Category Archives: Politics
Disaster?
The government of Israel has a policy of assassinating political leaders in Gaza. That means that the people who have ended up in charge of Hamas are the violent nutters rather that anyone who might be interested in a political … Continue reading
Congo
If you’ve ever seen the Stan’s Cafe show Of All the People In All The World, where every grain of rice stands for one person, you may have been surprised by the size of the pile representing all the people … Continue reading
Debt
Basing the growth of your economy on people borrowing money, as opposed to relying on increased productivity, doesn’t seem like a very sensible idea. An Austrian ecomomist called Ludwig von Mises described the problem very nicely: It may sometimes be … Continue reading
Political Playmobil
Thanks to Giles for pointing out to me the excellent collection of humorous and political comments that are collecting on the Amazon page for this Playmobil Security Check-Point. Here’s an example: Thank you Playmobil for allowing me to teach my … Continue reading
Aus Liebe zum Automobil
Ratan Tata, the head of Tata Motors who today launched the world’s cheapest car, is obviously quite a fan of the German motor industry: He described the new Tata Nano as a people’s car, an obvious reference to the Volkswagen, the … Continue reading
What was that?
Have a listen to this puzzling clip of Nelson Mandela that I heard on the World Service last night. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] He says: Together we have the power to change the course of destiny. Big … Continue reading
Saudi Arabia
According to the official Saudi Arabia information site: To understand the history of the Kingdom and its political, economic and social development, it is necessary to realize that Islam, which permeates every aspect of a Muslim’s life, also permeates every … Continue reading
Postal Strike
The postmen are going on strike, and the news story about it didn’t really say why. On the postal union’s site there was a Message to the Public which I didn’t find persuasive. They talked about how they were faced … Continue reading
Hooray for Rolling News
The heavily trailed report to Congress by Gen David Petraeus about how well the ‘surge’ is going was given a special 2.5 hour programme on the World Service. This is what happened when the General got up to speak. WS … Continue reading
More fun with Islam and Cartoons
The incompatibility between cartoonists and Islam is inevitable. Cartoonist are very frequently irreverent about everything and resistant to censorship. Some muslims are very touchy and, I’m afraid to say, authoritarian. There’s also the fact that many strands of Islam don’t … Continue reading