2018
December
10
Monday

Monitor Daily Podcast

December 10, 2018
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Amelia Newcomb
Senior editor

How the search for the perfect Christmas tree is changing.

We just got ours with an approach that lies somewhere between the guy I saw lugging his pick from a Manhattan sidewalk stand and childhood tree-cutting adventures in my grandfather’s woods.  We headed to a nursery, jostling in good humor with others on their seasonal quest.

But more and more Americans now want trees to arrive – at the doorstep, in a box. No more worries about negotiating rain, cold, or children who suddenly decide this isn’t fun, even if that’s usually the stuff of fond memories.

Enter Amazon, which has just launched large tree delivery. At least one farmer has burned his Amazon Prime membership, saying the move will kill independent nurseries. And don’t mention the popularity of ever-more realistic artificial trees, which don’t demand water and clean up nicely.

It adds up to a challenging year for the industry. Prices are up 17 percent since 2015, driven by reduced planting during the Great Recession and extended rainy periods in many areas that have affected tree health and family enthusiasm for an outing.

But traditional farmers might find hope in another feature of modern life. That picture of children getting acquainted with the vibrancy of real trees is one families want to share on social media. And with good reason: it’s an image of innocent joy that connects us with each other and the season’s true spirit.

Now to our five stories, which look at the challenge of protest and outrage in France, the UK, and the US – as well as a quiet answer to it in Germany.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Dominique Soguel
French politician Raphaël Schellenberger listens to the demands of ‘yellow vest’ demonstrators on Dec. 6. The protesters have been gathering daily at a traffic circle in Mulhouse, France, since mid-November.

The protests in Paris are grounded in issues that are specific to France. But our reporters have found a familiar global theme in talking to protesters: a sense that their views don't matter – or worse, that they are simply invisible. 

Karen Norris/Staff

In the UK, a protester told the Monitor that the kind of protest France is witnessing doesn’t particularly suit the British – unless they’re pushed too far. As rightist supporters of Brexit channel a more overt nativism, many worry about the country moving into uncharted waters. 

On the move

The faces, places, and politics of migration
Dominique Soguel
A Syrian man who won't have a decision on his asylum claim before 2020 has decided to go back to Syria from Greece. Photo taken in Thessaloniki, Greece, on October 16, 2018.

It can seem counterintuitive: Refugees who emptied their savings and risked their lives to reach Europe now plan to head back to a perilous Syria. Our reporter got more insight on their reasoning in dozens of very personal conversations.

Have you ever wondered about the “outrage machine” that urges Americans to get angry about . . . well, everything? Many people worry about the impact of a style of politics that becomes increasingly difficult to control.

Markus Schreiber/AP/File
Refugees line up in the border town of Passua, Germany, for a train to Munich.

Speaking of outrage: Hateful and angry behavior typically gets a lot of coverage. Often less visible are the actions of the many people who quickly step forward to protect and support those who have been threatened. That's what this next story is about.


The Monitor's View

AP/file
Armenian volunteers are in a state of readiness in the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region.

One rare tool in diplomacy is to not let diplomats play a leading role in resolving conflicts between nations. An alternative approach, known as “track II diplomacy,” entails informal contacts between individuals and groups such as academics, artists, athletes, or simply residents across a hostile border.

Such people-to-people exchanges can build up goodwill and trust. They are sometimes key in ending bullet-for-bullet exchanges.

The two Koreas are trying it. India and China, after a tense military standoff last year, are firming up plans for people-to-people contacts. Last month, 150 young people from Arab and European countries met in Qatar to find common ground on issues that divide their “civilizations.”

Now Armenia is exploring whether it can resolve a territorial dispute with Azerbaijan by using a “people-oriented” approach, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG). The two former Soviet states have been at odds since a war in the early 1990s over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and seven surrounding districts. Official distrust is high. Compromises seem illusive.

“We can change our approach,” one Armenian official told ICG. “Instead of discussing only political demands, we could begin to focus more on people and their needs, from two sides.”

What’s new in the conflict is that Armenia experienced a peaceful revolution last April that brought in a much more democratic government led by a journalist-turned-politician, Nikol Pashinyan.

The new prime minister is looking for creative ways to end a virtual state of war that holds back the economies of both countries. Many in his new government came out of civil society and have seen the power of grass-roots activism.

Since April, officials from both sides have made some contact. Their defense officials have restored lines of communication along the border. Their foreign ministers have met three times. But to break a diplomatic logjam, attitudes within each country need to shift.

Humanitarian gestures would help, starting with a release of prisoners or coordination on demining civilian areas near the front lines. Armenians could reach out to the Azerbaijanis displaced by the conflict.

As the long Israeli-Palestinian conflict shows, not all people-to-people contact or humanitarian gestures will lead to peace. Ethnic or religious identities that drive a conflict are not easily transcended by wider views of common interests and values. Yet the latest approach to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict is worth watching.

Often it takes nonpolitical contact or humanitarian gestures between peoples for progress. As the late American journalist Edward R. Murrow stated, “The real link in the international exchange is the last three feet, which is bridged by personal contact, one person talking to another.” By tender acts, peace can arrive from the bottom up.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

We’d probably all agree that there is too much anger in the world today (see today’s Monitor Daily article on this topic), but instead of reacting to anger, hate, insult, and attack with more of the same, today’s contributor has found we can fight “fire” with healing love through a consistent, prayerful watchfulness.


A message of love

Jane Barlow/PA/AP
Retired businessman Brian Moodie takes his flock of turkeys for their daily walk near his home in Camelon, England, Dec. 10. Christmas holds no fear for the birds, which are strictly off the menu. Moodie started keeping turkeys in his back garden eight years ago in a bid to help conserve rare breeds. These free-range birds even know how to cross the road as they are taken for a stroll around the town each day.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte and Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for starting your week with us. Tomorrow we’ll check in on the climate conference in Poland to look at how the US pullback on climate action is affecting the resolve and ambitions of other nations. 

More issues

2018
December
10
Monday

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