Archives for December 2005

by George MonbiotOver the past two years I have made an uncomfortable discovery. Like most environmentalists, I have been as blind to the constraints affecting our energy supply as my opponents have been to climate change. I now realise that I have entertained a belief in magic.In 2003, the biologist Jeffrey Dukes calculated that the fossil fuels we burn in one year were … [Read more...] about Worse Than Fossil Fuel: Biodiesel: the most carbon-intensive fuel on earth

Robert Fisk is one of the world's best known journalists. He has been based in the Middle East as the UK Independent's Middle East correspondent for nearly 30 years, during which he has reported on two U.S. wars in Iraq, two Afghan wars, the Israel/Palestine conflict, Israel's invasion of Lebanon, the civil war in the former Yugoslavia.His new book, The Great War for … [Read more...] about Robert Fisk on journalism, war, terror, good/evil and “democracy.. delivered by tanks & helicopters”

The governments of Tony Blair and George Bush have been charged with war crimes by a distinguished group of anti-war campaigners, who are calling for an investigation by the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, into breaches of international law.Harold Pinter, the playwright, Tony Benn, the former Labour MP, Michael Mansfield QC and Professor Richard Dawkins were among the … [Read more...] about Trying Bush and Blair for War Crimes

"It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening, it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest." In a few sharp sentences, Pinter pinned down the willed indifference of the media to publicly recorded events.Passionate Pinter's Devastating Assault on US Foreign PolicyShades of Beckett as ailing playwright delivers powerful Nobel … [Read more...] about Harold Pinter on U.S. Atrocities

Published on Thursday, December 8, 2005 by the GuardianIn 1958 I wrote the following:'There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.'I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of … [Read more...] about Art, Truth and Politics by Harold Pinter