Homo Iridens

He's Trevorywhere!

2006-06-01T17:53:00.001Z

Praise be for Trevor Phillips! Prepared to wade in everywhere... And now that it's become clear that living near people of different races is an impediment to personal happiness (how long before the Tories pledge to sort that one out?), it's even more essential that, yes, again, Trevor pipes up. Is there really no one else out there (in BBC producers' contacts books)?

He's Trevorywhere!

2006-06-01T17:53:00.000Z

"8. NEPAL SHALL BE A SECULAR STATE."

2006-05-30T22:13:00.000Z

This proclamation, issued by the House of Representatives of Nepal's new government, has sparked off, with its punchy Article 8, a significant Samudaya.org, the BJP and, somewhat bizarrely, Congress have been getting a bit exercised over the border in India. Uday Bajracharya, writing in the independent Kantipur Online, defends Nepali secularism by saying:

In the case of Nepal, it is mainly the Buddhists that have been asking for secularism. Buddhism and Hinduism have co-existed extremely well in Nepal for centuries. Secularism only means freedom from dominance of one religion by another [...] the people of Nepal have to understand that the path to secularism is not going to be easy. Certain sections of the community that had been benefiting from Nepal being a Hindu state may well resist the change. The secularists mustn’t see the recent event as a ‘victory’ over Hinduism because secularism is not anti-Hinduism.

All entirely admirable, of course, but rendered a little comic by the appearance of "Muslim Brides Dinner Club" in the Google Ads beneath his column. Meanwhile, the Agape Press wonders whether a newly secular Nepal might offer growth opportunities... which won't help Outlook India, as it examines the RSS's claims that it's all just a Christian conspiracy - and wonders whether this might serve to make Hindutva worse. And the media isn't immune either. Zee News reported that 1700 copies of the Kathmandu Post were burned by Hindu groups in Southern Nepal, during a protest against the government's decision. US papers avoided a similar fate, presumably since the reactionary diaspora issued a call to arms via this letter from "Nepalese living in America". Track Nepal's blogosphere here at the ever excellent Global Voices.

Guardian's Portrait of London wins Amnesty Media Award

2005-09-28T12:00:00.000Z

Shook the dust out of my whistle, buffed my pate, and chewed my fingernails at the Amnesty Media Awards last week, and, amid the surprisingly lengthy thank yous, Leo Benedictus offered a functional acceptance speech for a really excellent Guardian special report I had unaccountably missed. London: The world in one city pulls together a huge range of statistics with interviews, profiles, and maps to create a portrait of London's much-vaunted diversity. Organised by ethnicity, religion, and omission, it's the outstanding result of what Benedictus called "travelling around on a tube pass and eating nice food". A worthy winner. Link

An Immigration Map of Great Britain (ippr, via BBC, via Observer Blog)

2005-09-09T12:00:00.000Z

ippr have released a report mapping Britain's immigrant communities in some depth. Mapping country of birth is a good way in, but a more revealing (if infinitely more complex) map might be brought out by mapping grandparents' countries of birth... Free BBC version (thanks to Observer Blog)

A Question of Culture - British Academy panel discussion [March 2005]

2005-06-14T12:00:00.001Z

The British Academy has made available audio of the full 1h56 of this panel discussion (hosted by Queen's University, Belfast) between Professor Adam Kuper, FBA, Brunel University, Professor Fred Halliday, FBA, London School of Economics, and Professor Jytte Klausen, Brandeis University, USA. Culture seems to explain everything at the moment, the way gender once did, or, before that, class, or, a long time ago, race, or, even longer ago, destiny. A decade ago, Samuel Huntington warned that, in future, 'The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural.' According to one commentator after another, celebratory or indignant, every European country is multicultural. Is immigration policy a matter of dealing with cultural difference? Today, these debates are at their most acute as European countries shape policies on 'Muslim' minorities, and confront the intricate crises of the Middle East, and the challenge of terrorism. Link

Personal Genome weblog

2005-06-14T12:00:00.000Z

I'm obviously a bit slow on the uptake, but I tripped over the clear, unfussy Personal Genome ("Genomics as a medical tool and a lifestyle choice") today. Apart from the massively comprehensive set of links - see his sidebar for a huge range of resources - it's an engaging mix of the personal and the technical. His latest post sees him get his Genographic Project results back. Link

