Muslims and modernity: the road from jihad to Brexit

July 10th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

As a believer in lifelong learning, I regularly attend short courses at a London further education college called the City Lit. This weekend, I attended a one-day course entitled “Hope And History: A Short Introduction To Contemporary Issues In Muslim Contexts”. Our tutor was Pakistani-born Dr Farid Panjwani, a lecturer at the Institute of Education, who was very informative and balanced.

Dr Panjwani gave a few basic facts about contemporary Islam:

About 22% or one in five of the world population is Muslim
Of all Muslims, Sunnis are around 85% and Shias are 15%
Most Muslims are not Arab but Pakistani or Indonesian
In the UK, there are 2.7 million Muslims or 4.5% of the population
The largest component of UK Muslims (40%) are of Pakistani origin

He emphasised that there are huge cultural differences between Muslims around the world and warned against the Western tendency to see Muslim societies as monolithic.

Dr Panjwani explained the major consequences of colonialism and modernity for Muslim nations:

A displacement from political power with the fall of old, long-standing empires such as the Ottomans
The marginalisation of the Islamic legal tradition governing largely personal matters (sharia law)
A challenge to social structures with new modern occupations and new gender roles for women
Social conditions such as the power of political elites and high levels of unemployment that nurture rage and a sense of injustice

He explained that a key question for most Muslims around the world is: “How does one remain true to one’s religion while living a successful modern life?”

I found it interesting that Dr Panjwani mentioned a book which was published 20 years ago: “Jihad vs McWorld” by Benjamin R Barber. I read this book at the time and reviewed it here.

Today we tend to use the word ‘jihad’ (which actually means ‘struggle’) in the context of Islamic fundamentalist movements like ISIS but, in the sense that Barber used the term, it could be seen as referring to the anti-establishment, anti-globalisation, anti-immigrant movements that we see today in so many European countries and in the support for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders (in different ways) in the United States.

Indeed, on one interpretation, there is even an element of similarity between those Muslims who reject Western values and seek to assert their distinct identity and those British voters who supported Brexit in order to oppose the political and business establishment and express antipathy to immigrants.

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (6)

Wonderful new revolving sculpture at London’s St Pancras station

July 9th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

Yesterday, I started and ended the day at St Pancras railway station in central London, meeting my sister from her train from Leicester and then taking her back there for her train home. St Pancras is always an exciting place, but this time I was captivated by a revolving and twisted blade of aluminium hanging over the arrival point for the Eurostar trains.

My sister and I had dinner at a restaurant just opposite the sculpture and it was apparent that everyone loved the simplicity and magic of it. I made a short video and put it on my Facebook page. But I wanted to know more about who created the work and what the artist intended. I found the answers – and you can see a picture – here.

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

Has anyone actually read the Chilcot Report?

July 8th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

The Chilcot Report on the invasion of Iraq consists of 12 volumes adding up to some 2.6 million words. Even the Executive Summary runs to 145 pages.

According to an item in the “Guardian” newspaper, on average people read about 250 words a minute so, on that estimate, it would take 10,400 minutes or about 173 hours to read the whole of the Chilcot Report.

Assuming you spent eight hours on it every day and took weekends off, that makes digesting the whole report about a month’s full-time work.

I repeat: has anyone actually read the Chilcot Report?

Posted in British current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (0)

A review of the action comedy “Central Intelligence”

July 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

Hard day at the office? Want to unwind and laugh a bit? You could do worse than view this new release which pairs The Rock with The Mouth. Check out my review here.

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What Alastair Campbell has to say about the Chilcot Inquiry on the Iraq War

July 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

If ever the word tragedy was appropriate, it applies in spades to the whole experience of the Iraq War. It is too simple to view the actions of British politicians and officials – especially Tony Blair – as the acts of evil men. Enormous mistakes were made but essentially they were made by people who had good intentions – hence the tragedy. I was particularly struck by this blog posting from Blair’s communications chief at the time, Alastair Campbell. In part, he states:

“I was one of the few people who saw the process of his making the decision close up, virtually round the clock, around the world. Far from seeing someone hellbent on war, I saw someone doing all he could to avoid it. Far from seeing someone undermine the UN, I saw him trying his hardest to make it work. Far from seeing someone cavalier about the consequences of war, I saw someone who agonised about them, and I know he still does, as do all who were there, part of his team.

