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Facts, and Opinions, that matter this week

REUTERS/Pichi Chuang Taiwan set to complete the transition to democracy. By Jonathan Manthorpe, International Affairs Column Taiwan has surged over the hump of its 35-year voyage from a military-ruled, one-party state to one of the most successful and vibrant democracies in Asia. The Donald Trump meme: nostalgia for a fantasy. By Tom Regan, Summoning Orenda  Column Remember when women and minorities knew their place? Illegal immigration was unheard of? Men all had good jobs? Everybody believed in the same God? (Or at least the same version.) Kids respected their parents? Terrorism was a word that kids learned about in college when studying

F&O: New stories and findings

Aid workers were finally allowed into besiged Syrian town Madaya this week. As predicted, they found desperate, starving citizens. Read the Reuters report: Heartbreak in starving Syrian town about emaciated and starving residents, with hundreds in need of specialised medical help. On the weekend we ran international affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe’s scorching essay, Class war returns, this time as a global issue. There is no report that better illustrates why this matters to everyone than Sunday’s bizarre tale of how wealthy Brits are in high dudgeon. Their golf club was taken over by even-wealthier foreigners, and they’re being edged out. After you’ve read Manthorpe read, Globalization: elite British golfers rue

Matters of Facts, and Opinions, this week

To Protect Monarch Butterfly,  A Plan to Save the Sacred Firs. By Janet Marinelli  Report Mexican scientists are striving to plant oyamel fir trees at higher altitudes in an effort to save the species, as well as its fluttering iconic winter visitor — the migrating monarch butterfly — from the devastating effects of climate change. The Middle East: Meltdowns, Crises and Daesh. By Simon Mabon   Report As we approach the fifth anniversary of the Arab Uprisings, it’s hard to remember the days of popular protests, of democratic revolutions and of dreams of a better future that rocked the Middle East in 2011.

Christmas merriment

The meaning of Christmas is elusive. For some it’s a season of consumer extravaganzas and a boon for business. For others it’s profoundly religious. In places it’s fallen prey to partisan and tribal chicanery. It can be a time of happiness, angst or peace. Even the date of Jesus’s birth is elusive: December 25 is celebrated, but theological and scholarly debates rage over evidence of a spring birth. Then there’s the ongoing speculation that early Christians designated Christmas to co-opt long-established Saturnalia and solstice rituals. To almost all of this I say, ‘bah,’ to all humbugs. Christmas is –indisputably — a historic, storied and rich tradition. And as with all traditions we residents of this globalized and multicultural world can choose, consciously, how to commemorate it. From my own northern perch in Canada, I relish the

Matters of Facts, and Opinions, this week

Since German fantasy/horror author E.T.A. Hoffmann penned his 1816 novella  The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, the bizarre and charming tale has inspired and entertained, even as Hoffmann’s name is overshadowed by others more famous.  The ballet The Nutcracker, by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, is a seasonal staple, and here photographer Grigory Dukor has done it justice in this week’s photo essay from St Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky Theatre. It is a sumptuous feast for the eyes; the only pity is that images deserving of vast canvases are here confined to screens. Enjoy this weeks photo-essay, The Nutcracker, here. I’ve tried hard to avoid food from China, for years and years. Jonathan Manthorpe‘s International Affairs column this

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