01 Crisis Politics

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01-01 Political Leadership

Climate Change and the Coronavirus are testing our political leaders. We need more young women in politics. We all remember Prime Minister Winston Churchill of war-time Britain, who used his rousing oratory to carry his country through the worst days of the London blitz. He was a crisis leader who rose to the occasion.Of all…

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01-02 History

Effective political leaders on the pandemic got their lessons from the Spanish Flu of 1918. People only follow leaders that provide clear messages. Would it be believable to blame WW2 on the Spanish Flu of 1918? Or how about the decline of the British Empire? Let’s start with the Peace Conference in Paris in May,…

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01-03 Public Attitudes

Governor Andrew Como of New York and Premier Doug Ford of Ontario are the big movers of public attitudes on the virus and the role of government. It was a chance meeting with the former Prime Minister of Canada, Paul Martin in Maui in 2010, that I was told about the power and influence of…

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01-04 The Gates Foundation

There are 80,000 foundations in the US funding health and education. The Gates Foundation is providing $300 million for COVID-19 research. It was at a conference at Sea Island, Georgia that I was drawn into the world of foundations. This gathering drew together the directors of development centres and their sponsors. And the sponsors, for…

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01-05 Democracies Under Threat

Governments are using the pandemic to increase their powers. Democracies are under threat. Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright issues a public warning that around the world democracies are under threat as governments use the pandemic to tighten their grip on power.A special focus was directed to nations like Hungary which passed legislation giving…

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01-06 Women Voters

Women turn out to vote. And women, as caregivers, are afraid of Covid-19 more than men. Women will determine the US presidency in 2020. So interesting to work with colleagues in Finland in the 1980s and find as many women as men in leadership positions. And these were women fluent in four languages. Finnish, Swedish,…

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