Hooray for five ninths of the Supreme Court of the United States of America! Today the Court ruled that bans on same sex marriage are unconstitutional. Same-sex marriage, which was already legal in many states, is now legal throughout the USA.
Blogger and gay marriage advocate Andrew Sullivan has returned to blogging to welcome the news. He’s been agitating for this since 1989.
Opponents of same sex marriage often claim that it will somehow undermine straight marriage. That’s nonsense. In fact, I think the opposite is true. Here’s why. Continue reading
Category: Diary (Page 60 of 300)
Things that happen to me, or things I do
Flags are symbols, full of historical meaning. Just ask Emily Thornberry.
Following the despicable shootings in Charleston, South Carolina last week, there has been renewed debate over the Confederate Flag, the banner under which the secessionist Southern states fought the American Civil War. Some people claim that the flag is simply a symbol of Southern culture and ‘heritage’— that flying that flag is merely an expression of an independent, libertarian spirit. But that is disingenuous. The Confederate cause was explicitly racist, about fighting for the right to subjugate black people. Ta-Nehisi Coate catalogues the unequivocal words of those men who rallied their fellows to the ideology of white supremacy, and argues “Take Down The Confederate Flag—Now“. The recent discussion has unearthed this article by Christopher Hitches from 2008, where he excorates the former Governor of Arkansas and (at the time) Presidential Candidate Mick Huckabee for lauding those who would fly the Confederate flag. A “straightforward racist appeal” for votes, Hitchens called it.
On a more positive note, watch this wonderful TED Talk, done in the style of a radio show, by Roman Mars (my favourite podcaster). His show, 99% Invisible, is all about design, and the talk is about the importance of flag design.
Roman outlines the principles of good flag design, draws attention to some good city flags, some bad city flags, and some truly terrible city flags. He also explains why we should care.
A well-designed flag could be seen as an indicator of how a city considers all of its design systems: its public transit, its parks, its signage. It might seem frivolous, but it’s not. .. Often when city leaders say, “We have more important things to do than worry about a city flag,” my response is, “If you had a great city flag, you would have a banner for people to rally under to face those more important things.”
I posted this on Medium last week to almost deathly silence. I thought it would be something people might share but clearly I’ve not built up enough of a network.
One aspect of the Internet that makes me a little melancholy is the fact that so many people have to put the same phrase on their social media bios: “These are my own views and not that of my employer” or variations of that theme.
It’s sad because the Internet was supposed to be a place where people have the freedom to explore new ideas, identities and friendships. Instead, our online discourse is polluted by the anxieties and the obtuse reasoning of the corporate world.
The all-to-common “personal opinions” disclaimer reminds us how our freedom of thought and of personality is curtailed. My heart sinks whenever I read such words, because I know that the person who is writing them is on their guard, insuring themselves against some future misunderstanding or invasion of their work life into their personal space.
And yet we need such disclaimers, because on the Internet there are a remarkable number of people who are happy to conflate the views of an individual with that of the organisations they work for. Continue reading
Last week I was invited to attend a speech by Rt. Hon. Harriet Harman MP, interim Leader of the Labour Party, entitled ‘In Defence of Human Rights‘. She gave a robust defence of the Human Rights Act 1998, which the Conservative Party seeks to repeal. She called the Government’s plans ‘politically and constitutionally destabilising’ and made important points about how the proposals would give authoritarian countries the ‘green light’ to start defining human rights in ways that suit those in power, rather than their citizens. Continue reading
Ten years ago I was part of the 59 Productions team that produced The Unrecognized, a short documentary commissioned by Adalah, The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.
Our film examined the plight of Israel’s Bedouin minority, who live in villages that the state refuses to recognise. Despite being citizens of Israel, they are not provided with basic public services such as water, sanitation, education, healthcare, or transport infrastructure.
Appallingly, the problems outlined in the film persist a decade later. On the Huffington Post, Nadim Nashif and Dalal Hillou outline the current situation. Continue reading