Ireland's Big Issue 260 (February 2021)

Digital Edition Jan/Feb 2021 Is 260 Vol 19

Spring is Coming

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Page 6 Letter to my Younger Self – Orla Guerin Dublin born Journalist and BBC foreign correspondent Orla Guerin (54) has a word with her 16-yearold self.

Page 8 A Victim of Violence After a jealous young man punched him on a night out, Christoph Rickels life was no longer as it was before. He woke up from a four-month long coma severely disabled. But that is only half of the story’. Anne Brockmann reports.

Page 10 Jeffrey Archer on Trump, Perjury and Motivation in his 80’s We recently caught up with former MP and bestselling novelist Jeffrey Archer, whose book Kane and Abel has been read by 100 million people.

Page 12 Liverpool’s Andy Robertson ‘puts rivalries aside’ to tackle food poverty Liverpool and Scotland defender Andy Robertson has been helping food banks since long before the COVID-19 pandemic.

He speaks to The Big Issue about Marcus Rashford and why the time is now for football to come together to beat hunger, Liam Geraghty reports.

Page 16 Cary Grant - The Tortured Chameleon Hollywood’s favourite leading man, women loved him, men admired him - yet very few actually knew him. Shaun Anthony looks at the enigma, that was, Cary Grant.

Page 22 The Irish Mining Millionaire The Rags to Riches Story of Dublin’s John Mackay. Liz Scales reports.

Page 24 The Thaw of the Third Pole: China’s Glaciers in Retreat Glaciers in China’s bleak, rugged Qilian Mountains are disappearing at a shocking rate. Martin Quin Pollard reports.

Page 30 Snakes and Sewage Crumbling walls, sewage leaking into homes, dangerous loose wires - and sometimes, snakes. Life in Soweto, South Africa’s biggest township. Kim Harrisberg reports.

Page 34 Eating Plastic.

How much plastic are you eating?

Matthew Stock reports.

Regulars

20/21 – Photo World 26/27 – Screen Scene 37 - Dear Liz – Problems 38 - Book reviews

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@BigIssue Ireland

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Issues: Talking Point

Democracy Under Threat

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n light of recent events at Capitol Hill in Washington, one may ask - is democracy under threat - and is silencing controversial figures the answer, or is it merely fanning the flames? Sineád Dunlop reports:

As dangerous online conspiracy theories have led to mass shootings, anti-vaccination protests and death threats to politicians, we have to ask - Is democracy under threat through the propagation of fake news, conspiracy theories on social media and lies spread by powerful political leaders.

Politicians who facilitate this behaviour are equally to blame putting political careers ahead of the well being of their constituents. Are we at risk however of breeding frustration by removing people’s voices?

We have conspiracy theories on the right, we have cancel culture on the left and we are swamped with information non-stop. If someone of influence states an opinion not shared by the masses, they are ‘Cancelled’ (a 2020 term for boycotting someone) while conspiracy theories from the likes of QAnon (who were recently among the crowd that stormed the US Capitol building) disseminate unfounded information as ‘facts’ including the theory that President Trump was waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and the media.

We cannot, however allow fake news and conspiracy theories to undermine democracy, but by the same token, de-platforming is just exacerbating this already hostile situation. The US is now in one of the most vulnerable phases of American democracy since the Civil War. Admittedly, Facebook has been doing their bit to pull flyers calling for ‘Stop the Steal’ adjacent events using digital fingerprinting (the same process it uses to remove terrorist content from ISIS and Al Qaeda) but is removing someone’s voice - no matter how controversial, causing more harm?

What we’re left with is a collapse in politically legitimacy - there’s large groups of people who think the law doesn’t apply to them anymore, which in turn makes the world a more dangerous place for the rest of us. Cancelling people (in recent times JK Rowling and academic Jordan Peterson spring to mind) and silencing voices prevents inclusive dialogue, which in turn will result in those in the minority, on any issue, not having their views considered - and when we silence a group, sometimes that anger and frustration bubbles into violence.

Whether we agree with people’s opinions or not they must be heard or we will have a repeat of what happened in Washington. It’s frightening how quickly brute force can seem like the only answer. Leaders have responsibilities and clearly telling lies to the public and inflaming their passions to the point of rioting with resultant loss of life is impeachable.

Is de-platforming really the answer?

If those responsible for disseminating fake news that incites people to the point of violence continue to propagate their views then something has to be done. Perhaps the time has come for some degree of accountability for online content. Newsprint are held accountable - so why not social media.

People should be obliged to register on social media, with proof of identity before putting their views online.

Thus without censoring social media people would be accountable for what they say and could be banned or prosecuted. Public figures Tweets and posts should simply be flagged as opinion/fact thus allowing the figure to state their views but allowing the reader to view the content as potentially untrue and form their own opinion as to the legitimacy of the content..

True accountability and the end of trolling would then surely come to pass and social media would once again become a force for good.

What do you think? Have your say @BigIssueTwitter.

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Issues Life

Letter to my Younger Self Orla Guerin

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ach issue we ask a well-known face to write a letter to their 16-year-old self. This issue, 54-year-old, Dublin-born Orla Guerin MBE, award-winning journalist and news presenter has a few words for her teenage self.

Dear 16-year-old self, Let’s start with some practical advice. Start taking driving lessons so you can pass your test - admittedly you’ll have to sit it twice. Next, get a passport. You are going to work your way through a stack of those. But all that comes later. For now, your world doesn’t stretch much further than Whitehall Dublin 9 ( this was before the Eircode era). As a self-respecting Northsider, you don’t cross the Liffey too often.

Be grateful for the accident of geography, and timing.

You were born in Dublin in 1966. Irish society wasn’t perfect. It had a very long way to go. But you had a free education .

All you had to do was walk to the school down the road. And you had free speech.

You could express your opinions without fear of disappearing in the dead of night.

That’s not true for 16-year-olds you will meet in years to come in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt and Iraq.

You’ve just started a part-time job in Penney’s in Mary Street, tidying shelves and working on a cash register.

You are “a Saturday girl”, getting teased and helped by the full-time staff. You have a name tag, and a pay packet. The wages are decent and the experience is priceless.

Savour every moment with your dear Mum and

Dad – ask 1,000 questions about their young days.

They lived through very different times, in a very different Ireland. But they don’t speak of hardships or sacrifices.

Know how very blessed you are that these caring, generous and thoroughly decent people are your parents. Here’s one small example. Your Dad sometimes stops at bus stops to offer people a lift – especially if they are elderly, or the weather is cold. Of course, at 16 you find that a little mortifying.

When true friends cross your path – and they will – hold on tight. Head to Bewley’s for tea and buns (this was before lattes and croissants arrived in Dublin). Stay up talking until 4.00 in the morning.

Collapse in helpless laughter over hopeless crushes.

Build those bonds and those memories. Your friends, along with your family, will be the great treasure of your life. And hang on to those photos of your teenage self. They will be a source of hilarity in the future. I swear those leg warmers/ frilly shirts/saucer-like clip-on earrings were the height of fashion.

A year from now, at 17, you will do the leaving cert and start a Journalism course in the College of Commerce.

It’s a two-year certificate, not a degree. In those days that was enough to get you started in journalism, with an NUJ card (National Union of Journalists) in your pocket.

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Your voyage across the river to Rathmines is the start of a journey that will take you around the world. You will see revolutions, and attempted coups, the collapse of totalitarian regimes, and the birth of democracies. You will freeze on frontlines in the Balkans, fly in countless helicopters, and cross the Red Sea in a cattle ship (full of cockroaches). More than 30 years on, you will still be in motion.

I’d like to tell you that you planned the whole thing, carefully mapping out your path. You did nothing of the sort. You found something you loved and kept putting one foot in front of the other. There was hard graft, but there was also plenty of luck. It wasn’t all smooth sailing. Nothing is. For anyone. So, ask for advice and for help. Many people are more than willing to share what they know with those who are starting out. They remember what it was like.

A few other tips. Sunblock is a very good thing, crisps are not a food group, and fretting is not a hobby.

Remember this great line, which may or may not have come from Mark Twain - “I have lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”

And while we are at it, tuck this quote up your sleeve - “when you are going through hell, keep going”. It’s often attributed to Winston Churchill. Apparently, he didn’t say it. Never mind. It’s good advice all the same.

Be curious and be persistent. Get ready for failures and detours. As the years go by, keep applying for those jobs that are way out of your league. Eventually you will get one. Aim high and keep working hard, but maybe go a little easier on yourself. You are human and flawed.

Orla Guerin in Dahiyan Yemen

And – newsflash - so is everyone else.

Watch out for the boys’ club (old or new) – it’s lurking in the long grass. At 16 that never crossed your mind.

