Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
The Arab world in turmoil (2)
February 1st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
On Saturday, I did a posting about some of the rapid and dramatic developments in the Arab world and specifically mentioned Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine. I speculated that we might see a successive falling of autocratic regimes in the region as happened in Eastern Europe in 1989. Today the BBC […]
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The Arab world in turmoil (1)
January 29th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
This week, my evening class in International Relations was intensely topical. Our lecturer Dr Dale Mineshima-Lowe had devised the course schedule weeks ago but this week the topic was Africa with particularly reference to three countries. First, Somalia. We discussed the efforts of the Transitional Federal Government created in 2004 to establish order and governance […]
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Remembering the Kurdish part of Iraq
January 23rd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
We hear all the time about terrible things continuing to take place in Iraq and the frustrations of governing this difficult country. But one part of the nation – the Kurds in the north – is making real progress, as explained by my friend Gary Kent. Imagine a place where shopkeepers leave their stock on […]
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Forgotten World (235): West Papua
January 21st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The western half of the island of New Guinea, north of Australia, has been called Netherlands New Guinea (1895–1962), West New Guinea (1962–63), West Irian (1963–73), Irian Jaya (1973–2001), and Papua (2002–2003), but West Papua is the name preferred by the 3 million indigenous Papuans. The region was incorporated into the Indonesian republic in the […]
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Forgotten World (234): Tokelau
January 20th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Three far-flung coral atolls – Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo – make up Tokelau, a Polynesian territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific. Lying between New Zealand and Hawaii, Tokelau has few physical links with the wider world. There is no airport and it takes more than a day at sea to reach its southern […]
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Forgotten World (233): French Guiana
January 19th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Only around 200,000 live in French Guiana, but the ethnically-diverse population enjoys one of the higher standards of living on the South American continent. The French social security system is in force and subsidies from Paris prop up the economy. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that in January 2010 voters rejected the option of […]
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Forgotten World (232): South China Sea
January 18th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
We think of the Middle East as the most likely location for global conflict, but the South China Sea is the scene of many worrying developments. China has declared that it views the South China Sea as a “core” interest and is beginning to deploy more military muscle in the area, while the United States […]
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Forgotten World (231): Rockall
January 17th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
It’s one of the regular weeks of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that too rarely feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 230 entries here. Nobody lives on Rockall, a British overseas territory that is a rocky, volcanic outcrop located […]
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The political power of social media
January 16th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Last term, I attended a weekly evening class in a course at central London’s City Literary Institute entitled “International Relations & World Conflict”. This week, I started Part 2 of the course with the same lecturer Dr Dale Mineshima-Lowe. In this first session with a largely new group of students, we discussed the definition of […]
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A daughter mourns and warns
January 11th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
“My father’s assassination was a hate crime fuelled by jihadist fervour, abetted by some irresponsible sections of the media and sanctified by some political actors. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing. The loss of one good man must not deter others. Pakistan’s very future depends on […]
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