When I arrived in Warsaw’s Castle Square there was a far-right rally going on. At least it looked that way. Polish flags with imperial emblems and placards with multiple exclamation marks poked out of the crowd of bald heads lined up like an egg box. As I watched they started rapping about Poland’s glorious history […]
Populism
The Hidden Benefits of Studying a Language
While language learning is recognised for advancing cognitive skills, there is an equally important benefit – improved cultural understanding. In fact, I have found it impossible to learn a language without taking in the culture of that country. In my case, by learning beginners’ Japanese, I have been introduced to a very distinct culture; Japan […]
What is happening in France?
After the French army liberated Mali in 2013, the Malian people offered President Hollande a camel in thanks. Attempting to avoid an awkward photo-op back home, Hollande donated the animal to a Malian family. The family promptly turned it into camel soup. The story epitomises the outgoing President’s woes. Five years ago he was “Mr […]
Anti-establishment politics: a threat to capitalism?
With the fall of communism in 1989, theorists such as Francis Fukyama professed an end to ‘history’, a new era of politics for the twenty-first century, as humanity finally abandoned its expensive ideological struggle. Whilst politics has typically been a struggle of world views, today’s politics seems purely to be capitalist-oriented, parties geared towards winning […]
The hydra of populism rages on
They don’t have to love her. They just have to vote for her”, explains Matt Bennett to the Financial Times in an optimistic yet cynical tone. It remains to be seen if this maxim has been truly adopted by Hillary Clinton staffers and volunteers, who, for all their optimism, are hopelessly reliant on her new […]
Islam does not foster terrorism, but thinking otherwise has the potential to
The dominant topic on the minds of many over the week needs little introduction. On the whole, people have shown admirable gestures of peace and support in times of destruction, hatred and violence – but the integrity of these gestures is short lived in some, with some people discrediting the feelings of solidarity by closemindedly […]