The tantrums which are emerging from the offense camp should be ignored. Britain has one of the largest military budgets in the world. As part of our swollen offense portfolio this small nation wields a preposterously expensive standing military which lacks utility (see Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya) and a nuclear arsenal which has no practical value beyond masculine prestige. There are three factors to consider. Continue reading →
Jacob Kushner, “China’s Congo Plan,” The American Interest, 10 January 2014
The Chinese are by no means the world’s first to seek their fortunes in Congo. But unlike the Western powers whose legacy is burdened to this day by colonialism, China’s footprints in Africa have been relatively “conflict-free.” During the first decade of the 21st century, at least 230,000 Chinese immigrated to Africa—as many as one million by some estimates. They opened import businesses, electronics shops, pharmacies and restaurants. Chinese trade with Africa blossomed, and China began looking for ways to help some of its state-owned companies to do more business across the continent than ever before. Two Chinese state banks began loaning money to companies willing to make bold investments. China’s Export-Import Bank, the smaller of the two, now provides more loans to sub-Saharan Africa than the World Bank, loans increasingly used to develop African infrastructure. By 2006, Chinese companies were investing more than $6 billion per year in roads, railways and other public infrastructure projects across Africa.By 2015, the figure is expected reach $50 billion. … Continue reading →
A study by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) in Australia has discovered that renewable energy is cheaper to produce than the old conventional fossil fuel sources, and that is without the subsidies. Continue reading →
After two incredible weeks, our ‘Bethlehem Unwrapped’ festival hosted by St James’s Church Piccadilly came to end on the 5th January and the replica WALL finally came down. Between December 23rd and January 5th, thousands came to see it and many came to write on it. The vast majority wrote messages of peace and solidarity while small number wrote in favour of the real separation wall. Messages were written in many languages and by British and international visitors alike.
The WALL also hosted film projections – including specially commissioned animated images by Treatment Studios; paintings by children from the Dar Al-Kalima School in Bethlehem (also exhibited inside St James’s); One World’s song ‘Freedom for Palestine’ and two video art pieces from internationally recognised Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour, Run Lara Run, Happy Days and A Space Exodus (for more of her extraordinary work, visit www.larissasansour.com)
The ‘Bethlehem Unwrapped’ festival programme included a wonderful line up of artists across spoken word, comedy, film, cuisine, debate and music – Rafeef Ziadah, Harry Baker and Bridget Minamore; Mark Steel, Jeremy Hardy and Dave Cohen; Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi; Jeff Halper and Leila Sansour; Adjoa Andoh and Yasmin Alibhai Brown; The Tallis Scholars and Nigel Kennedy – all performing to sell-out audiences. And inside St James’s Church we also had a mini-film programme of documentaries which included ‘Portrait of Bethlehem’ – photographs old and new from Planet Bethlehem Archive/Leila Sansour.
So, for all this, we send a HUGE thank-you to all the performers who took part and without whom we would not have had the wonderful two weeks that made up ‘Bethlehem Unwrapped’.
And those performers and contributors would also join us in recognizing the courage and commitment of St. James’s Rector Lucy Winkett, the clergy, wardens, PCC, staff and congregation to hosting a project that was always going to be perceived (by some anyway) as a controversial one.
Tipping Point North South (of which TPFF is an activity) was proud to be a lead partner on ‘Bethlehem Unwrapped’ – the brainchild of Tipping Point co-founder Justin Butcher. He pulled together an extraordinary team to make the event happen, from the WALL design and build team to the events programming and production management; from commissioning animation and film projections for the WALL to social media, press and PR. Together with everyone at St James’s, our wonderful production team forged close partnerships with our partner organisations including ICAHD, Amos Trust, Zaytoun and War on Want.
We’ve made a small selection of some of the reviews, articles and blogs about ‘Bethlehem Unwrapped’. Meantime, our launch clip on the Bethlehem Unwrapped youtube channel continues to be viewed – up to 60k so far. Below are links to this as well as our specially commissioned ‘Wall’ projections. (Special thanks to our photographer Hannah Barton and Tom Pursey our film recordist).
Here is hoping that the Palestinian people will see progress, somehow, in this New Year 2014.
Best wishes,
Deborah, Justin, Ho-Chih and Jen
Bethlehem Unwrapped is presented by St James’s Church, Piccadilly, in association with Amos Trust, Holy Land Trust, Interpal, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) UK, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, P21 Gallery, Tipping Point North South, War on Want & Zaytoun CIC.
Tipping Point North South is a co-operative that supports and initiates creative, campaign-driven projects that advance the global social justice agenda, through its Film Fund and other activities.
Nestled behind a forested ridgeline on the outskirts of Knoxville, Tennessee, is the sprawling Y-12 National Security Complex, America’s “Fort Knox” of weapons-grade uranium. The complex’s security cameras and machine gun nests are designed to repel an attack by the world’s most feared terrorist organizations, but they were no match for Sister Megan Rice, an 83-year-old Catholic nun armed with nothing more than a hammer and bolt cutters. Continue reading →
9. Will the Chinese economic miracle continue? Yes. After thirty years of rapid growth, the Chinese economy is now threatening to overtake the U.S. economy as the world’s largest, according to some measures. But there’s still plenty of scope for so-called “catch-up growth.” In terms of G.D.P. per person, the United States is still about five times as rich as China. Even middle-income countries such as Latvia and Chile are twice as rich. But with the formerly Communist nation still spending close to fifty per cent of its G.D.P. on infrastructure projects, education, and other forms of investment, the gap is likely to keep closing for some time. That’s what happened in other fast-growing Asian economies that industrialized earlier, such as Japan and Korea, and there’s no reason to expect China will be different. Continue reading →
Despite the economic crisis, the EU is facing serious lobbying to boost its defence spending.
