The power of protest
In July last year, eight columnists of The New York Times made confessions about what they had been wrong about. This was apparently an editorial assignment. Anyhow, I found one ‘mea culpa’…
Bodyguard of lies
“In wartime”, Churchill famously told Stalin at Tehran in 1943, “truth is so precious that she must always be attended by a bodyguard of lies”. These words also describe the…
Endless denial
In the Blindman’s Buff variation of tag, a child designated as ‘It’ is tasked with tapping another child while wearing a blindfold. The sightless child knows the other children, all…
A polarising star
HARRY Belafonte was among that rare breed of cultural icons who become more radical as they age. He did not merely capture the zeitgeist of a transformative period in American…
Iraq’s Saddam still revered in Jordan
Twenty years after the fall of his regime, the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein remains admired and popular in Jordan where his image can still be seen across the country.…
Shock, awe and ICC warrants
It must be a coincidence that ICC (International Criminal Court) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin, for war crimes in Ukraine, just two days before the 20th anniversary…
Politics and character
Perhaps many who enter the arena of politics with none or little appreciation of the “Risks” they are likely to be exposed to end up writhing in pain at the…
Judicialization of regime change
“There is hardly any political question in the United States that sooner or later does not turn into a judicial question” – Alexis de Tocqueville, ‘Democracy in America’ (1835) Political…
Just stop bombing
As the world watches the horror of Putin’s war on Ukraine unfold, there is another that must be remembered. Nineteen years ago, George W Bush launched his infamous war on…
Suicide budget
In 2021, the human race, in order to keep itself safe, invested $2.1 trillion in the ability to make war – to kill one another, even (if necessary) to end…
