Word of the day: stelliferous
February 4th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
So what does such a strange word mean? It is in fact a reference to a period of time – but a period the length of which you will struggle to comprehend.
It all comes from the book “The Five Ages of the Universe” which discusses the history, present state, and probable future of the universe, according to cosmologists’ current understanding. The book divides the timeline of the universe into five eras: the primordial Era, the Stelliferous Era, the Degenerate Era, the Black Hole Era and the Dark Era.
The Stelliferous Era is the current era in which matter is arranged in the form of stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters, and most energy is produced in stars. It is the era in which you and every member of humankind has been, is, or will be in existence.
The Stelliferous Era is the one with bright stars. Before that, the universe did not have stars. After that, the universe will only have brown dwarfs, white dwarfs and black holes.
Posted in Cultural issues, Science & technology | Comments (0)
The political power of “The Lady”
February 3rd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
“The Lady”, the bio pic of the Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, was released in Britain in December but it was too political and too personal for it to attract a large audience. I saw it and was very moved and you can read my review here.
The film has still not been released in the United States – but it will be soon – and there are no plans to show it in Burma itself. But, in Burma, poorly copied pirated versions of the film are selling well and attracting attention as you can read here.
I remember the same thing happening with the film “Cry Freedom”, about the life and death of Steve Biko, which was made when South Africa was still gripped by apartheid – you can read my review here.
Cinema has a powerful role to play in not just entertaining but informing and when it does so about political injustice, or even about wider political issues and processes, the result can be compelling. I have reviewed a range of political films here.
Posted in Cultural issues, World current affairs | Comments (0)
The cost of American democracy
January 30th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
All efforts to curb or contain election spending in the United States have failed and a 2010 Supreme Court ruling effectively abolished spending limits by allowing super Political Action Committees to spend as much as they want (as long as they do not co-ordinate their campaigns with that of an individual candidate – which is no limitation in practice). The result is that election expenditure – already hugh – is ballooning.
These days to run for US President can cost up to a billion dollars. One analysis predicts that the campaign spending this year on presidential, congressional and state elections may exceed $6 billion. How do candidates raise such sums? By appealing to private interests that will expect those interests to be advanced by the candidate in office and by those in office spending an inordinate amount of time fund raising for the next election.
Given all this, it is not surprising that the people elected under this system are often themselves very wealthy. An article in today’s “Guardian” newspaper explains:
“The trend towards oligarchy in the polity is already clear. There are 250 millionaires in Congress. Their median net worth is $891,506, nine times the typical US household. Around 11% are in the nation’s top 1%, including 34 Republicans and 23 Democrats. And that’s before you get to Romney, whose personal wealth is double that of the last eight presidents combined. All of this would be problematic at the best of times, but in a period of rising inequality it is obscene.”
Gary Younge is absolutely right when he comments:
“The issue here is not class envy, hating rich people because they are rich, but class interests – cementing the advantages of the privileged over the rest. The problem is not personal, it’s systemic. In the current climate, it means a group of wealthy people in business will decide which wealthy people in Congress they would like to tell poor people what they can’t have because times are hard. And unless the ruling is overturned there is precious little that can be done about it.”
As the Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi once put it: “The value systems of those with access to power and of those far removed from such access cannot be the same. The viewpoint of the privileged is unlike that of the underprivileged.” If it takes vast sums to run an election campaign and most candidates are themselves wealthy, how can the interests of most citizens be represented and served?
Posted in US current affairs | Comments (7)
A review of “A Visit From The Good Squad”
January 29th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
If you like contemporary fiction which is different and challenging, this award-winning novel by Jennifer Egan might be for you. I’ve reviewed it here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of “The Artist”
January 29th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
It succeeded at the Golden Globes and is set to storm the Academy Awards. See it now. It’s the back and while silent movie “The Artist” which I’ve reviewed here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Word of the year/decade/century/millennium
January 28th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
On this blog, I have an occasional series titled “Word of the day” but today I want to do something a little different with words by drawing on the selections of the American Dialect Society.
