Update: January 2009

It turns out I was extremely optimistic in my previous post, prior to Christmas. Events now seem to have made peace in Palestine/Israel a distant dream. I have also been highly disappointed by Obama's silence on this issue. Ok, he is not yet President, but Israel seems to have timed this attack to take advantage of the power vacuum in Washington. As ever the calls, especially from the US administration, for a ceasefire require more responsibility for the Palestinians than the Israeli's despite the Israelis having killed 688 Palestinians compared to the 10 Israeli's killed by the Palestinians.

I just hope the international community would start pressurising Israel into stopping this attack as soon as possible, rather than having loose rhetoric. Condemning Israel doesn't mean you are approving militants related to Hamas, the rest of the international community needs to understand that.

Comment: Last Chance for a two-state solution?

In my internet surfings, I found this rather interesting post by Bernd Debusmann. Debusmann suggests that the Obama Administration is the last opportunity for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. I think he has a good point. As the Palestinian situation gets more and more desperate, the idea of a united Palestinian state becomes less and less likely. We already have effectively two Palestines, with Fatah and Hamas governing the West Bank and Gaza respectively.

More and more people are suggesting a one-state solution which sounds like the most positive solution to the conflict. See: (Haaretz: 'Is the two-state solution in danger?' and 'Which kind of bi-national state?', Alternative Palestinian Agenda: Peace Initiative).

While the idea of a federalised but equal state is appealing, it is also unimaginable. Israel is a unique country in that its sole reason for existence is the because of its religious separateness from other countries. If an agreement was made which included a considerable population of Muslims or Christians having political and social parity with the Jews in Israel, this would contradict the purpose of the Israeli state and render the Jewish state pointless. Why have a Jewish homeland if it is not exclusively Jewish? Israel's original purpose was to protect Jews and give them a homeland where they would be safe from the persecution they recieved in Europe. While I don't agree with the idea of an exclusive state for one religion, many in Israel do and the Israeli political lobby as well as the majority of the population would never accept Israel becoming a religiously plural society, where being Jewish wasn't a key element of National identity.

If the Israeli state is unable to give up some of its war-acquired land for the foundation of a Palestinian state, it is certainly not going to give up the whole of its country to what would quickly become a majority Arab population. In any one-state solution, Jews would become a minority group and it would become totally unjustifiable for them to rule over an Arab minority, as the white population did over the black population in South Africa. The one-state solution was needed in 1947, before Israel became an exclusively Jewish land and when a multi-ethnic Palestine was still possible.

Over 60 years of violence and bloodshed make it impossible for a just and fair society to be built as if nothing ever happened in 2009. The current Israeli regime and political establishment would also attempt to co-opt the moderate Palestinians, while most Palestinians would expect a lot from their new state. This is likely to accentuate divisions between the Palestinian elite and the Palestinian people which Israel has already caused. Such a scenario could be far more dangerous than it is now for Jewish and Arab citizens in this new country.

A two-state solution is the only viable solution to the current situation and this can only be achieved with the political support of a US Administration. The Obama presidency is certainly going to take a more balanced view of the conflict than the Bush administration did.

Obama obviously cannot ignore the US Jewish lobby and the rhetoric of democratic Israelis against 'terrorist' Palestinians that has been allowed to pervade the Western media. While this is an extremely crude and untrue representation of the situation, it has become the accepted belief of many. However, Obama has at least as much political capital in this situation as Bill Clinton did, and Clinton got the two parties talking and even got them signing agreements in Washington. I also believe that if Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had not been assasinated at the rally for peace and Netanyahu and Sharon come in and rolled back the peace process by years, we might today have a Palestinian state.

According to wikipedia, Obama is just as reliant on Jewish voters as Clinton was (both gained around 80% of the Jewish vote in the Presidential elections. (For more details go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008 & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1992)), and his rhetoric does not necessarily suggest he will tackle the solution head on, at least not immediately. He does have the financial crisis, Iraq, Afghanistan, Global Warming, Iran, India-Pakistan and all the other smaller issues to deal with as well.

I hope that he can get round to it soon though, as time and hope is running out for this generation of Palestinians and the US's leverage in world politics decreases every year.

Country New Profile: Canada

Canada

OK I'm going to start this with a relatively simple one. The politics of Canada has been on the fringes of the UK media recently (at least in a minor way). I wanted to understand it a little better, so I did a little research. What follows is what I found out.

