Web Monitor

16:40 UK time, Tuesday, 22 September 2009

A celebration of the riches of the web.

A world leader, a world-leading film director and a world-leading cockney musical duo spend time together on Web Monitor. Share your favourite bits of the web by sending a link via the letters box to the right of this page.

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Film director Spike Lee once said that modern history would be marked as Before Barack and After Barack. On Newsnight Jeremy Paxman asks Lee if he was disappointed after a Republican representative heckled Obama with 'You lie!' during an address to Congress, an act former President Jimmy Carter said was evidence of racism. Lee said:

"I never drank that post-racial Kool-Aid. He [President Obama] was not Harry Houdini. He was not going to be 'abracadabra, presto change-o' overnight poof, racism disappears. I never thought that. "

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva • In an interview with Mac Margolis, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva explains in Newsweek that he feels paternal about smaller countries but insists he is not the leader of Latin America:

"Once in a while, people ask me: Lula, are you a leader in Latin America? I say, no. No one chose me to be leader. But I am absolutely certain that Brazil's relations with Latin America never has never been so clear, transparent and honest as it is today. When Paraguay gets nervous over Brazil, I have to understand Paraguay. I cannot be aggressive if Paraguay yells at me. Brazil has far more power and wealth. It's like the relationship of a father and son. A father doesn't hit his child every time his child yells at him. He tries to reason with him. That's how big countries have to act."

Chas and Dave • Never mind the Sugababes, Web Monitor was rather taken by the planned pursuits of musical duo Chas and Dave whose split was also announced today. Chas Hodges from the duo explained in the Daily Mail what Dave will do instead:

"I don't think he wanted to do the gigging any more. He has horses and he loves driving them round his grounds and painting gypsy wagons which he's very good at so I don't think he'll miss the gigging."

Web Monitor would like to presume that former Sugababe Keisha Buchanan is also leaving to pursue a gypsy caravan painting career.