🎧 A Polish Response? Civil Society v Government: Responses to the War in Ukraine

Poland has been portrayed in the media as a friend to Ukraine in recent months, a country which has done its utmost to support its neighbour. But how much of that response has been government-led? In this episode of The Common Room, Aria Guevara and Greta Scott discuss the role of Polish civil society in responding to the crisis.

This episode was recorded on the 25th of March at the Yolk Workspace & Community podcast studio in Kraków.

We Need To Talk About "Bridgerton" (spoiler alert)

My social media has been spammed lately with fans of the programme Bridgerton lamenting the departure of the much-loved Duke of Hastings (Simon) played by Regé-Jean Page. The seriousness with which people have taken this is what I am lamenting. No, @regejean ! You CANNOT leave me like that. I WILL NOT have it! @bridgerton !!!!!! — Dionne Warwick (@dionnewarwick) April 3, 2021 I have an admittedly unpopular opinion on the programme Bridgerton, in that I think it is objectively bad. Bridgerton is a Netflix series based on a series of novels by Julia Quinn. The programme is set in London during the reign of King George III, and the first series followed the life of the upper-class Daphne Bridgerton, and her courtship with the aforementioned Duke of Hastings during her first season out. Daphne and Simon Bridgerton, Netflix I watched the first series of Bridgerton upon the recommendation of several friends, and I had (relatively) high hopes. I really like period dramas, and I am a fan of...

Power Play at the Olympics

I have really enjoyed these Olympics. We have been treated to new sports, surprise victories (naming no names, Italy), and the usual astonishment when humans achieve the impossible. However, there is always an extremely political side to the Olympics, and that's what I wish to analyse in this article. Superpowers wear gold The term “superpower” was first used in 1944 to describe the UK, US and the USSR. During the 20th century, Britain lost influence and, with the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the US became the only superpower. This led Samuel Huntington to write : “There is now only one superpower. But that does not mean that the world is unipolar [rather] a uni-multipolar system with one superpower and several major powers.” So what we can learn about the current world order from this year’s Olympics? It's no secret that sport isn't the only thing in play during the Olympic Games. Many will remember the US boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and medal races between Ru...

Down and Out in Paris and London

Take a look at these two graphs. Depicted on the left is the number of COVID-19 cases reported daily in the United Kingdom. The peak of the epidemic seems to have been in early April, with almost 9’000 cases on the worst day. On the right, we see France, whose peak came in late March, with almost 8’000 cases. I notice two things when I look at these graphs: Many more cases have been reported in the UK than in France, both as a daily average and in total; Whilst France had got through the worst of its epidemic by early May, the UK is still reporting well over a thousand cases every day, months after its first reported case. I don’t think now is the right time to try to draw complex comparisons between these two countries, but I do want to take a moment to write down my experiences under lockdown/confinement in Britain and France. At a time when the rest of Europe seems to be creeping back to normalcy, the UK is floundering. I cannot help but notice a stark difference between what I ex...

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