If recent events are any indication, it has become clear that the current use of technology has driven a wedge between people like never before.

The polarization of ideas, perspectives, ideologies, politics, identities, cultures, and other differences that are expected and should be celebrated in diverse and dynamic societies has resulted in an undercurrent of fear of the other, fuelled by media that reinforce our own beliefs and disavow others, the consequences of which are felt by a generation who more often is fed by and fed to an algorithm.

Imagine you are watching television and have a wide selection of channels to choose from: sports, news, cooking, mystery, sci-fi, the usual variety of channels. You decide to watch the golf channel for a while because you like golf. When you are done you go to the channel guide and discover that all your channels have changed to golf channels. Weird, but I like golf.

You go to the library. It has a great selection of thousands of books from all genres. You like mystery novels and pick one off the shelf to borrow. As you look up after reading the back cover, all the books in the library have changed to mystery novels. Mysterious, indeed.

Big Tobacco and Big Oil are eerily similar. One knowingly produces a product that slowly but surely kills its consumers. The other knowingly produces a product that surely but not slowly kills the planet.

Earlier this month, North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un flanked China’s President Xi Jinping on the red carpet at an epic military parade in Beijing. The supreme leader was feted as a guest of honour along with Vladimir Putin. Behind them in the pecking order were nearly two dozen heads of state — the leaders of regional powers Indonesia and Vietnam among them.

It was Kim’s first time at a major diplomatic event in his 14 years as leader. And it won’t be the last. Indeed, North Korea has asserted itself as a useful cog in the autocratic faction within the new multipolar global order.

Beijing for a long time was the sole ally propping up the Kim dynasty’s totalitarian dictatorship — if only because its collapse would burden China with millions of unwanted refugees. China thus provides its heavily sanctioned neighbour with vital energy and food supplies. Plus, China’s lone mutual defence treaty is with North Korea, signed in 1961.

The relationship has nonetheless been strained over the decades. Mainly, by Pyongyang’s habit of doling out rash threats of nuclear annihilation against the United States and its allies. This irritates Chinese leaders by bringing unwanted attention to what Beijing perceives as its geographic sphere of influence.