Winemaker Amelie Neaux at Saumur-Champigny, France, April 2022. Credit: Malcolm Jolley.

Five New Year's resolutions for writing about wine

Wine does not make itself, and the story of the people who make the wine is the real story of the wine. It’s easy to forget this and get caught up in geography, climate, grape variety, cellar equipment, or whatever else and forget about the minds that make the decisions about what ends up in the glass.

President Joe Biden speaks during the closing session at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit on promoting food security and food systems resilience in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022. Susan Walsh/AP Photo.

It's time to look toward Africa

Recognizing that decisions made on the African continent will likely shape the future of the world more profoundly than those made anywhere else, Canada should develop a coherent policy towards Africa that reflects the realities on the ground there, rather than again missing the train.

Pre-K teacher Vera Csizmadia teaches 3- and 4-year-old students in her classroom at the Dr. Charles Smith Early Childhood Center, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021, in Palisades Park, N.J. Mary Altaffer/AP Photo.

The bad metaphysics of progressive education

A generation of teachers has been steeped in the progressive educational theories of John Dewey and his more radical successors, who viewed education as a vehicle for delegitimizing a society’s cultural inheritance and dismantling its customs and institutions.

A reveller laughs as she waits for the countdown during the New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square, late Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, in New York. Andres Kudacki/AP Photo.

The road ahead for the West and the world

The decadent, irresolute, and unfocused West appears to have dealt with COVID after all, managed to develop the better package of vaccines, is solving its energy security issues, and is now rapidly coming together in cooperative behaviour to push back against both Russian and Chinese government assertiveness.