Bologna Book Fair 2024: Looking For New Trends

This year, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF), the biggest fair in the world for children’s literature since it was launched 61 years ago, opened in Bologna, Italy, on Monday, April 8. Lasting for four days, it was a big success, drawing 1,523 exhibitors from 100 countries, with Slovenia as the guest of honor and China back in full force. I was among the many who attended, with over 31735 visitors according to the BolognaFiere Group, an increase of 10 percent over 2023.

Yet, as I will discuss below, the Fair felt different from last year, more like a turning point, as if we were on the verge of a new era. And it wasn’t just due to the rise of AI, which, after all, is just a new technology, nor was it a new trend in the world of ideas or a new category of books, like, say, romantasy.

Although to be sure, it was that too. But with books being banned in the United States (of all places, a country that was once upon a time a leading democracy, a paragon of virtue and freedom) and the rising challenge posed by social media and films to the publishing industry, siphoning away readers, especially among a key group, Middle Grade readers (age 8-12), the industry may well have to brace itself for some groundbreaking shift in the reading public’s interests and tastes.

Alas, the high level of sales achieved during the pandemic is now a thing of the past. And AI, seen by many as a threat, could also be an opportunity for publishers to try and cut costs – but at whose expense? How AI will impact the industry remains to be seen but one thing is certain, it will impact it in a big way.

And yet…Human creativity has never been so high, as the Fair amply demonstrated.

No doubt, fresh ideas and approaches to publishing were in full display. Boosted, inter alia, by the many new countries that joined the Fair this year for the first time: Angola, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Cameroon, Colombia, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Monaco, Moldova, Paraguay, the Philippines, Togo, and Uganda.

Attendance was also boosted by the Fair’s unique “brand extension” feature in the form of parallel presentations at Bologna Book Plus and the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids—bringing together promoters and showcasing content across the book publishing supply chain. And the Fair was amply covered by the international press with more than 40 journalists attending, including extensive reporting of all trade aspects by Publishing Perspectives.

Event at the Illustrators’ Café, April 8, 2024  Source: Author

There were 386 events at the Fair itself, and more than 220 additional events on and off-site, in other parts of the city which has a long tradition of welcoming artists and illustrators and numerous libraries featuring children’s books – not to mention the magnificent public library, the Sala Borsa.

And China was back in full force, with over 100 Chinese exhibitors and events like “Data Release and Case Analysis of the Chinese Children’s Book Market” provided insights into the booming Chinese market that services over 360 million children and young people with over 40,000 titles published each year. China also has its own major children’s book fair, the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF), which takes place in November. 

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair: Looking for new ideas, from romantasy to graphic novels

As mentioned above, the pandemic that had caused a sudden boost in children’s book sales and a concerning drop in attendance at public events is now definitively behind us.

Pandemic peak sales are a distant memory; the world of children’s book publishing is back to normal, with book fairs around the world – notably the London Book Fair just over and the Frankfurt Book Fair coming up in October – acting as thermometers to figure out what’s hot. Publishers, editors, and agents are now realizing they may have gaps in their lists, and the middle-grade category (books for ages 8-12) is the most affected – although even YA (age 14-18), once the high-flyer among categories, is no longer the undisputed star.

As reported by Publishers’ Weekly, the current craze is for a new crossover genre termed “romantasy”, combining fantasy with romance.

And the other large emerging trend that has – depending on the viewpoint – “taken over” the middle grade category (books for ages 8 to 12) or “saved” it from collapse is graphic novels. And the Bologna Book Fair could not fail to have a large section dedicated to comics with publishers coming from every corner of the world:

This said the focus at the Fair remained firmly on illustrations and the world of author-illustrators, from picture books ranging for early readers to graphic novels for YA (young adults, ages from 14 to 18). At the core Illustrators Exhibition with its 58th competition, over 3,500 artists from 81 countries  made 17,600 submissions. In the end,  there were 344 finalists and  79 artists 78 sets from 31 countries made the most coveted list. 

The winners of the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award given for recognition for lifelong contributions were announced on the first day at the Fair and drew a large gathering: 

The winners were Heinz Janisch from Austria, a master of short-form stories that leave room for readers’ imagination; and Sydney Smith from Canada, recognized for his illustrations characterized by authentic characters and a focus on emotions.

