Belem is the Brazilian city at the mouth of the Amazon. Unlike its slummy counterpart, Kinshasa, at the mouth of the Congo, it’s full of resplendent streets with beautiful nineteenth century houses. It has squares and market places full of cafes, fountains and life.   In November it is host to the UN’s Climate Change Conference. Unfortunately, according to the New York Times last week, the number of hotel beds is insufficient for the mass of delegates and their hangers on- a

Is it too late to say non-violence would have served the Ukrainians better? Probably yes, although it shouldn’t be discounted.   This war with Russia reminds me of 1968 when the Soviet Union sent its tanks into Budapest to overthrow a reforming (but still communist) government only to meet defiance from large sections of the population.   On both occasions the brutality was met not with guns, petrol-bombs and stones but with non-violence and passive obstruction. It worked. St

“1789 is an historic date but it is not an historic example”. The French Revolution, violent to its fingertips, began with the highest motives, led by the most inspired and determined of people, but descended step by step into its own self-created inferno where the revolution consumed its own children.   Violence begets violence and, as Martin Luther King said, “The means and the ends must cohere. We will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends