Current Affairs Articles

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Derek Dashwood @ Wednesday, 19th March 2008 @ 9:19 PM

Few citizens of Canada or America who were originally from Japan returned to their previous homes after the war. The new waves began in earnest before the takeover of Hong Kong when many Chinese arrived, and this has continued from China and southeast Asia. Each new wave has tried to fit in with the existing society; even in rare cases where several shops in several malls placed only Chinese or other ethnic ads in their windows, causing excitement at city hall. No bylaw was neces... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Bob Alexander @ Saturday, 15th March 2008 @ 4:59 PM

To my slightly used brain it doesn't appear that there is any real sanity in the world today, much less in the hallways of our schools. Kids today are not really a lot different from the ones I knew back in my high school years, except they have a few more challenges than I did when I was a teen. While we had alcohol, we didn't have to deal with it because we knew our parents would deal with us if they found that we were even in the presence of the devil's brew. Growing... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Ray Eddings @ Saturday, 15th March 2008 @ 6:56 AM

I remember back to the days when I was a boy. My family lived in a two story house and my bedroom was in the corner of the basement with no windows. My parents resided on the main floor. I remember sleeping upstairs on the couch until I was about ten years old. Why, because I was afraid to sleep in my own room. I can't really remember what I was afraid of or what finally motivated me to move to my own bed but I know that it was an irrational fear. I think the gun haters have an irrati... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Derek Dashwood @ Wednesday, 12th March 2008 @ 12:52 AM

The news today may have been historic. As an earlier brilliant light of early America, Emerson noted while he and his friend Thoreau would read and discuss the ideas of the ages, others would shout loudly about another train derailment. Or there was an uprising in the west, and other events that make the headlines for that day, but will be forgotten soon enough. Some profound things are changing. Emerson wrote about this with wry wit, about custom being the hobgoblins of little minds. He ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Peter Finch @ Sunday, 9th March 2008 @ 3:51 AM

Many people tend to think that life in Romania must be difficult at present. All the trials that the country went through during the decades of communist rule must have taken their toll, they would conclude. Also, trying to match steps with the rest of the developed world would surely result in a vicious struggle for survival. Actually, such thinking could not be further from reality. Because the reality is that life in Romania has become easier in the last few years. For the Romanians o... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Thomas Pretty @ Saturday, 8th March 2008 @ 5:19 PM

Even though a global restriction of credit and a tightening of purse strings is currently in an ascendancy, the travel industry has optimistic forecasts of growth and profit for the next twelve months. This growth is expected to slow down somewhat although overall despite a slower pace the growth is still perceived to be extensive. After a good year for the travel industry in 2007 the hope is that continued prosperity will be apparent. It is estimated that travellers increased by almost s... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Amy Nutt @ Friday, 7th March 2008 @ 8:04 PM

Although steel structures began popping up in the early 20th century, the largest surge in steel building construction occurred during World War II when airplane hangars made out of steel were constructed for the military. It was around the same time that Quonset huts were emerging and tens of thousands of them were being made because they could be assembled by hand tools and easily taken apart if a move was necessary. They didn't look very nice nor did they offer a high degree of p... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Ki Gray @ Friday, 7th March 2008 @ 1:26 AM

In recent days, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, and the Swiss National Bank have teamed up to auction $110 billion off to world money markets in order to ease the recent liquidity crisis. But what is liquidity? Why should banks auction off money to deal with it? And how does inflation play into this phenomenon? Well, for starters, liquidity refers to the amount of money available in a given market that can be loaned from one enti... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Rosalie Kimberlin @ Thursday, 6th March 2008 @ 3:35 AM

There has been a rash of women being stopped on the highways by police impostors in my State. Most law abiding people will cooperate when stopped by someone they believe to be a police officer. Luckily, these stops have not resulted in any injuries or death. In the past there have been serial killers who have preyed upon women by pretending to be plainclothes officers, stopping them for an alleged traffic violation, only to kidnap, rape and murder them. Thank goodness this is not the ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Ki Gray @ Tuesday, 4th March 2008 @ 5:46 AM

On February 14th, a manufactured day devoted to romantic love, Wall Street wasn't interested or feeling any good vibes: The Dow, as well as most of the other major stock markets around the world, finished down on recession fears. Why so spooked? For one, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke elected to announce that, despite recent encouraging news on the market floor, the sub-prime crisis has not remained contained as he had previously predicted, but had spread to other sectors of the econ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Catherine Harvey @ Monday, 3rd March 2008 @ 7:27 PM

