Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
Forgotten World (197): Gibraltar
January 12th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Gibraltar – a limestone crop on the southern tip of Spain – has been ruled by Britain since 1713 under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, but Spain continues to claim sovereignty over the territory. Gibraltar is self-governing in all areas except defence and foreign policy and it is home to a British military […]
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Forgotten World (196): Barbados
January 11th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
It’s time once again for one of my regular weeks of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that hardly feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 195 entries here. Barbados is one of the more populous and prosperous Caribbean islands and […]
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The cost of food
January 10th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
There are reports this weekend that the UK’s worst winter in 30 years means that we will face rising food prices. I’m just reading a book on the global financial crisis: “The Storm” by Vince Cable. He explains that it is estimated that, while 10 per cent of family income in spent on food in […]
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Is Iran going to have another revolution?
December 29th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Iran has already had two revolutions in the last century: the constitutional revolution of 1905-1911 and the Islamic revolution of 1978-1979. To see these revolutions in the context of the wider history of Iran, read my book reviews here. So does the continuation of the demonstrations, following the fraudulent re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June, […]
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Forgotten World (195): Christmas Island
December 11th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Captain William Mynors of the British East India Company vessel, the “Royal Mary”, named the place Christmas Island when he arrived on Christmas Day, 25 December 1643. At Australia’s request, the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty to Australia in 1957; today Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands together are called the Australian Indian Ocean Territories […]
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Forgotten World (194): Tunisia
December 10th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
The north African state of Tunisia gained its independence from France in 1956. It then endured the rule of “president for life” Habib Bourguiba until 1987. Since then, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has continued to move the country away from Islamic extremism but the path to democracy remains painfully slow. Although Tunisia has […]
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Forgotten World (193): Poland
December 9th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Following the collapse of Communism in Poland in 1989, the country joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004. Unlike the case before the Second World War, Poland has a very homogeneous population of 38 million, with 98% being ethnically Polish and religiously Roman Catholic. Poland is considered to have one of the […]
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Forgotten World (192): Guam
December 8th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
The tropical island of Guam, a US territory in the western Pacific, is a keystone of American military strategy in the region. It is an important staging post, allowing rapid access to potential flash points in the Koreas and in the Taiwan Strait. The US plans to move 8,000 Marines and 10,000 dependents from the […]
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Forgotten World (191): Bosnia and Herzegovina
December 7th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
It’s time once more for one of my regular weeks of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that hardly feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 190 entries here. Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1992 and […]
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Will Pakistan fail?
November 29th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Since India and Pakistan obtained independence from Britain in 1947, India has managed to remain a vibrant, if flawed, democracy, whereas Pakistan lost its eastern section (now Bangladesh) and is in real danger of becoming a failed state. No elected civilian government has ever survived a full term and the all-powerful military posses the nuclear […]
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