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1. Cuba, Castro, the arts and freedom

   Fidel Castro's death last week was marked by nine days of enforced mourning. Sales of alcohol and live music were forbidden over this period. It seems like a fitting coda to Castro's legacy—one which censored and imprisoned ...

2. Mary Poppins—song, dance and latent socialism

   My daughter’s tiny school is staging a performance of Mary Poppins this coming holiday season and the rehearsals have begun in earnest (if there is a connection between Mary Poppins and Christmas or Hanukkah—or any other religious ...

3. Trump’s appeal relies on performance, branding and a world of mindless entertainment

   Like many, I find myself observing the American election unfold with a mix of fascination and horror, as though witness to a slow-motion political train wreck that will have dire consequences not only for those on the train, but for ...

4. Architecture and urban planning may have helped lay foundation for Syrian civil war

   While you may be annoyed that your tax dollars fund government cultural programs and are spent purchasing works of abstract expressionism you consider ridiculous, you probably wouldn't accuse government subsidized art of changing ...

5. Camping and the open market

   Last week, as I slogged through the pain of a two kilometre portage (2,380 metres to be exact) with a huge pack and 16-foot canoe, I spotted fresh bear tracks in the mud. It was pouring with rain, and we were a little apprehensive that ...

6. Jason Bourne—how we have forgotten freedom and privacy

   Jason Bourne premiered at cinemas across North America last Friday, and pulled in approximately $50 million over its opening weekend. The film is the fifth in the hugely successful "Bourne" spy-thriller series and by all ...

7. Fruits of free trade bloom in South African film studios and beyond

   Cape Town Studios—a great example of how cooperation in an industry pulls people half way around the world to collaborate. ...

8. Taxpayer-funded nationalism—wasteful and unnecessary

   Nationalism—ardent support for your country or region—is at the forefront of everyone’s mind these days. The Brexit vote (unfolding as I write) pivots around national identity. Quebec begins the Saint Jean Baptiste “Fête Nationale” on ...

9. Cannes-winning film (inadvertently) endorses free markets and capitalism

   Last week British movie director Ken Loach won his second Palme D’Or at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Loach’s film, I, Daniel Blake, tells the story of an English carpenter—Daniel Blake—who loses his job following a serious ...

10. Netflix cowboys, liberty and bourgeois virtues

    Beau Bennett, one of the principal characters in the new Netflix sitcom “The Ranch,” is a trail-hardened cowboy who believes in getting up before dawn and working until dark. He also believes that the moon landings were faked, that the ...