In The News

Theologians Battle Female Circumcision

Amira El Ahl December 19, 2006
The World Health Organization estimates that up to 140 million women worldwide are circumcised, most living in Africa, with some also in Asia and the Middle East. Some cultures – mostly in Africa, but also in Asia – have embraced female circumcision for thousands of years, expecting it to decrease sexual desire in women. The practice is common in Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, but not in Iraq,...

India: Emerging as Eastern or Western Power?

Kishore Mahbubani December 19, 2006
Asian nations grow more confident, more optimistic, even as the US withdraws from global leadership, fearful after the 9/11 attacks and lashing out in anger like a wounded animal, without plans or purpose. By condoning torture and instigating war while overlooking pressing problems, the US has abandoned lofty principles it once embraced. With that context, former Singapore ambassador to the...

Revisiting the Debate on America's Pro-Israel Lobby

Rami G. Khouri December 14, 2006
When it comes to issues of conflict and hatred, debate is best managed with a calm, evidence-based approach, according to analyst Rami Khouri. The comment comes amid world condemnation for Iran hosting a conference that questions the Nazi effort during the mid-20th century to kill all Jews. Khouri bemoans the lack of “rational middle ground between those who question or deny the Holocaust...

China Eases Limits on Foreign Media for 2008 Olympics

Mei Fong December 11, 2006
China will temporarily lift restrictions on foreign journalists, allowing them to scrutinize the Olympic Games as well as the Chinese economy, politics and society – but only through October 2008. Foreign journalists will no longer have to request or wait for formal invitations from Chinese groups before conducting interviews or writing articles. However, domestic journalists will still confront...

Outsourcing Hits a New Class of Workers: Journalists

Doreen Carvajal December 5, 2006
Declining circulations and advertising revenue have forced newspapers in the US and UK to reduce costs – and some editors now look for low-wage, talented help in India, Singapore and other countries. Such moves may reduce costs, but could also lead to community backlashes and further erosion in circulation. Any employee whose work can be transferred online is vulnerable to such outsourcing,...

Kazakhstan Learns to Love Borat

Ryan Kennedy December 1, 2006
Kazakhstan leaders were appalled at how the movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” portrayed their nation as backward and anti-Semitic. The comedy-documentary, with a British actor posing as a Kazakh journalist seeking to learn lessons from the US, has yet to be shown in either Kazakhstan or Russia. Initial Kazakh reactions to the film – such as removing...

Globalization and God – Part II

Bruce Mazlish November 28, 2006
A spike in religious violence around the globe leads many observers to assume that secularism has a diminished influence in international politics. But surges of religious fervor in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the US are a backlash against modernity, whose ideas and freedoms cannot be swept under some global rug and forgotten. In the second part of this two-part series, historian Bruce...