Sections
Introduction, contents & index
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Introduction
What is Essential Articles?
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Contents
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Index
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Alcohol
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Alcohol header
Raises issues to think about and discuss within the section
Keywords: drinking |
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Keywords: drinking |
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Why could nobody stop me drinking?
Fifteen years of alcoholism cost this writer his home and nearly killed him... so why did none of the efforts to help him work?
Keywords: drinking, addiction, health, social services, detox |
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Let’s be realistic about teen drinking
This family buys alcohol for their 16-year-old son to get around a law that they think is ridiculous
Keywords: young people, binge drinking, violence, teenagers |
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Mother’s ruin
A GP argues that scientific studies and laws on alcohol are missing the point
Keywords: young people, binge drinking, violence, health |
Assisted suicide
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Assisted suicide header
Raises issues to think about and discuss within the section
Keywords: death, euthanasia, murder |
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Keywords: death, euthanasia, murder |
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Why preserve a life with no meaning?
A leading rabbi describes his wife’s painful decline and how he felt sure he should help her to die
Keywords: euthanasia, death, terminal illness, health, care, religion, murder, right to die |
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I longed for death in the dungeons of Beirut – but I’m proof that you should never give up on life
Terry Waite believes that however much we claim assisted suicide is an act of compassion, it contradicts the basic commandment ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’
Keywords: euthanasia, death, terminal illness, health, care, religion, hostage, murder, war, conflict |
Britain & its citizens
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Born and bred a Brit – but apparently I know nothing about Britishness
John Walsh wouldn’t pass a citizenship test – would you?
Keywords: immigration, identity, community, history, integration |
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Why the burka is part of Britain
France may consider banning the burka, but the UK has a tradition of tolerance
Keywords: religion, tradition, dress, burqa, Muslim, Koran, custom, clothing, freedom, integration, Afghanistan, equality, gender, human rights, Islam, women, culture |
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They are right to ban the burka, even if it is for the wrong reasons
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is in favour of banning a garment which is “a statement about the position of women”
Keywords: religion, tradition, dress, burqa, Muslim, custom, clothing, freedom, integration, France, equality, gender, human rights, Islam, women, culture |
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Foreign and destitute
Around 20,000 asylum seeking families are living in destitution in the UK because the system will not allow them to work
Keywords: immigration, poverty, refugee, social services, government, welfare state, equality, human rights |
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In defence of devil dogs
Criticism of dangerous dogs is really about the social class of their owners
Keywords: animals, violence, Law & order, Safety & risk, Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, Fila Braziliero, banned, prohibited, pets, bite, young children, teenagers, hospital, death, fatality, crime |
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Man weighing 39 stone gets special council house...
Should our system of social care really pay out for people who make no effort to help themselves?
Keywords: obesity, health, disability, equality, NHS, social services, welfare state, law |
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In Edgeware bus station...
Tanya Gold takes the role of writer in residence in a bus station and discovers intriguing snapshots of people’s lives
Keywords: literature, stories, writing, art, culture, transport |
Disability
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Disability header
Raises issues to think about and discuss within the section
Keywords: health |
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Keywords: health |
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Is my pain really too shocking for television?
Sarah Ezekiel is proud of the advert she made showing the effects of motor neurone disease on her body. But the TV watchdog has decided it’s too alarming for us to see
Keywords: censorship, health, media, charity, MND, prejudice, family, assisted suicide, euthanasia, death |
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Missing model to role model
Winning a TV competition should have launched Kelly Knox’s modelling career but things are not so straightforward when you have a disability
Keywords: Media, fashion, diversity, body image, women |
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Life and death decisions with a disabled child
“Do I love her? With all my heart. When she dies will it be a relief? Without question”, says the mother of a disabled daughter
Keywords: family, care, health, learning difficulties, welfare, benefits, assisted suicide, euthanasia, children, death, relationships |
Drugs
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Drugs header
Raises issues to think about and discuss within the section
Keywords: addiction, law & order, crime |
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Keywords: addiction, law & order, crime |
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The art and science of evidence about drugs
How can we tell how harmful a drug is?
Keywords: law, alcohol, experiment, health, media, addiction, crime |
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Accept the facts – and end this futile ‘war on drugs’
Banning drugs doesn’t work, it simply puts money into the hands of armed criminal gangs
Keywords: law, alcohol, experiment, health, addiction, crime |
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Let’s be honest about party drugs
Youngsters will always want to experiment and there is always someone ready to provide the next high
Keywords: law, alcohol, experiment, health, science, addiction, media, young people, crime |
Education
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Education header
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‘I had been disqualified from India’s rat race’
A failure in the Indian education system becomes a success in the UK through persistence and a bit of luck
Keywords: university, family, student, exams, qualifications |
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My third-class life
Michael Morpurgo argues that it’s a teacher’s talent, not academic success, that is most important
Keywords: university, student, work, exams, qualifications |
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Should BNP teachers be banned?
