Showing 1 - 10 of 561
Iran protests not the same as those before
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/01/2018
» 'The people behind what is taking place think they will be able to harm the government," said Iran's First Vice-President, Eshaq Jahangiri. "But when social movements and protests start in the street, those who have ignited them are not always able to control them." And the question is: which people did Mr Jahangiri actually mean, and which government?
Space 2018: Better to go back out late rather than never
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/01/2018
» It's going to be a good year in space, and the new players are aiming high. The Indian Space Research Organisation intends to send Chandrayaan-2, an uncrewed orbiter, lander and rover, to the moon in March.
Only the poor end up dying screaming
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/01/2018
» If you had a million dollars to spend (but not on yourself), where would it do the most good? Well, the cost to cover morphine or a morphine-equivalent pain relief treatment for all the sick children younger than 15 years who are in really serious pain in low-income countries would be just $1 million (33.4 million baht) per year. About half of them of those children are going to die, but with morphine at least they wouldn't die screaming.
Trump speaks for racists, not all of US
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/01/2018
» Poor US President Donald Trump. He was simply asking for information, and they're all over him as if he were a racist thug. His choice of words was unfortunate, but the angels rejoice when an ignorant person seeks enlightenment. We should take his question seriously and answer it for him.
Will the US betray the Syrian Kurds?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/01/2018
» Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an angry man at the best of times, but on Monday he outdid himself: "This is what we have to say to all our allies: Don't get in between us and terrorist organisations, or we will not be responsible for the unwanted consequences." That was a barely veiled threat that he will use force against American troops if they try to stop him from attacking the Syrian Kurds.
Time to annul Suu Kyi's Nobel Prize
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/02/2018
» Nobel Peace Prize winners sometimes go on to undistinguished later careers, and some seem to have got the prize by mistake. Barack Obama, for example. But there has never before been one who went on to become a genocidal criminal.
US military revives its tired 'limited' nuclear war theory
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/02/2018
» The US "Nuclear Posture Review" recently published by the Pentagon announced the United States will get two new types of nuclear weapons to provide, in the words of US officials, "more flexible capabilities to give tailored deterrence".
A healthcare no-brainer for Mr Trump
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/02/2018
» It began, as so many things do these days, with a Donald Trump tweet. Frustrated by his inability to kill the “Obamacare” expansion of public healthcare provision in the United States, Mr Trump seized on a protest about the under-funding of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) in London last Saturday to trash the entire concept of universal healthcare paid out of taxes and free at the point of delivery.
Robots declare war on the middle class
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/02/2018
» Don't bother asking if jobs are being lost to computers. Of course they are, and the current wave of populist political revolts in Western countries is what Luddism looks like in an era of industrialised democracies. The right question to ask is: What kinds of jobs are being lost? Moravec's Paradox predicted the answer almost 30 years ago.
Purge needed so South Africa's ANC can revive economy
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/02/2018
» As a passer-by in the upscale Johannesburg suburb of Saxonwold observed, the South African police would never have raided the enormous, high-walled compound of the Gupta family if President Jacob Zuma were not on the brink of being removed. But early on Wednesday morning, the police did exactly that.