There is an awful irony in remembrance of wars. We choose the wars we want to remember. Maybe it is a function of the changing culture in the west or maybe the emergence of media but we make a huge thing of the second world war, and the first world war, but we make nothing…
D-Day
Today we celebrate a particular battle, like so many we celebrate, that has ensured the path of history in which we all live. We can talk to the human stupidity of following the dictates of one man and of the sacrifices demanded to stop him and them, but what we should remember is the awful…
How Quickly People Forget
It is odd to me that news as such lasts so little time and we have to be reminded of matters of moment that are a month old because we have moved on. It is amazing to me that debates are reduced to seconds and the sound-bites are shared on social media and in news…
The de Bunsen Committee and a Revision of the ‘Conspiracy’ of Sykes-Picot
Abstract: The Sykes-Picot Agreement is often cited as evidence of a Western conspiracy to carve up the Middle East and subordinate the Arabs. It is a prevalent view across the region, and has been a refrain repeated by many critics. Yet almost nothing is known of the far more significant conclusions of the Committee, formed…
People Ask Me …
all the time what I think of the situation in Gaza. War is vile and urban war is horrific. Soldiers will tell you it is the bitterest kind of warfare. There is no doubt that Hamas are hiding behind civilians as insurgents and guerillas do when fighting a superior enemy. That they are hiding behind…
It Is Always Dawn Somewhere
We used to think we were connected by a shared planet but in recent years we have come to understand that we are all cousins; a millennia admixture of apes adapting to their environments to survive and breed that eventually became tribes. Archeologists have also suggested that the evidence points to every tribe having been…
Bagpipe Music
Bagpipe music (1938) It’s no go the merry-go-round, it’s no go the rickshaw, All we want is a limousine and a ticket for the peepshow. Their knickers are made of crêpe-de-chine, their shoes are made of python, Their halls are lined with tiger rugs and their walls with heads of bison.John MacDonald found a corpse, put it…
The Thorny Issue
of arts sponsorship is in focus today as authors request the Edinburgh Festival to refuse to take money from a company investing in the West Bank Settlements. When and if arts organisations decide to do without funds in this way it is incumbent upon them to get all the facts and hear all the sides….
Taylor Swift
There is a movement among the pro-Arab groupings to try to force Taylor Swift to condemn the war in Gaza. I realise they are are just want her to speak up but actually they want her to condemn Israel. Her duty as a human being is to condemn all war – in Sudan, in Yemen,…
Let’s Be Honest
All war is vile and barbaric. There should be no wars, no armies no weapons and no arms industry anywhere in the world. Every reason for ever going ton war (not going to defence) have been bad reasons or at best never any good reasons. Yet there is no history without brutal conflict. This is…