This writer believes we should tolerate people’s beliefs even if we don’t agree with them
Keywords: politics, race, freedom of speech, tolerance, Britain, British |
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‘Super head’ makes failing school most improved in England
How one person’s determination and inspiration managed to turn an entire school around
Keywords: Exams, work, qualifications |
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Classroom violence
Teachers have limited options when it comes to disciplining students. Here are a variety of cases and outcomes
Keywords: discipline, law, assault, crime |
Environmental Issues
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Visiting rights – How to make ethical travel choices
Can you protect the environment and still have a holiday?
Keywords: tourism, carbon footprint, flying, water, energy, work, development, wider world, CO2, climate change, global warming, greenhouse gases, consumers |
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If climate change didn’t exist, would we have to invent it?
Even if all the climate scientists are mistaken, we would still benefit from improving the way we treat the planet
Keywords: carbon footprint, energy, development, wider world, CO2, science, global warming, greenhouse gases, media, pollution |
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How climate change will affect these lives
A look at the way two newborn babies in different parts of the world will be affected
Keywords: global warming, greenhouse gases, children, family, wider world, drought, water, Britain, Africa, developing world, mothers, population |
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Save the bees – save the world
These tiny hyperactive creatures are crucial to our survival
Keywords: endangered, conservation, farming, crops, pollution, insecticide, animals, food |
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Is roadkill a viable meat source?
“Waste not want not” so why not harvest the highway and use the meat from animals that have already been killed?
Keywords: food, animal rights, science |
Family & Relationships
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Family & relationships header
Raises issues to think about and discuss within the section
Keywords: children, mothers |
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Keywords: children, mothers |
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‘I witnessed terrible things’
Patrick Stewart talks about the domestic violence that plagued his childhood and still affects his adult life
Keywords: personal account, children, abuse, parents, parenting, fathers, discipline, mothers, women |
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It takes more than a slap to teach right from wrong
A psychologist claims that children who are smacked before the age of six become better teenagers. This journalist, who was smacked as a child, does not agree
Keywords: discipline, corporal punishment, parents, parenting, child care, mothers |
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The day my daughter hit me
A petty family row came to a violent end. This shocked mother discovers she is not the only parent to suffer at the hands of a child
Keywords: domestic violence, parents, parenting, abuse, children, teenagers, child care |
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The Supernanny Dad
Eddie Barnes felt superior to the hopeless dads he saw on TV until he became a dad himself
Keywords: Fathers, discipline, parents, parenting, children, child care, television |
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Just let parents get on with bringing up their children
Parents should allow their children more freedom if they want them to learn to be safe and independent
Keywords: parenting, child care, mother |
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‘I’m glad I was a teenage mother’
Teenage pregnancy could mean the end of all ambitions. Instead this writer believes it was the making of her
Keywords: parenting, parents, single parent, student, university, children, studying, education |
Food & Drink
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Food & drink header
Raises issues to think about and discuss within the section
Keywords: diet, health |
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Keywords: diet, health |
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If Jamie Oliver can’t change our eating habits ... who can?
People know the benefits of a healthy diet yet, even after a popular campaign, our habits haven’t changed
Keywords: school dinners, lunch, education, health, class, celebrity chef, junk, obesity, parents, parenting, children, nutrition, diet |
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Boxing stupid over children’s packed lunches
Children’s packed lunches are not up to the standard recommended by the Food Standards Agency, but this writer argues their suggestions are hugely unrealistic
Keywords: school dinner, class, health, education, obestity, parents, parenting, junk, nutrition, diet |
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Junk food – as addictive as heroin?
A recent study suggests that the human brain responds to junk food in the same way as it does to drugs like heroin and tobacco
Keywords: science, addiction, animal research, nutrition, obesity, animal testing, diet, health, animal experiments |
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Why latest diet and calorie news from scientists has me praising the lard for an extra pie
Food loving DJ Stuart Maconie is delighted to hear that he can consume an extra 400 calories a day
Keywords: science, nutrition, obesity, NHS, health |
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Nutty labelling
This writer shows how food labelling rules allow companies to actually hide the facts
Keywords: global warming, advertising, law, consumers, diet, health |
Gender
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Gender header
Raises issues to think about and discuss within the section
Keywords: equality, women |
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Keywords: equality, women |
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Beautiful and feminist – you can be both!
Girls can be highly intelligent and still be interested in being seen as attractive
Keywords: students, education, fashion, dress, teenage, work, body image, girls, equality, women, young people |
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I’d hate to be a teenage girl today
The women girls aspire to imitate are just doormats!
