This is a scary weekend: everything seems to be about Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee. It’s virtually impossible to avoid stumbling upon all things royal. A couple of days ago I went to do my shopping and ordinary items are now being advertised as ‘Jubilee ready’. The mass media are oversaturated with documentaries, tributes, reports and the like. The prevalent mood…
Almost one month ago, on Thursday 5th May most of us duly fulfilled our democratic obligation by casting our votes in local elections. Having grown up in an undemocratic, authoritarian country I am determined to take part in every election I am eligible for. This time around I would be away, unable to cast my vote. Yet I was so…
I’m not as avid a TV watcher as I used to be; nowadays my TV consumption is practically limited to a relatively narrow, carefully made selection of shows. The News at Ten is the main constant on my personal TV schedule as it usually wraps up my day. Quite often I do something else while watching the news – a…
“Fake news” – the phrase, now in common use, is often attributed to the former US President Donald Trump as the one who made it popular. Although the phrase certainly got into greater prominence, the reality described by it has a very long history; indeed, it reaches back to time immemorial. The relative success of such an attitude is based…
What do people do when they have to wait for anything? They immediately pull out their smartphones and kill the time by staring at them. Some people do that even when they don’t have any time to kill; some others do it as if they intended to kill when they play with their phones while driving… The main reason for…