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The GAA v Douglas Hyde: The Removal Of Ireland's First President As Gaa Patron
by Cormac MooreOn 13 November 1938, just months after his inauguration, President Douglas Hyde attended a soccer match between Ireland and Poland. In a passionate reaction, the GAA declared that by attending a ‘foreign game’, he had broken Rule 27 – the Ban – and they removed him as patron. One of the most controversial incidents in recent GAA history, it strained relations between the GAA and Éamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil government. It also damaged the standing of the Ban and was used extensively by opponents to argue for its removal.
AK47: The Story of the People's Gun
by Michael HodgesIn the sixty years since General Kalashnikov created the AK's distinctive silhouette, the gun has been at the centre of conflicts across the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. The weapon that made him a 'Hero of the Soviet Union' has also appeared on t-shirts and vodka bottles, featured in videos and song lyrics and been re-fashioned in crystal - a gift from Putin to George W. Bush. Power, politics and passion combine in the story of a weapon that has shaped the modern world. Using testimonies of people who have experienced the gun at first-hand - including a Sudanese child soldier, a Vietcong veteran and a Yorkshire teenager - Michael Hodges provides a compelling account of how the AK47 became an icon that ranks alongside Coca-Cola as one of the most recognisable brands in the world.
Squandered
by David CraigOver the last ten years, New Labour has boosted public spending by around a trillion pounds - that's £1,000,000,000,000 of our taxes - over £50,000 for every household in Britain. But what have we got for our money? Effective and responsive public services that are the envy of the world? Or the creation of a vast, self-serving bureaucracy that has presided over the greatest waste of money in British history?With so much money, a tsunami of extra cash, being thrown at public services - health, education, policing, defence, social services and public administration - there have been some successes. Nevertheless, the results of the Government's tidal wave of extra spending have been worse than pitiful.In department after department, it is the same sorry story - a triple whammy of incompetence, cover-up and cuts that have all but decimated public services, while those responsible have lavished money and honours on themselves. David Craig exposes the sometimes tragic, sometimes comic story of how New Labour's years of mismanagement have led to a bureaucratization of Britain that has squandered almost unimaginable amounts of taxpayers' money, caused irreparable damage to all our lives and rewarded the man responsible with the keys to Number 10.
50 People Who Buggered Up Britain
by Quentin LettsWhich fifty people made Britain the wreck she is? From ludicrous propagandist Alastair Campbell to the Luftwaffe's allies, the modernist architects, it's time to name the guilty.Quentin Letts sharpens his nib and stabs them where they deserve it, from TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh, the dumbed-down buffoon who put the 'h' in Aspidistra, to the perpetrators of the 'Credit Crunch'. Margaret Thatcher ruptured our national unity. The creators of EastEnders trashed our brand over high tea. Thus, he argues, are the people who made our country the ugly, scheming, cheating, beer-ridden bum of the Western world. Here are the fools and knaves and vulgarians who ripped down our British glories and imposed the tawdry and the trite. In a half century we have gone from end-of-Empire to descent-into-Hell.
