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On Middle East context and media

  Put events in the Middle East in context, Thoughtlines columnist Jim McNiven urges in a new column. “Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are working their way through a kind of 100-years of religious war, partially similar to that between Protestants and Catholics that devastated Germany in the 16th and 17th Centuries,” he writes. Excerpt of Islamic State threat a media creation: The popular media, always looking for the next big thing, has fastened upon the swift victories and social media brutalities of the group calling itself Islamic State.1 The various media have portrayed the organization as a worldwide threat and a number of governments

The Poison in Afghanistan Politics

Afghanistan’s unity deal contains poisonous seeds which will pollute the country’s politics, writes International Affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe. Afghans turned out in their millions, defying Taliban and other threats, to have their votes cast. Ghani, Abdullah, with Kerry and other outsiders as handmaidens, over-rode that democratic exercise, argues Manthorpe. “Their backroom deal keeps at the hub of power all the corrupt and often brutal regional warlords and dispensers of patronage who have blighted Afghan politics.” An excerpt of his new F&O column, Afghan unity deal ensures future conflict (subscription): As rival candidates for power in Afghanistan signed a power-sharing deal on Sunday, an

Kimber’s book on The Cuban Five wins award

Big congratulations to Stephen Kimber, whose book What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five, won the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award this weekend at the 2014 East Coast Literary Awards. The awards, which celebrate Atlantic writers and writing, were held Saturday at the Institute of Applied Creativity at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. The J.M. Abraham Poetry Award went to Don Domanski for Bite Down Little Whisper (Brick Books), while William Kowalski was awarded the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award for The Hundred Hearts (Dundurn). Writes Kimber on his book web site:  The Five were members

Climate March well-meaning — but means next to nothing

By Chris Wood, Natural Security columnist This isn’t the Bastille of the Climate Revolution. Not even close. What organizers are billing as “the largest climate march in history this weekend,” hopes to draw as many as 150,000 people to New York City to urge leaders from 120 countries meeting there for the Climate Summit on Tuesday to kick up the pace of response to climate change. I don’t mean to be mean, and I applaud the goodwill of everyone involved, but 150,000 people, if they get that many (and usually in these things actual warm body counts fall far short of

Burt Mustin: Failed engineer, car salesman and Hollywood icon

Burt Mustin didn’t become a screen actor until he was 67. But  Arts columnist Brian Brennan reports in his new time capsule piece, over the ensuing 22 years Mustin became one of the busiest bit players in Hollywood. An excerpt of Brennan’s Brief Encounters column: “They Went That-a-way”: Burt Mustin: I just knew I had to interview Burt Mustin when he walked into the newspaper office in June 1973 and told the receptionist he was “the best they-went-that-a-way” actor working in Hollywood. Work had stopped in the film capital because of a screenwriters’ strike. So Mustin was taking a short vacation in Canada, dropping

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