dailyclarity

There are far better things to send to the Middle East than arms, politicians, missionaries threats or ambassadors that will foster integration and cross cultural understanding, Horatio It was, said the director, an Elizabethan atmosphere. People came and went throughout the play. There was chatter and laughter and crying babies. One boy kicked a football, another swung from an overhead metal bar near the stage. Yet this was not the Globe theatre on the south bank of the Thames, but an... Read Full Story

Abusing another country’s resources is not new; stealing the actual ground from under their feet might be taking liberties too far! Where once there was seabed, hotels, a casino and airport rise off Singapore’s coast. But as the tiny island city-state dumps sand on its shores, expanding its territory already by one-fifth, there are increasing claims that Singapore is illegally buying up soil through corrupt channels in Cambodia. The latest to push these claims is the Associated... Read Full Story

We needed his expertise, grit and experience. RIP . A man who served honorably and productively. His family should be proud. A life well lived God speed, Richard Holbrooke Read Full Story

The French are an excitable people. They take to the streets at the drop of a hat…or a brief delay in a retirement entitlement. The Americans have a similar penchant for street protests, but less of a predilection for burning things. The French do have a certain way with  flambé automobiles. This contrasts starkly with the stoic British. A recent BBC comedy show pointed out rather than riot on the streets the British would only sigh dejectedly if the police were herding the whole population... Read Full Story

It is somewhat difficult to avoid the increasingly strident levels of “debate” here in the US as we hurtle toward the mid-term elections. The extreme right seems ascendant and is certainly dominating the headlines.  We are  seeing some apparently bizarre candidates look as though they might possibly get elected. The flame of Tea Party ardor seems fiery bright, and as an observer external to the voting process though resident here, it makes one wonder how is this possible in such a seemingly... Read Full Story

This says it all. The disparity of the world picture form the left to the right, the secular to the religious, the liberal to the Tea Party, the xenophobe to the internationalist is all here in this humorous little drawing.  There is sometimes great insight in humor! Don’t know who made it, but kudos to the artist. Read Full Story

This may well be one of those articles that ends up with me in hot water. The thought process arose from listening to a recent BBC interview with Australian author, Peter Carey. Carey is a long time resident and a big fan of New York, but the interviewer pushed him to give an opinion on America in general. Carey attempted to dodge the question a few times, but backed into a corner he espoused some thoughts that acted as a catalyst for not dissimilar ideas of my own. Carey expressed the view... Read Full Story

The military aberration that is cluster munitions has wrought an incredible price in terms of death, disfigurement and amputation. Some countries ratified a treaty to stop making cluster munitions, dispose of stockpiles, and clear contaminated areas. Several key countries including the US did not. Last week the treaty came into effect, and a article on the devastation still brought by dormant cluster munitions tells us why this is important. Cluster bombs affect about two dozen nations... Read Full Story

It is always a conundrum; which comes first the technology or the demand for its application? Many of us lived happily without smartphones, in fact we didn’t even know we needed one. Flash forward to the 4 th generation of iphones, the latest blackberries and androids and it is difficult to imagine life without them. Technology also creates the potential for adaptation ad application in ways never imagined by the engineers that designed them. Such is the case of GPS in even the most basic... Read Full Story

The way the US media is over-hyping the so called direct peace talks brings  a twinkle to the eye of the rather mislead American readership.  It as if this posturing isn’t another round of theater that has accompanied gentle US pressure for decades. Israel goes through the motion of negotiations so as to not upset the American aid and armaments machine that feeds them, but even a most casual analysis shows you there is no real intent here. Netanyahu would be committing political suicide to... Read Full Story