David Goodhart | Prospect | 25 January 2013 Fifteen years of "historically unprecedented immigration" have exacerbated Britain’s economic weaknesses: low productivity, lack of training, high inequality. "There is a clear and settled will that immigration has been much too high in recent years and must come down." What's needed is a policy that puts the interests of worst-off Britons first David Pilling | FT | 25 January 2013 Conversation with Hong Kong property tycoon Cecil Chao, who claims to have bedded 10,000 women, and has offered $65m to the man who can woo and marry his lesbian daughter. Not that Chao is a fan of marriage for himself: “Marriage is difficult, particularly under Hong Kong law. She can take a lot of your money away. It’s safer not to be married,” Gordon Adams | Foreign Policy | 25 January 2013 As America runs down its military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pentagon gets more and more deeply engaged in Africa, training and equipping armies in name of security, counter-terrorism. Wrong strategy. African countries need help with governance and development. Sending guns and money to existing regimes risks having the reverse effect Keith Bradsher | New York Times | 25 January 2013 Boom in higher education creates glut of graduates who don't want factory work, but lack other marketable skills. Number of graduates has increased 11-fold since 1989, but the students themselves have not adjusted to concept of mass education: They think that a university degree entitles them to a place among the professional elite Hunter Oatman-Stanford | Collector's Weekly | 25 January 2013 "What if you discovered an invention that could wean us from our vehicles, combat suburban sprawl and make city streets less dangerous, congested, and polluted? Well, that device has been around for nearly 80 years: It’s called the parking meter." But it's been fighting a losing battle against an American belief that drivers should park for free Thought for the day: "Democracy is all about practising the art of bearable dissatisfaction" — Ivan Krastev | 
