An end to Mugabe’s madness?

Zimbabwe’s general election takes place tomorrow against a backdrop of a long-running and worsening economic crisis, political uncertainty and the likelihood of increasing political and criminal violence.

Observers will be watching keenly to see whether finally, after years of misrule, the Movement for Democratic Change’s Morgan Tsvangirai or former government minister Simba Makoni can topple President Robert Mugabe and, if so, whether the country’s secrutiy forces will abide by the electorate’s decision.

Read more

Migrants say discrimination undermines their sense of belonging in Britain

A report published last week found that nearly half of minority ethnic residents, including Muslims, said they had experienced race discrimination and 30 per cent of recent Muslim migrants had experienced religious discrimination. This was cited as a key barrier to a sense of belonging in Britain.

The report – Immigration, faith and cohesion – published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, was written by a team at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at Oxford University. It looked at what factors contribute to, or undermine, community cohesion in three urban areas in England with large migrant and Muslim populations.

Most migrants felt there was no conflict in having a sense of belonging to both Britain and their country of origin. Sixty per cent of long-term Muslim residents born outside the UK said the people most important to them were in Britain.

Co-author Hiranthi Jayaweera from COMPAS (right) said: ‘Evidence suggests that it is discrimination and the perception of being unwelcome, rather than attachment to their country of origin, that reduces migrants’ sense of belonging in Britain.’

Ninety-nine per cent of recent Muslim migrants strongly emphasised democracy, justice and security as the top reasons for living in Britain. Researchers also found that Muslims and non-Muslims shared a common concern about the problems of crime, drugs and pollution in the areas where they lived.

Read more

Obama’s perfect speech

Resident columnist Lola Adesioye reflects on Barack Obama’s speech on race this week.

Regardless of whether or not people think Barack Obama is capable of being the next president of America, he has shown himself this week to be one of the greatest post-civil rights thinkers of this generation. Many people – both black and white – now feel that the polarized, divided, white-versus-black rhetoric of leaders from the civil rights era is outdated, yet no senior politician or public figure has been able to offer a new cohesive vision or understanding of modern day American race relations.

Read more

The Obama campaign – a cult of personality?

Many commentators have taken a dim view of supporters of Senator Barack Obama’s campaign to win the U.S Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. 

Here is the New Stateman’s Andrew Stephen bemoaning the media’s treatment of Barack Obama in January:
“Obama’s relationship with the press and the electorate is still at the stage of starry-eyed infatuation. Yes, he is a mesmerising political orator who offers a magic elixir that somehow contains both stimulants and sedatives: that we need not worry about the present or future, because we can look forward to a new dawn of hope and reassurance in the safe hands of President Obama. Exactly how and why this would happen is not clear, but it is heady and exciting stuff.”

Pondering why the Democratic nomination race has become so fractious, the New York Times’ Paul Krugman said shortly after Super Tuesday back in February, in a piece entitled “Hate Springs Eternal”:
“I won’t try for fake evenhandedness here: most of the venom I see is coming from supporters of Mr. Obama, who want their hero or nobody. I’m not the first to point out that the Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality.” Read more

The Clinton campaign and race

Yesterday, former U.S. Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, Gerldine Ferraro, was force to step down from her position as a member of Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign finance committee after she said that Senator Barack Obama, Clinton’s main adversary, would not be in the position he is in the Democratic presidential nomination race were he not an African American man.

On 7 March 2007, in an interview with a small local newspaper in Califiornia, the Democrat’s 1984 Vice Presidential nominee said,

“I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama’s campaign – to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against.
“For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on [Senator Clinton]. It’s been a very sexist media. Some just don’t like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” she continued. “And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.” Read more

Roll on Pennsylvania as Obama continues to lead McCain

Senator Barack Obama, who – as expected – stormed to victory in the Mississippi primary last night, remains ahead of fellow Senator Hillary Clinton not only in the delegate count in the race to win the U.S Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, but also in polls pitting the two against the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain.

Obama won 61% of the vote in Mississipi and now has 1600 delegates to Clinton’s 1484. So far, he has won more of the popular vote to date than his rival – 13,855,890 votes to Clinton’s 13,754,871. This has led Obama to rubbish suggestions coming from the Clinton camp that he could run as Clinton’s Vice Presidential running mate, below.

Read more

We Don’t Care About The Proms

Resident columnist Lola Adesioye reflects on this week’s comments on the Proms by Culture Minister, Margaret Hodge MP. 

Culture Minister Margaret Hodge’s criticism of the Proms this week shows just how out of touch and over zealous the PC brigade has become when it comes to issues of diversity and minority inclusion. Don’t get me wrong, diversity and inclusion are important – when it comes to things that actually matter such as inequality in the workplace, the legal system, socio-economics and education. Of all the issues facing minorities, ethnic representation at the Proms comes very low on the list – if anyone really cares about it at all.

Hodge’s criticisms about the lack of diversity at the BBC Proms are misplaced. It is a wasted effort for her to criticize harmless aspects of British culture, such as the Proms, when there are other elements of the culture – representation of minorities in the media for example – which have been, and still are, in need of fixing and are of much more relevance.

I have yet to go to the Proms but I make an effort to watch it on television every year. I’ve always wanted to attend for the very reasons that Margaret Hodges offers criticism – partly because it is a particularly British phenomenon. Not only is there a fantastic selection of classical music, but it is also interesting to experience something different.

It is important that people of all backgrounds are able to participate in the arts in general. That issue has been and is being addressed by initiatives such as free entrance to museums and the £10 Travelex season at the National Theatre. The arts fall under a broad umbrella and not everything will appeal to all people. Nor should they. The arts should be diverse – not only in terms of participants, but in the types of creative expression that are encompassed. This politically correct insistence on homogeneity in all aspects of modern life is troubling.

Read more