Archive for October, 2008
Bosnia on the brink
October 22nd, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Last year, I visited Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In my account of the holiday, I wrote: “There has been a great deal of reconstruction and investment is slowly coming in from abroad, but there is still unemployment of around one-third and the divisions are greater than ever: this small country with half […]
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The American presidential election (83)
October 22nd, 2008 by Roger Darlington
A friend of mine in the United States – a supporter of Barack Obama – has drawn my attention to this video clip of a frank discussion of the race issue in the presidential election from trade union leader Richard Trumka :
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Forgotten World (148): Vatican
October 22nd, 2008 by Roger Darlington
The Vatican was created by the Lateran Treaty of 1929. It is the smallest independent state in the world – a mere 0.44 sq km (0.17 sq mile) – and the residence of the spiritual leadership of the Roman Catholic church. Its territory is completely surrounded by the Italian capital Rome, while priests and nuns […]
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Lack of energy about reducing or restructuring fuel prices
October 21st, 2008 by Roger Darlington
“Energy companies all put their prices up arguing that it was down to rising costs of oil and gas, but now that is reversed, we are seeing delay, blather and procrastination. We believe that consumer prices need to come down with no ifs and buts over the coming weeks. When companies all put prices up […]
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Forgotten World (147): Zambia
October 21st, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Zambia is landlocked and sparsely populated by more than 70 ethnic groups, many of them Bantu-speaking, with a total population of 12 million. When it gained its independence from Britain in 1964, the country switched from colonial government into an era of one-party rule lasting 27 years. A multi-party system emerged in the early 1990s. […]
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The American presidential election (82)
October 20th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Please watch this clip of Michele Bachmann, a member of the US Congress from Minnesota, being interviewed on “Hardball”, a leading American talk show: Then read this article by Michael Tomasky, editor of “Guardian America”. McCarthy may be dead – but clearly McCarthyism is alive and kicking. When a black man is elected President of […]
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Forgotten World (146): Honduras
October 20th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
It’s been almost two months since I’ve run a 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 145 entries here. Honduras is one of the least developed and least secure countries in […]
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Seeing Sarah Silverman
October 19th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
This evening, Vee and I – together with our American Jewish friend Eric – went to see a show at London’s Hammersmith Apollo by the American Jewish comedienne Sarah Silverman. The British – and here I include myself – have really only just discovered Silverman. It probably started with her video called “The Great Schlep” […]
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Can we be bugged on the move?
October 19th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
At the moment, I’m reading a book by the American academic Jonathan Zittrain entitled “The Future Of The Internet – And How To Stop It”. Today I reached page 110 which contains this statement: ” Mobile phones can be reprogrammed at a distance , allowing their microphones to be secretly turned on even when the […]
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The American presidential election (81)
October 19th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
“Obama’s performance in the South could mark a new phase in American politics. The South has been the modern Republican party’s spiritual home. The social conservative revolution was born here. It is the land of the Bible Belt and social values. Yet the Republican party is facing a serious challenge here for the first time […]
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