Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
Confused by all the conflicts in the Middle East?
August 5th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The “Guardian” newspaper today helpfully provides a short guide to 15 of the nations in the Middle East explaining who they support and who they oppose. Check it out here.
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A time-lapse map of every nuclear explosion since 1945
July 31st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea’s two alleged nuclear tests in […]
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How safe is it to fly?
July 25th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
There have been three aviation disasters in the last week: the shooting down last Thursday of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew, the crashing of TransAsia Airways flight GE222 while trying to land at a Taiwanese airport on Wednesday, killing 48 and injuring 10, and the […]
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“Hard Choices” (3): a view of Russia
July 20th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
This week, we had the utterly appalling experience of a Malaysian Airlines aircraft being shot down over Eastern Ukraine with the loss of all 298 passengers and crew. Most observers – myself included – believe that the airliner was shot down by Russian-speaking Ukrainian rebels with equipment and probably expertise provided by Russia. Coincidentally I […]
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We should all vote – but you have to be registered first
July 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
In my essay “How To Critique A Political System”, I state: “To assess the democratic nature of a political system, one needs a set of tests that are ‘real world’ as opposed to theoretical. Such a set of tests would revolve around the following key questions about the political system itself: How easy is it […]
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‘Hard Choices” (2): the key elements in international relations
July 13th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I’m started reading “Hard Choices”, the memoir of Hillary Clinton’s four years as US Secretary of State. Early on in the book, she outlines the key elements in international relations: Architecture: this is the system of institutions (such as the United Nations and the World Bank), alliances (such as NATO and the European Union), and […]
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What will the world look like in 2045?
July 12th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The world population could reach 10.4 billion, compared with about 7.2 billion at present. More than 70% of the population is likely to live in urban areas. 3.9 billion people are likely to suffer water shortages. Driverless transport is likely to be widespread. Unmanned systems are increasingly likely to replace people in the workplace, leading […]
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“Hard Choices” (1): Hillary goes to State
July 11th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just started to read “Hard Choices”, the 600-page memoir of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s four years (2009-2013) as United States Secretary of State. When she failed to win the Democratic primary race against Barack Obama, she famously declared: “Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s […]
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How good is your country?
July 3rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Simon Anholt is a British policy adviser who has developed a Good Country Index. The idea of the Good Country Index is pretty simple: to measure what each country on Earth contributes to the common good of humanity, and what it takes away. Using a wide range of data from the U.N. and other international […]
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Out of 11 of the major industrialised countries, which has the best health system and which has the worst?
June 18th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The countries are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States. The best health system is that of the UK which is publicly funded but spends the second lowest amount of money on health care – £2,008 or $3,405 per head. The worst health system is that of […]
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