Articles on PR for People

In 2016, I was asked to write a chapter for a new British book titled Conduct Risk: A Practitioner’s Guide, on the root causes of conduct risk and how it manifests itself.  I was writing primarily about financial institutions from an operational risk perspective, but my conclusions about those questions apply equally to governance issues in both the public and private sectors.  Here, I want to identify what I saw as the root causes in 2015-2016 and provide several current examples that are destabilizing our country.

A wealthy young man known as “Abel” flees the revolution in Venezuela around 1840 and embarks on an adventure in the wild, uncharted jungles of Guyana. The jungles are inhabited by lush forests, mountains and rivers that are pristine, untouched. Wild animals never before seen appear within the infinite walls of the “green mansions.” The most magnificent being of all is the beautiful and wild Rima, a young woman who speaks in a strange, lilting language only known to birds and her lost tribe. While Abel’s journey is fraught with peril: gold hunting, warring bands of native tribes, petty rivalries, superstition, and magic, he becomes forever smitten with Rima.

I have always been riveted by the World is Made of Glass because the characterization, plot, pacing, and story is superb. Magda as the brilliant sociopath, medical doctor and wealthy society diva, is an incredible depiction of a woman who has major contradictions in her personality. While her strength seems over-the-top, she is still entirely credible and unforgettable as a woman who does want to develop compassion and a conscience, but is clueless as to how to begin the journey to get there.

Our feature this month is a quick primer on climate change. Warnings about climate change are not new. The article Climate Change is Real distinguishes what is real from what is not. Barbara Lloyd McMichael writes about the health impacts on the firefighters who are working in hellish conditions to contain massive wildfires. In War and Peace, Annie Searle writes about the first stage of the Gaza Agreement, and the award of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. This month we also offer you three book reviews with environmental themes. Our special section is a roundup of essays about the wonder of trees. Dr. Peter Corning offers a fresh look at Evolution “On Purpose,” by examining the living organisms that determine the course of evolutionary history. –Patricia Vaccarino