So many entries. So little time. Remember the BBC puff for kitschy little red Mass Murderer badges? Or the oh-so-cool Che poster picture as part of a free ad for Fidel Castro? Both worthy entries. But, in a late surge, the BBC reaches a new height. Can a supposedly serious […]
I am pressing on through The Exception, by Christian Jungersen. This is a terrific novel. It is set in a small Danish NGO of experts on war crimes. The team there, almost all women, start falling out when some threatening emails arrive. The ensuing suspicions and intrigue are described in a gripping […]
The Turkey/Armenia relationship still grapples with the scale and definition of the huge numbers of killings of Armenians in 1915. A new and bold initiative in Turkey aims at collecting signatures of apology, albeit not using the word ‘genocide’. Meanwhile the Polish media have picked up on work done by […]
The EU has been beavering away for some years now trying to agree a ‘Directive’ which would limit the number of hours we all work. I am proud to say that I played a walk-on part in helping block this impertinent and damaging collectivist initiative; the British Embassy in Warsaw […]
Another row between Moscow and Kiev over energy prices and supplies: Crippled by the financial crisis, Ukraine is struggling to pay off hundreds of millions of pounds in debt for Russian gas it bought earlier in the year. At the same time, Ukraine – which carries 80 per cent of […]
A reader picks up the Gresham’s Law posting below and links to this speech in 1974 by Nobel Prize-winner Friedrich Hayek: The Pretence of Knowledge. Magnificent analysis, all about how we deal with the fact that it is hard to make wise (and prescriptive) policy on the basis of what we can’t […]
… means (if I recall correctly) "too little too late" in Afrikaans. You know things are looking bad for President Mugabe when Archbishop Tutu calls for him to step down: The Nobel Prize winner told Dutch television that Mr Mugabe should be removed by force if he refuses to go. […]
How first to delude yourself that you are rich and then wreck everything, in several simple steps. When in doubt, re-read this timeless brilliance: "So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d’Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is […]
Remember Slavoj Zizek, the self-indulgent Slovenian Marxist? Here is a fine if depressing piece by Adam Kirsch which drills deep into the black heart of Zizek’s cynicism. And finds … blackness: "To be clear and brutal to the end," he [Zizek] sums up, "there is a lesson to be learned […]
Remember this one about South Africa’s peaceful transition from apartheid? Try to imagine the howling of fury had apartheid leader PW Botha denied the African population of S Africa the drugs needed to give sick people a chance to fight HIV – and 300,000 people had died as a result. […]
