August, 2010
Columns, Devil's Advocate, Ideas, Politics - Thursday, August 5, 2010 14:02 - 9 Comments
Devil’s Advocate: Is Democracy overrated?
Everyone knows -or at least pays lip-service to- Democracy as an exalted ideal. Is everyone wrong? Is this a concept we have been too lazy, or too blind, to fully examine? what is so special about a system that is aimed at creating a good society yet rarely delivers on that promise? In a controversial piece, the first of his 'Devil's Advocate' columns, Omer Ali examines the impact of democracy as well as its theoretical underpinnings. In the process, he draws on examples from politics and economics and takes aim at a few sacred truths.
Columns, Modern Times, Politics, Profiles - Tuesday, August 3, 2010 10:57 - 6 Comments
Modern Times: Osman Rasul – In Memory
On Sunday, Osman Rasul, a 27-year old Iraqi Kurd who had spent nine years in the inhumane limbo of the asylum bureaucracy leaped to his death from the seventh floor of a Nottingham tower block. Ceasefire Columnist Corin Faife, a friend of Osman's, pays tribute to a "warm, kind, respectful man", crushed by the injustice and cruelty of the Home Office's asylum policy.
Arts & Culture, Books - Monday, August 2, 2010 15:52 - 1 Comment
Tony Judt – Ill Fares The Land
Tony Judt's latest book is an impassioned plea for a better society. It is also a call to the political and intellectual classes to leave the stale and sterile debates behind. Does Judt hit the mark? or are his arguments more indicative of the problem than the solution? Steven Borowiec investigates.
