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| Opinion: What Drives Shinzo Abe? - By Gwynne Dyer |
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Shinzo Abe, now six months into his second try at being prime minister of Japan, is a puzzling man. In his first, spectacularly unsuccessful go in 2006-07, he was a crude nationalist and an economic ignoramus who rarely had control of his own dysfunctional cabinet. By the time he quit, after only a year in office, his popularity rating was below 30 percent and his health was breaking down.
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| Opinion: Syria as a Game-Changer: US Political Impotence in the Middle East - by Ramzy Baroud |
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In an article published May 15, 2013, American historical social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein wrote, “Nothing illustrates more the limitations of Western power than the internal controversy its elites are having in public about what the United States in particular and western European states should be doing about the civil war in Syria.”
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| Opinion: Lacking Own Tools to Dismantle Legacy of Despotism, Libya is a Plum Ready for Picking – by Abdullah Elmaazi |
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Over one hundred years ago, the Syrian thinker and one of the pioneers of the Arab renaissance ‘Abd al-Raḥman al-Kawākibī in his treatise The Nature of Despotism wrote: “The end of the tyrannical state does not only affect the tyrants. The destruction engulfs the people, their land and their homes.
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| Opinion: The Calm Before the Storm – by Mary Ahmed |
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The much agonised over, much debated and much anticipated or dreaded (depending on your convictions) political Isolation law has finally been approved by the national congress after many delays and fraying tempers.
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| Opinion: Pakistan’s New Government: An Older and Wiser Nawaz Sharif? - by Gwynne Dyer |
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The first time Nawaz Sharif became Prime Minister of Pakistan was almost a quarter-century ago. His second term was ended fourteen years ago by a military coup that drove him into exile. Now he’s back, a good deal older - but is he any wiser?
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| Opinion: Israel, Hawking and the Pressing Question of Boycott - by Ramzy Baroud |
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It is an event “of cosmic proportions”, said one Palestinian academic, a befitting description regarding Stephen Hawking’s decision to boycott an Israeli academic conference slated for next June. It was also a decisive moral call which was communicated on May 8 by Cambridge University, where Hawking is a professor.
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| Opinion: Israel Takes Sides - by Gwynne Dyer |
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After making two major air strikes in and near Damascus in three days, Israel informed the Assad regime on Monday that it is not taking sides in the Syrian civil war. But of course it is.
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| Opinion: Our Primitive, Violent Past Does Not Define Our Future - by Gwynne Dyer |
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Of course, a quarter of the adult males in the typical primitive society died violently, in wars and in fights (I’m using the banned word “primitive” here because it’s shorter than “hunter-gatherer and horticultural non-state societies,” not because primitive people are inferior).
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| To Celebrate or Not to Celebrate? |
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Is celebrating birthdays forbidden? Why is it frowned? Isn’t it just simple fun and enjoyment? We only invite friends and have a meal. Aren't we even allowed to celebrate anything? We only exchange gifts! Are exchanging presents improper?
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| Opinion: The Pain of Bangladesh: T-Shirts Made of Blood and Tears – by Ramzy Baroud |
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As they spoke to a BBCcorrespondent in their old dirty room which they call home in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a man sobbed as his 12-year-old daughter sat close to him. His face, wrinkled before its time, was a map of utter anguish. It could only be understood by a parent whose child was dying under giant slabs of concrete where nothing could be done.
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| Opinion: Drones and Guantanamo - by Gwynne Dyer |
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John Bellinger is the last person in Washington you’d expect to criticise President Barack Obama for making too many drone strikes. It was he who drafted the (rather unconvincing) legal justification for targeted drone killings when he was legal adviser to the Secretary of State in George W. Bush’s second administration, and he still supports them. But he went ahead and criticised Obama anyway.
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| Opinion: Under Previous Regime Libyans Were Left Wanting for Everything - by Zanjabeel Almahdawi |
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Sometimes, when I have free time on my hands, I like to wonder and also to dream. I wonder a lot about what kind of country Libya could have been if it had the rulers who looked after the country, and certainly its people's potential, and also taken care of all the resources, human and/or otherwise, that it had and still has.
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| Opinion: Syrian Civil War Not Likely to End Any Time Soon – by Gwynne Dyer |
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First of all, dismiss all those news stories saying that the Assad regime has started using chemical weapons against its own citizens, and that this has crossed a “red line” and will trigger foreign military intervention in Syria.
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| Opinion: Time for a Credible Narration of History - by Ramzy Baroud |
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A few weeks ago, Palestinians around the world commemorated the Deir Yassin Massacre which took place on April 9, 1948. In Palestinian consciousness, the massacre which claimed the lives of more than 100 innocent people, epitomised the ugly face of Zionism - the ideological foundation upon which the state of Israel was established.
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| Opinion: The Scary Spider That Opened My Eyes – by Mary Ahmed |
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People have changed since the revolution. They are kinder to each other, and more willing to give a helping hand when they possibly can. All we need now is for the government to get its act together and repair the health system in order for Libyans to win their confidence that they can be treated in their own country.
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