Canada is technically still a dominion of the UK and thus it's head of state is Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. In practice though, the head of state is the Viceroy, who is known as the Governor General. The Governor General is appointed by the British Monarch on the advice of the Canadian Prime Minister. Technically they serve indefinitely, but convention has it that they serve for approximately five years, this is sometimes extended to seven years on Prime Ministerial advice. The Governor General exercises the Monarch's powers on their behalf, and as such holds all of the Royal Prerogatives, although the British Monarch could technically overrule their decisions, but this has never happened and in all reality seems highly unlikely. The Governor General gives royal assent to all bills, signing them into law and is responsible for appointing the government. The Governor Generalship by convention alternates between the French and British communities in Canada.

The current Governor General is Michaëlle Jean, who is the first black Governor General and the third woman to hold the position. She originally born in Haiti and was appointed in 2005 by former Prime Minister Paul Martin. The previous incumbent was Hong Kong born Adrienne Clarkson.

The most powerful post in Canada is the Prime Minister. Much like the UK Prime Minister, he is the head of the cabinet and sits in the legislature. The current PM is Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party. He came to power in 2006 after his party defeated the the Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal Party. His party did not, however, win by a sufficient majority and had to form a minority cabinet (which basically means his government's existence is based on the various opposition factions remaining divided). Despite this the Minority Government survived until Parliament was dissolved by the Governor General for the 2008 Federal Elections in October. Harper's party actually increased its mandate, gaining 19 more and a total of 143 of the 308 seats, defeating opposition liberal leader Stephane Dion, who offered to resign once a new leader had been selected.

The interesting thing happened when Prime Minister Harper attempted to pass a financial bail-out bill, which angered the opposition parties and appears to have drawn them together. The Liberals and the Left-Leaning New Democratic Party came to an agreement to form a coalition, which would be larger than the Conservative minority. This agreement also included the separatist and French-speaking Bloc Quebecois (the third largest party). So you have the bizarre situation where a leader who is going to stand down was set to become PM with the support of a party that wants to break away. They were set to vote against Steve Harper in a vote of confidence scheduled for 8th December, but Harper was able to manipulate the situation and persuaded the Governor General to suspend Parliament until 26th January, when a new economic policy can be offered. This means Harper has been able to hold onto his job, when he was highly likely to have lost it on the Vote of confidence.

Following this, the Liberals brought forward its change of leadership and Michael Ignatieff (of BBC and other cultural fame) was selected to head the party.

What the Canadian Press say:

Canada's most popular paper, the Left-Leaning Toronto Star characterises the current situation as, "A super-smart, expat liberal academic versus a super-smart, fiercely partisan neo-con whose political instincts might be described as carnivorous", clearly looking forward to Ignatieff becoming a more heavyweight rival to the Prime Minister.

The conservative National Post, which was set up by Conrad Black, former owner of The Daily Telegraph and The Jerusalem Post, criticise Ignatieff's start as leader, calling him "Insolent and over-confident", but suggesting he could provide a more positive and competent leadership. They also focus on a new poll of Canadian voters which suggests that they want a compromise which keeps the Conservatives in power, rather than a Liberal takeover.

The centrist Globe & Mail, asks Canadian political insiders to assess the impact of Ignatieff's arrival on the scene, generally suggesting that he provides a more powerful counterbalance to the PM. They also assess who might take over from Harper if he is forced to resign.

The situation seems on a knife edge and it will be interesting to see what happens in January.

For Further info and to keep up to date with the situation take a look at:

The Toronto Star

The National Post

The Globe & Mail

Tony Hawks Interview

Below is an extended version of the interview I conducted with Writer, Comedian and Singer-Songwriter Tony Hawks.

You do a wide range of things, writing, comedy and the singer-songwriter, which one do you enjoy the most? Or which would you describe yourself as?

I suppose more and more now I describe myself as a writer/performer, that way round, it used to be comedian/author. I’ve never really liked the expression ‘comedian’, because people think that’s a person who’s hilarious all the time. I prefer now to be thought of as a writer and I do a lot on Radio 4, so more old fashioned people call me a writer/broadcaster. I have a lot of fun with the song-writing, but if I just tried to live off that, I’d be very, very hungry because it doesn’t make any money. Hopefully one day something will happen. I did have one song that made some money, the ‘Stutter Rap’. It’s just such a tough old business, so many good people want to get in and it’s a tiny market.

