HISTORY / OPERA

Medicine’s Dubious History

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The opera Giant, written for five voices and through the use of 18th century instruments tells this haunting story beautifully. There are moments at which you feel you are watching a bewitching heart-breaking fairy tale where the wicked witch is simply medical science.

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FICTION / FRANCE

Bricktop

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Her journey in Paris was different, she came over as a performer but not as a super star like Josephine Baker. It was a quieter trip in a way. Bricktop sang and became a friend to big white stars.

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BIOGRAPHY / HISTORY

From a Swiss farm to a palace in Constantinople: the extraordinary life of Elisabeth Tschumi.

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Months passed, walks and outings followed one after another and then came the day when Ahmet Tevfik asked Elisabeth Tschumi for her hand. She happily accepted the marriage proposal, however, aware of Muslim traditions, made him promise that she would remain his one and only wife. Ahmet Tevfik agreed, but he too had a request.

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BIOGRAPHY

Frederick Bruce Thomas: an extraordinary character’s tribulations

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Frederick Thomas blossomed in Moscow. He obtained Russian citizenship, was married three times and had five children. Around 1914, he bought a dacha near Odessa and he also owned buildings in Moscow. Now it was clear for all to see: the African-American immigrant from Mississippi, the son of slaves, had made a fortune in Russia.

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CINEMA / HISTORY

Cinema: Dunkirk, Churchill and the Brexiteers

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One year after the shock of Brexit, two of Britain’s best known filmmakers, Christopher Nolan and Joe Wright, released two films about one of the most tragic episodes in British history: the evacuation of the British army from Dunkirk. Could there have been a desire on the part of the two directors to convey a message about the Brexit fiasco by alluding to British resilience at a time when the country is swimming against the European tide?

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POLITICS / SPAIN

Catalonia and other identities in our common home

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It is rather unfair to set the entities of Catalonia and Spain against each other. As if Catalonia were a singular entity attached to the Spanish State, and the latter an homogeneous […]

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HISTORY / LITERATURE / USA

From Kennedy to Hillary: the end of the myth of the American dream

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Democracy seems a sham when you read two books, one by Hillary Rodman Clinton, What Happened, and the other one by Marc Dugain, Ils vont tuer Robert Kennedy (They are going to kill Robert Kennedy). These two works put into perspective the true nature of American democracy, which is governed by invisible forces.

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