Layer 449 . . . Dignity, Justice, Human Rights, Protests and Peaceful Revolutions

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One of the Egyptian protesters said, "This is not just a revolt to topple the regime. This is a revolt for our dignity and for justice."

Meanwhile, on TV yesterday, a reporter said, "Outside Tripoli he (Gaddafi) has no control whatsoever."

When people start to demand the right to some dignity and social justice, then it becomes more unlikely they will replace one set of ruling bastards with another set that's pretty similar, as has happened in Britain. If people have overcome apathy and fear, and come out on the streets to demand the right to be the rulers and not the ruled, they have reached a different level of consciousness. Awakening a higher level of consciousness is like letting a genie out of a bottle. What sort of trickery (or power) might be required to persuade it to go back in the bottle?

This past month has been amazing. Last weekend the Gaddafi regime lost control of all areas of Libya apart from the capital city. What's it going to take to put that genie back in its bottle? Incredible. At the same time the regime in Bahrain, of all places, was forced to withdraw from the central square and allow the protestors to occupy it. It was also a symbol of what's now happening that the regime was also forced to cancel its forthcoming Grand Prix - a lucrative part of the biggest capitalist circus on the planet, the benefits of which reach NONE of the Bahraini people, except maybe a handful employed at the racing circuit on minimum wages.

The previous weekend had seen the beginning of the challenge to the regime in Algeria.

The weekend before that we saw, of course, the downfall of Mubarak in Egypt.

From protest to revolution

Anger at inequality isn't confined to Tunisia or Egypt - where uprisings give a blueprint for other nations.

by Dan Hind

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/20112131580638716.html#

The popular uprising in Egypt is still less than three weeks old. We still cannot know how it will end - whether the ruling party will make some concessions and cling on to power within a new government - or whether a united opposition will sweep away Mubarak's apparatus. And we cannot tell what kind of regime will emerge.

The revolutions that overthrew the Soviet system in Central and Eastern Europe did not always empower the dissidents who risked the most in the struggle for freedom. Former secret policemen and their allies in organised crime often proved more adept in the years that followed than the idealists they once tormented.

But for all the uncertainty, Egypt has already shaken the region and the world. For those watching in Europe and the US, it has put an end to any lazy notion that the alternative to corrupt dictatorship in the Middle East is chaos or Islamic extremism. The worldly realists, with their regretful talk of the need for moderation, now stand exposed as power-worshipping fantasists. The Christians and Muslims crying "one hand, one hand", as they call for an end to Mubarak's tyranny have made a farce of decades of Western commentary and analysis.

Standing as one

The regime itself did all it could to encourage sectarian tension in the country, while its supporters in the West pretended it was a bulwark against religious violence. But, despite all the efforts to destroy civil society through torture and the organised suspicion of a police state, people have found each other.

Millions are being transformed by the experience of a public life without fear. In the words of one of the protestors, Wael Gawdat: "At Tahrir Square you see different Egyptians from the ones you see on the subway or the bus. No fights and no discomfort from the crowded setting. In short, Egypt is more beautiful in Tahrir Square."

The decision of the Egyptian people to take responsibility for their future - their decision to become citizens - enlivens, even delights. This is a movement that isn't being orchestrated by leaders in the way we have been led to expect. People are acting as though they are free and so becoming free. 

The Egyptians, like the Tunisians - like people all over the world - want a share in the vast wealth that their rulers and a handful of insiders have hoarded for themselves. They want dignity and a life they can call their own. For the moment they are not afraid and they are united. They are showing us the truth of David Hume’s remark that our rulers 'have nothing to support them but opinion'. The Egyptian people no longer believed the Mubarak regime was as good as any other that might be established. They have seen for themselves that there can be stability without torture.

Rejecting injustice

They do not believe that the distribution of property is just and they do not accept the legitimacy of their government. They have changed their opinion of what is possible and right. Every day of freedom they enjoy is a message to the rest of us; things do not have to be as they are.
So the Egyptians and the Tunisians have swept away the prejudices that have so long confused and corrupted the understanding of people in the West. More than that, they have also reminded Europeans and American what political action can achieve - and what it feels like to be free.

