Archive for September, 2009
09 28th, 2009
Parag Khanna, best-selling author of Second World, has devised a fascinating talk titled “Invisible Maps”. Using the innovative graphic design software Prezi, he presents parts of the world where the lines on the map no longer reflect reality and show how they are changing such as Chinese migration into Russia, oil pipelines in the Mideast, the troubled Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and the birth of new states like Kurdistan, Palestine, South Sudan and Greenland.
See Parag in action at the TED Global conference in Oxford, England.
http://www.ted.com/talks/parag_khanna_maps_the_future_of_countries.html
Please feel free to provide a review on the TED site and to forward it to others.
This was Parag’s first opportunity to visually depict some of his findings from travel/research for “The Second World: How Emerging Powers are Redefining Global Competition in the 21st Century”.
09 27th, 2009
The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) has been campaigning hard to end child slavery in the chocolate industry. Now the US government has asked it to help ensure that cocoa imported into America is ’slave free’. Earlier this month, the US named cocoa farming as an industry in which child labour was prevalent.
But, the chocolate companies still think they can get away with keeping their customers in the dark about the origins of their raw products. Green and Blacks finely wrapped organic chocolate fails to tell us where the cocoa is grown. If it’s so good, why the secrecy?
09 27th, 2009
Palm has failed to match its old technology to Windows Vista that is used by tens of millions of people. Its handhelds are now inoperable. In response to queries, it sends you a customer satisfaction survey. Apple is different. I received an instant reponse to a file transfer problem with a comprehensible solution that worked – put together within an hour by Michelle.
It’s a pity about Palm. It’s got a new phone coming out. But what is the point of hunting new customers if you fail to protect the old. Palm used to be at the top of its game — or am I showing my age?
09 26th, 2009
A quote from the poet Iqbal, in Himal Magazine translated as, “Democracy is a form of government in which heads are counted, but never weighed.”
A match to Churchill’s view — ” The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”
09 26th, 2009
If God only brought in the Sun on the fourth day of creation, there would have been no way of measuring the length of the first three days. So how long would they have lasted to get the job done properly?
09 25th, 2009
On October 10th, I’m sharing a panel at the Cheltenham Literary Festival with John Keane, author of the massive 958-page The Life and Death of Democracy. It landed with a thud on my doorstep yesterday to read before the session. I love the twist in the introduction. The first lamp of assembly-based democracy was not in Greece, as we tend to think, but in what is now Syria, Iraq and Iran. Aren’t those exactly the places to which we are now trying to export democracy?
09 24th, 2009
Excerpt from President Barack Obama’s speech to the UN General Assembly on September 3rd 2009:-
Democracy cannot be imposed on any nation from the outside. Each society must search for its own path, and no path is perfect. Each country will pursue a path rooted in the culture of its people, and – in the past – America has too often been selective in its promotion of democracy. But that does not weaken our commitment, it only reinforces it. There are basic principles that are universal; there are certain truths which are self evident – and the United States of America will never waiver in our efforts to stand up for the right of people everywhere to determine their own destiny.
To buy a copy of Democracy Kills: What’s So Good About Having the Vote Click here: Democracy Kills
09 24th, 2009
An fascinating blog discussion followed my BBC Five Live interview with Rhod Sharpe on Wednesday Sept 22nd on Democracy Kills.
http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/feeds/4832431854132623363/comments/default
Contributors ask why I chose to compare Cuba to Haiti — instead of Thailand to Burma or North and South Korea — where the democratic systems have delivered a far high quality of life than the dictatorships.
These are good questions — answered in full in the the book Democracy Kills – What’s So Good About Having The Vote? .
09 21st, 2009
In his review of Democracy Kills in the Guardian, Martin Woolacott describes me as ‘the Candide of foreign correspondents, beginning as an optimist but, as he has gone round the world posing his deceptively simple questions, progressively exposing how pessimistic the honest observer is forced to become. For more than 20 years he has been embarrassing, irritating and sometimes infuriating politicians, officials and businessmen.”
Woolacott agrees with the central theme of the book:- “Indeed, this kind of democracy can kill, as his title suggests, encouraging conflict rather than resolving it. It is an engaging record of a dogged and decent journalist at work.”
To read the full review:- Click here: Martin Woolacott — Democracy Kills
To buy your copy of Democracy Kills: What’s So Good About Having The Vote Click here: Democracy Kills
09 20th, 2009
At dinner last night hosted by my stunningly clever writing friends, Liz and Carsten Jensen, I found myself sitting next to Cindy Gallop. Of a certain age, Cindy announced she recreationally dated younger men through an agency called www.toyboywarehouse.com She had been taken aback to find out that many of them now learn their sexual tequniques, not through fumbled encounters in summer haystacks, but porn sites. Or at least thought they had, because as Cindy eloquently explained cyber porn and real sexual encounters are two very different things. So she is launching a site called www.makelovenotporn.com .
Liz’s new book The Rapture is the finest psychological thriller on the shelves today. www.lizjensen.com
