Latest news with #Coralie
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Perspective: Why are we telling women that motherhood will make them miserable?
'Her tired mind surveyed her luck — a home, the children, Adam. In so many ways it was her dream.' But Coralie was not happy. 'Something was wrong,' thinks the protagonist in the new acclaimed novel 'Consider Yourself Kissed.' 'Mother, writer, worker, sister, friend, citizen, daughter, (sort of) wife. If she could be one, perhaps she could manage. Trying to be all, she found that she was none.' Thus begins yet another installment in the litany of recent fiction and nonfiction devoted to modern women's grievances. (A most tiresome, albeit more explicit version of this story, called 'All Fours,' came out a few months earlier.) Coralie begins as a single woman sad about being alone. Then she becomes a woman living with a man she loves and his daughter. But then she is sad they do not have a child of their own. And then she is sad they do not have a second child. And then she is sad because with three children, she doesn't have enough time to pursue her writing career. And her husband doesn't pitch in enough. And he works too much, but also she wants to spend more time with her kids, so he needs to work more. And she needs to spend time away from him in order to rediscover her true self. 'How could the world … be made fair,' she wonders, 'when two people who loved each other couldn't even manage a life?' Maybe the world isn't 'fair,' but Coralie's life is hardly evidence of that. And is this really the question that upper-middle-class educated women with husbands and children and nice houses need to be asking about themselves? But all of these complaints about husbands and children and work are not restricted to individual grievances, because, well, that might seem petty. Instead, they are complaints about the system, about the institution of marriage, capitalism, the patriarchy … you name it. If you want to read the nonfiction version of these complaints, look no further than two recent features in The New York Times. The first, from a couple of months ago, was a video series called 'Motherhood Should Come With a Warning Label.' More than 2,000 women responded to a request from the paper to 'tell us about your journey to motherhood.' The women in these videos are angry. They are angry that they had less successful careers as a result of time spent with their children. They are angry that they have less money in their retirement accounts, that their partners didn't suffer similar consequences. It is excruciating to listen to all these women talk about how the system is stacked against them, despite the fact that many of them have good jobs and loving families. And one can only imagine how young women at the start of their adult lives must feel about hearing all this. Which brings us to the second New York Times feature, published last week, 'The Trouble With Wanting Men.' Unlike the earlier piece, this one was focused less on the career frustrations and more on the men they are stuck with. 'Men are what is rotten in the state of straightness,' Jean Garnett writes. 'And why shouldn't we have an all-inclusive byword for our various pessimisms about them? Domestic pessimism (they still do less of the housework and child care); partner-violence pessimism (femicide is still gruesomely routine); erotic pessimism …' etc. etc. Even the 'good, sweet men,' Garnett notes, are really not very helpful. She laments: 'Most of us can neither renounce our heterosexuality nor realize a significant renegotiation of its terms.' How is a 20-year-old woman supposed to take this? You might assume that the solution is just to forgo finding a partner or having children. It's not just that it's heartache, because even the most naïve young woman 20 or 50 or 100 years ago would be aware of the potential for unhappiness or even tragedy when she decided to put down roots. It's that the whole system is out to get you. Sure, it may seem as if women have made progress, but these novelists and journalists are here to tell you that you are destined for misery. The result is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead of finding someone you love earlier and trying to build a family together, you will put your career first, rejecting multiple decent, loving men because it's too early to settle down. If and when you finally do enter a partnership and have kids, you will walk around with a chip on your shoulder wondering why you have to cut back on work to be with your kids — even though chances are you actually do want to be with your kids more. You will blame this all on your partner or your boss or the world. Rinse and repeat. Part of growing up is realizing that we have autonomy, that our life outcomes are not just a product of structural forces acting on us. In reality, women have a lot of choices open to them, but there are only a few that will genuinely make them happy. Instead of giving them the message that they are destined to be miserable and it's someone else's fault, maybe we could find a fictional or nonfictional portrait of a woman who manages to find fulfillment in an imperfect world. Solve the daily Crossword
