FEAST OR FAMINE

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- 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).

Across European countries 6.8% of adults over the age of 18 reported experiencing depression or depressive symptoms in 2014, with 2.9% saying that their symptoms are major. Depression or depressive symptoms are defined as persistent sadness, a loss of interest in activities that are usually enjoyed, and an inability to conduct regular daily activities. According to the United Nations health agency, depression is the leading cause of functional disabilty worldwide. The 2014 study showed that the countries with the largest share of the population reporting depressive symptoms were: Hungary (10.5%), Portugal (10.4%), and Sweden (9.0%). Depressive symptoms are least reported in the Czech Republic (3.2%) and Slovakia (3.5%). Women seem to be more affected than men, or self-report depressive symptoms more than men. In the study 7.9% of women in the EU reported experiencing depressive symptoms compared to 5.5% of men. Higher levels of education seem to be tied to lower ...

Time Bites (2005) is a series of essays by British author Doris Lessing (1919-2013). She writes about novels and authors, and current events – for she has a point of view about almost everything. She writes about love, sex, intimacy, morality, marriage, infidelity, pregnancies, children, and family life in novels, from DH Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, and Jane Austen to modern writers. She discusses the scandals and the controversies, and how the novels are ‘firmly’ of their ‘place and time.’ She says the book that changed her was The Sufis (1971) by Idries Shah, and writes several essays on his books. She writes about European, American, Australian, Eastern, African, and Russian literature, showing an extensively global outlook in the books she reads. She critiques novels, but is not critical, because she covers the books she reads, understands, and loves. She writes about censorship of books and the inner censor within writers who edit their own writings due to ...

Almost a third (30%) of internet users still read books ‘every day or most days’ according to a new 17-country study by global market analysts GfK (The Financial, 27 March 2017). Chinese internet users led the book reading ‘every day or most days’ response with 36% of them indicating that they still read books, followed by Spain (32%) and the United Kingdom (32%). Daily readers and those who read a book ‘at least once a week’ comprised 59% of  all respondents, with China leading at 70%, followed by Russia (59%) and Spain (57%). Over a third (35%) of people in high income households said that they read books ‘every day or most days’ compared to 24% of those in low income households. Women internet users are more likely to be readers than men. Overall 32% of women reported reading books ‘every day or most days’ compared to 27% of men. The gender gap for daily book readers is widest in the Netherlands with 30% of women and 14% of men – a gap of 16% points. Spa...