November 5, 2008
Heaven knows what problems and disappointments lie ahead. But for now, it's enough to savour the moment. To know that the man in the White House for the next few years is an internationalist, a progressive, and a consensus-builder. To see what a huge step America has taken to overcome its lingering ...
go to article »October 31, 2008
The American electoral system, simply by existing, corrupts.By the time a man like Obama has got this far — electable, within reach of the presidency — nobody really knows any longer who he is. He probably doesn’t know himself. By raising $660m dollars in campaign funds — imagine! — he has...
go to article »October 28, 2008
Let me see if I’ve got this right.We give our money to the bank, the bank plays with it, makes a nice profit, and dribbles a bit back to us in interest, below the rate of inflation. We happily assume that it won’t gamble our money away, and when we want to withdraw some, it will be able to oblig...
go to article »September 20, 2008
I heard a dentist from Chicago, an otherwise rational man by the sound of it, explaining on a BBC radio documentary this week why he was voting for John McCain.Twice he used the phrase "Those who would choose to harm us", showing that he was parroting thoughts from somewhere other than his brain.Bar...
go to article »August 29, 2008
How much does it matter that Barack Obama is black?I guess much of the Caribbean was watching his acceptance speech in Denver last night (except people in Jamaica and Haiti and the Dominican Republic, who had more immediate things to worry about). With its largely African ancestry and its dislike of...
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Yesterday half of Trinidad seemed to be under water. On the north-south highway flood waters swirled over both carriageways, almost submerging some cars, while others turned back, crawled up the embankments or sank into the mud of the central median. People found three or four feet of water in their...
go to article »May 12, 2008
There is nothing astonishing or even surprising about the way the brainless generals of Myanmar are dithering over international aid after last weekend's typhoon. The "international community" can jump up and down all it wants with frustration and exasperation and moralising, but it won't do any goo...
go to article »May 7, 2008
I found myself watching Air Force One last night on TV, while waiting to see which of the US Democratic presidential candidates would give the most stupid victory speech.Air Force One is the 1997 movie where Harrison Ford, playing the US president, single-handedly combats a pack of ruthless Khazak t...
go to article »May 1, 2008
According to the US State Department’s annual country reports on terrorism, al-Qaeda is still the biggest terrorist threat to the US and its “allies”. It has regained much of its pre-9/11 strength; terrorist-related deaths increased last year by 8 per cent to 22,000. A separate report from the...
go to article »April 20, 2008
• To reach an agreement or an understanding with someone, you have to talk to them. Abusing them, threatening them or bludgeoning them is not a path to trust.In the Middle East, Israel and Hamas and Fatah desperately need an agreement that will produce a new order. But all three have lost sight o...
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