Keywords: fashion, dress, work, body image, role model, rape, domestic abuse, marriage, girls, equality, sexual issues, violence, women, young people |
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Girls, ignore adults who wish you to be less than you are
The writer of The Vagina Monologues wants girls to question, to provoke, to challenge, to dare
Keywords: Wider world, work, rape, teenage, culture, tradition, education, equality, sexual issues, violence, women, young people |
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Boy or girl? You choose...
Libby Purves is horrified by a clinic which helps parents to select the gender of their unborn child
Keywords: pregnancy, genetics, family, parenting, health, children, equality, relationships, fathers, mothers |
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When daddy is just an optional extra
Forget the debate about working mothers; it’s fathers who get a raw deal in bringing up baby
Keywords: parents, parenting, family, children, equality, relationships, work |
Health
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Dark blues
There is often little understanding of clinical depression, especially in a job where you are required to be robust, as this personal account by a police officer testifies
Keywords: work, mental health |
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My brother is eating himself to death
Lionel Shriver feared her brother’s weight problem would kill him. Days after this article was published, he died
Keywords: family, obesity, human rights, diabetes, food, equality, diet |
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The obese want to have their equality cake and eat it too
Abusing people because they are different is wrong, but those who are overweight can change the way they are
Keywords: family, obesity, human rights, diabetes, parents, parenting, NHS, food, children, diet |
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Brains v bulge: the fat-fighting university where success can hinge on a BMI test
The oldest African-American college in the US is to force obese students on fitness courses before they can graduate
Keywords: education, student, obesity, food, young people, diet |
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A face that should haunt a generation
Gary Reinbach began drinking at 13. He died aged 22 having been refused a liver transplant
Keywords: alcohol, NHS, death, organ donation, human rights, addiction, young people |
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Me and my homeopathic overdose
Is it right for the NHS to provide homeopathic treatments? This writer took part in a mass homeopathic overdose in protest
Keywords: Science, alternative medicine, |
Internet & Media
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Internet & Media header
Raises issues to think about and discuss within the section
Keywords: technology |
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Keywords: technology |
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Facebook project gives world peace a chance
Many people are crossing social and religious divides to make friends on Facebook
Keywords: social network, wider world, technology, religion, war & conflict |
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The faceless virtual mob spreading spite online
Protected by anonymity, internet users are becoming ever more vicious
Keywords: technology, cyberbullying, social network, Facebook, Twitter, charity, email |
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These armchair paedophiles are just as guilty
Is the easy access to illegal material online encouraging criminal behaviour?
Keywords: pornography, child abuse, technology, law, children, crime, sexual abuse |
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Distraction-concentration
Alain de Botton thinks that to sit still and think without reaching for a machine has become almost impossible
Keywords: computers, technology, news, culture, psychology, art |
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What good is information if our children can’t understand it?
Susan Greenfield believes that computers in schools could do more harm than good as young people seem to be losing the ability to concentrate
Keywords: study, education, children, mental healh, Facebook, Twitter, science, psychology, technology, computer games |
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There’s too much stuff
‘We live in a stuff-a-lanche. It’s time for a cultural diet. I want to be told what to read, watch and listen to,’ says Charlie Brooker
Keywords: computers, technology, news, culture, psychology, TV, art |
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An odd message to find on your TV...
Comedian David Mitchell thinks hours of TV never did him any harm
Keywords: Children, parents, parenting, culture, art, leisure, technology, television |
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TV turn-off?
Does TV coverage of developing countries really reflect our interconnected global population?
Keywords: Wider world, news, culture, art, developing world, technology, television |
Language
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Language header
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More than words
It may be said as a joke but there is a price to pay for continuous thoughtless use of offensive language
Keywords: Disability, race, homophobia, abuse, equality, names |
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The name game
Your name can affect your success at work – and with the opposite sex
Keywords: education, career, parenting, pscyhology, class |
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Ifs and Butts as Buddy becomes My Lover
Like a local cheese or wine, old nicknames have a cultural history all of their own
Keywords: culture, Britain, names, tradition, citizens |
Law & Order
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Law & Order header
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Keywords: crime, police |
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Keywords: crime, police |
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When is it right to take the law into our own hands?
One committed a violent attack on a burglar. The other was guilty of the mercy killing of her brain damaged son. One is free, the other starting a nine year sentence
Keywords: violence, assisted suicide, euthanasia, prison, crime, death, murder, police, justice |
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“I stood up to muggers”
A quick-thinking grandmother tells how she faced up to attackers
Keywords: personal account, violence, mugging, victim, crime, police |
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Too young to be a criminal
In the UK our age of criminal responsibility is set too low making it meaningless and inhumane
Keywords: prison, young people, children, human rights, crime, police, wider world |
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We all played a part in James Bulger’s killing. So who are you calling evil?
