World Views

Oasis changing lives through football.

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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.

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Latest Posts in World Views

Keep Trump Away From the “Earth Control”

Moldering on my refrigerator door is a browned 3-by-4-inch newsprint clipping of a single frame from Max Fleischer’s animated cartoon “KoKo’s Earth Control”, dated (c.) 1928.  In the frame, KoKo the clown is lecturing his dog Fitz about the huge lever imbedded in the wall behind him below a sign proclaiming, “Danger, beware, do not touch earth control!  If this handle is pulled, the world will come to an end!”


Trump and the Roman Crassus Share the Same Hubris in Invading Iran

Two thousand years separate the Roman Marcus Licinius Crassus in his failed attempt to invade Iran from President Donald J. Trump’s faltering current military effort. Nevertheless, they share the same character flaws that led them to make disastrous decisions. Crassus’s effort resulted in the Roman Army’s worst defeat since the Battle of Cannae against Hannibal. Trump has lost fewer than a dozen soldiers as of the end of the first month in the Iranian War, but if he continues to follow Crassus’s path, the outcome could be similar.  


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.