Monday, 9 October, 2006
- 9 Oct 06, 04:09 PM
In : assessing the threat of North Korea following its nuclear test and the diplomatic reaction; an interview with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad; Science editor Susan Watts on Professor Paul Davies' book The Goldilocks Enigma; and how John Reid plans to tackle the prison overcrowding crisis.
Please provide your comments on the programme below.
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Regarding Goldilocks theory.
The Earth and every plant and animal in it and on it, evolved to fit the circumstances presented (that is how evolution works) be the environment hot or cold or wet or dry etc. To suggest that G-d (any G-d) enabled this by some design is simplistic nonsense.
Dave. Kenton. Middx.
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N.Korea's actions today are another chilling reminder of what could be. Should we all be thinking and reporting on why we are going towards more nuclear armament rather than less. When does it cease to become a deterant? How many big clubs have there got to be in the playground?
Also I heard our foreign secretary say that N.Korea's actions are condemned by the world. Does she actually mean every single nation etc. If not who constitutes the world?
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Sorry for the old friend of Africa to so quickly turn to be the world enemy
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So conditions are just right for life on this planet, and who knows how many more.
If they were not, I would not be writing this,nor would anyone read it.
To believe that a god made it all happen begs the question. Which God? There have been and still are many different ones.
Leave them where they should be, in the realms of fantasy
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So North Korea has joined the Nuclear Bomb club, and without asking Americas permission. Tut tut.
As far as I remember, and I do recall the Korean war. We still only have an armistice over there. This I assume means that they, and the UN are still in a state of war.
One can hardly expect the enemy to comply with any request that they deem to be against their interests.
I also doubt that China will allow North Korea to destabilise the status quo now that they are heading to be the super power.
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I'm well over 30 and spend hours on YouTube ;-)
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Re Goldilocks: Pretty obvious to me - life has come into being in such a way that fits the realities of the universe, not the other way around!
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PRISON OVERCROWDING CRISIS - a damning indictment on a modern Labour Government that, after 9 years in office, the Prison Service is in serious crisis. Lord David Ramsbotham, former chief Inspector of Prisons, recently said Government has only itself to blame.
Overcrowding has been caused by an overuse of prison, not an increase in crime [overall crime has fallen markedly in the last decade]. Lord Phillips, Lord Chief Justice is highly critical of the underfunding of community-based punishments [The Observer, 08.10.06]. This is where investment is required - not in extra jail places, which John Reid plans.
Providing 8,000 extra prison places at a cost of 拢800m is futile. Prison doesn't work; jails fail to rehabilitate most inmates. Community sentences, suitable for non-violent offenders, are usually more effective & cost less.
Using police cells to accommodate prisoners is wrong, as it will take police officers away from police work. Police officers are not jailers, & don't have the skills & training to act as prison officers.
It is alarming that a major public service has been allowed to degenerate to this level. Government lacks the political will to effect necessary change. The whole issue strikes at the very heart of British politics, & is deeply worrying.
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Goldilocks
If consciousness can only evolve when all the fundamental physical constants assume certain values ....then a universe having those values is the only universe that any conscious being could ever be aware of. So not a coincidence but inevitable?!
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Prisons or lack of them .. This sorry tale has been in the public domain for some years as an inevitable situation due to lack of planning by this most incompetent government...Why do we have more & more waffle & flanneling excuses from the likes of Hazel Blears about prisons .... I have heard much protestations from this government , but these excuses are just not good enough!Headlines will soon be of some serious crime being committed by an escapee from an open prison... & we will hear the same old mantra "about lessons being learned"...
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The country was warned some years ago about the dangers of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of dictators by none less than Mr Blair, who afterwards took Britain to war. Surely the news about North Korea would warrant a senior Govt minister or the Prime Minister to come on Newsnight and answer questions about the implications for Britain and the wider coalition-at-war of this development? Similarly, was there nobody from the Bush Administration willing to face Jeremy Paxman on the same issue? It seems that Iran has been green-lighted to continue its quest for the bomb after today's limp comments from Mrs Beckett.
Newsnight's occasional forays into the bigger questions are always a welcome distraction. The more assumptions underlying the application of the scientific approach that are stripped away, the more snakeoiled the pitch appears, and it occasionally a good thing to illuminate this.
Finally, some comment about Martha Kearney. She comes across as extremely pleasant as well as supremely professional, not unlike Jeremy Paxman. Some of the other newsnight presenters should take an example from tonight's lot. Kirsty comes across as grumpy at the best of times, for example.
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Newsnight was like the Curate's Egg tonight - parts of it were good.
North Korea. Too internationally intricate to chat about now. But good for us to be warned that Japan might be obliterated.
Basher the Sad always does look a bit melancholy. Had a safer job in London. His present one could result in a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
Paul Mason's Google-waffle about a firm with 67 employees was rubbish.
Even worse New Newsnight irrelevant rubbish was how Goldilocks was served at the restaurant at the end of the universe.
Only 42% of tonight's programme was real reportage. The rest was padding.
