In the last couple of days I’ve noted a number of items for blogging which I was unable to deal with because of other calls on my time. I set them down now, without much elaboration, for those looking for interesting reading matter.
> Here is the second part of the Christopher Hitchens interview with Frontpage. It’s about Israel-Palestine and is excellent. More or less each time there’s a new Hitchens piece, mumblings, rumblings and grumblings occur in the anti-war sector of the blogosphere, posts and comments boxes both: ‘Mweugh… him again’. In case my own contrasting viewpoint isn’t yet plain, let me just say that Christopher Hitchens towers over his detractors as a towering object towers over other things.
> Ruben Gonzalez (1919-2003) died a few days ago. There’s an obituary by Robin Denselow here. Most who know Gonzalez’s music will have been directed to it by the magnificent Buena Vista Social Club.
> Someone else who died recently is a former colleague at the University of Manchester, the sociologist Hamza Alavi. There are links to several appreciations of Hamza here. (Hat tip to Leo Panitch.)
> From a Guardian leader on global disparities in internet access:
While the digital divide is narrowing within richer countries – about half of all households in the UK now have access – it is widening between the industrialised and developing worlds mainly because of the slow pace of change in the latter. About 90% of global internet users come from industrialised countries even though they have less than 20% of the world’s population. Africa, which makes up 19% of the world population, is home to only 1% of internet users.
> For anyone interested in what’s happening in Zimbabwe this interview with Samantha Power, of the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard, is a must-read:
I’ve been to a lot of countries that are going through or have just been through war or genocide, but I’ve never been to a peacetime country where civilians are suffering as they are in Zimbabwe.(Hat tip to SdeW.) Also, read about Beatrice Mtetwa who has been named Human Rights Lawyer of the Year.