A Small World: News From Friends Far And Near

Norman Geras, the prolific British author, Marxist scholar, immensely popular bloggist and eminence grise behind the Euston Manifesto, has posted a profile of our own Damian Penny, Newfoundlander, blog marshall and all-round wit. Norman kindly invited me into the august company of his Writers' Choice series last year, with this contribution, in which certain other Newfoundlanders appear, which reminds me of the sadness I felt only yesterday with respect to the treatment of this Newfoundland hero.

Meanwhile, Radjana Dugarova, head of the Buryat Human Rights Movement (and whose efforts I wrote about in in the Ottawa Citizen a couple of months back), has managed to acquire one of those Livejournal websites. For news from our friends East of the Urals, keep an eye on it. My heart and thoughts are with you, Radjana.

My heart and thoughts are also with Sallahuddin Shoaib Choudhury, about whom a collection of essays has just been published, and I'm proud to say one of those essays is mine. The book, Injustice & Jihad (Blitz Publications, 384 pages, US$30, postal charges included) is available from Dr. Richard Benkin in the United States (drrbenkin@comcast.net); bookstores should order from Amanur Rashid Aman (ediblitz@yahoo.com).

On a related theme, here's Vaclev Havel on Burma: "It is not the innocent victims of repression who are losing their dignity, but rather the international community, whose failure to act means watching helplessly as the victims are consigned to their fate."

My brother Tony (told you it was a small world), a trade union lawyer in Vancouver, brings my attention to this project, which he's been involved with from the beginning. It's a fine idea. Help them out.

Lastly, following my post here, Louis The Unrepentant Marxist weighs in here, and arguments ensue.