Showing 1 - 10 of 16
Isis thwarted
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 26/12/2019
» Until the 20th century, jihadists had no bones to pick with the US. Their ire was directed at the UK and France who coveted their lands, and the Jews trying to carve out their own. They got good press when T.E. Lawrence led the Arabs against the enemy Ottoman Turks. The silent film The Sheik romanticised them. The Riffs were favoured in their uprising against Spain. They didn't participate in the North African campaign in World War II.
Twists and turns
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 15/11/2019
» It is said that truth is stranger than fiction. That's debatable. Authors have lively imaginations. Many have concocted plots for their novels that are at least as strange as anything real life has offered. Readers of long standing sometimes can't be certain which is which. Which is where gut feeling is not necessarily reliable.
How honest are you?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 16/08/2019
» Those finding a wallet or purse, particularly when stuffed with money or gems, have their honesty sorely tested when the owner's ID is included. Ought they notify him or her? They need the valuables themselves. Was it just luck? Didn't God mean for them to have it? Likely as not the loser is rich and shrugged it off to experience. Or not.
The 18-year itch
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/12/2017
» Contrary to poems and films, love isn't the only reason for marriage. Nor is it the strongest. Arranged marriage takes precedence. So does making the girl pregnant and doing the right thing. Indeed there's a list of reasons, not least lust -- the sap running in both the male and female.
A treaty for peace
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 23/11/2017
» Following the two-decade-long Napoleonic Wars, Europe, not least France, licked its wounds and agreed "never again". Then they set about making a lasting peace. They felt able to do it. It was the Age of Reason and they were was intelligent as one could be in 1815.
First century AD
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 04/11/2016
» The first century AD automatically brings to mind Jesus of Nazareth. The New Testament, thought to have been penned up to a century and a half later, told of his extraordinary birth, miracles and ascension to heaven. Two millennia later, circa a billion people believe it.
Beware the internet
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 10/08/2015
» With 7 billion fellow humans on the planet we tend to keep our family, friends and acquaintances in very small circles. The rest we ignore as much as possible. Classmates and colleagues are temporary. Instead of loving our neighbours, we keep one another at arm's length.
For horse lovers
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 16/03/2015
» Do you believe in coincidence? I do, because it has happened to me on occasion and there's no other likely explanation. Yet there are those who don't, and statistics have been made to show that there's a mathematical probability of such events occurring. But can't statistics prove just about anything?
Much wisdom here
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 06/10/2014
» A Free Thinker but not an atheist, I evaluate the world's various religions not by their holy books, but by how their followers act when away from their temple/church/mosque. Alas, all too often, they forget the "be good, do good" sermons. Love, compassion, peace, forgiveness are sung about in hymns, but hardly ever practised.
An honest lawyer
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/02/2014
» Truth be told — I’m a sucker for courtroom dramas. Inherit The Wind, Witness For The Prosecution and Judgement At Nuremberg are my all-time favourites. Some courtroom novels or plays are adapted to the screen, others made into movies or television shows. Many remain in book form.