Catalonia, the north-eastern region of Spain (population of 7,5 million), declared independence from Spain last Tuesday evening. It was done quite formally, in the regional parliament in Barcelona, with regional president Carles Puigdemont, members of his cabinet and some leaders of other parties signing the independence document. Independence was “the people’s will”, Puigdemont said, referring …
22 January 2014 Ukraine Turns Violent By Gwynne Dyer “The protest mood in Ukraine is at a higher temperature than ever before,” said Vitali Klitschko, the de facto leader of the anti-government protests that have filled central Kiev for the past two months, in an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday. “We only need a …
2 January 2014 EU Citizenship: The Gold Standard By Gwynne Dyer New Year’s Eve is always loud in our part of London, but it quieted down after all the drunks eventually staggered off home – and to our astonishment, it stayed quiet all the next day. We waited and waited for the predicted hordes of …
1 December 2013 Ukraine and the European Union By Gwynne Dyer Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych had much explaining to do at the summit meeting of the European Union in Vilnius, Lithuania last Thursday. After six years of negotiation on an EU-Ukraine trade pact and political association agreement which was finally due to be signed at …
16 October 2013 Mediterranean Cemetery By Gwynne Dyer “I don’t know how many more people need to die at sea before something gets done,” said Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat. “As things stand we are building a cemetery within our Mediterranean Sea.” He was talking about the part of the Mediterranean between the North African …
30 May 2013 Syria: Diplomatic Code By Gwynne Dyer Sometimes, in diplomacy, a translator is not enough. You need a code-breaker. This is very much the case with the latest round of diplomatic statements about the civil war in Syria, currently the biggest armed conflict anywhere in the world. So here they are, deciphered. It …
20 March 2013 Cyprus Bank Robbery By Gwynne Dyer Could a failed bank robbery in Cyprus cause the collapse of the euro? It’s hard to imagine how anything that happens in Cyprus, with less than one million people, could bring down the common currency shared by three hundred million Europeans, but there are few human …
4 February 2013 Mackerel Wars By Gwynne Dyer It’s hard enough to manage a fishery stock sustainably when the fish stay put. Once they start moving around, it’s almost impossible. That’s why the European Union and Iceland are heading into a mackerel war. It’s a foretaste of things to come, as warming oceans cause ocean …
23 January 2013 The Little Englanders Win Big By Gwynne Dyer The real problem is continental drift: Brussels, the capital of the European Union, is getting further and further away from England. Or at least that is British Prime Minister David Cameron’s line. Cameron made his long awaited speech promising a referendum on continued British …
22 December 2012 2012 Year-Ender By Gwynne Dyer To begin on a happy note, the world didn’t end this year. December 21st came and went without a sign of the Four Horsemen, leaving the Mayans (or rather their ancestors) with egg all over their faces. It just goes to show the perils of prediction – …