Johann Hari

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Johann Hari
Born	21 January 1979 (1979-01-21) (age 31) Glasgow, Scotland
Occupation	Journalist, writer

Johann Hari (born 21 January 1979) is a British journalist and writer. He is a columnist for The Independent and the Huffington Post, and has won awards for his war reporting for them. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Le Monde, El Pais, the Sydney Morning Herald and Ha'aretz. 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 or they become "disastrous".^[1] He appears regularly as an arts critic on the BBC Two programme Newsnight Review, and he is a book critic for Slate. He has been named by the Daily Telegraph as one of the most influential people on the left in Britain ^[2], and by the Dutch magazine Winq as one of the twenty most influential gay people in the world. [28]

[edit] Early life

Hari was born in Glasgow and has lived in London since he was a baby. His father is Swiss, and his mother is Scottish. Having attended Woodhouse College he graduated with a double first in Social and Political Sciences at King's College, Cambridge in 2001.^[3]

[edit] Politics

[edit] International affairs

Hari has reported from many parts of the world, including Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Venezuela, Central African Republic, Mexico, Bangladesh, the United States, Kenya, United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, Rwanda, Peru and Syria.

One of his most frequent topics is opposition to man-made global warming. He is a prominent supporter of the climate change protests camps in Britain,^[4] and has reported from Bangladesh, a country he says is doomed to drowning by global warming.^[5][6] He is a critic of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank^[7] arguing instead for global social democracy and a "re-regulation of the global economy."^[8]

He has campaigned for nuclear disarmament^[9] through support for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.^[10] He is a supporter of the international legalisation of drugs,^[11] as he has argued that criminalisation of drugs causes more problems than drug use itself, particularly in fuelling armed gangsterism.^[12] He has reported on the effects in Mexico in particular.

Hari has reported from Israel, Gaza and the West Bank,^[13] where he was very critical of Israeli occupation policies, as well as of Hamas and Islamic fundamentalism.^[14]

Hari reported from the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.^[15] He argued that the Rwandan government invaded to secure economic resources for Western corporations and that the succeeding invasions were effectively by "armies of business" selling Congo's resources to the West.

He has also reported from Venezuela's barrios and interviewed Hugo Chavez, whose government he broadly supports, although with some criticisms.^[16]

He was banned from Dubai, and his writing blocked from being accessed there, after writing an expose of the country's abuse of migrant workers and of dissidents.^[17]

He was, in its first year, a supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq after visiting the country, because he believed any alternative would be better than Saddam, although he always argued the WMD rationale was false. He later wrote his support had been a 'terrible mistake'^[18] and he "should have known all along Bush would produce a disaster." He said he was "ashamed" of what he had argued. He has subsequently been very critical of the occupation and of supporters of the war who still insist they were right. His post-war writings have been praised by Andrew Murray, Chair of the Stop the War Coalition, as "a tremendous service to the worldwide antiwar movement."^[19] It has also been praised by Noam Chomsky. ^[20]

[edit] British domestic politics

Caroline Lucas, Kate Pickett (author of The Spirit Level), and Johann Hari speaking about equality, at the spring conference of the Green Party of England and Wales, 2010.

Hari urges his readers to vote for the Green Party where doing so will not split the left vote and let the Tories in.^[21][22] In all other situations, he urges people to maximise the anti-Tory vote. He argues David Cameron is more right-wing than is generally understood, and is being disingenuous when he claims he will reduce global warming or child poverty.^[23]

He supports some policies of the Labour government, such as social programmes like SureStart and child tax credit,^[24] but opposes others, like the mistreatment of asylum seekers and tax cuts for the rich.^[25] He is also a republican who believes the Queen should be replaced as head of state by the Speaker of the House of Commons.^[26]

Prominent themes in his writing have included the plight of asylum seekers, refugees and detention centres^[27][28] and in 2004, Hari appeared as a guest on Richard Littlejohn's Sky News programme to debate the issue of exactly how much asylum seekers get in benefits, where he accused Littlejohn of being a "liar".^[29] 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.^[30][31]

Hari, who is openly gay, supports gay rights, advocating full legal equality, including same-sex marriage. ^[32] He has criticized radical gay theorists, and ideas of gay difference, superiority or separatism.^[33]

Hari is a strong defender of the European Union and supports Britain joining the euro.^[34]

Hari has been critical of some writers like Alan Bennett and Stephen Fry whose work he believes implies that the victims of sexual abuse enjoy it. He says this risks eroding the "taboos protecting young people from sexual abuse".^[35]

[edit] Interviewees

Hari has interviewed many leading figures, including David Cameron, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, the Dalai Lama, Hugo Chavez, Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, Dolly Parton, George Michael, Simon Peres, William F. Buckley, Abu Hamza, Laurent Kabila, David Irving, Malalai Joya and Gore Vidal.

