War, normality, and a time for women

The Chinese ideogram for “crisis,” observed Winston Churchill repeatedly, is composed of two characters that separately mean “danger” and “opportunity.” This observation might offer some comfort with bombs falling on Afghanistan, the United States in high anxiety over bioterrorism, millions of Afghanis starving now, many in the developing world starving soon (p 824), and the prospect of a third world war (pp 822, 823). Could something good possibly come of this? Douglas Holdstock thinks it might if an international criminal court comes into being sooner than it otherwise would (p …