The last two days have seen my social networking sites filled with people discussing Uganda (not in the Private Eye sense of the term I hasten to add) and in particular condemning the actions of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). This has come about after the charity Invisible Children released a half hour video entitled “Kony 2012” documenting Kony’s crimes and calling for Western governments to do all they can to [...]
On February 9th a young Saudi journalist called Hamza Kashgari left Saudi Arabia in a hurry. He’d booked a flight to New Zealand which, unfortunately for him, stopped off at Malaysia instead of going to Wellington non-stop. The Malaysians detained him and, in response to a request from the Saudi authorities, sent him back to Riyadh where he is now in prison awaiting his fate, quite possibly death, for ‘blasphemy’ and ‘apostasy’. His crime? On [...]
Iran finds itself in the closing stages of election campaigning. Come the 2nd of March, Iranians will head to the polls to elect a new parliament. All is not well domestically, characterised by the norm of rallying the populous through vociferous anti-western rhetoric, deflecting from the reality that it is the regime, who are in fact architects of their own downfall. Without question, Iran’s pursuit and defence of its nuclear programme is the single major [...]
The UN as proved by Hillel Neuer, the director of the International Pressure Group UN Watch, is a joke. Who can forget for instance the recent minute’s silence observed impeccably by many for the death of Kim Jong Il at the general UN Assembly? In what other arena would it be deemed socially acceptable? I myself think these displays of public affection, which in the UN’s case they take deadly seriously, should be treated as [...]
In recent days, intelligence sources seem to confirm that Iran is moving forward at a rapid pace with its nuclear ambitions. Anyone who thinks this is being done for peaceful reasons are in my view living in the world of make believe. That said I cannot hand on heart support a military strike. I haven’t become a pacifist overnight and I certainly wouldn’t let Iran off the hook. I’m just not willing to countenance the [...]
Reading the papers today I was struck by the quality of coverage on North Korea and the evil masterminds behind one of the most closed countries on earth. There was a lot of talk about how in a globalised world, North Korea and countries such as Cuba would be forced to change due to the tidal wave of democratisation unleashed by the Arab Spring. There was also a lot of naivety about Europe being a [...]
First there was bin Laden, then al-Awlaki. Is Kim Jong Un next? With the death of Kim Jong Il the United States has the opportunity, at a stroke, to remake the region. Asia, as it currently stands, is like much of Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, riddled with border disputes and highly unstable. One of the greatest threats to stability is North Korea itself. The nuclear armed state with a million men under [...]
It has recently emerged that the Chief Prosecutor at the ICC (International Criminal Court) has declared the killing of Gaddafi in such a way that it ‘creates suspicions’ of war crimes. Gaddafi was killed in late October when he was caught between cross fire in his home town of Sirte. Although critics dispute the ‘accidental nature’ of the unfolding situation- claiming he had been executed on the spot by rebels- NATO quickly accepted his death [...]