Showing 1 - 10 of 31
Evil personified
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 10/01/2020
» When the terms genocide and war criminals are mentioned, the connections that usually come to mind are the Third Reich and Nuremberg. Japan too, and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. Today a permanent process for prosecuting crimes against humanity has been established at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
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.
End of fossil fuel?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 20/12/2019
» I'm not a linguist. I'm not proud of it. English is my first and only language, which is not to say that it's the only language worth knowing. I studied other languages in school, but couldn't get the hang of them. Neither am I well-versed in English. I'm not being modest. I look at Webster and Oxford with a groan.
Up to par
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 01/11/2019
» The first thing I did when becoming a newspaper film reviewer was to import a shortcut from the West: evaluating movies with stars. One Trink star was for the very worst motion picture, five Trink stars for the very best. Which was followed by a paragraph explanation. Readers approving my cinema tastes thus knew on what to spend -- or save -- their earnings.
Déjà vu
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 24/10/2019
» It wasn't until the second chapter -- what took me so long? -- that I realised I'd reviewed The Root Of Evil before, though it has a 2018 copyright.
Boston thriller
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 11/10/2019
» Dipping my fingers into the book bag, out came yet another by James Patterson. Can this reviewer help that the Yank is one of the most prolific writers in the business? His co-author this time around is Candice Fox. Which of them came up with this plot, I wonder?
Mystical religion
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 04/10/2019
» I am saying straight away that I believe in God. How else can the cosmos be there? But I'm not religious. In my time I've been to churches, temples, mosques and holy places out of curiosity, not seeking a spiritual experience. In each I did the expected to the extent possible: sat, bowed, knelt, mumbled prayers, faked singing spirituals, et al. It was copying, not mocking.
Too ambitious
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 20/09/2019
» We are told as children that we must have ambition to make something of ourselves. What we aren't told is that it must have its limits. To be sure, most people are too lazy to make the effort needed to fulfil it. They figure that just getting along is enough. Anyway, they tell themselves that the odds are stacked against them. That those who succeeded did so by cheating or were just lucky.
Religion and warfare
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 06/09/2019
» What all religions, sects, cults have in common is that each believes it is the true one, the others not only unworthy but spawns of the devil, deserving to be liquidated.
The Future isn't now
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 29/08/2019
» A term I keep encountering is "The Future". You see it on billboards everywhere. Stadiums, department stores, condos, supermarkets, restaurants, theatres, whatever. They eschew the current autos and mobile phones and computers. Space rockets are only a generation or two away.