Category World Affairs
Tea In The Ruins
The Peshmerga guards ask if we would like some tea. I don’t drink hot drinks, but I know it would be culturally insensitive to refuse such an offer. So I sit with a glass of hot tea, very sweet the way Iraqis like it, and look out over the valley, a view worthy of a […]
The Road Up The Mountain
Stay on the asphalt and you’ll be fine. That is the basic warning on the red triangular signs. Or so I was told – I can’t read Arabic. But it seemed to be a sensible precaution. If I was a dictator I would probably plant the odd land mine around my palace too. And somehow […]
Trump Withdrawal
I have been back from my vacation in Maine for four days. I am missing the beach and the sound of the ocean waves. I am missing the fresh seafood and the lazy days with nothing more important to do than read. But more than anything else, I am missing Donald Trump. It is not […]
The Debate
Thursday night is fireworks night in Old Orchard Beach. That meant I missed the first debate of American Republican presidential hopefuls. It was on television, but I was on the beach. The television coverage the next day and through the weekend was extensive. There are after all 17 people running (at this point) for the […]
And They’re Off!
The writ has dropped. For those of you not familiar with Westminster tradition, that’s just a formal way of saying the Canadian federal election is underway. I am a political junkie. But this is not a political blog and I will for the most part steer clear of this election campaign. I may, over the […]
The Guns of America
In Canada we take government restrictions on the possession of weapons as the norm. There is a general agreement, even among gun owners, that possessing firearms is a responsibility, not a right. There is from time to time debate about how intrusive governments should be in regulating firearms, but the basics, such as criminal record […]
Falling From The Skies
It was a year ago today that a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet was shot down in the skies over Ukraine, presumably by Russian-backed (and armed) rebels. There will be remembrance ceremonies in many countries today as families and friends continue to mourn. Airline tragedies receive a lot of publicity. When something goes wrong at 35,000 […]
The Road to Duhok
The turn to Mosul is on the left. It is blocked off, only the military are allowed to use it now since ISIS took the city in June 2014. The journey from Erbil to Duhok takes about two-and-a-half hours, depending on the number of checkpoints. This time I think we went through four. There can […]
Waiting For A Plane VIII – Erbil Internaional
I was traveling for a couple of weeks last month. I spent a lot of time in airports. In each one I had time on my hands. As a result I wrote at least one post in each of the airports, which am posting from time to time. Two more airports to go until I […]
The Great Charter
I was too young to really appreciate what the document was. It was 1967 and a copy of the Magna Carta was on display at the British Pavilion at Expo ’67 in Montreal. I know I saw it, but I can’t pretend it made any impact. Fourteen years later I saw another copy (or perhaps […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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