To use a very American expression – I feel conflicted about the USA. I have many American friends and most of the Americans I’ve met have been open hearted, charming people. The US keeps me entertained with movies, TV, books and music. I have America to thank for much of the technology I enjoy. And as kiwis we have to thank America’s involvement in WW2 for our existence as a free country.

Frank Ritchie talks about the recent Israeli attack on the flotilla attempting to break the blockade and bring aid supplies into Gaza.

It has been interesting following one of the conversations over at the Aotearoa (NZ) blog Not PC, run by Peter Creswell. It seems that Peter has a real and very understandable issue with Christianity and has used the controversy around Easter trading laws to vent that issue. Allow me to state right from the beginning that I am a Christian who believes in the life of Jesus as God in human form, the crucifixion and [...]

Last night my wife and I were deeply moved by Jacob Rajan’s solo drama Krishnan’s Dairy. This play was the first of three brilliant one man shows – The Candlestickmaker and The Pickle King being the other two – written and performed by Rajan in partnership with Justin Lewis and their Indian Ink theatre company. While Rajan has won many awards here and overseas he has not received the fame he richly deserves. He is [...]

There are many stories out there now about the first meeting between Obama and Netanyahu as President and Primie Minister, most are based on the press briefing. You can read all the conjecture from reporters, but it is also good to see the thing they are reporting on for yourself, so here is the press briefing for you to watch.

Today there is news that Russia is set to undertake a comprehensive rearmament programme in response to plans within Nato to expand into former Soviet states, allowing for a greater US military presence on the borders of Russia, including a missile shield across eastern Europe. Russia’s rearmament is set to include a large upgrade of the army and navy and the provision of the most modern weapons, with a top priority on increasing and improving [...]

A first step has been made towards peace in Darfur with an agreement of “good intention” being signed between the government of Sudan and the main rebel group from the western Darfur region. The agreement comes after negotiations hosted by Qatar and jointly sponsored by Qatar, the United Nations, African Union and Arab League and they hold the hope that this will lead to broader conference on peace for Darfur. It seems that the agreement includes [...]

In private conversations and in various places online where the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been discussed, I have voiced my personal support for the Arab peace initiative that was adopted by the Arab League at the annual Arab summit in Beirut in 2002. Many people have expressed little awareness about what it actually is, so I thought I would put the English translation of the initiative here.

I’m on holiday at the moment, but I could not sit comfortably without saying anything about the latest violence that has erupted against Gaza. Israel is now in it’s third day of air-strikes in the densely populated Gaza strip. The first nine hours of the strike saw 100 tons of bombs dropped and the death toll at the time of typing stands in excess of probably 250 Palestinians and the number of wounded is somewhere [...]

Wednesday, 21 May 2008, 9:36 pm Press Release: Israel Government Prime Minister’s Office Syria And Israel Have Started Indirect Peace Talks Syria and Israel have started indirect peace talks, under the auspices of Turkey. The two sides stated their intention to conduct these talks in good faith and with an open mind. They decided to pursue the dialogue between them in a serious and continuous way, in order to achieve the goal of comprehensive peace [...]