They've been found guilty of sedition for their role in an attempt to break Catalonia away from Spain and 2017 more protesters from 5 cities are reported to be converging on Barcelona and unions have called for a general strike tomorrow but the president of Catalonia has condemned the violence called for it to stop immediately I had his in Barcelona when people from Barcelona talk about the transform ation the city has undergone in the last 30 years they tend to link it to the 1992 Olympics Games that was when the Catalan capital finally shook off its reputation as a shabby provincial place and opened itself up to the world with an ambitious overhaul the left it modernized and regenerated since then it has become a magnet for tourists too much so for some people's liking in recent years many Barcelona locals have campaigned against the arrival of massive cruise liners that the city's port and against the proliferation of air b.n. B. Tourism properties but this week Barcelona underwent another more sudden change of the news was announced on Monday of stiff jail sentences for independence leaders thousands of Catalans took to the streets in protest the independence movement has carried out many mass demonstrations in recent years or ways peacefully but this time things were more dramatic protesters blocked roads and rail links in and around Barcelona before thousands converged on El Pratt's airport clashing with police there and causing dozens of flights to be canceled in this one of the biggest tourist hubs in Europe many travelers had to walk much of the journey to the airport due to the chaos only to find their flights have been called off. The following night the unrest continued this time in central Barcelona the past sage the grassy area one of the city's main arteries which is usually filled with mainly foreign visitors carrying shopping bags and pulling wheeled suitcases was barely recognizable all along it large rubbish containers and piles of rubble and while masked use hurled stones and bottles at rows of riot police tourists were barely visible and many of those who did venture out of swiftly retired to their hotels on several occasions throughout the night I found myself sprinting along the city's wide streets surrounded by demonstrators as we fled yet another charge by the riot police sometimes the officers simply stood still shields and truncheons at the ready as demonstrators got as close as they dead and shouted abuse at them in Catalan all of this comes at a time of political uncertainty in Spain a general election will be held next month the socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez is ahead in the polls but the parties to his right frequently cast him as weak on the cattle an issue and call on him to take measures to clamp down on the cattle and government in contrast in Catalonia itself those who want independence see him as part of a draconian unionist state apparatus yet this idea of 2 sides Spain and Catalonia facing off against each other has started to change recently for several months there have been divisions within the independence movement over how to proceed towards the creation of a Catalan Republic. Grassroots activists tend to want an accelerated unilateral drive similar to that of 2 years ago while their elected representatives are more circumspect in addition scenes on the streets this week suggest another disagreement between those who campaign for independence through purely peaceful means and those who are willing to square up to riot police or take Barcelona airport by storm the 9 leaders who were convicted of sedition have all called for the independence movement to remain nonviolent but tempers are wearing thin the cattle and President Kim Torah is in an uncomfortable position he supports independence and those who have been imprisoned and he has even encouraged demonstrators to exercise civil disobedience but he also commands many of the riot police who have been baton charging Catalans this week. Political mental the former cattle and President colors pushed them on has been watching all this from self-imposed exile in Belgium where he has so far managed to escape the reach of the Spanish justice system for now much of his political activity is via social media where he described the court sentences as a barbarity but Spain's judiciary is now trying to extradite him to face the same sedition charge of which his former colleagues have been found guilty we don't yet know if this year will be as significant for Catalans as $992.00 was for Barcelona but the current unrest and the crisis driving it is already having an impact not just the unfamiliar sights on Barcelona streets and recent days but the deepening conflict which shows no sign of ending. I had. 4 years ago Justin Trudeau who was elected prime minister of Canada on a promise of hope and hard work. He projected a liberal inclusive image and at his victory in part to the number of young people who voted for him he attracted a lot of attention overseas as an emblem of progressive values but a time when the u.s. And other western democracies would turn in towards populism but in Canada people have been less impressed and that's Jennifer Shabana explains from Ottawa Justin Trudeau is now fighting to keep hold of his job it was Thanksgiving this past weekend a time when Canadian celebrate family and food here in Ottawa It was perfect autumn weather just starting to get cold without any snow and the streets alive with color as red and yellow leaves fall to the ground while blue red and orange political campaign signs spring up on every other lawn because every 4 years Thanksgiving is also a time for Canadians to think about the coming election and talk about politics with their families although this time maybe not so much despite a strong economy and low unemployment Justin Trudeau is only just neck and neck in the polls with his chief political rival It's looking unlikely that he'll win another majority government So what went wrong. Well a series of embarrassing scandals has taken the shine off the Liberal leader it started with a fumbled trip to India last year where Trudeau was seen repeatedly dressed in traditional Indian clothing while his hosts including Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan or Western style suits the juxtaposition was awkward he then lost 2 cabinet ministers over an ethics scandal finally and most humiliatingly on a global stage it was revealed Trudeau dressed up in black face several times before he was a politician the act of painting his face to appear Arab or black for costume parties widely accepted as racist