Donkeyshott & Xuitlacoche

The Mexican regime escaped international sanction in 1968 through a combination of extreme and swift repression and by putting on a great show at the Mexican Olympics and thereby winning international support. Thanks, in part, to that continued international support, it managed to hold on to power for another 35 years. We must not let the regime in China pull the same trick. We should boycott the Beijing Olympics. Steven Spielberg resigned as an artistic adviser to the Olympics because of China's silence over Darfur. Before he quit, Mia Farrow drew parallels with the 1936 Berlin Olympics, saying he "could be the Leni Riefenstahl of the Olympic Games". Farrow had a point. But perhaps there are other Olympic parallels we can draw. The Mexican state in 1968, like the present day Chinese state, was corporatist. There was one-party rule indivisible from the government; no independent judiciary, trade unions or employers associations; the media was completely controlled by th...

Unlike us, Mexicans don't gorge on dairy chocolate for Easter; if you too are tired of over-indulging in chocolate products full of milk and sugar, ditch the chocolate bunnies and try some Mexican "chocolate" chicken instead. One of the favourite sayings of my grandfather, a francophile and a gourmet, was: "Chocolate is nice, cheese is nice. So how much nicer must cheese and chocolate be?" We would laugh at his little lesson in good taste and I went along with the European idea that chocolate was simply a sweet food for a long time. That is, I did so until I tried mole. One legend is that mole was invented in Puebla, Mexico about 300 years ago. A bishop was coming to lunch and as the nuns hurriedly made the final preparations for the meal they were about to serve him, a tablet of chocolate accidentally fell into the sauce. It was too late for a change of plans, so the nun in charge simply carried on stirring in the sweet chocolate. They gave the dish to the bis...

Temple Inn with the fountain playing next to it is the most peaceful and glorious tourist free spot in the whole of London. Despite the Da Vinci Code shlockbusterI have been there many times and haven't seen that many tourists. I think the dip through the doorways from the strand or the side gate from the embankment flumoxes most of them and sweeps them back and forth from Trafalgar Square to the Tower and Tower Bridge. You can encompass Shakespeare, the fire of London, the Crusades and Dickens' London seated on a quiet seat near the fountain. 12th night was performed in the Middle Temple Hall. The Middle Temple Hall escaped the great fire. The Temple Church, of course, is the Crusader link and the Fountain itself is described in Martin Chuzzlewit. "Brilliantly the Temple Fountain sparkled in the sun, and laughingly its liquid music played, and merrily the idle drops of water danced and danced, and, peeping out in sport among the trees, plunged lightly down to hide themsel...

Bohm Dialogue rules for blogging (adapted): 1. We need an empty space to blog on and time to blog. 2. Each contribute suspends judgement for as long as possible in the conversation. 3. Everyone tries to express themselves clearly and relatively succinctly. 4. Occasional, non destructive playfullness should be acceptable 5. The assumption and exercise of honesty is desireable. 4. People should sometimes incorporate and build on other individuals ideas in the conversation. http://www.answers.com/topic/bohm-dialogue?cat=technology

we need to look at the ideological underpinning for this British citizenship test and ceremony: The ideas of the political philosopher John Rawls. This notion of citizenship implies the notion of a social contract. A social contract with a government in which everyone has the opportunity to participate. But when a government acts on behalf of interests that are not expressed through democracy, advocates, or is manipulated into advocating, the private and overweening interests of multinational corporations that act through "market forces". Then that government cannot uphold its part of the bargain. It can't sign a social contract with its citizens. This contract is void. Citizenship in the USA and UK, currently, is merely an agreement to uphold the status quo. To let the ring holders carry on running the show. To let the ruling class - the establishment entrench itself even more firmly. Hence in the UK we swear loyalty to the Queen. Yes, the Queen does indeed represent...

Eve Hall, a former consultant and expert with the UN's International Labour Organisation, took a hard look at a global virus that causes communities a great deal of harm. It doesn't take much to start trashing a community. For a start, bring in people from hundreds of kilometres away to replace permanent workers. Don't offer the incoming workers anything but piecemeal and temporary jobs for the barest minimum wage (if they are lucky). What happens to them when they aren't employed is none of your business. Advertise these wonderful opportunities on the local radio station to make sure you have got a surplus to choose from. Don't give them housing, let them squat, wherever, but let the proper houses that were occupied by the permanent workers, before they were retrenched, fall into the hands of thieves and squatters who take away the doors and the windows and finally, show incredulity when crime happens. Subcontracting and sub-contracting ... big fleas and little fle...

We, the family of Eve and Tony Hall, wish to thank you most warmly for your messages of sympathy and condolences received on the occasion of the death of both our mother and father. The bouquet you sent on the occasion of our mother's memorial service were photographed in the sitting room of Matumi, above. As loyal ANC members almost all their adult lives they would both have been very honoured to be so remembered. The three sons and their families were likewise very honoured and touched by the presence of ANC friends. Among the ANC members present at the funeral ceremonies were longtime friends Josiah Jele, Agnes Msimang, Gertrude Shope, Max Sisulu and Elinor Sisulu, Francinah Baloyi, Mpande Msimang and Mandla Msimang. From Mozambique came our friend, former Frelimo and Mozambique Vice President Marcelino dos Santos. We wish you every strength in the near future, in helping to lead the ANC, alongside the SACP and Cosatu, in renewing the policies of the ...

Look back, look around - and get going Tony Hall, in this posting of early 2006, goes into a rave of global proportions, looks modern history in the eye, and asks: doesn't it all add up to a multitude of models, a huge variety of lessons, a rich tapestry of possibilities for a broad consensus of the left? Dear debaters… I am so exercised with the enormity of present events and the fallout ahead, that like many of us, I am spreading out into a rave of global proportions. In my case, it's about revisiting almost at random, moments in the history of modern times, not afraid of the contradictions, but really to call up the positive, and to build a broader consensus than ever. I hope some will want to follow and stay the winding course of my meander, picking up or knocking down points and pointers as they go along. Most of all, I hope that people will read this roundup, and other blog essays before it, and postings to follow, as my archive of actuality, my rhetoric of reality. As a ...

No, Hodge was right. What you get after a revolution. The French revolution say, is a cultural revolution. This is a "good" thing. Let me give you the example of the Mexican Cultural revolution, which was messy and partial, like the Mexican Revolution itself. Well before the revolution the descendants of the Olmecs and the Zapotecs and the Tarascos and the Aztecs and the Mayas were despised and looked down upon by the ruling class in Mexico. After the Revolution this changed. Now in every school in Mexico they are taught to be fiercely proud of the achievements of the old Mexican civilisations going back about 3000 years. Statues to the kings and princes, like Cuahtemoc and Nezahualcoyatl, went up in every town. And when we look at France, or at any country that has been mature enough and lucky enough to get rid of its ancien regime, then we see the cultural flowering that happened as a result. Russia in the 20s, despite the grinding poverty and the civil war, was a great cul...