Showing 31 - 35 of 35
Jailing the iconoclast of Timbuktu a welcome precedent
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/08/2016
» Nobody got punished for blowing up the giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley in 2001. Nobody has been sent to jail for blowing up much of the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria after the Islamic State captured it in May 2015. (It was recaptured last March.) But Ahmed al-Mahdi is going to jail for a long time for destroying the religious monuments of Timbuktu, and he even says he's sorry.
Duterte is a problem for the Philippines, not the UN
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/08/2016
» Rodrigo Duterte, the new president of the Philippines, gives good copy. Here's a quote from his final election rally: "Forget the laws on human rights. If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because I'd kill you. I'll dump all of you into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there."
The long, loud silence from the Brexit leadership
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/06/2016
» Parliament met in London on Monday, so that MPs of every party could express their horror and disgust at the murder last Thursday of their colleague Jo Cox, MP for Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire. And on Monday everybody did, including the leaders of the Brexit campaign, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. But here's the odd thing: up to that point, the Brexit leaders had said nothing about it.
Will Orlando bring about the end of the United States?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/06/2016
» "If we do not get tough and smart real fast, we are not going to have a country any more," said Donald Trump after the massacre in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando early on Sunday morning, and The Donald never exaggerates. The United States is a very fragile entity, only two-and-a-bit centuries old. One more attack like Orlando -- 49 dead and 53 wounded -- and it's finished.
Macedonia's 'Colourful Revolution'
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/06/2016
» Abstract expressionism is no longer cutting-edge art in most places, but in one country it is enjoying a massive popular revival: Macedonia. The artists are at work day and night in the capital, Skopje, decorating public buildings and statues with splatters of every colour in the rainbow in a style clearly inspired by Jackson Pollock.