We have long been entranced by the idea that shopping and voting once every four years for one wing or other of the pro-business party would be enough to give us the good life. Vast public relations campaigns fostered the sense that a better future could be had, if only we chose wisely from the list of approved candidates. All the while the rich have taken more and left the rest of us to struggle with insecurity, anxiety and mounting debts. The people in Cairo didn't look to charismatic politicians or party machines to do the work for them. They moved faster than their leaders.

You can do it, too

In the West, there have been stirrings of dissent as the scale of the economic crisis becomes apparent and the reassurances of the mainstream media - that good times are just around the corner, come to sound ever more threadbare. Students, and young people in particular, have already shaken off the wishful passivity of the previous generation. But for the most part the outrage and sense of betrayal have expressed themselves in ways that pose no real threat to the governing establishment or the opulent minority who control it.

The Tea Party in the United States and Conservatives in Britain promise change while working to ensure that everything that matters stays the same. The right in both countries has benefited from the failure of their centrist opponents to address the fundamental causes of recession, unemployment and social breakdown. It is as though the entire political establishment has adopted the stultifying uniformity of a one-party state. There is a bankruptcy of policy and of principle that will, perhaps, finally compel us to take matters into our own hands.

In the presidential campaign of 2008, Barack Obama never tired of telling voters they were the change they had been looking for. The people of Tunisia and Egypt have turned a clever slogan into an undeniable fact. They did not wait for permission to take action. If we want another world we must all learn from them.

Can we look beyond the stereotypes offered by our media, and see that the Egyptians and the Tunisians are now daring us to be free?

Yes, we can.

Dan Hind has worked in publishing since 1998 and is the author of two well-acclaimed books: The Return of the Public and The Threat to Reason. He is also a regular contributor to The Guardian.

Follow him on Twitter: @danhind

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Al-Jazeera:

Social networks, social revolution 


Youtube, Facebook and Twitter have become the new weapons of mass mobilisation.


http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2011/02/201121614532116986.html


Information is power, but 21st century technology has unleashed an information revolution, and now the genie is out of the bottle.


Youtube, Facebook and Twitter have become the new weapons of mass mobilisation; geeks have taken on dictators; bloggers are dissidents; and social networks have become rallying forces for social justice.


As people around the world challenge authorities, from Iran to Tunisia, Egypt to Yemen, entire societies are being transformed as ordinary citizens see the difference, imagine the alternative, and come together to organise for a better future.


So, are social networks triggering social revolution? And where will the next domino fall?


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Reflections: Egypt Revolution


Egypt's Uprising is only the first in many steps,the challenge ahead is to build a society on fair principles.


http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/201121414422998168.html

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What makes a revolution succeed?


While the aspirations are different, Egyptians could take five lessons from Iran's 1979 revolt.


http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/201121393446561799.html


On February 12, 32 years this week, Iran proclaimed its revolution a success: the Shah was gone, the military had been decimated, and a new era could dawn.


Although what followed turned out very differently than what the Egyptians are hoping for, Iran's was one of the great revolutions of the 20th century, and Egyptians might well look to it for inspiration in their effort to oust an entrenched regime and gain new rights.


Today, the Egyptian military has assumed command, with promises of free and fair elections. Does this mean the demonstrators can go home and trust their army? Egypt and Iran are very different, their aspirations and media eons apart, and, one hopes, the future the Egyptians construct will be more democratic and safe for those reaching for popular victory.


Nonetheless, for those along the Nile facing quickly changing events, the Iranian revolution offers some useful lessons.


Lesson one: Revolutions take time

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Egypt's revolution has just begun


The transition to civilian rule will not be easy - if the military are capable of delivering on their promises.


http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/2011213134458448460.html


"Whatever happens, nothing will ever be the same again" – Tahrir Square demonstrator.