The Bulger case was unique – it was one of the few cases in which the public felt not just revulsion but a quiet sense of collective shame
Keywords: murder, death, prison, young people, human rights, society, parenting, victim, media, children, crime, police, violence, justice |
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Why the public counts less than the Bulger killers
The legal system protects the rights of Jon Venables rather than the rights of James Bulger and his relatives
Keywords: murder, death, prison, young people, human rights, society, parenting, victim, media, children, crime, police, violence, justice |
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A radical alternative to prison?
The community justice centre in Liverpool has been praised for a more enlightened approach to the rehabilitation of criminals
Keywords: community service, crime, police |
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I was questioned over my harmless snapshot
An innocent picture resulted in questioning by the police
Keywords: photography, human rights, freedom, terrorism, censorship, crime |
Science & Technology
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If a treatment works on rodents, will it cure us?
When we hear about caffeine reversing Alzheimer’s and other medical breakthroughs, how hopeful should we be?
Keywords: animal experiments, medicine, health, media, genetics, animal testing |
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Don’t believe the science!
The truth behind the scientific claims made by cosmetic and health food companies
Keywords: labelling, advertising, nutrition, vitamins, detox medicine, consumers, diet |
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Top 10 forecasts
The Futurist Magazine reveals its scientific and technological forecasts
Keywords: future, mobile phone, psychology, internet, climate change, global warming, energy, fuel, space, reading, leisure |
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Top ten... scientific blunders
Even the world’s greatest scientists sometimes get things wrong
Keywords: space, bees, genetics |
Sport & Leisure
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Sport & leisure header
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Football crazy?
Does the ‘beautiful game’ have the power to blow the whistle on conflict in the developing world?
Keywords: Africa, war, wider world, gender, girls, boys, development |
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Superhuman? Supercool!
Has any one person ever re-awakened interest in a sport the way Jamaican sprinter, Usain Bolt, has done for athletics?
Keywords: athlete, science, physiology, Olympics, drugs |
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How to boost your chances with a scientific approach to sport
Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell discusses the balance between improving your health and pushing yourself too far
Keywords: science, fitness, endurance |
War & Conflict
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Not in vain?
Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid’s widow made this powerful speech at her husband’s funeral
Keywords: death, Afghanistan, bomb, Army, soldier, Taliban, work, career |
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Moshtarak – frontline diary
A troop’s-eye view of what is really happening
Keywords: Afghanistan, bomb, Army, soldier, Taliban |
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Pregnant soldiers...?
Angela Epstein argues that on the battlefield, women are simply not equal
Keywords: Afghanistan, bomb, Army, soldier, Taliban, gender, equality, pregnancy, work, career |
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I survived the Rwandan genocide
Personal account of a 17-year-old who fled the massacre
Keywords: wider world, Africa, war, conflict, developing world, disasters, race, refugee, violence |
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Africa’s Schindler
In one of the continent’s bloodiest battlegrounds, one man has saved thousands from the clutches of lethal militias
Keywords: wider world, war, conflict, Congo, charity, peace, developing world, disasters, refugee, violence |
Wider World
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Wider world header
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Keywords: developing world, development |
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Keywords: developing world, development |
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Haiti: I want to go back
Personal account of a surgeon who went to assist after the disaster
Keywords: earthquake, health, developing world |
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Bhopal – a disastrous legacy
25 years after the worst industrial accident the world has ever seen, new generations continue to be affected
Keywords: disaster, environment, pollution, children, genetics, developing world, development, disability |
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A war against women
The education of girls has been proved to bring change to deprived areas throughout the world. But for girls in Afghanistan, even learning to read is dangerous
Keywords: gender, law, children, developing world, equality, human rights, Muslim, Islam, murder, violence, young people, crime |
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Food companies: “We will beat world hunger with fortified foods!”
Food companies are working out how to make a profit from nine billion hungry people
Keywords: environment, nutrition, advertising, farming, developing world, diet, poverty |
Work
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For children today, table manners still trump talent
Equality of opportunity and ambition alone are not enough. The barriers to social mobility are far more complex
Keywords: class, education, young people |
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Undercover unemployed reveal race bias among UK employers
Job applications from three people with similar work experience but very different ethnic names reveal prejudice in the workplace
Keywords: women, equality, race |
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How will a degree help a frightened patient?
“I see no evidence that graduates make better nurses. My fear is that too much theory risks making them too posh to wash” says Professor Raymond Tallis
Keywords: Health, education, NHS, nursing, university, degree, qualification |
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On the job
Work worries, career queries... an aspiring singer writes for advice to On the job
Keywords: education, university, degree, qualification, art, culture, young people |
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