The question, which was put to students applying for the King’s Scholarship, worth one tenth of Eton’s £32,000 a year fees, is entitled “Concerning Cruelty, Clemency and Whether It Is better To Be Loved than Feared”, and follows a passage from Machiavelli.“The year is 2040. There have been riots in the streets of London after Britain has run out of petrol because of an oil crisis in the Middle East. Protesters have attacked public buildings. Several policemen have died. Consequently, the government has deployed the army to curb the protests. After two days the protests have stopped but 25 protestors have been killed by the army,” the question reads.Candidates are then asked to imagine that they were the Prime Minister and to write a speech for broadcast to the nation on why the decision to deploy the army against violent protests was both necessary and morally right.The paper was set in April 2011, just after the student riots in which the headquarters of the Conservative Party and the treasury were hit and, by coincidence, just before the August 2011 riots, which injured many and caused millions of pounds of damage. At the time David Cameron warned that the army might be deployed.The question caused uproar, with many taking to twitter to express their disagreement.Damian Walter tweeted sarcastically, “having been born into a council estate single parent family, I would never question the superiority of Eton boys with millionaire parents.” Seriously, that Eton scholarship exam question is spectacular: etoncollege.com/userfiles/file… twitter.com/flashboy/statu… — Tom Phillips (@flashboy) May 23, 2013 This leaked scholarship exam paper from Eton is beyond parody & v revealing about Cameron’s Britain lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/05/2… — Johann Hari (@johannhari101) May 24, 2013 Huh, my tweet about burning Eton to the ground didn’t seem to lose me any followers. Seems you lot are the right sort. — Michael Richmond (@Sisyphusa) May 24, 2013 The headmaster of Eton College, Tony Little, emailed the US paper the Huffington Post saying the question has been taken out of context and that Eton School does not favor any particular political viewpoint.“We are looking for candidates who can see both sides of an idea and express them clearly. High ability candidates at this level are often asked to put themselves in someone else’s shoes,” he wrote.He then compared the question to a GCSE level English question, which is sat by all secondary school 16-year olds in England and Wales as well as those from fee paying public schools, in which he imagined a question, “Imagine you are Lady Macbeth, write a diary entry to express your feelings on receiving your husband’s letter.”He added that a similar question in this year’s paper was about a community without any government. Both the current British Prime Minister David Cameron and the London Mayor Boris Johnson went to Eton, Boris was also a King’s Scholar. … Read More
How Many Female Athletes Get the Sports Illustrated Cover?
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People & Power – Venezuela: Life after Chavez
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‘America’s shame, Moscow’s gain, but little political impact’
On Tuesday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced it had briefly detained a CIA agent who had been working out of the US embassy as the third secretary of the Political Section of the American embassy in Moscow.The suspected agent, Ryan Christopher Fogle, was released and immediately ordered to leave the country, having been dubbed a persona non grata by the Russian Foreign Ministry. While Russia said that the capture of a foreign intelligence officer raised serious questions about its relationship with the United States Trenear-Harvey says it is all part and parcel of the great game of espionage which both countries are well acquainted with.RT: Do you think this American spy deserves all the ridicule he’s getting from the media?Glenmore Trenear-Harvey: No, not at all. The whole thing is that spying continues on both sides without any letup whatsoever. We saw…the case of the Moscow rock: at every time there is deniability. What this is is not so much a failure by the CIA. Unquestionably, this CIA officer, operating as the third political secretary – his cover at the US embassy – he wasn’t particularly effective. It is a great success for the FSB – the Russian domestic security service – their counter-surveillance or counter-intelligence has been shown yet again to be remarkably effective. What Fogle failed to do is follow a set of rules which the CIA has always had: it’s called the ‘Moscow Rules’. It requires that you vary the pattern of your behavior. You’re constantly alert to what is happening. I don’t know enough about the young man in question. But it seems to me he was a little bit of a tyro. He would have been a Russian speaking intelligence officer assigned to the Moscow station of the CIA. The paraphernalia he had – the wig – which the media makes great fun of, it’s not so foolish after all [when] you’re trying to disguise your appearance. RT: The US still hasn’t yet commented on the scandal. If Ryan Fogle IS a CIA spy, what does it tell us about their standards?GTH: Spies are very effective until they get discovered. Then there’s huge embarrassment. The embarrassment, remember, is that Secretary of State John Kerry is currently meeting Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. This is going to be a most embarrassing encounter as far as the Americans are concerned. Lavrov will have a smile on his face, a smile he didn’t