Month: August 2016

Capitalism and democracy: the strain is showing — FT.com

The big ‘isms’ – nationalism, socialism, communism, capitalism – of the 19th and 20th centuries have failed or are failing. New challenges have emerged – radical religious fundamentalism, climate change and environmental degradation, populist nativism in the democracies of the west, corruption, inequality on a national and global scale: where is the new and creative politics that we need? via Capitalism and democracy: the strain is showing — FT.com

US election: Nobody is talking about climate change — FT.com

In a post-factual world, where the term ‘expert’ is derided, people believe what they want to believe – which means believing what suits their education, their belief systems, their prejudices and their wallets. Yet climate change isn’t something you vote on. It’s a fact, and it’s coming to a place near you, near me, and near all of us. Remember the boiling frog syndrome? The frog doesn’t notice that the temperature in the pool he is in is gradually rising, because his body gradually acclimatizes. Next thing it’s too late to leap out, and he is boiled alive. via US election: Nobody is talking about climate change — FT.com

Anniversary Reflections

It was Tolstoy who wrote that all happy families are the same; all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way. One might add, in less literary and philosophical, more mundane terms, all of us have to deal with our own circumstances. In our case, Rob’s and mine, a relationship that started ten years ago in Johannesburg has had to find a way through the perils and pitfalls of a long-drawn out and painful divorce, difficult enough for me but in some ways more difficult, I suspect, for Rob, who despite the odds remained committed and positive throughout; through the strains of a long distance relationship; and through the upheavals of relocation, in her case, to South Africa, and in mine, to Canada. That we have survived this all, and that our relationship is stronger now than ever, says something, I think, about now and the future. There are challenges ahead, no doubt about it, but I like to think

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