People with symmetrical faces are more self-sufficient and less likely to co-operate, new research suggests Kate Moss, George Clooney, Natalie Portman or Cristiano Ronaldo may be many people’s ideas of dream dates, but pioneering research that combines economics with biology suggests they may not be perfect life partners. According to a study to be discussed this month at a gathering of Nobel prizewinners, people blessed with more symmetrical facial features, which are considered more attractive, are less likely to co-operate and more likely to selfishly focus on their own interests. Santiago Sanchez-Pages, who works at the universities of Barcelona and Edinburgh, and Enrique Turiegano, of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, base their claims on the “prisoner’s dilemma” model of behaviour, played out under laboratory conditions. Two players were each given the option of being a “dove” and co-operating for the greater good; or a “hawk”, taking the selfish option, with a chance of gaining more if the other player chose “dove” and co-operated. The subjects’ faces were then analysed. The study found that people with more symmetrical faces were less likely to co-operate and less likely to expect others to co-operate. The findings will be presented at the annual Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau, Germany, from 23 to 27 August. The explanation may be found in evolution. The two academics speculate that, on a subconscious level, people tend to view symmetrical physical attributes as a sign of good health and find people with them more attractive as a result. Earlier studies have suggested that individuals with symmetrical faces tend to suffer fewer congenital diseases and therefore make better potential mating partners. As a result, the studies suggest, they are more self-sufficient and have less need for seeking the help of others. The pair write: “As people with symmetrical faces tend to be healthier and more attractive, they are also more self-sufficient and have less of an incentive to co-operate and seek help from others. Through natural selection over thousands of years, these characteristics continue to the present day.” The authors also examine the relationship between co-operation levels and exposure to testosterone during development. Testosterone is usually associated with aggressive behaviour, suggesting “alpha males” do not make great team players. But the authors suggest this is only a partial truth and that testosterone can promote co-operative behaviour. They write: “Subjects exposed to higher levels of testosterone during foetal development did not co-operate less than the rest and even co-operated more than subjects with average levels. It seems that leading co-operation and not necessarily obtaining a higher individual profit are seen by some as a source of status.” The pair warn against jumping to the “simplistic conclusion” that facial asymmetry or testosterone can be used to predict a person’s behaviour, but they suggest their research could help to design public policies and act as a corrective to purely economic-based decision making. They note: “If certain behaviours such as smoking, drinking or high-speed driving are perceived by those who engage in them as part of their quest for status, it is very unlikely that providing economic disincentives like higher taxes, prices or fines will have a strong deterrent effect.” Evolution Beauty Biology Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Calls for a referendum on EU membership after David Cameron’s U-turn on tax
August 13, 2011 No CommentThe prime minister is under cross-party pressure to allow a vote on membership as a decision to back fiscal integration threatens to ‘fundamentally change’ Britain’s relationship with Europe David Cameron is under mounting pressure to pledge a referendum on UK membership of the EU after overturning decades of British foreign policy by backing full fiscal union for the 17-nation eurozone. Tory and Labour MPs believe that if the eurozone moves towards a single tax system – as chancellor George Osborne advocated again – then the EU will become a fundamentally different organisation to the one the UK joined in 1973. Many also fear that Britain will come under intense pressure to adapt its tax and regulatory policies to conform more closely with the eurozone once fiscal union is under way, even if the UK remains out of the single currency. Steve Baker, the Tory MP for Wycombe and a member of the fiercely eurosceptic 2010 Conservative intake, said: “It