March 2021

Feature articles

How to stop the next pandemic

Whilst devastating waves of COVID-19 continue to claim thousands of lives worldwide, a responsibility to prevent any further catastrophe is needed as it will not be the last global pandemic.

Britain’s love affair with its royal family has been a permanent – and completely defining – aspect of its national culture. However, in the modernity of 21st century life, the monarchy is flailing in its influence.

The price of periods

With the news that New Zealand’s schools will provide free sanitary products for all students, five of our writers discuss the global hardship of period poverty.

R3trospect exclusive

Welsh pride

Having endured Roman invaders, Norman conquerors, two world wars and the English monarchy, Wales’s identity is in good stead to prevail in the face of contemporary challenges.

Message from the editors

This month, arguably for the first time since the start of the pandemic, the world looks not back in anger, or regret, or longing, but forwards with a tangible optimism. The UK has given a COVID vaccine to almost 40 percent of its adult population, and the number of cases reported around the world each day has fallen in a significant way for the first time.

Sam Feierabend and Derry Salter round-up the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic – what strategies have worked, which have failed – and discuss what the world must do in order to prevent a similar crisis from unfolding in the future.

With Prince Harry and Meghan’s ongoing feud with the establishment and the recent hospitalisation of Prince Phillip dominating the news, Will Jones assesses the viability of the British monarchy’s future in an otherwise egalitarian and democratic society.

Daisy Olyett, Derry Salter, Maggie Gannon, Safia Bartley and Sophia Grace explain the repercussions of period poverty, in New Zealand, the UK, and to people growing up in developing nations around the world.

In a R3trospect exclusive, Sam Portillo reflects on the history of Wales as a nation, and speaks to two young residents who offer contrasting visions of its future.

We also visit Colombia, Ghana, Peru and Xinjiang in this month’s issue of R3trospect.