Opinions

In the early 1980s, as a student in New Zealand with no income, I could not afford inter-city travel and so spent a lot of time hitch-hiking between my home-town of Tauranga and my university town Hamilton. Once I was picked up by a fairly muscular guy who quickly turned… »

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. As one of the longest and one of the most costly wars in U.S. history, the true costs in dollars, lives, environmental contamination and opportunity costs may never be fully appreciated. This “preventive war” waged on our… »

Tomas Young was in the fifth day of his first deployment to Iraq when he was struck by a sniper’s bullet in Baghdad’s Sadr City. The single bullet paralyzed him from the chest down, and changed his life forever. Now, nine years later, at the age of 33, Tomas has… »

The Catholic Church has a mottled history, this is well known. Now, we have this fine message from its spiritual leader, the Pope, an Argentinian. What does a humanist see in this message? Certainly, it is a timely message. It is hoped that everyone addressed responds in kind to its… »

Pope wrong to meet Mugabe.   Francis sends the wrong signal.   Mistake to invite and greet Zimbabwean tyrant “The Pope has made a huge error of judgement by inviting and greeting the Zimbabwean President. He should have shunned Mugabe as a public rebuke for his crimes and as a signal… »

Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, aged 76, was elected in a surprise choice to be the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Wednesday 13 March, 2013. He will take the name Francis I. He was proclaimed as the first non-European pontiff in nearly 1,300 years, but clearly… »

Since the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site 20 years ago, Kazakhstan has been committed to put an end to nuclear weapons. Last year, the Nazarbayev Center was created in Astana to pursue this fight. Roman Vassilenko, Deputy Director of the Center, is very much involved in this issue. »

Godzilla, a giant monster mutated by nuclear radiation, first appears in a 1954 Japanese science fiction movie by the same name, ravaging Japan in a symbolic warning about the risks of nuclear weapons. For a couple of decades Godzilla was very popular, appearing in more than 28 films as well… »

(Here, Tony Robinson writies in a personal capacity about the recent Falkland islands referendum and issues of ownership) The issue of the Falkland Islands comes up frequently among my many Argentinean friends and as fierce patriots they proclaim their sovereignty of the islands and denounce in the strongest terms the… »

Nobody can deny the fantastic work Daniel Day Lewis (Oscar for Best Actor) does in Lincoln. Released so close to Django Unchained they both make a strong case for “anything goes” in the fight against slavery. Argo comes closer in history; it is also a film about bravery. We sit… »