I am in favour of countries, in the same way that I am in favour of houses having lockable front doors. Countries have good precedents: the first biological cell seen by Robert Hook in 1665 seemed to him like the small cellular rooms monks lived in. The cell is the motor of life, and it... Read More

I barely noticed the first crash. Driving the new hire car from the airport, the rain was pouring down on the highway, spray everywhere, a high risk of aquaplaning, and we were still on the outskirts of town, with traffic lights, cross-roads, bus stops, shops and lots of local motorbikes and pedestrians moving along and... Read More

Back in 2009, in one of my online diaries, I wrote about what I called “happy-in-obscurity� countries — nations, that is, that don’t generate much news, where nothing much happens, but where life is peaceful and modestly prosperous, and citizens have a good shot at ordinary, unsensational happiness. I cited New Zealand, Taiwan, and Finland... Read More