Every time the West contemplates going to war, it’s a safe bet that “defence analysts” will pop up in the press bemoaning how Europe is militarily weaker than the United States. …
The 28-country bloc is under pressure from the arms industry to boost investment in drones. If this doesn’t occur “it’s quite inevitable that the defence base will further deteriorate,” Tom Enders, head of the Franco-German weapons producer EADS has warned. … Continue reading →
The Obama administration’s plan for maintaining and upgrading the U.S. nuclear arsenal will likely cost around 66 percent more over the next decade than senior Pentagon officials have predicted, according to a new assessment by the independent Congressional Budget Office.
Under the administration’s plan, operating, maintaining and upgrading the nuclear stockpile will cost a total of $355 billion from 2014 through 2023, said the CBO report, published just before the holidays and shortly after Congress finished action on a 2014 budget bill that restored some planned Pentagon spending cuts. Continue reading →
Michael Krepon, “Fifteen years later,” The Express Tribune News Network, 26 December 2013
India and Pakistan have travelled a long distance since testing nuclear devices in 1998. Back then, government officials and leading strategic thinkers on the subcontinent expressed confidence that these tests would have stabilising effects. Going public with the Bomb would relieve anxieties and facilitate diplomatic efforts to normalise relations. In countries where many lived in poverty that placed a premium on economic growth, all that was needed was minimum, credible deterrence. It’s worth recalling these aspirations 15 years later, during which Pakistan and India have fought one limited war and have experienced two severe crises. Their nuclear arsenals have grown steadily as diplomacy has faltered. Continue reading →
It’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So consider the actions of the U.S. Special Operations Command flattering indeed to the larger U.S. military. After all, over recent decades the Pentagon has done something that once would have been inconceivable. It has divided the whole globe, just about every inch of it, like a giant pie, into six command slices: U.S. European Command, or EUCOM (for Europe and Russia), U.S. Pacific Command, or PACOM (Asia), U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM (the Greater Middle East and part of North Africa), U.S. Southern Command, or SOUTHCOM (Latin America), and in this century, U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM (the United States, Canada, and Mexico), and starting in 2007, U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM (most of Africa). Continue reading →
Dr Rafeef Ziadah from War on Want talks to Afshin Rattansi, the host of Going Underground, about the UK’s billion pound drones deal with Israel and the incompetence of the companies involved when it comes to getting them ready on schedule.
After two incredible weeks, our ‘Bethlehem Unwrapped’ festival hosted by St James’s Church Piccadilly came to end on the 5th January and the replica WALL finally came down. Between December 23rd and January 5th, thousands came to see it and many came to write on it. The vast majority wrote messages of peace and solidarity while small number wrote in favour of the real separation wall. Messages were written in many languages and by British and international visitors alike. Continue reading →
The WALL at St James’s Piccadilly ‘unveiled’ & ‘in-situ’ until Jan 5th
Dear friends, colleagues and supporters,
If you’re not able to get to see our WALL in St James’s Piccadilly, the short video below shows the WALL’s completion at our launch last Monday evening. Tom Pursey (who, btw, took part in our Tax and the Civilised Society day in June) is recording the festival throughout… so do watch out for more short clips by him on our Bethlehem Unwrapped Youtube channel.
Tipping Point co-founder Justin Butcher is the Bethlehem Unwrapped festival director and the person behind the WALL concept; Deborah Burton is the event co-producer; and Tipping Point board member, actor Adjoa Andoh is taking part in the closing ceremony on 5th January. We are very proud partners on this imaginative and much-talked about Christmas event and salute Lucy Winkett, Rector, the clergy, wardens, PCC, staff & congregation of St James’s Piccadilly for their courage in welcoming this initiative at their church.
And just today, Giles Fraser wrote his Guardian column on the WALL! Look out for it on Guardian Unlimited and in the Guardian on Saturday.
The festival has been reported, tweeted, blogged, had picks of the week, variously by: The Guardian, The Times, BBC World Service; Al Jazeera; Ali Abunimah, Max Blumenthal, Stephen Fry, Naomi Klein, Max Keiser – with more coming in daily.
If you are in London, do make time to come and see the WALL – it’s 8m high and getting more and more messages left on it. A film programme (20 mins) is projected onto the WALL throughout the day; and inside St James’s is more for you to see as part of our Bethlehem Unwrapped festival.
Tickets are also selling well for our events programme – booking info below:
29th Dec 7.30pm – a great line up of slam poets and spoken word artists including Rafeef Ziadah and Harry Baker
30th Dec – a brilliant comedy night with Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steel headlining
2nd Jan – Leila Sansour joins us for a screening of her film Jeremy Hardy vs the Israeli Army
3rd Jan – a feast prepared by Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
4th Jan – a debate ‘Both sides of the Barrier – Separation or Security’
5th Jan – Nigel Kennedy closes our festival with a concert ‘The Bridge’
