Archive for March, 2020


Coronavirus: nine reasons to be reassured

March 11th, 2020 by Roger Darlington

The “Guardian” newspapers has pulled together material to show that, while coronavirus is a serious challenge, there are reasons to be reassured: We know what it is. We can test for it. We know that it can be contained (albeit at considerable cost). Catching it is not that that easy (if we are careful) and […]

Posted in Science & technology, World current affairs | Comments (0)


Coronavirus is not the first global pandemic and, by some accounts, today is the anniversary of the start of one of the very worst

March 11th, 2020 by Roger Darlington

It was called Spanish flu, but it did not start in Spain and we are still not sure where it originated. So-called Spanish flu was an influenza pandemic which ran from around January 1918 – December 1920. It was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic which was the first of the two involving the H1N1 virus, with the second […]

Posted in History | Comments (0)


A review of the new French arthouse film “Portrait Of A Lady On Fire”

March 6th, 2020 by Roger Darlington

This wonderful French-language arthouse film is a rarity in the world of cinema: a work written and directed by a woman (Céline Sciamma) with cinematography by a woman (Claire Mathon) and a cast list – headed by Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel – in which men barely feature. Set around 1770, it is located on […]

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)


Today in the United States it’s Super Tuesday as Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden square up to one another big time

March 3rd, 2020 by Roger Darlington

I’m fascinated by American politics, so I’ve been following the contest to select a Democratic Party candidate to run against the Republican Donald Trump in the US presidential election in November. A massive field of candidates has been running but the number has recently fallen very quickly and very substantially with Pete Buttigieg and Amy […]

Posted in American current affairs | Comments (4)


What do you know about Paraguay and why is today a special one for that country?

March 1st, 2020 by Roger Darlington

One of the many reasons that I love foreign travel is that, having visited a country, I am more likely to pay attention to any news coming out of that nation. I only spent a short time in Paraguay but it was sufficient for me to pick up that today is a special one for […]

Posted in History | Comments (0)