Commentary

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot...!

What on earth is going on...on Earth?

It seems we lurch from one form of crazy to another. And all this in an age when knowledge has never been greater. Nor has it been more accessible.

Our understanding of our physical and social world has never been more extensive.

Yet here we are. More anxious. More troubled. More nervous about the future than ever before.

In this page, I assemble my commentaries about various issues that trouble and fascinate me in equal measure. They take both written and video form.

My research and my experience combine to provide me with some insights on global events, trends and emerging issues. They are my opinions, hopefully sufficiently informed.

I could be wrong, of course. I'm open to persuasion.

The Asia-Pacific and the Israel-Lebanon Flashpoint: The UNIFIL VariableUNIFIL, and its many Indo- and Asia-Pacific contingents, once again finds itself in the physical and rhetorical crossfire as tensions escalate between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Pandora’s Box of Identity Politics. The Left’s obsession with identity politics has brought us Trumpism.The genuine economic reasons notwithstanding an exclusive focus on economics obscures a consequential culprit in what has transpired. The economic analysis assumed too readily the homo economicus…

Talking to God: the corporate religious challenge to a pluralist, progressive Europe On religion, EU and UN 'dialogue' with civil society is distinguished by egregious bias; far from serving democracy, it serves conservative religious voices and abjectly fails to address the consequences of ideological intransigence.

Reds, yellows and the fruits of neglect The key cleavage opens up between those who have benefited under this ‘almost’ democracy and those who have been failed by it. But, the dynamics of political conflict in Thailand do not fall within the same framework as other global protest mobilisations.

Interpreting Trump, Brexit and Putnam’s GamesKenneth Houston and Jason Briggs offer insight into their analysis of the domestic pressures of populist electoral politics in the UK and the US.

Male genital mutilation a gross breach of baby's bodily integrityRITE & REASON: THE MUSLIM-JEWISH alliance of religious ‘leaders’ who condemned the recent German court ruling in Cologne…

Islam and Democracy - Crunch Time – Global PoliticsThe numbers are in and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood has secured a dominant position in the parliamentary make-up of post-Mubarak Egypt. For a long time, in addition to scare-mongering by right wing media, we were told by any number of commentators and academics that Islam and democracy are entirely compatible. This debate moved up a […]

Shifting Sands in the Peacekeeping Business – Global PoliticsThe established templates of international peace operations are under threat, because the core premise of these operations, consent, is eroding . Filipino and Fijian troops serving with the UNDOF mission in the Golan Heights were targeted by the Nusra Front last week (30 Aug). A number of Fijians have been captured while the Filipinos managed […]

ISIS, Islam and Credulity: More Irreverence Needed in the Fight Against Extremism – Global PoliticsThis week, King Abdullah of Jordan appealed to European parliamentarians to help root out both terrorism and ‘Islamophobia’. Setting aside this interesting conflation, the wholesale failure of Arab and majority Muslim countries to embody either mutual respect or inclusivity towards many of their ethno-religious minorities bespeaks of an imbalance in critical attention to how those […]

The YouTube Channel

I also host a YouTube channel where I air my grievances on all kinds of things.

[I think maybe I'm becoming a grumpy old man]

Still, I want to point out some things that are worth pointing out.

A selection of my takes on matters social, political and cultural are below. Subscribe at will.