Wednesday Night #1960 at Pearson College UWC

Wednesday Night Salon/Wednesday Night @ Pearson

Behind the Wednesday Night Salon weekly invitations lie years, weeks and hours of research of news, commentary and in-depth analyses culled from mainstream  and other media, think tanks and conferences along with contributions from many talented experts who are Friends of Wednesday Night.
Browsing the invitations gives a sense of the topics covered in one evening – although, the entire focus may be disrupted by an unexpected guest or a news flash– and you would be surprised to see how many major -and minor – events seem to occur on Wednesdays. Today, for example, Turkey’s attack on Kurdish forces in Syria.
Supplementing the weekly invitations are the Website pages devoted to specific topics that reflect the interests and concerns of some or all of the attendees and/or far-flung contributors.
Recently highlighted topics include China-Hong Kong ; We follow many different types of news of and from China, including of course, the on-going trade and tariff wars with the U.S. which have important repercussions for Canada in political and economic terms.  An upcoming evening will discuss the implications of the Belt & Road Initiative for the economies of beneficiary nations – especially on the African continent (e.g.  These are the African countries not signed to China’s Belt and Road project ).
The Environment is high on our list of concerns: Forests and Deforestation includes a  link to  Trees hold the answers to many of life’s problems by scientist Diana Beresford-Kroeger whose most recent book is To Speak for the Trees: My Life’s Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest.
Here there is also a link to African nations: Across west and equatorial Africa, illegal logging is ravaging the forests, much of it driven by demand from China. Smoke from the fires of Indonesia  threatens the health of nearly 10 million children
There is a hopeful new development in the distressing  situation in the Amazon where the  threat to survival of the Indigenous peoples of the  nine South American nations that share the Amazon has grown graver over the past months. It comes from the Catholic Church’s synod  that opened on Sunday –  a three-week gathering  designed “to set out a new view of ecology based on Christian faith in God as the creator of a “common home”.”
These are only a very few of our concerns. You are invited to share your thoughts, opinions , questions and experiences with respect to these, or any other issue.
Lively civil discourse is our raison d’etre
A ce soir!
From Diana via Désirée

PS To get a sense of the depth and format of  Wednesday Night Salons, I invite you to check the website: https://www.dianaswednesday.com/

Dear Pearson community,
This week we will be joined by a special guest on campus: Diana Thébaud Nicholson who has been working with the Communications team at Pearson College since 2015.
This Wednesday evening in the JJM, Diana will host a special gathering on campus called Wednesday Night Salon. In 1982, she and her late husband David co-founded the Wednesday Night Salon, a weekly by-invitation event in Montreal that has attracted participants from around the world of all ages, backgrounds and professions. One of the keys to the vibrancy of the Salon is that since its beginnings, it has welcomed guests of all ages, and especially the friends of the Nicholson children. Today, their son Marc is hosting similar salons in Singapore and his daughter, Maya (16), a student at UWCSEA has taken on the family tradition. On November 5^th, she is moderating a panel discussion entitled “Who is afraid of Climate Change?”
Wednesday Night topics change from week to week, but generally include comments from an economist on the global economy; often the author of a newly-published book is celebrated; technology is usually on the agenda; and always politics from global to local, whether the situation in the U.S., or the latest initiative of a local mayor; elections around the world (Israel, Spain, and yes, Canada); climate change; education.  The only rule is that discourse must be civil and respectful of all views.
Please RSVP especially if you plan to attend.
Diana will be staying on campus as of Monday evening through Friday noon.  Please be sure to say hi and chat when you see her on campus or the dining hall.

BIO
Since graduation from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service,  Diana has been involved in principally communications aspects of international projects and organizations, ranging from Expo67 and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. In 2008, she joined Désirée at the Jeanne Sauvé Foundation as the Communications consultant. She lives in Montreal with her cherished dogs.
Désirée McGraw
President and Head of College