America’s idea of itself as a great and enviable nation was encapsulated by the now defunct print edition of the Reader’s Digest and its signature feature, “Laughter, the Best Medicine”. For those in trepidation of what MAGA portends, the best antidote is a sense of irony and the absurd.… Read the rest
A few weeks before the Gaza peace deal was agreed, the father of a hostage held by Hamas flew to Qatar to meet the negotiators. It’s stretching a point and then some to infer he nudged the talks over the final line, but what he did is a salient lesson for the next stages of the deal.… Read the rest
It seems to be a given in Donald Trump’s world that no matter how false or farcical his pronouncements, the rest of the world is expected to trepidatiously parse them, but the U.S. doesn’t have to worry about the rest of the world. Sorry, not quite.… Read the rest
New Year’s resolutions being notoriously unkept, 2025 can be better than the unlamented year we just lurched through if the media harkens back to what its job is, or at least ought to be, and peacemakers take on board the lesson of a 13th century papal conclave.… Read the rest
It’s troubling, but not unreasonable to fear that 2025 may turn out to be as vexingly grim as the year we’ve just slogged through. My plan for offsetting the depression that forbodes, is to harken the beauty I saw and photographed in 2024, and find rays of humour in things that normally drive me to outbursts of profane protest.… Read the rest
In the spirit of good neighbourliness, I would like to take this opportunity to caution U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that his “great idea!!!” of making Canada the “51st state” isn’t even a good idea, because, frankly sir, we’d be more trouble than we’re worth.… Read the rest
Western governments, analysts and “experts” hastening for influence and rushing to judgement in the wake of the rebel takeover of Syria would do well to pause, take a good look at recent history, and consider the pigs’ commandment in “Animal Farm”: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”… Read the rest
History, egos, ambition and hubris have entangled the Middle East into a political and security Gordian knot. Mythology has it that the ends of impossibly complex tangle were hidden, and it could only be undone by the future conqueror of all Asia.… Read the rest
In the unlikely event the optimistically-designated “Cessation of Hostilities and Related Commitments on Enhanced Security Arrangements…” between Israel and Lebanon ever becomes an actual peace treaty, the preamble should include19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s admonition: “Beware of all those in whom the urge to punish is strong.”… Read the rest
Whenever the world took a turn of which he did not approve, my late father used to mutter that it was “spawning a generation of vipers and nitwits.” It’s taken more than a generation, but we’ve reached the point where the perilously poisonous and the deadly dumb prevail.… Read the rest