A Common Reader . . .

Review: Don't Get Fooled Again - Richard Wilson

Scepticism about media, politics and finances comes naturally to most of us these days, particularly when people who should know better have brought the world to a state of economic crisis (did our rulers really not know that unfettered greed is no basis for an economic world-order?).  It is refreshing to read a book like Don't Get Fooled Again, which takes our vague feeling that "things aren't quite right" and shows us that gut instincts are often quite correct, and we really shouldn't believe the utterances of any institution or public figure without first submitting them to some pretty stringent tests. 

Richard Wilson puts forward a good case for scepticism, reminding his readers that humanity has a long history of "meekly engaging in depraved acts of inhumanity on the basis of ideas that turned out to be total gibberish". 

Much of his book focuses on the public relations industry, citing a number of case studies to show how opinion can be manipulated.  He devotes a whole chapter to the way tobacco companies in the 1950s manipulated news organisations to question the increasingly obvious link between smoking and lung cancer.  The strategy consisted of getting an influential academic on-side (geneticist Clarence Cook Little in this case), and using him to question every scrap of evidence which research scientists gathered supporting the need for anti-smoking legislation. 

Review: Keith Laidler - Surveillance Unlimited

Like most British people today, I frequently read about the intrusion of public and private organisations into my private life, whether local councils putting gizmos into my dustbin or security cameras watching my every move as I walk down the street. It is only on reading a a book like Surveillance Unlimited: How We've Become the Most Watched People on Earth that you realise quite the extent of surveillance on your every move, and if you have paranoiac tendencies then this is definitely the book to avoid (but essential reading for everyone else).

Keith Laidler begins his book by describing a typical day in the life of a "database citizen", from arriving home by plane after a business trip to Germany, traveling across London using his Oystercard, driving home and stopping for petrol, and using his mobile to phone his wife (and inadvertently joking that "there was no Al Qaeda attack on the plane", thus triggering an analysis of his call).  By this time its only midday, and when John finally gets to eat dinner with his wife in the evening, over 20 surveillance interventions have been recorded. 

Government and the commercial world have today achieved the "tyrant's dream" in which it is possible to listen into the telephone conversations of every citizen, read their email, track their movements, profile their lifestyle, preferences and political affiliation.  And as Laidler points out repeatedly through his book, the legal structures necessary to prevent abuse lag far behind the abilities of the new technologies.  I used to think that perhaps it doesn't matter very much as no-one would be interested in me, but having read this book, I can see the power of data mining and aggregation, which enable a vast range of officials and private companies to gain access to my private life, and most importantly, to get it terribly wrong and then to inflict untold unjust penalties on my through their own mistakes and incompetencies.  

Review: The Angel of Grozny - Åsne Seierstad

In Angel of Grozny, Åsne Seierstad provides a deeply personal insight into the life and times of the Russian Republic of Chechnya.  Her book is full of personal anecdotes and descriptions of her visits to a vast range of people in Chechnya, and while this makes it very readable, it can at times be a little disjointed, and it is not always easy to find a common thread.  Her bravery and persistence in seeking out these stories is a wonder in itself however, and several times I found myself wondering how she would get out of the situations she found herself in. 

Seierstad first visited Checyna during the war in 1994, when the break-up of the Russian empire was in full swing. Boris Yeltsin, while encouraging other Soviet nations to "take as much sovereignty as you can", drew the line at allowing Chechnya to gain its independence because he felt that this would threaten the borders of Russia itself.  The result was a violent war, with Chechen fighters confronting young Russian soldiers with the traditional daggers and assassins' bullets, only provoking severe retaliation from the Russians against the civilian population. 

Tesco in Thailand

Nick Hornby, Mark Haddon, Marina Lewycka and Deborah Moggach are among well-known authors who have written to The Times of London to protest about the supermarket Tesco's prosecution of a Thai business leader for making a speech that decried Tesco’s expansion.  Mr Jit, a former Thai MP, is accused of criminal libel, which can carry a sentence of two years in prison and a fine of £16.6 million. 

At time of writing, 68 readers of the online article have left comments supporting the authors' action.

I am joining countless other bloggers in publicising this matter.