Author Archives: Gwynne Dyer
13th August, 2012
The fate of Africa
GOOD news from Africa: after two decades of bloody anarchy, Somalia is finally on the mend. There is something resembling a government coming into being in Mogadishu, with much help from African Union
GOOD news from Africa: after two decades of bloody anarchy, Somalia is finally on the mend. There is something resembling a government coming into being in Mogadishu, with much help from African Union
29th July, 2012
Enslaved by taxes — not necessarily
ONE of the best tax-avoidance tactics in the late Roman Empire was to sell yourself into slavery. You didn’t really have to work as somebody’s slave, of course — it was more like rock star Hotblack Desiato being “dead for a year for tax reasons” in Douglas Adams’s wondrous confection The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — but with the legal status of slave, you were exempt from taxation.
ONE of the best tax-avoidance tactics in the late Roman Empire was to sell yourself into slavery. You didn’t really have to work as somebody’s slave, of course — it was more like rock star Hotblack Desiato being “dead for a year for tax reasons” in Douglas Adams’s wondrous confection The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — but with the legal status of slave, you were exempt from taxation.
21st July, 2012
Varieties of nepotism
What has been happening in North Korea recently is straight out of the Hereditary Dictatorship for Dummies handbook. Kim Jong-un, the pudgy young heir to the leadership of one of the world’s last communist states, is removing powerful people who were loyal to his father and replacing them with men (it’s
What has been happening in North Korea recently is straight out of the Hereditary Dictatorship for Dummies handbook. Kim Jong-un, the pudgy young heir to the leadership of one of the world’s last communist states, is removing powerful people who were loyal to his father and replacing them with men (it’s
19th July, 2012
Berlusconi’s return
ABRAHAM Lincoln was right: You can fool all the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
ABRAHAM Lincoln was right: You can fool all the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
10th July, 2012
Wild weather
IT was 42 degrees C in St. Louis, Missouri, last weekend, about the same as in Saudi Arabia. Along the US Atlantic coast, it was cooler, but not much: 41°C in Washington DC, just short of the city’s all-time record. And 46 Americans were already dead from the heat wave.
IT was 42 degrees C in St. Louis, Missouri, last weekend, about the same as in Saudi Arabia. Along the US Atlantic coast, it was cooler, but not much: 41°C in Washington DC, just short of the city’s all-time record. And 46 Americans were already dead from the heat wave.
27th May, 2012
How to leave Afghanistan
Last weekend’s Nato summit in Chicago was mostly about how to get Nato troops out of Afghanistan without causing too much embarrassment to the western governments that sent them, and a little bit
Last weekend’s Nato summit in Chicago was mostly about how to get Nato troops out of Afghanistan without causing too much embarrassment to the western governments that sent them, and a little bit
24th May, 2012
The triumph of English
THE second president of the United States, John Adams, predicted in 1780 that “English will be the most respectable language in the world and the most universally read and spoken in the next century, if not
THE second president of the United States, John Adams, predicted in 1780 that “English will be the most respectable language in the world and the most universally read and spoken in the next century, if not
15th May, 2012
What if Greece defaults?
Last year, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel warned: “Nobody should believe that another half-century of peace in Europe is a given.
Last year, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel warned: “Nobody should believe that another half-century of peace in Europe is a given.
6th May, 2012
A strange desire
IT has just been revealed by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Military Academy in the United States that I am on a short list of journalists (eight in western countries, and seven others in India, Pakistan and Arab countries) to whom Osama bin Laden wanted to send “special
IT has just been revealed by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Military Academy in the United States that I am on a short list of journalists (eight in western countries, and seven others in India, Pakistan and Arab countries) to whom Osama bin Laden wanted to send “special
30th April, 2012
Hollande to ‘defy’ markets
“MY true adversary does not have a name, a face or a party,” said François Hollande, France’s likely next president. “He never puts forth his candidacy, but nevertheless he governs.
