Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
A happy Juneteenth to all my American readers
June 19th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I had never heard of the American notion of Juneteenth until very recently. I suppose the Black Live Matters events of the last few weeks has brought the anniversary to more prominence outside the United States. For non-Americans, Wikipedia provides an explanation of Juneteenth: “Juneteenth (a portmanteau of June and nineteenth;] also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Liberation Day is […]
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The legacy of white supremacy
June 15th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
An American friend of mine has put it succinctly: “One of the many profound outcomes of the BLM movement is an awakening among many people (many are already quite enlightened on the matter) that racism is indeed systemic. The entire adventure of British, other European and American imperialism (as well as Japanese imperialism) was and […]
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A review of the 1941 classic film “Citizen Kane”
May 24th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just used lockdown to view “Citizen Kane” once more. Widely considered – at least by critics – as the greatest film ever made and nominated for nine Academy Awards, at the time this film actually failed to recoup its costs at the box office and in fact only won one Academy Award (that for […]
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Covid rules cleared up
May 11th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
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VE Day – we need to remember ALL who died and suffered
May 8th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
For those who lived through the Second World War, when it started and when it ended depended on where you lived. For Europeans, we date the commencement of the war as 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland and we date the conclusion of the war as 8 May 1945 with the surrender of […]
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A year of living on London’s South Bank – now such a different experience
March 25th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
A year ago today, I moved home for the first time in 35 years. I went from a four-bedroom house in London’s suburbs to a two-bedroom flat on London’s South Bank. It was a major downsizing operation which involved a substantial process of decluttering. It was stressful but it was a great move. Yet how […]
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Interesting use of language
August 11th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
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A review of the new film “Late Night”
June 9th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
So here’s a rarity: a film directed by a woman (a first such responsibility for Nisha Ganatra),written by a woman (a first feature film script from Mindy Kaling), with women in the two leading roles (Emma Thompson as the presenter of a late show on American television and Kaling as the token female in the […]
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Where now for South Africa?
May 18th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
South Africa has just had its sixth democratic general election and once more the African National Congress (ANC) won – but with a reduced share of the vote and a lower number of seats in the National Assembly. Cyril Ramaphosa became president a year ago and faces formidable problems in reforming the ANC and reviving […]
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How can we make sense of Israeli politics?
May 1st, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Israeli is the only country in the Middle East which, despite criticisms of its treatment of Aran citizens, operates a democratic political system, so it is surprising that the world’s media gives so little attention to its political system and its politics. Three weeks ago, Israel held a general election in which the two main […]
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