2021
October
22
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

October 22, 2021
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Colette Davidson
Special correspondent

When I was growing up in Minnesota, “Joe Versus the Volcano” was one of my favorite movies. I longed to be swept away to a tropical island. But as I found myself in La Palma reporting on the Cumbre Vieja eruption in the Spanish Canary Islands, I quickly realized that there’s nothing romantic about volcanoes or being stranded – even on an island.

I had come prepared – an N95 mask, baseball cap, and a ridiculous-looking turquoise swimming mask my Spanish mother-in-law lent me. But nothing could prepare me for the invasiveness of the volcanic ash. It fell from the sky like a rainstorm, lining streets, covering doorways and windowsills, and filling the crevices of my ears. 

It wasn’t long before the airlines canceled all flights. When tourists began panic-buying all the ferry tickets as I was interviewing residents about their futures, I realized I had, quite literally, missed the boat.  

For two days, I wandered empty streets awaiting the resumption of travel, carrying a backpack and feeling progressively stuck – and at times panicked.

And then I realized I was being given the chance for deeper insight. Here I was experiencing, albeit in much lesser degree, what the people I was writing about were feeling: uncertainty, frustration, and fatigue from living next to an erupting volcano with no end in sight. 

Like the people of La Palma, I leaned on others to get me through – from the English woman who gave me a bag of oranges from her garden to the church that let me use the bathroom after being stranded at the top of a mountain.

As I finally left – via boat – I realized how grateful I was to have experienced the humanity of the people in La Palma in the face of crisis. I know it’s what will pull them through it. 


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Americans are angry, but what are they doing with their outrage? We talk to Americans of all political affiliations who have channeled that emotion in creative or productive ways.

Thomas Peter/Reuters/File
A security member keeps watch outside Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit by the World Health Organization team tasked with investigating the origins of the COVID-19, in Wuhan, China, Feb. 3, 2021.

A lack of transparency has undermined trust in public health officials and scientists, who are not only dealing with the current pandemic but also trying to understand how to prevent future ones. 

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Lava flows from a volcano in La Palma, Spain. A month after it first erupted, experts say, it has run only half its course, leaving homeless residents in limbo.

Natural disasters always upend lives, but a volcano in La Palma on Spain’s Canary Islands continues to erupt with no end in sight. It is challenging recovery efforts – and residents’ notions of home. 

Luc Gnago/Reuters
A supporter holds posters of Ivory Coast's former President Laurent Gbagbo during a meeting to launch the formation of a new political party, at the Sofitel hotel, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Oct, 16, 2021.

The return of Ivory Coast’s disgraced ex-President Laurent Gbagbo has stirred division among survivors of the violence surrounding his fall in 2011. We ask how fragile is the current peace process. 

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What happens when an industry’s evolution creates a pressing need? In the case of commercial aviation, new opportunity arises for an able but long sidelined cohort. This school promotes equity.

A more equitable new-pilot pipeline

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The Monitor's View

Reuters
Supporters of the opposition candidate for Hungary's prime minister, Peter Marki-Zay, attend a rally in Budapest Oct. 10.

 When a survey last month asked people in Europe if corruption had increased over the previous year, four countries ranked among the worst: Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Yet all four now have something else in common. In October, they each saw political stirrings for clean governance or rule of law.

The most dramatic shift was in Hungary, where democracy has been eroded by a populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Six opposition parties have united against him and on Oct. 17 chose a small-town mayor, Péter Márki-Zay, to run in the next election. He promises to uphold the values of the European Union and support efforts to prevent the theft of EU money in Hungary. Mr. Orbán’s party is now behind in the polls.

In Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz resigned Oct. 9 over new allegations that his People’s Party used government money to buy positive coverage of him in the media. In the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Andrej Babis lost badly in an election after revelations that he used undeclared wealth to buy a castle in France.

In Poland, more than 100,000 people took to the streets last weekend in protest over the ruling party’s stacking of the judiciary and a recent ruling by the constitutional ctribunal that Poland can ignore EU laws. More than 80% of Poles do not want to jeopardize the country’s EU membership. They see it as a check on political corruption.

These recent events point to another result of last month’s poll of Europeans by the watchdog group Transparency International. Nearly two-thirds say ordinary people can make a difference in the fight against corruption. That’s a mighty force for honesty and accountability in government. In October, many politicians felt that moral force.


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.

No one – including pets – is beyond the reach of God’s healing, comforting love.


A message of love

Andrew Couldridge/Reuters
Laura Yan and her son Arlo, age 2, pick pumpkins and squashes at The Pop Up Farm ahead of Halloween, in Flamstead, St. Albans, England, on Oct. 22, 2021.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Have a great weekend! Come back Monday, when Kendra Nordin Beato profiles the leader of New England’s first all-female mariachi band for the Monitor’s Finding Resilience project.

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2021
October
22
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