The Fair featured a new theme for children: Sustainability

Through both an exhibition of some 70 titles focused on sustainability as well as a debate aptly titled “Reading For A Healthy Planet”, the objective was to interest trade visitors,  publishers, editors and literary agents in “children’s books to help achieve a sustainable future”.  

The book exhibition ranged across all ages and genres, from fiction to non-fiction:

The debate, held in the Authors’ Café on April 8, was organized by both the BCBF and the United Nations with Irina Lumelsky, acting Head of UN Publications, and in cooperation with the International Publishers Association (IPA) President Karine Pansa.

The debate, ably moderated by Ed Nawotka, Senior Editor at Publishers Weekly, included Ferdinando Boero, President of the Dohrn Foundation, Inès Castel-Branco, Publisher of Akiara Books, and Elisa Palazzi, children’s books author and Professor of Climate Physics at the University of Torino. 

Source: UN Publications X feed 

All this was set in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals Book Club which, as its website indicates:

 “aims to use books as a tool to encourage children ages 6-12 to interact with the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a curated reading list of books from around the world related to each of the 17 SDGs in all six official UN languages—Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.” 

The Club brings together all the publishers who are signatories of the SDG publishers compact. According to Ms. Lumelsky, some 300 publishers have signed the compact so far. They come from across the world and as a quick perusal of the list of signatories shows, many major publishers have joined.

The debate, however, unlike the SDG Club, which covers all 17 SDGs – including the social goals, human rights, fighting poverty and hunger –  was largely focused on climate change and how to sensitize a young public to the issue.

Undoubtedly, this is a major issue and perhaps the one that speaks most strongly to children as it directly affects their future. Something a slightly older youth, Greta Thunberg, never tires of repeating. 

The panel, composed of at least two very active environmentalists (President Boero and Professor Palazzi) was enthusiastic and, guided by Nawotka’s pointed questions, successfully conveyed its high level of passion and dedication. At one point, publisher Castel-Branco unfolded one of its lovely Akaria picture books gaining applause from the audience:

From left to right: IPA President Karine Pansa, Irina Lumelsky, UN Publications, Inès Casteò-Branco (with microphone), Publisher Akiara Books, Elisa Palazzi, author and Professor of Climate Physics, University of Torino, and Ferdinando Boero, President Dohrn Foundation   Source: Author photo

About next year’s Children’s Book Fair

The 62nd edition of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair is scheduled from March 31 to April 3 next year, with Estonia as the guest of honor. 

It will be interesting to see if the emerging trends at this book fair – a focus on more and better illustrations and graphic novels – will be confirmed next year. And whether some new ideas beyond romantasy will emerge.

Most importantly, it would be comforting to see publishers enlarging the concept of sustainability beyond environmental concerns and the fight against climate change to embrace social justice, equity, and more and better democracy.

Too many of the children’s books coming out these days are exclusively focused on climate change: on the E element (i.e. environment) of ESG, and not enough on S (social) and G (governance).

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

A shorter version of this article was first published on Impakter; click here to read it.

To read more of my articles published on Impakter, click this link:

https://impakter.com/author/claude-forthomme

Migrants Tragedy in the Mediterranean: 600 Deaths That Were Preventable

Last month’s tragedy of the Adriana that capsized and sank off the coast of Greece, leading to the shocking death of 600 passengers, in large part women and children, finally has an explanation. It can no longer be shelved in the convenient category (convenient for European political leaders) where the only culprits are the crazed smugglers who jam migrants in floating wrecks in order to maximize their returns. We now have evidence beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Greek government is responsible for all those deaths, having failed to rescue them.  

Reuters, two days ago, had already raised doubts, reporting that six witnesses had said the Greek Coast Guards contributed to the tragedy, by throwing a rope that capsized the migrants’ boat. Their statements predictably clashed with the public statements given by the Greek coastguard and government, denying that any rope had been thrown.

But today we finally have the whole picture, carefully put together by a New York Times investigation. And it amounts to a devastating case against the Greek authorities, drawing from satellite imagery, sealed court documents, more than 20 interviews with survivors and officials and recordings of radio signals transmitted in the final hours of the tragedy.  

