Things Unseen

The priest who administered the last rites to victim Jackie, 17, amidst gunfire. An iconic photograph captured the scene. Mary Colwell reports. [Image courtesy of Mary Colwell. All rights reserved.]

A senior judge calls Muslim preacher Abu Qatada ‘a truly dangerous individual’, yet still we cannot insist that he is exported and tried in his home country... [Image courtesy of :Dar via Flickrr.com©©]

At a time when racism is in the headlines, why the media silence on ‘disturbing instances of racism against Jews’?

Aid goes to Evangelicals, not us, accuses voodoo leader. In the rebuilding after the earthquake, Evangelicals bring aid to a country said to be 80 per cent Catholic and 100 per cent Voodoo. With very mixed results. Edward Stourton reports.

WENDY ROBBINS ON PROTECTING OUR KIDS ... from sexually-explicit songs in the charts ‘My children are 7, 9, 12. They singalong to pop song lyrics like “‘sex in the air, I don’t care’. I don’t want them hearing this stuff; they don’t have the emotional maturity. Can’t the broadcasters give a lead here?’

GLOBAL WARMING: DOES IT MATTER? The clash between reducing emissions and development. A climate summit in Durban has ended with agreement to bring down carbon emissions to save the planet. A deadline of 2020 could yet prove a cop-out. But do we need to be so concerned about emissions? Is fear of global warming holding back much-needed development? Emma Barnett interrogates George Monbiot, environmental activist, and Claire Fox, director of the British think-tank, the Institute of Ideas.

Complaining is part and parcel of our everyday existence. Usually it’s personal, trivial, and not to be taken seriously. But sometimes it’s bigger than that. The question is: are there any tips for making sure our legitimate complaints are not only noted, but also acted upon? The answer is: Yes. Dougal Patmore finds out what they are – along the way meeting the man who sealed his letters of complaint with a loving kiss, and the choir whose members complained distinctively and effectively in song...

So why no debate on the assumptions behind the more apocalyptic forecasts? Example: the UN forecast 50 million climate refugees by 2010 – where are they?

To worry about our NHS medical records being handed over to drug companies is not naive left-wing rights rhetoric.We need reassuring that ‘we’re not going to end up as lab rats’.

Occupy London protests… the birth of people-powered politics? A gathering of non-toilet trained hippies? Or one expression among many from people who ‘feel cheated’? Louisa Bolch decides. [Image Courtesy of Wheelzwheeler via Flickr.com ©©]

Britain is the fat champion of Europe; the PM is considering a so-called fat tax. But it’s our choice, it’s our business, it’s not the government’s job to tell us how to eat. It’s another example of our ‘nanny knows best’ culture.e. [Image Courtesy of Tobyotter via Flickr.com ©©]

The ‘F’ word is ok, just cheery badinage. ‘Black, in what is thought to be the wrong context, induces apoplexy. Another sign, says Buerk, of ‘a vertiginous decline in civility…a growing coarseness in our public (and private) life’. [Image Courtesy of BIll Barber via Flickr.com ©©]

The News of the World became the biggest-selling newspaper by printing as much sordid detail of people’s private lives as it could grub up and get away with. But, remember, ‘we loved it’. [Image courtesy of Gideon Tsang via Flickr.com ©©]

Yes, bankers have ‘nationalised their risks while privatising their rewards’ – but the St Pauls’ protestors, ‘spoilt children of capitalism, living lives beyond the dreams of previous generations’, offer only ‘vapid sloganising’. What would Jesus do? they ask. The only possible answer is: God knows. [Image Courtesy of James Guppy via Flickr.com ©©]

As the 7 billionth human being is born, one problem, says Michael Buerk, underpins nearly all others in the world, but it’s the one we don’t talk about: ‘There are too many of us’. [Image Courtesy of Bindaas Madhavi via Flickr.com ©©]

Britain’s ethnic minorities call our country’s care of the elderly ‘horrible’ and ‘a betrayal’. For them, it’s culturally taboo for strangers to look after the elderly – and they also see the failings of our care home system. Do they have anything to teach the West? Interviewing care home nurses, relatives, and former 'Pensioners Tzar' Joan Bakewell, Louisa Bolch goes On The Inside...

There are 200,000 abortions every year in the UK. Is that too many? Shouldn’t you be able to ask the question without being labelled a nutter? But, in the end, is it the wrong question? Emma Barnett ‘interrogates’ Suzanne Moore of The Guardian and Dr Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship. [Image courtesy of limaoscarjuliet via Flickr.com ©©]

We’ve got ourselves into a mess over human rights, says Michael Buerk, especially those enshrined in law. Human rights are not god-given. Human rights don’t come from some natural law. They’re not absolute, or inalienable. They’re qualified, subjective, and fashionable. And they change all the time. [Image courtesy of Yoshiffles via Flickr.com ©©]

The war in Iraq claimed many thousands of victims, but forgotten among them were the multitude of religious minorities. First, they faced persecution. Later, many were killed. Finally, thousands were forced into exile. Edward Stourton reports from Iraq. [Image copyright of Mazur via flickr.com/catholicchurch.org.uk ©©]

Wendy Robbins on Europe’s ‘holocaust’ obfucators’ – growing in number and arguably more dangerous than ‘deniers’ [Image courtesty of KS7 @ www.deviantart.com ©©]