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The Gatekeepers – Israel’s Voice of Sanity? 15 Aug 2013 | 11:10 pm
As Israeli and Palestinian negotiators came together for yet another attempt at reaching a peaceful settlement, I watched The Gatekeepers in a rare showing at our local cinema. This is the Israeli doc...
More on Spin Doctors – Get Ready for the Night of the Plastic Knives 14 Aug 2013 | 04:34 pm
Following on my post about spin doctors a few days ago, all manner of hullabaloo is breaking out over the British Labour Party’s attempts to keep the “communications” pot boiling while the leader, Ed ...
Queen’s College Oxford – A War Memorial Brought to Life 13 Aug 2013 | 08:12 pm
Go to almost any town or village in the United Kingdom, and you will find a war memorial. It could be just a stone column with a metal plaque on which is recorded the names of those who died in the tw...
Bonfire of the Spin Doctors? No Chance! 11 Aug 2013 | 01:29 pm
Back in ancient Pompeii, the subject of my last post, if you had something to communicate, you did so with your voice, or you wrote on a papyrus scroll or a little wooden tablet covered with wax. If y...
Ancient Rome Comes to London – Catch It While You Can 9 Aug 2013 | 05:38 pm
There is nowhere like Pompeii and Herculaneum. Mary Beard, one of the subjects of my last post, who has done much in recent years to educate us about the two Roman towns buried under a cataclysmic vol...
Twitter – Just Another Tributary of the Online Cloaca Maxima 7 Aug 2013 | 01:24 pm
Try as I might, I don’t get Twitter. Perhaps it comes down to the fact that I don’t choose to be confined to 140 characters when there’s something I want to say. Maybe it’s because I’m not a celeb wit...
Is Saudi Arabia Ready to Forgive the Author of Cities of Salt? 4 Aug 2013 | 03:46 pm
What do you have to do to be stripped of your citizenship by a Middle Eastern monarchy? Well, you could be on the wrong side of a political divide, as has been the case with a number of prominent Bahr...
The Arab Cultural Dilemma – Pickle the Past, Nurture the New or Leave Well Alone? 28 Jul 2013 | 12:38 am
Every so often I happen upon discussions in the Arab media about culture. One such is currently to be found in today’s edition of Asharq Al-Awsat. Two writers debate the proposition that Gulf states d...
An English Summer Evening – As You Like It in Guildford 24 Jul 2013 | 02:33 am
Hey nonny no – today’s the day when we kiss goodbye to the British Summer. Sixteen days of heatwave brought to a fiery, watery end by thunder, lightning and torrential rain. True, there are a few more...
Wadjda Versus the Blockbusters – No Contest! 11 Jul 2013 | 08:54 pm
Thousands of young Saudis will soon be heading off to foreign lands for their summer holidays. Some are out of the Kingdom already, as their families take a break during the Holy Month of Ramadan. The...