Sydney Morning Herald
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Looking for a new book? Here are 10 recent releases
This week's book reviews range from magical realism and Australian grunge to a study of WWII's aftermath and a guide to talking your way out of trouble from a criminal defence lawyer. Happy reading! FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen Shokoofeh Azar Europa Editions, $49.99 Shokoofeh Azar fled Iran for Australia after several arrests and the translator of this novel, composed in Farsi, has chosen to remain anonymous, citing security concerns. Azar's forced exile has sparked her creative fire, and The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen blends fabulism, romantic and supernatural elements with a gimlet-eyed view of the Iranian Revolution and its aftermath. It follows a family from Iran's Zoroastrian minority, with Shokoofeh narrating her story beginning as a teen in an opulent mansion, closed and cloistered (the mansion was sealed by her aunt, in one of the novel's many vivid digressions). Shokoofeh comes of age and encounters the world just before the Shah is deposed, and a love triangle emerges – one suitor a communist, another a Revolutionary Guard – as the saga unfolds over decades. It's a vast and vastly ambitious novel that merges the reality of the political situation in Iran with overt magical realism – as grand and strange and humane as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, though sourced from different cultural wellsprings – the spirituality and myth of Zoroastrianism, and the elaborate narrative weave of Persian storytelling. A fresh and sparkling modern literary romance from Jessica Stanley, Consider Yourself Kissed begins with a classic 'meet-cute'. Coralie – a 29-year-old Australian copywriter finding her feet in London – and Adam – a dashing, Colin Firth-like single dad – swap homes for a night. It's a way to get to know someone intimately without them being there – Coralie studies Adam's library minutely, drinks in every detail of his domestic life – and it's a prelude to a courtship between two well-spoken, educated people with endearing quirks. Adam pursues a career as a political commentator; Coralie wants to have children and be a writer herself. The shadow of inequality and eventual discontent grows despite their best efforts, and as Coralie returns to Australia, she comes to view her life as perfect in every respect, except that it doesn't feel truly hers. Stanley writes in a tradition that runs from Jane Austen to Nancy Mitford, and this charming literary romance queries the endgame in romance fiction, the happily-ever-after, in a way that lingers. Rise and Shine Kimberley Allsopp HarperCollins, $34.99 Following her debut novel Love and Other Puzzles (2022), Brisbane-based author Kimberley Allsopp has written a love story that starts at the end. August and Noah have been married for 10 years. They've begun to drift apart, taking each other for granted, falling into routines that evade problems and short-circuit intimacy. With relationship breakdown imminent, will the couple remain a couple? Will they embrace singledom? Or learn to cope with the disappointments and irritations of life? Or rediscover a way of loving that fictional romance rarely broaches? Rise and Shine is a refreshingly adult book about long-term relationships. It probes the internal landscapes of two partners who question whether their relationship's working (and what to do about it), but it's outward-looking too. No couple is an island, and the book opens to broader family and community, taking in art and music, divorce, friendship, loss, footy, and a dog – all in sweltering Brisbane heat. Wise with wisecracks, poignant but without soppiness and sentiment, its textured authenticity will appeal to grown-up readers left cold by the more escapist impulses of romance and its subgenres. The seeds of this queer feminist medieval romantasy were sown during the pandemic, when the authors were separated from each other, stranded on different continents. For the two maidens in Lady's Knight, Gwen and Lady Isobelle, it isn't pandemic so much as patriarchy that stands in the way of their union. Gwen has blacksmithing skills, loves damsels, and has always dreamt of being a knight. Isobelle, on the other hand, has everything a lady could want – except her freedom. Promised in marriage to the victor of the coming Tournament of Dragonslayers, she can't seem to find a way to avoid or delay her fate … until she meets Gwen, falls wildly in love, and they concoct a bold scheme to pursue their forbidden desires. Lady's Knight is an unabashedly