Syria Adrift
This blog has been a touch quiet, and the reason is basically Syria, for two interconnected reasons. The first is straightforward enough. I have been finalising a book put together on the basis of my experiences of living in Syria immediately prior to the current tragic events. It is about living in an old Arabic … Continue reading
London Calling
The London Olympics are now under three weeks away, and all the usual media frenzy is gearing up. Soon, all round the world TV audiences will be subjected to in-depth analysis of major sports like beach volleyball, described breathlessly by people who know nothing about such sports but are major players in their networks. They … Continue reading
Whatever Happened to Cricket?
This has been the sort of week that makes you realise just how much cricket has changed in recent years, and to wonder what the long term consequences might be. Australia is in England to play just a series of one day matches, nothing else. An England tour always used to be an Ashes tour, … Continue reading
Earthquakes, Community, Rugby and Revolution
For rugby union fans the Super 15 competition is now getting interesting, and that interest as always is not only on the field. Events this week ensured that we think about the game, its social context and meaning, and its reach into events far beyond those we might normally associate with it. In the playing … Continue reading
Twittering Damascus
It was mesmerising to sit in Phnom Penh and “watch” on Twitter as events allegedly unfolded in Damascus overnight on 19/20 May and over the next 36 hours. Early on Sunday morning I logged on to Twitter as normal, because since signing up a year or so ago, after a lot of initial scepticism, it … Continue reading
Reading Highlights
In any reading life there occasionally comes along a spell where everything picked up (or now, rather, downloaded) turns out a winner. That probably mirrors the broader life itself: for the most part things meander along neither exceptionally nor unexceptionably, sometimes they turn ordinary to mediocre or even poor, every so often abysmal, leavened now … Continue reading
Syria In Vogue But On The Outer
As the Kofi Annan plan peters out and the shelling of places like Hama and Homs resumes, the international focus on Syria is now focused momentarily on a sideshow, the mysterious disappearance from the Vogue website of a profile on Asma al-Assad first published in March 2011. (http://www.theage.com.au/world/vogue-deletes-glamour-story-on-assads-wife-20120426-1xo1i.html ). However, some of that original piece … Continue reading
Brian Stoddart 