He was of course bombarded by views, from friend and foe. He was acutely aware of protest. He was aware that much could go wrong. He was aware lives would be lost. He was conscious of the possibility of damage to our relationship with the US if we didn’t go with them, and damage to the relationship with other allies if we did.

But here is the difference between him and other ministers and MPs, him and advisors, him and commentators, him and the public who three times elected him, including after the fall of Saddam. He had to decide. One way or the other. With the US or not. Topple Saddam or leave him. Knowing that either way there were consequences which were hard to foresee.”

Posted in British current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (0)

What is blue, green and grey water?

July 6th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

As part of my work as a consumer advocate, for over four years now I’ve been active in the water sector chairing a Customer Challenge Group for South East Water. So I’ve been attending lots of discussions and events about water and trying to keep up with all the acronyms and terminology in the sector.

I was thrown when I first heard references to blue, green and grey water. What on earth is this all about, I thought – and you might too.

The blue water refers to freshwater.

The green water refers to water stored in soil.

The grey water is polluted water.

I understand that globally there is enough freshwater on our planet to support even 10 billion people (not if we all live like in the USA), but grey water can dangerously pollute blue and green water.

In an online discussion of the different types of water, I found this analysis:

“Rain fed agriculture covers 80% of the world’s cultivated land, and is responsible for about 60% of crop production. In rain fed agriculture the soil stores the rain and releases it slowly to the plants. This rainwater used in agriculture is part of what is called ‘green water’ and is a characteristic of the land on which it falls. It is usually not subject to competition from other sectors.

Yields in rain fed agriculture are still far from their potential. In 2005, cereal yields were about 1.1.5 tonnes per hectare in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared with 5 tonnes per hectare in Europe. ‘Green water’ or rain fed agriculture has an important role to play in sustaining populations and securing future food supplies.

By contrast, in irrigation, water is extracted from rivers, lakes and aquifers (which is referred to as ‘blue water’). This ‘blue water’ is applied on land, where most of is consumed by evapo transportation. Irrigation competes with other sectors (including the environment) for ‘blue water.’ Today irrigated agriculture covers about 20% of cultivated land and accounts for 40% of global food production. ’Grey water’ is polluted or waste water, which can be recycled and purified. Grey water will play an important role in securing future global water supplies.”

So, now you know …

Posted in Environment | Comments (0)

Was Marx actually a Marxist?

July 5th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

I’ve just watched a recording of the BBC 4 profile of Karl Marx, the first programme in a new short series of great thinkers presented by British historian Bettany Hughes.

I’ve always recoiled from most of the ideas in Marxism and, when I read a biography of Marx, I rather recoiled from the man himself. In particular, I felt that this was not a man who lived life according to my own principles of decency and kindness.

You can read my review of this biography here.

Posted in History | Comments (0)

American independence – then and now

July 4th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

On 4 July 1776, the American Declaration of Independence was announced. On this anniversary day, I send good wishes to all my American friends both in the USA and elsewhere.

So, 240 years on, how is the Republic doing? Even many Americans struggle to comprehend how the American constitution and American politics are working out.

So I offer my short guide to the American political system.

Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)

The enduring appeal of the rom-com movie

July 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington

I’m a big movie fan and an incurable romantic so I enjoy a good romantic comedy and this weekend I attended a course on the history of rom-coms held at the City Literary Institute in London. The lecturer was male (Guy Meredith) but, except for me, all the eight students were female.

Our lecturer told us that all stories have four basic elements: world, characters, tone, and plot. All rom-coms have essentially the same plot: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back (or, of course, a reversal of these gender roles). So, to make a rom-com different, the writer and director need to manipulate the other three story elements: world, character, tone.

At the opening of the course, each of us was invited to name our favourite rom-com and a recent one that we have seen. I offered “When Harry Met Sally …” [my review here] and “The Meddler” [my review here] respectively.

During the one-day course, we were shown clips from 11 films – not all of which I would regard as rom-coms: “The General”, “It Happened One Night”, “Once” [my review here], “About A Boy” [my review here], “The Third Man”, “Tootsie”, “Fever Pitch” [my review here], “Knocked Up” [my review here], “Music & Lyrics” [my review here], one segment of “Paris Je T’aime”, and “Sideways” [my review here].