The conclusion? In the words of the Times journalists, Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Karam Shoumali, “the scale of death was preventable”. Note the term “scale of death”, it is a carefully chosen term that takes into consideration the special circumstances and the overloading of the Adriana.

It is the case, to be sure, that many deaths could have been expected even in a normal rescue operation, given the massive number of passengers carried by the Adriana, compounded by the absolute disregard displayed by the Egyptian smugglers for the safety of women and children assigned in the middle deck and tragically trapped in it when the ship capsized. They reportedly even beat back with belts any Pakistani migrant that tried escaping from the bottom hold to reach the deck – the only place where anyone had a chance to escape. 

In the end, only 104 people were reportedly rescued while bodies still keep turning up.

But what comes out very clearly from the New York Times recounting of events is that the Greek government never treated the situation as a rescue: For the Greek authorities, it was a standard law enforcement operation. They never sent a navy hospital ship or rescue specialists; instead, they came with a team that included four masked armed men from a coast guard special operations unit.

For now, the Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs told the New York Times it would not respond to detailed questions because the shipwreck was under criminal investigation, with a number of people, including the smugglers, arrested. 

Last week in Brussels, the Greek Prime Minister once again repeated what the Greek authorities have said from the start: namely, that the Adriana was sailing to Italy, and that the migrants did not want to be rescued. But satellite imagery and tracking data obtained by the New York Times show definitively that the Adriana was drifting in a loop for its last six and a half hours and wasn’t headed for Italy. 

By Day 4, according to testimonies and interviews, six people in the hold of the ship, including at least one child, had died.

The next day, June 13, the captain sent a distress call to the Italian authorities in the expectation that the Italians would rescue them.

As the New York Times recounts it, the Italians immediately alerted Frontex, the European Union border agency, and a reconnaissance plane was sent out by midday. Reportedly, two German journalists touring the Frontex command center at that time noticed “images of a rusty blue fishing ship” in trouble on the screen. Frontex rushed the Adriana coordinates to the Greek authorities since it was in Greece’s search-and-rescue area. A helicopter was sent within two hours. 

All the Greeks did by evening (7 pm) was to ask two nearby commercial tankers to bring the migrants water, food and diesel to continue their journey.

Read the rest of the story on Impakter, click here

Eating in Crisis Times: Why We Don’t Need To Go Back To Ramen Noodles

So sorry, guys, for the long silence, but I’ve been super busy lately…Yet I’ve been thinking of all of you, my BFFs, and here’s my latest article which I hope you’ll enjoy: Meant for startup founders and their staff, it’s not just for them, it’s good for anyone who likes to eat well! 

So here it is, just published on Impakter with the title:

Crisis Time for Startups: Back To The Ramen Noodles Diet?  

True, startups raised less than half the funds they got a year ago – but it doesn’t mean going back to boring ramen noodles: Here are fun, cheap and easy alternatives – much healthier too

Poor founders (and poor startup staff) hard times are upon them: Back to ramen noodles days when startups were starting up and money was scarce!

These are dark days. Big lay-offs in the tech industry, from Apple to Amazon, and no investor in sight. Venture capitalists are sitting down on their cash. According to data provider Crunchbase, globally, venture funds invested less than half of what they did a year ago in the first three months: It was $162bn then, it’s a paltry $76bn now in the first quarter of 2023.  

So how do you, startup founder, survive the downturn? 

Ramen noodles? 

The problem with them is that you get lots of calories and to preserve it, ramen noodles contain a hefty dose of tertiary-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ), a petroleum-based product that is hard to digest and is also found in pesticides and lacquers. 

So your stomach gets lacquered inside with consequences I don’t like to think about…

Just for the record, ramen noodles in their country of origin, Japan, are not bad for you – neither taste-wise or nutritionally. A variation on Chinese noodles that landed in Japan when the country opened up to Chinese traders in the late 1880s, they’re served in restaurants as a soup-like noodle dish with many different kinds of yummy toppings. And no preservatives. Lucky Japanese, they keep their stomachs lacquer-free!

For those who live in Europe or America, and want to keep their insides free of any lacquer-producing chemicals, there is only one solution: Turn to local food, stay away from instant stuff preserved with unpronounceable things like tertiary-butyl hydroquinone. 

Yes! The better alternative is: Pasta alla Siciliana with fried breadcrumbs: yummy!

Want to know how to do it?

