Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
Blog Action Day: this year, it’s food
October 16th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Today is Blog Action Day when bloggers around the world are encouraged to blog on the same chosen topic. In 2007, it was the environment; in 2008, it was poverty; in 2009, it was climate change; and in 2010, it was water. This year’s theme is food. Now two centuries ago, there was a fashion […]
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How happy are you?
October 15th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shares the concern of many that standard macroeconomic statistics like Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fail to give a true account of people’s current and future well-being. The OECD has been addressing the issue of measuring progress since 2000, with its latest work publication “How’s Life?” out this […]
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The strange case of Amanda Knox
October 4th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I don’t know whether Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are innocent or guilty of the murder of Londoner Meredith Kercher. What is clear is that, on the basis of the evidence, it was an unsafe conviction and that Knox’s character has been represented by the prosecution in terms that are almost medieval. There’s masses of material […]
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A tax whose time has come
October 1st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
It goes by various names. For a long time, it was called the Tobin Tax, after the Nobel prize-winning economist James Tobin who first proposed it some 40 years ago. British campaigners have called it the Robin Hood Tax because it would take from the rich and give to the poorer. It is now called […]
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Portuguese item (7): troops in Afghanistan
September 25th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
During our break in Lisbon, we were told by one Portuguese person that her country had more than 100 soldiers serving in Afghanistan. This was presented as some kind of secret or subterfuge and it was suggested that the Portuguese forces were ‘hidden’ inside a British command. In fact, every nation in NATO has sent […]
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The new president of Zambia
September 24th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Seven years ago, I spent a few days in Zambia when I was on holiday at Victoria Falls [see my account of the visit here]. Vee and I befriended our hotel chambermaid – who is now a teacher – and we are still in regular touch with her. So I was struck by the news […]
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Is the world about to see the declaration of a new state?
September 9th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Every few weeks, I have dinner with my half-brother Chris who is only a couple of years older than my son. He is incredibly bright and really interested in current affairs, so we always have fascinating discussions. Last night, he told me about the unsettling experience he had recently at the Royal Albert Hall when […]
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How are hurricanes named?
August 30th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Two of our closest friends flew back from New York to London last night, but their flight was delayed by the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. But why was it called Irene? The naming convention is a bit more complicated than you might think and has changed over time. You’ll find a brief explanation in this […]
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Whatever happened to the Soviet Union?
August 18th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Twenty years ago today, there was an attempted coup in the then USSR as the leadership of reformer Mikhail Gorbachev was challenged. The coup did not succeed but set in train events that led months later to the break-up of the Soviet Union into no less than 15 separate states. How have those states fared […]
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Is Israel having its own kind of revolution?
August 5th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I was talking this week to a Jewish friend, who once lived in Israel for 18 years, and he complained that the current round of demonstrations in Israel was receiving so little coverage in the British media. He was making a good point. Our media seems to have a different prism through which it sees […]
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