> The President and Chancellor of a unified Germany and the Mayor of a unified Berlin today marked the 50th anniversary of the building the Berlin Wall. The 87 miles of the Antifaschistischer Schutzwall (or Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart in the official GDR terminology) split east and west Berlin for 28 years and became one of the most potent symbols of both the Cold War and, with […]
Monthly Archives: August 2011
> Popbitch is not my usual source for this blog, but this week it had a little gem of a fact: “The west of cities in the Northern Hemisphere are posher than the east because the winds blow west to east – i.e. back in the Industrial Revolution pollution drifted eastwards.” The theory was set out in more detail on the Januarist blog. Prevailing winds would […]
>An ill wind blows east
The PIGS are squealing. Barely a day has passed this summer without rumour of sovereign debt default panicking already skittish markets. Greece would have defaulted without massive EU intervention, but even this hasn’t prevented fresh fear of Eurozone-wide contagion. France is the latest casualty, with shares in its financial institutions paying a heavy price this week. The spectre of sovereign debt default is not contained to […]
Screwing the moneylenders
> Today marks the 144th day of the military intervention in Libya. The operation has been led by British and French forces, and has so far seen no allied combat casualties. It has been conducted entirely from the air and sea with no land deployments currently envisaged. It is not the first Anglo-French military operation in north Africa. Operation Torch saw British and American troops fighting […]
>Crossing the Mediterranean
Sirens wail as police vans scream down Green Lanes and the sky hums with the throb of helicopters. As darkness falls over the city, the people wait to see what the fourth consecutive night of rioting will bring. The flames of fear have been fanned by a media frenzy, politicians desperate to be seen getting a grip and rumours that spread almost instantly through workplaces and […]