I've been thinking a lot about dictatorships lately, as we all have with the protests sweeping the Middle East. First came the good news stories - the rapid and relatively bloodless falls of dictators in Tunisia and Egypt. Then the not so good news - the grim determination of the Gadaffi regime in Libya to hold on no matter what the cost to the nation as a whole. Meanwhile other conflicts await resolution - in Yemen, Bahrain, Iran and Morocco just to name a few. I don't know a whole lot about Middle Eastern politics or culture, only a few things I've read and an attentive following of Western media. But a few things seem clear to me. First of all, our media is very focused on the figureheads of these regimes, like Mubarak and Gadaffi. There is no doubt that these are (or were) genuinely powerful men, but no-one can rule a country on their own. A dictatorship is not a rule by one man or woman. Rather, it is rule by a segment of society which has the power and resour
'Contemplating the teeming life of the shore, we have an uneasy sense of the communication of some universal truth that lies just beyond our grasp.' - Rachel Carson