Find out on Impakter, click here to read the recipes.

In the photo: Ingredients for 4 persons.

Enjoy and let me know here if you have your own ideas about how to replace ramen noodles…

A Close Look At A Novel By Nobel 2022 Winner: French Writer Annie Ernaux

La Place

by

Annie Ernaux

My review on Goodreads:  4 stars – really liked it!

I approached this book with some diffidence – in my opinion, the Nobel in Literature is often oddly chosen, picking out writers that in fact, you wouldn’t read, and then when you do (just because they won the prize and you want to know why), you’re (predictably) disappointed. I won’t name names here because when I don’t like authors I never write about them, I just retreat in a (diplomatic) silence and that’s that.

Well, you’ve guessed it, this time was different. Totally different, I loved it! This is a remarkable memoir that captures the anxiety and deep inner contradictions of our society – indeed, as the book cover blurb claims (but justifiably so), it has universal appeal. It’s short, fast-paced, written in a sober style, the author herself defines it as a “flat style”. Flat or not, it’s very effective, it will keep you riveted as it depicts in an unforgettable way the rise of the middle class in the 1950s following World War II, and what it did to those left behind.

In this case, poignantly, it’s the daughter who rises (Annie Ernaux, the author) and the person left behind is her father.

Highly recommended.

READING PROGRESS

October 8, 2022 – Started Reading

October 8, 2022 – Shelved

October 10, 2022 – Finished Reading

A Perfect Storm: Putin’s Threats of Nuclear War Added to the Energy and Food Crises

The world is in a mess with the war in Ukraine causing a double crisis – in food and energy – while America is falling back fifty years with the Supreme Court repeal of Roe vs. Wade, not to mention the gun situation, with Congress taking a timid step forward and the Supreme Court (again!) taking a big step back. Expect the Supreme Court to deal a death blow to LGBTQ rights and to environmental protection next. 

And this morning, when I woke up, I knew I had to write about it – either the disaster in America or the consequences of the war which are being felt worldwide. Already, the rising cost of living has led to 12 days of protest in Ecuador, and that’s just the start of many more similar protests around the world. So I decided that the most pressing and catastrophic issue was the war in Ukraine that is impacting all of us, here in Europe, in America, everywhere. 

Something needs to be done about it, and something that works, not like sanctions: They don’t work, they simply act as a boomerang. Indeed, so far, Putin has been the ultimate beneficiary of sanctions as they have raised oil prices, enabling him to fill up his coffers and wage the war unimpeded.

So here is what I wrote and that was published by Impakter today: 

How to Address the World Food and Energy Crisis and Putin’s Threats of Nuclear War

The G7 starting today is likely to recommend better “coordination of sanctions” but that is not the solution, a different policy response is needed

The G7 started this morning in a castle in Bavaria and the Ukraine war and sanctions are obviously on its agenda. In advance of this meeting of western leaders to which Russia is no longer invited since 2014 as retaliation for annexing Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would be “in the coming months” transferring missiles to Belarus capable of transporting tactical nuclear weapons.

To be noted: That country headed by Lukashenko, a long-time friend of Putin’s, located on the northern border of Ukraine, is uniquely well placed to launch missiles on Ukraine’s major northern cities, Kyiv and Lviv. His announcement was punctually followed by bombs falling on Kyiv last night and damaging two buildings, causing two wounded.

In other words: Putin is telling the G7 that he means business. The implied meaning: Once Russia has taken the Donbas, it will turn to the rest of Ukraine, and will take Kyiv, no matter what – even if it takes a nuclear attack.

Does he really mean it? Who knows, opinions differ, but one should clearly take him seriously, more seriously than Merkel and other western leaders, including Trump, have ever done. In that case, what is the solution, and how to move forward?

The expectation is the G7 will make recommendations for better “coordination of the sanctions against Russia”. That would include, of course, the 6th package of EU sanctions, the one especially aimed at Russian oil exports. Because, as we all know, sanctions don’t work unless they are watertight – certainly not the case with this last set of European sanctions that – under pressure from Hungary’s Orban, another one of Putin’s friends – is anything but watertight. In fact, it will become fully applicable only two years from now.

Why the G7 should stop talking about sanctions

Any call from the G7 for “better coordination of sanctions” is pure nonsense, pap to pacify an increasingly angry public.

