In 1912, James Weldon Johnson wrote that New York City is “the most fatally fascinating place in America”. The city, he explained, “sits like a great witch at the gate of the country, showing her alluring white face and hiding …
The triumph of the introverts
Before scooping up your grandson, niece, or little cousins for a hug this holiday season, the internet would like you to know: “Kids who think they need to comply with adult requests for affection are more likely to be sexually …
How we appeased China’s Zero-Covid regime
In the streets of China, people are rising up to reassert their human dignity in the face of the most dehumanising machine of social control in the world today: the Chinese Communist Party’s Zero-Covid terror-state.
For three years, the Chinese …
Nicaragua’s inconvenient Covid victory
In Nicaragua, Latin America’s third poorest country, people who don’t work don’t eat. Three-quarters of jobs are in small businesses or the informal economy. So when its first Covid case was diagnosed on 18 March 2020, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega …
The tyranny of a Covid amnesty
I spent the last days of innocence before Trump and Brexit heavily pregnant. Like many first-time mums, I read a lot of pregnancy books, but the one I liked most was Expecting Better. Written by Emily Oster, an economist, the …
The tyranny of a Covid amnesty
I spent the last days of innocence before Trump and Brexit heavily pregnant. Like many first-time mums, I read a lot of pregnancy books, but the one I liked most was Expecting Better. Written by Emily Oster, an economist, the …
My A&E survives on death
A few nights ago, during the graveyard shift in A&E, a colleague sent me a clip from the classic BBC sitcom, Yes, Prime Minister. “The Smoking Ban” episode shows PM Jim Hacker vowing to take on the tobacco lobby — …
This England can’t be neutral
“Can you think of a novel that ever was written about the strictly contemporary scene?” George Orwell asked his friend Tosco Fyvel in April 1949. “It is very unlikely that any novel, i.e. worth reading, would ever be set back …
The lab-leak theory isn’t dead
For more than a year after the onset of the pandemic, talking about the possibility that the virus might have been lab-engineered was taboo. Then, as the evidence continued to mount, it suddenly became acceptable to talk about it in …
The lab-leak theory isn’t dead
For more than a year after the onset of the pandemic, talking about the possibility that the virus might have been lab-engineered was taboo. Then, as the evidence continued to mount, it suddenly became acceptable to talk about it in …
Sri Lanka: Lessons from an economic crisis
by Russell Lamberti – Chief economist and head of research and strategy at Sakeliga
A real-world economic and financial disaster is unfolding in Sri Lanka. Like countless crises before, this one is man-made. The social, economic, and political fragilities that…The progressive puritans will fail
Fun has always carried a little bit of danger in its back pocket: there’s something radical, even anarchical, about having too much of it. “We were just having some fun” could be the thing you say to the neighbours who’ve …
The dangers of monkeypox hysteria
They’ve been repeating it ever since the start of the Covid pandemic: “We are entering an ‘age of pandemics’ — this is just the beginning”. And they’ve been true to their word: no sooner had the threat of Covid started …
Remote learning was built to fail
Imagine that it’s September 2020 and you’re teaching at a middle school that has gone online. Miraculously, all of your students have functioning laptops and can join class remotely. You’ve checked your equipment with a colleague, who assures you that …
Iain Davis | Pseudopandemic: New Normal Technocracy
A wealth of evidence informs one of the most important books you will ever read. Iain Davis’ book, entitled “Pseudopandemic”, offers an unflinching and compelling dissection of the global response to the pandemic.
When the World Health Organization declared the …