That is the question. The analogy with Hamlet’s soliloquy in the nunnery scene ends here. Economies, like businesses, are not built in a day – but they can be destroyed in a night. Covid-19 has proved that. They can also revive pretty quickly. Imagine, if we had had only one round of coronavirus, and herd…
Read more
A mid-life lady came to see me about her work. She was being treated unfairly. Her boss didn’t trust her as fully as she expected. Her team was delivering late. She was depressed, insecure and lacking confidence on a level I have seldom seen. Her home life wasn’t good either. Mistreated by husband, disrespected by…
Read more
It is well-known that Covid-19 has set back the cause of globalisation. It is ironic that the first truly universal event demanding absolute world cooperation has had the opposite effect. A decent leader of the western world might have seen it work as it should. The idiocy of the USA quitting the World Health Organisation…
Read more
Whatever happened to the fun in your job? A Daily Paradox reader has posed the question and I think it is a good one. His words are compelling: “When one wakes up at 6am daily, takes the crowded commute, rushes for deadlines and has to deal with unreasonableness and unpleasantries at work… and the main…
Read more
The world is moving Step by Step toward hostilities. The cras handling of China by Trump and the increasingly assertive stance of Beijing towards the USA, and with it the west, is ominous. I have been here before. In 1939 I was old enough to know that we were moving Step by Step in the…
Read more
The fear of losing your job, the process of doing so, the effort and diligence required to get another one – all these add up to a fair old strain on you and your family. But they can be coped with. I speak from personal experience and from dealing with thousands of people who have…
Read more
Some things in life are difficult to believe. Covid-19 is one of them. Talk of a pandemic lingering tiresomely on and on, with views of inactivity on building sites and streets bereft of cars being commonplace – these were ideas we had only in our ‘I’m a filmmaker’ moments. Our behaviour changed to conform with…
Read more
Normally I avoid highly personal matters for publication. Private lives still count for something. But Facebook has made us all more used to hearing other people’s joys and sorrows. That’s sometimes good, sometimes not so good. What I am telling you today is highly personal but I have Zoey’s permission, and also to use the…
Read more
Millions of people who didn’t know it before now know the importance of Plan B. Of course, even if they had had one, the chances of it coping with societal lockdown would have been remote. We don’t – or, rather, didn’t – expect pandemics. We do now. The planet is overpopulated and the consequences of…
Read more
I am indebted to Lawrence Pang for suggesting the theme and title of this Daily Paradox It’s not an unusual request though it is often expressed in other ways. As authority has shed some of its pomp and command the relationships between bosses and subordinates, between suppliers and customers, between rich and poor have changed…
Read more