Trying to cut through and parse the rhetorical bedlam of current U.S. politics can be taxing to the point of painful. A useful tool is the advice a dear departed friend, who read voraciously and talked volubly, proffered whenever I lost track of what she was on about: “Listen to what I mean, not to what I say.”… Read the rest
Not that they’ll ever hear it, but I think President Joe Biden, and evangelicals who unquestioningly back Donald Trump, deserve a version of a lesson I offered to the local drivers employed by CBS News in the early days of the Afghan war.… Read the rest
The evidence of growing inadequacy and an ongoing slippage of human intelligence, on both macro and micro levels, is enough to make even a sceptic like me re-consider the risk-versus-rewards of AI.… Read the rest
A single word holds the key to the myriad crises plaguing the world – dehumanisation. It is omnipresent in wars, policies on migrants and shortfalls in humanitarian aid. It has also become the bedrock of those who perpetuate the ills.… Read the rest
Strange as it may sound, I have come to think of a spacecraft as a person. In a quest to satisfy that most basic human characteristic, curiosity, Voyager 1 is defying expectations and seemingly impossible odds with dogged determination.… Read the rest
With the exception of their host, the leaders of the G7 gathered in Italy are demonstrably confused about how to deal with surging right wing populism. The advice they need was provided by one of history’s most storied right-wingers, Charles de Gaulle: “Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back upon himself.… Read the rest
In 1970, then U.S. Vice-president Spiro Agnew derided journalists (although some say he meant politicians) critical of Nixon administration policies as “nattering nabobs of negativism.” Today, the characterisation seems to be considered either complimentary or aspirational.… Read the rest
More countries (193) recognise the mandate of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) than belong to the world body. So how does it come to pass that we’ve made children both a tool and a victim in the perpetual contretemps of adult issues, from the picayune to the perceived life-changing?… Read the rest
During the siege of Sarajevo, the Danish army NCOs who controlled UN relief flights had a sign behind their check-in desk that read: “Do not confuse your rank with our authority”. For politicians ranting against the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for the Gaza conflict, I suggest one that says: “Do not confuse your self-image with the moral high ground.… Read the rest
When Joni Mitchell sang “You don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone”, she was referring to love and the beauty of Nature. Having recently lost – temporarily and not drastically – visual acuity in one eye, I can add a few more things to her list, and they’re not all bad.… Read the rest