anachronistic and entertaining sapphic romp. It's cheesy but fun, delighting in hordes of tropes from swords and sorcery, while taking up arms against a world of men (and dragons). New Skin Miranda Nation Allen & Unwin, $32.99 Grunge lit makes a comeback in Miranda Nation's debut, New Skin. It's a heady and intense time warp to 1990s Melbourne, where two university students, Alex and Leah, meet at medical school, beginning a relationship that careens between idealism and cynicism, from exploring who they are and might become, to relieving themselves (of the burden of their own potential) through destructive hedonism. When they meet again years after they've drifted apart, will their passion for each other resurface? Should it? In many ways Nation's novel is a literary throwback, a Gen X love story charting the throes of youth during the years in which 'heroin chic' was a thing. The precise, unsentimental portrait of Melbourne youth culture at the time will immediately seduce and appal anyone who lived through it (raises hand), and for others, it serves as a welcome addition to the contemporary Australian grunge literature from that epoch – Luke Davies' Candy or Christos Tsiolkas' Loaded, say – which tended to be male-dominated. 1945 The Reckoning Phil Craig Hodder & Stoughton, $34.99 The title notwithstanding, much of Phil Craig's study of World War II and its aftermath deals with the war years leading up to 1945. And necessarily so. For what he is examining is the way in which, even as the war was being fought (and his descriptions of the action bring home just how bloody and violent it was), the peace was being planned. It's an epic canvas, ambitious, in some ways even Tolstoy-esque, taking in Europe, the Asia/Pacific and the quiet English countryside. There are many moving parts (possibly too many), but his main focus is on India and the ultimate establishment of the post-colonial state. Two figures loom large: the problematic Subhas Chandra Bose, who spent much of the war in exile in Nazi Germany and was leader of the Indian National Army (which fought with the Japanese), and Colonel Kodandera Subayya 'Timmy' Thimayya, who decided to fight with the British, defeat the Japanese, then negotiate the peace. Two divergent paths, same goal – independence. Along the way he incorporates the tales of ordinary people – such as a very astute English nurse – caught up in extraordinary times. On both a narrative and thematic level, this is skilfully told history for the general reader. The better sporting tales tend to be about more than just sport, and this is the case with Katrina Gorry's record of a sporting life that has taken her to the world stage as a member of the Matildas and current captain of West Ham United. It starts in a Brisbane backyard where 'Mini' (she is five foot one) played no-prisoners-taken soccer against her brothers, played in a boy's side when she joined a club and copped regular sprays on and off the field for being the only girl on the ground. All of which made her more determined. And this is not just a story about talent, dreaming big and success, but grit too. Plus the setbacks, the constant pressure of competing at the elite level and the effect on both her mental and physical health. But woven into this is the unfolding tale of her sexuality, choosing to have an IVF baby by herself and falling in love on Gotland. Not to mention going on strike to get better pay and conditions for the Matildas. Her family looms large, as does the concept of the team. An inspiring tale, tempered by realism. On Democracies and Death Cults Douglas Murray Harper Collins, $34.99 A key contention by British neo-conservative Douglas Murray in this study of the October 7 attack in Israel is that the region, and the West for that matter, is caught up at present in a Manichean struggle between good and evil – terms he endows with a kind of metaphysical truth – between countries such as Israel that stand for Life, and Hamas, which stands for the cult of Death and martyrdom. Not that he hasn't got extensive, boots-on-the-ground knowledge of the complexities of the situation. He's a seasoned journalist who went to Israel and Gaza after the attack and interviewed both victims and terrorists, citing examples – and it's deeply disturbing – of how exultant the Hamas attackers were. But the result is an emphatically one-sided assessment that excuses the horrifying, ongoing slaughter in Gaza of thousands of Palestinian civilians as a necessary war of survival between Life and the cult of Death. And Netanyahu, whom he interviewed, emerges as a dedicated war leader – never mind that the ICC has issued a warrant for his arrest as a war criminal. Highly contentious. Often as not, this jaunty, serious and funny description of life as a criminal defence lawyer reads like dispatches from the law zone. Kalantar, an advocate and public speaker, recalls the day he decided to become a