Five Years a Writer

I’d like to be an ostrich. All around the world, people are casting their vote for political leaders promising easy answers to complex problems. Democracies everywhere are at risk from populist politicians and far-right-wing ideologues. What a troubling thought for those of us who want to believe in the goodness of our neighbours and the wisdom of our political leaders. However, with each autocrat or hard-right-wing leader elected, I lose another glimmer of hope. I am not an ostrich. I cannot bury my head in the sand. I must pay attention to the world around me. Turning inward and ignoring what is happening out there does not make it go away or diminish the harm being done to our democracies. At the very least, I tell myself, I must know the days' headlines, which, last week, included news of right-wing conservative Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu being returned to power in Israel and Jordan Bardella being elected as new leader of France’s far-right Rassemblement National (R