The Hames Report

A man stood in a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it...

If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire. The claims that the ultra-rich 1 per cent make for themselves – that they are possessed of unique intelligence or creativity...

A world with 7 billion people, threats from a changing climate and unsustainable resource use are intensifying pressure on humanity and world governments to transform the way food is produced, distributed and consumed. This global issue brings both responsibility and...

I am normally wary of statements such as this changes everything. But there is something distinctly attractive about the Occupy Wall Street movement - especially if it is seen as a single thread in a tapestry of increasing social and...

The Outlier Throughout my career I have frequently been accused of being a heretic or, possibly more politely, an outlier – a prophet of things to come but hardly pertinent to present imperatives. In the latter context I am supposedly...

Regular readers will recall it is my occasional habit to reprint articles of particular consequence in The Hames Report. In that spirit I recently asked my US-based friend and colleague Dr David Martin if I could print a piece he...

I am watching the evening news on television, marvelling at the way the Gadaffi regime has simply crumpled under the force of people power, imagining what might be next in this unpredictable world of ours yet also perturbed by some...

Dear Eglantine, Addie, Bodhi, Rafael, Roman and little Mia (who is still in Molly's belly)... I am sitting at home in my study in inner Bangkok looking out over Sukhumvit. Most of the central plains of Thailand are inundated with...

Looking out upon the horrid ruin we seem to have made of the planet, in spite of the kind hearts and good intentions of the vast majority of human beings, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that some nefarious...

On June 12th 2011 at precisely 3.19pm in the afternoon at Bangkok’s Samitivej Hospital my tenth child (and your new brother) struggled into the world. After a gap of seventeen years I find myself a father once again. This morning...