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I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol. - Alexandre Dumas
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[:en]Shell and Global Witness: how to hide the truth[:]
15/04/2017
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| Economics, Policy
shell logo

This is an amazing story, not the corruption (which is barely news) , but the misreporting by Global Witness and the Western  media generally. Global Witness write: “NEW LEAKED EMAILS PUT SHELL AT CENTRE OF BILLION DOLLAR BRIBERY SCHEME INVOLVING SOME OF THE MOST POWERFUL OFFICIALS IN NIGERIA” (ref 1)   They  then write: “Shell’s most senior executives were told payments for massive oil block would go to a convicted money-launderer, and then likely flow to then President Goodluck…

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[:en]white working class male ‘despair’ – or concealed racism?[:]
01/04/2017
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| Economics, Policy

There has been widespread coverage  of  a report (ref 7)  that the white working class males are suffering from a ‘sea of despair’ causing a huge rise in deaths. This is inexplicably linked to a  comparison with the declining rate of  death of African American people.  An unstated implication which many are reading is that the decline in mortality for Black people is related to the rise for white working class.  This is political dynamite and is completely…

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[:en]Harry Greaves – RIP [:]
25/03/2017
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| Politics, Uncategorized

It is over a year since Harry’s body was found on a beach in Liberia and no explanation has been found to date.   Harry and I were at prep school  together in England  or to be more precise in Langton Green in Kent. Harry Augustus Greaves Jnr as he wished to be known then (he emphatically insisted on the American  postfix jnr having the same name as his father). Our headmaster, Mr Bairamian, or Bob as we called…

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[:en]Yinka Shonibare MBE – Gallery opening 27 sep16[:]
25/03/2017
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| arts, Uncategorized

Yinka Shonibare  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinka_Shonibare) is a wonderful artist and my good friend. His work is often breathtaking – cutting across many cultures, but fundamentally African. There are some who might ask how is Shonibare so fundamentally African – basically there is a place where you arrive at  in terms of artistic  creation that whatever you do reflects who you are  and you have no need to  imitate or reflect. That is Shonibare. Whatever he does is African  – you may…

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[:en]Jerry Lockspeiser – book launch – 12 sep 16[:]
25/03/2017
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| literature, Uncategorized
wine jerry lockspeiser

Its  a welcome evening with my good friend Jerry Lockspeiser (http://www.harpers.co.uk/jerry-lockspeiser/1000.bio) . Jerry  has shown great devotion to Africa and has donated and helped schools in Sierra Leone. He is also major supporter of Action Aid. Tonight he is launching his new book on wine. ‘Your wine questions answered’ or  as he subtitled it in his introductory talk ‘everything you wished to know about wine but were too embarrassed to ask!’   Its on Amazon -. Jerry was a major…

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