lawyer. He was seven, wrongly accused of making a face to his teacher and betrayed by a classmate, the injustice staying with him. Mind you, he initially took a wrong turn into banking, before an inspiring lecturer guided him into law. It's shot through with lessons from the coalface, especially in regard to making assumptions about accused clients – one, in particular, whom he dubs Genghis Khan, whose responses (through an interpreter) to questioning he completely misread. In another poignant episode, he outlines the way two close brothers fell out over the contents of their mother's will. In many ways, his subject is the human comedy in all its shades of dark and light. Not to mention courtroom stuff-ups and confessional moments such as his ADHD. Serious matters, but told with an ironic eye. In 1802, the father of the smallpox vaccine, Englishman Edward Jenner, was satirised in the papers, one cartoon depicting him injecting a terrified woman who is turning into a cow (the vaccine coming from cowpox). The scaremongering and pseudoscience surrounding vaccination, as epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre shows in this clear-sighted, plain-speaking study, goes back that far. And, after COVID, it has resurfaced again with the rise of anti-vaxxers. Astonishing, when we consider that vaccinations over the last 200 years have virtually eradicated deadly diseases such as smallpox and polio, which are particularly dangerous for children – infant mortality rates plummeting. Pseudoscience is in danger of destabilising the gains of science since Jenner's day, and this is both a reminder of the massive health achievements of the modern era and a timely wake-up call.
The Age
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Looking for a new book? Here are 10 recent releases
This week's book reviews range from magical realism and Australian grunge to a study of WWII's aftermath and a guide to talking your way out of trouble from a criminal defence lawyer. Happy reading! FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen Shokoofeh Azar Europa Editions, $49.99 Shokoofeh Azar fled Iran for Australia after several arrests and the translator of this novel, composed in Farsi, has chosen to remain anonymous, citing security concerns. Azar's forced exile has sparked her creative fire, and The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen blends fabulism, romantic and supernatural elements with a gimlet-eyed view of the Iranian Revolution and its aftermath. It follows a family from Iran's Zoroastrian minority, with Shokoofeh narrating her story beginning as a teen in an opulent mansion, closed and cloistered (the mansion was sealed by her aunt, in one of the novel's many vivid digressions). Shokoofeh comes of age and encounters the world just before the Shah is deposed, and a love triangle emerges – one suitor a communist, another a Revolutionary Guard – as the saga unfolds over decades. It's a vast and vastly ambitious novel that merges the reality of the political situation in Iran with overt magical realism – as grand and strange and humane as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, though sourced from different cultural wellsprings – the spirituality and myth of Zoroastrianism, and the elaborate narrative weave of Persian storytelling. A fresh and sparkling modern literary romance from Jessica Stanley, Consider Yourself Kissed begins with a classic 'meet-cute'. Coralie – a 29-year-old Australian copywriter finding her feet in London – and Adam – a dashing, Colin Firth-like single dad – swap homes for a night. It's a way to get to know someone intimately without them being there – Coralie studies Adam's library minutely, drinks in every detail of his domestic life – and it's a prelude to a courtship between two well-spoken, educated people with endearing quirks. Adam pursues a career as a political commentator; Coralie wants to have children and be a writer herself. The shadow of inequality and eventual discontent grows despite their best efforts, and as Coralie returns to Australia, she comes to view her life as perfect in every respect, except that it doesn't feel truly hers. Stanley writes in a tradition that runs from Jane Austen to Nancy Mitford, and this charming literary romance queries the endgame in romance fiction, the happily-ever-after, in a way that lingers. Rise and Shine Kimberley Allsopp HarperCollins, $34.99 Following her debut novel Love and Other Puzzles (2022), Brisbane-based author Kimberley Allsopp has written a love story that starts at the end. August and Noah have been married for 10 years. They've begun to drift apart, taking each other for granted, falling into routines that evade problems and short-circuit intimacy. With relationship breakdown imminent, will the couple remain a couple? Will they embrace singledom? Or learn to cope with the disappointments and irritations of life? Or rediscover a way of loving that