Henry Laurence
Number of articles: 2First article: October 24, 2008
Latest article: April 8, 2011
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Japanese crises spark campus support and events
We have all been shocked at the terrible destruction wrought by the triple-crisis of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in Sendai, Japan last month. Almost a month after the disasters struck, over 12,000 people are dead and another 15,000 still missing. The story no longer dominates the front pages, but the emotional and physical suffering of hundreds of thousands of survivors continues.
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McCain and Palin?s rhetoric hypocritical, inarticulate
Re-reading George Orwell's classic 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language" with my Global Media seminar, I was struck by how closely his argument about the mutually corrupting relationship of language and politics fits the often incoherent sloganeering of the Republican campaign trail. Euphemistic jargon is still used to hide uncomfortable truth, as when torture is disguised as "enhanced interrogation techniques," and perfectly respectable words are still rendered meaningless by repeated misuse.