Bog-Standard Britain: How Mediocrity Ruined This Great Nation
by Quentin LettsNo one would attack equality, would they? Quentin Letts just might. Not the notion of equality itself but the way it has become an industry for lobbyists, class warriors and New Labour's ageing Trots.Egalitarianism is a mania for today's policymakers and the soupy-brained halfwits we contrive to elect to public office. Appalled by free thinking, these equality junkies want to crush all individualism in our nation of once indignant eccentrics.Equality has been defiled by the ethnic grievance gang, by the harpies of feminist orthodoxy, by those risk-averse jackboots of town-hall bureaucracy with their quotas and creeds. Fair damsel Liberty has been whored by the best practice brigade, by the proceduralists of multinational corporatism in their company ties, by the glottal-stopping, municipal bores who insist that everyone must have prizes and that no culture can be dominant.Tilters against convention are assailed for their 'inappropriate' behaviour. Supporters of grammar schools are 'snobs'. Social nuance, once a vital lure to self-improvement, is deemed 'unacceptable'.Twenty-first century Britain's political cadre is so paralysed by class paranoia that it stops us attaining the best in schools, manners, language, fashion, popular culture. Elitism is a dirty word. The BBC stamps out the Queen's English because it is not 'accessible'. Celebrity morons are cultural pin-ups. Thick rools, OK. The glottal-stopping oikishness of our urban streets can be linked to modern equality's refusal to deplore. The prattishness of Jonathan Ross arises from a mad insistence that vulgarity is valid.Still think equality is such a great thing? You might not after reading this urgent, exasperated, witheringly funny book.Praise for 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain:'[Quentin Letts] discharges his duty with flair and tracer precision...an angry book, beautifully written.' The Spectator
Bad Laws: An explosive analysis of Britain's Petty Rules, Health and Safety Lunacies, Madcap Laws and Nit-Picking Regulations.
by Philip JohnstonOver the past thirteen years, New Labour has made us wade through a quagmire of petty rules, health and safety lunacies, madcap laws and nitpicking regulations. We have been snooped on, hectored and hounded by state nannies from cradle to grave, all because government and its agencies have nothing better to do than to interfere in our lives. It would not be so bad if the Government ran the country well, but we have to put up with high taxes, street crime, late and dirty trains, the unjustified and disproportionate use of fines and charges, bloody-minded parking restrictions, excessive public sector waste, preposterous European directives, useless and unaccountable council officials and multi-culturalist busybodies.In this explosive and groundbreaking new book, Philip Johnston makes a stand and exposes the 'Bad Laws', those irritating laws, regulations and Whitehall idiocies that make life in Britain the day-to-day nightmare that it is today.He covers the following laws amongst many others:The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) or "snooper's charter", allows a wide range of government bodies and quangos to watch over people, check on what they are doing and monitor their communications. The Safeguarding Vulnerable People Act...which will require 11 million people working with children or the elderly to obtain a certificate allowing them to continue to do so yet will be easily evaded by those few individuals who are a danger to children.The Hunting Act. More foxes have died every year since the Act came into force. The Children Act. All 25,000 state and private nursery schools, child minders and playgroups are required to follow a new statutory framework dubbed the "nappy curriculum". Smoking Ban - It has interfered both with personal freedom and with commercial enterprise. Housing Act - which brought us Hips in the midst of a property price slump.European Arrest Warrant - which allows British citizens to be extradited to another jurisdiction to stand trial for an offence that is not a crime in the UK.Dangerous Dogs Act, which became synonymous with hasty and ill-thought-out legislation. Firearms Act which wiped out the sport and livelihoods of thousands of law abiding people.War Crimes Act, pushed through using the Parliament Act but which has resulted in not a single conviction.Religious Hatred Act which made a bad thought a crime.Numerous Health and safety laws of every description.The Licensing Act which made it an offence to play a piano in a pub without authorisation.
The Super-Rich Shall Inherit the Earth: The New Global Oligarachs and How They're Taking Over our World
by Stephen ArmstrongIn 2000 No Logo described a vision of rapacious corporations building brands at the expense of impoverished third world employees and ripped-off first world consumers. Now, only eight years later, No Logo looks almost optimistic against the rise of a new and insidious club of global billionaires who are buying up once unfashionable industries like oil, steel, shipping and mining from distressed third-world nations and formerly Communist powers. Often backed by mafia money or dubious political connections, these oligarchs have no shareholders and no home nation - they are the sum total of their corporations. We are dependent on these men - they fuelled our recent boom. They come to us for our light taxation and our willingness to sell them class and influence via an Eton education for their kids and cheaply bought honours. These men are becoming ever richer as the rest of the world suffers credit crunch and recession. They deal in the commodities that the planet's economies need but which are becoming ever more scarce. There are no national governments that can control or legislate against them - they will simply move to another of their five or six palatial homes.In this recession, we are all acutely aware of our dwindling wealth and the spiralling prices of essentials. The fact that these are in fewer and nastier hands than ever before has rarely - if ever - been explained by the media. It's time for a book that points out the power of these individuals and how they are just the start of a deeply worrying trend. The buyers of Tescopoly and No Logo have long been aware of overly powerful corporations. The rise of men whose personal wealth and power far outranks most of the companies in these books should alarm these concerned citizens - and encourage them to find out more. This book will paint a vivid picture using interviews, first hand experience, expert comment and some futurology to give them the information they need.
