13th April 2015
Stereotypical images tend to come to mind, at least the non-Catholic British mind, when we think of nuns. We think of Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music. Perhaps Sister Wendy Beckett delivering art lectures. We might just stretch to Mother Teresa in the slums of Calcutta. Like most stereotypes, such images are both unhelpful […]
9th December 2014
‘Although I spent four months in Romania covering the revolution from early January 1990 through until world attention faded, my reasons for being there – I was officially Middle East Correspondent of the Times based in Cairo – bore more resemblance to Evelyn Waugh’s hilarious satire, Scoop, than any hard-nosed, tale of derring-do. For personal […]
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8th December 2014
‘Romania’s “televised revolution” was the most exciting event of 1989, that momentous year when country after country fell out of the crushing embrace of the Soviet Union. The fall of the Berlin Wall provided the main drama of that year and the revolutions in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the other central European countries were smooth […]
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25th November 2014 Skopje, North Macedonia
Hopefully you will see a lot of orange today as the United Nations has chosen the colour to symbolize a brighter future without violence against women. 25 November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence start today to raise awareness about the fight to […]
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15th October 2014
On 15 October, today, ministers, businesses, experts and MEPs from across the political spectrum will come together for the Green Growth Summit to call for an ambitious EU 2030 climate change and energy package agreement at the October European Council. An ambitious package could pave the way for a global deal on climate change at […]
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9th October 2014 Washington DC, USA
The P-51 Mustang was an iconic fighter aircraft in US combat service during the 1940s and 1950s during the Second World War, and the Korean War. A global phenomenon, it was also pressed into service by allies including Australia, South Africa, the Republic of Korea, France and the Netherlands. It was first flown operationally by […]
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6th August 2014 Skopje, North Macedonia
Just in case you thought diversity was a modern obsession, peddled by management consultants and politically correct Human Resources teams, here’s a quote from John Scotus Eriugena, Irish philosopher who lived 1200 years ago: ‘Beauty is unity in diversity.’ It took me a while in my career to understand the value of diversity. I really […]
4th August 2014 Islamabad, Pakistan
This is my first blog for the High Commission and a quick look at the archives tells me that it’s the first time in a long time that a member of the Defence Team has rolled up his sleeves and ‘put fingers to keyboard’. So when Alison Blake, our Deputy High Commissioner, asked me to […]
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27th June 2014 Houston, USA
I will start off by saying that I am obsessed with the World Cup. OBSESSED. Every four years, nothing matters more than making sure I am able to watch important World Cup matches. I grew up watching the tournament back when most Americans had no clue that it existed. My family emigrated from Mexico to […]
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19th June 2014 Washington DC, USA
When Google unveiled its latest prototype of a self-driving car in May, it marked a new stage in the relationship between humans and autonomous vehicles in a very public way. But it is just one visible piece of the technical progress in areas such as autonomous systems, advanced manufacturing, and in the thinking on how […]