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Noteworthy: stories that matter

So little time, so many stories. How to find worthy tales? Friends of F&O, apparently pressed for time, who know we spend our days scanning global media, asked us to recommend the odd item. Sure thing. And, just as F&O is about boutique instead of supermarket journalism, our recommendations are made with the knowledge we’re all saturated by the torrents of news and views. We’ll keep this corner for true gems, and the odd bit of eclectica. Your suggestions are welcome, and invited  –  drop us a note at Editor@canadianjournalist.ca The Beauty of Sadness: An Essential Human Emotion Exiled in a War

Ending AIDS by 2030: The doctor who found the key

On World Aids Day today, Rod Mickleburgh profiled Julio Montaner, the Argentine/Canada doctor who’s led the successful fight against HIV/AIDS using harm reduction strategies. The United Nations agency UNAIDS said in a release its goal of “ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 is possible, but only by closing the gap between people who have access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services and people who are being left behind.” The numbers from UNAIDS are so stark it’s hard to believe the epidemic can be ended in 16 years: In 2013, there were 35 million [33.2 million–37.2 million] people living with

On Advent, John Mason Neale, and a winter hymn

 The period Christians call Advent begins Sunday November 30. In countries with Christian populations pop music increasingly gives way to religious hymns, leading up to Christmas. Michael Sasges gave thought to one of the season’s most evocative pieces, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Here’s an excerpt of his story about  John Mason Neale — On reading and writing our winters away: This is a “begat” story, its subjects a winter hymn and its creator, a man who passed his adult years in that figurative winter that is the lot of the chronically ill and perpetually defiant. The hymn is O come, O

One Zimbabwe success story

In great contrast to the Borgia world of Zimbabwe’s First Lady, Grace Mugabe — the subject of last week’s column by International Affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe  — is the skill, imagination, talent, determination and sheer hard work that ordinary Africans have to employ to survive and succeed.  Manthorpe offers a tale, One man’s thrust for survival in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. Excerpt: It was mid-December, the height of yet another summer of drought in Zimbabwe, and I was making the early morning coffee when there was a loud cracking and wrenching noise from the garden. It was a noise I’d never heard before, so loud

Vera Lynn: “It was simply my duty to keep on singing.”

Vera Lynn achieved international fame with the songs she made popular on the radio during the Second World War. Arts columnist Brian Brennan reports in his new time capsule piece that she wanted to try other kinds of music after the war. But the fans wouldn’t hear of it. An excerpt of Brennan’s Brief Encounters column, There’ll Always Be An England: Vera Lynn: For thousands of Allied soldiers who served in the Second World War, Vera Lynn was the most popular singer on the radio. No matter that Bing Crosby and Judy Garland sold more records. Lynn was the troops’ favourite because,

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