COLUMN | Summer Shorts 2026: The Odyssey; You Can't Win; the Nord Stream conspiracy; fake tan/fake ministry [Offshore Accounts]

Ah, the summer holidays in the northern hemisphere are at their peak. Europe and the US are baking under a heat wave, every email seems to be met with an automatic out of office reply, and the beaches of the Mediterranean are packed with bronzed and dehydrated bodies.

It is also the season for national days, so there has never been a better time not to do any work, unless you are at sea. But maybe an excuse for a festive barbeque with the crew?

Today marks the public holiday for August 9th National Day in Singapore with a fighter jet flyby and a parade at the National Stadium in the Kallang on the theme, “Majulah Singapura, Go Beyond!” I think that motto will surely be a hook for future articles…

Ecuador commemorates its declaration of independence from Spain in 1809 today, Pakistan celebrates Independence Day on August 14, commemorating freedom from British rule in 1947, whilst the next day, India has a public holiday for its own emancipation from the British colonial oppressors. South Korea has its Liberation Day (Gwangbokjeol) on August 15, celebrating independence from Japanese rule in 1945, on the same day that the Republic of Congo also celebrates its freedom from France, achieved in 1960. But can one ever be truly free of the French?

Then it is the Indonesian National “Merdeka” Day on August 17^th (selamat tinggalto the Dutch in 1945 after 350 years) and then the holiday President Putin certainly does not celebrate, the Independence Day of Ukraine on August 24, in commemoration of its Declaration of Independence from the USSR in 1991. The month closes with a triple celebration on August 31, which is the Philippines' National Heroes Day, Malaysian Merdeka Day, marking independence from British rule in 1957, and finally Trinidad and Tobago Independence Day, commemorating the Caribbean state’s independence from the UK in 1962.