“Mea culpa” on Myanmar gravity
I imagine that anyone trying to write a history of anything is all too aware of the probability (near certainty) that something important will have been left out. Sometimes new documents will emerge after the book or paper has been finalised, sometimes things just get...“The Fountainhead” on stage
If I had been following the theatre more consistently, I would have known some weeks ago, when I was writing the previous blog, that Ivo van Hove’s theatrical realisation of Ayn Rand’s ‘The Fountainhead’ was about to hit Manchester. Ten days ago it was on stage at The Lowry, as part of the city’s International Festival…
The ungovernable governors of Guam
When Dumont d’Urville visited Guam in 1828, he reported that the whole of the Marianas was administered by a single governor who… “maintains a shadow of a militia of one hundred to one hundred and fifty poorly dressed men, whom he pays in cloth from his stores, and who would be incapable of opposing the slightest resistance to the smallest regular force…