- For 2011, the Society chose as word of the year ‘occupy’ – see here.
- For the first decade of the 21st century, the Society chose as word of the decade ‘google’- see here.
- For the 20th century, the Society chose as word of the century ‘jazz’ – see here.
- For the millennium 1000-2000, the Society chose as word of the millennium ‘she’ – see here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
How many peace walls are there?
January 27th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Peace walls developed in Northern Ireland shortly after sectarian tensions broke out into violence in 1969 but, since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, I think that most people outside Northern ireland have assumed that the violence has ended and the peace walls have come down. In fact, dissident Republicans continue to mount violent actions and, as this Wikipedia page spells out, there are still some 40 peace walls separating Catholic/Republican communities from Protestant/Unionist ones.
In another assessment, there are apparently a total of 88 peace walls and barriers and you can view photographs of 15 of the walls here. Surprisingly around a third have been erected since the formal end of terrorist activities. However, a £2m fund aimed at bringing down the peace walls by building confidence between communities has just been announced by the International Fund for Ireland, as explained here.
Of course, Northern Ireland is not unique in approaching issues of inter-ethnic conflict by erecting a wall or barrier. On my trip to Israel, I kept obtaining glimpses of “the wall” between israel and the West Bank. Israelis call this “the separation fence” or “the security fence”, while most Palestinians call it “the racial segregation wall”.
I’m sure that around the world there are all sorts of physical barriers of this kind. The English poet Robert Frost once wrote a poem called “Mending Wall” which I studied at school. In that he famously wrote that “Good fences make good neighbours” . Is that true?
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (4)
What is the major strength of the British political system?
January 27th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
This week, I had the following e-mail from a student in Russia:
“Hello! I have read your short guide to the British political system, and I wanted to ask what you think about this statement: “The capacity of the UK’s constitution to evolve is its major strength”. Do you agree with this, as I am a foreign student and want to find out more on this topic. Thank you very much!”
I replied:
“This a major subject that can hardly be dealt with in a brief e-mail.
Formally the UK does not have a constitution. It simply has lots of constitutional laws that can be amended by Parliament at any time by a simple majority vote.
This is probably a major strength but not necessarily the major strength of the British democratic system. In fact, you could argue that the absence of written constitution would be a major weakness if it was not for the fact that the British system has so many other strengths including the rule of law, an independent judiciary, a free media, a strong civil society, and a sense of tolerance.
In fact, the British did not choose not to have a written constitution. It is just an accident of our unique history.”
You can check out my “Short Guide To The British Political System” here and contrast it with my “Short Guide To The Russian Political System” here. I know which I prefer.
Posted in British current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (0)
A (sleeping) babe in arms
January 24th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
This afternoon, I collected my granddaughter Catrin from her nursery as I do from time to time to help out her parents. I found that she had been running a temperature because she has some sort of fever.
Back at her flat, she was not her usual joyful self. She did not want to crawl around or play with her toys, so instead I cuddled her and read her lots of books. I could see that she was fractious and flagging so I sang to her until she fell asleep in my arms. When her mom and dad returned from work, she was still sleeping, so we decided that there would be no bath time this evening and instead I transferred her to cot and the land of nod – but not before her dad took this picture:
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (1)
How democratic is the United States?
January 24th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
On my web site, I explain the political systems of some 11 countries and these pages are very popular. I’m sometimes asked which nation is more democratic than another and, when I’ve time, I propose to write something about how to critique a political system.
Some of the questions that I would ask are:
- How extension is the right to vote?
- What proportion of those with this right are actually registered to vote?
- What proportion of those registered to vote actually do so?
These tests, when applied to the United States (a country often thought of as one of the most democratic in the world), present a disturbing picture.
As explained in this story:
- There are 50 million American citizens who are not registered to vote
- There are 20 million names on registration lists that ought not to be there
- Turnout in presidential elections is often below 60% and can fall as low as 51%
- Of 172 recognised democracies, the US is ranked 139th in voter participation
Posted in US current affairs | Comments (0)