Russa’s Troops: Not Really a Threat to Ukraine?
Russia's tense stand-off with Ukraine might seem like a straightforward case of one country menacing another, with about a hundred and twenty thousand Russian troops mustering on their neighbour’s border. Russia has already occupied the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, and is widely believed to be helping separatists in the country’s east. But, as an old saying has it, where you stand depends on where you sit; perspectives can vary widely. Francis Scarr was recently sitting in the rather intimate surrounds of a Russian bathhouse, and found his companions holding a very different view of who was threatening whom.
The foreign troops have left, and the fighting is much diminished. Afghanistan is at relative peace, and this has given the opportunity for many refugees to return to their homes. More than two million people have fled Afghanistan over the years, but the many conflicts there have forced more than three million to leave their cities, towns and villages, while remaining within the country. Some of these have now gone back, in the hope of picking up from where they left of, but often to find all that they once owned has been taken away or is lying in ruins. Andrew North went to meet some in the southern Afghan region of Helmand.
Turkey seems determined to have influence abroad to a degree - some say - not seen since the days of the Ottoman Empire. The country has already intervened militarily in both Syria and Libya and built semi-permanent military bases in Northern Iraq. Whatever one thinks of Turkey’s ambitions though, the country is not usually seen as a seafaring power, yet it seems that some in the country want that to change. They explained why to Tim Whewell, during a recent trip to Istanbul.
A writer who visited Scandinavia once said that theirs were the only languages where it was the vowels that were the greatest challenge. While many struggle with a French “je” or the “ch” of Germany's “Bach,” it’s the a, o and u of Swedish, for example, which can be tough for foreigners to master. And then there’s the intonation: much fun is made of Swede’s almost sing-song way of talking. Yet, there is only so much mockery of their language that people will take, particularly when it comes to the pronunciation of their own names. The many different ways in which Mathilde Weilin's name has been pronouced have given her something of an existential crisis.
The Turkana region in northern Kenya is a remote and barren place, where some of the oldest pre-human fossils have been found, remains of Homo sapiens' long-distant ancestors. However, life for the present-day people of Turkana is not easy: the land they live off has been hit by environmental damage, with drought more common than ever – the result of climate change, many believe. When Samuel Derbyshire went to study their way of life, he found the legacy of many previous efforts to help Turkana’s people, and to show them more reliable means of subsistence. And yet he ended up wondering who it was that should be teaching, and who learning.
