Archive for October, 2013
Our David: the world class triathlon star
October 13th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Vee’s nephew David Rowe is an amazing athlete who has run marathons and even performed in triathlons around the world. This weekend, he achieved new heights of success by competing in the Ironman World Championship which was held this year in Kona, Hawaii. First, he swam 2.4 miles (3.9 kms) in 1 hour 4 minutes […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
A review of the new film “The Fifth Estate”
October 13th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are the subjects of this challenging movie which I have reviewed here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Republicans under pressure to back down on US financial shutdown
October 12th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that by a 22-point margin (53 per cent to 31 per cent), the public blames the Republican Party more for the shutdown than President Barack Obama – a wider margin of blame for the Republicans than the party received in the poll during the last shutdown in 1995-96. […]
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
Reviews of two Julie Delpy films
October 11th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I’m a big fan of the French actress Julie Delpy who is also both a film director and scriptwriter. I recently saw “2 Days In Paris” [my review here] in which she performs all three roles and I have now seen the sequel “2 Days In New York” [my review here].
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
How fairly is global wealth distributed among the world’s citizens?
October 10th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
“Our estimates for mid-2013 indicate that once debts have been subtracted, an adult requires just USD 4,000 in assets to be in the wealthiest half of world citizens. However, a person needs at least USD 75,000 to be a member of the top 10% of global wealth holders, and USD 753,000 to belong to the […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Congratulations to Alice Munro on her Nobel Prize
October 10th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I am delighted by the news that the Canadian author Alice Munro has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, partly because i have enjoyed her writing [see my review of her collection of short stories in “Runaway” here] and partly because it is a celebration of the art of the short story [see my own […]
Posted in Cultural issues, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of the film “Thanks For Sharing”
October 9th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
While I was away in Bucharest, I saw the new film “Thanks For Sharing”. I thought it was a rom-com but I was not quite right. Read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Ruminations on Romania (1): recent history
October 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
In 1861, the United Romanian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia was created. At the National History Museum, we saw a special exhibition to mark the centenary of the peace of Bucharest in 1913. Apparently this treaty ended the Second Balkan War. The First Balkan War of 1912-13 involved the Balkan League of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro […]
Posted in History, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Ruminations on Romania (2): people and politics
October 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
The population of Romania is around 20 million. There are two significant ethnic minorities: Hungarians and Roma. Less than 8,000 Jews remain in the country. The population of the capital Bucharest is almost 2 million. There are now only 2,500 Jews and a mere two functioning synagogues in the capital. Romanian is a Romance language […]
Posted in My life & thoughts, World current affairs | Comments (0)
Ruminations on Romania (3): our time in Bucharest
October 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Our guide book – the Thomas Cook pocket guide – admitted: “even its fiercest advocate would readily admit that when taken at face value Bucharest is not Europe’s most appealing capital”. Between the world wars, Bucharest was known as “the Paris of the East” but most of the features that earned the city this appellation […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)