Showing 51 - 60 of 90
Dark winter ahead but jab miracles await
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/11/2020
» All the usual caveats apply: don't go out and celebrate, don't let your guard down, it's still going to be a long haul.
Pantomimes, Brexit and Boris Johnson
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/10/2020
» The British pantomime is a traditional Christmas entertainment in which stock characters face imaginary dangers and audience participation is encouraged ("He's behind you!"), but the play never frightens the children and it always has a happy ending.
Mysterious allure of being French
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/10/2020
» On Sunday New Caledonia voted to remain French by a majority of 53.3% to 46.%. That's hardly an overwhelming majority, but it was the second referendum in two years to reject independence in the South Pacific archipelago, so we may take it as a done deal.
Lebanon was cursed even before the blast
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 13/08/2020
» Beirut has been living with car bombs and air raids on a sporadic but continuing basis for so long that it would probably make sense to rebuild this time with shatterproof glass. The torrent of broken glass falling from a thousand shattered buildings probably accounted for half the 158 dead found so far in Beirut and certainly for most of the 6,000 wounded.
Will Covid-19 bring basic income?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/05/2020
» The First World War speeded up the emancipation of women; the Second World War led to the creation of welfare states in all the industrialised countries. What great change will the coronavirus crisis bring us?
Oil: Caught in the middle of a perfect storm
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 24/04/2020
» For the global oil industry, it has been a double whammy. First, a foolish price war between two of the world's three biggest producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, drove the price per barrel down from almost US$70 (2,260 baht) in early January to under $50 in early March. They were fighting each other for market share, and they were also hoping that lower prices would kill off US shale oil, whose production costs are higher.
Covid-19 offers odd glimpse of a new future
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/03/2020
» They teach you in journalism school never to use the phrase "...X has changed the world forever". Or at least they should. Covid-19 is certainly not going to change the world forever, but it is going to change quite a few things, in some cases for a long time. Here's nine of them, in no particular order.
Time for the rich to erase proof of climate neglect?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 24/01/2020
» Donald Trump's speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday contained no surprises: half an hour of chest-thumping self-praise, although without the usual xenophobia and dog-whistle racism. It was, after all, an audience of the ultra-rich and powerful in which most of the movers and shakers were not American.
The game of Beijing versus Taipei
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 13/12/2019
» One of the lesser unsolved mysteries of our time is why countries whose names end in 'u' prefer the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People's Republic of China (Beijing). Of the 15 countries that still recognise Taiwan as the real and legitimate China, three have 'u' at the end of their names: Nauru, Palau and Tuvalu.
The democratisation of airpower
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/09/2019
» Big shifts in the military balance happen quietly over many years, and then leap suddenly into focus when the shooting starts.