Fatal artistry
Who buries the nation’s undertaker — the man who volunteered to inter the corpses of the unknown, the disowned? In other countries, the state usually shoulders that unpleasant responsibility. In…
Options in Afghanistan
Recently the top UN representative in Kabul grimly remarked that in 2016, success for Afghanistan would be measured in binary terms: whether it survived or not. Afghan security forces are…
Mossack Fonseca and Pakistani democracy
Prime ministers of countries of two hundred million people should never put themselves in a position to have to field questions about why their wealth, or the wealth of their…
High Noon on the Gulf Coast: Canada, Saudi oil set for showdown
As a test of wills between Opec nations and US shale drillers fuels a global oil market slump, a brewing battle between Canadian and Saudi Arabia heavy crudes for America's…
Of men and institutions in the Muslim world
Journalism is just a gun, suggested Warren Ellis, it’s only got one bullet in it but if you aim right, that’s all you need to blow a kneecap off the…
Fictitious figure sharpens Australian electioneering
John will not be voting in September's parliamentary election, but Julia Gillard holds his proxy. John is the Australian prime minister's imaginary friend, a fictitious figure dreamed up to crystallise…
No longer status quo
So the Swiss letter affair is over, with barely a blip appearing on the national political radar. Never mind that the federal government was hostage to the issue for three…