You thought the battles for equality had been fought and won by trailblazers in previous generations. Every time you get a job pluck up the courage to ask your male counterparts what they are earning. Many will be happy to tell you. Fight for equality for yourself, and for others. There is still work to be done.

Always remember how different things might have been if you had grown in a refugee camp in the Middle East, or in a Direct Provision centre in Ireland, or if you were born to a young unmarried woman, who had been forced into an Irish Mother and Baby home. That was still happening in the 1960’s when you came into the world.

Imagine all the obstacles you might have faced. Your 16-year-old self might not have a safe, warm home, a part-time job, and the opportunity to get a third level education. So be forever grateful.

It all this sounds like a mammoth to-do list, sorry and get used to it. There will be plenty more in your future. I am still writing them now - at the age of 54.

I leave you with a wonderful wish from the late Seamus Heaney. It’s a phrase inscribed on his tombstone, but it is a credo to live by. “Walk on air, against your better judgement.”

Always remember how difficult things might have been if you had grown up in a refugee camp in the Middle East, or in a Direct Provision centre in Ireland.

Follow Orla on Twitter @OrlaGuerin 7

Life issues

A Victim of Violence and his Fight to Prevent it “It could just as well have been the other way around”

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hristoph Rickels is a victim of violence. After he was punched by a jealous young man on a night out, his life was no longer as it was before. He woke up from a four-month long coma severely disabled. But that is only half of the story. Previously, Rickels himself often used violence. Today he runs his own prevention project called ‘First Togetherness’. Anne Brockmann reports.

“I went on holiday to Turkey. I went to the barber and travelled back to the hotel on a motorbike.”

A life changing blow

The amnesia occurred after a brain haemorrhage with a subsequent induced coma. The brain haemorrhage was the result of a punch to Rickels’ chin. When he was This scene of Christoph Rickels’ life is nothing special. punched, he was 20 years old. He actually planned to It has no significant background and no severe consequences. It is utterly indifferent. And for this very move from his home village in East Frisia to southern reason he becomes aggravated when recounting it.

Germany, in order to train to be a member of the military police there. In his free time, he was a party animal and for his farewell, he wanted to party hard in a club with his friends one At 1.51am, Rickels no longer cares more time. about anything. He lies on the floor Brawny, loud At 1.51am, Rickels no longer cares about unconscious, after the enraged mouthed and anything.

He lies on the floor unconscious, boyfriend’s fist crashed into his chin. in the mood to after the enraged boyfriend’s fist crashed drink – this is how into his chin. he entered the nightclub Dinis in Aurich on 28 September 2007.

Soon he spotted a flirtatious acquaintance at the bar who he wanted to party with through the night. He didn’t care that she had a boyfriend. He also Photos: Sebastian Fuchs didn’t care that this boyfriend was also in Dinis that “Why do I remember such an irrelevant thing and the night. At 1.51am, Rickels no longer cares about anything. important things don’t come to mind?”

He lies on the floor unconscious, after the enraged boyfriend’s fist crashed into his chin. The force of the he asks, both furious and exasperated. 13 years ago, punch spins Rickels’ body into a half turn before he Rickels lost his memory and since then, the memories hits the stone floor face first. A new life begins for him of his life come back only fragmentarily. In fact, he after that. puzzled together his biography and his identity with the help of accounts from other people.

Eating, talking and walking – nothing works anymore

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He awakened from his coma severely disabled. Eating, talking and walking – he must learn these basic things

again. And he must be told and shown by others who “I was a little show-off, a cool macho man,” he told the he is. The most varied accounts, photos and documents seventh graders back then and showed them that it are arduously assembled into a plausible whole and turned him into a “cripple”. “Do we have to beat each feel as similar as possible. When he is getting to know other to be cool?” himself, Christoph he threw into the room. Meeting with the pupils Rickels does not was a green light for him. “Damn Rickels, primarily your life is still worth something,” he said “It could just as well have been the other way meet a to himself on the way home. Christoph around,” victim, but Rickels made the plan to declare war on he is certain, when he thinks of the outcome of the a culprit. violence. evening...

One who liked to look for Redefining ‘coolness’ trouble in order to express Rickels founded the initiative ‘First Togetherness’ to themselves. One who preferred fists to words when it make it clear to young people that violence is by no came to sorting things out. One who liked to call the means cool, and wrote a book, which was published in shots – as a student representative, as a chairman of a 2020 under the title Blow of Fate. ‘Coolness’ is a pivotal district association for the Young Union of Germany. point for him. He notices that it is often nasty, repulsive “How often did I hit someone in the chin?” he asks, and physically superior types of people who act as cool knowing full well that it was too often. “It could just as role models for young people. But Rickels thinks that well have been the other way around,” he is certain, coexisting in harmony can also be cool. He would like when he thinks of the outcome of the evening in to change the definition of ‘coolness’. To do this, he Aurich. This perception leads him to transform his grief, goes to classrooms, prisons and TV shows. There Rickels to become productive - not immediately but bit by bit. and his discussion partners engage with questions like “What is the problem behind violence?” or “Why don’t Being disabled makes you lonely we all try to be good to one another, instead of trying But before he completely found himself again, he lost to be better than others?” himself - in fantasies of revenge and in loneliness.

Because Rickels experienced that “being disabled makes you lonely” and that weighed on him heavier The most frequent question he is asked is about his than anything else. During his time in hospital, the roles new life. Would he trade it for his old life if he could? became clearer to him. He was the patient, his friends The answer is always clear – “No!” The experience of the visitors. Later that appeared to be different, more violence and its serious consequences have allowed complicated. Rickels was no longer a patient but, above Christoph Rickels to mature in character. And today he all, no longer the friend you could do a carefree pub can identify more clearly to himself than to the guy crawl with. Friends no longer found a common ground from before. in the relationship and Rickels was often alone.

Translated from German by Sarah Gallery In 2010, around three years after he was knocked onto Courtesy of Trott-war / INSP.ngo the floor in Dinis, his cousin asked him whether he could picture himself speaking in front of her class on the topic of violence - he should tell his story.

Raack, Christoph Rickels: Blow of Fate. Perpetrator, victim, activist – why I declare war on violence. Edels Books 9

Interview

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Jeffrey Archer on Trump, Perjury and Motivation in his Eighties

amantha McMurdock recently caught up with former MP and now best-selling novelist Jeffrey Archer, who’s book Kane and Abel has been read by 100 million people.

Tell us about your new novel ‘Hidden in Plain Sight.’

It’s the second of the William Warwick stories, the first, of course being ‘Nothing Ventured’ which was when William

“I’m a storyteller....” joined the

Metropolitan Police Force in spite of his father, a distinguished Q.C. wanting him to go to Oxford and read law. Young William goes to the police force and advances through the ranks to go to Scotland Yard and investigate a missing Rembrandt. In Hidden in Plain Sight he’d advanced to a Detective Sergeant and he’s put in charge of discovering who’s running the drugs trade south of the river…… and if I tell you any more, I shall spoil it.

Where do you find your inspiration?

I’m lucky, it just comes. I’m a storyteller and that’s a God-given gift.

Your mum had a column in your local newspaper The Weston Mercury and would often complain that her son Tuppence (her pet name for Jeffrey) would never learn the value of money.

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I think that’s a comment that could be made about most young men. I had a wonderful mother. We had no money, in fact we were very poor. I come from Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, my father died when I was young and my mother had to scrape to get by; of course she would go on to become a local counsellor and take a degree at the age of 52 but life was not easy financially.

Had my mother been born in this generation she’d have had a very different life.

I can just imagine she’d have had more opportunity,she’d have gone off to university as young woman, but times were very different back then.

What drives you and does it differ from what drove you as a young man?

When you’re 80, I’m only driven to stay alive pleeeeaaase [squeals] and finish my next book pleeeeeease .

In the third book William will progress and deal with police corruption and that will be called Turn a Blind Eye but that’s not out for another nine months.

Are you ever temped to dip your toe back into politics?

I love politics and keep a very close eye. I’ve loved following the American election and what’s happening

in Downing Street. It’s so different to the days I worked with Margaret Thatcher and John Major. This modern group are so different, but so be it, we move on.

Who are some of your own favourite authors?

I come from a broken family, I voted to remain, my wife voted to leave so this discussion goes on very regularly but unlike President Trump, I accept the fact I lost. I accept the fact I was beaten and feel that the people have decided so let’s get on with it. I think we shall have to make the best of Brexit and hope we get a good deal.

My favourite author is Stefan Zweig who escaped from Austria during the rise of Hitler and Jeffrey, when you realised you were going to be went to live in New York and wrote exposed as a perjurer, what was your first ..it’s almost impossible to two very remarkable novels. He reaction? succeed at anything if you’re lazy. was more famous for his nonfiction, his work on Europe and [A long silence]. Samantha, that was 25 the rise of Hitler has never been years ago ….. 25 years, how do you expect equalled in opinion, but ‘Beware of Pity’ me to remember my first reaction……? is his masterpiece - it’s an amazing story. You must read it.