Mubarak has fallen. February 11, 2011, has inscribed itself on the page of world history. Now the struggle for the 'heart and soul' of the revolution begins. It's a testing time, and all will be tested.


Test 1: Procedural and institutional change – the establishment of legality


At what point will the uprising be sufficiently secure from counter-revolution to begin construction of a truly transformed democratic polity? What are the minimum security requirements for its immediate defence and subsequent extension? What structural changes will have to be demanded - and fought through to a successful conclusion – in order to neutralise and dis-articulate the still formidable powers of the Mubarak state and its - temporarily silenced - backers?


Test 2: The shape and boundaries of revolutionary democracy – the contours of freedom and the struggles surrounding inclusive or exclusive participation 


How will the emergent revolution realise itself, consecrate itself? What shall be its core tasks, boundaries and limits? Who is to be included, who excluded? And on what basis, what grounds?
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Layer 441 . . . Egypt, Mubarak, Resignation, Revolution, Detentions, Torture, Scapegoating and Banking

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Egypt, bankers, and public expenditure cutbacks continue to dominate the news, but here's an interesting piece by Zoe Williams on the Tories' continuing efforts to discriminate in favour of married couples:

All Iain Duncan Smith's rot about marriage disguises a tired old taboo

The guff Duncan Smith talks about commitment shows what really drives him: painting cohabiting couples as an aberration

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/10/iain-duncan-smith-marriage-taboo

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Hosni Mubarak 'may step down'
 

Ruling party officials suggest Egypt's president will 'meet protesters demands', ahead of televised statement.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/20112101653445426.html

The Supreme Council of Egyptian Armed Forces has met to discuss the ongoing protests against the government of Hosni Mubarak, the president.

In a statement entitled 'Communique Number One', televised on state television, the army said it had convened the meeting response to the current political turmoil, and that it would continue to convene such meetings.

Thurday's meeting was chaired by Mohamed Tantawi, the defence minister, rather than Mubarak, who, as president, would normally have headed the meeting.

"Based on the responsibility of the armed forces and its commitment to protect the people and its keenness to protect the nation... and in support of the legitimate demands of the people [the army] will continue meeting on a continuous basis to examine measures to be taken to protect the nation and its gains and the ambitions of the great Egyptian people," the statement.

The army's statement was met with a roar of approval from protesters in Tahrir Square as vast crowds poured into the area.

Earlier, Hassan al-Roweni, an Egyptian army commander, told protesters in the square that "everything you want will be realised".

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Mubarak resignation rumours grow

PM and army officials suggest Hosni Mubarak may step down as state television says Egyptian president will address nation soon

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/10/mubarak-resignation-rumours-grow

President Hosni Mubarak's rule appears to be on the brink of collapse after senior politicians said they expect him to relinquish power in the coming hours as strikes and demonstrations spread across the country.

The prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, told the BBC that he believed Mubarak would step down and that the situation in the country will be clarified soon.

Hossam Badrawi, the new secretary general of the ruling party, was quoted in the state press as saying that he has requested Mubarak to transfer his powers to his vice-president, Omar Suleiman, and that he expects him to resign this evening. But he later told state television that no decision had been made.

General Hassan al-Roueini, the military commander for the Cairo, told the crowds packed in to Cairo's Tahrir square, the epicentre of the protests to demand Mubarak's resignation, that: "All your demands will be met today". The tens of thousands of people let up a deafening cheer and chants of: "The people and army are one".

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Unfortunately this may not be the case, according to this morning's Guardian:

Egypt's army 'involved in detentions and torture'

Military accused by human rights campaigners of targeting hundreds of anti-government protesters

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/09/egypt-army-detentions-torture-accused

The Egyptian military has secretly detained hundreds and possibly thousands of suspected government opponents since mass protests against President Hosni Mubarak began, and at least some of these detainees have been tortured, according to testimony gathered by the Guardian.

The military has claimed to be neutral, merely keeping anti-Mubarak protesters and loyalists apart. But human rights campaigners say this is clearly no longer the case, accusing the army of involvement in both disappearances and torture – abuses Egyptians have for years associated with the notorious state security intelligence (SSI) but not the army.

