The US psychologist Michelle Gelfand wrote in The Guardian (2.2.21) about different cultural responses to the pandemic. Steve Latham She suggests that “tight” societies, with high levels of adherence to rules, reacted better to Covid than loose” societies, which demonstrated weaker rule-keeping. This is part of her wider […]
In Focus
In Focus
Trust, to survive and function
This article came about after reading a surprising source, an item by two young (early thirties) female investigative journalists on an investigative assignment to a nudist colony. Nigel Pocock At the end of their piece, the authors comment on a characteristic of the group that they clearly had […]
Remaking London
To paraphrase Marx, Covid “weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living”. We are living the diminishment of the world. It is getting smaller. Steve Latham We are not travelling as much: internationally, but also within countries, under lockdowns, and even between city neighbourhoods. With official […]
Becoming X, a moment of empowerment
When Cassius Clay, a descendant of a slave, became heavyweight boxing champion of the world in 1964 he rejected his slave name (‘I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it’) and, before becoming Muhammad Ali, referred to himself as Cassius X. Another Black American, Malcolm Little, also rejected his […]
21st century children’s dungeons
The privatisation of shelters for vulnerable children in Panama is potentially the main reason of state neglect, the consequence of that being the allegations of child abuse. Osvaldo Rodriguez Martinez The social crisis created by the dramatic situation of the abuse children and teenagers receive in the shelters […]
















