go down."
The footage prompted Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, and Neal Lawson, chair of the leftwing pressure group Compass, to call for a public inquiry.
"When tax injustice enjoyed by the rich is combined so starkly with vital public service cuts for the poor and the government refuses to listen or act then people have the moral and legal right to protest. We deplore the use of such aggressive policing techniques and call for a public inquiry to investigate and report on the use of CS spray against protestors on Sunday."
The Metropolitan police has said it is “reviewing” the circumstances of the incident, by which we may assume that it is waiting for it to blow over. And should the inquiry ever take place, we may rest assured that it will find that the officers who are subsidised by our taxes behaved in a responsible and professional manner.
Before Sunday's protest, which involved sit-ins at high-street shops around the country, Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), criticised the lack of willingness of new protest groups that have sprung up around the internet, such as UK Uncut, to “engage” with police before protests. He said if they continued to refuse to co-operate, then police tactics would have to become more “extreme”.

US blocks Al Jazeera

Anyone seeking the most thorough, in-depth coverage of the uprising in Egypt can tune into Al Jazeera English.
But American TV addicts, unlike their friends in Canada, will have to wait until one of the U.S. cable-company-approved networks broadcasts footage from Al Jazeera English, which the company makes regularly available. What they can't do yet is watch the network directly.
Other than in a few places across the US - including Ohio, Vermont and Washington - cable carriers do not give viewers the choice of watching Al Jazeera.

So, ironically enough, US big business sides with Mubarak as American diplomats criticize the Egyptian government for blocking internet communication inside the country and as Egypt tries to stop Al Jazeera from broadcasting.
The result of the Al Jazeera English blackout in the United States has been a surge in traffic to the media outlet's website, where footage can be seen streaming live. The last 24 hours have seen a two-and-a-half thousand percent increase in web traffic, Tony Burman, head of North American strategies for Al Jazeera English, told HuffPost. Sixty percent of that traffic, he said, has come from the United States.