Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich. Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd., London, 2002 (first published in 1971 by Calder and Boyars). Pp. 116. Pbk. £8.95.
President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan is one of Central Asian’s most repressive rulers. Yet the US, which claims to be the world’s main protector of human rights, has made him its ‘best friend’ in the region since September 2001.
Among the many Muslim political prisoners in the world, the case of Imam Jamil Abdullah al-Amin stands out as quite extraordinary. Convicted of murder last February in a trial that can only be described as bizarre, Imam Jamil has now been moved from the Reedsville prison...
Recent revelations about Malaysia’s mistreatment of foreign workers (“illegal immigrants” in local media parlance) reveal the extent of the Malaysian regime’s brutalities against people. Kuala Lumpur has for years been suppressing documented evidence of torture and deaths at various ‘deportation’ camps set up as holding centres for refugees.
Dr Mazen al-Najjar’s history encapsulates the plight of the Palestinians: they are accused of everything, but nobody is prepared to listen to their story. Dr Najjar, 43 years old and a former instructor at the University of Southern Florida, was finally released on August 24.
Twenty million dirhams required to make it “a world class event, the first of its kind in the Middle East, featuring live dances by world-renowned dance troupes from 5 continents, combined with a unique laser show, to be completed with the most well-choreographed fireworks display ever seen in this part of the world.”
Like autocratic rulers everywhere, nothing is more loathsome to Kuwait’s ‘royal’ family than accountability. Another mainstay of autocratic rule is a determination to avoid relinquishing key positions of power.
Over 3,000 Egyptian migrant workers in Kuwait were rounded up by police and packed off to desert internment camps at the end of last month, following two days of street troubles on October 30-31.
Human Rights Watch, a major western human rights agency, issued a report about violence against women in Pakistan on October 19, shortly after the coup there. It estimates that between 70 and 90 percent of Pakistani women are victims of domestic violence, and accuses the now-deposed government of Nawaz Sharif of not acting to change the situation...
A minority with a specialized area of influence and competence is referred to as an elite. A modern society normally has several elites. The best known are the political elites. Others are referred to as the military elite, business elite, landed elite, industrial elite. religious elite, professional elite. etc.
