Category Archives: Development

From Hero to Zero, is Gaddafi the new Whacko Jacko?

Though I hate to say I told you so, this Thus post from August 2009 “Where’s Gordon Brown in the Libyan Desert Storm?” deals at length in customary erudite fashion with the extraordinary rehabilitation of Whacko Jacko Gadaffi, his socialite son Saif, erstwhile cocktail guest of both Mandelson and Osborne and the strange silence surrounding the [...]

I’ve not been writing about Quality because there’s not much of it about

Thus boldly boasted at the start of  the year that I/we would focus on single-handedly starting a quality drive. After a lot of hard work, some hot air and a survey conducted with CQI and YouGov Stone, we staged a debate last May entitled ‘Whatever Happened to the ‘Q’ Word?’ Hosted brilliantly by Andrew Neil [...]

Why Quality is important and why we need more of it

A bunch of people out there believe that doing things better is the answer to our economic woes. I can’t argue with that, so I’ve recently joined the Chartered Quality Institute as its External Affairs spokesman, because I firmly believe that until and unless we get to grips with the wholly unnecessary and avoidable malaise which has [...]

Afghan democracy postponed in an orgy of hypocrisy

Thus predicted this outcome so long ago and so many times that I can scarcely be bothered to highlight our previous posts. Yet the grotesque reality of the US, Britain, NATO and especially the UN rewarding endemic fraud, corruption and weak government by a second term, all enacted under the banner of democracy, surpasses all [...]

Afghan election update: Karzai rumoured to have won with an improbable majority

It is rumoured in Kabul that the Independent Election Commission is under pressure to rush out election results in an effort to accustom public opinion to the legitimacy of a Karzai victory which some are already claiming could be greater than 70 percent. Unofficial reports (Press TV) claim that Karzai has won with 3,244,196 votes [...]

Is this civil rights 2.0?

India just de-criminalised gay sex. That is a staggering fact, because it affects the sense of sexual freedom of 1 in every 6 human beings. Despite the fact that many of the laws currently being challenged date from colonial occupation, many in India identify this reform with dark forces of westernisation and globalisation rather than [...]

Afghanistan's 'democratic' election – a Karzai shoe-in aided by Western media indifference?

In the interests of transparency, I have made no secret of my support for Dr. Ashraf Ghani’s Presidential candidacy (Thus passim). I don’t know much about the other candidates (and should do) but it appears crazy to endorse the Karzai regime, which has presided over a culture of warlord cronyism and corruption which has increased [...]

Ashraf Ghani runs for Afghan Presidency on anti-corruption ticket

Afghanistan could become Obama’s Vietnam, if it isn’t already. Al Qaida, the Taliban and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalyse have never been in ruder health. By John J Kelly. Drone bombing insurgents, much less civilians, will not win the ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan, which has now spread to Pakistan, enabling the possibility of [...]

What is 'free' about the web?

Perversely, Web 2.0 has become synonymous with an American mythology of freedom. But information technology works best in small well-organised political units with high levels of social protection. So there is every reason to believe that the net works best with another notion of freedom – the security of knowing that failure will not have [...]

India votes for steady as she goes

Living in the world’s largest democracy during an election, it is amazing to see that nothing much really happens. There is a lot of it in the news, and people disappear off to vote, but life goes on as usual. But people here take democracy seriously. Despite the 66% literacy rate, the 59-60% turnout is [...]