Because anger is palpable, we are all angry at the rise in energy and food prices, here in Europe, in America and elsewhere – see the problems in Ecuador where indigenous people have protested the rise in the cost of living by putting the capital under siege for 12 days. The situation there has turned into a government crisis and the president is likely to be deposed by the parliament.

And that is only the start. Watch what happens when the food crisis gets in full swing, as some 27 million tons of grain planned for export is stuck in Ukraine. It is believed that up to 4 million tons of grain and oilseeds are in the terminals and on ships stranded in ports, in particular in Odessa, Ukraine’s main port on the Black Sea. And nobody knows quite how to unblock that situation, with the Russian navy camped in front of Odessa and the sea full of Ukrainian mines. 

And then there’s the energy crisis. With the spike in oil and gas prices, the biggest winner has been Putin despite the sanctions, whether coming from the US or Europe. 

I have deliberately bolded the above sentence because that is the main point here: Sanctions have created a situation that has benefited Putin, filling Russia’s coffers with money and permitting him to happily go on waging his war. 

In fact, the ruble has never been stronger – hitting the highest level in 7 years despite the sanctions – whereas the normal expectation would be that a country at war sees its currency weakened. Nothing like that happened because Russia is a petro-state, and if the price of petrol goes up, it gains. And that’s it, pure and simple.

Khodorkovsky, a Russian oil tycoon and former Putin friend, now one of his staunchest critics, has no doubts: As he recently told Politico, sanctions don’t work, “Europe is sabotaging itself”. 

What should the EU have done? In his view, it should have secured alternative supplies before moving ahead with an embargo, or even taken another approach entirely, simply imposing tariffs on Russian energy rather than an outright ban. 

He’s not the only one who argues like this: several experts from the Bruegel think tank have pointed out that it would have been smarter to impose tariffs since redirecting oil to other countries with the infrastructure currently in place would have been difficult for Moscow. This would have forced Russian energy companies to absorb the higher export costs to Europe, reducing their margins and ultimately cutting into Moscow’s military budget.

The point is this: By “drilling a hole in its own finances”, Europe has become weaker and less able to finance the purchase of more weapons for Ukraine.

Khodorkovsky has no doubts: “The problem is that current Western politicians have never held talks with a gangster,” he said, referring to Putin. “You can only start negotiating with him when he feels like he’s in a weaker position.”

And the sanctions have been a clear boomerang. “How much has the West lost in revenue by introducing all kinds of energy sanctions? $100 billion, $200 billion?” he said. “Had Ukraine got at least $50 billion worth of weapons instead of $10 billion, the situation would be completely different now — without any energy sanctions being introduced.”

The EU revised downward its growth predictions for this year by around 1 percent in April as a consequence of the war in Ukraine that has so far cost some €160 billion, according to recent GDP estimates from the International Monetary Fund. Meanwhile, the EU  has set up several tranches of financial aid, now amounting to €2 billion toward the purchase of arms for Ukraine.

Those numbers speak for themselves: One has to wonder what our political leaders were thinking.

If not more sanctions, what should be done?

…

Go to Impakter to read the rest, but I’ll give you a hint: We should use market forces against Putin, flood the oil market to lower energy prices. To find out more about this simple solution, click here.

Let me know what you think!

How Absenteeism Could Undermine the French Presidential Elections

My dear friends and followers, I worry about the outcome of the vote tomorrow: France could well elect Marine Le Pen to the presidency and that would be a catastrophe for both France and Europe.

Such an unfortunate outcome would be the direct result of absenteeism, of a rising number of French people, turned off by the choice presented, and choosing not to exercise their right to vote. Thereby helping to bring to the Elysée the most dangerous and ill-adapted candidate in recent history: Marine Le Pen. The only person who would benefit from such an outcome is Russia’s Putin. 

The problem is absenteeism and I examined in an article published on Impakter the day after the TV debate between the two contenders (April 20) why it’s such a risk this time:

French Presidential Elections: Why Absenteeism is a Dangerous Choice

If absenteeism is high, Macron could lose to Marine Le Pen who would become the first Euroskeptic, anti-climate French President with a worrisome dependence on Putin and no government experience

The duel between President Macron and extreme-right Marine Le Pen does not mobilize the French electorate as had happened in a similar situation 20 years ago when President Chirac was challenged by Le Pen’s father. Last night, the one and only debate between the two candidates during the second round of elections took place, a two-and-a-half-hour marathon that was universally viewed as too long, and in fact drew a slightly smaller audience than the last one in 2017, some 15.6 million viewers. 