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I am writing to express my disappointment at the feature on last night's programme, 'The Goldilocks Enigma'. Having given the views of the militant atheist scientist Richard Dawkins an airing, I thought Susan Watts might actually seek the opinions of a scientist who holds clear theistic views. For indeed, there are an increasing number of scientists today from all scientific disciplines who are moving away from atheism or agnosticism on account of their discoveries. Unfortunately, Paul Davies' views do not truly contrast with those of Prof Dawkins. I would therefore like to see the balance redressed and the opportunity for the views of theistic scientists to be given some exposure. Maybe Newsnight could seek to interview a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists or of Christians in Science - there are certainly plenty of academics to choose from.
Rev Peter Kane
Southport, Merseyside
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RE: THE GOLDILOCKS ENIGMA
I too am confused by Prof Dawkins' theory.
If it was correct, then surely the bacteria that live on deep sea vents are abhorrations as they don't really fit into any model of 'normal' life. Isn't it obvious that however the universe was 'configured', life would have evolved into a form that was perfectly suited to it. This is very basic stuff and I'm amazed that a Professor of Cosmology could be so blinkered.
However, I understand the underlying question in his theory. It's a basic philosophical tenet - the idea of the First Mover - the 'being' or force or set of rules that started the great ball rolling. Even Hawking couldn't offer a hypothesis on this question - just sidelined it with a quip about God doing it.
It's probably my favourite philosophical question because it deals with things the human mind simply cannot comprehend - the very idea that something can spring out of nothing bends the mind in ways it should not be bent.
Anyway...
Cheers,
Johnny, London
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Let me get this straight. First Bush describes Iran, (Saddam's) Iraq and North Korea as representing an "axis of evil". Then the US+UK (both nuclear powers) ILLEGALLY (under the UN Charter, the most important body of law in the world) invade Iraq and oust the Saddam regime (but fail to find any WMD or to install the Switzerland-like democracy they had hoped for). Then Iran and North Korea respond by accelerating the development of their own nuclear weapons capabilities (presumably in order to protect themselves against a similar fate), and now North Korea (probably the scariest regime since the Nazis) has acquired these weapons. This is precisely the sort of consequence of the inappropriate use of force that Jacques Chirac predicted when he argued against the US-led invasion of Iraq (and similar long-term consequences will likely follow from the whole disastrously thought-out "war on terror"). And it hasn't all played out yet, by any means - the ripples from the "Bush doctrine" will bounce around the world for decades. Is there any chance at all that Bush now realises that the minds who drafted the UN Charter (motivated by WW2 and its 30m civilian deaths, equivalent to 10,000 9/11s or 5 9/11s every day for 5 1/2 years) perhaps knew what they were doing when they tried to make it impossible for Member States to wage aggressive war? Or is he still a prisoner of the delusion that he knows better, that US military power can achieve any political objective, and that the apparent American / Texan / Neoconservative predisposition to solve problems primarily via the use of force is somehow working? (To borrow a line from Terminator 2:) Are we learning yet?
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NUCLEAR THREATS
The threat of North Korea鈥檚 A bomb has now, seemingly, come to reality. Hanging over us for years, it has been claimed 鈥 especially by the US 鈥 that it is a prelude to Armageddon. Yet that doesn鈥檛 seem to be about to happen. Everything remains much the same, with both sides posturing almost exactly the same as before; except that, now the threat has been realized, the demands for sanctions are now being moderated in case they destabilize the North Korean leadership!
The reality is that we have been living with nuclear weapons for more than half a century. Indeed, the threat reached its peak in the 1960s with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even then, when many genuinely believed the end of the world was nigh, the architect of US nuclear escalation, Herman Kahn, still claimed 鈥溾espite a widespread belief to the contrary, objective studies indicate that even though the amount of human tragedy would be greatly increased in the postwar world, the increase would not preclude normal and happy lives for the majority of survivors and their descendants鈥︹. At that time both sides really did have the capability of wiping out the whole population of the world; yet it never happened.
Since then the reductions in nuclear arsenals have made life somewhat safer. More important still, international opinion 鈥 bolstered by a much better educated public around the world 鈥 has made the concept of nuclear devastation literally unthinkable.
Against this background, North Korea鈥檚 handful of weapons 鈥 comparable to those used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - are capable at most of killing a few hundred thousand people. It standing army, of 1 million, is however quite capable of killing at least as many as this if it moves the few dozen miles to take Seoul in the south.
So, even here, the balance of power has not changed dramatically.
The real problem is that the bluff of the US has very publicly been called. Iran will, accordingly, be strengthened in its own resolve to have the bomb; though, again that will not impact the balance of power dramatically. More widely, US hegemony is being undermined around the world. We have to hope that its trigger finger is not too itchy, since it alone still has the real power to destroy us all!
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WHAT PRICE WILL WE PAY TO PUNISH CRIMINALS?
There is a great deal of anger across society about crime; anger that politicians of most persuasions are cynically willing to tap for votes!
Yet crimes against the person are steadily falling, and those against property have more than halved over the past decade. Despite this the prison population has increased by 50%; with more offender being sent to prison for longer periods. Why, when we don鈥檛 even have the prisons to contain the extra numbers?
