Over at Open Democracy a long and learned piece by Roger Riddell on the impact of Development Aid: a board member of Oxford Policy Management, a Principal of The Policy Practice and a member of DFID’s the Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact (IACDI). This mighty analysis explores at length […]
Reader Norman Fraser quotes from this anti-Rand piece: In Rand’s novels the heroes pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. They made big profits in unfavorable economic climates. Try pulling yourself up by your shoelaces. It can’t be done. Its all story telling, with no basis in documented experience. And of […]
I previously briefed you on the machinations behind the scramble for EU Top Jobs and the close relationship between Foreign Policy and Physics. The dramatic result? Not very exciting. Belgium’s Herman Van Rompuy is chosen as president of the European Council and the UK’s Catherine Ashton becomes the EU High Represenative (aka foreign […]
Lots of interest in Ayn Rand, with two new books about her and her lasting influence: Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right Ayn Rand and the World she Made Which, perhaps, prompted this disappointing piece by Dan Hannan in The American Conservative which has a lot […]
Is hosted by Clairwil, coming off the BBRU subs bench and scoring well on links, less well on apostrophe’s. It links to this magnificent piece by Heresy Corner about Winston Churchill’s miserable speech style. And Punkadiddle on a lovely classic book cover (I had it too – not sure where […]
Look at it like this. In a city there’s a nice large green public park, where families and individuals stroll around happily. One day a group of leather-jacketed aggressive foul-mouthed types and some snarly dogs turn up and postion themselves prominently in one corner. This happens day after day. Gradually […]
Few new entries these days as I am back in Brussels trying to earn some money for Christmas presents. While I am away have a look at the lively writing over at Samizdata at the moment. Including a link to this energetic piece about Zimbabwe and how the retreat of […]
Patriarch Pavle (Paul) of the Serbian Orthodox Church died today at the age of 95. A tiny, mild mannered yet complex figure, Patriarch Pavle did his best to identify a principled way forward during the madness of recent decades in Serbia but found himself entangled in the politics of Serbia’s […]
A lively piece of work by Craig Murray looking at the prospects for Ghana getting rich and ruined by Oil Money. Knowing nothing about Ghana or indeed about Oil Money, I leave it to you to work out whether his well-turned analysis makes sense. It is certainly interesting enough. But […]
Man on Crawford Extortion Charge Not me. Phew. It reminds me of an interview I gave to a Bosnian news magazine. The final question was, "Are you related to Cindy Crawford?" To which I wittily replied: We have nothing in common except our name and our beauty.
