Reader's Digest UK April 2023

As a Film Studies graduate, I’ve been exposed to many films that moved me and shaped my worldview in one way or another. But they all pale in comparison to the emotional impact that Schindler’s List had on me. Steven Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece about a German industrialist who saved more than a thousand Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, it ensured that the atrocities of the Second World War would remain a matter of public consciousness. It’s the only film that makes me well up at the very thought of it. Cinema has the incredible ability to transport and immerse us in different worlds, and Spielberg is one of the artform’s greatest masters. Schindler’s List put the Holocaust back into the conversation; Indiana Jones inspired multiple generations of archaeologists and Jaws… well,…

LETTERS ON THE February ISSUE We pay £50 for Letter of the Month and £30 for all others LETTER OF THE MONTH BEING YOURSELF I was so glad I read “Blending Into the Crowd”. Social masking? I feel like I’ve done this all my adult life. “Fake it ‘til you make it”—the concept that if you act more confident than you feel, it will become a self-fulfilling prophesy—has been widely proposed as a way to boost self-confidence. But I’ve always hated pretending to be more sociable than I really am. It’s taken a huge effort on my part to be a part of the crowd. I don’t fit in, but not conforming shouldn’t be viewed as a negative thing—yet it actually is, unless my quirks benefit mainstream society. Feeling left out meant I tried desperately to…

“Small Acts Of Kindness” really made me think outside the box. Dr Max is right, “it takes nothing to be nice”. I was in New Zealand in January visiting my son and grandson. I only had a small amount of cash on me as we stopped for a drink and cake, but the establishment wouldn’t take cards. As I counted out my coins and realised I needed $2 more to pay for the cake, two boys waiting on bikes behind me observed this scene and one boy spoke up, “I can pay the extra amount.” It shocked me that a boy who didn’t even know me could be so kind. I declined his offer and just had the drink but I thanked him profusely. I “paid this forward” when I arrived in…

I read “The Future of Tech” with enthusiasm to learn more. Technology has changed major sectors over the past 20 years, including media, climate action and healthcare. Your article’s insight into how emerging tech leaders have influenced and responded to these changes was interesting to say the least. Self-driving cars, robots taking over people’s jobs, NFTs, the metaverse, space travel—I don’t know what my grandparents would think of the world I am living in today as technologies become increasingly complicated and interconnected. Cars, aeroplanes, medical devices, financial transactions and electricity systems all rely on more computer software than ever before, making them seem both harder to understand and, in some cases, harder to control. What I fear, however, is that in the near-future, major technological developments will give rise to new unprecedented…

I had to laugh at Olly Mann’s article “The Party Bags Are Over”, as it brought back a recent memory of me trying to organise a birthday party for my nephew to celebrate his seventh birthday. When we last had a birthday at the same soft play a few years back for another child, party bags were included in the booking—so the package was a two-hour slot with invitations, play, food and party bags, to which our own cake was added. Not this time though, as the party bags and goodies were extra, thus making the whole birthday party experience unaffordable, especially as another nephew had his birthday two weeks apart and wanted a separate party. As to which side of the party bag debate I’m on, I think it’s a lovely…

I had to smile at some of Tracy-Ann’s Oberman’s “If I Ruled the World”. Some were comical, but some made a lot of sense, especially concerning debate. She’s right in saying we live in a world where social media has made the understanding of history, politics and truth itself incredibly binary. I prefer facts, nuance and intellectual debate. One of us, or perhaps neither of us, may be right. Death to nobody. It’s only when you cause all this stubbornness that there’s aggression towards one another. We already have the ability to interact peacefully, we need to work with it. Audi alteram partem is a Latin phrase meaning “listen to the other side” or “let the other side be heard as well”. It is the principle that no person should be judged…