Ellis Island Portraits, Augustus F Sherman

2005-06-11T12:00:00.000Z

Last week the Sunday Telegraph picked up on Augustus F Sherman's portraits of arrivals at Ellis Island, and paired them with four Ellis Island Stories from Peter Morton Coan's Ellis Island Interviews. The portraits will form the centrepiece of an exhibition in New York this summer, and in 2007, in Liverpool. PBS collates links to Ellis Island resources here, further images can be found here, here and, yes, here, and it's possible to search passenger records of the more than 20 million who passed through Ellis Island here. And a reminder of a different kind of immigration policy. Link [to Vanity Fair's slideshow of the same portraits]

Ashkenazic genetic diseases and intelligence [3quarksdaily, Futurepundit, NYT, Economist]

2005-06-08T12:00:00.000Z

The incomparable 3quarksdaily highlights [along with the The Economist, FuturePundit, and The NYT] a recent story provoking considerable debate. A new University of Utah study [pdf] links Ashkenazic genetic diseases and enhanced intelligence.

As to how the disease mutations might affect intelligence, the Utah researchers cite evidence that the sphingolipid [my link] disorders promote the growth and interconnection of brain cells. Mutations in the DNA repair genes, involved in second cluster of Ashkenazic diseases, may also unleash growth of neurons.

UK 2001 Census - on Ethnicity and Religion

2005-05-24T00:00:00.000Z

It only comes round once a decade, so it's an invaluable marker of how the UK is changing, or, perhaps, of how people in the UK are changing how they define themselves. In one section, Len Cook, the UK's National Statistician, acknowledges that ethnic definitions are by no means static, and:

recognises the substantial complexities surrounding the classification of ethnic identity. The challenge he sees is to balance several different objectives:
- comparability between the Census and other data sources;
- capturing the increasing diversity of ethnicity due to inter-ethnic family formation and migration patterns;
- consistency over time to facilitate analysis of trends and policy impacts over the very long term.
He recognises the tension between the need for continuing work to develop our understanding of the changing nature of ethnicity, and the need to fix the classifications at some point (e.g. at Census time) to enable consistency of reporting and comparability with the Census. These considerations are set within a social and political framework of considerable interest in equal opportunities and in issues of national identity.
[...]
The National Statistician also sees a clear need for research to further enhance the National Statistics understanding of and approach to classifying ethnicity and related concepts.

For further information on the research that the Office for National Statistics is conducting, contact Ethnicity&Identity@ONS.gov.uk Link

The Shame in Spain [Observer Sports Monthly]

2005-05-13T12:00:00.000Z

I've been hanging onto this one for too long - the Observer Sport Monthly's lengthy piece on racism in Spanish football. Link

Sven Lindqvist - Terra Nullius

2005-05-08T12:00:00.000Z

Despite having small Swedish (and less Norwegian), I gather from this Aftonbladet article that Sven Lindqvist's latest book unearthing the deadly impulses of colonial expansion has come under criticism for his failure to interview Aborigines themselves about the impact of colonisation. No news yet on when an English translation may be issued. Link

Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities (Routledge)

2005-05-07T12:00:00.000Z

Weighing in at just under 5 kilos, the three-volume Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities includes around 600 entries ranging from 1000 to 5000 words, organised by group, nation, topic and individual biography. Worth comparing with Minority Rights Group International's World Directory of Minorities. Link

Keywords for a different kind of globalization

2005-05-06T12:00:00.000Z

Pakistan's Dawn newspaper recently reviewed Sage India's Keywords series of books, edited by Nadia Tazi. All four volumes - Identity, Truth, Gender and Experience - contain 6 essays pulling together new thinking from around the globe, as the sub-title "Keywords for a Different Kind of Globalization" indicates. Link (to press release in PDF - look for the Keywords link after the jump)

$5000 DNA Sequencing by 2007? [FuturePundit]

2005-05-06T00:47:00.000Z

Futurepundit reports that Helicos Biosciences will have the first commercial DNA sequencing machines ready for sale by the end of 2006 or early 2007, able to sequence a person's DNA in 3 days, at a cost of US$5000. Link

Spat over NatGeo's Genographic Project [Wired]

2005-05-06T00:37:00.000Z

Wired reports that the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism has threatened to boycott National Geographic's Genographic Project, over its "unresolved ethical issues". Link

"Hooray for biogeographical diversity" [Guardian - 9 April 2005]

2005-04-18T12:00:00.000Z

Steven and Hilary Rose attempt to pull together the strands of race, identity and ethnicity, and make the case that:

"as a scientific concept, race is well past its sell-by date. The study of biological difference needs a new concept - one that makes possible sensitive recognition of the diversity of health risk, and of tracing our own ancestral roots through DNA analysis. And we need it to be a concept fit for the longing for a post-racist 21st century. So let's hear it for the clunky, let's hear it for the precise - hooray for biogeographical ancestry."

Link