On Thursday 10 December, it was announced that The Correspondent would stop publishing on the 31st of the month. Despite the distressing nature of this news, we, as a team, have been comforted by the outpouring of support from you, our members. Thank you so much.
Between now and the end of the month, we will each take it in turn to say farewell, sharing an anecdote or two with you, as well as the stories we have loved reading or working on, and details of how you can keep in touch with us. I very much hope you will.
It is an extraordinary thing, as the managing editor, to see ideas you’ve had brought to life – and then bettered – by exceptional colleagues. Whether it was our transnational chats (everyone so diligently conceived and hosted by our conversation editor, Nabeelah Shabbir), our intro guide (a collaboration with Imogen who you all know well and colleagues from De Correspondent’s creative team, Heleen Emanuel and Luka van Diepen); our live events; or even the brief but entertaining season when to lift moods at a time when the pandemic and news of police violence against black bodies seemed too much to bear, my suggestion to read poetry to each other was hilariously bettered by Othering correspondent OluTimehin Adgebeye, reading the lyrics of Beyoncé’s ‘Survivor’ – if you want proof you’ll have to send your supplications to Nabeelah.
Who knows what fresh adventures await us all. As for me, I’ll be tweeting occasionally, nursing my newsletter back to life, working on a podcast (follow the newsletter to find out more!) and prioritising much-needed rest! I intend to stay in the Netherlands, so to our Dutch members, if you see me around, do wave from a Covid-safe distance.
It was nearly impossible to choose but below are three of my favourite stories.
Eliza Anyangwe
Managing editor
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A BRITISH STORY BIGGER THAN BREXIT
DANNY DORLING
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Cornwall, Porthcurno, 2017. From the recent exhibition Only Human by Martin Parr (Magnum Photos / Hollandse Hoogte)
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As the spectacle of the Brexit negotiations continues (will we have a deal by the time this newsletter is published?) this piece written by geographer, Danny Dorling, is as relevant as ever. In it he exposes the sustained impact of austerity policies on life expectancy in Britain, and draws our attention to what he calls the “long, slow disintegration of social norms and expectations”.
Should we despair? No, Dorling writes. The act of self-sabotage that is Brexit might yet prove useful. “Great social change has often happened in the past when a younger generation has been fully exposed to the folly of their parents and grandparents … If you were trying to stir up the young, this is how you might go about it.”
The biggest story in the UK is not Brexit. It’s life expectancy
Analysis: 10 – 14 minutes
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ARE DOCTORS MORE THAN MECHANICS?
NJOKI NGUMI
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From the series Life and Death by photographer Daniel Stier
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One of my proudest projects has been our Fixing The Future series in which writers of varied experience and background have considered how we might bring about positive change in a range of areas of global relevance. In this essay, Kenyan writer – and former clinician – Njoki Ngumi, puts forward a vision for healthcare that centres wellness and dignity and not just the correct functioning of the human body.
“Dignity is often sacrificed during conflicts between private and public care,” Ngumi writes. “As always, when dignity is for sale, the poorest and most marginalised people will suffer the most because they can’t afford to buy it.”
In hospitals, our dignity is up for sale. Here’s how we return care to healthcare
Essay: 10 – 13 minutes | Also in audio!
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MEET TIMNIT GEBRU, AND THE OTHER STARS OF AI ETHICS
ELIZA ANYANGWE
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Annie Easley (1933-2011), a US American computer scientist, mathematician, and engineer at Nasa, Ohio, 1960s. (Photo by Nasa / Getty)
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When I interviewed Timnit Gebru for this story, the AI ethicist told me she was wary of being labelled an activist. Neither of us knew then that two years later, at the start of this month, she would be forced from her job as the co-lead of Google’s Ethical Artificial Intelligence team.
In this piece I explain how the algorithms making their way into every sector from banking to policing can discriminate and speak to experts who show that the solution isn’t just better training data, it’s more diverse teams of data scientists. Gebru is a rare shining light whose ideas and person needs protecting – for all our sakes.
Algorithms that run our lives are racist and sexist. Meet the women trying to fix them
Report: 12 – 16 minutes
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