Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
A review of “The Age Of The Strongman” by Gideon Rachman (2022)
July 20th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Rachman is the chief foreign affairs columnist for the British newspaper the “Financial Times”. He has written a well-researched, immensely informative, very readable and – at least for my liberal sensibilities – insightful and balanced review of the rise over the past two decades of a series of political figures whom he calls the strongmen […]
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The tragedy of Sri Lanka
July 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
For months now, Sri Lanka has been in the grip of an economic crisis that has devastated the country and utterly impoverished most of its citizens. The latest news is that the Presidential Palace has been stormed and the Prime Minister’s home has been burned down. It is something of a joke among my family […]
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Ever heard of the Suwalki Gap?
April 11th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I doubt that you have – but many people in the Baltic States and in the Russian military are well aware that this is a short stretch of land, a mere 50 miles (100 kms), which is the only connection between the Baltic States and the rest of the European Union. On one side is […]
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The latest suffering by the people of Sri Lanka
April 7th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
“Over the past few months, Sri Lanka has been facing a dire financial crisis on multiple fronts, triggered partially by the impact of Covid-19, which battered the economy, as well as mounting foreign debts, rising inflation and economic mismanagement by the government, led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The country barely has any foreign currency reserves […]
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Is Ukraine an artificial state, as President Putin suggests, or a true state, as President Zelensky argues? What constitutes a nation state anyway?
March 26th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
At present, I am reading a fascinating history of Ukraine: “Borderland” by Anna Reid. What is clear is that the reality of Ukraine as a nation state is a very recent one. For many centuries, most of what we now call Ukraine was ruled by Lithuania or Poland or a combination of the two. For […]
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What Arnold Schwarzenegger has to say about the Russian invasion of Ukraine
March 18th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
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Why did Putin order the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
March 15th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
“This war was not inevitable, but we have been moving toward it for years: the west, and Russia, and Ukraine. The war itself is not new – it began, as Ukrainians have frequently reminded us in the past two weeks, with the Russian incursion in 2014. But the roots go back even further. We are […]
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As the Covid-19 pandemic runs on, how bad is it looking?
March 11th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
An article in today’s “Guardian” newspaper reports a new estimate of the Covid-19 global death toll: “The Covid-19 pandemic may have claimed 18.2 million lives around the world, more than three times the official death toll, a new study suggests. The higher figure is a better estimate of the true global casualty figure to the […]
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What now for Ukraine and the world?
February 27th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I’ve hesitated to blog about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I was embarrassed by the role of Londongrad – my home city – as a laundromat for dirty money from Russian oligarchs and plutocrats. The situation in Ukraine seemed too horrific and heartbreaking for comment. I wondered what I could write when so much has […]
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Does the Earth need its own flag?
February 19th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Sounds like a good idea to me. But what would it look like? You’ll find one possible design in this short piece.
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