China’s economic rise and growing footprint presents an alternative to the West
Political ideologies — communism, capitalism, liberalism — and an unrealistic view of the world as we’d like it to be got us into this mess
When the Dalai Lama sat down on Saturday with Richard Gere and Robert Thurman, father of actor Uma and a United States professor of Buddhism, it was supposed to be for a few hours contemplating sacred art and silent meditation. But like almost everything the 72-year-old does, who he meets and what he says are picked over and pulled apart.
Until Monday there was little argument about the holder of the coveted title of shortest leader in the world: at 162cm, or a shade over five feet three inches, Kim Jong-il, supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army and Great Leader of the People’s Democratic Republic of North Korea, stood head and shoulders below the rest of the field.