Gary Younge

The Caribbean nation should be reimbursed for centuries of punitive treatment and brutality by the outside world.

Just more than a week ago, about a thousand activists from the Christian right gathered in Washington to pass judgement on the Republican presidential candidates. At the Family Research Council’s (FRC) Values Voters summit, the values most cherished did not sit well with most Americans. Polls show that a consistent and substantial majority in the US are pro-choice, support stem cell research and oppose amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage.

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=cwc_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/300732/Icon_CWC.gif" align=left border=0></a>Three years ago, during an evening celebrating the West Indies’ 75th anniversary as a Test-playing team, Viv Richards took to the stage of Birmingham’s Symphony Hall to receive an award as one of the Caribbean’s top five players of all time. At the crease in the 70s and 80s, Richards always cut a distinctive figure.

Afew weeks ago, Washington-based radio host Jerry Klein announced his own very radical plan to assuage public fears of terrorism. All Muslims, he suggested, should be branded with a crescent-shaped tattoo or be forced to wear a red armband. The phones rang off the hook.

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/140248/USA2.GIF" align=left>Surveys conducted by 10 of the world’s leading newspapers highlight growing anti-Americanism among the United States’s traditional allies during George W Bush’s presidency. This is directed not at the American people, but at their government.
The survey project shows that in seven of nine countries, a majority rejects Bush and the US invasion of Iraq. The exceptions are Israel and, surprisingly, Russia.