Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
Latest editorial
The flu that killed more people than World War I
A recent visit to his doctor has PETER FROST recalling the influenza pandemic of 1918/20 that killed over 40 million people
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
WHILE at the doctors this week I came face to face with the nation wide cold-or-is-it-flu medical crisis. Our wonderful NHS has more than its fair share of challenges at the moment.
First the relentless chop, chop, chop of Tory Theresa and her Cabinet’s not so comic cuts, then the usual winter crop of icy slips, falls, infections and motley seasonal maladies and lastly the huge amount of common cold-or-flu snuffles that are dominating news broadcasts and headlines.
Talk in the waiting room was about the number of chest X-rays being ordered and antibiotics being prescribed or refused. The waiting room experts were keen to explain real flu was viral and therefore untouched by antibiotics.
Similar stories
The real ‘humanitarian threat’ isn’t Cuba but the United States, where poverty, lack of healthcare and illiteracy abound, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
With more people dying each year and many spending their final days in institutions, researchers argue that wider access to palliative care could offer a more humane and cost-effective alternative, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
While ordinary Americans were suffering in the wake of 2005’s deadly hurricane, the Bush administration was more concerned with maintaining its anti-Cuba stance than with saving lives, writes MANOLO DE LOS SANTOS
