Showing 281 - 290 of 575
Fear at the root of America's race problem
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/06/2020
» It's been a bad week in the United States: six nights of protests, huge anger, rioting and looting in 50 cities, hundreds arrested or injured -- but only six dead over the police murder of George Floyd. The number may have gone up by the time you read this, but it's definitely not 1968 again.
Contagion death rates and doses of arrogance
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/04/2020
» Something has gone wrong in the "Anglosphere", as the English-speaking countries are known in some other parts of the world.
Is this crisis really a turning point?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/05/2020
» People who look for silver linings (aka optimists) think that Covid-19 might be the inflection point where we start getting serious about our relationship with the planet. There's no direct link between coronavirus and climate change, but if a tiny virus can bring our whole bustling civilisation to a halt, then how vulnerable will we be to a disordered environment driven by out-of-control global heating?
Donald Trump and the 'Yellow Peril'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/05/2020
» It was completely predictable that Donald Trump would try to blame China for the fact that at least 30 million Americans are unemployed and that 70,000 Americans have already died of Covid-19. His polling numbers are down and the election is only seven months away. What else was he going to do? Blame himself?
Pompeo's Israel visit was to push for annexation
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/05/2020
» Israel's new two-headed government, with Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, was supposed to be sworn in on Wednesday. Then suddenly the inauguration was postponed by one day to accommodate a quick visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. What brought Mr Pompeo so far for so short a time?
Reopening our economies is a balancing act
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/04/2020
» Wuhan, the Chinese city where it all started, was locked down for 79 days before the restrictions on movement were finally lifted last week. A bit over-cautious, perhaps, but in China the coronavirus does really seem to be under control -- not totally eradicated, but controllable without extreme measures.
Oil: Caught in the middle of a perfect storm
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 24/04/2020
» For the global oil industry, it has been a double whammy. First, a foolish price war between two of the world's three biggest producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, drove the price per barrel down from almost US$70 (2,260 baht) in early January to under $50 in early March. They were fighting each other for market share, and they were also hoping that lower prices would kill off US shale oil, whose production costs are higher.
Covid-19 offers odd glimpse of a new future
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/03/2020
» They teach you in journalism school never to use the phrase "...X has changed the world forever". Or at least they should. Covid-19 is certainly not going to change the world forever, but it is going to change quite a few things, in some cases for a long time. Here's nine of them, in no particular order.
Save the old or save the economy?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/04/2020
» The basic choice all along with Covid-19 has been: Do we let the old die, or do we take a big hit economically? So far, the decision almost everywhere has been to take the hit and save the old (or most of them), but in some places it has been a very near-run thing.
Will Hungary be outbreak's first casualty?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/04/2020
» 'Hello, dictator!" said Jean-Claude Juncker cheerily to Hungary's leader, Victor Orban, at a European Union summit meeting a couple of years ago. The president of the European Commission was only joking, of course, but it was gallows humour. Dictatorship was clearly where Mr Orban was heading -- and now he has arrived.