The Life You Can Save

I went to see philosopher and public intellectual extraordinaire Peter Singer talk at the RSA on Monday, and then had the luck/privilege to attend a small private seminar led by him at LSE's Centre for the Study of Human Rights. Quite intimidating - only one other student and me, surrounded by prominent professors of philosophy/law/sociology/politics etc. The topic of the seminar was 'When should we speak of rights and when should we not?' - the various responses to which I can't begin to even summarise now; suffice to say that most attendees accepted that rights-talk was problematic, sometimes counter-productive, and there were lots of examples given featuring animals (Singer being well-known for his animal-welfare activism) and embryos.

But Singer is in the UK mainly to promote his new book on aid and world poverty, 'The Life You can Save.' I haven't read it all yet, but this was the basis for his speech at the RSA. In a nutshell: we should all be doing more to help the world's poor. Not exactly revolutionary, but argued in his characteristically rigorous, logical, highly persuasive style. Here is an extract from the book, here is a review by AC Grayling, and here is a website where you can pledge to meet Singer's standard of giving (for most of us, 1-5% of our income). Incidentally, Singer himself gives 1/3 of his income to charity, mainly to Oxfam I understand.

A police state?

Interesting article by Conor Gearty in the New Statesman. I think I agree with him, and it helps to explain the old David Davis, champion of liberty, paradox.
(Conor is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at LSE, where my Masters course is based.)

Sorry for the hiatus - I've been away breathing clean air in the mountains.

It happens

Check out this brilliant campaign from Amnesty International in Switzerland (scroll across for more images). The text translates as 'It happens. Not here. But now.'

Today viral

This has been flagged up in a load of places, but my love for the Today programme (and Radio 4 generally) is such that I had to post it too.

RSA Vision

The RSA holds great free lectures by a huge variety of distinguished thinkers, and you can watch videos of a number of their speakers here. Highly recommended for some intellectual stimulation on a slow day at work. I just watched James Boyle and Jonah Lehrer - interesting stuff.

The Girl Effect

www.thegirleffect.org
It's true, the education of girls really can save the world. They miss out the fact that it's also a hugely important tool in the battle against climate change - educated girls have fewer kids, which means slower population growth, which means less pressure on the earth's natural resources...
(There's a Nike Foundation affiliation here, which makes me somewhat dubious that there might be sublimal sportswear advertising included, but there's no need to think that corporate behemoths are ALWAYS evil...right?)

Bashir and the ICC

The International Criminal Court have issued an arrest warrant against President Bashir of Sudan, the first ever against a sitting head of state. I have very ambiguous feelings about this: while it sends out an important message about the real intent of the ICC and the long arm of justice, I have grave doubts about pursuing a legal settlement over and above (or before) a political one. Bashir's response, telling the ICC that they can 'eat their warrant' and kicking out aid agencies, just compounds my worry. However, as Gerard Prunier points out in an article from a few months ago (post-indictment but pre-warrant), "when the 'Darfur peace process' is used as an argument against Bashir's indictment, what exactly is being referred to? For such a process, active or even latent, does not exist."

For 2 perspectives, see a Guardian leader arguing that the ICC is right, and a blog by Alex de Waal stating that the day the warrant was issued was "a sad day for Darfur."

Also interesting to note that the warrant did not include charges of genocide. (See my earlier post.)

Dalrymple on Pakistan

For any of you (like me) thinking 'What the hell is going on in Pakistan?' this article is illuminating.