The Guardian has spoken to detainees who say they have suffered extensive beatings and other abuses at the hands of the military in what appears to be an organised campaign of intimidation. Human rights groups have documented the use of electric shocks on some of those held by the army.

Egyptian human rights groups say families are desperately searching for missing relatives who have disappeared into army custody. Some of the detainees have been held inside the renowned Museum of Egyptian Antiquities on the edge of Tahrir Square. Those released have given graphic accounts of physical abuse by soldiers who accused them of acting for foreign powers, including Hamas and Israel.

Among those detained have been human rights activists, lawyers and journalists, but most have been released. However, Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in Cairo, said hundreds, and possibly thousands, of ordinary people had "disappeared" into military custody across the country for no more than carrying a political flyer, attending the demonstrations or even the way they look. Many were still missing.

"Their range is very wide, from people who were at the protests or detained for breaking curfew to those who talked back at an army officer or were handed over to the army for looking suspicious or for looking like foreigners even if they were not," he said. "It's unusual and to the best of our knowledge it's also unprecedented for the army to be doing this."

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The west's debt to Egypt

After actively supporting Mubarak's corrupt and violent rule, the west has a duty to help end it

by Ahmed Salah

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/10/the-west-has-debts-to-egypt

This week has seen the biggest protest in the history of Egypt. Millions have demonstrated in Cairo and other cities all over the country – north, south, east, and west. All had the same demands. The first, as the world knows now, is that the dictator Hosni Mubarak must step down.

We managed to lay siege to the parliament, the government, and the notorious ministry of interior, sites that have witnessed the murder and injury of hundreds of Egyptians, and where I was hit by a sniper's rubber bullet. This was proof that – contrary to the regime's belief that time is on their side, and that the revolution will grow weaker as protesters tire and lose momentum – the revolution is actually getting stronger by the day.

This revolution is not for bread as much as for freedom. It was made principally by the educated, rather than the crushed poorer classes. And it is getting more and more popular as Egyptians balance values such as democracy, freedom, justice, dignity and transparency on one hand, and despotism, oppression, injustice, humiliation and corruption on the other.

Understanding this, the regime has gone back to the language of threats. So, the newly appointed vice-president, former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, now warns that he won't tolerate this much longer and that Mubarak is not leaving any time soon. Meanwhile, security forces are still kidnapping, interrogating and torturing activists, even taking them from their homes. Some of them are still in unknown locations. They do not understand that we, the activists, no longer control the will of the people. The will of the people has its own impulse and power.

But why is this regime clinging to power so hard? Why are they willing to do whatever it takes to stay in control? They still murder protesters in parts of the country where they believe they can get away with it. On Tuesday they shot dead two and injured scores more in the city of Sohag, in the south. On Monday dozens were injured in the Oasis of Elkharga after live bullets were fired at them. The regime is doing this only to protect its loot. The wealth of Mubarak, in British and Swiss banks alone, is estimated at between $40bn and $70bn. And what about his bank accounts in other countries, property and real estate, gold and diamonds? He is not alone, either. All members of his regime, past and present, have huge fortunes in western banks that resulted directly from obscene corruption.

Why has the west been silent about this corruption, about the terrible violations of human rights in Egypt and the region, and about the torture and killing? The west, including the UK, has been complicit in all these crimes by providing support and safe havens. It has mistakenly believed that democracy and freedom is dangerous if implemented in the Middle East, fearing that Islamists would take power.

The world can see now, in both Tunisia and Egypt, how false this assumption was. It is clear those revolutions encompass all elements of society and seek values aspired to by people around the world – the most important of which is freedom. We were systematically punished for decades for a notion that only resides in the minds of western politicians and the lies of tyrants. We lived in a police state, occupied by a two million-strong militarised police force. Given this, isn't there now a moral responsibility that the west bears?

Britain, and other western powers, must take a moral stand in support of the people of Egypt and their demand for the right to be free. This should not be mere diplomatic words: real tangible support should include measures to ensure power is passed to the people, and to put an end to the regime's efforts to kill this revolution.

