Chicago Tribune (November 8)
“The Berlin Wall fell in a dramatic wave of hope, openness and U.S. support 30 years ago. Now everything is different.” Back then, “Europe had a United States willing and able to help guide its future, which it did in building a Europe whole, free and at peace. Now, Europe will have to decide its own future.” Will Europe “recommit to unity” or “allow divisions and disagreements to deepen.”
Tags: Berlin Wall, Disagreements, Divisions, Dramatic wave, Europe, Free, Future, Hope, Openness, Peace, Support, U.S., Unity
Wall Street Journal (November 18)
“As the British government convulses over Theresa May’s Brexit deal, its negotiating partners in Europe are watching with bewilderment and anxiety, tempered by a flickering hope that the U.K. Parliament might yet decide the pain of Brexit isn’t worth it.”
Tags: Anxiety, Bewilderment, Brexit, Convulses, Europe, Government, Hope, May, UK
Washington Post (November 14)
“The growing interest in witches and witchcraft speaks to a uniquely unsettled moment in U.S. history — and an unprecedented loss of hope felt by an entire generation. Absent anything else to hold on to, we’re reaching into the dark.”
Tags: Generation, History, Hope, Interest, Loss, U.S., Unprecedented, Unsettled, Witchcraft, Witches
Reuters (May 23)
“Pyongyang’s announcement last week that it might pull out of the meeting should have been less of a surprise. North Korea has spent decades using similar tactics to shape the diplomatic agenda with the South and Washington, raising hopes of a breakthrough—then sparking a crisis and moving the goal posts.”
Tags: Agenda, Breakthrough, Crisis, Hope, North Korea, Pyongyang, South Korea, Surprise, Tactics, U.S.
Time (December 18)
“It became a hashtag, a movement, a reckoning. But it began, as great social change nearly always does, with individual acts of courage.” They have toppled titans and brought hope, yet we are only in “the beginning of this upheaval,” and have yet to learn how far its ultimate impact will reach. “For giving voice to open secrets, for moving whisper networks onto social networks, for pushing us all to stop accepting the unacceptable, the Silence Breakers are the 2017 Person of the Year.”
Tags: Courage, Hashtag, Hope, Impact, Movement, Silence breakers, Social change, Social networks, Upheaval
The Guardian (July 17)
“Desperate with hope,” many Brits are “drawn to the crescendo of signals that Brexit can’t and won’t happen, to stories that say the sheer impossibility of leaving the EU gets clearer by the day.” The signals are everywhere. “Fall off the EU cliff and put a third of our just-in-time food supply at risk. No flying to the EU, warns Ryanair, as easyJet moves its new HQ to Austria….car sales are down 10%, credit card debt up 10%, wages are falling behind rising inflation.” Yet even as the UK’s economy “sinks, while the EU’s charges ahead,” there is no guarantee that Brexit will ultimately prove reversible.
Tags: Austria, Brexit, Car sales, Credit cards, Debt, Desperate, EasyJet, Economy, EU, Food supply, Hope, HQ, Ryanair, UK, Wages Inflation
Chicago Tribune (October 23)
“It’s been 71 years since the Cubs made it this far.” The Cubs will now move onto the World Series. “This city piled all those years of hope and expectation on the shoulders of this year’s players — and they delivered. They closed the deal Saturday night with aggressive batting and surgical, minimalist pitching…. For now, savor the present and salute a cast that, dare we say, could soon have us readying the confetti.”
Tags: Batting, Cubs, Expectation, Hope, Pitching, Players, World Series
Financial Times (January 29, 2014)
After such great hope, the Arab Spring evaporated. Whether some countries ultimately took steps forward or backwards remains unclear. A few have obviously fallen into anarchy. “Still, amid all the gloom, there is one country – Tunisia – which suddenly appears within striking distance of successfully completing the journey from dictatorship to democracy.” With a new constitution clearing the path for free elections, Tunisia may be able to stand “as a beacon of what can be achieved if Islamists and secularists set aside their differences for the greater good.”After such great hope, the Arab Spring evaporated. Whether some countries ultimately took steps forward or backwards remains unclear. A few have obviously fallen into anarchy. “Still, amid all the gloom, there is one country – Tunisia – which suddenly appears within striking distance of successfully completing the journey from dictatorship to democracy.” With a new constitution clearing the path for free elections, Tunisia may be able to stand “as a beacon of what can be achieved if Islamists and secularists set aside their differences for the greater good.”
Tags: Anarchy, Arab spring, Constitution, Democracy, Dictatorship, Differences, Elections, Greater good, Hope, Islamists, Secularists, Tunisia
The Economist (September 14)
“More growth, not less, is the best hope for averting a sixth great extinction.” As individuals reach the middle class they start to think more seriously about protecting the environment. In rich countries, conditions “are, by and large, improving, and endangered creatures are moving away from the edge of the cliff.”
Tags: Conditions, Endangered creatures, Environment, Extinction, Growth, Hope, Middle class, Rich countries
New York Times (August 26)
In a series of tweets, Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, “has given reason to hope that he is serious about resolving disputes with the United States and other major powers, most urgently about Iran’s nuclear program.” One such tweet reads, “We don’t want further tension. Both nations need 2 think more abt future & try 2 sit down & find solutions to past issues & rectify things.” While promising, “it would be naïve to assume that the path to ending Iran’s isolation is now clear.”
Tags: Disputes, Hassan Rouhani, Hope, Iran, Isolation, Nuclear program, Solutions, Tension, United States
