Word: britishism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Britain asked for something else as well? The finger-pointing began even before al-Megrahi was released. Scotland may have had jurisdiction over the case, but British opposition politicians blamed Gordon Brown's government for its handling of the case. Victims' families and lawyers say they suspect that officials, eager to help British companies win multibillion-dollar energy and defense contracts, cut a backroom deal in exchange for al-Megrahi's freedom...
Gaddafi thanked Britain for helping secure al-Megrahi's release. A British newspaper reported that Gaddafi's son (and possible successor) Seif al-Islam Gaddafi told al-Megrahi during the flight home that he was "on the table in all commercial, oil and gas agreements." British Foreign Secretary David Miliband vociferously rejects that claim, as does Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson, who twice met Seif this year. British officials must hope the brouhaha blows over soon. Because Libya's oil is light and low in sulfur, it is prized for being among the easiest to refine. And since Libya...
...later pleaded no contest and resigned his position.) Australia held a telethon to fund its 1984 Olympic team. In Argentina, a fundraising program was broadcast to finance the country's two-month war in 1982 with England over the Falkland Islands. (The islands are now a self-governing British territory, although Argentina still claims sovereignty...
...exhilarating flying back to Kabul after being gone for three years. The plane came in low from the east, in the coppery light of dawn, and I could make out the canyons of the Kabul Gorge where, in 1842, a retreating British army of 4,500 soldiers, accompanied by 12,000 family members and servants, vanished into the gorge and only one man, a surgeon's assistant on horseback, made it out alive. The rest were massacred or died in the snow...
Afghanistan is replete with grim reminders for those who would wish to rule it. The British were having a marvelous time in Kabul back in 1841: horse races, picnics, amateur theatrics (something British expats indulge in wherever they go) and lot of good grog and food. Meanwhile, the Afghans were seething over these madcap Victorians. (See pictures of election day in Afghanistan...