This is the least compensation our people deserve for the years of western support for these injustices. The money looted from Egypt should be returned and a democratic government should use it to resolve the huge problems this regime has been creating for decades. Dare we hope that these calls for support won't be ignored again?

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Not 1989. Not 1789. But Egyptians can learn from other revolutions

Ecstatic crowds in Cairo prove there is no clash of civilisations – everyone wants freedom. The question is, how to get it?

by Timothy Garton Ash

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/09/egypt-can-learn-from-europe-revolutions

Before we go any further, let us make two deep bows. First and deepest to those who started this, at great personal risk, with no support from the professedly freedom-loving west, and against a regime that habitually uses torture. Honour and respect to you. Second, hats off to Lady Luck, contingency, fortuna – which, as Machiavelli observed, accounts for half of everything that happens in human affairs. No revolution has ever got anywhere without brave individuals and good luck.

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Beyond Tahrir: Two faces of Egypt

On the one hand there is vice-president Omar Suleiman, and on the other young activist Wael Ghonim

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/10/beyond-tahrir-two-faces-egypt

Editorial

On the very day when the old regime was hoping the revolution would run out of steam, it instead gathered fresh strength. But Tahrir is now as much a cul-de-sac politically as it has become physically. It cannot be abandoned by the protesters because it is symbolically too important, yet just being in Tahrir is not enough. On the other hand, the regime cannot clear the square by the use of force because that would be the wrong kind of victory for them. Some protesters now want to march to parliament or to the headquarters of state TV. They may do so, but the real struggle is now as much about information as location.

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Cameron's scapegoating will have a chilling, toxic impact

Blaming Islamists and multiculturalism for the backlash from US and British wars risks fuelling violence on the streets

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/09/cameron-scapegoating-muslims-toxic-impact

by Seumas Milne

By blaming the threat of terrorism on multiculturalism, Cameron has signalled that ethnic minority policy will now be driven by an alarmingly skewed conception of state security.

And by branding political Islam as extremist, he's playing on the ignorance of those for whom Muslim and Islamist are as good as indistinguishable. What is called Islamism includes a wide spectrum of political trends, peaceful and violent, socially conservative and progressive, from Turkey's ruling party to al-Qaida. Mainstream Islamists, certainly including almost all the groups Cameron is now casting into outer darkness, are in fact committed to democratic freedoms.

What Cameron and the bulk of the British political class cannot acknowledge is that their continued support for the war on terror and occupation of Afghanistan, far from keeping the streets safe, is the crucial factor in the continuing threat of terrorism in Britain.

The revolutionary upheavals taking place in Tunisia and Egypt should offer the western powers a chance to change direction. After all, backing for despots across the Arab worlds such as Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak has long been one of the central grievances at the heart of Islamist (and nationalist) politics, in the region and beyond. It would be bizarre if just as the British and other western governments are having to come to terms with Islamist movements in the Middle East, they were treating their counterparts at home as enemies of the state.

The practical policy consequences of Cameron's neocon turn may be modest. But its wider impact is likely to be chilling and poisonous. If the government's message is that peaceful independent Muslim political activism is beyond the pale, it won't just be regarded as hypocritical and undemocratic – it will strengthen the hand of those committed to violence.

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Politicians and bankers: Struggle for power

The truth is that Gordon Brown and David Cameron have both failed to stand up to the City

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/10/politicians-bankers-struggle-for-power

Editorial

Yesterday's parliamentary debate degenerated into an argument over which party had been weakest in tackling the banks. The truth is that Gordon Brown and David Cameron have both failed to stand up to the City. Less than three years on from the worst financial crisis in a lifetime, ministers of all stripes have simply let bankers get back to business as usual.