It was a better show back then as both candidates were fresh in the eyes of the public and there was interest to see them up close. This time, it wasn’t the case; Marine Le Pen did not collapse in confusion like the last time and remained serene, almost aloof, while Macron was more offensive, scoring points, highlighting her climate skepticism, her anti-Islamism (she would ban the hijab in public spaces), her anti-Europe stance (the only “sovereignty” that exists, she says, is France’s), her lack of government experience (she is vague about the role of government, what can and cannot be done, and simplistic in her approach to state debt management), and her dependence on Putin as a direct result of the $9 million loan her party took from a Russian bank close to Putin and still hasn’t finished paying back.

Will this duel on television change anything, move indecisive voters to go to the voting booths? Most observers think it is unlikely, by now most people have made up their minds. Macron supporters feel Macron won the duel, and Marine Le Pen supporters say the same about their candidate. Following the debate, a snap survey by Elabe for BFM TV found that 59% of polled viewers found Macron more convincing than Le Pen. In 2017, the same polling firm found that 63% of those surveyed found Macron more convincing.

So Macron is doing better than Le Pen as he has all along, with the latest polls of voting intentions showing that Macron is set to win with around 55.5% of the vote. Again, that is less than in 2017 when he beat Le Pen with 66.1% of the vote. His present margin, 5.5%, is not that comfortable if you consider that this is three times less than it was in 2017 marking a considerable drop in consensus for the President.

Under the circumstances, with such a small margin between Macron and Le pen, everyone agrees that the level of absenteeism could determine the outcome. Absenteeism can be very dangerous and prevent democracy from functioning correctly. In this case, it could lead to the victory of Marine Le Pen, putting France in the hands of a notorious Euro-skeptic and anti-climate, anti-Islam, anti-German and pro-Putin President. 

This is exactly what Europe and the world do not need while the war rages in Ukraine. Not a happy prospect.

Why absenteeism in the French presidential election is so dangerous

The danger of absenteeism on Sunday in France should not be underestimated. There are numerous historic examples of absenteeism leading to deeply undesirable results, not reflecting the will of the majority – on the contrary, disregarding the majority will and leading to a breakdown in the functioning of democracy. 

Read the rest on Impakter, where I compare the Brexit referendum with what could happen tomorrow if too many French people stay at home and don’t vote: Click here to read.

The Evidence is In: The Spike in Oil Prices Helps Putin Finance His War in Ukraine

This week I’ve been pretty busy! A couple of days ago, I co-authored an article on Odessa with my friend Richard Seifman, an American diplomat and World Bank health expert, you can find the article here: Odessa: A City Crucial Now and Not Just for Ukraine

And now I just published a new article on Impakter, all the truth about sanctions, exploring why they don’t work as expected:

How Russia is Financing the War in Ukraine

With the hike in fuel prices caused by the war, Russia has been the main beneficiary, able to finance its war with an extra $100 billion earned from oil and gas exports

Ukrainian searching for victims after a bombing (screenshot)

Historically, sanctions have rarely if ever worked. US history of sanctions is an eye-opener and shows that most have never achieved their intended goal. Countries hit by sanctions have always found roundabout ways to mitigate sanctions or even cancel their impact with clever countermoves. And, unsurprisingly, it’s beginning to look like this umpteenth round of sanctions against Russia – we are up to round number five of EU sanctions now, the latest target being coal imports from Russia – is unlikely to help stop the war.

Bloomberg Economics experts have found that, as they put it, despite multiple rounds of sanctions, there are “plenty of signs that Russia is finding ways to prop up its economy”.  Russia, they have calculated, will earn about $320 billion from energy exports this year, up by more than a third from 2021. Russian oil is snapped up in Asia and the ruble is back to the level it was before the start of the war in Ukraine.

At the same time, Russian coal exports banned in Europe are finding their way in China: Reportedly there are several Chinese firms buying Russian coal with local currency.

