[330.1] SORRY, WHAT'S A NEIGHBOUR EXACTLY?

In the midst of the UK political party conference season's media blandishments, the Guardian's Simon Hoggart can be guaranteed to puncture pomposity and put the spinmeisters back on a wheel of their own making. But the columnist's mockery of Bill Clinton's reference to the African concept of ubuntu (during his recent Labour speech) suggests that he lives a very solitary existence. Or perhaps on another planet. Quoth Hoggart: "It turns out to mean 'I am, because you are.' No, I haven't a clue either. But the speech was a mighty success, certainly compared to Alan Johnson's." Que? The concept of inherent human interdependence is that difficult to grasp for the champagne-drinking commentariat? Or their dictionaries don't do U, only non-U? What is the liberal left coming to... Ah well, someone give the good man a copy of Paul E. Stroble's Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu (Pilgrim Press). That'll really confuse him.

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