Kameel Majdali's Road Ahead

For the Western world, it is the ‘mother continent.’ For the entire world, it has become the number one tourist destination: Spain, France, and the United Kingdom are all top contenders. For my wife and I, it was a dream come true: a twenty-four-day whistle-stop tour of ten European countries: Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria (whose signpost regrettably states that they don’t have any kangaroos), Hungary, Slovakia, The Czech Republic, The Netherlands, and Germany. Having recently returned from the ‘trip of a lifetime,’ here are some important takeaways.   Europe: Ever-Popular Our journey was in June when summer begins and the weather warms (if you don’t like the heat, try Europe in May. July and August are hot). Despite taking a big hit on tourist numbers during the Covid pandemic, foreign visitors are flocking back en masse, perhaps more than ever to make up for lost time. It is almost like an invasion, particularly in places like Venice. Fellow travellers included Brito...

In Part 01, we focused on the American presidential campaign. AUSTRALIA: Australia is due to have a federal election in 2016. Current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who successfully won a leadership challenge against former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in September 2015, appears to enjoy public goodwill, even though he has left the Abbott government’s policies intact. . While Mr. Turnbull could be considered a left-leaning PM of a conservative political party, he has to decided - decisively so - if the Australian Liberal Party which he leads will remain ‘broad church’ - encompassing people with a range of positions - or go down the pathway of solid ‘progressivism,’ (e.g. big government with lots of borrowing, taxing, spending, and liberal on social issues), which would virtually mirror the left-wing Australian Labor Party. The ‘broad church’ approach was used successfully by former Prime Minister John Howard, who was elected four times. If Turnbull goes the latter way a...