Do any diplomats out there recall anything from their careers about the amazing story of South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee, who was kidnapped in 1978 by the North Korean regime but managed to escape in 1986 and seek political asylum at the US Embassy in Vienna? It’s this latter event […]
Here’s a bold idea. That the peoples of the ‘Western Balkans’ (ie mainly the former Yugoslavia area) push out the febrile internationals and sit down for some hard talking: With the Powers pushed out the locals – assuming they actually want to settle their disputes – could then grapple with the choreography […]
Assorted Crawfs are heading West at the weekend for the warmth of Florida where we have our timeshare haha. Of course the Orlando theme-park experience is naff and plastic. On the other hand, it’s top-class naff and plastic where everything works and is geared towards separating you from your money […]
Remember my suggestions for sowing discord in Gaddafi’s ranks? Key idea, never known to fail: Divide and Rule. Sending public (and even better private) messages to key people around Gaddafi offering them some sense of security (no prosecution by International Criminal Court?) if they jump ship is an important tool. […]
Remember Margaret Thatcher on Honest Money? One of my favourite political moments was the Panorama interview with Margaret Thatcher as the 1987 election loomed. She was asked about her policy on inflation. Maybe the Q and A were somehow choreographed? The camera panned in to close-up as she replied "I […]
Back in deepest Oxfordshire, after a week in which I gave five set-piece presentations. One was at a Wilton Park conference on the general theme of Russia and Social Media. The second was at TEDxWarsaw, a coaching session in public speaking for some of the speakers at the main event. Then […]
I am still in deepest Warsaw, poised to give Polish officials training tomorrow and Tuesday in Speechwriting. On Thursday I swung by TEDxWarsaw, having given some speech-coaching to several participants the night before. One of the points I made was that a presentation at an event like TEDx is not […]
How does one argue with pure, abstracted irrationality? Facts. Logic. Consistency. By definition they all fail. Emotion? Anger, sarcasm, tears: all may help you get your points across. But the very fact that you are displaying emotion amounts to a concession to irrationality – a surrender to illogic. A realisation that you […]
If you haven’t read this superlative and yet creepy article about the lushly irradiated wildlife around Chernobyl, do so now: On the surface, Igor says, the wildlife seems to be thriving, but under the fur and hide, the DNA of most species has become unstable. They’ve eaten a lot of […]
Don Surber: I have all along wished for Barack Obama’s success, because I knew the only way for him to be a successful president would be to adopt the policies of President Bush With an added Leftist misogynistic classic eggcorn from Robert Dreyfuss in The Nation: We’d like to think that […]
