I'm reading a fascinating book at the moment, called Bury the Chains, by Adam Hochschild. It's the history of the British campaign to abolish slavery. It often astounds me that the history of slavery gets so little attention. I mean, this was human rights abuse, a crime against humanity on a massive scale. I'm talking millions of deaths and millions of people uprooted and transported across the Atlantic to live lives of misery.

Several months ago, I discovered Monocle magazine. It's an international magazine, with headquarters in London, and it looks at a wide range of issues (current affairs, business, culture, and design). The most recent issue has a very interesting feature looking at 3 countries the magazine thinks can be looked at as failing states. What makes it interesting is that these three countries are not in the developing world.