Category: taiwan | 中華民國 | 중화민국 | 民国

  • The Irish race + more things

    The Irish race An interesting documentary from 1971 that explores the idea of ‘The Irish Race’ – it is one episode in a 10-part documentary series ‘We The Irish’. It features some of Ireland’s leading public thinkers at the time including Conor Cruise O’Brien and Seán Ó Faoláin. ‘Race’ as a term is more problematic…

  • OPEC + more things

    OPEC OPEC – the national cartel for oil producing countries is having a meeting this weekend. OPEC stands for Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. For me, OPEC is something from my childhood. I grew up in the aftermath of 1973 OPEC embargo. The 1973 OPEC embargo 1973, a coalition of Arab countries launch an…

  • Kier Starmer + more things

    Kier Starmer and new new Labour Starmer’s Britain – Portland – Kier Starmer is considered to be the most likely prime minister after Rishi Sunak. In some respects this feels like 1996, all over again. The then Conservative government back then was buffeted by scandals such as the Arms to Iraq affair report, the BSE crisis…

  • Apple and China + more things

    Apple and China Elliott Management wrote this opinion piece on Apple and China: Apple is a Chinese company | Financial Times – interesting assessment of risk exposure with a focus on the Apple share price. The Apple and China relationship started before China joined the WTO. Taiwanese contract manufacturers had built huge industrial sites in…

  • Book Depository + more things

    Book Depository Online bookseller Book Depository is closing down with some three weeks notice. It wasn’t a topic at work and barely made a ripple amongst British friends. The Hong Kong part of my social media bubble shared the news and were sad about it. The company had been owned by Amazon since 2011. I…

  • NTC Volcano + more stuff

    NTC Volcano erupting? NTC Volcano or NTC Vulkan in westernised Russian is an information security firm (think Crowdstrike, HackerOne, Mandiant or the part of BAE Systems formerly known as Detica). Information leaked from the company show that NTC Volcano has played a major role in Russian state sponsored cyber attacks. NTC Volcano also work on…

  • Francis Fukuyama + more things

    Francis Fukuyama Political theorist and author Francis Fukuyama wrote one of the mis-understood books of the late 20th century. The End of History (And The Last Man) was written in 1989 and the title and Francis Fukuyama have been misquoted endlessly since. At the 2020 Munich Security Conference Francis Fukuyama gave a talk about the…

  • Patriotic Alternative + more things

    Patriotic Alternative Patriotic Alternative wasn’t a name familiar to me when I first heard about them instigating a riot in Liverpool on Saturday night. It doesn’t take that much to create a ruckus in some of the poorer areas of Liverpool. I wasn’t particularly surprised by the burnt out police van; it sounds like a…

  • Nepotism + more things

    Nepotism in the creative industries Is nepotism really that bad? | LinkedIn – Jed Hallam wrote an essay on nepotism and the effects that he perceives it as having on inequality. Jed tries to steer a line on nepotism somewhere between recognising that the people may have an interest and talent, whilst pointing out inequality related…