Most people admire your ability to overcome adversity in life, what is it that gives you that ability to Do you enjoy fame? bounce back bigger and better?

Yes! [Laughs]. I’m not going to lie, I really love it. I enjoy lots of people writing to me and telling me how much they enjoy the books and are looking forward to the next one. It’s a very great honour, whether it be a 12-year-old in India who wrote to me this morning or a 97-year-old in California who wrote to me yesterday.

Countless letters pour in with every post and emails too. It’s very flattering and touching.

That’s a very interesting questions, because I decided in old age that energy is a genuine gift. You can’t pop down to Marks & Spencers to buy a packet of it. You can wonder at it when you see it in other people, but it’s almost impossible to succeed at anything if you’re lazy, so I think, after all these years, energy is something I accept as a gift that has given me a real chance in life.

Do you think politicians have a duty to be good role models?

330 million copies of your books have been sold, so you’ve clearly got a lot of energy.

I think we should remember they’re human. If we’re perfect ourselves, by all means criticise, but if you’re not perfect - then shut up!

It’s crazy!

With all the fake news do you think Britons were misinformed about Brexit?

Don’t go into Parliament at 29. That was my biggest mistake. I became a Member of Parliament way too young and looking back I realise I should have waited until I was 40 or 45. I got in too young, telling people what to do before I had lived and the power went to my head. I was very privileged and very lucky to represent the people of Louth at the age of 29, but it did me no favours.

Well, I think everyone was, in every country on earth.

That’s the sort of question though that you’ll need to ring me a year today to ask, because we’ll have the figures and facts by then. Making a quick judgement now is neither sensible or intelligent and I understand why some politicians are driven mad, because they might turn out to be 100% right or 100% wrong but I don’t think it’s a judgement that can be made now.

The media is responsible for influencing many of our opinions with a lot of bias editorial and misinformation, as witnessed with the aforementioned Brexit and Trump presidency, what’s your opinion on the bias in newspapers, the internet etc.

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What advice, if any would you give 16-year-old Jeffrey?

And finally, how would you like to be remembered?

Well, 37 million people have purchased Kane and Abel and 100 million have read it, it’s on to its 137th edition.

I would hope that 100 years from now it’s on its 237th edition and that 200 million people would have read it.

Hidden in Plain Sight, the new novel from Jeffrey is available now in book shops & online.

Making a Difference

Liverpool’s Andy Robertson ‘puts rivalries aside’ to tackle food poverty

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iverpool and Scotland defender Andy Robertson has been helping food banks since long before the COVID-19 pandemic. He speaks to The Big Issue about Marcus Rashford and why the time is now for football to come together to beat hunger. Liam Geraghty reports.

In football’s traditional tribal circles, Andy Robertson could not be any more different to Marcus Rashford.

Defence versus attack, Liverpool versus Manchester United, Scotland versus England, the pair find themselves on opposite sides of old, often-bitter rivalries in normal sporting times.

But these are not normal sporting times.

young people get on in the world at a time when opportunities are thin on the ground, whether due to financial hardship or illness.

Recently, he has joined forces with Street Soccer Scotland (SSS), following Sir Alex Ferguson in becoming an ambassador for the social enterprise that helps vulnerable people through football.

The homelessness charity has won the Homeless World Cup twice with their Scotland teams, so aside from mentoring players and offering life advice he might even pick up a few World Cup tips for his own Scotland side.

Speaking from Liverpool’s Melwood training ground, Robertson insists that, now more than ever, football is united against child food poverty.

“Marcus is a credit to everyone in Euro 2020 Qualification Play off - Scotland the way he goes v Israel. Andy Robertson celebrates winning the about his business penalty shoot out, REUTERS/Russell Cheyne But all this is and, of course, I’m nothing new. Even sure he wished he before COVID-19 put food poverty into the spotlight, didn’t have to do it either,” says Robertson. “We’re Robertson was doing his bit to help out food banks. all in the situation where people need to In March, at the start of the pandemic, start doing things and he’s at the he donated cash to help six food top of that tree just now.

“We can at least give people a banks around Glasgow while meal each day and make sure they’re the national debate centred “He’s a credit to football. fed whatever their circumstances Forget any rivalry, it’s nothing on whether top-tier footballers are...” because we all have the same should take a pay cut to help out. view as Marcus on this. He is He has previously forged links with Fans definitely making his voice heard.”

Supporting Foodbanks – a group of Everton and Liverpool fans taking on food poverty in Merseyside Scotland captain Robertson may not have been – encouraging donations and volunteering at a sharing phone calls with Boris Johnson and triggering government u-turns in recent months, like Liverpool food bank in 2018.

Rashford, but he has been quietly using his Premier League platform to help others. He launched his new charity AR26 in November to help 12

The Scot says that conversations about food poverty and worries and fears for the future are just as prevalent among players on the Liverpool training ground as they are elsewhere.

“We’re socially conscious, of course we are.

Our chat in the last couple of months on the training ground is probably no different than a lot of people’s workplaces,” says Robertson.

“We’re in fortunate positions but some of our family face uncertainty, our friends face uncertainty and, of course, the wider community do so we are very conscious of it.

“We’re very concerned about how it’s all going to pan out, but if we can help in any way possible then we’ll look to do that.

We’re not going to solve the problem that thepandemic has left alone.

“But if everyone pulls in the right direction, then we can hopefully get the economy back to where it was and get people back in work. People don’t want to rely on benefits or food banks because work is their community and it is their life and that’s been taken away from them through unforeseen circumstances.”

at Queen’s Park and using that opportunity to elevate him where he is today.

Even though he is now in a different world of Premier League pay packets, the need for that first opportunity and life’s essentials to be taken care of is not lost on him.

“We can at least give people a meal each day and make sure they’re fed whatever their circumstances are,” he concludes. “It doesn’t sit well with me if we don’t.

“It’s incredible the amount of people that rely on food banks, it’s scary. And, unfortunately, that number is only going to get higher with what’s going on in the world just knowing people are losing jobs and things like that.

“So people that are fortunate enough to have a job and get paid well – I believe we can give that back because these people need us now probably more than ever.”

Robertson’s own upbringing is the driving force not only behind his on-field successes, but his off-field focus too.

Robertson’s letter to a young Liverpool fan who donated pocket money to a food bank went viral in 2018.

Growing up in the staunchly working class Maryhill area of Glasgow, the 26 year old is open about the challenges of his upbringing.

Robertson describes his family as “by no means well-off” but he clung on to being “fortunate to have a roof over our head and dinner on the table every night”.

Back then, he sent a signed shirt from Brazilian forward Robert Firmino to the boy, quipping “no one wants the left-back’s shirt”.

It’s a reality of life that has stuck with him throughout an already glittering football career. That has faced adversity too – Robertson was dropped by boyhood club Celtic as a teenager before making the grade

As football’s goalposts have shifted to tackling food poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic and our sporting heroes’ social contributions are also acknowledged, Robertson’s shirt may now be a sought-after symbol of hope for hard-hit fans.

Courtesy of INSP.ngo / The Big Issue UK bigissue.com @BigIssue

......describes his family as, “by no means well-off” but he clung on to being “fortunate to have a roof over our head and dinner on the table every night.”

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Philippine Students Determined to Study as School Gates Stay Locked As students complain in Ireland about the difficulties in studying during the pandemic, think of what it is like for students in the Philippines. Eloisa Lopez reports.

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opes for a return to classrooms in the Philippines this month have been dashed after President Rodrigo Duterte reversed a plan to trial in-person classes in low-risk areas, postponing any reopening indefinitely as the Philippines battles over 480,000 coronavirus infections, the second-highest number in Southeast Asia. The shift to online learning has proven extremely challenging in a country of 108 million where less than a fifth of households have internet access and many lack mobile devices.

Since the pandemic forced him into remote learning, 10-yearold Jhay Ar Calma has often had to climb on to the corrugated iron roof of his home in a poor neighbourhood of Manila to get an internet signal.

Like many students in her community, she relies on a scholarship and fears she may lose it if she is unable to keep up with lessons.

Still, Gonzaga is resolved to continue online classes rather than risk infection attending university.

“The pandemic is no reason for me to stop learning,” she said.

Mark Joseph Andal, 18, who lives in San Juan, Batangas province, has taken a parttime job in construction to purchase a smartphone for virtual classes and has also built a forest shelter to capture an internet signal.

When the signal fades, Andal picks up his plastic chair to move to Up on the roof, he another spot, sits on a broken and if it rains, plastic basin and he holds the hopes there’ll be phone in one a signal strong hand and an enough for his umbrella in the governmentother.

