DUST ISSUE 25 - THE SMILE ISSUE

These recent years feel like the most perplexing times our generation has ever experienced. More and more, our present has been worn away and reshaped, confining us to a world that tests our ability to envision a welcoming future or give us reasons to smile about it. A smile, however, remains one of the most powerful tools we have—not as a means of escaping reality or succumbing to cynicism, but as a defiant act of hope. In the face of ever-intensifying climate catastrophes worldwide, wars waged ruthlessly against international laws, the threat of unregulated AI, rising polarisation in society, and the alarming rise of anti-democratic populist forces, smiling becomes our act of defiance, a rejection of a reality we refuse to conform to. Inevitably, smiling creates spaces where new ideas flourish, inclusive movements are nurtured, and a better tomorrow is forged, spreading a contagious spirit of resistance. Losing our smile means losing our future.