INVENIRE

A nation is not a plot of land with settlements upon it. In fact, I believe that a nation has little to do with any aspect of its geographical location. A nation is constituted of its people, its values and its traditions. When describing a nation, it is important we comment on its traditions rather than its geographical location. If we were to treat the geographical location as more important, then in a case when the people are exiled from their land, the nation ceases to exist. Historic accounts of exile prove that a nation is made up by its people. When the Israelites were exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem, Israel remained a nation; its people were still unified, its values were still upheld, and its traditions were observed. For this reason, I believe that any group of people worth calling a nation could be placed in any other environment and that there would be no reason to say that the nation had changed. The history of a nation is equally as important as its people; the histo

In some American towns, high school football (or American football to the rest of the world) is a big deal. In the state of Texas alone, there are 50 stadiums  (with a capacity of 11, 000 are more) that were built with the purpose of hosting high school football games. To many Americans, this is no news story, but many others across the world likely have many questions. How large is high school sport exactly? When did this frenzy over youth sport begin? And how much money is being spent on the game? For many towns across the United States, there is little to do on a Friday night. Take the example of Aledo, Texas. It has a population of just under 3,000 and, therefore, is understandably void of the amenities found in a major city. The town's eponymous high school provide the entertainment on a Friday night with weekly American football matches in the autumn. The Aledo Bearcats, as they are named, are something of celebrities in this rural community; how else would they fill their

Thirty months ago, in June 2016, Hillary Clinton was the presumptive nominee of the US Democratic Party for the 2016  presidential election. Poll after poll declared that she would be President of the United States before she was even formally announced as her party's nominee. As expected, she became the party nominee, beating Bernie Sanders, and from there on, nearly every journalist and political pundit proclaimed her triumph over Trump. To affirm her "victory", she appeared with celebrities, hoping that her association with rappers, actors, athletes, late-night hosts and reality TV stars might convince America's approximately 69 million Millenials to vote for her. From Ben Affleck to Henry Zebrowski, via LeBron James and Bill Maher, thousands of celebrities endorsed Clinton's presidential campaign, making certain that Hillary would win in a historic landslide. November would see bigotry and stagnation, the values that Clinton's campaign attached to Trump,

In early October, Amazon announced that they would be raising their minimum wage to USD 15.00 an hour, for all employees in the United States, and to £9.50 for British workers. If examined at face value, this may seem to make no sense, as this would only create more cost for the employer and reduce profits for the company. In this article, I will aim to argue the opposite: this decision by Jeff Bezos is a potentially manipulative move. News organisations like MSNBC and Business Insider tell their audiences of the extent to which Amazon workers suffer, with stories of 80-hour work weeks, missing wages and gruelling shifts. Prominent socialist senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been a vocal critic of the company. In one speech, he stated that "Thousands of Amazon employees are forced to rely on food stamps, Medicaid [a healthcare programme for low-income Americans] and public housing because their wages are too low..." On the 2nd of October, the company said that it had "