A week's a long time in politics
And indeed, plenty has happened since my last update, although whether it amounts to anything fit to overshadow the hoody-ASBOs is highly debatable.
The presidential election results are coming in from the Ukraine and it looks like the current Moscow and oligarch-friendly incumbent has won, but it also looks like he cheated. Obviously, if you take democracy seriously, then this is a problem, and a Senator (Richard Lugar) from the best-functioning democracy on the planet has been sent to make sure there's no funny business.
Jon Snow is adept at summarising these sorts of things quite succinctly, if a little dramatically:
"Tectonic, maybe prehistoric, plates begin to shift. A new east-west ideological struggle. The great Ukraine election campaign that has burned fiercely but eternally on the very back burner has now ignited every ring on the stove. To the barricades at seven as the result is all but known and it looks like the forces of reaction - pro-Moscow, pro status quo - have won. But the pro EU-forces, the liberalisers, are calling foul and the international election observers with them. A filthy campaign in which the main oppsition leader was poisoned and horribly disfigured.
How will it all end? There are tens of thousands on the streets. The city of Lvov is refusing to recognise the result. Trouble with a capital T is brewing." For more of the same, daily, go here.
In other developments, BBC America are showing the top-class comedy series "Peep show" in prime time. Of more interest to UK residents, the series one DVD came out here last week.
And is the fact that Colin Powell is getting replaced by Condoleeza Rice significant? Massoud Derhally convincingly argues that if you live in or care about Arabic countries, then it is.
How do you stop bullying in schools? A good question, and one that deserves some attention. The problem is that short of the most ludicrous invasions of privacy and restrictions of kids' freedoms, you can't. What you need to do is make kids less afraid of telling teachers when they're being bullied, and do this by clearly demonstrating to kids that if they do tell someone about it, it's going to make the problem better and not worse. If kids are afraid to tell teachers theyre being bullied, it's because they think the teachers' response will be insufficient to prevent the bully from exacting their revenge. And if kids think this, they're unlikely to be entirely wrong. This is a matter of taking time and effort to think about how teachers can best combat bullying, along with parents and with kids, which is the kind of thing "New" Labour love to say they are doing, but the kind of thing that is too much time and effort for them to actually carry out.
The solution reminds me of István Bibó's concept of "Political Hysteria" as used by Emmanuel Terray:
"When a community fails to find within itself the means or energy to deal with a problem that challenges...It will substitute a fictional problem, which can be mediated purely through words and symbols, for the real one that it finds insurmountable. In grappling with the former, the community can convince itself that it has successfully confronted the latter." (Terray, "Headscarf Hysteria" New Left Review 26 March/April 2004, 118.)
Of course, this isn't quite the same thing, but the Blairite tendency to do something about a problem, or rather to be seen to do something, no matter how obviously ineffective, seems to have the same kinds of tendencies. Thus, to solve the bullying problem that clearly concerns so many parents, they come up with... plastic wristbands. Honestly, there is no more substance to it than the wristbands. "Wearing the band will give young people the opportunity to make a visible commitment that they are not prepared to tolerate bullying and will stand by their friends" says schools minister Stephen Twigg.
And finally, is this the Hollywood version of a veiled threat?
The presidential election results are coming in from the Ukraine and it looks like the current Moscow and oligarch-friendly incumbent has won, but it also looks like he cheated. Obviously, if you take democracy seriously, then this is a problem, and a Senator (Richard Lugar) from the best-functioning democracy on the planet has been sent to make sure there's no funny business.
Jon Snow is adept at summarising these sorts of things quite succinctly, if a little dramatically:
"Tectonic, maybe prehistoric, plates begin to shift. A new east-west ideological struggle. The great Ukraine election campaign that has burned fiercely but eternally on the very back burner has now ignited every ring on the stove. To the barricades at seven as the result is all but known and it looks like the forces of reaction - pro-Moscow, pro status quo - have won. But the pro EU-forces, the liberalisers, are calling foul and the international election observers with them. A filthy campaign in which the main oppsition leader was poisoned and horribly disfigured.
How will it all end? There are tens of thousands on the streets. The city of Lvov is refusing to recognise the result. Trouble with a capital T is brewing." For more of the same, daily, go here.
In other developments, BBC America are showing the top-class comedy series "Peep show" in prime time. Of more interest to UK residents, the series one DVD came out here last week.
And is the fact that Colin Powell is getting replaced by Condoleeza Rice significant? Massoud Derhally convincingly argues that if you live in or care about Arabic countries, then it is.
How do you stop bullying in schools? A good question, and one that deserves some attention. The problem is that short of the most ludicrous invasions of privacy and restrictions of kids' freedoms, you can't. What you need to do is make kids less afraid of telling teachers when they're being bullied, and do this by clearly demonstrating to kids that if they do tell someone about it, it's going to make the problem better and not worse. If kids are afraid to tell teachers theyre being bullied, it's because they think the teachers' response will be insufficient to prevent the bully from exacting their revenge. And if kids think this, they're unlikely to be entirely wrong. This is a matter of taking time and effort to think about how teachers can best combat bullying, along with parents and with kids, which is the kind of thing "New" Labour love to say they are doing, but the kind of thing that is too much time and effort for them to actually carry out.
The solution reminds me of István Bibó's concept of "Political Hysteria" as used by Emmanuel Terray:
"When a community fails to find within itself the means or energy to deal with a problem that challenges...It will substitute a fictional problem, which can be mediated purely through words and symbols, for the real one that it finds insurmountable. In grappling with the former, the community can convince itself that it has successfully confronted the latter." (Terray, "Headscarf Hysteria" New Left Review 26 March/April 2004, 118.)
Of course, this isn't quite the same thing, but the Blairite tendency to do something about a problem, or rather to be seen to do something, no matter how obviously ineffective, seems to have the same kinds of tendencies. Thus, to solve the bullying problem that clearly concerns so many parents, they come up with... plastic wristbands. Honestly, there is no more substance to it than the wristbands. "Wearing the band will give young people the opportunity to make a visible commitment that they are not prepared to tolerate bullying and will stand by their friends" says schools minister Stephen Twigg.
And finally, is this the Hollywood version of a veiled threat?
posted by UK plc at 6:33 PM
3 Comments:
Uh... Leonardo DiCaprio is retarded, because didn't we already lose someone to paparazzi named Princess Di? Whatever, dude. He needs to get a clue and then get a newspaper one of these days. Anyway... this wasn't boring at all, Dude!!! You're too hard on yourself sometimes!!! :-D
Totally vapid. Actors always want to disassociate the "art" from the brass.
Will Mr Clark be wearinga wristband symbolising a pledge not to be nasty to medievalists?
Putin has gone on Ukranian tv to say he would not interfere in their election. This makes it a touch sinister that he said in the same statement that he would not stand for a third term. http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/10/27/putinterm.shtml
Condy may be groomed as an alternative to Giuliani for the next election. Rice vs Clinton? That would also be an interesting one. Won't happen though. Black female president? Not this century.
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