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For Pakistani/British comedian, material draws on ‘deeply confusing’ cross-cultural childhood
By Mick Krever, CNN
Nadia Manzoor wanted to be an astronaut.
“Nadia, how can you be astronaut?,” she recalls her father asking. “Other women can't be astronauts. Who will cook? Who will clean? Who will feed your husband if you're floating about in space?”
For the Pakistani Brit, that experience was less demoralizing than inspiring – inspiration for sardonic humor, and a one-woman show, “Burq Off!”
Comedy, she told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday, was a tool “that allowed me to look at difficult things like, you know, dogmatism and traditional thinking and patriarchal oppression” in a lighthearted way.
“My father from the earliest I can remember reminded me that I shouldn't get fat, I shouldn't eat too many French fries, because my inherent purpose would be jeopardized, which is to be a wife and a mother.”
For humanitarian workers, American offensive may spell trouble
By Mick Krever, CNN
An expanded American offensive against ISIS in Iraq and Syria may complicate the work of humanitarian workers already trying to help desperate civilians in the region, David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
“Like any human being when I see the stories that are emerging from Syria and Iraq … you can only imagine feelings that I have.”
“But equally I know that I am responsible for a thousand people plus who are working day and night to try and bring humanitarian help, and they are working inside Syria, including in areas where ISIS operates,” Miliband, who was British foreign secretary from 2007 to 2010, said.
“It’s very important therefore that I stick to my humanitarian mission, which is to say that these civilians wherever they are, are in front of my mind, and that we have to make contingency plans for whatever military or other catastrophe or crisis develops.”
Sporting event draws attention to wounded soldiers
By Mick Krever and Dominique van Heerden, CNN
As President Obama lays out his plan to fight ISIS, a new sporting event in London is drawing attention to the plight of so many wounded veterans of the last decade’s wars.
A Paralympics-style competition – the Invictus Games, meaning “unconquered” – features the competition of more than 400 wounded soldiers; it’s public brainchild is Prince Harry, himself an Afghan War Veteran.
“It's a story that cuts to the core of a key issue that affects the Western world today in terms of the military adventures,” Gillian Tett, U.S. managing editor of the Financial Times, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday.
Obama must go ‘all-in’ against ISIS, say two heavyweight American diplomats
By Mick Krever, CNN
U.S. President Barack Obama must show the world that he is “all in” if there is any hope of defeating ISIS, two veteran American diplomats told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday, hours before President Obama was set to reveal his plan to fight ISIS in a primetime address.
“We are fighting a mortal enemy, an existential enemy. We win or we pay,” said Ryan Crocker, who has served as American ambassador to Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
“It's all about American leadership. Either we assert it now or we don't win this fight.”
President Obama must demonstrate that “we're all in. We are in with a coalition that we will lead, and we are going to stick with it as long as it takes.”
“He was not all in in Libya…Nothing good is going to happen in Iraq, in Syria, and in the region without American leadership, and in our system that means presidential leadership.”
Scottish independence: Historic eventuality or rash reaction?
By Mick Krever, CNN
To stay or to go.
With just over a week until a crucial referendum and polls on a knife’s edge, the pressure is on Scots to decide whether to end their 300-year-long union with the United Kingdom in favor of independence.
To debate the issue, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour spoke with Brian Cox, an actor and Scotsman who supports independence, and Rory Stewart, a British parliamentarian whose family is Scottish who supports a continued union.
For Cox the push for independence is the result of long pent-up frustrations; for Stewart, it’s a rash and regrettable reaction to a passing set of circumstances.
Iraq: We can defeat ISIS
Click here to watch Amanpour's full interview with Zebari.
By Mick Krever, CNN
On the eve of U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech outlining the American strategy against ISIS, and after the formation of a new government that was like a “caesarean operation,” Iraq’s new deputy Prime Minister said that ISIS in Iraq could be defeated.
“I think they are on the run, on the defensive. And with the increased international support coming … I think they would be defeated, at least here in Iraq. We have every confidence,” Hoshyar Zebari, who was long the Iraqi foreign minister, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
Zebari hailed the formation of a new government – a “big, big challenge” – but some are skeptical whether the leadership is renewed or simply reshuffled.
“We all agree that this government has to be different from the previous government – in its leadership, in its faces, in its composition, and its representation.”
But Nuri al-Maliki – who was just forced to resign as prime minister for his divisive policies and whom many blame at least in part for the rise of ISIS – is back as one of the country’s three vice presidents.
Mo’ democracy for Hong Kong? No, says Mo
By Mick Krever, CNN
With a new decision by the Chinese government on how Hong Kong elects its leader, the dream of democracy “is nearly dead,” Hong Kong legislator and democracy activist Claudia Mo told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
What China has offered instead, Mo said, is a “sort of fake democracy.”
It was not too long ago that Hong Kong was not Chinese at all; in 1997, the United Kingdom handed control of the territory over to Beijing. The agreement the two powers then signed promised “a high degree of autonomy” and “universal suffrage” Hong Kong’s population.
Now, activists say, China has reneged on that agreement. The government last week said that while Hong Kong’s population will be able to directly elect their leader for the first time, the candidates for the position of chief executive must be approved by a committee of Communist Party leaders.
China’s decision must still be approved by Hong Kong’s legislative council before it goes into effect.
“I think China, Beijing, is essentially very insecure and paranoid, and they want to play tough with Hong Kong. And the message is ‘We don't care about Hong Kong anymore. Hong Kong is disposable.’ The supposed financial hub in Asia; the supposed cosmopolitan city, never mind. If you don't like it here, Hong Kong people, you can leave.’”
Could Cameron go the way of Lord North?
In ten days, Scotland holds a referendum on independence; if the 'yes' campaign wins, some say it would be hard for Cameron to stay on as Prime Minister, having presided over the breakup of the United Kingdom.
Could he face the same fate as Lord North, who in 1782, was forced from office after he lost the American Colonies?
Christiane Amanpour has the story.
For Scotland unionists, ‘there is no room for complacency’
By Mick Krever, CNN
With just ten days until Scots vote on independence - and with a poll showing a slight lead for the independence campaign for the first time - “there is no room for complacency,” conservative Member of Parliament and former Defense Secretary Liam Fox told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
“There’s no panic,” he said. “But I think there’s a genuine feeling at Westminster that the No campaign has focused too much on the negative.”
A ‘yes’ vote on September 18th would mean a bitter divorce after a marriage of 307 years; up until now, the ‘no’ campaign has kept a comfortable lead in the polls.
Political and business titans warn of grave consequences for the Scottish economy, public services, and national security should Scotland leave. But after this weekend’s YouGov poll, critics say unionists must step up their game in the final stretch if the union is to be preserved.
“It’s caused something of a minor political earthquake here at Westminster. I hope that it’s simply a strong wake-up call for those who’ve not been paying attention.”
“It’s very, very important that the ‘no’ campaign give a positive reason for staying in the union,” Fox said.
If walls could talk
Imagine a world where a village's walls speak to all people of all languages.
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