03:33 p.m., Friday, January 11, 2002
The UK has data protection laws. But a report that's just been published states that ministers have failed to protect the public with these laws.

Yeah, that's going to give me confidence in the new laws they want to pass about internet privacy....
[by Beth] comments?

03:33 p.m., Friday, January 11, 2002
The UK has data protection laws. But a report that's just been published states that ministers have failed to protect the public with these laws.

Yeah, that's going to give me confidence in the new laws they want to pass about internet privacy....
[by Beth] comments?

03:33 p.m., Friday, January 11, 2002
The UK has data protection laws. But a report that's just been published states that ministers have failed to protect the public with these laws.

Yeah, that's going to give me confidence in the new laws they want to pass about internet privacy....
[by Beth] comments?

04:52 p.m., Thursday, January 10, 2002
I found this article from a link on Loria's livejournal. It's very interesting.

'Modern wars have characteristically been fought to end war; they have been fought in the name of peace. Our most terrible weapons have been made, ostensibly, to preserve and assure the peace of the world. “All we want is peace,” we say as we increase relentlessly our capacity to make war.

'Yet at the end of a century in which we have fought two wars to end war and several more to prevent war and preserve peace, and in which scientific and technological progress has made war ever more terrible and less controllable, we still, by policy, give no consideration to nonviolent means of national defense.'

Points to ponder....
[by Beth] comments?

04:38 p.m., Thursday, January 10, 2002
India's border with Pakistan is 1,800 miles long. Now, due to the increasing tension in that area over Kashmir, they are going to lay mines in minefields up to three miles wide along the length of the border.

I wanted to find out more about India and Pakistan's dispute over Kashmir, but while looking I found this about the plight of women in Kashmir. A militant group had decreed that all women should start wearing the burqa and attacking women who weren't complying with acid. It's dated a week before the WTC and Pentagon attacks. I remember reading it at the time but I think it might have got lost in those times. I don't know how the situation is now, but I can't really imagine it's changed too much for the better - although it might have improved slightly.

I didn't find out much about the cause of the problems between Pakistan and India - both nuclear powers, in case you didn't know - so if anyone can point me in the direction of a good article I'd be grateful.
[by Beth] comments?

04:08 p.m., Thursday, January 10, 2002
I just can't believe that this is seen as a reasonable response to this. Yes, Hamas did a terrible thing, destroying nearly a month's worth of peace. But bulldozing a refugee camp? That's disgusting.

When I heard that people are rioting at Holy Cross School in Belfast again, I could have cried. THESE ARE CHILDREN DAMMIT!!! They want to get to school! Do you really want to segregate Belfast so that you can only walk down certain streets if you're Catholic, and certain others if you're Protestant, and that's it? Would you feel like you achieved something if that happened? Oh wait, it already did.

It makes me sick that something as innocent as children walking to school can cause this.
[by Beth] comments?

04:31 p.m., Wednesday, January 9, 2002
Just one more:

Hey, did you hear? That aid that's going out to Afghanistan? It's not getting through, and Afghans are being reduced to eating grass.

So we bomb them to rubble, and then we insult them by leaving food in their country without telling anyone where it is? That's just fantastic.
[by Beth] comments?

04:21 p.m., Wednesday, January 9, 2002
So, I'm finally back. I'm sort of sorry I was away for so long, but I think I needed the break. It's been rather freeing to just delete the news emails without reading. Not that I suddenly don't care; I care more than I can convey on this site. But I do find it's incredibly hard work to read all the stories and comment on why people should care about the news.

First story to catch my eye today, and I'm not even really going to comment on it, as I need to leave so I can catch the post - Paul's birthday's tomorrow and I want his card to get there in time! Enquiry finds institutional racism in the Met. An Asian officer was wrongly accused of sending racist hate mail to himself and other staff from ethnic minorities.

All I'm going to say is - why am I not surprised?
[by Beth] comments?