Jhay Ar Calma, 10, a grade 5 student, sits on the issued device.

Andal says he roof of his home as he takes part in an online class has no choice.

“Sometimes using a tablet, due to weak internet connection in his “We’re not rich, we change the area, REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez and finishing SIM card to a school is my different provider only way to repay my parents for raising me.” so he doesn’t have to study on the roof, but there’s rarely enough Andal admits he was both relieved and scared when he heard money to spare for that,” said schools might reopen. The trying circumstances have made him Calma’s mother Jonalyn Parulan. The shift to online classes, more determined to succeed. self-learning modules and television and radio programmes has “I want to be more active in class, I want to persevere more, to proven extremely challenging in a country of 108 million where improve myself despite the situation I’m in,” he said. less than a fifth of households have internet access and many Many families also struggle with home tutoring. lack mobile devices. Already, there has been a surge in students Lovely Joy de Castro, 11, who lives at a makeshift home in a Manila dropping out of school, according to the education ministry. cemetery, sometimes studies sitting on gravestones to avoid getting under the feet of her family cooking chicken to sell to n Laguna province, south of Manila, students trek up a mountain visitors. to get internet access, and have even built a hut to provide shelter “I know we haven’t given her enough guidance with school,” said when it rains and to sleep when they work late into the nights on Castro’s grandmother Angeline Delos Santos, “but if we don’t take assignments. care of our business, we would have nothing to feed the kids.”

“I just hope that she finishes school, gets a good job, and This situation is a far cry from the university life Rosemine ultimately finds a life outside this cemetery,” said Santos.

Gonzaga, 19, had anticipated. “I was really excited for college because all my life I’ve been here in the mountains,” Gonzaga said, explaining how the pandemic had thwarted her plans for aindependent life in the town.

Courtesy of Reuters / INSP.ngo 14

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Tales of Hollywood

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Cary Grant - The Tortured Chameleon

e’ve never had a movie-star before or since Cary Grant who was so debonair and suave, yet accessible and for over three decades he was Tinsel Town’s favourite leading man, women loved him, men admired him - yet despite many referring to him as friend - or even family, very, very few actually knew him. Shaun Anthony takes a look at the enigma, that was, Mr. Cary Grant.

Archie became more and more disheveled. He’d often walk down to the Bristol Docks hoping some man would take pity on him and offer employment as a cabin boy so he could escape his depressing existence.

His father came home one night and announced he was to marry (the woman who’d been his mistress). The pair quickly started a family and Archie, it seems was too much of a reminder of Elsie and so would instinctively keep himself out of the way.

Born Archibald Alexander Leach on 18 January 1904, young Archie would become both the apple of his mother Elsie’s eye and her patsy interchangeably.

Archie’s father Elias worked in a clothes factory and by all accounts was a functional alcoholic. Elsie and Elias had had a son (John) in 1899 but he died before Archie was born. Elsie who had struggled with low mood her whole life was thrust into full-blown clinical depression, which sadly lent itself to an all-consuming obsession with Archie, which not only left Elias feeling neglected by his wife but meant Archie and his father never really bonded.

Homelife was not pleasant; Elsie was a typical classconscious Victorian and believed she’d married down, ensuring Elias knew it in every argument. Elias worked every With Audrey Hepburn in hour he could get as a trouser Charade presser so that Archie could be dressed in the finest something Elias abhorred.

Young Archie knew his parents fought about him constantly and so when he came home from school one day, aged 9 and his mother was gone - he blamed himself. Elias had had Elsie committed to a mental asylum - an institution she resided in for the next 21 years. Archie would routinely ask where his mother was, to which his father would vaguely reply, “She’s gone away for a rest,” and eventually, “She’s dead.”

When the days, weeks, months and years passed, Archie became more and more consumed with the notion that he was bad, he was to blame - he was such an awful boy that his mother had left him. This would impact young Archie for the rest of his life and expressed itself in a lifelong distrust of women, a desperate need to be approved of and a deep yearning for a maternal presence. Elias was now constantly in a drunken stupor so Archie had to take care of himself. Days would go by without any food, the house was always freezing and

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Archie’s education ended just after his 14th birthday when he was expelled from the prestigious boarding school he’d won a scholarship to. When the authorities tried to contact Elias, they discovered that young Archie had been living alone - his father had moved to Southampton with his wife and left the boy to fend for himself in squalor.

It would transpire that Archie had been stealing in the local town to survive, but was caught - hence the expulsion (although Cary Grant would later change the account stating he was caught peeking into the girls’ bathroom!)

Determined not to move to Southampton and in the radar of the authorities, Archie roamed the streets, looking for work. As a master of savoir faire, one afternoon he walked into Bristol Hippodrome, got talking to a manager and was offered employment calling actors to the stage. To say Leach found this magical was an understatement, he was quickly absorbed into the world of the performers, loved observing them metamorphose from their everyday look to character - and most of all, he wanted what they were receiving: applause, laughter, affirmation and what he perceived as love from the audience.

Archie immediately joined a local drama group Penders Troupe where he hoped to pick up the skills that would get him a foot in the door. Learning stilt walking, prat falling and entertaining an audience were all skills Leach quickly excelled at - but most important to the Bristol teen - he’d found himself a new family of sorts and women who would mother him.

Young Archie knew his father didn’t want him in Southampton so he used this to his advantage and got him to sign a 3-year contract with Penders Troupe which included room, board and a wage. Elias swiftly obliged and Archie set about making a new life for himself.

Grant began modelling himself on his role-model, Douglas Fairbanks and became, what was later termed, “the epitome of masculine glamour.” Industry bosses liked working with Grant because he had “genuine charm” that they felt made it easy to cast co-stars.

From 1933-1935 Grant’s salary steadily rose until he was bringing home $750 a week. When his contract came to an end, he decided not to renew it but became freelance - the first ever freelance actor in Hollywood, and a decision that would net him a fortune, enabling him to move into the genre of film he felt suited his style best - the screwball comedy, which produced hits like Topper, The Awful Truth and Bringing up Baby? Despite appearing nonchalant and aristocratic, he

Leach loved travelling the country with his new makeshift family. At 16, the Troupe travelled to the U.S. where they performed 12 times-per-week for 9 months at the New York Hippodrome (which was the largest theatre in the world, with a capacity of almost 6,000). When the show was finished and Penders Troupe was going back to the U.K., Archie decided to stay in the U.S. as he had nothing to go home for and felt he could make a life Stateside.

spent almost every waking moment battling overwhelming anxiety, and what we now term Imposters Syndrome. It should be no surprise then that Grant was married 5 times, but the voices in his head would never let him relax and enjoy the moment.

He found the company of women difficult and unsurprisingly always saw his mother in them, which was comforting at the start, but would eventually irritate him.

Grant would spent the next few years travelling the U.S. as a vaudeville act and taking acting jobs where he could find them - although many believed his acting wasn’t up to scratch.

He would often find himself unemployed and would take his stilts down to Coney Island and advertise for local businesses for $5 a day or sell ties from a suitcase to get by.

Archie was persistent - even when repeatedly turned away Days would go by without from studios after screen He spent his whole life in therapy, any food ... the house was always tests, he would show up attempted suicide and eventually freezing... again, going through the list found LSD to be the only of faults, disputing each one thing that quietened his mind. (he once argued that he was When Grant wasn’t doubting his not bow-legged, nor did he have a professional abilities, or questioning thick neck!) his self-worth, he turned his attentions to his body, his tan, his clothes. It seemed Cary At 27 and tired of rejections, Archie decided to Grant never escaped Archie Leach, the unkempt boy, load everything he owned into his car and drove to thin from malnourishment and constantly freezing, Hollywood where he’d organised a screen test with Grant would exercise and tan each day, wore nothing Paramount Pictures. Starving for success, Leach but the finest, tailored clothing and insisted that the delved deep into the pain and darkness of his soul and heat was always on - he appeared to fear anything that channelled that unresolved angst into his screen test. reminded him of his past, yet was strangely drawn to Studio bosses offered him a contract on the spot - but reflecting on it - even travelling back to Bristol to stand only if he’d change his name “to something American”, outside his house - looking, thinking. so Cary Grant was swiftly born.

Of course it can’t have helped that Grant would

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discover that his mother wasn’t in fact dead, but very much alive and in Bristol Lunatic Asylum when he was 30 (his father, who was dying of alcoholism, summoned him home to break the news) and already very famous. One can barely imagine how he processed this revelation, grieved the loss of those years with his mother and dealt with his anger towards his father. He did orchestrate her discharge and cared for her the rest of her life - but something was missing - the connection was gone and no matter how hard he tried to reignite

it, the embers were cold.