I saw that you’ve been writing some stuff with Chesney Hawkes are you still searching for a follow-up hit?

Yeah that’s right, also I’ve been working with Nick Kershaw, who did a lot of stuff in the 80s. The best chance we’ve got though, to get some music away is if we make this film ‘Round Ireland with a Fridge’, which we’re trying to do next year. We’ll probably include a lot of our music on the soundtrack. That is the easiest way of getting the music off the ground, so we’ll have to do that and see what happens.

I was going to ask about the film, because in the book, you talk about getting Bruce Willis to play yourself. Has he agreed?

That’s true actually… but the latest is that I’m going to play me. For a previous deal for the film, it was going to be Brendan Fraser from the Mummy and the Mummy Returns, I think he was also George of the Jungle, but to me it always felt completely wrong to have an American playing me. I think it’s too our shame in Britain that we constantly pander to America for financial reasons. The French don’t do it and there was a part of me that just said, well lets just try and write a good film and if it doesn’t make £25 million, so what, at least we’ve proved something for once.

Are you going back and retracing your steps from the book then?

Well I’ve written a screenplay, so it’s not a reconstruction but it’s written as a piece of drama, so it is an acting job and I will actually be acting out the part of myself.

So I guess that’s quite a weird dynamic?

Yeah… I suppose you treat it like you’re playing this character called Tony Hawks. I haven’t got to pretend to be a Geordie or an Australian or anything.

You’ve written a new book, the Fridge-hiker’s guide to life. What’s that about?

I did a tour of Australia last year and talked quite a lot about ‘Round Ireland with a Fridge’, because it’s done quite well there. A lot of people were asking me what I’d learned from the experience? I suddenly realised I’d learned quite a lot and a few people said ‘you should write this down’. So I started to write it down and then in the course of writing it down, I discovered that I’d learned even more. There was quite a lot of stuff I’d wanted to get out, that I believed. About how most of the time things that make people unhappy and miserable are all their own making really, In the West there aren’t many excuses really, its all self-created by the ego and these were all messages that I wanted to get across that fitted in with this Fridge-hiking philosophy. It’s a revamp of the original story, a bit like a greatest hits. It’s a bit like watching Match of the Day, you get the goals and you get the action. There’s a bit of the original story in there and a bit of these commonsense homespun philosophies and the idea was that instead of it being a heavy-handed self-help book, its just a jollier little handbook with some wisdom therein. I’m not really expecting it to sell a huge amount, but it might just be a fun little project. I also am donating all the money from it to this thing called ‘The Fridge Trust’.


This is your new charitable venture. In it’s mission statement, you talk about it being alright to enjoy the perks of life as long as you are ‘balancing the equation by giving’, is this something that you always believed in or is it something that you’ve learned from partaking in your challenges?

I think its something that’s come out much stronger in the last five-six years. When I was younger I don’t think I was giving very much, but I don’t think that matters either. There comes a point, however, when you are starting to acquire more and you’ve got stuff. I’m always staggered when people who are already millionaires try and do deals to get another £5 million. The Jonathan Rosses of this world and the people like that. And I think what on earth do they spend it all on? I guess they just get into buying bits of art for £2.5 million. But there’s an obscenity about that in a way, given the state of the world. I suppose I’m conscious of that, I have a social conscience. I just think, when you reach a point where you’re nice and comfortable, it’s not really that difficult to say, well that’s enough and I’m just happy to chug along. There’s not hardship involved for me. I can do what I like, I can holiday in France, it really isn’t that difficult to do, to say… “after a certain amount of money, start giving it away”.

After your Moldovan book, ‘Playing the Moldovans at Tennis’, you set up the trust fund to build the child’s centre. Was what you saw on that trip what triggered your philanthropic instincts?

That probably was the beginning of it, to be honest. We’re trying to get it much bigger so they can reach more people. What’s irritating is that at the time when we bought this place, it was £17,500 to buy, now it’s something like $150,000. The property values have rocketed, but the plan is to extend it, yes. We’re having to try and find the money. Some of the Fridge Fund might go to this, but I do quite like the idea of it being for something else.

You’ve got the house in France, and its got a little annexe for renting out, is that right?