fictional romance rarely broaches? Rise and Shine is a refreshingly adult book about long-term relationships. It probes the internal landscapes of two partners who question whether their relationship's working (and what to do about it), but it's outward-looking too. No couple is an island, and the book opens to broader family and community, taking in art and music, divorce, friendship, loss, footy, and a dog – all in sweltering Brisbane heat. Wise with wisecracks, poignant but without soppiness and sentiment, its textured authenticity will appeal to grown-up readers left cold by the more escapist impulses of romance and its subgenres. The seeds of this queer feminist medieval romantasy were sown during the pandemic, when the authors were separated from each other, stranded on different continents. For the two maidens in Lady's Knight, Gwen and Lady Isobelle, it isn't pandemic so much as patriarchy that stands in the way of their union. Gwen has blacksmithing skills, loves damsels, and has always dreamt of being a knight. Isobelle, on the other hand, has everything a lady could want – except her freedom. Promised in marriage to the victor of the coming Tournament of Dragonslayers, she can't seem to find a way to avoid or delay her fate … until she meets Gwen, falls wildly in love, and they concoct a bold scheme to pursue their forbidden desires. Lady's Knight is an unabashedly anachronistic and entertaining sapphic romp. It's cheesy but fun, delighting in hordes of tropes from swords and sorcery, while taking up arms against a world of men (and dragons). New Skin Miranda Nation Allen & Unwin, $32.99 Grunge lit makes a comeback in Miranda Nation's debut, New Skin. It's a heady and intense time warp to 1990s Melbourne, where two university students, Alex and Leah, meet at medical school, beginning a relationship that careens between idealism and cynicism, from exploring who they are and might become, to relieving themselves (of the burden of their own potential) through destructive hedonism. When they meet again years after they've drifted apart, will their passion for each other resurface? Should it? In many ways Nation's novel is a literary throwback, a Gen X love story charting the throes of youth during the years in which 'heroin chic' was a thing. The precise, unsentimental portrait of Melbourne youth culture at the time will immediately seduce and appal anyone who lived through it (raises hand), and for others, it serves as a welcome addition to the contemporary Australian grunge literature from that epoch – Luke Davies' Candy or Christos Tsiolkas' Loaded, say – which tended to be male-dominated. 1945 The Reckoning Phil Craig Hodder & Stoughton, $34.99 The title notwithstanding, much of Phil Craig's study of World War II and its aftermath deals with the war years leading up to 1945. And necessarily so. For what he is examining is the way in which, even as the war was being fought (and his descriptions of the action bring home just how bloody and violent it was), the peace was being planned. It's an epic canvas, ambitious, in some ways even Tolstoy-esque, taking in Europe, the Asia/Pacific and the quiet English countryside. There are many moving parts (possibly too many), but his main focus is on India and the ultimate establishment of the post-colonial state. Two figures loom large: the problematic Subhas Chandra Bose, who spent much of the war in exile in Nazi Germany and was leader of the Indian National Army (which fought with the Japanese), and Colonel Kodandera Subayya 'Timmy' Thimayya, who decided to fight with the British, defeat the Japanese, then negotiate the peace. Two divergent paths, same goal – independence. Along the way he incorporates the tales of ordinary people – such as a very astute English nurse – caught up in extraordinary times. On both a narrative and thematic level, this is skilfully told history for the general reader. The better sporting tales tend to be about more than just sport, and this is the case with Katrina Gorry's record of a sporting life that has taken her to the world stage as a member of the Matildas and current captain of West Ham United. It starts in a Brisbane backyard where 'Mini' (she is five foot one) played no-prisoners-taken soccer against her brothers, played in a boy's side when she joined a club and copped regular sprays on and off the field for being the only girl on the ground. All of which made her more determined. And this is not just a story about talent, dreaming big and success, but grit too. Plus the setbacks, the constant pressure of competing at the elite level and the effect on both her mental and physical health. But woven into this is the unfolding tale of her sexuality, choosing to have an IVF baby by herself and falling in love on Gotland. Not to mention going on strike to get better pay and conditions for the Matildas. Her family looms large, as does the concept of the team. An inspiring tale, tempered