Russia: The Great Whitewash
By Peter Polack Peter Polack Long before the first Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 there was an earlier conflict harbinger in the electoral ambitions of Alexei Navalny, presently in his winter residence or Penal Colony No.2 at Pokrov. A…
This Day In April: Soviet Spies Worldwide: Country by Country, 1940–1988 Extracts
Peter Polack By Peter Polack Forty-seven Soviet personnel were expelled from France on 5 April 1983 for what was described as “a systematic search on French territory for technological and scientific information, particularly in the military area.”. A French Interior…
Cayman Islands Governor Martyn Roper of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office silent on allegations against former Grenada DPP Langston Sibblies
By Peter Polack Peter Polack Former Cayman Islands governor Martyn Roper, a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development officer, has failed to respond to allegations against retired Cayman Islands Monetary Authority official Langston Sibblies. Sibblies was recommended and given a Queen’s honour through Roper…
Jamaican soldiers dying abroad: Raising the limit of military enlistment
Jamaica has usually been conjoined in the media with beaches, reggae and rum but there is a darker side, not reparation for slavery, but the iniquity dub plate. Sons of this tropical paradise, dying in foreign places unknown to most…
A sea of tears
By Peter Polack A French knight of the Crusades, Geoffrey de Bouillon, was immortalised by the 16th century Italian poet Torquato Tasso in his epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata or Jerusalem Liberated, thus: for every drop of blood, a sea of tears….
Lavrov and the obsolescence of society
By Peter Polack When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, he and Russia, discarded centuries of science, culture and diplomatic engagement not to mention common sense. The comity among countries carefully nurtured in the post-World War 2 period has been rendered meaningless…
Russia: The most dangerous words
By Peter Polack An early sign of the Ukraine conflict unfolding into generational warfare can be discerned from the recent video of a boy soldier, armed with a machine gun, performing roadside security checks in the Donbas. The innocence lost…
Tackling climate change together
From Reuters Next Team Climate change is perhaps the most critical issue of our time. Food security crises, sea level rises and deforestation are putting millions of lives at risk and destroying precious ecosystems. How do we prioritise action on…
Global challenges require global solutions
Reuters Next Team Reuters NEXT- Meet our Global Diverse Speaker Line Up The world is facing an unprecedented set of complex challenges. From environmental degradation to failing economic systems, action must be taken now to build a future that is…
Putin: Beware the Ides of March, warns Peter Polack
March has historically been a bad time for despots, the world over. In the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar, a soothsayer warned Caesar to beware the Ides of March shortly before he was stabbed to death by a group of conspirators…