A little controversy goes a long way

The pastor from a little-known extremist Baptist church in America took to the streets of Washington and burned a copy of the Koran, posting a video of the event on Youtube.

But this isn’t 2010, this is 2008, when the congregation of Westboro Baptist Chuch, Kansas (notorious for their homophobic picketing of the funerals of US soldiers), decided to bring further controversy to their church. However, this event attracted little media attention, no international outrage, no press conferences, no comments from the president. Nothing.
Sometimes it is good to give controversial, extremist figures a platform on which to hang themselves. I’ll point to last years spectacle of the BNP’s Nick Griffin on Question Time as a prime example, a party which was seeing a certain amount of popular growth, but failed to gain traction in the popular vote.
However, in this case the media has taken what should have been a sad and embarrassing display of religious extremism, Pastor Terry Jones burning a Koran alone in his back garden alone, and instead given Mr Jones a voice and a credible platform.
The rest of the story as they say is history, protests in Afghanistan, political outrage and finally insurmountable pressure on Mr Jones to cancel his hateful act against the worlds 1.2 billion Muslims.
But if he had not decided to cancel, it is safe to assume that lives would have been lost. And in my opinion, the media would have been to blame. Actions have consequences, and sensationalist headlines written purely to cause controversy and gain attention often lead to real people suffering.
And here’s the real issue, the media has great power in the modern world, but with this comes a responsibility as well. Sometimes the media stands on the right side of this line, allowing figures such as Nick Griffin and David Irving, a proponent of holocaust denial, to have their share of the limelight as it is often the best way to discredit them. Both figures had a radical reputations and controversial beliefs, both of which failed to stand up to scrutiny. However giving these figures a moment in the spotlight is not always the best way to deal with them, sometimes they just need to be ignored.
Want another example of the media hyping controversy? The recent debate over the so-called ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ has once again ignited an international debate. This is despite the fact that this Islamic Community Centre is being built two blocks away from ground zero, yet the media still refer to it as being a ground zero mosque’. And finally the media might want to remind themselves that there was a Muslim prayer room on the 17th floor of the World Trade Centre’s second tower, because some of those hard-working American men-in-suits who lost their lives on September 11th were in fact Muslim.
Now we all know that the media love a sensational story, however it is important to keep perspective. The tabloid headlines from these two stories have led to real-world suffering, peoples lives have been affected by the events caused by the media's hunt for sensationalism. When the countries 'free press' is largely comprised of re-written press releases handed out by a few large organisations such as the Press Association, the lack of actual journalistic research is staggering.
The message here is not to assume everything you read has been researched as thoroughly as you might have thought.

Make or Break for Labour

The former government have a new leader: will he be the icon that they need? Olly Smith looks at what the future holds for the Labour Party.

Last year I described Ed Miliband as the brother with “less experience”, however he has now quickly overtaken his older brother in the party hierarchy. David Miliband’s younger, ‘geeky’ brother has beaten him to the lead role in the Labour party following a hard fought leadership campaign, one of the closest ever in a party leadership contest.
But who is “the other Miliband” and what are the views of this political figure who constantly played second place behind his more popular and successful brother?
Ed entered the Labour party as a researcher and speechwriter for Harriet Harmen and subsequently Gordon Brown in 1994, gaining the branding of a ‘Brownite’. Whereas his brother entered the party as Tony Blair’s head of policy, a ‘Blairite’ if you like. This divide placed the two brothers on the opposing sides of what would become one of politics biggest soap-operas over the next decade. However these turf-wars helped develop Ed as a skilled diplomat, earning him praise in the ways in which he defused rows between the Treasury and Downing Street.
Eventually Ed made it to the cabinet under Gordon Brown’s short premiership eventually taking the position of Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change in 2008. In this role Ed developed a green following as he pushed for an almost radical stance on environmental policy, promising an 80% reduction in greenhouse gases and opposing a third runway at Heathrow.
And then came the leadership contest: the main pillars of Ed’s campaign revolved around the idea of a ‘living wage’ of more than £7 an hour, higher than the minimum wage of £5.85 an hour. Scrapping tuition fees to make university more affordable and available, but replacing them with a graduate tax, developing further environmental policies and protecting civil liberties. Because of his seemingly centre-left leadership promises many of the tabloid press has nick-named him ‘Red Ed’ and political commentators warning of a “lurch to the left” which Ed rejected in his first speech as the new Labour Party leader.
With the press favouring David Miliband as the front runner in the leadership struggle Ed’s chances looked slim, however after managing to secure the backing of the three biggest trade unions (GMB, Unison and Unite) and their voting members he just managed to beat his brother in the final round of voting.
So what does this mean for Politics and the Labour Party in general?
Whilst David Miliband’s leadership would probably have meant a continuation of New Labour, the Labour Party’s future under Ed Miliband is far less certain. All indications suggest that he will take it more towards the center-left than it was previously, this is probably the reason why Ed was able to gain such an impressive amount of union backing..
And what about parliamentary politics: will this new Labour leadership be able to stem Labours downward spiral of support in recent years? Gordon Brown’s premiership only a short while ago was largely accepted as a disaster for Labour, and the subsequent formation of the Liberal Conservative coalition gave everyone a party that no one wanted. I would argue that British Politics has shifted so far centre that the parties have collided, and a shift to the left for Labour would be no bad thing in terms of choice for the everyday voter.

Kim Jong-Who?

He came to power with a campaign that attributed him with superhuman powers (including the ability to manipulate the time and weather), he technically rules via the wishes of his dead father (whom he is a physical incarnation of) and he recently opened an account on twitter… Yes its Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s “Dear Leader”. 

Now approaching 70, speculation is rife that Kim Jong-il is poised to name his son Kim Jong-Un as his successor, but who is this mysterious character that is set to take over one of the worlds 9 nuclear-equipped states.

As with all figures in North Korean politics, very little is known about Kim Jong-Un, few photos even exist of the young ruler-to-be and even his birthday (either 1982 or 1983) is a mystery. What is known of his history is that he studied at the International School of Berne in Switzerland under a false name and now works for North Korea’s national defence commission as well as being a member of parliament, again both under false names. And as for his personality, most of the information about him comes from Kim Jong-Il’s former sushi chef Kenji Fujimoto, who described him as “exactly like his father” sharing his “violent temper”.

Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un recently returned from a trip to China, being one of North Korea’s most important allies, it is believed that this trip was to seek support for Jong-Un to become Kim Jong-Il’s successor from the Chinese government. At the same time back in North Korea, Kim Jong-Il has been busy creating the same cult of personality for his son that surrounds him. From declaring his son’s birthday as a national holiday to encouraging his citizens to sing a ‘song of praise’ to his son, the newly declared “brilliant comrade” of North Korea.

With so little known about Kim Jong-Il and even less known about Kim Jong-Un, North Korean politics can sometimes feel like a bit of guesswork. However what experiences with other non-democratic regimes have taught us, Cuba being a prime example, is that with new leadership sometimes comes new direction.