Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
First, the BRICs; then, the PIGS; now the CIVETS
November 23rd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
BRIC = Brazil, Russia, India and China. These are countries that for some years have been declared as about to become major commercial powers. PIGS = Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. These are countries identified a couple of years ago as having major problems of sovereign debt. CIVETS = Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and […]
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Are we winning the global war on drugs?
November 19th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Well, what do you think? And, while you’re considering the question, bear in mind the following figures: There are now around 250 million drug users worldwide. The illicit drugs industry is now worth an estimated $450 billion a year. An estimated 10 million people are in prison worldwide for drug-related offences. Clearly the current approach […]
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The Chinese are here again (2)
November 17th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
As I explained in an earlier posting, this week I was in Oxford to lecture to a group of 18 officials from the Chinese municipality of Tianjin. I wanted to stimulate them to ask questions rather than simply listen to a prepared text and they were certainly willing to engage with me. It is always […]
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The Chinese are here again (1)
November 14th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
A year ago, I lectured to a group of 24 Chinese officials from the huge city of Tianjin which is administered by the central government. The title of the lecture was “Government Communications In The UK”. I spoke in the morning and my son Richard addressed them in the afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised at […]
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Do we really live in such a violent age?
November 12th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
This week, I had lunch with a longstanding friend and we found ourselves debating whether we were living in the worst of times (impending collapse of capitalism) or the best of times (record levels of longevity). I mentioned the new work by Steven Pinker called “The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence […]
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The high price of excessive inequality
November 8th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
“If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire. The claims that the ultra-rich 1% make for themselves – that they are possessed of unique intelligence or creativity or drive – are examples of the self-attribution fallacy. This means crediting yourself with outcomes for which you […]
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How do we tackle the problem of the Somali pirates?.
November 1st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just read an excellent blog piece on the problem of the Somali pirates – and I’m not just saying that because it’s written by my son. You can check it out here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
The three stages of “Slumdog Millionaire”
October 28th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The book – my review here. The film – my review here. The reality – the story here.
Posted in Cultural issues, World current affairs | Comments (0)
How fair is life in Britain?
October 28th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
As explained in this article, according to the German think tank the Bertelsmann Foundation, Britain only ranks 15th in a study of 31 wealthy nations. The main reasons are low expenditure on child poverty, high levels of youth unemployed, and substantial income inequality. This is why I was so attracted to the arguments in the seminal […]
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The soaring population of Zambia
October 25th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
There’s a lot of media coverage of population issues at the moment because the UN estimates that the world population will reach 7 billion on 31 October 2011. Obviously in absolute numbers, population growth in China and India is grabbing the headlines. However, in percentage terms, the greatest rise is likely to be in Zambia. […]
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