deeply shocked some Canadians how could this so-called beacon of progressive values do such a thing but his main rival conservative leader Andrews sheer has not been able to capitalize on Trudeau's fall from favor embarrassing ghosts from his own past have come back to haunt him turns out that sheer whose party mocks Trudeau's pre-political career as a teacher and snowboarding instructor has a rather thin c.v. Himself and more damaging it was revealed the Conservative leader has both Canadian and American citizenship people here are not quite so scornful of our neighbors to the south for that fact to be a problem on its own it's that sheer and his conservative predecessor often called into question the divided loyalties of other political leaders who held dual Canadian and French citizenship so there's egg on both faces and many voters are left with distaste for the 2 front runners in this election neither Trudeau's liberals nor sheers conservatives looks set to win a majority of seats in the House of Commons and they may need the support of another party to form a government. Trudeau could turn to the Green Party to support him if they have the electoral breakthrough they've been longing for or he might look to the left wing New Democrats the n.d.p. Leader is the 1st person of color to lead a major political party in Canada and after a better than expected performance in last week's debates jug meat sings popularity is on the rise for the conservatives the choice of who could support their minority government is less clear the blockade that Quad a party that only runs candidates in the mainly French speaking province of Quebec is also surging in the polls but support from them could be problematic some question how a party whose creation was designed to push for the breakup of Canada through back independence could be called on to hold the balance of power in a national government try to ensure artificially looking for dance partners just yet instead they're out frantically canvassing for votes in the last days left each trying to get enough momentum to win a majority and an already nasty campaign by Canadian standards is set to get nastier at last week's debates sure called Trudeau a phony and a fake the Liberals have been trying to divert voters' attention towards sheers past statements against gay marriage and abortion and over the weekend Trudeau was forced to wear a bulletproof vest in public after an unnamed security threat he later said that we're living in a time of increased polarization. But not of our family's Thanksgiving dinner my aunt refused to let anyone talk politics she said she didn't want to hear any more about this election so we ate our turkey and pumpkin pie and talked about the weather and looked at the window at all the beautiful colors. Jennifer. There was much excitement in Ethiopia last week when it was announced the prime minister Ahmed that won the Peace Prize he's been in office for less than 2 years and in that time he's released tens of thousands of political prisoners invited exile dissidents to return home and allowed a number of banned opposition parties to operate once more then in June last year he signed a peace deal with every trail which ended a war that had lasted for 2 decades despite all this and despite the accolade from Oslo to God now and at his other says Mr Ahmed is not quite as popular as you might think I remember exactly where I was the moment I realized the mania was over I was with my friends sort of garage and out a suburb near where traffic choked Ring Road skirts beneath the eucalyptus forests that envelop the city's northern hilltops Ellis is a mischievous man in his mid thirty's who sense from self is now rather a local term for a street smart city boy is matched only by his tub thumping Ethiopian patch or it isn't He was helping me get my car fixed and as we waited our conversation drifted as it's often does need therapy these days to politics and to the subject of i.b.s. Med prime minister now Nobel laureate I hate him said earlier with characteristic bluntness he pointed around the garage of their way of battered old Toyota Corollas folks wagon beetles in the sky blue mid century Persia's which make up the bulk of the city's taxi fleet ever taken is voted out Ellis observed we've all turned against him he was right the stickers are gone and his face rounded boys with a winning smile and a crisp well kept goatee wasn't there any more on the windows of taxis or mini buses on the t. Shirts of ordinary residents. That's not how it was when he came to power in April last year on the back of popular protests which had been gathering momentum for almost 3 years the whole country was under a state of emergency then the ruling party the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front seemed all out of answers Well it could do is lock people up for Plan crowds and shut down the Internet to stop young people organizing it was a dreadful time then Abby came along young and charismatic promising democracy reconciliation and reform his very 1st address as prime minister he cleared his love of Ethiopia calling it a land blessed by God People were moved to tears if European politicians never talked like this he sounded almost like a preacher time and again he spoke of Mme and I'm heart what meaning to add together a poetic education of national unity an inclusive ety which soon became a catchphrase a new era back and everything was moving faster than anybody had imagined possible of course it couldn't last forever by the time I was sitting in the garage of boredom waiting for my cause clutch to be replaced the honeymoon it ended Abby had been unable to put a stop to violence and instability in a billet across the country since he took office returning rebels hadn't all put down their arms ethnic tensions which Abby's authoritarian predecessors had kept a tight lid on had exploded in several corners of the country was 3000000 people were driven home their homes by conflict in 2018 higher than anywhere else in the world then in the summer there was an alleged coup attempt against the head of one of the regional governments in the north the state president and the head of the army were both killed he did it with a conspiratorial about the coup he meant Abby there was no anyone who thought this you say used to politicians lying to them state propaganda result had every takes official account seriously. The lesson I reflected was that he had over time lost a single most valuable asset trust that is what distinguished him from other leaders but no longer he wasn't transparent enough and he seemed to say one