Showing 1 - 10 of 19
Theatre of white refugees from South Africa
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/05/2025
» As my flight landed in South Africa on Sunday, I looked in vain for the plane that was due to take off with the first 49 white, Afrikaans-speaking "refugees" of the many thousands who are supposedly going to find safety from racist persecution in Donald Trump's United States.
Has Iran finally reached the end of the line?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/01/2025
» Six months ago, at the end of Iran's presidential election, I finished an article by speculating that the long-lived theocratic dictatorship in Iran may be a lot closer to its end than its beginning: "If you can plausibly say "This cannot go on forever", you are also saying "Some day this will come to an end'."
Iran's theocracy simply cannot go on forever
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/07/2024
» 'I have heard that people's zeal and interest is higher than in the first round [of Iran's presidential election]," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian TV just before the second round of voting on Sunday. "It is wrong to assume those who abstained in the first round are opposed to Islamic rule."
Clock is ticking for Armenians in Karabakh
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/09/2023
» The Armenians are a people of great antiquity -- the first Armenian kingdom was in the 8th century BC -- but they grew up in a tough neighbourhood, and they have been in retreat for a very long time.
Italy: The hard right nears the reins of power
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/09/2022
» There's an election in Italy this Sunday, almost exactly 100 years after Benito Mussolini's "blackshirts" marched on Rome and brought the first fascist dictator to power.
Could Boris Johnson make a comeback?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/09/2022
» As a child, outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly said he wanted to be "King of the World". He ended up in a somewhat humbler role, was rejected by his own party's members of parliament for his mendacity, corruption and incompetence, and will hand over to his successor, Liz Truss, on Monday. But the Fat Lady still hasn't sung.
Do Russians have war in their blood?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/04/2022
» The geopolitical views of my grandmother, Florence O'Driscoll, could have been summed up in seven words: the Germans have war in their blood. Even as a child I suspected that the world must be more complicated than that, but I never contradicted her. She came by those views the hard way.
China: No more being Mister Nice Guy
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/01/2022
» More than 200 Hong Kong police raided and shut down one of the last pro-democracy news websites in Hong Kong before on Wed of Dec 29, in the latest sign that the Beijing regime will no longer tolerate dissent of any kind. It was total overkill -- a couple of cops with a court order would have sufficed -- but they were 'sending a message' to other "malcontents".
Early extinction of fossil fuels a risk in itself
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/12/2021
» The "new normal", said International Energy Agency spokesperson Heymi Bahar last May, may be a far faster expansion of renewable energy than expected, driven mainly by market forces. So fast, in fact, that it raises a different kind of risk (but he didn't mention that).
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".