Showing 1 - 10 of 19
Turkey is swiftly heading towards a regime of terror
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/11/2016
» 'In Turkey, we are progressively putting behind bars all people who take the liberty of voicing even the slightest criticism of the government," wrote author Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's first Nobel Prize winner. "Freedom of thought no longer exists. We are distancing ourselves at high speed from a state of law and heading towards a regime of terror" that is driven by "the most ferocious hatred".
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.
China's Xi shaping up as Chairman Mao of 21st century
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 28/02/2018
» The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) approved a proposal on Monday that the country's president no longer be limited to two five-year terms of office. The National People's Congress will rubber-stamp the change. And that will be the end of three decades of consensus-seeking collective leadership in the CCP. The god-king model is back.
'Croc' makes Zimbabwe broke again
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/10/2018
» "Zimbabwe is open for business" was the slogan of President Emmerson Mnangagwa aka "The Crocodile" in the July election that was supposed to show a long and destructive reign of dictator Robert Mugabe, overthrown late last year, is now a thing of the past. The country has been getting steadily poorer for decades now, but this election would be the turning point.
Time for the rich to erase proof of climate neglect?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 24/01/2020
» Donald Trump's speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday contained no surprises: half an hour of chest-thumping self-praise, although without the usual xenophobia and dog-whistle racism. It was, after all, an audience of the ultra-rich and powerful in which most of the movers and shakers were not American.
Look at history, Syrian sanctions won't end war
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/06/2020
» Last week the US imposed new sanctions on Syria: a "sustained campaign of economic and political pressure" to end the nine-year war by forcing President Bashar al-Assad to UN-brokered peace talks where he would negotiate his departure from power. Mr Assad's wife was already cross about not being able to shop at Harrod's or Bergdorf Goodman, so he should crumble any day now.
What's going on with Armenia and Azerbaijan?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 30/09/2020
» It's probably Azerbaijan that started the shooting in this latest round of fighting with neighbouring Armenia. Which is not to say that it's all Azerbaijan's fault.
Khashoggi and MBS's blunderers
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/03/2021
» If Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, were a burglar, he wouldn't be George Clooney in Ocean's Eleven. He'd be a cartoon burglar in a carnival mask and a top with black-and-white horizontal stripes, carrying a sack labelled "SWAG".
Time for a new discourse on Afghanistan
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/09/2021
» A man is sitting in a train somewhere in Europe, tearing sheets of paper into little pieces and throwing them out the window.
Prepare for a fossil fuel fire sale
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 26/11/2021
» An article with the innocuous title "Reframing Incentives for Climate Policy Action" slipped out in the scientific journal Nature Energy three weeks ago and got very little attention, presumably because of the hopeless title. But it's not innocuous at all. It's explosive.