Showing 71 - 80 of 90
Malaysia gets second chance to prosper and thrive
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/05/2018
» Mahathir Mohamad was always a curious character. He was prime minister of Malaysia for 22 years, and although he did not enrich himself many of his cronies did very well from corrupt practices that he did little to curb.
A healthcare no-brainer for Mr Trump
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/02/2018
» It began, as so many things do these days, with a Donald Trump tweet. Frustrated by his inability to kill the “Obamacare” expansion of public healthcare provision in the United States, Mr Trump seized on a protest about the under-funding of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) in London last Saturday to trash the entire concept of universal healthcare paid out of taxes and free at the point of delivery.
Only the poor end up dying screaming
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/01/2018
» If you had a million dollars to spend (but not on yourself), where would it do the most good? Well, the cost to cover morphine or a morphine-equivalent pain relief treatment for all the sick children younger than 15 years who are in really serious pain in low-income countries would be just $1 million (33.4 million baht) per year. About half of them of those children are going to die, but with morphine at least they wouldn't die screaming.
Looking back at the October Revolution
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/11/2017
» China Mieville, a novelist I much admire, has published a history of the "October Revolution" to mark its hundredth anniversary (which is actually on Nov 7, since the Russians were still using the Julian calendar in 1917). It had an unusual effect on me. It made me question whether I was right about the utter futility of that revolution.
Poland pauses on march to autocracy
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/07/2017
» Zofia Romaszewska, now in her 80s, was jailed during the years of martial law in Poland in the early 1980s. She is a national hero for her human rights activities in the 1980s and is now one of President Andrzej Duda's advisers. Last week she persuaded him to veto the government's new laws on the courts.
The North Korea crisis: Why now?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/05/2017
» Apart from Donald Trump's need for a dramatic foreign policy initiative, is there any good reason why we are having a crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons testing now?
Universal basic income still in 'experimental' stage
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 28/04/2017
» In Switzerland last June, they had a referendum on a universal basic income that would have given each adult Swiss citizen US$2,500 (86,450 baht) per month. It would have gone to everybody whether they were working or not and the horrified Swiss rejected it by a majority of more than three-to-one.
Reunification of Syria under Assad
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/01/2017
» So far the end-game in Syria has played out in an entirely predictable way. All of Aleppo is back in the Syrian government's hands, that decisive victory for President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian backers has been followed by a ceasefire, and the Russians are now organising a peace conference in Astana, Kazakhstan for later this month.
Park a victim of a 'Seoul Rasputin'
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/11/2016
» 'Sad thoughts trouble my sleep at night," said South Korea's President Park Geun-hye. "I realise that whatever I do, it will be difficult to mend the hearts of the people, and then I feel a sense of shame." And so she should, but it's also hard not to feel some sympathy for her plight. This isn't your usual political corruption case. She never benefited from her actions in any way.
Time of plenty over in Saudi Arabia
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/10/2016
» 'God be with the citizens, we are back to the time of poverty," wrote Saudi Arabian blogger Rayan al-Shamri on Twitter last week. That's a bit strong, but he and his fellow citizens are certainly no longer living in the time of plenty. Saudi Arabia is cutting back on all fronts.