A history of perceived humiliation, after all, lurks behind many acts of terror. And competing narratives of victimhood and insults sustain conflicts in the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East and many other regions.

Back when George W. Bush was identifying his Axis of Evil, it struck me that a longer and more instructive list could be compiled of the Axis of the Humiliated (or Insulted and Injured, to borrow from Dostoevsky).

What Paris has done right is to make it awful to get around by car and awfully easy to get around by public transportation or by bike.

My own kids were with me in Berlin when Germany was reunited, and they were with me in Moscow when the Soviet Union collapsed. We talked about these things at the dinner table, at their schools, with their friends.

I enjoyed being involved in team sports and making close friendships.

I play basketball all the time. Me and my band play every week on the road. That's something that I've never really given up since high school.

In international football you have 10 games a season, with players from different clubs. There's no time for proper coaching; they're just recovering from playing on the Saturday.

I don't have to go through life being mean or having a stern face just to play basketball. I enjoy the game and play it how I like to play it.