The only things that brought Grant any happiness in life were his daughter Jennifer (whom he had with actress Dyan Cannon and described as “my greatest production”), dropping acid, his long-term friendship with live-in ‘best friend’ Randolph Scott and eventually - the relief that came with retirement, when he could remove the mask that was Cary Grant, yet strangely, even with the mask removed, no one, bar, perhaps Randolph ever knew the real him.

Cary with Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief

With then wife, Dyan Cannon & daughter Jennifer

With Ingrid Bergman in Notorious

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When Cary Grant died, aged 82 in 1986 there was much speculation about his sexuality - former female lovers claimed he was a passionate lover, while many fans speculate he was in fact bisexual but couldn’t come out due to the times. There were stories of great generosity, like financially supporting his good pal, playwright Clifford Odets until the end of his life to downright miserliness, writing out itemised bills for houseguests and staff. Living with crippling anxiety about falling back in to poverty was probably the cause of this - we know that that was one of his biggest fears - losing everything and being poor, cold, hungry Archie again. This is why many relationships didn’t work with wives and lovers - Grant’s moods could change and he was convinced the woman in his life was trying to control him like his mother.

Cary Grant’s life was blighted with crippling insecurities and anxiety which probably helped mould him into the chiaroscuro those around him believed they knew - yet no one truly knew Cary Grant, because Cary Grant was purely a figment of Archie Leach - a jumble of all the attributes he admired in other men.

* Cary Grant - A Brilliant Disguise by Scott Eyman (Published by Simon & Schuster) is available now from all good bookstores, online and on Audible.

Relaxing on set with Ingrid Bergman

Cary Grant’s life was blighted with crippling insecurities and anxiety.

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Village of Bever, Switzerland in the winter

Issues: Historical Issues

The Irish Mining Millionaire The Rags to Riches Story of Dublin’s John Mackay

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hen John Mackay died in 1902 he was worth the equivalent of $80 billion today, not bad for a man who started life in a one-room shack with his sister and parents. Liz Scales reports.

John William Mackay was born in Dublin in 1831 in a one-room hovel he shared with his parents, sister and a pig. When he was 9 the family emigrated to the infamous Five Point slum in Lower Manhattan, a densely populated, disease-ridden, crime-infested slum and his father died soon after. Impoverished, young John who had a debilitating stutter had to get a job and hawked the New York Herald and when he came of age apprenticed at a local shipyard to support his mother and sister. Mackay lacked confidence and was known, wherever he went for his exquisite manners, likeable nature and generosity, despite having very little.

For 8 years he laboured, digging along the Yuba and American rivers and in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Gold mining was hard, dirty and repetitive.

Success or failure depended on life’s luck of the draw and a man could easily dig an entire season…and finish poorer than when he started, which was the case for Mackay.

John Mackay

As gold fever swept the nation in 1848, John was eager to seek his fortune, but couldn’t leave the family until his sister was old enough to work. In 1851, aged 19, that time finally arrived and he moved across the country to the town of Downieville, California.

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In 1859, penniless and disheartened, John followed fellow Irishmen and walked 100 miles to Sierra Nevadas where there was news of big gold and silver finds. Mackay wasn’t digging for himself, but rather working for one of the bigger consortiums that were tearing up the mountain. His plan - to gain expertise and start out on his own.

Mackay soon became a mining contractor, accepting shares in mines in exchange for driving tunnels and constructing timber shorings. When the value of these shares soared, Mackay had enough capital to broaden his activities. Realising that as much money could be made by processing ore as by mining it, he built a profitable mill in the heart of the Gold Hill mining district.

Mackay buys a share in a mine.

In 1865 he formed a partnership with James C. Flood, James G. Fair, and William S. O’Brien and they bought a share in a mine. Their firm soon gained control of the most valuable properties on the Comstock. Their insight in acquiring properties was demonstrated in 1873, when they struck the Big Bonanza, a shelf of ore that produced more than $100 million worth of gold and silver. At just 34, Mackay was a very, very wealthy man who’d gone from earning $4 a day to nearly $500,000 per month.

to cripple the Commercial Cable Company by denying it the right to use Western Union lines in the U.S. Mackay consolidated numerous small telegraph companies into a new nationwide organisation, the Postal Telegraph Company!

Mackay diversifies his portfolio.

The town Mackay, Idaho is named in his honour as he owned the local copper mines.

The nearby Mackay Peak in the White Knob Mountains is also named after him. Mackay appears several times as a character in the novel 'Comstock Lode' by Louis L’Amour.

Americans find Mackay eccentric.

It would be an understatement to say the Americans found Mackay eccentric. He didn’t eat in restaurants, he lived very humbly, ate corned beef and cabbage for Mackay meets and marries a dinner and drove a one pony trap. A deeply honest widow. man, everything had to be calculated fairly and even when he established his bank, In 1866 John marhe insisted on fair deals for miners in ...they struck the Big Bonanza, a ried Marie Louise terms of interest rates. A philanthroshelf of ore that produced more Hungerford. pist, he built a railroad line over the than $100 million worth of gold and Marie and John mountains so fresh water could be silver. were snubbed brought to Nevada, helped finance the

by New York sociNew York, Texas and Mexican Railway ety as John being nouCompany and he gave large sums of money veau-riche and Irish and Marie away regularly, especially to the Catholic Church and having been a poverty-stricken widow did not make financed the Catholic orphan asylum in Virginia City, for ‘polite society.’ Marie had two young children to her Nevada. Mackay remembered poverty vividly and gave first husband but one later died in infancy. John hated generously to those experiencing difficult times. the effect the snubbing had on his wife’s mental health and he bought her the biggest mansion that money John Mackay, one of the world’s richest men died of could buy in Paris (her daughter would later marry a heart failure on 20 July 1902 in London with his wife prince, taking with her a $2.5m dowry) and Marie Louand a priest. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery ise held countless parties showcasing her tremendous in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn; his mausoleum was lifestyle. This kind of living was not John’s style and he described in 2018, by Scribner Associate Editor Sarah certainly never enjoyed it but he played along to make Goldberg, as "by far the most impressive mausoleum in her happy when he was in Paris. the cemetery, atop a shady hill.”

Mackay used his Comstock profits to broaden his business ventures. With Flood and Fair he established the Bank of Nevada, thus controlling the finances of the Comstock as well as its mining operations. Mackay also bought mines in Colorado, Idaho, and Alaska and timber lands and ranches in California. He owned part of the Spreckels Sugar Company and part of the Sprague Elevator and Electrical Works, and he served as a director of the Canadian Pacific and the Southern Pacific railroads.

By the 1880s the Cornstock was near exhaustion. Mackay liquidated his interests. At this time the transatlantic cable was monopolised by Jay Gould. In 1883 Mackay and James Gordon Bennett, publisher of the New York Herald, organised the Commercial Cable Company and soon succeeded in laying a second cable across the Atlantic. The ensuing rate war between the Mackay and Gould interests resulted in a reduction of charges to a third of the established figure. When Gould attempted

“Nice guys get washed away like the snow and the rain…”

Sadly, due to Mackay’s likability and spotless reputation he is mostly forgotten today. In contrast to titans of industry like Andrew Carnegie or railroad magnate and telegraph cable monopolist Jay Gould, Mackay commanded the admiration of people worldwide. The headlines he made generally glowed with admiration, he never abused the public’s trust, his personal style remained unostentatious, and he kept his many philanthropic endeavours quiet.

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s e k Jo

Because laughter is the best medicine!

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couple had two little boys, ages eight and ten, who were excessively mischievous.

The two were always getting into trouble and their parents could be confident that if any mischief occurred in their town, their two young sons were involved in some capacity. The parents were at their wit’s end as to what to do about their sons’ behaviour.

The parents had heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children in the past, so they contacted him, and he agreed to give it his best shot. He asked to see the boys individually, so the eight-year-old was sent to meet with him first. The clergyman sat the boy down and asked him sternly, “Where is God?” The boy made no response, so the clergyman repeated the question in an even sterner tone, “Where is God?” Again the boy made no attempt to answer, so the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy’s face, “WHERE IS GOD?” At that, the boy bolted from the room, ran directly home, and slammed himself in his closet. His older brother followed him into the closet and said, “What happened?”

The younger brother replied, “We are in BIG trouble this time. God is missing and they think we did it!”

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new man is brought into a prison cell.

Already there is a long-time

resident who looks 100 years old.

The new man looks at the old-timer inquiringly. The old-timer says, “Look at me, I’m old and worn out.

You’d never believe that I used to live the life of Riley. I wintered on the Riviera, had a boat, four fine cars, the most beautiful women, and I ate in all the best restaurants of France” The new prisoner asked, ‘What happened”?“ “One day Riley reported his credit cards missing.”

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husband and wife entered the dentist’s office. The husband said, ‘I want a tooth pulled. I don’t want gas or anything because I’m in a terrible hurry. Just pull the tooth as quickly as possible.’

