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Johann Hari

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Johann Hari (born January 21, 1979) is a British journalist and writer. He is a columnist for The Independent and the Evening Standard. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Le Monde and Ha'aretz.

Early life

Hari was born in Glasgow and raised in London. He attended Aylward School, John Lyon School, North Cheshire Theatre School, Weald College and Woodhouse College. He graduated with a double first in Social and Political Sciences at King's College, Cambridge in 2001[1]

Politics

British domestic politics

Hari describes himself as a "European social democrat", who believes that markets are "an essential tool to generate wealth" but must be matched by strong democratic governments and strong trade unions. [1] He supports some policies of the Labour government, such as social programmes like SureStart and child tax credit[2], but opposes others, like the mistreatment of asylum seekers and tax cuts for the rich[3]. He is also a republican.[4]

He has written that Britain has begun to "abuse" refugees and asylum seekers in recent years, and has reported from the homes of refugees and detention centres.[5] [2] In 2004, Hari appeared as a guest on Richard Littlejohn's Sky News programme and challenged him about his claims that an asylum seeker could claim hundreds of pounds per week in benefits. Hari stated that the true figure was just £37.77 per week. "I asked Richard how much a single asylum seeker is given in benefits each week. You'd think that a journalist who writes about asylum twice a week would, of course, know something so incredibly basic. His response was clear. He snapped: 'I have no idea'.[3]

Hari is critical of UK prison policies, claiming that rehabilitation is impossible in overcrowded prisons, and that far too many mentally ill people are incarcerated.[4][5]

He has also argued that Britain is in an "irrational panic" about paedophiles, producing harmful laws, pointing out that they are often the victims of sexual abuse themselves and that that persecuting them makes them more likely to offend.[6][7]

Hari is a supporter of the international legalisation of drugs,[8] as he has argued that criminalisation of drugs is counterproductive.[9]

Hari, a self described homosexual, supports gay rights, advocating full legal equality, including same-sex marriage. [10] He has criticized radical gay theorists, and ideas of gay difference, superiority or separatism. [6]

International affairs

Hari has reported from many parts of the world, including Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Venezuela, Rwanda, Peru and Syria.

He was a prominent liberal supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, for which he was criticised by many in the anti-war movement, including the media monitoring group Medialens, who had a lengthy public correspondance with Hari about this.[11][12][13][14]Hari later said his support had been a 'terrible mistake'[15].

He has reported from Israel and Palestine, and argued for both a two-state solution along the 1967 borders. He has drawn parallels between the earliest Zionists and the present day nationalist Palestinians. [16]

Hari has criticised the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for forcing undemocratic, neoliberal economics on poor countries[17]

He has written that nuclear disarmament is a vital issue. He argues it is more important now than during the Cold War, because "cold wars are proliferating across the world's hot spots". [18] He believes the solution is global disarmament in line with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.[7]

Hari reported from the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, sending reports from Bukavu, Sud-Kivu, as well as Kinshasa.[19] He alleged that the Rwandan government invaded to secure economic resources and that the succeeding invasions were effectively by "armies of business" selling Congo's resouces to the West.

He writes regularly that global warming poses an imminent threat to the viability of human life. He argues there is an urgent need for greater regulation of the oil industry, and a "Manhattan Project" to develop better renewable energy sources.[20][21] Hari attributed Hurricane Katrina to man-made global warming.[22]

Views on the Enlightenment and religion

Hari has defended rationalism and what he sees as Enlightenment values, which he believes are under attack from several angles.[23] He has written in favour of absolute free speech[24] and against alternative medicine.[25]

Hari is a self-described antitheist,[26] and has criticised Buddhism, Islam[27], Judaism and Christianity for fundamentalism. He has criticised the Catholic Church's stance on birth control[28] and Islamist attitudes towards women.[29]

He has critically interviewed Antonio Negri and Jacques Derrida, as he feels that postmodernist ideas can be used to support religious fundamentalist or rightwing nationalist viewpoints. [30]

Public disagreements

With George Galloway

Hari has engaged in a long disagreement with his Member of Parliament, George Galloway who he accused of "supporting a string of dictators" and being a remnant of the part of the left that supported Stalinism.[31] Galloway contested this.

