Have you noticed how the coverage of urban foxes – including the ones who are thought to have horribly wounded two little girls in London – resembles what’s so often written about immigrants? They come over here, into our cities, they steal our food, they swagger down the street like hoodies, they know no fear, they ignore our way of life and the authorities seem powerless and unwilling to stop them. Do you think they might be a sort of stand-in?
Now that David Miliband is standing for Labour leader, and we learn that his brother Ed might stand against him, it’s time to reprise the great line from Linda McDougall, the wife of Austin Mitchell MP, and a family friend of Ralph Miliband. “I’m afraid I can’t take either of the Miliband brothers seriously. I changed both their nappies.”
英国两位社会流行病(social epidemiology)专家 Richard Wilkinson 和 Kate Pickett 的著作 The Spirit Level 在去年出版后引起了很大反响。这本书的主要论点是证明当社会达到一定的富裕程度之后，经济的继续增长就与人民幸福程度脱钩了，而社会平等程度越高，人民的身体和精神健康程度越好。
大概正因为 Flotilla 这一称呼的微妙，善于公关的以色列官方不太愿意用这个词，外交部副部长 Danny Ayalon 的说法是“The armada of hate and violence”。Armada 特指的是海军舰队，以色列人显然是故意用这个词来暗示对方是有武装和带着敌意的，试图否定起“和平人道”的形象。
