The Glossy Stories and Seedy Underbellies of the Great Nuclear Race

If The Telegraph in Calcutta, India, is anything to go by, George W Bush is a handsome, rock-star-esque man – powerful and yet humble. Reports centre on an impetuous kiss on the cheek he received from a woman, while “[f]or a split second, the most powerful man in the world was stunned. The next, he gracefully pulled himself away from K. Padmavathi and started patting her on her shoulders.”
More

pic: 'Hang on a sec, buddy, I just wanna get this little happy snap.' George W Bush with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week (pic: Al Jazeera)

This article first appeared in the Cheers weekly political column, Smokin' Mirrors, on March 8 2006.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Power Sourcing Japan's Race for Resources by Willhemina Wahlin and Kaoru Natsuda It's only natural that in light of the high level of consumption in the developed world in the last 100 years, something was going to have to give. Now, in an increasingly unstable world, where developing nations are quickly developing and developed nations are quietly panicking, governments are beginning to take the idea of resource security very seriously indeed. Japan, one of the world's most resource-poor countries, recently unveiled the New National Energy Strategy (NNES) - an aggressive plan to procure sources of energy to keep its economy humming. The Japanese will use their expertise in energy-efficient technology and such things as Official Development Assistance (ODA) and the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to exploit other countries' energy sources. But they must work quickly. Geopolitical lines are already being drawn in the sand. Japan may have to sacri
Read more
Image
Remembering Marla A tribute to Marla Ruzicka (1976-2005) Marla Ruzicka was tragically killed in a car bomb explosion in Iraq on April 16 2005, along with her co-worker and friend Faiz Ali Salim. One year on, we take a look at what CIVIC, the organisation she founded, still has to say about the innocent victims of war, and how they choose to remember Marla. ________________________ I confess that a year ago, when I heard of the tragic death of a woman I had never heard of before that night, I cried. Marla Ruzicka, a young Californian woman, was killed by a car bomb in Baghdad on April 16 2005, along with her friend and co-worker Faiz Ali Salim. She had travelled extensively to both Afghanistan and Iraq, her main mission to try to get aid to civilians who have been harmed by the US wars in both countries. In an online journal entry on June 25 2004, she had this, almost prophetically, to say: “Back in Baghdad and happy. A good friend of mine, advised me to keep my movements minimal in t
Read more