ANGUS SHAW Blog

Let’s make Orwell fiction again

Even in these far reaches of the globe it is impossible to escape from the noise of those damned elections just around the corner. How will the outcome influence dictatorships...

How to launder money

We tried washing grimy notes in gentle soap suds and warm water. Then a machine cycle took 45 minutes and the money came out cleaner than before. But it isn’t...

Pomp versus poor

They all do it. They deliver a state of the nation address (SONA) to legislatures, painting a rosy picture of achievements and skating over many a hard truth. But it’s...

Trickle down? Where? When?

Ask  any economist. Trickle down from wealth at the top is a fine theory but where and when does it actually happen? Like highly-paid bankers in lofty towers, politicians are...

Kissing up to Chairman Mao

Harare, Zimbabwe. Our admiration for Chairman Mao, architect of China’s Cultural Revolution from 1949 to 1976, is boundless. We have just named  a new highway after him. Back in a...

Railroad to nowhere

China, the master of rail and bullet trains, has offered to step in and fix it. Don’t hold your breath. The rail network has suffered from years of neglect. Lines...

How to be a good bedfellow

Putin is our pal. As is Xi Jinping. So is the Supreme Leader in the crucible of radical fundamentalism, Iran. It goes something like this. The so-called  ‘progressive world’  helped...