by realism. On Democracies and Death Cults Douglas Murray Harper Collins, $34.99 A key contention by British neo-conservative Douglas Murray in this study of the October 7 attack in Israel is that the region, and the West for that matter, is caught up at present in a Manichean struggle between good and evil – terms he endows with a kind of metaphysical truth – between countries such as Israel that stand for Life, and Hamas, which stands for the cult of Death and martyrdom. Not that he hasn't got extensive, boots-on-the-ground knowledge of the complexities of the situation. He's a seasoned journalist who went to Israel and Gaza after the attack and interviewed both victims and terrorists, citing examples – and it's deeply disturbing – of how exultant the Hamas attackers were. But the result is an emphatically one-sided assessment that excuses the horrifying, ongoing slaughter in Gaza of thousands of Palestinian civilians as a necessary war of survival between Life and the cult of Death. And Netanyahu, whom he interviewed, emerges as a dedicated war leader – never mind that the ICC has issued a warrant for his arrest as a war criminal. Highly contentious. Often as not, this jaunty, serious and funny description of life as a criminal defence lawyer reads like dispatches from the law zone. Kalantar, an advocate and public speaker, recalls the day he decided to become a lawyer. He was seven, wrongly accused of making a face to his teacher and betrayed by a classmate, the injustice staying with him. Mind you, he initially took a wrong turn into banking, before an inspiring lecturer guided him into law. It's shot through with lessons from the coalface, especially in regard to making assumptions about accused clients – one, in particular, whom he dubs Genghis Khan, whose responses (through an interpreter) to questioning he completely misread. In another poignant episode, he outlines the way two close brothers fell out over the contents of their mother's will. In many ways, his subject is the human comedy in all its shades of dark and light. Not to mention courtroom stuff-ups and confessional moments such as his ADHD. Serious matters, but told with an ironic eye. In 1802, the father of the smallpox vaccine, Englishman Edward Jenner, was satirised in the papers, one cartoon depicting him injecting a terrified woman who is turning into a cow (the vaccine coming from cowpox). The scaremongering and pseudoscience surrounding vaccination, as epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre shows in this clear-sighted, plain-speaking study, goes back that far. And, after COVID, it has resurfaced again with the rise of anti-vaxxers. Astonishing, when we consider that vaccinations over the last 200 years have virtually eradicated deadly diseases such as smallpox and polio, which are particularly dangerous for children – infant mortality rates plummeting. Pseudoscience is in danger of destabilising the gains of science since Jenner's day, and this is both a reminder of the massive health achievements of the modern era and a timely wake-up call.
IOL News
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Goliath and Coralie: Rescued circus lions find sanctuary in South Africa
Circus lions Goliath and Coralie have been released at the Animal Defenders International (ADI) Wildlife Sanctuary in the Free State after spending a decade in a small cage in France. Image: Supplied After a decade of being confined to a tiny, bare circus cage in France, lions Goliath and Coralie are free to roam a huge 2.5-acre enclosure at the Animal Defenders International (ADI) Wildlife Sanctuary in the Free State. The lions were transported from France to South Africa via Doha, on a flight donated by Qatar Airways Cargo as part of their WeQare programme. They will live the rest of their lives with dozens of rescued lions, tigers, and other animals at the sanctuary. ADI president Jan Creamer, who accompanied the animals on their journey to what the organisation described as 'the land of their ancestors', said Goliath and Coralie lived the first half of their lives in a cage on a truck; now they get to live as lions should. 'When you see these two magnificent lions living so close to what nature intended, it shows how wrong it is to keep them in circus cages, just for entertainment,' said Creamer. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading Creamer said these lions suffered a lifetime of deprivation and abuse, living in a tiny cage, bare floorboards, behind bars, with no regard given to their well-being or physical needs. They had no freedom of movement and no space to roam. She said these lions will now enjoy life under the African sunshine, in their native homeland, where they can run, play, chase the local wildlife, or snooze in the grass. The organisation highlights that this rescue marks another important step in the global Stop Circus Suffering campaign, which has seen more than 50 countries (and seven US states) ban wild animals in circuses. The ADI Wildlife Sanctuary specialises in helping to enforce these bans. ADI, based in London, has conducted extensive rescue missions to implement circus bans in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Guatemala. These efforts included the airlift of significant numbers of animals, specifically 75 lions as well as 40 monkeys in various operations. According to the organisation, due to the abuse these lions have suffered, their years of confinement, deprivation, and inbreeding, it is not possible to return them to the wild. 