is very clear that the EU is heading at full speed towards being one country. As that is the case there is absolutely no doubt that the British people should be offered a vote on whether to be a part of that.” Like other Tory and Labour MPs, Baker has signed up to an In/Out referendum being championed by fellow Conservative Zac Goldsmith, the MP for Richmond Park & North Kingston. The campaign will redouble its efforts during the party conference season. The Observer has also learned that the European scrutiny committee, a select committee of the House of Commons, is to conduct its own inquiries into the effect that fiscal union for the eurozone would have on the UK’s economic independence. Its chairman, the veteran Tory MP Bill Cash, said: “Allowing the other member states to go ahead towards fiscal union is a disaster. We must have a referendum in the light of such a profound change in our political relationship with Europe.” For decades the Foreign Office and Treasury have resisted –and said the UK would veto – any moves towards a “two-speed” or “multi-speed” Europe, believing it would lead to pressure on those outside the central core to cede more sovereignty over time. But with the eurozone in crisis, Osborne and Cameron have abandoned that resistance and now believe the euro’s only hope of survival is if the EU backs more co-ordination of tax and spending policies. Osborne told Radio 4′s Today show: “I think we have to accept that is going to happen. It is in our interest that it happens because an unstable euro is very bad news for us.” The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will meet in Paris on Tuesday to discuss how to beef up “economic governance” across the 17-member single currency zone, amid rising fears about the euro’s future. Jean-Claude Trichet, the outgoing boss of the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, has called for a euro-wide finance ministry as the only way to prevent a recurrence of the debt crisis which has seen Greece, Portugal and Ireland receive emergency aid. The ECB was forced to rescue Italy and Spain last week by buying up their bonds, after interest rates for the two countries hit record highs. But it has demanded radical economic reforms and a fresh wave of austerity measures in return. Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi announced a controversial package of tax rises and spending cuts. As the crisis deepened, Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King made clear at his quarterly inflation report last Wednesday that events in the eurozone posed the greatest threat to Britain’s economy, and called for Europe’s politicians to get a grip on the situation. “The ECB has gone to the outer limit of what a central bank can do,” King said. “Any further action has to be carried out by governments themselves.” One radical solution – backed by Osborne – is to issue “eurobonds”, with all 17 countries sharing the responsibility for paying them back. This idea is highly controversial in Germany, where voters fear they would be left paying the bill. Merkel would be likely to demand tight control over the tax and spending policies of weaker members as a quid pro quo, and France has long favoured more economic co-ordination, but analysts say this “fiscal integration” would fundamentally change the nature of the EU. That could make it harder for Britain to sit outside the eurozone but continue to drive European policy in other areas. “George Osborne and David Cameron are taking another political gamble, as they did with the cuts,” said Olaf Cramme, of the Policy Network thinktank. He believes further fiscal integration among euro members could alter decision-making across the whole EU. “The big difference now is that the euro has become the overriding interest – everything else will be subject to the euro.” Issuing eurobonds could also require a change in the EU’s founding treaty, which would have to be approved by all members, including the UK. Many Tory backbenchers hope that would provide an opportunity for renegotiating our relationship with Brussels. European Union Euro European Central Bank Economics Europe Toby Helm Heather Stewart guardian.co.uk
