Archive for August, 2012
What do you know about Finland? (2)
August 11th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just returned from a short break in Finland with my sister Silvia. One of the reasons that I love travelling to new places is that I learn so much. In no particular order, here are some of the things that I learned on this trip: Finland had a civil war in four months of […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (2)
What do you know about Finland? (1)
August 4th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Not many people outside of Finland know much about the country, but I’m about to make a short trip there for the first time, so I’m reading up about the country. I always like to get to know a new place and this will be the 57th country that I have visited. In fact, as […]
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Two reviews of “The Hunger Games”
August 4th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In the Spring, I saw the film “The Hunger Games” and reviewed it here. At the time. i was unfamiliar with the trilogy of novels by Suzanne Collins, but I decided to use the quieter summer months to read this bestselling series. I have just finished the first part which I have reviewed here.
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40 photos of our visit to America
August 4th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
It’s two months since Vee and I spent a couple of weeks on holiday in the United States in the Washington DC and New York City vicinities. I managed to put an account of the trip on my web site as soon as we returned, since I had been writing it up as we went […]
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Should there be ‘a right to be forgotten’?
August 3rd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
At the beginning of the year, European Commissioner Viviane Reding proposed that, as part of the review of European Union privacy laws, there should be a new right to be forgotten [more information here]. The notion has proved controversial with the Harvard Law Review calling it “the biggest threat to free speech on the Internet […]
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The transformation of the Post Office network
August 2nd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I have a long involvement in postal matters. For 24 years, i was national official with a trade union representing postal works and then, after I left the union, I spent 6 years serving on the Boards of Postwatch and then Consumer Focus which have been the statutory consumer bodies on postal issues. Although I […]
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China vs India as a new world power
August 1st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
As someone interested in the geo-political picture, I’m fascinated by what might happen as we enter what has been called the post-America world when the USA ceases to have the totally dominant position on the globe that it has enjoyed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The obvious candidates for a vital role in […]
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“Love Actually” vs “Valentine’s Day” as a rom-com
August 1st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I really enjoyed the British romantic comedy “Love Actually” and, since its release in 2003, I’ve seen it four times. You can read my review here. Only this week did I catch up with the 2010 movie “Valentine’s Day” which is clearly an American attempt to replicate the British success. But it doesn’t work as […]
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