'Goliath and Coralie's flight to freedom marks the beginning of the end for wild animal acts in France. In 2021, France passed a law phasing out wild animals in circuses, prohibiting further breeding and setting minimum welfare standards, with a full ban coming into force in 2028,' it said. ADI said the new regulations enabled Goliath and Coralie to be seized from the circus following an investigation by France's Free Life Association. The lions were taken into Tonga Terre d'Accueil, a temporary holding facility for confiscated wildlife near Lyon, and ADI offered to provide a forever home in South Africa. 'Goliath and Coralie are currently in a 2.5-acre quarantine unit at ADIWS where they have received a full medical examination, vaccinations, and a battery of health checks. After the quarantine period, they will move to a huge 7.5-acre habitat,' said ADI. Mark Drusch, chief cargo officer at Qatar Airways Cargo, said he is proud to once again support ADI by bringing these two beautiful lions home to Africa. Drusch said the airline's WeQare Rewild the Planet initiative is a commitment to returning wildlife and endangered species to their natural habitat, free of charge. 'It takes a lot of effort and logistics for our team to organise moving such large animals; from the logistics at the airports, loading and unloading the animals from the aircraft, to ensuring the correct cages and wellbeing of the animals are in place, but it is something we are all collectively very proud and passionate to be a part of.' Circus lion Goliath had spent a decade in a small cage in France. Image: Supplied Circus lion Goliath. Image: Supplied Circus lions Goliath and Coralie were transported to the Animal Defenders International (ADI) Wildlife Sanctuary in the Free State. Image: Supplied Circus lions Goliath and Coralie were released at the Animal Defenders International (ADI) Wildlife Sanctuary. Image: Supplied Circus lion Coralie. Image: Supplied Circus lion Goliath. Image: Supplied
IOL News
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Lions Goliath and Coralie escape circus life to find freedom in South Africa
Coralie and Goliath Image: Supplied In a heartwarming turn of events, two lions, Goliath and Coralie, have stepped into a new chapter of their lives after spending over a decade confined in a cramped circus cage in France. Today, they bask in the African sunshine, roaming freely in a sprawling 2.5-acre enclosure at the Animal Defenders International (ADI) Wildlife Sanctuary, located in South Africa. Their remarkable journey began with a generous airlift funded by Qatar Airways Cargo as part of their WeQare programme, which emphasises the importance of animal welfare. Accompanied by ADI President Jan Creamer, Goliath and Coralie have traded their truck-bound cage for the vast, open plains that echo the lands of their ancestors. 'When you see these two magnificent lions living so close to what nature intended, it shows how wrong it is to keep them in circus cages, just for entertainment,' Creamer stated. 'Goliath and Coralie lived the first half of their lives in a cage on a truck; now they get to live as lions should.' Jan Creamer and D. Peter Caldwell giving the giant cats water at the Paris CDG airport Image: Supplied Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading The rescue of these lions is part of a significant movement against the use of wild animals in circuses, aptly named the Stop Circus Suffering campaign. This initiative has resulted in more than 50 countries, including seven US states, implementing bans on the exploitation of wild animals for entertainment purposes. The ADI Wildlife Sanctuary is dedicated to enforcing these protective bans. Based in London, ADI has proactively engaged in numerous rescue operations across Latin America, helping to liberate wild animals from circuses in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Guatemala. These efforts have included impressive airlifts that have seen 33, 25, and 17 lions, along with 40 monkeys rescued at a time. Due to the extended abuse, confinement, and in-breeding that Goliath and Coralie have endured, returning them to the wild is not a viable option. The ADI Wildlife Sanctuary stands as a crucial refuge for animals like them, ensuring they live out their days in a safe and natural environment.
