Hugh Steadman

I am a former British Army political officer in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman. During this posting I realised that though I might still believe in my country when right, I could no longer believe in it when wrong. I resigned my commission and took a degree in Politics and International Relations. I and my wife established a school of language in New York primarily for international diplomats and aid workers. In 1985, after ten years, we moved to Marlborough, where we established a fruit distillery. In the early 2000's, Not wanting our grandchildren to live in a world in which economic and armed might is uninhibited by the rule of international law, I again became politicised and began writing a blog on international affairs at www.khakispecs.com. My blog is mainly concerned with politics & international relations written by someone who has set out to discover why the world is so stuffed and if anything can be done to ameliorate its condition. In 2019 I also launched Paddle Now (https://paddlenow.org.nz/) an organisation promoting the international coordination of organised activists to paddle together in order to get the raft to the safe bank of the river upstream from the looming disaster.