Archive for June, 2008


The fringe benefits of failure and the importance of imagination

June 30th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

This was the unusual title chosen by author J K Rowling for her recent address at Harvard. It makes a wonderful read and has given me a couple of marvellous suggestions for my “Thought For The Week”. Read the text here

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Forgotten World (136): South Korea

June 30th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

It’s time for 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 135 entries here. The Republic of Korea – otherwise known as South Korea – was proclaimed in August 1948 and […]

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Why are oil prices rising so fast? (3)

June 29th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

It’s all about demand, right? “A major factor behind the steady price rise, virtually everyone agrees, is that energy consumption is surging in high-growth countries, and oil supplies are not growing fast enough to keep up. But what confounds many experts is that the price of oil seems to be changing much faster than the […]

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My 60th birthday celebration

June 29th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Although my 60th birthday was earlier in the week (see posting on Wednesday), it was yesterday that we had a gathering of family and friends to celebrate the event – and it was truly wonderful day. The venue – organised by my wife Vee – was the Grim’s Dyke Hotel, a country house that used […]

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Brown’s first year at No 10

June 27th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

All of the media today mark the first anniversary of Gordon Brown taking over from Tony Blair as Prime Minister. Naturally the “Guardian has a good deal of analysis. It could hardly bee a worse day for anniversary reflections, following on appalling opinion poll ratings for Labour and for Brown specifically and today’s news of […]

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Al-Qaeda’s use of the Net

June 26th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

“It is just plain embarrassing that al-Qaeda is better at communicating its message on the Internet than America,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in a speech in November. “As one foreign diplomat asked a couple of years ago, ‘How has one man in a cave managed to outcommunicate the world’s greatest communication society?’ “ […]

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The American presidential election (46)

June 25th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

This “Newsweek” article makes some good points about Barack Obama and Europe: Overwhelmingly Europeans want to see Obama returned to the White House. Europeans don’t have a vote in this election and any attempt to interfere will be unhelpful to Obama. Obama as President could well present some challenges to Europe – he will advance […]

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Today I am 60

June 25th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

It is my 60th birthday today. I’ll be spending the day at a conference on postal services, but this evening my wife Vee will be taking me for dinner at our favourite local restaurant “Incanto” and then on Saturday we will have a gathering of around 50 family and friends to celebrate. I feel that […]

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Prague Spring: revolution or reform?

June 24th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

In the summer of 1968, I was 20 and becoming very interested in international politics. I followed with interest and excitement the attempts by the Czechoslovak Communists to reform their political structures and I was desperately saddened and angered by the invasion of the Warsaw Pact forces which brutally crushed these efforts at reform. I […]

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Why are oil prices rising so fast? (2)

June 23rd, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Brown’s analysis of the causes of record oil costs was at odds with the Opec president, Chakib Khelil, who reiterated his view opposing increased production, saying “the price is disconnected from fundamentals” of supply and demand. “We believe that the market is in equilibrium. The price is disconnected from fundamentals. It is not a problem […]

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