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The ivory trade has doubled in Guangzhou and Fuzhou, a study has found, adding to fears for Africa’s elephant and rhino populations Elephant poaching in Africa and Asia is being fuelled by China’s economic boom, according to a study of the ivory trade. Authors of the new report found that the number of ivory items on sale in key centres in southern China has more than doubled since 2004, with most traded illegally. The survey comes amid reports of a dramatic rise in rhino poaching across Africa, and a spate of thefts of rhino horns from European museums and auction houses. Based on the results of their survey, the ivory researchers are calling for China to tighten its enforcement of ivory trading regulations, saying that such a move is vital to reduce the number of elephants that are killed illegally. The report is published on the eve of a meeting in Geneva of the Cites organisation, which is responsible for controlling trade in endangered wildlife species. Esmond Martin, a Kenya-based expert on the ivory and rhino-horn trade, and his colleague Lucy Vigne surveyed ivory carving factories and shops in Guangzhou and Fuzhou in January. In Guangzhou, they found that the volume of ivory goods on sale had doubled since 2004. But while some of the ivory they found being carved or sold was being traded legally – including an increasing number of prehistoric mammoth tusks imported from Russia – most lacked legally required documentation, and many traders were unregistered. In Guangzhou, of 6,437 items on sale, 61% were being traded illegally. Martin said that some traders admitted having illegal ivory, or pretended that newly carved items were old. “This suggests official inspections and confiscations have not taken place in most shops,” says the survey, which was commissioned by two British wildlife charities, Elephant Family and the Aspinall Foundation, as well as the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in the US state of Ohio. The international trade in elephant ivory was banned in 1990, but in recent years some auctions of tusks from elephants that have died naturally, or which had been confiscated from poachers, have been permitted in a small number of African countries. Chinese traders bought 62 tonnes of ivory in 2008 from Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. Supporters of the sales say that the proceeds can fund conservation, but opponents say that any legal trade risks encouraging poaching. Martin said : “It is shocking that the retail ivory trade is not better controlled in southern China. China continues to be the largest importer of illegal ivory in the world, mostly from Africa, but also from endangered Asian elephants. Inspections of shops would not take much money nor manpower and would cut down this illegal trade significantly if carried out effectively. Such law enforcement is urgent to reduce elephant poaching.” There has also been a dramatic surge in rhino poaching across Africa. The price of rhino horn has soared in the far east where it is used in alternative medicine as a cure for everything from nightmares to dysentery. In South Africa alone, where horn is worth more per gram than cocaine, the monitoring network “Traffic” reported that 333 rhinos were killed last year, and 193 in the first six months of this year. In 2007, only 13 rhinos were poached. There have also been more than 20 thefts from museums and auction houses in Europe, including three in Britain, with others in Germany, Belgium, Italy and Sweden. The Natural History Museum in London has now replaced its rhino horns with fakes, while the Horniman Museum in south-east London has removed its collection entirely. One British theft was from Sworders auction house in Essex in February, when the mounted head of a black rhino was taken the day before it was to be sold. Guy Schooling, the managing director of Sworders, said that there was a break-in two weeks before the auction, but thieves went away empty handed. When they returned a second time, “they yanked the head off the wall and bolted, leaving a considerable amount of damage in their wake”. In May, a head was stolen from the Haslemere Educational Museum in Surrey. The museum has now removed all rhino exhibits from display. The most recent theft occurred last week at Ipswich Museum, when a popular exhibit “Rosie the Rhino” had its horn stolen overnight. The sharp increase in European thefts was described by Detective Constable Ian Lawson of the Metropolitan Police’s Arts and Antiques Unit as “an extraordinary series of events”. There had been an “unheard of” number of robberies from museums this year, he said, involving more than one gang. “But we do believe a significant amount of thefts across Europe are being committed by a group of Irish travellers,” he said. Most stolen horn is sent abroad, police believe. In October last year, a