How many nuclear weapons are there – and how many do we need?

June 3rd, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Today the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) launches the findings of “SIPRI Yearbook 2013″, which assesses the current state of international security, armaments and disarmament.

Key findings include:

Alone among the five legally recognized nuclear weapon states, China expanded its nuclear arsenal in 2012;
The number of personnel deployed with peace operations worldwide is falling rapidly, due to the withdrawal from Afghanistan;
Progress towards a global ban on cluster munitions stalled in 2012.

In its media release, SIPRI states:

“At the start of 2013 eight states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel—possessed approximately 4400 operational nuclear weapons. Nearly 2000 of these are kept in a state of high operational alert. If all nuclear warheads are counted, these states together possess a total of approximately 17 265 nuclear weapons (see table), as compared with 19 000 at the beginning of 2012.

The decrease is due mainly to Russia and the USA further reducing their inventories of strategic nuclear weapons under the terms of the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START) as well as retiring ageing and obsolescent weapons.

At the same time, all five legally recognized nuclear weapon states—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States—are either deploying new nuclear weapon delivery systems or have announced programmes to do so, and appear determined to retain their nuclear arsenals indefinitely. Of the five, only China seems to be expanding its nuclear arsenal. India and Pakistan are both expanding their nuclear weapon stockpiles and missile delivery capabilities.”

You can read the media release, with details of weapons for each nuclear state, here.

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)

Two reviews of “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”

June 2nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington

The novel by Mohsin Hamid – then based in London but now back in Lahore – was a challenging read and I reviewed the work here.

This week, I saw the Mira Nair screen interpretation and I have reviewed the film here.

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

Quirky foreign words the English language is missing

June 1st, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Ever felt your waistband tighten after raiding the fridge at the end of an overly stressful day at work? That’ll be a case of ‘grief bacon’ (or kummerspeck), as the Germans call it.A specific feeling, situation or action may be perfectly summed up by a single phrase like this in one language, yet it can lack a direct equivalent in another.

This not only demonstrates the richness of language, but also how it is often necessary to ‘borrow’ from other tongues to find an expression which hits the nail on the head.

The exaggerated use of Anglicisms in other languages is often a point of contention, but what about those quirky foreign phrases that we could use in English?

Here are five examples:

1. Backpfeifengesicht (German) – a face that cries out for a fist
2. Espirit d’escalier (French) – when you think of that perfect verbal comeback…but far too late
3. Gigil (Tagalog) – that urge to pinch or squeeze something ridiculously cute
4. Cafune (Brazilian Portuguese) – the act of “tenderly running your fingers through your lover’s hair”…oh those Romantic Brazilians!
5. Bakku-shan (Japanese) – not so romantic. Meaning a beautiful girl… as long as she’s being viewed from behind!

For the full list, click here.

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Half a million in UK now dependent on food parcels.

May 31st, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Although the UK is the seventh richest country in the world, many people struggle to afford even the most essential of goods: food. In a briefing entitled “Walking The Breadline” published this week, Church Action on Poverty and Oxfam highlight the rise in food poverty in the UK, where over 500,000 are now thought to be reliant on food parcels.

Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)

How happy are people in your country?

May 30th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

If your nation is one of the 36 developed countries that is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD), then it has just been ranked according to a Better Life Index which takes into account 11 factors. Of course, this type of index depends crucially on both the factors which make it up and on the weighting given to each factor . But the OECD study is certainly food for though. It offers the following ranking:

1. Australia
2. Sweden
3. Canada
4. Norway
5. Switzerland
6. United States
7. Denmark
8. Netherlands
9. Iceland
10. United Kingdom
11. New Zealand
12. Finland
13. Austria
14. Luxembourg
15. Ireland
16. Belgium
17. Germany
18. France
19. Slovenia
20. Spain
21. Japan
22. Czech Republic
23. Italy
24. Israel
25. Poland
26. Slovak Republic
27. Korea
28. Portugal
29. Hungary
30. Greece
31. Estonia
32. Russia
33. Brazil
34. Chile
35. Mexico
36. Turkey

You will find some discussion of the OECD study here.

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)

Did Vasili Arkhipov save the world from nuclear destruction?

May 29th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

I was 14 at the time of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and, like many millions around the world, I was scared that the world was about to enter a nuclear war. So I was fascinated by the sixth episode of the Sky Atlantic series “Oliver Stone’s Untold History Of The United States” which covers the period of the crisis.

I was not previously aware of the role of Vasili Arkhipov who was naval officer aboard a Soviet submarine whose captain wished to launch a nuclear torpedo attack on American vessels. Oliver Stone credits Arkipov – and John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev – with saving the world from a nuclear conflagration.

You can read about Arkhipov and his decision here.

Posted in History | Comments (0)

World faces ‘self-inflicted’ water shortages within a generation

May 28th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

“Water in the Anthropocene” is a 3-minute film charting the global impact of humans on the water cycle.

Evidence is growing that our global footprint is now so significant we have driven Earth into a new geological epoch — the Anthropocene when human activity dominates geological developments.

Human activities such as damming and agriculture are changing the global water cycle in significant ways.

The data visualisation was commissioned by the Global Water Systems Project for a major international conference” “Water in the Anthropocene” held in Bonn, Germany, from 21-24 May, 2013.

You can view the film here.

Posted in Environment | Comments (0)

A review of the book “The New Digital Age”

May 28th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

How will new digital technologies change our lives and challenge our privacy? How will states use these technologies in dealing with their citizens, each other, and other international actors? These are some of the questions addressed by two top Google executive in this thoughtful book which I have reviewed here.

Posted in Internet, Science & technology | Comments (0)

Should we block access to extremist web sites?

May 27th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

According to the latest news, Home Secretary Theresa May is considering proposals for blocking access to web sites that promote religious extremism, although Prime Minister David Cameron earlier told the nation that we should not have knee-jerk reactions to the horrific murder of a soldier in Woolwich.

The problem is that we keep having short-lived and poorly-informed ideas about banning or blocking various types of content on the web: child abuse images, extremist pornography, religious fundamentalism, promotion of anorexia, bulimia or suicide, the list goes on … What we need is a calm and rational debate about how we might introduce an approach to problematic content on the Net (and other media in this age of convergence) that is consistent, proportionate, transparent and accountable.

The two-year old DCMS Communications Review would have been one vehicle for this but the opportunity was totally missed. The long-awaited Communications White Paper – now forecast for before the summer recess of Parliament – is another chance to float some ides or proposals.

You can read my ‘starter for ten’ here.

Posted in Internet | Comments (0)

Sunshine arrives in London – at long last

May 26th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Today was a brilliant day. After a spring which is set to prove the coldest since 1979, we had glorious weather today.

Our Chinese ‘family’ – Zhihao, Hua and their six old son Joshua – visited us in London. First, we had lunch in our favourite local cafe: “The Doll’s House” at Harrow-on-the Hill where the food is delicious and the service so welcoming. Then we drove over to nearby Horsenden Hill where we strode over the hill and wandered along the Grand Union Canal.