IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair. We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.
Justin Giovannetti brings us the story of what happened when a runaway train carrying crude oil derailed in a Quebec town. Forty-seven people were killed, and survivors tell him their stories.
(Globe and Mail – approx 43 minutes reading time, 8720 words)
The sound of the level crossing was muffled as thousands of tonnes of locomotives and rail cars blew past the dormant lights. Luc and Julie leaped to their feet, just as the piercing cries rose around them: “It’s going to derail!”
Michael Hann looks at the case of Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins – who admitted committing terrible sex crimes – and the response to the case. Is the arts world quick to forgive people who commit such crimes, or will Lostprophets always be associated with his vile acts?
(The Guardian – approx 5 minutes reading time, 1088 words)
Yet even within rock and pop, a status division exists. Led Zeppelin remain one of rock’s greatest bands… despite the knowledge that their guitarist, Jimmy Page, had a sexual relationship with Lori Maddox that began when she was 14. When Chuck Berry dies, the obituaries will likely dwell more on his role in the birth of rock’n'roll than on his conviction for transporting a minor across state lines for immoral purposes.
3. Where your clothes come from
Dana Liebelson wanted to know more about where cheap clothes from – and journeyed to India to find out. But while at one factory, thugs are sent after her.
(Mother Jones – approx 21 minutes reading time, 4528 words)
In the garment industry the world over, it is common for workers to be locked into exploitative conditions until they fulfill contracts. But in India, the dowry tradition—which persists even though it’s officially illegal—makes teenage girls especially vulnerable to these schemes. In part because of this, India has comparatively strong child labor regulations: It’s illegal for children younger than 14 to work in factories there, and all workers must be paid double for overtime. Enforcing those laws, however, is another matter.
4. A journalist’s responsibility
Leonora LaPeter Anton once wrote about Gretchen Molannen, who suffered from persistent sexual arousal syndrome, a long-term condition that left her in pain. When the journalist discovered that Molannen had taken her own life, it made her examine her own role in Molannen’s issues.
(Tampa Bay – approx 26 minutes reading time, 5290 words)
The reporter-source relationship is a complicated one that defies easy description. It borrows a little from the salesman-buyer relationship, the therapist-patient relationship, the police officer-witness relationship, sometimes even the growing intimacy of a friendship. We work hard to gain access and trust, and generally we avoid doing anything that stops a source from talking once she gets started.
Katie Engelhart writes about the rise of the Far Right in Europe, and how the situation is not “the 1930s redux”. She argues that such parties are more articulate, and more committed to playing by democratic rules. So what does this mean for Europe?
(Macleans – approx 15 minutes reading time, 3126 words)
More than ever, Europe’s far-right is coalescing into muscular alliances. That can only help them in next year’s European Parliament elections, in which far-right gains are expected. Of course, this doesn’t mean the old days of street-level strong-arming have passed. Two months ago, a member of Greece’s Golden Dawn party stabbed a man to death in an Athens suburb—ushering in a state crackdown on the group.
Jeffrey Goldberg brings us to the Pacific island of Kiribati, which, if scientists are correct, will be wiped out by climate change before the end of this century. Its citizens could soon become refugees – but can something be done to help them?
(Business Week – approx 35 minutes reading time, 7066 words)
The people of this village gather in the maneaba often to talk through the options. Leaving is a theoretical proposition for the moment, because there’s nowhere to go. Some of the young are training to be seamen in hope of finding jobs on Asian fishing trawlers, or nurses to seek work in the old-age homes of New Zealand. “Migration with dignity” is what Tong calls it: making the people of Kiribati useful to the nations that might grant them safe harbor.
…AND ONE FROM THE ARCHIVES…
In 1999, David Finkel met Vjosa Maliqi, a refugee in Macedonia who fell in love with a man who promised to take her from the camp she lived in. But she was left with a choice: go with him, and possibly lose her family, or leave him and fear that they may never meet again. What did she decide to do?
(Washington Post – approx 19 minutes reading time, 3935 words)
On April 1, she was at home in Pristina, playing cards with her family. On April 2, she was being forced onto a train so crowded with panicking people that they were pushing their way on board through the windows. On April 3, she was in a field just inside Macedonia with 60,000 other refugees, all begging for bread and water
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