Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Pakistan's army a state above a state
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/07/2018
» 'Look, we have no other choice," Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said last May. "These games have gone on too long. Something has to change." Then he left to be with his wife Kulsoom, who is on life support while receiving treatment for cancer in England. But last week he and his daughter Maryam returned to Pakistan to begin serving the jail sentences imposed on them by a Pakistani court.
Bangladesh returns to 1-party state
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/01/2019
» It always looks bad when the ruling party jails the opposition leader just a few months before the election. If only Khaleda Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), had decided to boycott this election like she did the last one, she'd probably still be a free woman. But she decided to run, and so was sentenced to jail time on various implausible corruption charges.
Balkan-style chaos covers big area
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/07/2020
» 'Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown," says an old friend to Jack Nicholson as the mother is killed, the little girl is handed over to the bad guy and the police wash their hands of it at the end of the 1974 classic film Chinatown.
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.
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.
The impact of Russia's latest war atrocities
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/04/2022
» Four years after the Soviet Army fought its way into Berlin in 1945, Moscow built a huge memorial in Treptower Park to the 80,000 Russian and other Soviet soldiers who died taking the city. (5,000 of them are actually buried in the park.) And Berliners instantly took to calling it the "Tomb of the Unknown Rapist".
Israel heads to yet another poll in just 3.5 years
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 31/10/2022
» Israeli voters are indefatigable. The election on Nov 1 will be the fifth in just three-and-a-half years, and yet the turnout is still likely to be around 70%. That's especially remarkable because all five elections have really been about the same question: should Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu go to jail, or should he be prime minister?
When legal battles shake democracies
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/08/2023
» Three of the world's biggest democracies, all with past, present and/or prospective leaders facing prison at the same time. In the end, it's the courts that decide.
Imran Khan: from cricket star to jailbird
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/02/2024
» Pakistan's former prime minister, former cricket superstar and latter-day populist politician Imran Khan was having a quiet week in jail, six months into his three-year sentence for corruption, and suddenly all hell broke loose.