The world is waiting and watching with baited breath to see whether Vladimir Putin will start (actually, expand) a war in Ukraine–a country already partially occupied. This is the fun part for Putin: Having the whole world treat him like a dangerous man, and Russia as a Superpower. That was the biggest goal of this […]
For months, there have been protests by Kazakh people over fuel prices and a general lack of prosperity. This led to the people taking to the streets, taking over government offices, and demanding true democracy. The former behind-the-scenes dictator Nazarbayev has gone silent and it initially looked like the police were siding with the protestors. […]
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon. The creator of the utterly brilliant HBO show “The Wire” once spent a year following the lives and cases of detectives on the Baltimore Police Department. The result is a non-fiction book that goes into the complicated life of police officers, the politics of […]
Trying to find the solutions to the Covid-19 crisis (5 million dead and 6 billion lives disrupted) and the Global Financial Crisis ($400 Trillion debt, literally unpayable) are causing havoc around the world. This manifests itself as a battle between vaxxers and anti-vaxxers, Capitalists vs. Socialists, Republicans vs. Democrats, Traditionalists vs Modernists etc. It’s […]
When I was a little kid in the 1970s, my father would show his slides of Africa from time to time to our visitors. There was one photo that he always highlighted on purpose: a photo of the Jumo Kenyatta Convention Center. The building looked like a modern skyscraper. “I show this because people think […]
When Steven Spielberg’s movie Minority Report was made in 2002, they brought together fifteeen futurists and technology experts to predict what life would be like in the year 2054. Many of the things featured in the film, they predicted would arrive around 2020. And right on schedule, robotic dogs and insects are now used by […]
In case you haven’t noticed, our planet is in chaos environmentally, geo-politically, and socially. Also, you may have noticed that the world’s most famous billionares are trying to move us to outer space. Mars seems to be the destination of choice for our new home. It’s not very far (only 33 million miles away), you […]
It’s hard to believe that in the year 2001 when the 21st Century began, most people still thought that China was a country filled with starving peasants. When I packed my bags to move to Hong Kong that January, the world had still not awoken to the fact that China had already spent […]
It’s time for the 15th Annual Patty Awards given out to the best books I’ve read in the past year. All of the big celebrities are not here, due to Covid. Chuck Woolery cancelled, as did Meat Loaf. Air Supply will not be providing the music, and Tony Danza will not be able to host. […]