Archive for December, 2010
Forgotten World (229): Vanuata
December 9th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Vanuatu – a string of more than 80 Pacific islands once known as the New Hebrides – achieved independence from France and Britain in 1980. Most of the islands are inhabited and the total population is almost 250,000. Vanuatu is mountainous and much of it is covered with tropical rain forests. Like most of the […]
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Five years of Cameron’s leadership
December 8th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
It’s five years since David Cameron was elected leader of the Conservative Party, an event which led in May of this year to him becoming the youngest British Prime Minister since 1812. The BBC web site has a summary of the main events along the road.
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Forgotten World (228): American Samoa
December 8th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Settled as early as 1000 B.C., Samoa in the South Pacific was “discovered” by European explorers in the 18th century. International rivalries in the latter half of the 19th century were settled by an 1899 treaty in which Germany and the United States divided the Samoan archipelago. The USA formally occupied its portion – a […]
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How many nuclear weapons do we need?
December 7th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
We’ve now had 10 weeks of my 12-week course at the City Lit in central London entitled “International Relations And World Conflict”. The latest session was devoted to nuclear disarmament. Wikipedia provides an estimate of the number of nuclear weapons possessed the USA, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. You can […]
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Forgotten World (227): Montserrat
December 7th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Montserrat is a self-governing British colony, an island in the Caribbean with a mere 4,500 citizens. In 1997 a major eruption devastated the southern part of the island and buried the capital, Plymouth. Agricultural land was destroyed, villages were flattened, and 19 people were killed. The crisis prompted more than half of the island’s population […]
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Which UK government department blogs the most?
December 6th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
The answer might surprise you. It’s the Foreign & Commonwealth Office which has more than 50 bloggers from all corners of the globe. Good for them.
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Forgotten World (226): Hungary
December 6th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
It’s one of the regular weeks of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that too rarely feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 225 entries here. Perhaps the reason why Hungary – a nation of 10 million – is not so […]
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The art of Trevor Jessop
December 5th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
On our trip to Indochina in 2006 [my account here], we befriended Trevor and Tessa Jessop from the Isle of Wight and have kept in touch since. Trev is an accomplished artist and I am the proud owner of a sketch of Lawrence of Arabia that he produced specially for me. He is now promoting […]
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The case for evolution (1)
December 4th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
In the last few weeks, I’ve read two books on evolution: “Evolution: A Very Short Introduction” by Brian & Deborah Charlesworth [for my review click here] “The Greatest Show On Earth” by Richard Dawkins [for my review click here] What struck me reading these texts is that evolution is a complicated subject and there are […]
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My favourite quote from the week of WikiLeaks
December 4th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
“We don’t think this information was leaked. We think it was organised to be released on a regular basis and they are pursuing political goals.” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran
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