The Cracked Bell: America and the Afflictions of Liberty
by Tristram Riley-SmithIn this groundbreaking book, Tristram Riley-Smith charts the cultural landscape of a conflicted America in the opening decade of the 21st Century and addresses two key questions: Why is it that a nation that is so clear about its destiny leaves the world confused about its direction of travel; and why is it that a people intent on the pursuit of happiness appears so unsettled?Delving beneath the chaotic surface of American society, Riley-Smith exposes the enduring fault-lines in the cultural bedrock. In doing so, he offers up a panoramic snapshot of American society, flash-lit by the thunderbolts of '9/11', Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 Credit Crash and the inauguration of President Obama.The Cracked Bell gets to the heart of what it means to live in Obama's America, addressing questions of identity and power, belief and value, liberty and law, innovation and tradition, commerce and consumption, nature and civilization, war and peace.
So You Think You Know About Britain?
by Professor Danny DorlingWhen it comes to immigration, the population explosion, the collapse of the family, the north-south divide, devolution, or the death of the countryside, common wisdom tells us that we are in trouble; however, this is far from the truth. In his brilliant anatomy of contemporary Britain, leading geographer Daniel Dorling dissects the nation and reveals unexpected truths about the way we live today, contrary to what you might read in the news:The human mosaic: Most children who live above the fourth floor of tower blocks in England are Black or Asian. The higher you go in a building, the darker skinned children tend to be.Relationships: The more times a person's heart is broken, the nearer they will tend to move to the sea. If you want to find a good man to marry head for the countryside.North and South: People in the south move home on average every seven years and job every eight years. This is a year faster than in the north of England, but a year slower than is usual in Scotland. Optimum population: Emmigrant nation - There are twice as many grandchildren of British-born people living over-seas as there are people living in Britain who have grandparents who were themselves born abroad. The problem now is more about getting pregnant than a population explosion and we need more immigration not less.Immigration: Muslims are far more likely to marry non-Muslims in Britain than Christians are to marry non-Christians.The elderly: Most people in Britain never live long enough to experience being burgled. In some areas you would have to live for over five hundred years to have an 'evens' chance of being a crime victim.Town and Country - divided since the enclosures: Step children are most commonly found in the most leafy of idyllic rural villages. Nuclear family homogeneity is now an inner city phenomena. Why are there no cheap homes in the countryside any more?Transport: The greatest threat to life in Britain of all those aged under 40 is the car. For adults aged over 24 they most likely die as a driver, over 15 as a passenger, and over age 4 as a pedestrian. Work: There is no need for us to work until we drop - all could retire early.Reviews for Injustice:"A geographer maps the injustices of Selfish Capitalism with scholarly detachment." --Oliver James."Dorling provides the brain-cleaning software we need to begin creating a happier society. " --Richard Wilkinson author of The Spirit Level.
Feckers: 50 People Who Fecked Up Ireland
by John WatersWhich 50 People turned Ireland into the fecked-up country she is today? Bono? Haughey? Louis Walsh? de Valera? It's time to name and shame the great, the good and the gobshites...Conventional wisdom has it that Ireland, after a violent and tragic history, had began to get things right. But when the ill wind of recession cruelly snatched that self-satisfied achievement away, it all seemed like exceedingly back luck.In his 50 brilliantly acerbic portraits Waters reveals a consistent pattern of self-delusion, myopia, inferiority complex, bravado, defeatism, cynicism, sentimentalism and conceit. He traces Ireland's story from the paranoid insularism and cultural myopia that followed national Independence, though the post-Sixties obsession with a faux 'self-confidence', to the final, salutary meltdown of the Celtic Tiger, and strangely lacking either Celts or tigers.Once among the oldest civilization in Europe, Ireland has ended up as a second-rate version of the England it tried to discard. It threw out not merely the bathwater and the baby, but also the bathtub, the sponge and the rubber duck...