Nobody can deny that the gay and lesbian community have suffered discrimination over the years, particularly when it comes to recruitment. Mis-understood facts surrounding the HIV virus caused fear and panic among straight people and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members of society were held back when it came to employment, despite their ability to do the jobs they were applying for. However, many organisations have taken steps to address this issue, going so far as to advert... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Roger Munns @ Sunday, 2nd March 2008 @ 7:31 PM

As we become more and more of a global society, the United States may no longer lead the way in attracting immigrants. Spain has experienced notable growth in recent years, thanks in large part to immigration. Naturally, some of this growth can be attributed to illegal entries. However, Spain's immigration reforms of the late 1990s and early 2000s curtailed this somewhat. Today the fastest growing immigrant populations are from other parts of Europe. There are a number of qu... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Peter Finch @ Sunday, 2nd March 2008 @ 5:03 PM

To many people, Romania would appear to be a tough place to live in. After all, it is a country, which went through a lot of hardship in the recent past, and is now trying hard to catch up with the rest of the developed world. The thing is, it has actually become easier to live in Romania at present. Life of the average Romanian is intimately involved with work. Romanians are busy people and begin their working day pretty early. They usually start off at seven in the morning and finish o... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Derek Both @ Saturday, 1st March 2008 @ 5:18 PM

Financial experts are worried that the current situation with the US economy could have a big impact on the UK. There are fears that a recession in America could see the UK facing its weakest growth period since the Exchange Rate Mechanism crisis which happened 16 years ago. The effects of this are already becoming evident to first time home buyers who cannot get mortgages because approval rates are lower than they have been for over a decade. It is no secret that first time buye... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Roger Munns @ Saturday, 1st March 2008 @ 3:00 PM

King Juan Carlos of Spain celebrated a milestone birthday earlier this year when the King turned 70 years old on January 5. The actual date of this landmark occasion was commemorated with an intimate family gathering at home. The following week however, Juan Carlos celebrated as only a royal can, with a birthday bash at Pardo Palace. Surrounded by no fewer than 450 of his friends, family, and many dignitaries, the King offered a toast to "all that we have achieved together.&qu... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Thomas Pretty @ Friday, 29th February 2008 @ 6:41 AM

The choice to visit a private hospital can be attributed to a number of reasons, of course Britain has a free healthcare system but increasingly people are turning away from public hospitals to those of the private variety. People are taking this decision for all manner of reasons; some just want their own room, some prefer the en-suite facilities while others simply like the choice of menus available. Today it is increasingly becoming the case that patients do not have to pay for their ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Thomas Pretty @ Wednesday, 27th February 2008 @ 10:02 AM

It seems as if recently the car hire industry has cleaned up its practises somewhat. For many years there have been unscrupulous companies who have angered customers through the use of small print in rental agreements. By 2006 this got so bad that the government stepped in and threatened to clean up the car hire industry with the use of heavy regulations and industry guidelines. This formed part of a European action plan for the car hire industry; MEPs began talks to simplify the process ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Catherine Harvey @ Wednesday, 27th February 2008 @ 6:04 AM

I've been working for the chauffeur car hire company for many years and the things I could tell you would make your hair curl! Of course, I've learnt to be nothing but professional when the couple are making out in the back although even with the privacy screen firmly in place it is definitely distracting when the car's bouncing around. Can't understand why they can't wait until they get home but in the realm of things I don't talk about are the couples that ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Thomas Pretty @ Monday, 25th February 2008 @ 4:00 PM

Gun crime n Britain is generally seen to be getting worse, especially in major cities. Government figures will argue that the levels of gun crime are in fact in decline, what can be surmised however is that the number of homicides and use of firearms by criminal gangs is on the increase. Unlike other countries gun ownership in the UK is limited, what is strange however is that many countries have higher levels of gun ownership, but less gun crime, Switzerland can be seen as a case in poi... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Linda Dipman @ Monday, 25th February 2008 @ 3:46 PM

The Devil and his demon generals sat on one side of a huge cosmic table while Jesus and His angels of light sat across from them. An argument was proceeding from the great voice of Satan demanding that Jesus let go of His protection over the people of the earth. Satan shouted, "Release the storms you have held back from me, for I must test the people of earth!" It was an unusually warm and humid February day. I had never experienced such a dramatic change of temperature from... more...