Lancashire man, Donald Allison, was jailed for twelve months as he tried to smuggle two horns into Asia. They turned out to have been taken from the body of a rhino at Colchester Zoo. Ten horns were also seized at Shannon Airport in Ireland in 2009.Antique horns are particularly prized, Lawson said, because they “tend to be larger than wild rhino horns”. Schooling said that the rise in price has been driven by changes in European law, making rhino horn much harder to sell legitimately. It is now illegal to sell rhino horn trophies and mounted horns in the UK. Stuffed rhino heads can still be sold, but each sale must be approved by Defra. One such head was the subject of a bidding war between Chinese herbalists when it was auctioned off in March. It eventually fetched £35,000. Schooling described the new law as a “poorly thought-out” and “politically expedient” piece of legislation. “If you reduce the supply [of horn] and the demand is the same, then the price will go up,” he said. China Endangered species Museums Africa guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rick Perry targets Bible belt to ignite Republican race for the White House
August 13, 2011 No Comment
A showdown between the Texas governor and Michele Bachmann could determine where the Christian vote will go The battle for the “Bible belt”, one of the most crucial constituencies in the Republican White House race, will begin in earnest in Waterloo, Iowa, where Texas governor Rick Perry, who announced his candidature , is to speak at a dinner in the Electric Park ballroom that will also be attended by congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Bachmann changed her diary to be there, setting up an early showdown between two Christian evangelicals who may well determine the identity of Barack Obama’s opponent in the presidential election next year. The importance of the evangelical vote is huge, representing an estimated 40% of Republicans who will vote in the Iowa caucus, which is scheduled for February. Iowa, as the first of the contests, matters – helping to propel candidates to the front of the race and seeing others heading for oblivion. Bachmann has received the endorsement of more than 100 pastors and Christian leaders in the state in the past week alone. But Perry’s entry upsets her calculations. He is both a politician and part-time preacher, the kind of southerner who appeals to the Christian right. “Perry’s entry shifts the dynamic,” said Steve King, a rightwing congressman from Iowa, who was speaking at the Iowa state fair, where a string of Republican candidates used soapboxes to address voters sitting on straw bales. King is close to Bachmann but said he would not endorse anyone until after Labour Day, on 5 September. Other Republicans in the race such as Rick Santorum, Tim Pawlenty and Herman Cain have made bids for the Christian right, but it is Bachmann who appears to have won them over with her extreme anti-gay rhetoric and strong views on abortion and other social
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Click here to view this media Michele Bachmann won the Ames, Iowa straw poll with 4,823 votes out of more than 16,000 cast. Ron Paul finished 192 votes behind her, with a very large gap between 2nd and 3rd place. Here is the full list: Michele Bachmann: 4,823 Ron Paul: 4,671 Tim Pawlenty: 2,293 Rick Santorum: 1,657 Herman Cain: 1,456 Rick Perry: 718 Mitt Romney: 567 Newt Gingrich: 385 Jon Huntsman: 69 Thad McCotter: 35 Rick Perry’s 5th place showing came from write-in votes. He was not an official candidate. Bachmentum! Or Mich-mentum! Or something.
Continue reading …Rep. Michele Bachmann has won the first official electoral contest of the 2012 presidential campaign: Michele Bachmann narrowly won the Iowa straw poll of Republicans on Saturday in the first big test of the 2012 presidential campaign, as Texas Governor Rick Perry formally launched a White House bid that could reshape the race. Bachmann, a representative from Minnesota, edged out Ron Paul, another representative, and rolled over the rest of the Republican field to capture the nonbinding Iowa mock election, a traditional early gauge of organizational strength in the state that holds the first 2012 nominating contest. Bachmann won 4,823 votes to Paul's 4,671. Tim Pawlenty, who had focused on a strong showing in the straw poll to rescue his struggling campaign, finished a distant third with 2,293 votes in a bruising setback. What will it mean for her chances now? And how much will the media step up their attacks on her?
