The third season of House of Cards, now available on Netflix, is almost as sizzling and compelling as the first two seasons. Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey) and his wife, Claire (Robin Wright), are the ultimate power couple. He’s the president of the United States and she’s the first lady. Spacey and Wright, as usual, deliver […]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has embarked on an awesome task: to undo some nine decades of history and reverse the secularization of his country begun by Kemal Ataturk, the revered first leader of the modern Turkish republic. Erdogan’s project involves bringing Islam back into Turkish politics, and emphasizing, rather than negating, the glories of the Ottoman […]
Global warming is a hoax. Cigarettes have no impact on your health. The Arctic icecaps are not melting. Arrant nonsense such as this is disseminated by an army of paid lobbyists whose aim is to befuddle the public and protect their clients’ financial interests. For some 50 years, these glib publicists worked hand-in-glove with the […]
Talk about being caught in a time warp. Antigua, a United Nations World Heritage site, is one of the oldest and best preserved towns in Guatemala and indeed in Latin America. As you walk on its cobble-stone streets, passing pastel-colored Spanish-style buildings with red tile roofs, you feel as if you’ve been transported back to […]
Persecuted Jews have found a safe haven in the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, Turkey, for centuries now. This is easily overlooked, or even forgotten, as political tensions continue to flare between Turkey and Israel. Victoria Barrett’s documentary, Desperate Hours, makes this point crystal clear. Although it was made more than a decade ago, […]
Ayman, Odeh, the leader of the newly-formed Arab List, seems confident his political bloc will fare reasonably well in Israel’s March 17 general election. “By forming a single list, we hope to win more seats and weigh in more heavily on decisions taken in this country, ” he said shortly after four Israeli Arab political parties […]
Addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. on March 3, an appearance arranged without the prior knowledge of the Obama administration, Benjamin Netanyahu lambasted the emerging nuclear agreement between the major powers and Iran. Calling it a “very bad deal” that would pave the way for an Iranian nuclear arsenal, he urged […]
About a month after the Arab Spring rebellions washed up on the shores of Tunisia and Egypt, Syria’s cocky president, Bashar al-Assad, bragged that a popular uprising would never break out in Syria, a police state where dissent is strictly forbidden. Four years on, Assad’s arrogant boast rings hollow. What began in March 2011 as […]
Damian Szifron’s Spanish-language film from Argentina, Wild Tales, is dark and uproarious. An Academy Awards finalist for best foreign movie, it’s composed of six stand-alone vignettes turning on the dark side of human nature. The unifying theme is vengeance, but sub-themes revolve around rage, greed, despair, corruption, passion and infidelity. Quite a combustible mix. Scheduled […]
France’s encounter with multiculturalism has not been a roaring success of late, judging by the Charlie Hebdo incident, the radicalization of some French Muslim youth and the spate of antisemitism that has prompted thousands of Jews to emigrate. It’s evident that the forces of xenophobia and racism are corroding French society, and that the spirit of […]