The language of a captive community acquires certain durable habits; whole zones of reality cease to exist simply because they have no name
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global villageIn a fractured, disconnected world, a humane voice of engagement. In a fortnightly reflection, KA Dilday writes of encounters and explorations in the Arab and Muslim worlds, Latin America and Africa.
Obama's success and Blagojevich's shame flow from the two wrestling motifs of Chicago's history. Plus: Big Think discusses the possibility of urban renewal in a time of recession.
The media exposure of homosexual activity in the Muslim world is filled with paradox
A Mississippi-New York journey, or how
intelligence is more than skin-deep
Post-colonials in power reinforce Europe's national-identity narratives
What does enduring powerlessness do to a country's citizens?
The charismatic reformist Islamism of Nadia Yassine seeks a new path for Morocco's poor
Can the radius of empathy be extended to include "others" in pursuit of a more inclusive "we"?
An inflow of sub-Saharan Africans is forcing Moroccans to look behind as well as over to Europe
A Malian woman's story of genital mutilation lies at modern Europe's nerve-ends, says KA Dilday
The election of Nicolas Sarkozy is a sign of France’s divisions, its fears, its conservatism, and yet its hunger for change. KA Dilday measures a complex moment. Read the rest of this post...
How do western societies accept outsiders into their midst? KA Dilday reflects on one dimension of the Virginia Tech massacre. Read the rest of this post...
A self-education in positive masculinity is at the core of efforts to contain the spread of HIV/Aids, writes Patricia Daniel. Read the rest of this post...
French and other European intellectuals are mobilizing for intervention in Darfur. Who are they really writing about, asks KA Dilday Read the rest of this post...
The pressure on universities to manage and monitor their charges in the wider social interest is in tension with their role as incubators of civic virtue, says KA Dilday. Read the rest of this post...
European Union pacts with poor nations push the dispossessed further to the periphery. There is a more humane route to development, trade-policy specialist Lebohang Pheko tells Patricia Daniel. Read the rest of this post...
The Somali-Dutch dissident’s critique of Islam resonates with KA
Dilday’s experience of fundamentalist Christianity in the American
south. But their distance lies also in the journey beyond.
The systemic, worldwide degradation of girl children makes the Commission on the Status of Women meeting at the United Nations a vital event, says Patricia Daniel. Read the rest of this post...
The scale of Iraqis' displacement matches the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948. In addressing it, Sweden shames the American architects of war, says KA Dilday. Read the rest of this post...
Behind the mild racism of a misplaced compliment is a subtler, deeper prejudice that confronts every black "outsider" in the west, says KA Dilday. Read the rest of this post...
The French football captain Zinedine Zidane's act of retaliation in the world-cup final was also an immigrant's declaration of independence from the country that reveres him, says KA Dilday. Read the rest of this post...
The Austrian writer Peter Handke is at the centre of a Europe-wide cultural controversy: the withdrawal of a literary prize because of his support for the late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic. The row touches on the heart of a writer's self-understanding, says KA Dilday. Read the rest of this post...
The protests of middle-class French students against the youth employment law were more complacent than heroic, writes KA Dilday. Read the rest of this post...
America is convulsed by a debate over immigration. KA Dilday wonders if it is evading the subject's harsh realities. Read the rest of this post...
A booming economy is no cause for complacency – now more than ever Ireland must look after its natural and material wealth, its citizens and its democracy, argues Maura Stephens. Read the rest of this post...
People discriminate; it's a fact of life. So what is better, asks KA Dilday: to pretend they don't and leave people frustrated and disappointed when the bigotry finally reveals itself, or to be honest and let people know up front when they’re not wanted? Read the rest of this post...
Wealthy now after decades of hardship, Ireland seems to have what most countries dream of. But Maura Stephens, measuring the changes she has seen over many visits to the land of her forbears, has a warning for the envious. Read the rest of this post...
How does a person in movement come to "belong" to a country? Europe's blood-and-soil confusions towards its would-be citizens highlight the crisis of identity in the continent itself, says KA Dilday. Read the rest of this post...
Bereaved parents around the world face the greatest grief known to our species. Nothing can diminish their loss, but Maura Stephens suggests that perhaps there are some healing ways to channel it. Read the rest of this post...
The resentment of western elites’ addiction to material excess amidst oceans of deprivation must be addressed if it is not to turn toxic, says KA Dilday. Read the rest of this post...
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