I am sure the old saying ‘cometh the time, cometh the man’ (written in more chauvinistic times but still sadly very true) describes the fact that human history shows in times of crisis someone always bubbles to leadership and somehow gets peoples/nations/tribes through the crisis. As Toussaint Louverture boldly spoke out against slavery on behalf of…
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The Role Of Superstition
There are many, and I am one of them, who think superstitions are somewhat bizarre and demonstrate a natural propensity amongst us to demonise, and secure our safety and lives by reference to nature’s magic. However when researching my book on lying I realized that there are some positive aspects to lying in as far…
The Confines Of The Infinite
Many thinkers have suggested that as long as you have an open mind, you can never truly be imprisoned. Many years ago listening to radio 4 I heard a series of programmes about the Malay peninsula in World War 2 and how the British interned suffered under the Japanese. I recall distinctly the story of…
Inside Your Head
My artist friends tell me they could teach me to draw – all it takes is time and practice. While I understand the techniques associated with all the Arts can be reduced to certain rules (drawing is all about controlling light for example) the truth of the matter for me lies in the fact that…
Solving Murders
There are hundreds of shows on TV around the world involving murder – the vast majority of these shows solve the murder clues and catch or kill the murderer. We can leave aside the known double-standards human beings have in defining murder with murder (when it comes to war and killing animals,) because the reason…
Alphabets
I have always been intrigued by alphabets, which may go hand-in-hand with my delight at reading dictionaries. Whilst I know learning Latin and Greek until I was sixteen may have been part of this fascination, it extends to an interest in all alphabets from cuneiform to the beautifully fluid scripts of classical Sanskrit and Mandarin…
Time Flies
I recently met my father after thirty or more years estrangement. I don’t think it necessary to go through any of the arguments for the distance but when waiting to board the delayed plane back from Mumbai I wrote the following: Some stories that are written are inked in Tears if undistinguished arguments and…
We Are Lead By the Past
I remember when reading Thucydides as a teenager studying ancient history how the Greek historian interpreted speeches from his memory and from the recollection of those he had talked to about them and perhaps from fragments others had written down. It was an interesting exercise because reading Pericles and Brasidas and others one quickly saw…
More Is Less
I have a friend who knows a good deal about the history of photography who revealed to me that around 1910s the Kodak book of photographic papers had 120 listed papers but by the 1980s when photography had left the preserve of the few and become a mass market experience the number had gone down…
Choose Your Mafia
I think we all tend to join or make groups. Mostly we view them as benign and for many of us membership is as open as buying a house in the neighborhood, joining a club or graduating from a school or University. For all of us the membership is selective though, limited to a certain…