The Mammoth Book of Weird News (Mammoth Books)
by Geoff TibballsA humorous collection of hundreds of funny news stories, whacky phenomena, and hilarious blunders and gaffes from around the world, such as: the woman who smuggled 75 live snakes in her bra; the man who held a funeral for his amputated foot; the radioactive cat which got mistaken for a bomb; the human tongue that got served up in a hospital; the X-ray that revealed E.T.'s face in a duck; the youth who woke to find a bullet in his tongue; the tortoise that set a house on fire; and many more.
Colonial Signs Of International Relations (PDF)
by Himadeep MuppidiHimadeep Muppidi's book traces the subtle influence of colonial forms of knowledge on modern schools of international relations and follows the translation and transformation of this knowledge within post colonial settings. Concentrating on the way in which individuals and institutions read their historical past in light of contemporary criticisms and concerns, Muppidi finds that certain methods for discussing or representing the colonized have become acceptable while others have been condemned. Both, however, can be equally colonial in intent and purpose, and the difference in their reception lies in the 'processes of translation' that make one visible, the other invisible, and ultimately maintain the framework of a global colonial order.
Policing And Prisons In The Middle East: Formations Of Coercion (PDF)
by Laleh Khalili Jillian SchwedlerThis volume examines practices of policing and incarceration in the modern Middle East, the emergence of modern policing and prisons and their continued predominance. It offers a useful lens through which the complexity of state power and the contours of popular contentious politics can be read.
Policing And Prisons In The Middle East: Formations Of Coercion
by Laleh Khalili Jillian SchwedlerThis volume examines practices of policing and incarceration in the modern Middle East, the emergence of modern policing and prisons and their continued predominance. It offers a useful lens through which the complexity of state power and the contours of popular contentious politics can be read.
Russian Politics: The Paradox of a Weak State (PDF)
by Marie Mendras Ros SchwartzWhat has become of the Russian state twenty years after the collapse of Communism? Why have the rulers and the ruled turned away from democratic institutions and the rule of law? What explains the Putin regime's often uncooperative policies towards Europe and its difficult relations with the rest of the world? These are among the key issues discussed in this essential book on contemporary Russia by Marie Mendras, France s leading scholar on the subject. Mendras provides an original and incisive analysis of Russia's political system since Gorbachev's perestroika. Contrary to conventional thinking, she contends that today the Russian state is weak and ineffective. Vladimir Putin has dismantled and under- mined most public institutions, and has consolidated a patronage system of rule. The Medvedev presidency was but one chapter in the story, as Putin s re-election exemplifies. Political and economic power remains concentrated in the hands of a few groups and individuals, and the elites remain loyal to the leadership in order to hold on to their positions and prosper. Those at the helm of the state are unaccountable to the society they govern. Up until the economic crisis of 2008, ordinary Russians largely turned a blind eye to these authoritarian methods because living standards had markedly improved. The economic slowdown, rising corruption and unfair elections have put the leadership under pressure, and have caused unprecedented public protest.
