A disaster is developing in Japan's nuclear plants in Fukushima. Whatever will happen, one thing is clear: we have understimated the fragility and vulnarability of these kind of energy providers.  Yes, the responsible people now say, we have taken into account earth quakes. But, no, we haven't thought of a tsunami. But there is more to worry about: some of the plants are 40 years old and have been built on grounds with huge liability...

To receive the highest return on investment available in the developing world, invest in girl's education, wrote Larry Summers when he was chief economist at the Wold Bank. Despite the fact that in recent years more development aid than ever before has been directed at women, this doesn't mean it is reaching the girls who need it. By the time she is 12, a girl in the developing world will most probably be cooking, cleaning and eating the leftovers of the men and boys. She is less likely...

Deze week is bij Fischer in Frankfurt mijn open brief aan paus Benedictus XVIe in het Duits verschenen onder de titel 'Lieber Joseph Ratzinger. Offener Brief an Benedikt XVI., Marketingmanager Gottes". Het is de vertaling van mijn boek 'Hey Joe!', dat in 2009 verscheen. De Nederlandse editie heeft een speelse knalrode, marketingachtige kaft (David Ogilvy-rood) en de titel is in zekere zin een knipoog. Echt Hollands in zijn brutaliteit.  De Duitse versie is wijnrood met wit. De vormgeving is  strak, serieus, gewichtig. Geen poespas. Geen zelfspot. Duits dus. Ook de...

Lees Roger Cohen (Libyan Closure, p. 7) in de International Herald Tribune van 8 maart. Hoe is het mogelijk dat wij met z'n allen zo lang zaken hebben gedaan met de zo lucratieve maar zo foute regimes van Libye? Van Egypte? Van Tunesie? En zonder aarzelen nog steeds enthousiast zaken doen met de Golf staten, Saoedi Arabie en zovele andere? Heeft het cynische aanmoedigen van despoten ertoe bijgedragen dat de jihad aan kracht kon winnen? Precies wat we niet wilden? Interventie in Libye? Te laat, te hypocriet en vooral te onterend....

Tonight the Belgian TV program Canvas will start a series on taboos. It will include obesitas, homosexuality, suicide and giving away your baby to strangers because you just can't cope as a mom. Very good idea. I am wondering if the taboo on the question of overpopulation of our earth will get attention.  We are 6,9 billion of us fighting for food, fresh water, jobs, respect, love, tuition, fuel, health care, homes, land, transportation and communication. Soon we will be 10 billion. And if we believe in professor...

The pictures of the dead on the streets in Ivory Coast are a shame for those who know what went wrong during the presidential elections that split the country after the result was made public.  This is what most people know: outgoing president Gbagbo doesn't want to accept his defeat and the winner, Mr. Ouattara, cannot take the presidential seat. That's why the country faces civil war and bankrupcy. The revengeful shootings have already started. The African Union has mobilized a special commission to deal with the case but...

The price of a barrel of crude oil is going up every day.  The wells are, odly enough, exactly in those places where social unrest and protest against authoritarian regimes is strongest. Coincidence? What becomes clear is that the so called civilized world has been shamelessly dealing with cronies from Bahrein to Tripoli and from Algiers to Caracas. (Is the Venezuelan street the next stage of violent protest? I wouldn't be surprized.) We, the rich countries, have closed our eyes and are now forced to open them for a...

Are you soon leaving for Venezuela? Will you flee the country leaving your sons behind to defend what is left of the Qaddafi empire? Or should I say, the Qaddafi circus?  I remember you sitting on a tractor, which you drove yourself. There you came, in a cloud of dust, dressed like a farmer. You wanted to show us, reporters, that you are a tribesman, a Beduin, a simple soul. Ah, your theater, your egocentric PR machine! You were surrounded by female guards, Khalashnikov in hand, sunglasses to hide...

Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrein, Morocco, Libya, Beijing...

Since 9/11 Arabs have too often been categorized by those outside their region as incomprehensible and, of course, dangerous. Yet the eruption of the Arab street, from Tunis to Cairo, and from Amman to Sana'a, reveals another narrative. The antigovernment protesters are not expressing extremist rage but righteous anger. The enemy is not the West but authoritarianism at home.  The call is not for global jihad but for freedom, justice and dignity - the very 'universal values'  Barack Obama cites. Even if we know that democracy will not emerge anytime...