“MY true adversary does not have a name, a face or a party,” said François Hollande, France’s likely next president. “He never puts forth his candidacy, but nevertheless he governs.
20th April, 2012
Taliban offensive
IN the midst of the Taliban attacks in central Kabul on Sunday, a journalist called the British embassy for a comment.
IN the midst of the Taliban attacks in central Kabul on Sunday, a journalist called the British embassy for a comment.
31st March, 2012
N-bomb and terrorists
WE have just had the second Nuclear Security Summit, in Seoul. It got surprisingly little attention from the international media although 53 countries attended it. For the media, nuclear weapons are yesterday’s issue because nobody expects a nuclear war. But a nuclear weapon in terrorist hands is the
WE have just had the second Nuclear Security Summit, in Seoul. It got surprisingly little attention from the international media although 53 countries attended it. For the media, nuclear weapons are yesterday’s issue because nobody expects a nuclear war. But a nuclear weapon in terrorist hands is the
26th March, 2012
Global civilisation
NOW we have something close to a global civilisation. Most of the world’s people work in similar economies, use the same machines, and live about as long.
NOW we have something close to a global civilisation. Most of the world’s people work in similar economies, use the same machines, and live about as long.
17th March, 2012
Sarkozy’s last stand
FACED with renewed allegations that Muammar Qadhafi had poured up to 50 million euros into his presidential campaign in 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the prime-time television: “If he did
FACED with renewed allegations that Muammar Qadhafi had poured up to 50 million euros into his presidential campaign in 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the prime-time television: “If he did
5th March, 2012
Painting Kolkata blue
SOME firm of public relations consultants has persuaded the West Bengal state government that all official buildings and assets in Calcutta, right down to the lane dividers on highways, should be painted light blue.
SOME firm of public relations consultants has persuaded the West Bengal state government that all official buildings and assets in Calcutta, right down to the lane dividers on highways, should be painted light blue.
24th February, 2012
Power shift to Asia
ON February 15, just as Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping arrived in the United States for a four-day visit, US President Barack Obama told an audience of American workers in Milwaukee: “Manufacturing is coming back!” Coming back from China, that is.
ON February 15, just as Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping arrived in the United States for a four-day visit, US President Barack Obama told an audience of American workers in Milwaukee: “Manufacturing is coming back!” Coming back from China, that is.
20th February, 2012
Religious divide in Africa
SUDAN was bombing South Sudan again last week, only a couple of months after the two countries split apart. Sudan is mostly Muslim, and South Sudan is predominantly Christian, but the quarrel is about oil, not religion.
SUDAN was bombing South Sudan again last week, only a couple of months after the two countries split apart. Sudan is mostly Muslim, and South Sudan is predominantly Christian, but the quarrel is about oil, not religion.
29th January, 2012
Was it a genocide?
The French parliament has just passed a bill, proposed by President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, that will make it a crime to question whether the Armenian massacres in eastern Turkey in 1915 qualified as a genocide. Sarkozy will doubtless sign it into law next month, just in time for the presidential elections.
The French parliament has just passed a bill, proposed by President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, that will make it a crime to question whether the Armenian massacres in eastern Turkey in 1915 qualified as a genocide. Sarkozy will doubtless sign it into law next month, just in time for the presidential elections.
24th January, 2012
Taiwan: waiting for China
THE most important thing in Taiwanese politics is always left unsaid. When I interviewed Ma Ying-jeou in 2008, just before he won the presidency for the first time, he was happy to talk about the details of his plans for
THE most important thing in Taiwanese politics is always left unsaid. When I interviewed Ma Ying-jeou in 2008, just before he won the presidency for the first time, he was happy to talk about the details of his plans for
5th December, 2011
The Arab Spring and after
THE `Arab Spring` was fast and dramatic: non-violent revolutions in the streets removed dictators in Tunisia and Egypt in a matter of weeks
THE `Arab Spring` was fast and dramatic: non-violent revolutions in the streets removed dictators in Tunisia and Egypt in a matter of weeks
