麻豆社

Pascale Harter introduces reflections on matters of life and death, from writers and reporters around the world.

The 麻豆社's Jeremy Bowen is just back from Damascus - and although the actual fighting has mostly ended around the capital, there are still signs of Syria's conflict to be found everywhere you look. How did the "virus of war" spread so fast and take hold so deeply?

As Uganda announces a crackdown on unregulated and uncontrolled orphanages, which the government claims are exploiting abandoned and street children, Helen Nianias tells the story of how one young women went out nightclubbing in Kampala recently - and came home with a baby.

Bolivia is a landlocked country, high in the Andes - so why does it have thousands of men and women serving in its Navy? As Laurence Blair explains, there's a long history behind its oceanic dreams, and there are high hopes they could return to the open seas before long.

And Zeinab Badawi drops in on an unusual discussion group in Lagos: a "death caf茅", where Nigerians can sidestep the awkwardness of discussing the end of life within the family, be talking over the subject with others. What do they think are the most important things in life?

Photo: Syrian boys play on a destroyed car in the former rebel-held Syrian town of Douma on the outskirts of Damascus on April 19, 2018 (STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)