Global Comment

Where the world thinks out loud

The web’s top three #34

Street Photography

Every Monday on Global Comment, we share the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need but that it’s easy to miss in our busy world. We distil the best of the web and recommend just three links every week that you absolutely must see. No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads. Here are this week’s recommendations:  

How bad can a lawyer be? (Jake Tapper / The Atlantic)

At the age of 7 you make your first drug sale, oblivious to what you’re actually doing, you’re just following directions to count 13 bags and once you get the money, count out $110 (receiving $10 for yourself). So, imagine that this is all you see, and having it all around you endlessly, could you understand or begin to think that it’s wrong? How can you, when it seems everyone’s doing it in some form or fashion. It seems normal. It is normal. This is how life is lived. This is how money is made. That’s what you think.   Read more.

“Learn to kill from a safe distance. And write a will”: the secret diary of a Ukrainian soldier (Anonymous / Oliver Carroll / The Economist)

Team-building. The smoking facilities provided at the base aren’t well thought out: pallets dug into foliage, with just a shallow hole to protect you from shrapnel. We decide to do a better job. By the time we’re finished, our smoking hut is twice as deep, with a neat staircase, and covered with cut branches. We huddle together to see how many of us can fit. Soldiers coming back from the firing range are full of praise for the new construction. “It will be easier to collect the bodies when there’s incoming fire,” they say.   The course officer runs through what we’ll be learning in the next few weeks. It’s a mind-blowing programme, he says. We’ll get to handle weapons supplied by nato, we’ll be “run over” by tanks (hopefully the tracks will pass either side of us) and we’ll be training using lasers. We’re excited, like little kids. It’s a bit pathetic.   Read more.

Why trans women are not a threat to cis women (Nicola Sturgeon)

@llpagan_269 #nicolasturgeon #scotland #genderrecognition #transwomen #womensrights #antiterf ♬ original sound – L Pagan

If you have any suggestions for future words to feature, contact us on our socials or at editor@globalcomment.com

Image: Junior