International Panel of Eminent Personalities : Report on the 1994 Rwanda Genocide
"But when it came to trying to understand the actual act of killing, we confess our total failure. We acknowledge from the outset this failure. We have grasped the insidious process by which people were stirred up. We understand how they were manipulated and how they came to accept the demonization and dehumanization of others. We studied the literature, some of it highly controversial, that attempts to account for collective human breakdowns in which ordinary citizens turn into monsters. We have arrived at a certain comprehension of the complex series of factors at work. But we do not pretend for a moment that we have reached any understanding of the act of one neighbour or one Christian or one teacher actually hacking another to death. Perhaps, some day, answers will emerge. But for now, we are able to offer little illumination on the first questions that so many people reasonably ask."
Ideas : Sovereignty
"What is the "right size" for a nation? What counts most - Geography? Language? Economic self-sufficiency? The case of Quebec is familiar, but two other examples aren't. In Micro-states (July 5th) professor Tim Carroll examines the case for the independence of Prince Edward Island. A Charter for Toronto (July 12th), with former mayors John Sewell and David Crombie, urban guru Jane Jacobs, journalists and academic economists, asks what would happen if the city separated from the province."
02h05 GMT (real evil g2)
Mark Kingwell
"Focusing on income levels while ignoring other factors can only lead to a skewed assessment of citizen well-being. But perhaps the time has come for those of us on the left to acknowledge that plunging average income is no longer something we can simply shrug off. Sure money isn't everything, but declines in income, set against a cultural background of relentless wealth-celebration, can't help but generate relative poverty. Poverty creates envy. And envy, felt consistently and acutely enough, leads to many other social ills we cannot so easily ignore, like crime and riots and beggars on the street."
project-flash
"is a new shell replacement for Windows 98 made from Macromedia's Flash 4 vector based technology."
Gary Dahl
"The heather-encrusted headlands, veiled in fog as thick as smoke in a crowded pub, hunched precariously over the moors, their rocky elbows slipping off land's end, their bulbous, craggy noses thrust into the thick foam of the North Sea like bearded old men falling asleep in their pints."