Teenage thoughts on freedom

Rummaging around some old keepsakes today, I found a letter that I had written in my teens on a visit to Berlin. It was interesting not just because I had forgotten it, but because I commented on the Wall. The visit was in 1971 when the Cold War was very much in force. I reprint the relevant comment here:

"The Brandenberg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and the Wall are very frightening. It is only when you get near them that you feel the real evil of autocracy -- communist or otherwise. You can see people perhaps a hundred yards away who cannot so much as walk over to you and ask for a light. It is very depressing, yet strangely enthralling -- I could look at it for hours."

It is good to know some 38 years later that that particular evil is no longer there. But Cyprus remains divided, Iran is cracking down on dissent, Aung San Suu Ky is locked up, women cannot go out alone in some Arab countries, gays can't marry in most places, and poverty and starvation are worse rather than better.

We all have a long way to go. But at least that East German can now walk over to the West and ask for a light.

Clutching at straws on a bad night for Britain

As I feared, Britain's anger with its politicians and its lack of engagement with Europe has led to a disastrous European Parliament election as far as anyone is concerned who is  pro-European and left of centre. Tories coming top and UKIP getting another seat was bad enough. But the vile British National Party getting seats is more than a national embarrassment, it is a disgrace. 

So having thought about it all for a day, I scrape up the following to make myself and other pro-European, left of centre types feel a bit better:

-- The party that saw the biggest percentage increase in vote was the Greens.

-- The Conservatives gained just 1 percent more than last time in the vote. Hardly enough to suggest a huge endorsement.

-- The BNP actually polled fewer votes in the two areas where it won seats  than last time. It owes its success to Labour's collapse rather than a sudden right-wing frenzy among the English.

-- Ditto to a certain extent for UKIP. It gained only 0.3 percent more of the vote. Its seats came from the Labour meltdown.

-- The Liberal Democrats did get an extra seat (although their share was down and nowhere near what it needs to be for them to be a viable opposition).

But all this is grasping at straws, I admit. It was a night when ignorance about Europe, fear of immigration and anger at the government combined to boost the right and feed the country's eurosceptic neurosis.

A bad night for Britain.

Two pictures to remember Tiananmen

Hard to believe but it is 20 years on Thursday since China's military cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen  Square. We now know China as a burgeoning capitalist kind of place that owns vast swathes of the United States economy through U.S. debt and which many hope will actually lead the world out of this nasty recession we are in.

We should not forget, though, that China is brutal to many of its own people. It stamps on human rights, executes those it does not like and shuts down freedom of speech and expression. 

To remind us, I offer two photographs. The one on the left is the inspiring one we know and love. Something poetic about it. The other picture, on the right, which was re-published today in The Guardian, tells the real story.