In other words, from an economic standpoint, Russia is the great beneficiary of the war, having earned an extra $100 billion in just one month, enough to carry on with the invasion.  At least, so far but things could change if the West changes its policies and reviews its approach to sanctions. Because the evidence is now in: 

Sanctions do not work. Putin’s wily war plans: A clever way to finance the regardless of sanctions

One may well wonder what exactly were Putin’s real aims when he invaded the whole of Ukraine six weeks ago.

…

Read the rest on Impakter, click here.

Let me know what you think!

A Rare Interview

The “rare” interview in the title of this post is one done by Shanaz Radjy and it’s about me. I normally don’t like to talk about myself but this time I must. Because the person who interviewed me did a superb job, it’s actually much more than an interview, it’s a full portrait of my life as a writer.

Shanaz, who describes herself as “an adventurer, foodie, bookworm, and horse-lover” is an incredibly talented writer, based in Portugal; with her husband, she has cofounded what she calls “an eco-tourism project” – it’s actually a lovely “eco-lodge” opened to nature lovers,  a restored stone farm in a beautiful, wild mountainous setting, “off-the-grid”, as she says, with plenty of animals and fruits and home-grown vegetables. 

Appropriately called Casa Beatrix, you can find all about it here.

Disclosure: I met Shanaz a few years ago and we happily worked together when I reported on the wonderful Women’s Brain Project and had a long and fascinating talk with founder Maria Teresa Ferretti who’s an Alzheimer specialist. The aim of their project is to generate scientific evidence to understand how sex and gender difference impact brain and mental disease. If you’re curious about that article, click here. 

And here is the opening of that interview:

Reconnecting with Claude Forthomme

Claude Forthomme and I crossed paths when I was the Head of Communications for the Women’s Brain Project, and we collaborated on a piece on brain health for Impakter, where she is a Senior Editor. A few years later, after I finally read her book “Crimson Clouds” (yes, I have a monster TBR pile), I reached out to interview her. 

One of the things I find fascinating about her is that she has done so many different things, and yet one of the red threads throughout the years has been her love of the written word.

Once a Writer, Always a Writer

Technically, Claude started her writing career when she was eight years old. She published a newsletter for her parents, an 8-10 page booklet complete with clippings, drawings, and articles on what she considered the big news of the day. 

By the time she was 15, she had written her first novel: a murder story set in Colombia, among the mountain rebels. It’s one of many pieces that sit in literal or digital drawers, gathering dust.

A Citizen of the World

Born in Brussels, Claude’s father was a diplomat. She spent her childhood in Sweden, Egypt, Columbia, and Russia before graduating from Columbia University with a degree in Economics. After graduation, she worked in banking and publishing before teaching at the college level.

In 1979, Claude joined the United Nations, stationed at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy.

Claude went on to direct the UN/FAO Office for Europe and Central Asia, with US$ 35 million in aid projects aimed at aiding the transition of Eastern Europe to a free market system. She also put food safety on the global agenda, organizing 48 countries at a transcontinental meeting in Budapest.

What’s in a (Pen) Name

In 2009, when she started her blog, Claude decided to publish under the pen name “Claude Nougat.” It was an inside joke, dating back to her teenage years. One day, her father mused aloud about nougat, wondering why it existed in two such extremes: soft and gooey and dry and crisp. Claude said she had the answer. Then, she explained that eggs were integrated differently in each – an explanation she’d made up on the spot. 

Since that day, whenever she offered up one of her theories to explain something, Claude was told she “nougatized” it. An appropriate pseudonym, therefore, for a fiction writer.

Read the rest on Two Drops of Ink: A Literary Blog, click here.

Why Nobody Wants to Listen to Climate News

My latest article on Impakter, just published:

Climate Reporting: Why People Won’t Listen

Climate change and environmental issues still do not hit the news like the war in Ukraine or a billionaire’s trip to space but climate reporting is changing to meet the challenge 

Not enough time is given to reporting on climate change compared to other news, and that’s a fact. Newsrooms around the world are currently in the grips of Ukraine war news, as they should be, yet climate change will not go away and still requires our attention: After all, it concerns our very existence on this planet. 

As German media DW recently pointed out: On any given day of the average 38 stories on their home page, only one or two are about climate change. What is true for DW is true for any other major media outlet – and DW is no climate denier, far from it, it actively supports the fight against climate change, including through a special series of videos available on Youtube, the Planet A series focused on sustainability and climate change issues.

