21st September 2011
“To be honest, the first things that come to mind when I think of Massachusetts are Sam Adams ale, the Kennedys, the Red Sox, the original Tea Party….and the Bee Gees (“feel I’m going back to Massachusetts”, sung at notes too painful for me to reach). But having spent two days this week in Boston, […]
4th June 2011
On 31 May the British Embassy’s conference hall was (not for the first time) turned into a cinema. I co-hosted the evening screening of the film “Call of Life: Facing Mass Extinction” with the Hungarian State Secretary for the Environment, Zoltan Illes. This was far from the first time we worked together. The history of […]
8th December 2010
The harrowing media pictures of Hungary’s red sludge disaster are the past. The clear-up is underway, but other people’s problems have displaced the red sludge from the headlines. So what is life in the affected villages like now? And how is remediation work progressing? I was hoping to join a field trip to the site […]
24th November 2010
Although preparations for the Hungarian EU Presidency are now gathering pace, ordinary life does not stop. And we know how accidents, natural disasters or international events can throw out the best laid plans. When I saw the moving reports of the Hungarian red sludge accident on 4 October, I was shocked by the acute hardship […]