Religion, Caste And Politics In India (PDF)
by Christophe JaffrelotAfter Independence the Nehruvian approach to socialism in India rested upon three pillars: secularism and democracy in the political domain; state intervention in the economy; and diplomatic Non-Alignment mitigated by pro-Soviet leanings after the 1960s. These features defined the 'Indian model', and even the country's political identity. From this starting point Christophe Jaffrelot explores the manner in which some of these dimensions have been transformed over the course of time, more especially since the 1980-90s. The world's largest democracy has sustained itself by making more room, not only for the vernacular politicians of the linguistic states, but also for Dalits and OBCs, at least after the Mandal Commission report. But the simultaneous-and related-rise of Hindu nationalism has put the minorities-and secularism-on the defensive, and in many ways the rule of law is on trial too. The liberalisaton of the economy has resulted in growth but not necessarily in development: while the new middle class is changing the face of urban India, the rural areas lag behind and inequalities have become more acute. India has also acquired a new global status, that of an emerging power seeking new political and economic partnerships in Asia and in the West, where the United States remains the first choice of the Indian middle class. The traditional Nehruvian system is giving way to a less cohesive but a more active India, a country that has already become what it is against all the odds. Christophe Jaffrelot tracks India's tumultuous journey of recent decades, exploring the role of religion, caste and politics in weaving the fabric of a modern democratic state.
Politics And Power In The Maghreb (PDF): Algeria, Tunisia And Morocco From Independence To The Arab Spring
by Michael J. WillisThe overthrow of the regime of President Ben Ali in Tunisia on 14 January 2011 took the world by surprise. The popular revolt in this small Arab country and the effect it had on the wider Arab world prompted questions as to why there had been so little awareness of it up until that point. It also revealed a more general lack of knowledge about the surrounding western part of the Arab world, or the Maghreb, which had long attracted a tiny fraction of the outside interest shown in the eastern Arab world of Egypt, the Levant and the Gulf. This book examines the politics of the three states of the central Maghreb - Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco - since their achievement of independence from European colonial rule in the 1950s and 1960s. It explains the political dynamics of the region by looking at the roles played by various actors such as the military, political parties and Islamist movements and addresses issues such as Berber identity and the role played by economics, as well as how the states of the region interact with each other and with the wider world.
Failing To Protect: The Un And The Politicisation Of Human Rights (PDF)
by Rosa FreedmanEvery year tens of millions of individuals suffer grave abuses of their human rights. These violations occur worldwide, in war-torn countries and in the wealthiest states. Despite many of the abuses being well-documented, little seems to be done to stop them from happening. The United Nations was established to safeguard world peace and security, development, and human rights, yet it is undeniable that currently it is failing to protect the rights of a great many people - from the victims of ethnic cleansing, to migrants, those displaced by war and women who suffer horrendous abuse. This book looks at the reasons for that failure. Using concrete examples intertwined with explanations of the law and politics of the UN, Rosa Freedman offers clear explanations of how and why the organisation is unable, at best, or unwilling, at worst, to protect human rights. Written for a non-specialist audience, her book also seeks to explain why certain countries and political blocs manipulate and undermine the UN's human rights machinery. Failing to Protect demonstrates the urgent need for radical reform of the machinery of human rights protection at the international level.
America's Covert War in East Africa: Surveillance, Rendition, Assassination (PDF)
by Clara UsiskinClara Usiskin has spent eight years investigating the 'War on Terror' and its effects in the East and Horn of Africa, documenting hundreds of cases of rendition, secret detention and targeted killings. As a result of her work exposing abuses carried out by regional governments and their international partners, Clara was deported from Kenya and Uganda and is currently persona non grata in both countries. Her book sets out the historical background to today's covert war, including the early Somali jihads and British repression in colonial Kenya, through to the 1998 US Embassy Bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and President Clinton's early rendition programme. America's Covert War in East Africa then looks at the US Military's new Africa Command, with its emphasis on counterterrorism, alongside increasing use of targeted killings by security forces in the region, and continued renditions and secret detention. Finally, Usiskin investigates the shorter and longer term consequences of such intensive militarisation, and the proliferation of surveillance and other technologies of control in East Africa and its surrounding waters, focusing in particular on their impact on vulnerable ethnic and religious groups in a highly volatile region.