A couple of days ago, DW released its latest video in that series: It carries the provoking title “it’s hard to care about climate change”. To drive the point home, the video opens with an arresting calculation: When Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos went up in space last year, US news networks dedicated 212 minutes to the event in one day while climate change for the whole year occupied 267 minutes.  In short, climate change’s coverage was about 350 times less than what Bezos got for his pleasure trip in space.

So, yes, we have a very big problem with climate reporting: Climate change is simply not getting the attention it should. 

John Mecklin, the editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists made that point forcefully in an interview last week with Covering Climate Now (CCN) “Yes, other issues are important, but if we don’t pay attention to the existential issues first, there won’t be a civilization for those other issues to play themselves out in.” (bold added)

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Want to know how this plays out? Read the rest on Impakter, click here. 

And do share what you think! 

What Makes the Ukraine War Unique

What makes the Ukraine war unique is…No, not its brutality, that, alas, is nothing new. It’s horrendous and criminal on the part of Putin, but he’s done this before, in Chechnya and in Syria. What is new and unique about this war is Zelinsky, an extraordinary leader who’s using communication means in a way never used before by any leader at war (at least as far as I know!)

Check out my latest article, just published on Impakter:

Ukraine War: Unlike Any Other Thanks To Zelinsky

Ukraine’s President Zelinsky has embarked on a virtual tour of all the major parliaments in the West, further isolating Russia in public opinion

Claude Forthomme – Senior Editor

March 23, 2022

in Politics & Foreign Affairs, Society

The sanctions are doing their work, more are being prepared in Europe and the Biden administration is reportedly preparing sanctions targeting more than 300 members of the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament as soon as tomorrow. But the impact of sanctions is slow and carries a price: The blowback is inevitable, as Russia’s economy collapses and major trading partners, especially in Europe, are hurt. By contrast, the political work of Ukraine President Zelinsky is highly visible, hurts no one and probably contributes far more effectively than sanctions in isolating Russia in public opinion and turning it into a pariah state.

It is in fact extraordinary to see how the war in Ukraine is unfolding. On the ground, we are witnessing the tragedies of war that we hadn’t seen in Europe since Sarajevo and the Balkan War – in particular,  the atrocities against civilians. They are so extensive that one might well speak of genocide: For that is what is happening now in Mariupol, the southern port city bombed for weeks, unable to evacuate its inhabitants because of Russian shelling.

Today, as I write, 100,000 people are trapped there, in a city that is now 80% destroyed, and left without food, water, heating, as per Putin’s ruthless and brutal model of invasion that aims at the civilian population since his army is unable to win outright by military means. The Ukrainians are trying to negotiate safe passage to evacuate Mariupol’s people, but for now, with little success, only 7,000 were evacuated yesterday. That something like this could happen in the 21st century in Europe is both astonishing and unconscionable. It’s a throwback to the darkest moments of World War II.  

Yet, on another level, we are witnessing something that is entirely new in warfare. I cannot recall in recent History anything like what Zelinsky is doing, a leader engaged in an ongoing war, and talking to parliamentarians around the world.

Zelinsky’s tour of parliaments

Today, Zelinsky spoke to the Japanese Diet and the French parliament.

He used his address to Japan this morning to make two major points:

• He slammed the United Nations, saying the UN had failed over the conflict in his country and reforms were needed, calling for Japan to put more pressure on Russia. He told the lawmakers via video: “Neither the United Nations nor the UN Security Council have functioned. Reforms are needed. We need a tool to preemptively ensure global security. Existing international organizations are not functioning for this purpose, so we need to develop a new, preemptive tool that can actually stop invasions.”
• Recalling the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster that haunts the Japanese, he warned of the dangers his own country is facing from Russian attacks on nuclear plants and the site of the Chernobyl meltdown; Russia turned that into a war zone,” he said, warning that years would be needed to assess possible environmental effects of Russia’s occupation of Chernobyl; indeed, this is the first time that a country like Ukraine that depends on 15 nuclear reactors to produce its electricity has become a theater of war, raising concerns about world nuclear safety.

Curious about what he said to the French parliament and where all this is leading? Read the rest on Impakter, click here