With Niall Ferguson

In 2006, Hari engaged in a public debate with the historians Niall Ferguson and Lawrence James in The Sunday Times, Daily Mail and The Independent,about the overall effect of the British Empire in India. Ferguson viewed British colonialism as a positive thing for India, Hari argued that the British Empire was a form of totalitarianism comparable to Stalinism.[32][33][34][35]

With Nick Cohen

In 2007 Hari reviewed Nick Cohen's book What's Left in the American Dissent magazine, where he called for Cohen and others (like Hari himself) who supported the Iraq war from a left-wing perspective to admit they had been wrong and had profoundly misunderstood neoconservatism.[36]. Cohen argued that Hari's review was "deceitful", a "fairytale" and "Maoist", focusing in particular on Hari's claim that his parents had raised him to see George Orwell as a moral archetype.[37]. Hari responded by offering quotes from Cohen which he argued backed up his claims and accusing Cohen of "a baffling denial of his own words".[38]

Other writing and work

Hari is also the author of a book about the British monarchy which called for a republic, God Save the Queen?, and a play called Going Down in History. The performance of the latter at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival was greeted with positive reviews, most notably by the Daily Telegraph as the work of "the new David Hare".[39]

Awards

References

  1. ^ Hari, Johann. "Think before you vote: do you want Britain to be more like Texas, or more like Sweden?".
  2. ^ Hari, Johann (16 October), "How the British government turned the children of asylum seekers into second-class citizens", The Independent {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  3. ^ Hari, Johann (2004-04-16). "The asylum-hating press - and the politicians who appease them - have blood on their hands". The Independent. Retrieved 2007-05-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ Hari, Johann (2005-10-15). "How our prisons are crammed with the mentally ill". The Independent. Retrieved 2007-05-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ Hari, Johann (9 June, 2004). "Blunkett's recipe for wasted money and higher crime". The Independent. Retrieved 2007-05-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ Hari, Johann (2006-06-20). "Paedophiles need support, not persecution". The Independent. Retrieved 2007-05-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ Payne, Sara (2006-07-27). "Protect children from sex offenders". letter to the editor. The Independent. Retrieved 2007-05-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ Hari, Johann (2006-04-24). "A midnight raid that shows the folly of drug prohibition". Retrieved 2007-05-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ Hari, Johann (24 May, 2006). "The case for providing heroin addicts with safe spaces to shoot up is now unanswerable". The Independent. Retrieved 2007-05-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. ^ Hari, Johann (10 September, 2001). "Gay marriages last longer". The New Statesman. Retrieved 2007-05-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. ^ http://www.medialens.org/alerts/03/031203_Johann_Hari_1.HTM
  12. ^ http://www.medialens.org/alerts/03/031204_Johann_Hari_2.HTM
  13. ^ http://www.medialens.org/alerts/04/041110_Siding_with_Iraq_2.HTM
  14. ^ http://www.medialens.org/alerts/04/041029_Siding_with_Iraq.HTM
  15. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=831
  16. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=935
  17. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=581
  18. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=645
  19. ^ http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3245293
  20. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=626
  21. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=1017
  22. ^ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060904/ai_n16708263
  23. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=348
  24. ^ http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/johann_hari/article344192.ece
  25. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=521
  26. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=540
  27. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=395
  28. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=985
  29. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=1105
  30. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=871
  31. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=778
  32. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=903
  33. ^ http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article994043.ece
  34. ^ http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=909
  35. ^ http://comment.independent.co.uk/letters/article1095992.ece]
  36. ^ "'What's Left' by Nick Cohen: A book review, and a eulogy for the pro-war left", Dissent, 20 July 2007, as reproduced on Johan Hari's website.
  37. ^ "'What’s left?', Dissent, as reproduced on Nick Cohen's website.
  38. ^ "A response to Nick Cohen's response: Bizarre denials and hyperbole", Dissent, 29 July 2007, as reproduced on Johan Hari's website.
  39. ^ Daily Telegraph, August 17 2001]
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