Whilst the rest of the world has merely watched Zuma resign and be replaced with ANC favourite Ramaphosa, what news outlets, BBC, CNN and Aljazeera lack is recognition of the brevity and implications of his resignation. This was a day that South Africa, who since Mandela’s term has suffered successive corrupt and ineffective presidents, thought […]
Features
There’s Snow Doubt About it – the 2018 Pyeongchang Games is in danger of flopping
A new year of sport: the finest live drama. Whilst 2018 may be best known for being a World Cup year, with football’s grandest event taking place in Russia this summer, it is also an Olympic year. The 23rd Winter Olympics takes place in Pyeongchang – not to be confused with North Korean capital Pyongyang […]
The Big Features Quiz of 2016
The Battle for Mosul: Could this be it?
Mosul sits in the Northern most region of Iraq, on the grand Tigris river, the same water which flows through Baghdad 200 miles south. Historically, Mosul is little more than a trading juncture featured as Ninevah in Biblical times. Now, this seemingly unimportant city is the place where the establishment of the Islamic State Group […]
Give me a paperback over an E-book any day
Books are one of the foundations of our culture. Fiction or non-fiction, funny or dark, long or short; there is literally something for everyone. Book lovers everywhere will all agree there is nothing better than going into a bookshop and browsing the shelves, with every topic at your fingertips. Opening the cover of a new […]
Is modern ballet en pointe?
Is ballet still the beautiful traditional dance form it always has been or is it crying out for a modern revival? “ballet has almost endless scope for reinvention” Some may see ballet as outdated an uninspiring when compared to modern dance styles like hip-hop and street, an exclusive dance form that is limited to petite […]
Pottering about
150 years ago this year, the beloved Beatrix Potter was born, going on to write some of the best-loved children’s books in English history. So begs the question: what it is about her quaint tales of anthropomorphic rural English wildlife that mean they remain so widely read and adored today? The most iconic of her short […]
Wrecked By Recording
Imagine if exam boards condoned Maths GCSE calculus units completed with the use of a smart phone calculator app rather than a scientific calculator. If Chemistry GCSE practicals did not require live demonstrations by the teacher of the scientific process before students were expected to complete the experiment, and they could just watch a quick […]
Down and out in Panama and Iceland
Icelanders don’t mince their words; the Panama Papers scandal has been described as a ‘betrayal’, the Prime Minister as ‘arrogant’ and the country as being in ‘crisis mode.’ Following the discovery of offshore funds connected to Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, days of national protests led to his stepping down and the government installing a replacement […]
Should we all just pick up a paintbrush?
The idea of releasing tension through art dates back to Aristotle’s ideas of catharsis, where he believed that difficult emotions could be purged through exposure to dramatic tragedies, allowing the mind to experience distressing emotions in a safe environment. Today, the practice of art therapy is closely linked with the principles of Freudian psychotherapy, as […]