have when the suburban spies like Anna Chapman and Christopher Metsos and others were discovered three years ago; the illegals operating in America. As I say, it is one to the Russians, the FSB, and zero to the Americans. He has been declared persona non grata. He will be taken back to the United States and another CIA officer will replace him.RT: The Russian Foreign Ministry has once again expressed its disappointment over the latest spying scandal, saying the CIA’s actions undermine the governments’ efforts to cooperate. What political impact is it likely to have?GTH: Very little indeed. President Putin for many, many years, both as a KGB intelligence officer operating in the former GDR [German Democratic Republic] and then as head of the FSB is absolutely wedded to the Russian security services. He is surrounded by the siloviki [Russian politicians from the military or security services]. He encourages his people all of the time. Espionage used to be described by [Joseph Rudyard] Kipling as the great game. Well in this particular instance, Russia has scored, America has lost. But make no bones about it, there’ll be a few ripples at the moment, and before we know it, relations will be back to normal. As I say, the CIA will replace Fogle with another intelligence officer, and the game will continue. … Read More
Obama ‘prefers Guantanamo status quo’
Twenty-four hunger strikers are now receiving enteral feeds, with three people “being observed in the detainee hospital,” according to Guantanamo Bay Public Affairs Director Lieutenant Colonel Samuel E. House. His most recent report put the official number of hunger strikers at 100.Although Guantanamo Bay remains open over four years after Obama pledged to close it, the President continues to voice his disapproval of the detention center.In his first public response to the ongoing hunger strike, Obama said it was “not a surprise” that there are “problems in Guantanamo.”"It is critical for us to understand that Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe. It is expensive. It is inefficient. It hurts us in terms of our international standing. It lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts. It is a recruitment tool for extremists. It needs to be closed,” he said in an April 30 statement.The next day, Obama announced that he was considering hiring a new State Department official to oversee options for a future transfer of the prison’s detainees once it closes.Earlier this month it has been revealed that keeping Guantanamo Bay running is costing the US some $150 million a year.Medea Benjamin, author of the book “Drone Warfare,” shared her thoughts with RT on why the Obama never kept his promise to shut down the notorious detention facility.RT: President Obama pledged to close Guantanamo when he assumed office in 2009. But over four years later, it’s still open. Why?Medea Benjamin: People around the world are saying if the President of the United States says the prison should be closed, why is it still open? That’s a very logical question to ask. I think that the politics in the US is so partisan that the President is concerned already about who is going to be running in the next presidential election as the democratic candidate, the Congressional elections, wanting to make sure that as many democrats as possible win. The President doesn’t want to be seen as soft, and national security issues. He doesn’t think the American people care enough about this issue. And so he prefers to keep the status quo. The status quo means that desperate men are dying and are being tortured by being force-fed. That is not a status quo that we, the American people, should allow, if we want to continue to call ourselves a democracy.RT: The prisoners’ hunger strike has been going on for over two months now, but there’s very little information coming from most media outlets. So what’s really going on there now?MB: The prisoners who have had a chance to get messages out to their lawyers have described the terrible situation that they are in being strapped down for several hours having these tubes stuffed down the nose and into their stomach. They say it feels like a razor going down their bodies. This is another form of torture, and these prisoners have already endured years of torture in Guantanamo.RT: The hunger strike doesn’t seem to be obtaining the prisoners’ goals, especially since you mention they are being force-fed. So why are they continuing to starve themselves?MB: I think these inmates, or prisoners, as really what we should call them, are desperate and many of them are determined just to keep the hunger strike going. It’s difficult for them, because some of them are in isolation and they don’t know if other prisoners are continuing the hunger strike; are they being told that the other prisoners had stopped the hunger strike? I’m sure it’s a tremendous dilemma for them. But a number of those who have been able to speak through their lawyers have said they would rather die than live in these terrible conditions without ever knowing if they are going to be released.RT: President Obama says he still believes the prison should be closed. Do you think he was sincere in his statement last month? Does he have the power to do more than he is?MB: Obama is lacking the moral courage, he’s lacking the political will, he blames Congress, but really he has the power to release those prisoners who have already been cleared for release; demand a speedy and fair trial for the other ones and bring them into the US and close down the shameful prison of Guantanamo. We just have to force him to do it. We, the American people, the global community.RT: What should be done with the prisoners in the unlikely event that Guantanamo is shut down sometime in the near future?MB: One is to take the majority of prisoners, 86 of them, who have already been cleared by the US government – that means they have been found not to be guilty, not to be harmful to anybody – they should be released. The majority of them are from Yemen. The government of Yemen says they are totally prepared to take them back. There are other prisoners from countries like the United Kingdom that could certainly handle the return of prisoners. So those cleared for release should be released. The others should be sent to a prison in the US and should be tried in US courts just as other criminals are tried, many of them convicted and sentenced to life in prison. … Read More
