Showing 1 - 10 of 14
Peace on Earth? Democracy everywhere?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/12/2025
» Democracy is in retreat or at least on the defensive almost everywhere, while wars are getting bigger and more frequent. The trend lines are frighteningly bad.
Sudan's war and the Africa we don't see
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/04/2025
» Last Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: "Many have given up on Sudan, but that is wrong. It's morally wrong when we see so many civilians beheaded, infants as young as one subjected to sexual violence, more people facing famine than anywhere else in the world.... We simply cannot look away."
FGM and the need for Islamic scholars
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/07/2024
» There was a small victory in The Gambia this week when a proposed law to legalise female genital mutilation (FGM) was defeated by human rights campaigners. It was quite a small victory, however, because the great majority of little girls in The Gambia are still being mutilated by the professional "cutters" who move from village to village.
Trump: The mills of the gods grind slowly
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/08/2023
» 'The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceeding fine," wrote Sextus Empiricus, a Sceptic philosopher who lived mainly in Athens and Alexandria almost 2,000 years ago. Justice may be slow to come, but in the end the wicked will be punished. The mills are turning.
Predicting what Israel will do next is easy
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 08/07/2023
» The two-day Israeli military incursion into the Palestinian city of Jenin in the northern West Bank (12 Palestinians killed, one Israeli dead) seems at first glance like just another example of "mowing the lawn". That's what the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) call these periodic futile raids they make to kill some Palestinian fighters.
South Korea's gender politics getting ugly
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/03/2022
» Gender is not the only issue in this week's election in South Korea, but it's the hot-button topic. It's not clear if there was ever a successful sexual revolution in the country, but the counter-revolution is definitely doing well. The 'F-word' (feminism) is being used a lot by both major parties, and not in a good way.
Peru on edge after Castillo's election victory
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/08/2021
» Peru holds the current record for revolving presidents -- three came and went in a month last November; for coronavirus deaths -- almost 6,000 per million, and for the youngest-looking president -- seen from afar, under his trademark straw hat, he looks like a 13-year-old boy. But appearances are deceiving.
Today it's Zuma, tomorrow it could be Trump
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/07/2021
» Sooner or later ex-president Donald Trump is bound to be indicted for some crime. It doesn't matter which -- it could be a fraud or corruption charge, or a sexual offence, or incitement to violence, or even just tax evasion. (That's what finally got American gangster Al Capone.) And it doesn't matter whether he's convicted, either; the real drama will come before that.
HK and China: One country, one system
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/11/2020
» One Hong Kong lawmaker, Claudia Mo, said it was "the death-knell of Hong Kong's democracy fight". But she was part of it: one of the 15 remaining pro-democracy members of the Legislative Council (Legco) who resigned last Thursday in protest at the expulsion of four other democratically elected members of the pseudo-parliament.
Forced schooling of Mongolians driven by fear
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/09/2020
» 'Residential schools" were a common feature of European settler societies (except New Zealand) until quite late in the 20th century, and their purpose was not just to educate but to "deracinate" their aboriginal pupils: to cut them off from their roots. The Chinese government would reject the analogy with its last breath, but it is now doing the same thing.