‘You’re a brave man,’ Said the dentist. ‘Now, show me which tooth it is’ The husband turns to his wife and says, ‘Open your mouth and show the dentist which tooth it is, dear.

D

ance like no one is watching Email like it will be read out in a court deposition!

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ow many tickles does it take an Octopus to laugh?

-Ten tickles.

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hat’s the difference between a poorly dressed man on a unicycle and a well-dressed man on a bicycle?

-Attire

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A

long time ago people who sacrifice their sleep, famiy, food, laughter and other joys of life were called SAINTS. But now they are called I.T. professionals.

P

addy goes into a bar and orders seven shots of tequila and one Guinness.

The barman lines up shots and goes to get the Guinness.

When he comes back with the pint, all seven shots are gone.

The barman says: “Wow! You sure drank those fast.”

Paddy explains: “You would drink fast too if you had what I have.”

The barman asks: “What do you have?”

The guy reaches into his pocket and says: “Fifty Cents!”

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illy stops Paddy in Dublin and asks for the quickest way to Cork.

Paddy says: “Are you on foot or in the car?”

Billy replies: “In the car.”

“Well that’s the quickest way,” says Paddy.

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Issues: Film

Screen Scene of Dickinson’s

Dickinson Season 2 **** Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Jane Krakowski, Toby Huss.

Streaming on: (Apple TV+) Run Time: 10 episodes x 45 mins.

Release Date: January 2021 Following hot on the success of Season 1, Alena Smith brings us Season 2 of the coming-of-age historical comedy-drama loosely based on the life of prolific poet Emily Dickinson. Hailee Steinfeld is charming as the mischievous writer who’s never left the public consciousness. Season 2 hints at Emily’s reclusive instincts alongside her burning need for acceptance in the literary world - despite being a woman and terrified of fame. Emily must deal with unrequited love (her best friend and sometimes lover Sue is marrying her brother) and struggles to live the life that’s expected of a young woman of her time.

Dickinson’s imagination is intoxicating - her hallucinatory interactions with ‘Nobody’ and ‘Death’ are deliciously thrilling and bring a couple of her best-loved poems to life. If you enjoyed Season 1, Season 2 is a must.

If you haven’t watched Season 1 - you simply must. One of the best TV series I’ve watched in years.

Being part

kooky world - even for 45 minute intervals was a treat.

Miranda - 3 Seasons *** Starring: Miranda Hart, Tom Ellis, Sarah Hadland, Patrica Lodge.

Streaming on: Britbox Run Time: 20 Episodes x 30 mins.

Release date: January 2021

All episodes of the sitcom starring Miranda Hart, including the first three series and the two-part special finale. After a public school education, socially inept Miranda (Hart) is having trouble fitting in with her peer group, especially her childhood nemesis, Tilly (Sally Phillips). To top it all, Miranda constantly finds herself in awkward situations around men, and in particular, ex-university chum Gary (Tom Ellis). The cast also features Patricia

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Hodge and Sarah Hadland and if you didn’t watch this British sitcom when it first aired in 2009, you’re in for such a treat!

a handheld video camera, the friends record their struggle to survive as New York crumbles around them. If you didn’t see this J.J. Abrams classic back in 2008, now’s your chance.

Losing Alice *** Starring: Ayelet Zurer, Lihl Kornowski Streaming: Apple TV+ Streaming: Apple TV+ Release Date: January 2021

One Night in Miami *** Starring: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge Streaming on: Amazon Prime Run Time:114 mins.

Release Date: January 2021

Losing Alice is a gripping psychological thriller that uses flashbacks andflash-forwards in a satisfyingly complex narrative that takes us through the conscious and subconscious of its protagonist’s mind. The series follows Alice (played brilliantly by Ayelet Zurer), a 48-year-old female film director, who feels irrelevant since raising her family. After a brief encounter on the train, she becomes obsessed with a 24-year-old screenwriter femme fatale, Sophie (played by Lihi Kornowski), and eventually surrenders her moral integrity in order to achieve power, relevance and success.

Through the prism of this female Faust, the series explores issues such as jealousy, guilt, fear of ageing, and the complex relationships women have among themselves and each other. But above all, Losing Alice is a love letter for the still-too-rare female director.

One Night in Miami is a fictional account of one incredible night where young black trailblazers Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown gathered discussing their roles in the civil rights movement and cultural upheaval of the 60s.

Written by Kemp Powers and based on his play of the same name, this is a fantastic story of four black, righteous, unapologetic and famous icons and is simply electrifying.

Cloverfield ** Starring:Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel.

Streaming on: Prime Run Time: 85 mins Release Date: January 2021 As a group of New Yorkers (Michael StahlDavid, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman) enjoy a going-away party, little do they know that they will soon face the most terrifying night of their lives. A creature the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Using

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Environmental Issues

The Thaw of the Third Pole: China’s Glaciers in Retreat

Glaciers in China’s bleak, rugged Qilian mountains are disappearing at a shocking rate as global warming brings unpredictable change and raises the prospect of crippling, longterm water shortages. Martin Quin Pollard reports.

Glaciers in China’s bleak, rugged Qilian mountains are disappearing at a shocking rate as global warming brings unpredictable change and raises the prospect of crippling, longterm water shortages, scientists say.

Qin Xiang director of the Qilian Shan Station of Glaciology and Ecologic Environment, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Jin Zizhen, 27, a PhD student in glacial hydrology. “The speed that this glacier has been shrinking is really shocking.” REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

The largest glacier in the 800 kilometre (500-mile) mountain chain on the arid north eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau has retreated about 450 metres since the 1950s, when researchers set up China’s first monitoring station to study it.

China Academy of Sciences shows.

“When I first came here in 2005, the glacier was around that point there where the river bends,” Qin said, pointing to where the rocky, treeless slopes of the Laohugou valley channel the winding river to lower ground.

The flow of water in a stream near the terminus of the Laohugou No. 12 runoff is about double what it was 60 years ago, Qin said.

The 20-square kilometre glacier, known as Laohugou No. 12, is criss-crossed by rivulets of water down its craggy, grit-blown surface. It has shrunk by about 7 per cent since measurements began, with melting accelerating at a record pace in recent years, scientists say.

Further downstream, near Dunhuang, once a major junction on the ancient Silk Road, water flowing out of the mountains has formed a lake in the desert for the first time in 300 years, state media reported.

Global warming is also blamed for changes in the weather that have brought other unpredictable conditions.

Equally alarming is the loss of thickness, with about 13 metres (42 feet) of ice disappearing as temperatures rise, said Qin Xiang, the director at the monitoring station.

“The speed that this glacier has been shrinking is really shocking,” Qin said on a recent visit to the remote, spartan station, where he and a small team of researchers track the changes.

Snowfall and rain has at times been much less than normal, so even though the melting glaciers have brought more runoff, farmers downstream can still face water shortages for their crops of “The speed that this glacier onions and corn and for their has been shrinking is really animals.

shocking,”

The Tibetan plateau is known as the world’s Third Pole for the amount of ice long locked in the high-altitude wilderness.

Large sections of the Shule river, on the outskirts of Dunhuang, were either dry or reduced to murky pools, isolated in desert scrub when visited in September.

The new fluctuations also bring danger.

But since the 1950s, average temperatures have risen 1.5 Celsius in the area, Qin said, and with no sign of an end to warming, the outlook is grim for the 2,684 glaciers in the Qilian range.

“Across the region, glacial melt water is pooling into lakes and causing devastating floods,” said Greenpeace East Asia climate and energy campaigner Liu Junyan.

Across the mountains, glacier retreat was 50 per cent faster in 1990-2010 than it was from 1956 to 1990, data from the

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“In spring, we’re seeing increased flooding, and then when water is needed most for irrigation later in the summer, we’re seeing shortages.”

researcher Jin Zizhen, out under a deep-blue sky checking his instruments in the glare of Laohugou No. 12.

For Gu Jianwei, 35, a vegetable farmer on the outskirts of the small city of Jiuquan, the changes in the weather have meant meagre water for his cauliflowers this year.

“It’s something I’ve been able to see with my own eyes.”

Gu said he had been able to water his crop just twice over two crucial summer months, holding up a small cauliflower head that he said was just a fraction of the normal weight.

Courtesy of Reuters / INSP.ngo

The melting in the mountains could peak within a decade, after which snow melt would sharply decrease due to the smaller, fewer glaciers, China Academy of Sciences expert Shen Yongping said. That could bring water crises, he warned.

In spring, we’re seeing increased flooding

The changes in Qilian reflect melting trends in other parts of the Tibetan plateau, the source of the Yangtze and other great Asian rivers, scientists say.