[edit] Notable secularist

Hari is a noted secularist and has been nominated for the Secularist of the Year Award by the National Secular Society, of which he is an Honorary Associate. He regards himself as a defender of Enlightenment values and has written in favour of free speech^[36] and against alternative medicine.^[37]

He has defended rationalism, which he believes is under attack from several directions.^[38] A self-described antitheist,^[39] he has criticised all religions. In particular, he has criticised the Catholic Church's stance on birth control^[40] and Islamist attitudes towards women.^[41] He has been accused of Islamophobia, a charge he denies.^[42] He has also been critical of postmodernist views.^[43]

In February 2009, he wrote an article arguing for freedom of speech to extend to the right to criticise all religions, including Islam, after moves at the UN to punish those who "defame religion or Prophets."^[44] A liberal secular Indian newspaper, The Statesman, republished the article and in response there were riots in Calcutta.

The editor (Ravindra Kumar) and publisher (Anand Sinha) of The Statesman were arrested on charges of "hurting the religious feelings" of Muslims.^[45] Hari argued this was further evidence of the erosion of free speech, writing, "Every word I wrote was true. I believe the right to openly discuss religion, and follow the facts wherever they lead us, is one of the most precious on earth – especially in a democracy of a billion people riven with streaks of fanaticism from a minority of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. So I cannot and will not apologize."^[46] He received a substantial number of death threats.

[edit] Public disagreements

[edit] With George Galloway

Hari has engaged in a long disagreement with his Member of Parliament, George Galloway, whom he accused of "supporting a string of dictators" and being a remnant of the part of the left that supported Stalinism.^[47] Galloway contested this.^[48]

[edit] 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, on balance, a positive thing for India, whilst Hari argued that the British Empire was a form of totalitarianism comparable with Stalinism.^{[49][50][51][52]} He has clashed with Andrew Roberts for similar reasons.^[53]

[edit] With the Chapman Brothers

In 2007, Hari criticised the Chapman Brothers for adopting an anti-Enlightenment philosophy, and for Jake Chapman saying that the boys who murdered Liverpool toddler James Bulger performed "a good social service".^[54] Jake Chapman responded by calling Hari "fat-faced, ugly [and] four-eyed" and "a fascist", and claimed the Bulger quote and others had been "stripped from the serious debate in which they belong".^[55]

[edit] With Mark Steyn

Hari has frequently disagreed with Canadian writer Mark Steyn, particularly on the subject of Muslims. While Hari defends the use of the word 'Islamofascism' to describe jihadis, he has written that "It has been picked up by some people, like the vile Mark Steyn, who seem to think that all Islam is evil. I dislike all religions and would happily see the whittling away of every last church and mosque, but to imply that all Islam is on a par with al-Qa’eda is grotesque."^[56] Hari has also criticised the use of demographic data in Steyn's writing. In a review of Steyn's book 'America Alone', Hari condemned passages he argued showed Steyn to be celebrating that more "white babies" are born in the US, and his prediction that there will be "evacuations" of white people from France by 2015.^[57] However, when complaints were submitted regarding Steyn's writings to the Human Rights Commissions in Canada, Hari defended his right to free speech, and said he stood "shoulder to shoulder" with Steyn in defence of his right to say "wrong and terrible things."^[58]

[edit] 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.^[59] Cohen argued that Hari's review was "Maoist", "deceitful" and "a nervous breakdown in print", among other epithets.^[60] Hari responded by offering quotes from Cohen's writing which he argues backed up his claims and accusing Cohen of "a baffling denial of his own words".^[61] Soon after they were both nominated for the Orwell prize, which Hari won.

[edit] 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?, where he argues that the system of monarchy does deep psychological damage to the members of the royal family as well as conflicting with democracy.^[62] He has also written a play called Going Down in History, which was greeted at the Edinburgh Festival with positive reviews, most notably by the Daily Telegraph as the work of somebody who "could be the new David Hare".^[63]

[edit] Awards

• Journalist of the Year at the Stonewall Awards, 2009^[64]
• Cultural Commentator of the Year at the Comment Awards, 2009 ^[65]
• Nominated for Columnist of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2008 and 2009 ^[66]
• Author of Story of the Year at the Environmental Press Awards 2008 ^[67]
• The Orwell Prize for political journalism, 2008. (Hari is the youngest ever recipient.) ^[68]
• Amnesty International Newspaper Journalist of the Year in 2007 ^[69]
• One of Debrett's top 100 international 'People of the Year' in 2007
• 'Young Journalist of the Year' at the British Press Awards in 2003 ^[70]
• 'Student Journalist of the Year' by the Times in 2000

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• JohannHari.com Official website, featuring an archive of his writings.
• Articles for the Independent
• Articles for the Huffington Post
• Hari on Twitter
• Interview with Johann Hari on Resonance FM's Little Atoms chat show.
• Hari discussing Congo on Democracy Now
• Commentary on Interview with Hari
• Sudan Tribune article about Hari's commentary on the role of corporations in Darfur
• Facebook Profile