Assata Shakur first woman named on FBI most wanted list
Forty years ago to the day, Assata Shakur (birth name JoAnne Deborah Chesimard) was involved in a shootout at the New Jersey Turnpike, which left a state trooper dead. Shakur, then a Black Liberation Army and Black Panther Party member, was convicted of his murder in 1973. In 1979, with the help of allies in the black radical movement, Shakur escaped from prison, eventually emerging in Cuba, where she has lived since 1984. As of Thursday – the reward on her capture and return doubled to $2 million — the 66-year-old fugitive was named the first woman on the FBI’s most wanted list.Shakur was herself wounded by police shots during the Jersey Turnpike shootout and one of her militant comrades was killed. Despite the case’s verdict, many of Shakur’s supporters — and commentators rightly skeptical of the criminal justice’s system treatment of black liberation activists at the time — question Shakur’s murder conviction. Deserving of further questioning: Why, after 40 years, is Shakur (whose chosen name means “she who struggles”) worthy of a $2 million bounty and a spot among the FBI’s most wanted?Continue Reading… … Read More
Speak no evil: Netanyahu orders Israeli ministers to ‘remain silent’ on Syria
Netanyahu’s instruction follows comments made by deputy foreign minister Ze’ev Elkin on Army radio Friday, in which the official appeared to call on the international community to intervene in Syria in order to contain and neutralize the country’s chemical weapons stockpiles.“It is clear that if the United States wants to and the international community wants to, they could act militarily, among other things, to take control of the chemical weapons, and then all the fears … will not be relevant,” The Times of Israel cites Elkin as saying. Army Radio reported Sunday that Netanyahu wanted to clarify that Elkin’s statements did not reflect an attempt on Israel’s part to spur the United States to intervene militarily in Syria. However, the military radio political commentator also expressed fears within Israel regarding recent “US hesitancy over the Syrian issue.” “If (US President) Barack Obama does not respect the red lines that he set out himself and does not intervene when Bashar Assad uses chemical weapons against civilians, it is showing weaknesses that could cost it dearly later in Syria, but also in the Iranian nuclear question,” AFP cites the commentator as saying. The commentator’s charge echoes statements made by Elkin, who warned that a lack of resoluteness in Washington would bolster the Islamic Republic’s alleged efforts to covertly enrich weapons-grade uranium.WMD charge ‘a barefaced lie’ On Thursday, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that the US intelligence community has determined “with varying degrees of confidence” that “Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces have used the nerve agent sarin against civilians and forces fighting to remove Assad from power.” Hagel continued that deploying chemical weapons “violates every convention of warfare.” US Secretary of State John Kerry was more equivocal, saying the Syrian government had launched two chemical weapons attacks. Their statements followed a public declaration on Thursday by Brigadier-General Itai Brun, a top Israeli intelligence analyst, who said that Syrian government forces had used chemical weapons in their fight against anti-Assad forces. Speaking with Netanyahu on Tuesday, Kerry said the Israeli PM was unable to confirm the veracity of Brun’s comments. However, Syrian information minister Omran Ahed Zouabi told RT that statements made Kerry and other Western governments regarding Syria’s alleged deployment of chemical weapons “are inconsistent with reality and a barefaced lie.” “I want to stress one more time that Syria would never use it – not only because of its adherence to the international law and rules of leading war, but because of humanitarian and moral issues,” he continued.Awaiting ‘definitive judgment’ On Saturday, President Vladmir Putin’s Middle East envoy Mikhail Bogdanov warned any evidence proving Damascus had used chemical weapons should “be presented immediately”.“We must check the information immediately and in conformity with international criteria and not use it to achieve other objectives. It must not be a pretext for an intervention in Syria,” Bogdanov continued. On Friday, Obama warned that for “the Syrian government to utilize chemical weapons on its people crosses a line that will change my calculus and how the United States approaches these issues.” However, he has thus far stated that the most recent developments would not necessarily incite military action, as Washington was awaiting a “definitive judgment” before the US decided to act. … Read More
