Ethics news:
archived: 20 November 2006
Ethics News is regularly updated with links and introductions to ethics-related news stories gathered from all over the web. Each week we archive the stories collected from the previous week.
nb. Ethics News has only just re-started after a long hiatus for most of 2006 during our website upgrade process.
Mine your own business
A new film on the 'dark side of environmentalism' exposes some of the myths used to block the building of mines and hold back development. 'I could put you with a family and you count how many times in a day that family smile, if you could measure stress. Then I put you with a family well off, or in New York or London, and you count how many times people smile and measure stress ... Then you tell me who is rich and who is poor.' ... more.
Spiked Online - 6 November 2006
Adults behaving badly
Teenage behaviour has always been a cause of adult concerns. But something important has changed in the way adult society perceives teenagers today. For better or worse, large numbers of British adults have become totally estranged from the world of young people ... more.
Spiked Online - 9 November 2006
Never mind borders - it's values we're defending
When the army took delivery of its first batch of Abrams tanks from the US in September, the Defence Department issued this statement: "The Abrams tanks represent a significant step in providing Australia with a stronger defence force with which to protect our people, interests and values." Values? ... more.
The Sydney Morning Herald - 13 November 2006
Religious hatred is no more than a variety of racism
The demonisation of Islam by politicians and pundits benefits only the extreme right. After his acquittal on the charge of inciting racial hatred, Nick Griffin was asked whether he was a racist. He replied that he was no longer one, that he is now a "religionist". But should we believe that Griffin has really abandoned the racism that frames his ideology and that of the party he leads? Of course not ... more.
The Guardian - 13 November 2006
Don't blame the victims
A day after the result of the US mid-term elections made it clear that Americans had lost faith in George Bush in general and in his handling of the war in Iraq in particular, Bill O'Reilly, the Fox cable news populist, spruiker for all-out war against what he calls "Islamic fascism", stout defender of - and chief fawner over - Bush and his foreign policy, said he was sick and tired of the Iraqi people ... more.
The Age - 13 November 2006
Silence is a decree all should fear
Political correctness, as much as fundamentalism, is responsible for our state of absurdity, writes Umberto Eco. Almost 15 years have gone by since I wrote that within a few decades Europe would become a multiracial continent, and the process would cost us blood and tears. I wasn't a prophet, but merely a man who studies history, convinced that if you know what happens in the past and why, you can better understand what will take place in the future ... more.
The Sydney Morning Herald - 31 October 2006
Is the word 'coloured' offensive?
This Tory MP is in hot water for using the word coloured. But is it offensive, and when did it become so? On Tuesday Bernard Jenkin, charged with recruiting ethnic minority MPs for the Conservatives, was sacked for telling an Asian candidate that he was unlikely to be selected because he wasn't a white male. The very next day he sparked a second race row by using the word "coloured" in a radio interview. ... So is the word "coloured" offensive, or just dated? And why? ... more.
BBC News - 9 November 2006
Un-Australian? Un-nice, un-necessary and un-fair
We were at the monkey bar when I saw it happen. The kid flew down the slide, climbed back up, then pushed straight through a waiting group for a second turn. He was only three or so but old enough to know better. "It's un-Australian," I told him. "This is the land of the fair go." Actually, I only thought of saying that after the event ... more.
The Age - 13 November 2006
Tough choices
When is it right to let out a prisoner? As new figures show a cut in early releases, television cameras have been given unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to see how the Parole Board decides when criminals should be returned to the community. For the first time, television cameras take a close-up view of how the British Parole Board decides on when criminals should be returned to the community ... more.
BBC News - 6 November 2006
Market does the work men won't
Takeaway pizza has done a lot for gender harmony. As women have poured into the workforce over the past three decades, men haven't done more housework to compensate. Women still do 70 per cent of the unpaid work in households, a proportion that has hardly shifted despite the steady growth in female workforce participation ... more.
The Sydney Morning Herald - 1 November 2006