Revolt in Syria: Eye-witness to the Uprising
by Stephen StarrIn January 2011 President Bashar al-Assad told the Wall Street Journal that Syria was stable and immune from revolt. In the months that followed, and as regimes fell in Egypt and Tunisia, thousands of Syrians took to the streets calling for freedom, with many dying at the hands of the regime. Stephen Starr delves deep into the lives of Syrians whose destiny has been shaped by the state for almost fifty years. In conversations with people from all strata of Syrian society, Starr draws together and makes sense of perspectives illustrating why Syria, with its numerous sects and religions, was so prone to violence and civil strife. Through his unique access to a country largely cut off from the international media during the unrest, Starr delivers compelling first hand testimony from both those who suffered and benefited most at the hands of the regime. Revolt in Syria details why many Syrians wanted Assad s government to stay as the threat of civil war loomed large, the long-standing gap between the state apparatus and its people and why the country s youth stood up decisively for freedom. Starr also sets out the positions adhered to by the country s minorities and explains why many Syrians believe that enforced regime change might precipitate a region-wide conflict. This revised and updated edition contains a chapter bringing it up to the end of 2013, and examines the experiences of those who have fled the fighting to Turkey and elsewhere.
Revolt in Syria: Eye-witness to the Uprising
by Stephen StarrIn January 2011 President Bashar al-Assad told the Wall Street Journal that Syria was stable and immune from revolt. In the months that followed, and as regimes fell in Egypt and Tunisia, thousands of Syrians took to the streets calling for freedom, with many dying at the hands of the regime. Stephen Starr delves deep into the lives of Syrians whose destiny has been shaped by the state for almost fifty years. In conversations with people from all strata of Syrian society, Starr draws together and makes sense of perspectives illustrating why Syria, with its numerous sects and religions, was so prone to violence and civil strife. Through his unique access to a country largely cut off from the international media during the unrest, Starr delivers compelling first hand testimony from both those who suffered and benefited most at the hands of the regime. Revolt in Syria details why many Syrians wanted Assad s government to stay as the threat of civil war loomed large, the long-standing gap between the state apparatus and its people and why the country s youth stood up decisively for freedom. Starr also sets out the positions adhered to by the country s minorities and explains why many Syrians believe that enforced regime change might precipitate a region-wide conflict. This revised and updated edition contains a chapter bringing it up to the end of 2013, and examines the experiences of those who have fled the fighting to Turkey and elsewhere.
My Life with the Taliban
by Abdul Salam ZaeefThis is the autobiography of Abdul Salam Zaeef, a senior former member of the Taliban. His memoirs, translated from Pashto, are more than just a personal account of his extraordinary life. My Life with the Taliban offers a counter-narrative to the standard accounts of Afghanistan since 1979. Zaeef describes growing up in rural poverty in Kandahar province. Both of his parents died at an early age, and the Russian invasion of 1979 forced him to flee to Pakistan. He started fighting the jihad in 1983, during which time he was associated with many major figures in the anti-Soviet resistance, including the current Taliban head Mullah Mohammad Omar. After the war Zaeef returned to a quiet life in a small village in Kandahar, but chaos soon overwhelmed Afghanistan as factional fighting erupted after the Russians pulled out. Disgusted by the lawlessness that ensued, Zaeef was one among the former mujahidin who were closely involved in the discussions that led to the emergence of the Taliban, in 1994. Zaeef then details his Taliban career as civil servant and minister who negotiated with foreign oil companies as well as with Afghanistan's own resistance leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud. Zaeef was ambassador to Pakistan at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and his account discusses the strange "phoney war" period before the US-led intervention toppled the Taliban. In early 2002 Zaeef was handed over to American forces in Pakistan, notwithstanding his diplomatic status, and spent four and a half years in prison (including several years in Guantanamo) before being released without having been tried or charged with any offence. My Life with the Taliban offers a personal and privileged insight into the rural Pashtun village communities that are the Taliban's bedrock. It helps to explain what drives men like Zaeef to take up arms against the foreigners who are foolish enough to invade his homeland.