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Layer 436 . . . Jon Snow, Schools, Education, Universities, Classics, News, Journalism, al-Jazeera, Egypt, Revolution and Fully Evolved Humans

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"My problem with my school was this: I wasn't interested in the things that people wanted to teach me."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y203s

Poor Jon Snow. A good man who had the misfortune to be brought up as an over-privileged child in a mega-bourgeois family; son of a father who considered him a failure because he couldn't or wouldn't learn Latin and Greek.

I nearly wrote 'geek' just then. Jon's certainly not that. He's not peculiar, or dislikable, or overly intellectual. Not a geek in any way. He's a hands-on journalist, reporter and writer. Right now he's out in Cairo - getting his hands dirty and putting his personal wellbeing on the line.

The man has soul. He would like to play the piano really well; he reads uplifting, inspiring and informative books; he rides a bike every day; he paints watercolours. He was thrown out of university for being a radical ringleader and organiser of a week-long sit-in. His home's in Dorset. He has an affinity with Africa and music by bands such as Orchestre Baobab. He enjoys classical music for all the right reasons. He's not pompous, or a fake, or insecure, or a poser. He's a fully evolved human being.

Whilst at school he decided to start a student newspaper. After university he worked in a day centre for homeless young people. He became a journo because he had a burning curiosity and was always asking questions. And because he wanted to get back to Uganda, where he'd done a year on VSO.

Snow declined an OBE because he believes working journalists should not take honours from those that they report on.

In 1976, Snow rejected an approach by the British intelligence services to spy on his colleagues. At first he was asked to supply information about the Communist Party, but he was then asked to spy on certain "left-wing people" working in television. In return he would have received secret monthly tax-free payments into his bank account, matching his then salary.

He refuses to wear any symbol which may represent his views on air; in the run up to Remembrance Day he condemned what he called 'Poppy Fascism' because "in the end there really must be more important things in life than whether a news presenter wears symbols on his lapels".

- Wikipedia

I've always hated the way everyone in politics and the media goes around wearing poppies when you know these same people supported the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Bloody hypocrites. Snow's the only media figure who obviously feels the same way. I probably have more reasons than most for supporting Poppy Day, but I refuse to wear one because it's just 'the done thing', and it's done by conformist, image-conscious 'patriots'.

I once phoned Jon Snow at Channel 4 News to offer him some information and clarification on the subject of education. Amazingly he took my call personally, and spoke with me in a respectful, genuine and unhurried manner. The man has quality.

So here's a guy who's been the main man at Channel 4 News since 1989, but suffered from the bad opinion of his teachers and of his own father because he wasn't sufficiently 'academic'. Here's someone who's of outstanding character and intelligence, who never completed a university degree. Here's a bloke who enjoys his chosen profession and has resisted opportunities to climb the greasy corporate pole because he's not interested in wealth or status or honours.

He's not ideallistic, or left-wing or pursuing any personal agenda - he's more Lennonist than Lenninist - he's a believer in truth and peace and love.

Mr Snow's a living example of someone who's done well in life, in the sense of being both personally and professionally successful, without having enjoyed school and without being academically a high achiever. I reckon he has too much sense to get into big debates about schools that are bent on teaching a set academic curriculum, instead of encouraging pupils to pursue their own learning agendas and passions. Those debates go nowhere because the Establishment has closed views on the subject of traditional educational hierarchies.

You can imagine the hours, days and weeks he wasted on trying unsuccessfully to memorise Latin and Greek when he could have been passionately engaged in pursuing his real interests. He was the victim of a pushy father and a public school system that's geared to producing Latin and Greek scholars because that's what's required to get you a place at the Oxbridge college of your choice.

Here's a headline from the front page of today's Guardian:

Universities admit 'soft' A-levels damage chance of top places

Students who 'avoid challenge' of traditional subjects miss out on places at Oxbridge or 'redbrick' institutions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/04/university-places-traditional-subjects-a-levels

Top universities will today issue guidance which acknowledges officially for the first time that they favour students who study traditional subjects at A-level.

The guide compiled by the Russell Group, a lobbying group for Oxford, Cambridge and 18 other leading universities, confirms rumours that have circulated for years that they favour those subjects over newer ones such as business studies or photography.