thing to one group and something totally different to another it seems sometimes like he was more interested in his public image and with tackling the country's myriad problems poverty and unemployment ethnic divisions rising lawlessness but it may not be the end of our remaining or entirely when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Ethiopian suddenly started cheering again even those who'd been criticizing him for months international recognition was good for Abbey so it's good for the country the reasoning went but they are for his early days has not come back shortly after the Nobel Prize announcement authorities in the capital began arresting young men seemingly at random accusing them of planning to attend an opposition rally a spot outrage. And passionate supporters but most people are cautious the feeling is like that of a couple who just got back together again after a break up giving another go and in that as I was face still isn't a return to the taxes not yet got. As the saying goes with this muck this brought us that was true until recently in Romania the collection hand processing of household waste became something of a boom industry and this led to prove liberation of small companies they were making good money until the government ruled that only municipalities could run those kinds of operation also companies when how to business and the amount of rubbish being recycled dropped dramatically. Has been to see the result. The 500 mile drive from Bucharest to Budapest seemed endless back in 1991 potholed roads through poor villages horses and carts vying with fume belching trucks that ponderous progress interlaced with the reckless racing cause of the new urban elite so I was glad of the company of the young Roumanian couple hitchhiking at the roadside We talked about this and that but as we approached their destination I store them in my one and a half liter plastic water bottle summoning his courage the boy explained shyly that he'd never seen a bottle like that before could I bear to part with it in return they pressed an assortment of nylon socks on me from the factory where they worked for all its poverty the country was only just emerging from decades of the cruel dictatorship of Nikolai Ceausescu the roadsides in Rumania in those days were not kneedeep in refuse as they are today and glass bottles carried a small deposit to encourage the drinks industry to reuse them nowadays the $3000000.00 inhabitants of the Rumanian capital Bucharest produced $1000000.00 tonnes of plastic waste a year much of it ends up in 3 overflowing landfill sites on the ring road I remembered my shy hitchhikers as I followed refuse truck after refuse truck as I shouted into the camera in way starting plums and as I let pristine pallets of freshly recycled plastic flow through my fingers in State of the art recycling plant dust fold was Alice said but I can the people must smash everything to smithereens says downtown in done tones death. As timeless play about the French Revolution in order to find out what lies inside my store join in the rubbish dumps of Roumania will so provoke memories of summers beginning in the late 1970 is collecting figs in a Greek village the figs. Season began in mid August when the ripe figs fall from the trees and we collectively when boss gets to lay them out to dry on the reed bed the said He each summer just before the reign of figs began nomadic gypsies would appear selling handmade baskets woven from Willow the villagers look forward to the appearance of their tents on the hillsides they drove a hard bargain but their boss kits were magnificent year after year in Greece from the 1980 s. Onwards 10 years ahead of Roumania I watched the little stream that ran between the figs slopes fill up with plastic and the Gypsies stopped coming there's something about packaging which underlines the gulf between rich and poor back in Rumania I watched the silhouette of a man riding a horse and cart along the embankment of the river are together southwest of Bucharest Then he turned down to where I stood on yet another illegal waste dump in what should have been the magnificent wetlands on the river shore as he unloaded the man told me his life story a former blacksmith he supplements his meager pension collecting plastics from shops for which he's paid a small fee a policeman told him to dump it here he told me when he was caught tipping it out behind the church I live on a quarter loaf of bread a day he explained a quarter loaf the decay of man made objects inevitably provokes thoughts of our own mortality as we'd rocketed from recycling plant to recycling plant in a smart company car I caught glimpses of Roumanian gypsies at the roadside on with the old baskets gathering food for free the walnuts and plums which grow wild in long avenues a consolation for the poor. Autumn the falling fruit the long journey I remembered a line from d.h. Lawrence's poem the ship of death summoned on my smartphone the dark poem appeared almost instantaneously the apples falling like great drops of Jew to bruise themselves an exit from themselves but I had forgotten to my shame the glimmer of redemption with which the poem ends the ship of death which man is exhorted to build passes through total hopeless darkness but then the flood subsides in a body like a worn sea shell emerges strange and lovely and the frail soul steps out into the house again filling the heart with peace might humankind to after we drown in the ocean of our own waste be reborn like that strangely clean wiser even Nick thought up the mountain landscape of the up us for Netty region is according to UNESCO an exceptional example of mountain scenery with medieval villages and tower houses the mountains in question of the Caucasus specifically those in the northwest of Georgia the people who live there the San speak the dialect incomprehensible to of the Georgians but there are many so far left today and that culture is under threat the hospitality though this one diminished as Antonia Kent discovered when she dropped in for lunch Valarie the Oblio any isn't an easy man to say no to a black eyed giant with a swashbuckling mustache and hands that could crush rocks he's urging me to drink another toast to our ancestors he says raising his glass. I reply grimacing as the homemade ignites the back of my throat. By the time we've toasted our families say George each other and the brother he lost fighting for Abkhazia Valarie has offered me 3 actors a few cows and a house in the village bring your husband and make babies he exclaims raising another gloss Valarie may be generous but he also want