In China, so they say, if you really hate someone, the curse to send his way is: ‘May you live in interesting times!’ Indeed, ‘interesting times’ tends to be periods of unrest, war and struggles for power in which millions of innocent people end up suffering the consequences. The ongoing events, which started in Tunis and have since exploded in Egypt, are signs that we are approaching a new epoch of interesting times.
How are we to judge the struggle between Wikileaks and the US Empire – is the Wikileaks publishing of secret US state documents an act in support of the freedom of information, of the people’s right to know, or is it a terrorist act posing a threat to stable interna tional relations?
To many of us, the fear of flying has a very concrete image: we are haunted by the thought of how many parts are required for such an immensely complicated machine as a modern plane to function smoothly and to remain in the air – one small broken lever somewhere, and the plane could spiral downwards…