It also reveals an overwhelming preference for science and maths subjects – even for seemingly unrelated degrees.

The new handbook, seen by the Guardian, is a sign that universities are having to cave in to ministers and teachers' calls for far more information on how admissions tutors decide who they award places to and why.

By not studying at least two of the following subjects – maths, English, geography, history, any of the three pure sciences or a classical or modern foreign language – "many degrees at competitive universities will not be open to you," the guide, produced in collaboration with the Institute of Career Guidance, states.

It asks students to question why they are not taking traditional subjects: "Are you trying to avoid a challenge?" It states that while there is no "set definition" of a "hard" or "soft" subject, so-called "hard" subjects are like the ones the top universities prefer and are more theoretical. It gives media studies, art and design, photography and business studies as examples of "soft" subjects and states that they are "vocational or have a practical bias".

"If you plan to take more than one perceived 'soft' subject, some caution may be needed," the guidebook warns.

Just over 7.2% of pupils in England attend private schools but make up over a quarter of the intake at the 25 most selective universities, and 46.6% at Oxford. It's thought this may in part be because state school students do not receive proper guidance about what it takes to get into an elite university when they are making their A-level choices.

So here's the Conservative approach to equal opportunities - you let kids know before they embark on A Levels that pursuing their actual interests will probably disqualify them from getting a place at one of the 'top' universities. Job done.

[Last June] David Willetts, the universities minister, told vice-chancellors he had been "pushing for greater transparency from universities for some time". The advice teenagers received on university courses was "of absolute importance … so that [they] don't miss out on a particular course or a place at a particular university through not receiving the right guidance at the right time," he said. Willetts said the handbook was a "welcome step towards levelling the playing field for prospective students".

Thank goodness the government has given our children a more level playing field at last. Truly wonderful news - that kids will now know in advance why they won't get places at the elite universities.

Science and maths A-levels are recommended for degrees in archaeology, anthropology and geography among others, and law degrees do not require law A-level. History may be useful instead, the guidebook states. For history degrees, some universities do not require history, but believe English is useful.

So don't study law at A Level if you want to do a law degree. Don't study history if you want to do a history degree. Study English, Latin and Greek instead.

You couldn't make it up.


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Here's the latest from Snowblog:

http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/

Snow brings you insights, revelations and perspectives. Join Jon for a ringside seat to follow the news.

Egypt - Reaping What The West Has Sewn
February 3, 2011 10:47 am 18 Comments

Pray, what was OUR role?

So we have witnessed the Egyptian army with American-supplied hardware and training so far failing to act decisively to protect peaceful protesters. What an end to this soiled ‘Western’ support for Mubarak.

The scales are falling from many eyes one week into this insurrection. Here for assorted mainly non-Egyptian reasons is the sorry tale of a client state. A state where a corrupt autocrat became preferred to the vision he conjured of the extreme alternative that awaited any decision to allow the Egyptian people to decide.

How convenient too, that this favoured autocrat not only sanctioned torture in his own land but was willing to undertake it for Britain and the United States when invited to do so. Some here have told me that domestic torture surged courtesy of the blessing bestowed upon it by Coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We reap what we sow.

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The Day of Departure

Sorry Gil - the revolution WILL be televised - thanks to al-Jazeera, 24 hour news and citizen journalists using wi-fi and the Internet. Amazing scenes on the streets of Egypt, and elsewhere. The atmosphere is festive and celebratory. Will Mubarak depart today? The new leadership have been forced to say the people have a right to remain in Tahrir Square, Liberation Square. The army appear to be there in order to show solidarity, and to be on standby to prevent anyone smashing the place up. But this is a non-violent movement. The new Prime Minister has apologised for the behaviour of the pro-Mubarak thugs.

 http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Televised

http://www.gilscottheron.com/lyrevol.html

 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28ijn_the-revolution-will-not-be-televise_music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS3QOtbW4m0

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/feb/04/egypt-protests-day-departure-live

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/04/day-of-departure-hosni-mubarak

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