“Those glaciers are monitoring atmospheric warming trends that apply to nearby glaciated mountain chains that contribute runoff to the upper Yellow and Yangtze Rivers,” said Aaron Putnam, associate professor of earth sciences at the University of Maine.

The evidence of the withering ice is all too clear for student

Meltwater flows over the Laohugou No. 12 glacier in the Qilian mountains, Glaciers in China’s bleak, rugged Qilian mountains are disappearing at a shocking rate. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

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Issues: Abroad

C

Snakes and Sewage

rumbling walls, sewage leaking into homes, dangerous loose wires - and sometimes, snakes. These are some of the myriad issues residents in Soweto, South Africa’s biggest township, have been dealing with for decades. Kim Harrisberg reports.

Crumbling walls, sewage leaking into homes, dangerous loose wires - and sometimes, snakes, are just some of the myriad issues residents in Soweto, South Africa’s biggest township, have been dealing with for decades, as they say the government continues to deny them title deeds and urgent upgrades to their homes outside Johannesburg.

“It was a dream come true when the government allocated us these homes after more than 15 years of living in a shack,” said Nkosinathi Khumalo, resident of the Soweto suburb known as Snake Park because of its slithering visitors.

His home was built on top of wetlands, including a corrugated roof that blows off in high winds and water damage on the walls.

house to sign a so-called “happy letter” confirming theyare satisfied with the quality of the property, said Edward Makwarela of the human settlements department of Gauteng province, where Johannesburg is located.

After that, any issues must be referred to the National Home Builders Registration Council for repairs, the project manager said in emailed comments.

Makwarela noted that the Snake Park homes were part of the government’s People’s Housing Programme, in which communities are actively involved in building the properties.

“Another issue could be the poor workmanship ... driven by the community A couple chat as a woman has her hair done at a makeshift salon, in front of a themselves, and they brazier, during electricity outages in Soweto. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko were not skilled,” he said.

“The sad part was when I realised we were being dumped here. We have been suffering for so long,” said Khumalo, 35, who is currently unemployed.

Repair costs

Made up of five smaller townships, Snake Park is home to about 5,000 properties built under South Africa’s Reconstruction and Development Programme, an ongoing government-funded social housing project that began in 1994.

Residents said they would like the chance to fix their homes themselves, but most cannot afford to.

According to official statistics, about 14 per cent of South African homes - or 2.3 million properties - are subsidised by the government.

Makwarela pointed out that while the homes in Snake Park all have water, sanitation and electricity, the area still has no roads or stormwater drains, which he said is holding up the process of distributing title deeds.

Houses are allocated to low-income families and people with disabilities, although several families in Snake Park said they waited at least a decade to get their homes.

Now, residents are angered by the rapid deterioration of those homes, saying the government took shortcuts when it built them so close to a wetland, making the houses susceptible to flooding, cracking and crumbling.

Those hazards have come to the fore in recent months, after the government ordered South Africans to stay home during a strict six-month lockdown to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.

“Obviously it is a challenge to stay home and inside if your house is flooding,” said Thabiso Toti, a 53-year-old unemployed Snake Park resident.

Residents have 90 days from when they are allocated their

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And bank loans are out of reach, they added, because they have no title deeds, which South African banks often require as collateral.

“My grandmother who lived next door passed away last week waiting her whole life for her title deeds,” said Khumalo, the Snake Park resident.

“If we had title deeds, we would try to get loans and build for ourselves,” he added, stepping over the drainage trench he dug around his home to try and stop water running in when it rains.

Dirty water Housing and land are contentious topics in post-apartheid South Africa, where inequality is rife.

About 2.9 million to 3.6 million people live in informal settlements according to the most recent census figures, although experts say this number is likely much higher.

Residents in Snake Park say that on top of the structural problems with their homes, they have also complained to

authorities about water from burst sewage pipes flowing into their houses, down their streets and into nearby water sources.

We aren’t able to upgrade infrastructure every year, but we have maintenance teams on the ground who should be able to unblock pipes and resolve issues,” he said.

Environmental activist Tiny Dhlamini explained that there are smaller tributaries in Soweto that flow into the Vaal River, one of the main water sources for Gauteng province.

‘No one cares’

At Snake Park, residents pointed out crumbling foundations, poorly placed pipes, cracks in walls and - as confirmed by Google Maps - a complete Residents report leaking pipes, exploding manholes lack of street and sewage bringing condoms, tampons and names.

The Upper Vaal catchment, together with a few other water sources, supports more than 13 million people according to the non-profit Centre for Environmental Rights, based in Johannesburg.

faeces into their kitchens.

“There is a lot of pollution from the sewage pipes. When they burst, they go into our river stream and we, as poor people, are compelled to use this dirty water,” said Dhlamini, standing by a small, dark brown river in Soweto.

As Johannesburg strains to accommodate its swelling population, problems like faulty plumbing stretch beyond Snake Park.

In other suburbs of South Africa’s largest city, including more affluent areas, residents report leaking pipes, exploding manholes and sewage bringing condoms, tampons and faeces into their kitchens. Isaac Dhludhlu, spokesman for Johannesburg Water, which is responsible for the city’s water and sanitation, said the organisation has to monitor 11,000 kilometres (6,800 miles) of sewer pipelines across the city.

With such a large sewage network to oversee, the government body relies on residents to report any issues to it immediately, he noted.

“It is like Snake Park doesn’t even exist, no one cares,” said Dhlamini, the activist, who also lives in the neighbourhood.

If someone is sick, she explained, they have to carry the person to the nearest main road about 400 metres (1,300 feet) away, because without street names ambulance drivers cannot find their way around the neighbourhood.

Despite the challenges, residents have tried to make Snake Park home, planting roses and vegetables and cleaning up the nearby wetland when it becomes filled with trash.

They hold out hope that title deeds will bring a sense of permanence to their neighbourhood, bringing more economic opportunity and halting fears of possible future eviction.

“It all comes down to title deeds,” said Toti, an avid gardener.

“We would help fix this place up. I would take out a loan, improve the house and even add on an extra room,” he said.

“I would know that this is my house and I would believe it.”

Courtesy of Reuters / Thomson Reuters Foundation / INSP.ngo

“There is a major infrastructural backlog costed at over 10 billion rand ($611 million) to fix,” said Dhludhlu, adding that ageing infrastructure, illegal water connections and foreign objects in the water system all contribute to burst pipes.

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Issues: book Reviews

Patricia Scanlan’s Book Club Patricia Scanlan was born in Dublin, where she still lives. She is a #1 bestselling author and has sold millions of books worldwide. Her books are translated in many languages.

Patricia is the series editor and a contributing author to the award winning Open Door Literacy series.

This issue, the first of 2021, Patricia brings her favourite books of the moment.

First Day of my Life - Lisa Williamson An incredible new YA title from the award winning bestselling author of The Art of Being Normal. Lisa Williamson’s First Day Of My Life is a love letter to best-friendship, first loves and unexpected surprises. A powerful reminder that every day has the potential to be the first day of the rest of your life.

Whiskers, Feathers & Fur - Austin Donnelly In Whiskers, Feathers and Fur, Austin Donnelly recalls his life experiences as a veterinarian travelling the globe, from his native Ireland to the far reaches of Australia and New Zealand. The animals rightly take centre stage and their unique personalities shine through in this beautifully written memoir.

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Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart

The Godmothers - Monica McInerney

‘An amazingly intimate, compassionate, gripping portrait of addiction, courage and love,' say the judges of the Booker Prize. Douglas Stuart’s riveting, debut novel Shuggie Bain lays bare the ruthlessness of poverty, the limits of love, and the hollowness of pride.

Set in Australia, Scotland, Ireland and England, The Godmothers is the highly anticipated new family drama from bestselling author, Monica McInerney. It’s a moving and perceptive story about love, lies, hope and sorrow, about the families we are born into and the families we make for ourselves.

The Haunted Lake - P.J. Lynch The Haunted Lake, a ghostly love story set in a spooky, underwater world is another great classic from P.J. Lynch, one of the most accomplished children's book creators working today.

He has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice and the Christopher Medal three times, and was our Laureate na nÓg in 2016.

A Rosie Life in Italy - Rosie Meleady With all that’s going on with Covid, and the restrictions on travel, our thoughts turn longingly to foreign climes. How timely to receive a copy of Rosie Meleady’s evocative portrayal of life in Italy. As she tells us in her own words, she’s a Wedding Planner, who “…is struggling with her grey, rain-soaked life in Ireland.” Everyone dismisses her longterm dream to live in Italy as another ‘mad hippy whim.’ While she’s busy planning other people’s happy endings, grief, eviction and debt nip at her heels. Trying to stabilise her life as an entrepreneur, in the middle of an economic crash is almost impossible.

