November thoughts

  Dear readers,

Now that both Facebook and Twitter are so irrelevant, old-fashioned blogging looks like a safer space for self-expression.

As we enter the last two months of the year, the impression, looking back, for a journalist and writer focusing on the Global South and North/South relations, culture and multiculturalism, migrations and human rights, it wasn't a great year to say the least.

To make things worse, on a personal level, it was quite a difficult one, health-wise firstly, and secondly with the heartbreak of witnessing the spiralling downfall of my second nation, Britain. 

I've been writing a lot more on arts and writers in the past six months, in order to foster hope and solutions more than negative news, and you know how heavy the latest has been since the start of the war in Ukraine.

We all thought that recovering from the Covid crisis would be hard, but we couldn't imagine it would be this hard... The climate crisis has been seriously aggravated by the war, drought, hunger, and more health crises are striking the South, while the North is in serious recession coupled with high inflation and people's panic.

On Wednesday, I was invited to give a lecture to master's students in Paris, on an important news story, and I chose to speak about the state of Europe, through the lens of the post-Brexit British crisis, and this week hasn't helped anyhow. It would be too long to summarise here the talk I gave though I wish I could...

What makes things harder is to have lost the support of so many people this year too.

Many have had their own difficulties to deal with, I admit. And I hope one or two will eventually reappear. But for most others I don't even know where to start when it comes to fathom the rift.... 

Meanwhile, the state of the media, especially in France, really worries me.

As I hate being negative, and my brain is wired for idealism, I will try hard to come back with better news.

In the meantime, I'll focus on art and cinema history, creativity and resistance to all forms of fascism...

I'll be in England soon and hope for some heartwarming reunion. 

Friendship is more important than ever.

While I'm in Blighty, good luck to the ones getting reading to cover these mid term elections in the US.

With hope, always,

m