World Views

Oasis changing lives through football.

Category: 

Oasis Founder Clifford Martinus has a contagious passion for sport and community. This is evident in the work done at Oasis Place with his belief that the connection to a team, fair play and sport can support an individual in overcoming the odds, both personal and social. This South African non-profit creates positive personal development opportunities for youth from marginalised backgrounds.

read more..

Latest Posts in World Views

March 2026 Magazine

Whatever ails your mind, body or soul, the healing power of laughter can never be underestimated. Laughter As Medicine is Barbara McMichael’s latest feature article. For a little lesson in Italian, please see The Rich, RICO and The Godfather. Where is Don Vito Corleone when we need him? Annie Searle examines the Department of Justice in her article “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied.” Nick Licata urges Conservatives to be Cautious: Serfdom Could Lie Ahead. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Pen Densham believes a single photograph can vibrate with the same energy as a movie. In honor of International Women’s Month, our featured Art is the Impressionist painting Fish Shop by Georges-Henry Fauvel. In Time Marches On, there is a bit of trivia that is bound to make you laugh.  ––Patricia Vaccarino

 


February 2026 Magazine

This month we explore art, creativity and resilience. These three themes are intertwined and made whole in our feature story about Korean American artist Samantha Yun Wall. Barbara Lloyd McMichael has written an excellent article about this astonishing artist whose first   major solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum explores cultural duality, memory, and societal stigma. In the third part of a three-part series, The Roots of Resentment (Revisiting John Rawls), Rosemary Curran examines how to equalize the playing field between the elite oligarchs and all the rest of us. Annie Searle’s article, What Does it Take to Effect Change, reminds us that it’s important to remember that DHS contains not only ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), but also the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Coast Guard.  In Belle’s Big Burden, women have been spurned and rejected since the beginning of time, but unlike Belle Burden, they don’t land a multi-million dollar book deal. The oil painting The Threatened Swan, created around 1650 by Dutch Artist Jan Asselijn, is our top pick for February. A great painting has many meanings. Each month we will feature a work of art that, on some level, speaks to all of us.  ––Patricia Vaccarino


Alex Pretti Killed by ICE

On January 24, 2026, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old American intensive care nurse for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot and killed by ICE Agents. In his final moments of life, he was helping a woman who had been pushed to the ground by ICE agents. His last words, “Are you okay?,” will forever echo in American history. He will be remembered.


REVISITING JOHN RAWLS

In Part Three  (Revisiting John Rawls) of the series THE ROOTS OF RESENTMENT, we contrast the ideological underpinnings of the social Darwinist and the communitarian viewpoints as they relate to the economic basis of society.  In responding to this crisis, John Rawls Theory of Justice provides the theoretical framework.  Considering this theory, we propose some of the practical implications for current politics.


EXTINCTION! A Mortality Tale

We have been warned – repeatedly.  We are headed toward the self-destruction of humankind as a species. Indeed, all the other aerobic (oxygen consuming) species on Earth may also be in jeopardy. The latest threat to our species is the rapidly melting permafrost in the Arctic, and the rise there in lethal methane producing sinkholes.