Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
How religious is your country?
February 12th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Based on a recent Gallup poll of 143 countries (China is the most notable exception), there’s some fascinating data and commentary from an American perspective here. A few key points are: “A population’s religiosity level is strongly related to its average standard of living. Gallup’s World Poll, for example, indicates that 8 of the 11 […]
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The despair of Darfur
February 6th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Five years after the peak of the violence in the Darfur region of western Sudan, some 2.7 million people remain scattered in camps and dependent on an international community that has no clear idea what to do with them, no sure way of protecting them, and no practical plan for a solution. “We have created […]
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Israel and The Gaza (3)
January 16th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Earlier this week, I joined the audience for a recorded television debate headlined “What is to become of Gaza?”. The programme was shot as part of the Forum series for PressTV, an Iranian news network with a studio in Chiswick in London. The event was chaired by Labour Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn. The panel […]
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Forgotten World (160): Malawi
January 16th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
The central African nation of Malawi was a British colony until 1964 and previously known as Nyasaland. For three decades, Malawi’s destiny was tied to the whims of its totalitarian president-for-life, Kamuzu Banda, who enjoyed being surrounded by dancing women and who encouraged people to betray relatives who criticised his rule. In the mid-1990s, he […]
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Forgotten World (159): Guyana
January 15th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
The only English-speaking country in South America,the former British colony of Guyana became independent in 1966. Around half of the population of around 850,000 are the descendants of indentured Indian agricultural workers brought in by the British after slavery was abolished. A third is descended from African slaves, imported by the Dutch to work on […]
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Forgotten World (158): Papua New Guinea
January 14th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Papua New Guinea (PNG) occupies the eastern part of the world’s second largest island (the western part of the island called New Guinea is part of Indonesia) and it is prey to volcanic activity, earthquakes and tidal waves. A very small proportion of the land can sustain cash crops, including coffee and cocoa, but abundant […]
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Forgotten World (157): Austria
January 13th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Once the heart of one of the largest and longest-lasting empires in Europe (the Austro-Hungarian Empire), along with Switzerland, Austria now forms Europe’s neutral core. After annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938 and then Allied occupation, Austria’s 1955 State Treaty declared the country “permanently neutral”. The capital, Vienna, is home to key international organisations, including […]
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Forgotten World (156): Qatar
January 12th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
It’s time to have another week 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 155 entries here. Dominated by the Al-Thani family for almost 150 years, the mainly barren country of Qatar was […]
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Israel and The Gaza (2)
January 5th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
“The blogosphere and new media are another war zone and we have to be relevant there.” Israeli military spokeswoman Major Avital Leibovich This is a quote from an article in the “Times” on how both sides in the conflict are making unprecedented efforts to put their case on the Net. Certainly I’ve received impassioned e-mails […]
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Cuban revolution 50
January 2nd, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Over the next week, we’re going to see a lot of media pieces marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro. The dictator Batista fled the island on 1 January 1959 and Castro entered Havana on 8 January 1959. A year ago, I spent many weeks reading the 700+ pages of […]
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