My Life with the Taliban (Columbia/hurst Ser.)
by Abdul Salam ZaeefThis is the autobiography of Abdul Salam Zaeef, a senior former member of the Taliban. His memoirs, translated from Pashto, are more than just a personal account of his extraordinary life. My Life with the Taliban offers a counter-narrative to the standard accounts of Afghanistan since 1979. Zaeef describes growing up in rural poverty in Kandahar province. Both of his parents died at an early age, and the Russian invasion of 1979 forced him to flee to Pakistan. He started fighting the jihad in 1983, during which time he was associated with many major figures in the anti-Soviet resistance, including the current Taliban head Mullah Mohammad Omar. After the war Zaeef returned to a quiet life in a small village in Kandahar, but chaos soon overwhelmed Afghanistan as factional fighting erupted after the Russians pulled out. Disgusted by the lawlessness that ensued, Zaeef was one among the former mujahidin who were closely involved in the discussions that led to the emergence of the Taliban, in 1994. Zaeef then details his Taliban career as civil servant and minister who negotiated with foreign oil companies as well as with Afghanistan's own resistance leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud. Zaeef was ambassador to Pakistan at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and his account discusses the strange "phoney war" period before the US-led intervention toppled the Taliban. In early 2002 Zaeef was handed over to American forces in Pakistan, notwithstanding his diplomatic status, and spent four and a half years in prison (including several years in Guantanamo) before being released without having been tried or charged with any offence. My Life with the Taliban offers a personal and privileged insight into the rural Pashtun village communities that are the Taliban's bedrock. It helps to explain what drives men like Zaeef to take up arms against the foreigners who are foolish enough to invade his homeland.
A Poisonous Thorn in Our Hearts: Sudan and South Sudan's Bitter and Incomplete Divorce
by James CopnallWhat happened after Africa's biggest country split in two? When South Sudan ran up its flag in July 2011, two new nations came into being. In South Sudan a former rebel movement faces colossal challenges in building a new country. At independence it was one of the least developed places on earth, after decades of conflict and neglect. The '"rump state'", Sudan, has been debilitated by devastating civil wars, including in Darfur, and lost a significant part of its territory, and most of its oil wealth, after the divorce from the South. In the years after separation, the two Sudans dealt with crippling economic challenges, struggled with new and old rebellions, and fought each other along their disputed border. Benefiting from unsurpassed access to the politicians, rebels, thinkers and events that are shaping the Sudans, Copnall draws a compelling portrait of two misunderstood countries. A Poisonous Thorn in Our Hearts argues that Sudan and South Sudan remain deeply interdependent, despite their separation. It also diagnoses the political failings that threaten the future of both countries. The author puts the turmoil of the years after separation into a broader context, reflecting the voices, hopes and experiences of Sudanese and South Sudanese from all walks of life.
A Poisonous Thorn in Our Hearts: Sudan and South Sudan's Bitter and Incomplete Divorce
by James CopnallWhat happened after Africa's biggest country split in two? When South Sudan ran up its flag in July 2011, two new nations came into being. In South Sudan a former rebel movement faces colossal challenges in building a new country. At independence it was one of the least developed places on earth, after decades of conflict and neglect. The '"rump state'", Sudan, has been debilitated by devastating civil wars, including in Darfur, and lost a significant part of its territory, and most of its oil wealth, after the divorce from the South. In the years after separation, the two Sudans dealt with crippling economic challenges, struggled with new and old rebellions, and fought each other along their disputed border. Benefiting from unsurpassed access to the politicians, rebels, thinkers and events that are shaping the Sudans, Copnall draws a compelling portrait of two misunderstood countries. A Poisonous Thorn in Our Hearts argues that Sudan and South Sudan remain deeply interdependent, despite their separation. It also diagnoses the political failings that threaten the future of both countries. The author puts the turmoil of the years after separation into a broader context, reflecting the voices, hopes and experiences of Sudanese and South Sudanese from all walks of life.