Archive for July, 2014
Could Kurdistan be the next new country on world maps?
July 15th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
We’ve had the break-up of the Soviet Union, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the bifurcation of Czechoslovakia and Sudan. The number of nation states seems to be growing fast in modern times. It has long been the hope of the Kurds that they too will have a nation of their own. The Kurds are spread […]
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Word of the day: exclave
July 15th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Logically enough, exclave is the opposite of enclave, but one tends to see the second word much more often. So an enclave is an area or group enclosed or isolated within an larger one and an exclave is a portion of a country geographically separated from the main part. I came across the word exclave […]
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How much more should the top earner in a company be paid than the lowest earner?
July 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Ten times? 50 times?? 100 times??? A new report from the High Pay Centre notes that, since the late 1990s, executive pay has grown from 60 times that of the average UK worker to nearly 180 times and that more radical action is needed if the gap between top bosses and everyone else is to […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
We should all vote – but you have to be registered first
July 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
In my essay “How To Critique A Political System”, I state: “To assess the democratic nature of a political system, one needs a set of tests that are ‘real world’ as opposed to theoretical. Such a set of tests would revolve around the following key questions about the political system itself: How easy is it […]
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‘Hard Choices” (2): the key elements in international relations
July 13th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I’m started reading “Hard Choices”, the memoir of Hillary Clinton’s four years as US Secretary of State. Early on in the book, she outlines the key elements in international relations: Architecture: this is the system of institutions (such as the United Nations and the World Bank), alliances (such as NATO and the European Union), and […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
What will the world look like in 2045?
July 12th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The world population could reach 10.4 billion, compared with about 7.2 billion at present. More than 70% of the population is likely to live in urban areas. 3.9 billion people are likely to suffer water shortages. Driverless transport is likely to be widespread. Unmanned systems are increasingly likely to replace people in the workplace, leading […]
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Word of the day: moxie
July 11th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
This American slang word means ‘vigour, verve, courage, nerve, skill, know-how’. It originated in the late 1920s with its reference to an American soft drink. I confess I had never heard of the word until I came across it in the Hillary Clinton memoir “Hard Choices” where she uses it to describe distinguished diplomat Richard […]
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“Hard Choices” (1): Hillary goes to State
July 11th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just started to read “Hard Choices”, the 600-page memoir of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s four years (2009-2013) as United States Secretary of State. When she failed to win the Democratic primary race against Barack Obama, she famously declared: “Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s […]
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How I met Shrek and obtained green ears
July 10th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just returned from a visit to my home town of Manchester where I stayed with my younger brother Ralph and his family. The reason for the trip was to see my niece’s end of year school performance of “Shrek – The Musical”. Saskia (almost 11) had the role of Shrek and was a real […]
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Off to Manchester now for two days …
July 9th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
… where I will catch up with eight relatives, notably my talented and beautiful niece of almost 11, Saskia, who has a starring role in this evening’s end of year school production “Shrek – The Musical”.
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