What one word sums up your year? Mine isn’t ‘COVID’ or ‘coronavirus’, even though those words appeared in half the stories in the New York Times and four-fifths of them in The Economist – by late March. No, the word that sums up the year for me is ‘divorce’. There’s an epidemic of it: 40% […]
The Plague-Ground – We’re seeing other people. Read More »
I urge you and your family to go outside, point your eyes to the southwest sky and behold something no human has seen since the year 1226, and none will see again until 2080. Jupiter and Saturn will be so close together, as wide as a toothpick held at arm’s length, that they’ll look like
The Plague-Ground – Where will you be in the hour after sunset today? Read More »
On Monday I wrote about A Bill to Kill You, otherwise called Bill C-7 which proposes big changes in the rules of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). Today, you can qualify for MAiD if you are in the advanced stage of a serious illness, disease or disability; if it is causing you enduring suffering; and if
The Plague-Ground – It’s complicated. Life and death always is. Read More »
It’s arriving in 10 days, and whatever we call the Great December holiday, it will be the one we’ll never forget as the pandemic forces us to celebrate in awkward new ways. Or all alone. Or not at all. So if that day has come to mean less for you, if you just want it to
The Plague-Ground – But Do You Remember the Most Famous Christmas of All? Read More »
If you’ve never heard of Bill C-7 or recall only vaguely that it’s something Parliament is debating, it’s time you learned more, because C-7 can determine how and when you die. Some background: medically-assisted death (MAiD) was legalized in Canada in 2016. The rules weren’t perfect, and anything involving legally killing people is bound to
The Plague-Ground – A Bill to Kill You Read More »
Germany’s coalition government recently voted to enforce quotas for women in senior management of the country’s public companies. Next year, management boards with more than three members must have at least one woman. This is not a company’s board of directors, but their most senior management team. In other words, the C-Suite officers with the real day-to-day
Mandating quotas will ensure women have a spot at the C-suite table Read More »
Especially if you’re one of the world’s most revered ethicists on the use and abuse of AI. But most especially if you’re the co-leader of the Ethical Artificial Intelligence Team at Google whose founding value of “Don’t Be Evil” was removed from the company’s code of conduct two years ago. Given the lashing Google’s endured
The Plague-Ground – Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman-With-a-Big-Twitter-Following Scorned Read More »
You may have heard America’s 45th President will announce his campaign to be the 47th President on the eve of the inauguration of the 46th President. A typical Trump stunt. But nowhere near his latest, most cynical grift yet. That judgement comes from John Cassidy who wrote last week in The New Yorker about the
The Plague-Ground – Trump.com is the worst Trump.con of all Read More »
The world shifted after George Floyd was killed this summer. The desire for diversity exploded into a demand for it, especially at the top. Only five Fortune 500 CEOs are Black, and of the 13 Global 500 companies led by women, none is a woman of colour. Today, social unrest has fueled a boom in
The Plague-Ground – Who do elephants like to sleep with? Elephants. Read More »
We all do dumb things when we’re young, and my list is very long. But I never smoked cigarettes. I must have had one drag back when I was 12, hacked my lungs out and concluded: “This is disgusting.” But I did work for a tobacco company, for a week. I was a freelancer and my
The Plague-Ground – Can you be creative and clean too? Read More »
Every expert says this is the most dangerous time. You have crossed the man who has stolen your life. His rage is volcanic; his hurt, vast and eternal. You flinch at every sound; look back at everyone walking behind you. Is it him? This is what millions of Americans are feeling now that they have
The Plague-Ground – What Happens When You Finally Leave Your Abuser Read More »
Back on Friday, March 13th, we were all so doe-eyed and naive. COVID was killing thousands in Italy and in Canada we’d all just been sent to our rooms. It took only that weekend for most of us to frantically look for ways to divert ourselves. This is when Jean and I discovered the Johns Hopkins
The Plague-Ground – Virus and Vaccine: Charting our death and resurrection Read More »