Continue reading …Mitt Romney Touts Privatizing Unemployment Benefits Along With Reduction in Spending on Anti-Poverty Programs
August 13, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Mitt Romney stood up for those poor downtrodden corporate “people” that those evil liberals who crashed his event in Iowa this Thursday were asking to have their taxes raised on, but if you’re one of the long-term unemployed, well, it appears you’re on your own. During the Republican debate in Iowa, when asked if he would extend unemployment benefits for those who are about to lose their benefits in a few months, not only did Romney say that he would not extend them, but he also touted the idea of privatizing unemployment benefits and changing our current system to one offering unemployment insurance savings accounts. What could possibly go wrong? I haven’t read much on this, so I’m no expert and it would be nice to hear more from anyone who is in the comments section, but this just looks to this layman as another way to draw money out of another one of our social safety nets in the name of “personal responsibility.” Romney said this would “make the system work better by giving people responsibility for their own employment opportunities.” That’s rich since they don’t have much control over those “opportunities” if there are no jobs to be found in the first place. Not everyone’s got a rich family and the “opportunity” to become some multimillionaire vulture capitalist like our buddy Mittens here did. Some of us have to make money the old fashioned way, like actually working for it. And god knows with some of the greatest income disparity since the Gilded Age, we can’t have our priorities be spending more money on anti-poverty programs, now can we? No, better to be reducing those taxes and burdensome regulations on those “job creators” because the have-mores are just struggling so badly right now in Mitt Romney and the GOP’s fantasy-land. Heaven forbid we do anything to hurt their feelings or they might go Galt on us and leave the country and take their jobs with them. Oh wait, that ship has sailed already, hasn’t it? When I hear one of these birds start talking about fixing our trade imbalances and tying these tax cuts they love so much to job creation in the United States , I’ll believe that they actually care one iota about doing anything productive to fix our unemployment problems in America. Sadly, we’re not hearing that from any of them other than members of the Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives right now. Karoli adds: Romney’s tossed-off remark here about changing the nature of UI is a proposal that we don’t hear a lot about, but which is a fondly-held right wing dream. Kochtopus Member Mercatus Center jumped on the bandwagon in early 2010 with this policy paper , right in the middle of a debate over extending UI for a few extra paltry weeks. Here’s the gist of their “recommendation”: Unemployment insurance is meant to support workers who lose their jobs during downturns. However, public unemployment insurance produces unintended consequences,leading to lower prosperity. A more effective approach to providing support for workers is to establish Unemployment Insurance Savings Accounts (UISA).13 These individual savings accounts are funded by a percentage of wages contributed by the employee and employer in lieu of the compulsory contributions currently made by employers to public trust funds. When an individual becomes unemployed, she may access the account. If the individual is never unemployed, she can roll those savings into a retirement account. UISA eliminates the perverse incentives of publicly provided benefits. Workers must finance their own unemployment, providing an incentive to avoid job loss and increase the job search effort during unemployment. Reducing the payroll tax on employers would increase wages, leading to higher contributions to UISA accounts. While the current program is a tax on all of the employed (some of whom will never use the benefit), a UISA belongs to an individual worker. Essentially, UISA is a form of forced savings: A worker’s contribution to the unemployment account is paid directly back to her.14 Chile adopted this approach in 2003, and empirical data suggests that most Chilean workers are better off as a result. 15 Employees contribute 0.6 percent of monthly earnings, and employers contribute a further 2.4 percent to an individual savings account. An unemployed worker may draw between 30 to 50 percent of the previous wage for up to five months.16 Upon retirement, unused unemployment savings roll into the worker’s personal savings account.17 A couple of quick thoughts on this. First, the whole thing is yet another way to wrest workers’ safety nets away and hand them to Wall Street. Can you imagine being a worker with money in these accounts and having it subject to the whims of these markets? Please. And second, the Chilean model purports to get those “deadbeats” back to work , but there is absolutely no evidence it decreases the unemployment rate or protects workers. None. All it does is create a situation where a worker will do whatever they can with no job security or benefits simply to make ends get closer to each other even if they don’t actually meet. It was started in 2002. In 2009, Chile’s poverty rate rose for the very first time in 23 years. And guess what? It was attributable to joblessness and the global economic crisis . Oh, and here’s some more detail on Chile and the student protests over student debt, access to education, and income disparity from yesterday. Ah, yes, the Great Conservative Experiment. Guess that didn’t work out so well for them. Transcript below the fold. FERRECHIO: Gov. Romney, you suggested replacing government jobless benefits with individual employment savings accounts. Jobless benefits for millions of Americans are about to expire in just a few months. If you were president right now, would you extend them? ROMNEY: We’ve got a lot of people out of work. We’ve got a president that has a entirely failed economic policy and frankly doesn’t know what to do to get this economy going again. Surely we’re going to help those people who can’t find other ways to care for themselves. But the most important thing we’re talking about tonight is making sure that President Obama is replaced by someone who knows how to get this economy going again. That’s what this debate is really about. And that’s what the American people want to understand. Unemployment benefits – I think they’ve gone on a long, long time. We have to find ways to reduce our spending on a lot of the anti-poverty programs and unemployment programs, but I would far rather see a reform of our unemployment system to allow people to have a personal account, which they’re able to draw from, as opposed to having endless unemployment benefits. So again, let’s reform the system – make the system work better by giving people responsibility for their own employment opportunities and having that account, rather than doling out year after year, more money from an unemployment system. FERRECHIO: A real quick follow up. Would you sign a bill to extend unemployment insurance if you were president right now? ROMNEY: If I were president right now, I would go to Congress with a new system for unemployment which would have specific accounts which people could withdraw their own funds and I would not put in place a continuation of the current plan.