The plan is that once it’s finished, is to try and get that used in a good way. So people can visit when I’m not there or even when I am there, people can come and use it and come and stay. People that wouldn’t normally get holidays perhaps and a chance to get a break. If you think about the number of people in Britain that have second homes that lie empty most of the year, I’d quite like to do something, prove that it works and then say “why don’t more people do it”. I think a lot of people would. I’m convinced people are better than they are permitted to behave. If you try and do something like that, the number of people that say to you: “you better be careful, someone might nick this or do that.” People are always looking for reasons for not doing things. Personally I don’t think people will nick things, but if they do, so what we’ll build it into the agreement.

Do you think it takes a certain person to just up and leave, like you have for the challenges in your books. I think a lot of people would probably like to go on adventures, but find it very difficult to give up the commitments of daily life.

I think I was slightly lucky in that my parents weren’t professional middle class lawyers or doctors who tend to want their children to be secure. I imagine it’s quite a difficult thing for people to do if they have that instilled in them, but for me it comes quite easily. If you’ve tried to make a living out of the entertainment world, you get snow-blindness looking at your diary for the next year. It’s just a white mass with nothing written on it. But you just have to think something will come along, and it usually does. Very few people starve in the UK. There’s all the panic about the economic downturn, but we’ll just have a bit less, that’s all.


After the several books written about challenges undertaken as bets, do you find that people challenge you to audatious bets quite a lot?

It used to happen a bit more. The funny thing is people often say, don’t you get people making bets with you all the time and people ask that question a lot more than people try to make bets. People imagine it happens all the time. I’ve had a few. Arthur Smith, who I made the ‘Playing the Moldovans at Tennis’ bet with, tried to make a bet with me that I couldn’t sleep with the entire Azerbaijani netball team one-by-one. I didn’t take him up on that one, as it would involve going to Azerbaijan and introducing netball to the country. Generally speaking, it tends to come from an argument and then the bet comes at the end of it, so it’s not that common. If proving somebody wrong and me right would make an entertaining book along the way then I’m up for it.

So you’re still enlisting bets then?

Yeah, I think so, I don’t think it’s necessarily always a bet. That’s why it was nice to do ‘Piano in the Pyranees’, because it wasn’t a bet. It was quite nice to see if you can stand on your own two feet. I probably wouldn’t do another bet, but you never know, I might do.

I noticed on your website that you seem to get inundated with people thinking you’re Tony Hawk, the skateboarder. Do you find it quite frustrating or do quite enjoy it?

I find it quite funny. I get a lot of fan-mail and questions meant for him. I just find it amusing and every now and again sit down and write back. I sent them off in the beginning, but you tend to end up endlessly in contact. Its more fun as an amusing little thing on my website. I did toy with the idea of calling a book ‘The A to Z of skateboarding’ and it having nothing to do with skating at all, it might sell a few more copies.



Have you ever met him?

I have, I met him on ‘The Big Breakfast’, he was over here promoting something and they got me into the studio, but the humour of it all went over his head. He just sat there early in the morning thinking who is this guy? He was nice enough, but I don’t think humour was his thing.

Country News Profile

I was thinking today that despite studying International Relations, I still know very little about several key countries around the world and how their politics works. So I came up with the idea of a country news Profile. This is going to essentially be a brief overview of the political system and a neutral as possible look into the latest developments.

I intend to look at a few countries that are influential but largely ignored or under-covered by the UK press pack. As when you think about it our International News coverage is surprisingly narrowly focused: only really looking at major crises or political developments in the US, Russia, France, the EU and other countries if there is an election or a far right leader gains popularity. As a result we have a quite one dimensional view of World events and are unable to see the actions of international agents from their perspective. I may even update and track these events if they are of interest.

Hey kids

My struggles to organise and sort out my journalistic career came to a head. The latest issue is the obtaining of an interview with person of notoriety. At the moment I have managed to arrange an interview with one writer and comedian of some note. But it seems very difficult to get access to people without having a recognised name.

Also.... In my internet explorations I discovered a nice little gem by three of my favourite musical performance artists:

http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=30876

For what its worth, I think this is going to become quite a large track, at the moment I think it sounds fresh, but it will probably get well annoying.

Latest 7 articles

Here are three articles which I worked on over the past couple of weeks, which were published in this week's Latest 7.

The first is a news story about the Brighton sunday market:
http://thelatest.co.uk/7/sunday-market-under-threat

The second is a review of a Dance for Camera piece by Billy Cowie:
http://thelatest.co.uk/7/billy-cowie-the-revery-alone-review

The third is a news story about the Gardner Centre at Sussex University:
http://thelatest.co.uk/7/gardner-centre-to-reopen