I am driving on the road that separates East and West Beirut. On both sides families have lost beloved ones during one of the wars. Only a few years ago snipers killed, bombs destroyed, rockets burnt. Today, houses have been rebuilt, shops are open, veiled women cross girls in tiny shorts, men salute each other. But what about their memories? What do they dream at night? What does it mean to have neighbours that killed your friends only a few years ago? I have been accused of using...

Most visitors to Lebanon stay in and around Beirut, maybe go for a day to Byblos or the Chouf mountains (Beiteddine), but only few venture to one of the borders or into the Bekaa valley. These days the tension in Syria fuels all sorts of crisis scenario’s, forbidding foreigners to go anywhere near potential fighting. Lebanese have developed a keen antenna for upcoming danger, so one is advised to trust their gut feeling. On the other hand, Lebanese want to prove that impossible is a word they...

Beirut, September 2012. As always the city has found the energy to raise from its ashes. Cranes dominate the skyline, expensive night clubs fill the roofs on the Corniche, Ferrari’s rush through avenues with their boutiques and espresso bars. Most women wear high heels, tight dresses and great hairdo’s. Most have been through plastic surgery and that’s why they all seem to be sisters. Men are more macho here than in Buenos Aires and they have more weapons in the back of their cars....

i was seated next to a Japanese violonist at a dinner yesterday. She asked me what my favourite music was and I said that it depends on the mood I'm in. Cello for the Sunday morning, Glenn Gould in the late afternoon and, yes, Brazilian music for dinner. We moved to economy and I wondered what Japan is planning to do to get out of a fifteen year's crisis. 'Japan is sick, almost dead', she replied, which probably explains why she lives in Connecticut. After her eductation at...

'China muscles in on the Arctic resource rate. With money and clout, it seeks a share of bounty unlocked by melting ice.' The New York Times (September 19th) warns the world against Chinese ambitions to buy exploitation rights in Greenland, where abundant supplies of oil, gas, and rare minerals have become accessible thanks to climate change. We can hear Greenpeace warning as well: hands off the Arctic, the last virgin place on earth! Forget the deep sea foraging, the Arctic belongs to nobody but nature. This may be...

According to the FT of September 15th, 'Turkey has sent thousands of troops into battle against Kurdish rebels as violence in the country's most intractable dispute have reached levels not seen for more than a decade...

Eerlijk is eerlijk, wie wil er nou twee weken lang bijna dagelijks voor het volk van Nederland door een paar journalisten aan de tand worden gevoeld over kwesties waarvoor geen glasheldere oplossingen zijn? De machtsverdeling binnen Europa, de euro, de betaalbaarheid van de zorg, werkgelegenheid, het zijn even zoveel onderwerpen die niet van de VVD of de SP afhangen, maar van krachten waarop geen hond in ons land invloed heeft. Het publiek moet zich dus niet fixeren op de mate van draaien (of liegen), maar zich realiseren in...

Ja, we kunnen wel blijven klagen over leugens in de Nederlandse verkiezingsstrijd (of daarvoor, of daarna), zoals we ook verbijsterd kunnen luisteren naar de manier waarop de een de ander van draaien beschuldigd, maar laten wij n ou niet collectief naief doen. Is het ooit anders geweest? Zoals het ook geen nieuws is dat mr Joris Demmink, secretaris-generaal van Justitie, verdacht van kindermishandeling, zijn positie blijkt te misbruiken om juridisch buiten schot te blijven (Katholiek Nieuwsblad van 31 augustus 2012). En ook niemand vreemd moet opkijken als NRC...

Israel has joined the big league of gas producing countries thanks to the discovery of the Tamara (2009) and Leviathan (2010) off shore fields. The latter is the largest deepwater gas reservoir found anywhere in the world over the past decade, according to today's Financial Times. The two fields will cover Israel's domestic demand for at least 25 years and will leave room for export as well. The country will earn at least $ 140. billion in the next thirty years, but, more important, it will at last...

Ik begrijp de commotie niet rond al dat liegen om bestwil, in ons land het liefst tot jokkebrokken geëufemiseerd (sic!). Welke idioot belooft nou niet de hemel vlak voor de verkiezingen? En welke idioot trapt daar nog in? Is er ooit een politicus geweest die niets dan de waarheid sprak? Dan had hij nooit wat gepresteerd. Het is in de wereld van de politiek niet erg om te jokken, het is juist dom om dat niet te doen. De hersens van de kiezer filteren het straks vanzelf. Niemand...