Archive for November, 2009
What is life?
November 21st, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Now, there’s a question … According to Forrest Gump, life is like a box of chocolates. But, according to a survey mentioned in this column, most people see life as a journey. For me, life is like a short story. We like to think that we’re writing it ourselves, but sometimes it seems to write […]
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Remembering the Western Sahara
November 19th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Only very occasionally does the media cover anything about the Western Sahara, the last unresolved colonial issue in Africa. I wrote about the situation in a very early entry in my long-running series called “Forgotten World” but the issue remains disputed since Morocco still lays claim to the mineral-rich territory and refuses to hold the […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
The poor of America
November 19th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
If I’d read it in the English-language “Iran News” which I studied on my recent trip to that country, I might have thought that it was propaganda from a fiercely anti-American regime, but the story was in the British “Guardian” and the statistics are taken from an official US Government survey. One-sixth of the US […]
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My short story writing course (4)
November 18th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Wednesday morning means my short story writing course at the City Lit in central London. In fact, this morning we arrived at the college to find that trouble on the underground meant that our tutor had not been able to make it and the class was cancelled. However, six of us gathered in the canteen, […]
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“Cinderella Rebooted”
November 16th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
As regular visitors will know, I’m doing a short story writing course at the City Lit in central London. We are given writing exercises in the sessions and we are given homework exercises to do between sessions. This week’s homework involves retelling a classic story but from a different point of view, that of a […]
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Remembering Neda Soltan
November 15th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
In June, the world was horrified by the killing of Neda Soltan, a peaceful protester in Tehran against the fraudulent re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Now her boyfriend Caspian Makan has escaped the country and given this account of Neda’s life and death.
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My world travels
November 14th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Our recent holiday in Iran brings the number of countries that I have visited to 53. You can see a map of the countries visited and a list of them here.
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Ou holiday in Iran
November 14th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
A week ago, Vee and I returned from a wonderful week’s holiday in Iran. I have now written up a full account of the trip which you can read here. Later I will add a selection of photographs.
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Something you didn’t know about the House of Commons
November 13th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
As a result of my web site, I receive e-mails from all around the world and I’m always happy to hear from readers. Today I had this e-mail from a German student of 27 in response to my web essay on “A Short Guide To The British Political System”: “I am studying English and Portuguese […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (7)
Happy birthday Vee
November 13th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
My wife Vee – who is not at all sensitive about her age – is 65 today. When we married she was only 38, so we’re growing old together which is a comfortable feeling. Vee has a twin sister who is much more concerned about her age. Miraculously she claims not to be be 60 […]
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