FEAST OR FAMINE

The Activists (2020) is set in New York and Washington D.C. in America. There are four teenage activists at the heart of this story: Izzy, Zoom, Roxy, and Fritz – three females and a male. The first narrator tells about a costume ball in the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. where about twenty elite benefactors have been invited to meet aristocracy from the government. The four activists are at the ball, in disguise.  This is a political fairytale.  Fritz is the youngest ‘but he can see the furthest.’ He has three sisters. His twin sister Roxy is confident and clever at manipulating politicians. Their sister Izzy is the oldest and ‘eats’ books, because they give her energy. She writes resistance poetry. Zoom, the middle sister has pizazz and knows exactly what she wants. They transpose themselves into the past, but are more interested in the present and the future, to shake up, to agitate, politicians. Their aim, during their summer holidays, is to defend democracy...

Sky News online  published an article on 4 November 2020 with the headline: US election 2020: Trouble flares in Washington DC as protestors square off with police. What does ‘square off’ mean and what does a geometric shape have to do with a political election?    Idioms by The Free Dictionary defines ‘square off’ as ‘to get ready for an argument or a fight.’ The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘square off’ as ‘to prepare to fight, compete, or argue with someone.’    The use of a geometric shape refers to ‘taking a stance’ or ‘facing a competitor’ which may have originally come from a boxing term, where competitors squared off in a boxing ring. A boxing ring was initially a circle of spectators watching two people fight, but is now, for professional contests, a raised and roped-off square.    Therefore, the headline of the article announces that protestors are getting ready to argue or fight with the police.   What does the article say, and does it m...

People in Georgia are calling for the electoral system to be transitioned to a proportional electoral system.  However, after the government promised this important change, on 14 November 2019, the Parliament of Georgia rejected a bill on Constitutional amendments to the electoral system in the first reading. Of the 141 Members of Parliament registered for the plenary session, 101 MPs including opposition lawmakers supported the bill, and 3 voted against it. The required quorum was 113 votes, and therefore the MPs failed to approve the bill in the first reading. The bill, drafted by 93 lawmakers, proposes changes to the Constitution, so that the October 2020 parliamentary elections will be conducted under a proportional electoral system, with a zero barrier. Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze said after the plenary session that the parliamentary elections will be held with a 3% barrier, blocs, and a mixed system, after the Parliament did not support transtition...

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra presents an exhibition of new art from the Philippines by Rodel Tapaya from 18 March to 20 August 2017. Rodel Tapaya has been exhibiting for over a decade and has established a literary-based visual practice, unique in its Filipino perspective, and striking for its rich history of Hispanic narrative painting. His cramped figurative compositions mixed with political messaging evokes the work of the Mexican muralists and surrealists, such as José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Frida Kahlo. As such Tapaya brings together the social, political and environmental issues of Filipino life. Of the large triptych The promise land: the moon, the sun, the stars , a newly commissioned work for the National Gallery of Australia, Tapaya says, ‘In some way, I realise that old stories are not just metaphors. I can find connections with contemporary times. It’s like the myths are poetic narrations of the present. ...