A Political Refugee From The Global Village

An Englishman in love with Bucharest's blowsy charms

Saturday, 31 October 2015

Hotel Continental, Cluj

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I stayed in the Hotel Continental in Cluj once, in 2004, in a beautiful first floor room overlooking the square. Patrick Leigh Fermor drank...
Thursday, 29 October 2015

The new religion

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This is an interesting article by an Anglican clergyman, written in 2009, headlined Britain is no longer a Christian nation. The Rev. P...

Charles Glass on the origins of the Syrian war

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I have been saying that, unlike the disastrous chaos in Iraq and Libya, the war in Syria cannot be blamed on the USA, the UK or France. It...
5 comments:

Tony Abbott urges Europe to close its borders

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This week we learnt that 710,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the EU so far this year. 38% were (apparently) Syrians. This is an histori...
7 comments:
Tuesday, 27 October 2015

Death of a minor literary man

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The author of the Confessions [of a Window-Cleaner, etc.] series was a Cambridge man. Who knew? Christopher Wood died at the same time as...
3 comments:
Saturday, 24 October 2015

48 hours in Lebanon

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I love Arab cities. I love that certain smell they have. TAROM in February had a special offer selling return tickets to most of its desti...
4 comments:
Thursday, 22 October 2015

Jeremy Corbyn as Ramsay Macdonald

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He does not look bad in white tie unlike John Major, who looked absurd - but then Mr Corbyn is from a good family. he doesn't look ...
5 comments:
Monday, 19 October 2015

Hearing the birds sing

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A little boy sees and hears birds with delight. Then his “good father” comes along and feels he should “share” the experience and help hi...
Saturday, 17 October 2015

A Syrian refugee talks to me about Syrian refugees

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I think it's useful to report what a Syrian Christian friend of mine, who fled to Bucharest from the war, has to say about her fellow ...
3 comments:

Things worth repeating that I recently read

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'The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.' D.H. Lawrence.  I think of it a...
Friday, 16 October 2015

The growing likelihood that Britain will vote to leave the European Union?

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The Economist today worries about the growing likelihood that Britain will vote to leave the European Union.  Is it possible? I had ass...
1 comment:
Tuesday, 13 October 2015

Romania in quotations

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As a collective personality, the Romanians are Oriental in their souls although Latin on the surface. Their patience is almost unending ...
10 comments:
Sunday, 11 October 2015

This year's influx of migrants could add 6 or 7 million to Germany's population

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This news is six days old but I missed it. According to a confidential German government document, leaked to the newspaper  Bild , 1.5 mil...
3 comments:
Saturday, 10 October 2015

Sir Geoffrey Howe, Mogadon Man, the dead sheep, the man who did for Mrs. Thatcher, has died.

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Lord Howe of Aberavon, better knowns as Sir Geoffrey Howe, the man who did for Mrs. Thatcher, has died, a week after his long-time Labour o...
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Quotations I found recently

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Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning. John Henry Newman. Your task is not ...
1 comment:
Monday, 5 October 2015

Timisoara

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Someone just asked me what Timisoara is like.  I wanted to get there in January 1990 and kicked myself for not getting there sooner wh...
2 comments:
Sunday, 4 October 2015

Quotations

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Ninety percent of paid work is time-wasting crap. The world gets by on the other ten. John Derbyshire Humility is not thinking less ...
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Saturday, 3 October 2015

What are your favourite book titles?

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The best ones I can think of are:  The Well at the World's End, The Wood Beyond the World, A Horse Called Ampersand, The Unbearabl...
12 comments:
Saturday, 26 September 2015

Imposing diversity on Eastern Europe

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A Eurocrat called Frans Timmermans has tweeted: Our societies are getting more diverse. It's the job of politicians to prepare their ...
Tuesday, 22 September 2015

This week's quotations

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Two quotations from Jackie Collins to mark her passing. People can smell fear like coffee.   Many people talk about writing. Th...
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