Pull apart this cuckoo’s nest we’re building
The News Review:
- Pull apart this cuckoo’s nest we’re building
- While termites ate my bed
- South Korea’s troubled export babies for adoption
- New megastars in money-making
- Mail-order home
- Parents, baby and pirates do their thing at home
Pull apart this cuckoo’s nest we’re building
Guardian Unlimited - May 27, 2007
Go to any country on the continent, or to the US, and you will see only a fraction of the cameras that are on British streets, and of course they have nothing like the DNA database or the ID card scheme, which to the French, for example, seems self-evidently oppressive. These societies are no less safe than we are - just less observed and in consequence more free. Over the last few weeks one or two hints have been dropped by Gordon Brown’s allies that he is considering a written constitution, which would include a new, home-grown Bill of Rights. If Labour provides the conditions for the writing of an eloquent but simple Bill of Rights which everyone can understand and which is embedded in the constitution beyond the reach of Parliament, I will eat several straw hats. It seems unlikely because a clearly written statement of each person’s rights - including privacy - would militate against the very control that Labour has sought to impose. But I emphasise one point: Labour could not attempt the Ratched strategy without our help. It is our fears, lack of rigour and laziness which have led us to this pass.
While termites ate my bed
The Age - May 27, 2007
Sometimes,” I replied solemnly, as though I had vaguelyheard of such practices. Compared with home-grown Indian values, the lone Aussietraveller, even one dressed in chaste salwar kameez as I was,certainly gives Indian ladies a run for their money. Hence thestares, lame attempts at conversation, and tiring calls of, “Whichcountry? Canada? Hey, Canada!” A rickshaw driver once startedurinating in front of me as I tried to negotiate a fare. But, while attracting the worst of Indian behaviour, myvulnerability also assured me the very best. The Gujarati womaninvited me home, where her family served Indian pizza and bristledwhenever I thanked them: given the Gujarati moto, “Guest is god”,saying “Thank you” is a huge faux pas. Throughout the evening,curious neighbours hollered over to the fifth-floor apartment fromadjacent blocks, inquiring about the foreigner they spied throughthe window.
South Korea’s troubled export babies for adoption
Pakistan Dawn - May 27, 2007
But South Koreans still don’t like adopting other people’s children. South Korea marked its home-grown adoption day earlier this month with incentives to encourage domestic adoption, telling citizens of the world’s 12th largest economy its orphanages should not be filled with abandoned children. But despite a sense of disgrace for once being one of Asia’s largest providers of babies for adoption abroad, it has struggled to overcome ingrained attitudes about fostering them at home.