Continue reading …Assad orders tanks into rebel towns as Syria’s brutal crackdown intensifies
August 13, 2011 No Comment
Syrian president steps up campaign of repression against pro-democracy protesters, with raids in Latakia and Qusair Syrian tanks and gunmen have swept through two towns to root out anti-government protesters amid heavy firing that has sent many fleeing to safer areas. Three people were reported to have died in the violence, the latest in an escalating campaign of repression by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime against an uprising that erupted in mid-March. The heaviest assault was reported in the coastal city of Latakia, where a day earlier thousands turned out to demand the president’s removal. At least 20 tanks and armoured personnel fanned out into the city’s el-Ramel district as intense gunfire rang out, according to Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Shooting and explosions were also heard in the town’s Slaibeh neighbourhood, according to the Observatory and the Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria, an activist group that documents protests. Two people were killed in the shooting, they said. Scores of security agents and pro-government gunmen, known as Shabiha, entered the town of Qusair, near the border with Lebanon, and several nearby villages, arresting scores of residents, Abdul-Rahman said. LCC Syria said that one person was killed in the shooting. It was not possible to verify the reports. The army also conducted an operation in the nearby towns of Hawla and Taldaw, in the central Homs province, and deployed tanks in the area, activists said. They reported that 10 people were wounded by gunfire during sweeps in the north-western town of Sarmin. Both the al-Ramel section of Latakia and Qusair have seen large protests since the demonstrations began in March. Government efforts to quash the protests have intensified in recent weeks, with troops storming several towns and cities. Abdul-Rahman said that many residents, mostly women and children, were fleeing to safer areas. In protests around the country on Friday, tens of thousands called for Assad’s death, in a dramatic escalation of anger. Crowds took to the streets after Friday prayers, defying bullets and rooftop snipers following more than a week of intensified military assaults on rebel cities. The chants calling for Assad’s death are seen as a sign of how much the protest movement has changed since its initial demands for minor reform, but not for regime
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Camps and hospitals are struggling to cope with the outbreak as more than 180 people die from disease Outbreaks of measles and cholera are striking down Somali children already weakened by hunger, resulting in dozens of new fatalities. News of the fast-spreading diseases has caused alarm among aid workers, who are struggling to deal with the humanitarian crisis brought on by the severe drought and conflict in Somalia. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled into overflowing refugee camps in recent months in search of food and sanctuary, but many more remain in rebel-held famine zones where aid agencies have only limited access. The World Health Organisation said on Friday that Somalia was experiencing a cholera epidemic. Linked to dirty water, poor sanitation and crowded settlements, the intestinal infection causes dehydration and is often fatal. In just one hospital in Mogadishu, there have been 4,272 recorded cases of acute watery diarrhoea, a key indicator of the risk of cholera, causing 181 deaths. Most of those who have died were aged under five. Laboratory tests conducted on a sample of the cases this week suggested 60% of the infections were cholera. While Somalia has experienced seasonal cholera outbreaks in recent years, this one is much worse. “The number of cases is two or even three times what was there last year,” Dr Michel Yao, WHO’s public health adviser, said in Geneva on Friday. “So we can say that we have an epidemic of cholera going on.” Yao said that the risk of the disease spreading was high since people were still moving around in search of food aid. At least 100,000 Somalis have fled to Mogadishu from the countryside in the last two months. An even greater number have travelled to sprawling drought-affected refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. In Kenya’s Dadaab settlement, about 1,400 Somalis arrive every day, pushing the number of recorded refugees past 400,000. A further 38,000 people still await registration. With the three Dadaab camps overflowing, most of the new arrivals have been forced to settle on the outskirts, far from latrines and water points. Aid workers say that unless these families are moved to more suitable areas before the next rains, fresh cholera outbreaks are likely. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says it hopes to move 90,000 of the refugees to better-equipped settlements in Dadaab before November, though the plans are dependent on permission from Kenya, which has complained repeatedly about the burden of hosting so many Somalis. Meanwhile at the Dollo Ado refugee camps in south-eastern Ethiopia, home to nearly 120,000 Somali refugees, government health officers and aid workers conducted an urgent measles vaccination campaign this week. UNHCR said that 93 cases of measles had been recorded in the camps, with three deaths officially confirmed. But the real toll may be significantly higher. Community health workers reported that around a dozen people had died of measles on a single day earlier this month, UNHCR said. Normally measles is not life-threatening. But when children are severely malnourished – as many of the recent Somali arrivals are – it can be fatal. While numbers are difficult to confirm, the UN estimates that tens of thousands of Somalis have died this year of hunger-related causes. Famine conditions exist in two large regions of Somalia, as well as three smaller areas, including parts of Mogadishu where there are large concentrations of displaced people. Other regions of southern Somalia are expected to be declared famine zones in the next month or two. The aid effort in Mogadishu was eased slightly last week when most of the al-Shabab militias withdrew following an offensive by African Union troops and pro-government forces. The Islamists claimed that the move was strategic, and said their fighters would adopt guerrilla tactics from now on rather than trying to hold ground in Mogadishu against the better-equipped AU peacekeepers. But the rebels have been rocked by divisions due to their handling of the food crisis. Some of the hardline leaders, who come from the north of Somalia, have denied there is a famine in the south and refused to lift a ban on organisations such as the World Food Programme, the agency best equipped to manage a hunger emergency. This has angered local al-Shabab leaders, who want the people to receive help, even if it comes from the west. Interviews with refugees suggest that the rebels’ restrictions on aid, as well as their policy of taking food and animals as “taxes”, has eroded whatever support they may once have enjoyed. Despite the withdrawal from Mogadishu, the Islamists still control much of southern Somalia, including the main famine zones. Somalia Kenya Famine Ethiopia Refugees Cholera Drought Xan Rice guardian.co.uk
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The story behind the making of the film and the religious storm it caused are the subject of Holy Flying Circus As Brian Cohen, the hapless hero of Monty Python’s Life of Brian , finds out, it can be tricky stepping into the shoes of someone worshipped by all. And the fear of not passing muster is on the minds of all six actors cast as Pythons for a BBC comedy drama about the release of the film in 1979. Holy Flying Circus will tell the story of the making of Life of Brian and the righteous fury that surrounded the release of its satirical take on the gospels. It is the first attempt to dramatise the activities of the sextet who transformed the nature of comedy in this country and produced a British film now critically regarded as one of the very best. Coming together this summer to play Michael Palin, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and the late Graham Chapman, the performers have admitted to feeling odd about playing men who have the status, if not of modern-day messiahs, then at least of comedy gods for their fans around the world. During the filming of BBC4′s Holy Flying Circus , which is written by Tony Roche, co-writer of In the Loop and The Thick of It , its stars were initially wary of impersonating such famous comics. “We wanted to be affectionate about the Pythons and we all had a sense they were our comedy heroes,” said director Owen Harris. “You could feel the anxiety in the room when the actors got together in character