In The News

Winds of Change: Cinema from Muslim Societies

Sheyma Buali October 10, 2011
Categorizing Islamic cinema is not easy, and analysis can prompt more questions than answers, as suggested by Sheyma Buali, for Arab News, in reviewing the Islamic film festival hosted by the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. The festival, “Winds of Change: Cinema from Muslim Societies,” explored the rich historical and cultural context of Islamic films. Films from Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt...

Brazil's Stand-Up Comics Lead Social Revolution Against Powerful Elites

Tom Phillips October 7, 2011
The powerful, never appreciating being the butt of comics’ jokes or withering commentary of critics, have long tried to keep a lid on criticism with ownership of media conglomerates and influence over media licenses. The freewheeling internet has changed all that, allowing comedy to take hold in nations like Brazil where the powerful expected unthinking deference. In the 1980s, jokes about...

Asia’s Lack of Babies

Philip Bowring September 20, 2011
Declining birth rates in East Asia could dent economic growth, notes an Asian Development Bank study. Increasing wealth correlates with low fertility rates. Bearing and raising children entails sacrifices that last at least two decades, and women easily ignore government calls for a hike in reproduction rates. Asia could follow the lead of Scandinavia, France or the US, suggests Philip Bowring...

Cycle of “Compulsive Consumerism” Leaves British Family Life in Crisis, Unicef Study Finds

John Bingham September 20, 2011
Pointless accumulation of material goods, as compensation for widening inequality, was an underlying cause of the widespread UK riots in August, contends Unicef UK. Work-weary parents who replace playtime and conversations with “stuff” are raising unhappy, difficult children. In a follow-up to a 2007 Unicef study showing that the well-being of British children was the lowest among OECD nations,...

Writing the Global Journey

Salil Tripathi September 12, 2011
The age-old quest for a better life, the ever-increasing speed of travel that forms the heart of globalization, has also transformed modern literature. London-based writer Salil Tripathi describes Amitav Ghosh and Salman Rushdie, both born in India and now living and celebrated in the West, as among the most successful authors in portraying an individual’s ability to survive and adapt to a...

An America Adrift

Paul Kennedy September 9, 2011
The 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is a time of reflection, and historian Paul Kennedy analyzes the American responses and mood of the past decade. After 9/11, the US quickly invaded Afghanistan, putting the Taliban on the run. Then in March 2003, the US invaded Iraq, intent on deposing dictator Saddam Hussein who had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Kennedy offers anecdotal...

A Dispatch Disaster in Six Acts

Christian Stöcker September 2, 2011
More than 250,000 US State Department cables were released to WikiLeaks and, starting in November 2010, gradually published in newspapers around the globe with the understanding that sensitive details, including names of informants, would be redacted. Under the threat of denial-of-service attacks and censorship, WikiLeaks staff released password-protected copies of the cables to supporters. Not...