February 03, 2001 Afghanistan and the Gods of the Little Things By Gwynne Dyer God’s preferences on dietary matters are well-known: no pork for Jews or Muslims, no beef for Hindus, and no saturated fats or refined sugar for the Western upper-middle class. But this is the first time he has taken such a strong …
27 Sep 2000 Columbia and Vietnam By Gwynne Dyer It is customary, when Washington says “Jump,” for British governments to ask “How high?” When they don’t jump, their failure to comply should be treated with the same alarm as when one of the old “pit canaries,” kept in coal mines to detect the build-up of …
16 April 2000 The Dead Walrus on the Breakfast Table By Gwynne Dyer On Friday, the Russian Duma finally ratified START II (the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), six years after it was signed. The next step, rationally, would be to finish the negotiations on the START III treaty, cutting the nuclear warheads on each …
March 9, 2000 Oil Prices in the Sanctions Balance By Gwynne Dyer United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has publicly told Hans von Sponeck, until recently the U.N. official responsible for coordinating humanitarian aid to Iraq, to shut up about the horrendous impact of sanctions on that country so long as he is drawing a U.N. …
February 21, 2000 Time to end sanctions against Serbia By Gwynne Dyer A year ago this week, the Rambouillet conference on Kosovo was nearing its end and hopes were rising that war in the Balkans could be avoided. They were misplaced. A decade of Serbian repression of the Albanian-speaking majority in Kosovo had led to …
February 21, 2000 Time to end sanctions against Serbia By Gwynne Dyer A year ago this week, the Rambouillet conference on Kosovo was nearing its end and hopes were rising that war in the Balkans could be avoided. They were misplaced. A decade of Serbian repression of the Albanian-speaking majority in Kosovo had led to …
8 Feb 2000 Labelling Rule Sets GM Food Exports Back Several Years By Gwynne Dyer Game, set, and match. The Protocol on Biosafety, agreed by 130 countries last Saturday in Montreal afer frantic overtime negotiations, sets the seal on a year that saw genetically modified organisms (GMOs) go from a technology set to sweep the …
January 17, 1999 Is driving on the right right or wrong? by Gwynne Dyer The Romans drove on the left. Why does half the world drive on the left, and the other half on the right? At last, the answer to this burning question is within reach. “We do not know which side of the …
September 26th 1998 The Last Days of the War on Drugs By Gwynne Dyer I noticed the ashtray winking up at me as soon as I sat down at the table. I was having dinner at an auberge at the far end of L’De d’Orleans, and it seemed to be saying: “This is Quebec, where …
8 April 1997 Uighurs’ Independence By Gwynne Dyer “We think Deng’s death will bring a power struggle within the Chinese elite,” said Sargari Tarym, spokesman for the Uighur independence movement, in Moscow in late February. “If that happens, the independence movement in Turkestant will intensify.” In fact, it is already pretty intense. Given the tightness …