for the first time. We had a room full of Pythons.” Harris, who has previously directed the hit series Misfits , encouraged the actors not to worry too much about portraying their characters authentically. “We didn’t want impersonators, although in the end we have got an amazing set of Pythons. I don’t know what the originals will think. They will all be seeing it for the first time when it goes out next month,” he said. Comedian and writer Steve Punt, who plays Idle, found the humour of Roche’s screenplay guided the performances. “When you are playing someone who is not only an icon of comedy, but who is still alive, it does feel pretty strange. But the secret is the script. It is funny and not at all a forensic depiction of the people. It captures the spirit of the Pythons.” Darren Boyd, star of Case Sensitive , plays Cleese and has tweeted about how odd it felt to stand in a street “doing the silly walk” or thrashing things with a stick “a la Fawlty Towers “. But happily for Boyd, encouragement came down from on high. Stephen Fry, who makes a cameo appearance as God in the film, offered support on set. “God just gave me his blessing regarding my Cleese ‘look’. He was most enthusiastic. My life is complete,” tweeted Boyd. Next, one of the original Pythons, Terry Jones, gave the actor who plays him a remote blessing via Twitter. When Rufus Jones messaged him to say he was playing him in a BBC4 drama, the Python replied that his efforts were “all in a good cause”. This weekend the 69-year-old, who directed Life of Brian , told the Observer he “loved the script” of the new production. “It is a wild flight of fancy and I am keeping my fingers crossed about how I am played,” Jones said. Canadian comic Phil Nichol plays Gilliam, while Charles Edwards plays Michael Palin and Tom Fisher plays Graham Chapman, the most laconic Python, who died of cancer in 1989 aged 48. Unlike other recent BBC4 docu-dramas about comedians, such as Tony Hancock and Hattie Jacques, Holy Flying Circus aims to be a comedy in its own right. “It has a very different tone from other films in that strand,” said Harris. “We are calling it a fantastical reimagining.” Inspired by Python, the director said the film tells its story in an unorthodox way. “It is non-linear for a start, and has animation in it, like Terry Gilliam’s work. We took his drawings as a starting point and then applied our own craft. In the end some of the sequences are rather like the American cartoon Family Guy , although not visually.” The new drama centres on a notorious television confrontation that took place on 9 November 1979 between two of the Pythons, Cleese and Palin, and the Roman Catholic writer and broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge, who believed that Life of Brian was a weak and scurrilous attack on Christianity. At Muggeridge’s side for the debate on the BBC2 show Friday Night, Saturday Morning was the Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood. “You might say Holy Flying Circus is a comedy equivalent of the film Frost/Nixon , marking a historic TV moment, but that was much more factual and we are playful, although the debate itself is verbatim,” explained Harris. “I do wonder whether viewers will realise that, because some of it is quite extraordinary.” Although Life of Brian was a box-office success, it was met with a volley of international protest from religious groups. Thirty-nine British local authorities imposed some sort of ban. The plot centres on the unfortunate chain of events that follow the mistaken identification of a young Judean man as a new religious leader. Reluctant to the last, Cohen, played by Chapman, is tragically unable to clarify the misunderstanding. During the TV debate, chaired by the lyricist Tim Rice, Muggeridge called the film “squalid” and “tenth rate”. The bishop levelled some low blows too, accusing the film of being “fourth form revue” standard and implying the Pythons were “mentally deficient”. “It was a clash of cultures. Palin became quite frustrated, but both he and Cleese remained respectful. But the respect wasn’t returned,” said Harris. Terry Jones too, remains annoyed by Muggeridge. “It was quite a cheek because he had missed the opening of the film,” he said. “They had a good lunch and then arrived late at the viewing theatre that day.” Comedy BBC4 BBC Television industry Religion Comedy Vanessa Thorpe guardian.co.uk
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