Archive for September, 2007
Sunday, September 30th, 2007
Suddenly you are looking in his eyes. Officially, they’re brown, but for you they’ll always be blue. He is speaking in a soft, seductive voice. Glory if you follow, eternal shame if you don’t. Rome or Death. In a moment, your destiny shifts. Incredibly, you have volunteered. You are given a red shirt, an obsolete rifle, a bayonet. You are taught to sing a hymn full of antique rhetoric recalling a magnificent past, foreseeing a triumphant future. You learn to march at night in any weather and over the most rugged terrain, to sleep on the bare ground, to forgo regular meals, to charge under fire at disciplined men in uniform. You learn to kill with your bayonet. You see your friends killed. You grow familiar with the shrieks of the wounded, the stench of corpses. If you turn tail in battle, you will be shot. Those are his orders. If you loot, you will be shot. You write enthusiastic letters home. You have discovered patriotism and comradeship. You have been welcomed by cheering crowds, kissed by admiring young women. Italy will be restored to greatness. From Sicily to the Alps, your country will be free. Then, with no warning, it’s over. A politician has not kept faith. An armistice has been signed. Your leader is furious. You hardly understand. Rome is still a dream. Your group disbanded, you receive nothing: no money, no respect, no help in finding work. But, years later, when he calls again, you go. You will follow him to your death.
The Insurgent: Garibaldi and his Enemies
Garibaldi and his Enemies Response Sheet
Posted in World Civ-Nationalism in Europe | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007
Full CBS Interview with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
05:29
Posted in AP Iran | No Comments »
Monday, September 24th, 2007
The birthplace of globalisation in the 19th century is coping well with the latest round, writes Merril Stevenson. But can it keep it up?
To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine:
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles thine.
Rule Britannia, Britain‘s unofficial national anthem dating from 1740, celebrated not only Britain‘s military might but its commercial prowess as well. A century later Britain had fully risen to the advance praise. This was the high-water mark of its influence in the world, which coincided with the last great wave of globalisation. The first country to industrialise, Britain was soon turning out more than half the world’s coal, pig-iron and cotton textiles. In 1880 its exports of manufactured goods accounted for 40% of the global total, and by 1890 it owned more shipping tonnage than the rest of the world put together.
Less than a century on from those glory days Britain had become the “sick man of Europeâ€, infamous for wild swings in inflation and growth and for confrontational trade unions. Shorn of its empire and a late and reluctant arrival in the European Community, Britain was grappling with the prospect of irreversible decline.
Now its fortunes are looking up again. Steady economic expansion for the past 14 years has pushed its GDP per head above that of France and Germany. Its jobless figures are the second-lowest in the European Union. Inflation has been modest, and sterling, the Achilles heel of governments from Clement Attlee’s to John Major’s, is if anything too strong for Britain‘s good.
Read the rest of the report here
Posted in AP Britain | No Comments »
Monday, September 24th, 2007
The cure of admiring the Lords is to go and look at it. (Walter Bagehot)
The House of Lords is like a glass of champagne that has stood for five days (Clement Atlee)
A Brief History of the Lords
On the Wakeham Report
On the White Paper
Implications on Democracy
Response Sheet for Lords Readings (using the four readings above)
——More on the Lords…
Blair’s Vacillating Stance(s)
ummm…the other House of Lords (I can’t say which is more nauseating)
House of lords Whats forever for
04:38
If that is not disturbing enough, you can watch the real House of Lords here
Posted in AP Britain | No Comments »
Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
The articles in question are:
- The New Paternalism
- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Council
- The Fulton Report on the Civil Service
Response sheet for Three Articles on Paternalism
Lecture on Paternalism of Westminister (readings summary)
Posted in AP Britain | No Comments »