Irish Examiner View: Adopt Merkel's ‘We can do it’ spirit

Refugee crisis

Germany opened its doors in 2015 and took in over 1m asylum-seekers from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan as an undaunted Angela Merkel  “we can do this”. Picture: AP

The news this week that children’s author Oliver Jeffers has had to delay publication of his latest book might have passed you by, but the reason for the delay should not. It was caused by the rippling after-effects of the six-day blockade of the Suez Canal by the stranded Ever Given in March.

The supersized-container effectively closed one of the world’s most important trading routes and, in the process, held up an estimated €8bn worth of goods daily. In recent months, that has led to shortages of many items and, most recently, the rescheduling of Jeffers’ book.