The fact is that, for wholly cynical reasons, politicians have 鈥 for a couple of decades 鈥 bowed to popular prejudice by increasing the numbers of imprisonable crimes and increasing the tariff for each of them; to acclaim from their electorate but also at great cost to the public in general. Can we afford to continue this vicious indulgence?
The traditional reasons have been to remove them as a threat to society, which must of course work in the short term 鈥 for the relatively short part of their lives when they are incarcerated and cannot commit crime 鈥 but has little effect in the longer term, when recidivism rates can approach 75% amongst the young. Even this is, therefore, an ineffective approach.
Second, and seemingly first in the mind of the public and the media, is retribution. This is perhaps understandable, especially in the eyes of the victims, but 鈥 being totally negative in its impact on the criminals 鈥 it is irrelevant in terms of the good of society as a whole.
Third is the idea of deterrence. However, the evidence suggest that it is the threat of detection which carries the real weight; so improved DNA techniques may be the best solution. Prison itself is though no longer a real threat, especially where it becomes a home from home for many career criminals.
Finally, there is rehabilitation which should be more productive. On the other hand, its limitations are evidenced by its name. It implies that its job is to undo what society has done to the individual; especially the damage caused by prisons themselves. A more suitable term might be education, especially where many criminals are so poorly educated as to be almost unemployable, or 鈥 in the case of the addicts who make up much of the prison population 鈥 need therapy.
Perhaps the biggest problem, though, is what happens when the prisoner leaves custody. They are mostly thrown back into a world, which they were poorly qualified to handle even before prison, with no prospects 鈥 indeed a prison record which seemingly qualifies them for nothing except being a security guard, no education and no basis for normal life; and only criminal skills with which to earn their keep. Surely it would be worthwhile investing some part of the tens of thousands we spend annually on each prisoner in custody giving them a viable start back in working life
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At posting No. 11 Liam Coughlan wrote:
"Newsnight's occasional forays into the bigger questions are always a welcome distraction."
'Distraction'!!!? From what, exactly?
What is it in anyone's mind, at this time, that allows us still, at this late stage, to think that we are somehow removed from events and issues happening 'over there', 'somewhere else'?
Thanks to Newsnight for the interview with President Assad.
If I'm not mistaken, President Assad referred to a "lack of vision" (on the part of those who would/could mediate in the Middle East). If, as I suspect, President Assad meant by his careful use of the word "vision", real insight, I applaud interviews such as this one for its effort to begin the pressing journey towards such insight.
It is also encouraging to know that we are thinking more clearly now about Crime and the role of Education and Rehabillitation in our society. I am grateful to Newsnight for all its recent efforts to elucidate rather than obscure.
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Bashar Al-Asad
Only last week, during a peaceful demonstrating organised by the Kurdish parties in Syria, Kurdish writers and journalists and other non-Kurdish parties, in comemoration of the process that denied millions of Kurds in Syria nationality, having a passport or any sort of identity, the Syrian security police in Demasqus stopped the demonstraters by force and imprisoned many of them and hit many of them harshly including women. The process which the demonstraters wanted to remind the Syrian regeme of its injust effect on millions, affects Kurds in Syria in many ways: They cannot have jobs, their children cannot go to school, their marriadges are not registered and they can have no properties of any type in thier names. This is while there are around 3 million Kurds in Syria living on what is their historical land from thousands of years before the existence of Arabns on that land !
The demonstration was only last week and it has been captured by some Syrian cameras, didnt the 大象传媒 or John Sympson know about it?!!! is that why NOT ONE QUESTION was asked about the Kurdish Issue in Syria?! this has been a problem of many years, why is anything relating to the Kurdish issue is never reported in the 大象传媒? what about what has been happeneing in Turkey for the last 30 years or so ?!!! What about the demonstartions in Iran last year were several Kurds were killed on the streets?!!
Does the 大象传媒 have a lack of information regarding Kurds? then, if we assume this is correct, doesnt that put a big question mark on the accurecy and how wide a picture the 大象传媒 transfers to its viewrs about other issues?
Or is it the same case with Halabja, were nothing was said about it until there was a requirement to use it against Saddam? Will the Kurds in Syria suddenly become important to you if the west decides to change the regeme there?
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Well done to Ann widdicome for speaking up for Britain, we are scarred to speak up for our own beliefs in this Nation for fear of upsetting a Moslem, they complain about everything that is not for them and their faith - I am sick of hearing about how offended they are! Have we no faith of our own. Muslims are intolerant of ALL other religions and go berserk murdering Christians in many places - are we next?
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Jacqui
Muslims being firmly on the news circus agenda is thanks to the government's neonazi attitude
Don't they have any right of reply at all?
Our beliefs? - Christianity is just birth/marriage and death lipservice in the main in this country, and we've got military leaders talking about judeo-christian alliances - i suggest you turn your radar in the direction of delusional government representatives, who are just as bad as any other evangelicodictator
And i think you're on the wrong day here, it is the 17th oct you're referring to
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