Tag: terrorism

Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! I have been informed last night (!) that today was going to be the first Sunday of Advent. With everything going on during the end of the year, it was quite a surprise, but I try to cope. I hope those of you celebrating had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, but I say all the rest of us could use a little gratitude in our lives. I hope you have some time to read today. The Mladic judgment and the none ‘not guilty’ verdict This long awaited judgment of the ICTY before it concludes held little surprise for those familiar…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! October ended just as sad as it started. I just realized that the Las Vegas shooting and the latest attack in New York happened on the first and the last days of last month. I wish there would be no more. Aside from the tragic events, I hope you had a great Halloween week. I cannot believe it’s almost Christmas time, I am hardly over summer’s ending, I am definitely not ready for the holidays yet! Here’s some reading for you now. Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis and the Need for a Regional Response to Statelessness in Southeast Asia A…

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Sunday Smack

Happy weekend, everybody! I hope this finds you well. I had a nice mini vacation at the countryside this week, where I spent most of my time out in the sun reading a book or just listening to the sounds of nature. Unfortunately it resulted in a terrible cold/allergy, but the good part was worth it! This time I feel like I have written all I could about such pointless, terrible attacks and find it hard to add anything meaningful at this point. I am sad it just keeps happening… ¡Enviando buenos pensamientos y abrazos cálidos a todos los afectados! ¡Mantente…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! FINA World Championships are coming to a close today in Budapest, and I was able to witness some great moments there. Check out my Instagram for pics of the swimming competitions and waterpolo matches I attended. The cost of building and organizing the whole thing might have been high, I doubt it compares to what Hungary gained on it, but all I can say is nothing compares to the vibe of cheering your team on a world event, just ten minutes walk from your home (the serious sunburn nice tan I developed during a midday openair waterpolo match is…

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Sunday Smack

Happy July, everybody! And happy long weekend for those who are enjoying one now. Aren’t these cyberattacks more and more worrying? Sometimes it feels like some hackers could really do anything if they wanted to. I mean at the level that everything is computerized now, they could literally stop the world if that was what they wanted. World affairs are not on holiday yet, many things happened this past week. Great posts of great bloggers are a plenty on each topic, I provide you with only a handful to check out. The Supreme Court Just Blocked Vetted Refugees from Starting…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday and Happy Summer! This week Britain managed to pull off yet another election where practically everybody lost an no-one knows what to come after, this seems to have become the new standard over there.  Also, political turmoil is mounting in the US, but the President still doesn’t seem to be worried. On this week’s episode of The West Wing Weekly (S03E09 Bartlet for America) there were a lot of talk about Congressional hearings and what they are all about. I happened to listen to it the morning after #ComeyDay, and again, I just love when entertainment really adds…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, Everybody! Starting with the good part, it is a long weekend in Hungary due to Pentecost Monday, and it also feels like summer around here already! I am doing my best to enjoy it… I started watching season 5 of House of Cards, but unfortunately I don’t really have time to binge it all in one weekend, I am barely halfway yet. Does anybody feel like this season is full of ‘this is/could be Trump’ moments? Most probably this show was always like this, it is political satire after all, we just weren’t aware before that Trump could…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, people! And happy Memorial Day weekend to all to whom that applies! First of all, this week started in a very sad way. I was inevitably reminded of last year’s Mariah Carey concert that I attended at the same Manchester Arena. This is not about throwing blames and I don’t even know how it worked this time, but last year our packages weren’t inspected at all. Guards only took a quick peek, but in all honesty, I could have anything in the bottom or some side pocket of my shoulder bag, no-one cared to look. Even last year…

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Loretta Napoleoni talked about her book “Merchants of Men” before screening of the documentary “Fire at Sea”

This Monday I attended a special event in Budapest organized by the Hungarian publisher of Loretta Napoleoni’s latest book “Merchants of Men:  How Jihadists and ISIS Turned Kidnapping and Refugee Trafficking into a Multi-Billion Dollar Business”, that just came out in Hungarian. Loretta Napoleoni talked about the essence of the book which is the evolution of the financing of terrorist organizations. After 9.11 ransom paid by foreign governments for their kidnapped citizens became the most important source of funding for terrorist organizations throughout most the Arab world. It involved kidnapping of tourists, journalists and aid workers in countries like Libya (where…

Continue Reading Loretta Napoleoni talked about her book “Merchants of Men” before screening of the documentary “Fire at Sea”

Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday and happy World Book and Copyright Day! Isn’t this a great occasion for some Sunday reading? I hope you can take some time for that. This has been a busy and interesting week with winter returning to Central Europe (that may or may not be blamed on climate change), ongoing protests in Hungary and elsewhere and of course today’s elections in France. Now let’s do some reading! Referendum Results Risk Further Polarization in Turkey Last week’s referendum is the latest sign that Turkey is moving towards a dangerous direction. ‘Terrorism’ at the World Court: Ukraine v Russia as…

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