Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
Forgotten World (84): Bhutan
May 31st, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Bhutan is a tiny, remote and impoverished kingdom nestling in the Himalayas between its powerful neighbours, India and China. Almost completely cut off for centuries, it has recently tried to let in some aspects of the outside world while fiercely guarding its ancient traditions. The population is only 672,000 and national dress is compulsory – […]
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Forgotten World (83): Peru
May 30th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
I once spent a week in Peru [click here]. The country – the 20th largest in the world – gained its independence in 1821 and today it is a nation of some 29 million. In its recent past, Peru has alternated between democracy and military dictatorship. Also, it is deeply divided politically and economically. The […]
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Forgotten World (82): Namibia
May 29th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
What is today called Namibia was in the late 1800s taken over by Germany which it called South West Africa. South Africa seized the country during the First World War and administered it under a League of Nations mandate. Namibians finally achieved independence in 1990 after a bush war of almost 25 years. Namibia is […]
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Forgotten World (81): Switzerland
May 28th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
A major theme of NightHawk is that we live in a wide and varied world and we should know more about other countries and other cultures and learn to respect them. Therefore, on 16 occasions now, I’ve had a week-long feature devoted to parts of the world that tend to be under-reported or even forgotten. […]
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The politics of fear
May 24th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
“Through short sighted, fear-mongering and divisive policies, governments are undermining the rule of law and human rights, feeding racism and xenophobia, dividing communities, intensifying inequalities and sowing the seeds for more violence and conflict. The politics of fear is fuelling a downward spiral of human rights abuse in which no right is sacrosanct and no […]
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Is Islam a religion of peace?
May 18th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
I would like to think it is – but this video suggests that there is plenty in the Koran to encourage those with a different view. Of course, one could make a similar video about quotes from the Bible and indeed someone has produced a video on various mentions of cruelty:
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Checking the Czech flag
May 15th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
… or not. as was the case when the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek recently visited Islamabad in Pakistan. No wonder they can’t catch Osama bin Laden. They’re probably using a picture of Bush.
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Forgotten World (80): Cook Islands
May 11th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
The Cook Islands has one of the tiniest poulations of any country in the world with just 18,700 citizens.This South Pacific Ocean nation consists of 15 small islands spread over 2.2 million square kilometres of ocean (roughly the size of India), divided into two distinct groups: the Southern Cook Islands and the Northern Cook Islands […]
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Forgotten World (79): Tajikistan
May 10th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
A former Soviet republic, Tajikistan plunged into civil war almost as soon as it became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. The five-year civil war between the Moscow-backed government and the Islamist-led opposition, in which up to 50,000 people were killed and over one-tenth of the population fled the country, ended in 1997 with […]
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Forgotten World (78): Mali
May 9th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
The landlocked West African country of Mali was the core of ancient empires going back to the fourth century. It was conquered by the French in the middle of the 19th century and gained its independence in 1960. Since then, it has suffered droughts, rebellions, a coup and 23 years of military dictatorship. However, since […]
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