How ISIS Spread in the Middle East » “It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition: that it must be lived forwards. more ›

Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away? » I’ve often wondered how the media would respond when eco-apocalypse struck. I pictured the news programmes producing brief, sensational reports, while failing to explain why it was happening or… more ›

Inside the Secretive World of Tax-Avoidance Experts » Shakespeare said that all the world’s a stage, but the sociologist Erving Goffman added that most of the interesting stuff lies behind the scenes, in what he called the “backstage” areas of… more ›