Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
What is Kurdistan?
August 29th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
It would be a pity if tourists stopped going to Turkey because of the recent bombings. It is a fascinating country as I found when I visited Istanbul a couple of weeks before Islamic militants killed the British Consul General and others. The latest bombings are attributed to a group which calls itself Kurdistan Freedom […]
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Forgotten world (30): Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
August 25th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Today let’s look at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. I know – you’ve never heard of it, but it is an organisation of considerable geo-political importance. It was founded by China five years ago. As well as China, the members are Russia and the central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Observer members are […]
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Forgotten world (29): The Philippines
August 24th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
The Philippine Islands – there are more than 7,000 of them – were a Spanish colony for more than 350 years and an American colony for almost 50 years. As a result, the Philippines today is one of the two predominantly Roman Catholic countries in Asia and is among the most Westernised. The Philippines is […]
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Forgotten world (28): Tonga
August 23rd, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Nations don’t come much smaller than Tonga with a population of a mere 110,000. However, countries don’t come much fatter with 92% of all over 30s overweight or obese and almost 20% of adults suffering from diabetes. As a result, the death rate from nutritional conditions is 10 times that of the UK. Why is […]
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A new US energy policy?
August 22nd, 2006 by Roger Darlington
The USA consumes a quarter of the world’s oil supply but has just 3% of global oil reserves. It is therefore forced to import over 60% of the oil it needs and this dependency is growing. Most of the states from which it imports this oil are unstable, undemocratic and directly or indirectly funding Islamic […]
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Forgotten world (27): Luxembourg
August 22nd, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Of all the 45 countries that I’ve visited, Luxembourg is the smallest and the most boring. Yet this is a nation that was one of the six founder members of what we now call the European Union in 1957 and it gets to hold the Presidency of the EU as often as the UK. It […]
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Forgotten world (26): Rwanda
August 21st, 2006 by Roger Darlington
On five occasions now, I’ve had a week-long feature on NightHawk devoted to parts of the world that tend to be under-reported or even forgotten. You can check out the previous 25 entries here. This week, I plan to run a sixth series of postings on this theme. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda – when […]
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How Wal-Mart had to give in to unionisation
August 17th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
As someone who spent 24 years as a national trade union official, I believe that democratic trade unions are an essential feature of a free society and provide protection to workers from the imbalance of power in many workplaces. The United States likes to portray itself as the strongest democracy on earth, but it has […]
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A new blogger on the block
August 16th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
It will be evident from NightHawk that I’m a keen fan of blogging, so I welcome any addition to the blogosphere. One of the newest bloggers on the block is one of the strangest: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. You can check out his new blog here. As well as his native Farsi, the President […]
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The need for a ceasefire
August 9th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
The latest outbreak of violence in the Middle East continues and so far the UN has failed to agree a resolution calling for a ceasefire. Meanwhile more than 1,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, the Lebanese government has said. More than 100 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have also […]
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