When her landlord suddenly doubles the rent, Rosie is left with no choice but to pack up her family, two dogs and possessions into a 20-year-old camper van and head off in search of her own happy ending in sunny Italy. She soon discovers integrating into life in a new country isn’t as easy as it looks on TV, especially when the language is a minefield of accidental sexual innuendo. And trying

to buy an abandoned villa in Umbria from eight crazy cousins with a longstanding family battle bubbling under the surface doesn’t make it any easier.

While Rosie is determined to create the perfect life for her family in Italy, despite a hurricane, a raucous family dispute and a little thing called a global pandemic to top it all off, she begins to realise that the Italian dream may be too big for her. Will she ever get to live her rosy life in Italy?

Or has she bitten off more than she can chew?”

A Rosie Life in Italy a truly immersive, engrossing read. You care about Rosie and her family, and the ups and downs they encounter. She draws you into their lives and makes the reader feel part of the adventure, which is far from what she imagined. The true test of a great read is when you close the last page and want to read more.

Please, Rosie, hurry with the next terrific instalment.

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Issues: Health Issues

Eating Plastic How much plastic are you eating?

W

hat’s for dinner? Lego sushi, credit card burgers, or a well-done piece of PVC pipe?

These examples may sound extreme, but can easily represent over time the cumulative amount of microscopic pieces of plastic we consume every day. Reuters illustrated what this amount of plastic actually looks like over various periods of time. Matthew Stock reports.

What’s for dinner? Lego sushi, credit card burgers, or a welldone piece of PVC pipe?

This may not sound like much, but it can add up. At this rate of consumption, in a decade, we could be eating 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) in plastic, the equivalent of over two sizable pieces of plastic pipe.

These examples may sound extreme, but people could be ingesting the equivalent of a credit card of And over a lifetime, we consume plastic a week, a 2019 study by WWF about 20 kilograms (44 International concluded, mainly pounds) of microplastic. in plastic-infused drinking water but also via food like shellfish, which “Those plastic particles are little time bombs tends to be eaten Plastic production waiting to break down small enough to be absorbed by wildlife whole so the plastic has surged or by people and then potentially have in their digestive in the last 50 systems is also harmful consequences.” years with the consumed. widespread use of inexpensive disposable Reuters used the findings products.

As plastic is of the study to illustrate what not biodegradable, but only this amount of plastic actually breaks down into smaller pieces, looks like over various periods of time. it ultimately ends up everywhere, cluttering In a month, we ingest the weight of a 4x2 Lego brick in beaches and choking marine wildlife, as well as in the food plastic, and in a year, the amount of plastic in a fireman’s chain. helmet.

Standing on the shoreline of a wildlife-protected saltmarsh in southern England, Malcolm Hudson, a professor of environmental science at the University of Southampton, shows Reuters small, bead-like plastic pellets that permeate the marsh.

Various plastic goods weighing 3.15 kilograms, which is equivalent to the amount of plastic that someone could eat in ten years, are displayed on a table in this illustration. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Illustration

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Hudson says that most research has been done on these microplastics, but there are increasing amounts of even smaller particles called nanoplastics in the environment that are far more difficult to detect, which we are likely ingesting as well.

“Those plastic particles are little time bombs waiting to break down small enough to be absorbed by wildlife or by people and then potentially have harmful consequences.”

Courtesy of Reuters / INSP.ng

“It could pass into our blood or lymphatic system and end up in our organs,” said Hudson.

In a month, we ingest the weight of a 4x2 Lego brick in plastic....

Lego bricks weighing a total of 22 grams, which is equivalent to the amount of plastic that someone could eat in one month, are displayed on top of pieces of sushi rice in this illustration. Reuters used the findings of the study to illustrate what this amount of plastic actually looks like over various periods of time.

REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Illustrationw

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Dear Liz D

ear Liz,

I havehad birds nestling in my attic for a year now. I got someone from environmental health to fumigate the house about 6 months ago. They are still there and I have small mites biting me all night. The man said they come from the birds. I paid €100 and can’t afford to call him again. What do I do? I have bought fumigator from the Internet and used it, wash all bedding and clothing daily and spray repellent every day, yet no relief. They disturb my sleep as I itch all night. I tried Dettol and oil to rub all over which made it worse. I put my bed out for a month in the summer and sprayed it but no relief. Please help as I am going mad with the itching and lack of sleep.

D

Andrea. Cork.

D

ear Liz,

I am a 26-year-old guy and I’m very lonely. Whilst I have a good job and get on well with colleagues, most people have their own sets of friends and I live a good bit away and don’t have any friends locally. I do see some mates occasionally but as I’m also without a girlfriend I spend my time in front of the T.V. How do I go about increasing my circle of friends?

Please help me.

Colin. Mayo. ear Colin,

D

ear Andrea,

Poor you! Infestations can drive you mad what with all the washing and cleaning, and the itching and frustration when none of it solves the problem.

Firstly, it makes sense to find out where the birds have been getting in and block that up permanently. Then to clean nests, droppings, feathers, etc. from the now-protected attic immediately before a pest control officer fumigates the attic and the rest of the house. If you shop around you may find someone cheaper than environmental health, and you can ask up front if they’ll retreat at their expense if you’ve ensured the birds can’t get in and the infestation still returns.

It could help to make sure your bedding, clothes and towels are all open to the fumes and then give everything a good wash, but do check that out first with the pest controller to find out if it’s necessary and if it will stain. After the fumigation, you could hoover mattresses, headboards, floors and the insides of cupboards and wardrobes to remove any eggs, larvae or dead mites. In the old days they’d then wash woodwork down inside and out with vinegar and water, so that’s something else to discuss with the exterminator. You might also consider changing your mattresses, quilts and pillows - but that’s up to you.

I realise that’s a lot of expense but the alternative, to carry on itching, buying fumigators, and washing everything daily, is another expense that mounts up, both in financial terms and in terms of stress. The infestation is also a risk to health, especially if children or the elderly could be involved, and it could spread to others outside the home. If you need to borrow money for this, no doubt you’ll make sure it’s from a reputable source and at a sensible rate of interest. I wish you the best of luck with this.

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I’m glad you are aware that it’s up to you to increase your circle of friends. The door out of loneliness only opens from the inside. You probably derive at least a feeling of security from sitting in front of the T.V. because you’re not risking rejection, but you’re almost certainly spending plenty of time thinking negative thoughts about yourself. In other words you too are rejecting your own likeability. It can help to set yourself some minimum targets and then retreat to the safety of your TV once more.

Why not spend an hour or two with a pen and paper, making some lists to build up your confidence? One list might be in the form of repetitive sentences listing the people who do like you, teachers perhaps, or anyone who’s ever so much as smiled at you. You could make a similar list of people who live with you and finish ‘so I’m lovable’ that might be your target for the first week. The more you choose to remember being liked, loved and valued, the more your ability to feel that widening your social circle isn’t such a risk after all.

I know it is difficult with covid restriction but plan for a future after Covid-19. As you do have some friends why not arrange something with them. Maybe going out for a meal or having a takeaway round at your place. Once you’ve built up your social life and feel more at ease meeting new people, you may already have met a few nice girls. Perhaps friendships will develop into something more, but dating events and organisations, and the internet can be fun too. Remember, not everybody is going to be nice and not everybody is going to be to your taste but you’re free to invite only the people you choose into your life. Good Luck.

Have a problem? Email Dear Liz at info@irelandsbigissue.com and type Dear Liz in the subject line.

Word Power Over the next few issues we’ll be attempting to increase your word power. Have a look at the words below and afterwards see if you know their meaning.

Word

Pronunciation

1. Aggrandise 2. Antediluvian 3. Congruity 4. Dispel 5. Fetter 6. Iconoclasm 7. Interlocutor 8. Pithy 9. Predilection 10.Tome 11. Upbraid 12. Winsome

Ag-ran-di-z Anti-dill-oo-vee-un Con-groo-it-tee Dis-pell Fett-ur Aye-con-o-clas-im In-ter-lok-u-tor Pith-ee Pre-dill-ek-shun To-mm Upp-raid Win-sum

Answers: 1 To make someone more powerful or important.

2 Extremely old-fashioned.

3 The quality of being the same as, or in agreement with other facts or principles.

4 To remove fears, doubts and false ideas.

5 To keep someone within limits or stop them from making progress.

6 Strong opposition to generally accepted beliefs and traditions.

7 Someone who is involved in a conversation.

8 (Of speech or language) expressing an idea cleverly in a few words.

9 If someone has a predilection for something, they like it a lot.

10 A large, heavy book.

11 To forcefully or angrily tell someone they should not have done a particular thing and criticise them for having done it.

12 Attractive and pleasing, with simple qualities, sometimes like those a child has.

How did YOU score?

10 or more – Perfection!

6-9 Brilliant.

3-5 Well done.

0-2 Must do better.

How did you do? Let us know on Twitter @BigIssueIreland

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