114,000 Syrians returned home in 2018 | CTV

'Nearly 114,000 Syrian refugees have returned home this year, the Russian military said Tuesday, a mere fraction of the nearly 6 million who have fled the country since the start of the seven-year conflict. UN agencies said they need $5.5 billion in the coming year to support Syria's neighbours hosting the refugees. The UN said Tuesday that Syria's neighbours, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, are hosting the majority of the Syrian refugees, while dealing with their own economic and social challenges. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said that over the last eight years around one million Syrian children were born in the region and registered as refugees.'

Book review: Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization by Max Haven

Book review: Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization by Max Haven

Ten years after the crash, is any aspect of our daily lives unfettered by the influence of finance capital? It is clear enough that neoliberalism has permeated most layers of public governance, most social interactions, to create a legacy of starved public services, wealth inequality and powerful global capitalism. Surely art has been spared, especially in the contemporary form, which can be an expression of emotion and beauty, or even a space where criticism, resistance and subversiveness are not only allowed but expected. Max Haiven argues instead that art and money cannot be disassociated; that art is in fact dependent on capitalism and in no way apart from it.

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Book review: Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

Book review: Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

At last! I finished Jane Austen's immensely popular Pride & Prejudice. It won me over, in the end, but hell, was it ever hard to get through. Such is the challenge with making your way through a list of classics. While I am always content to finish them, some are bound to be grueling reads.

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Book review: The Break by Katherena Vermette

Book review: The Break by Katherena Vermette

So far this year, I have read a number of incredible books, none of which have come close to The Break by Katherena Vermette. I finished this book months ago, and have since been haunted by some of its vivid, upsetting and heartwarming scenes. In many ways, this book is far too grand to summarize. In fact, what you will read below is less of a book review, and more of a post on why everyone in Canada should read this book.

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