最近在中国流传一则揶揄的短信，大意是说现在做好人难，如果有老人摔倒，那么，旁边的救助者在准备献爱心去救助老人的时候，应当事先准备好一份协议书，让老人签署，说明是自己摔到的、与他人无干。这则揶揄的短信反映的是中国当下社会当中不信任感的蔓延和信任的缺失。孟子看到人与动物之间的区别在于我们有广泛的同情心，而平常如果在马路上，当我们看到老年人不小心摔倒，自然而然的同情心都会驱使我们去帮助摔倒的老年人，但是，近年来发生的一些案件，却是受救助者“反咬一口”，出于私利的考虑，硬说是救助者“惹的祸”，要求救助者赔偿医疗费。本来是献爱心，结果却卷入纠纷，这对于许多人而言，无异于“农夫与蛇”的悖论。因此，“...
点击这里，阅读《中国青年报》的原文。
China’s Belt and Road projects offer diversification opportunities for smaller countries that could alter longstanding relations. Such Belt and Road influence is evident in a trade and transit protocol finalized by China and Nepal in September 2018. Nepal, remote and landlocked, a country of 29...
Diversifying: Nepal has long relied on India and the busy Birgunj-Raxaul border crossing, left, for transit and trade, but China’s Belt and Road investments may bring new trade and tourists to the landlocked country (Sources: Nepal; Surendra Phuyal...
Conflict, a changing climate, famine and poverty destroy communities throughout the Middle East and Africa, driving thousands of people of all ages to risk crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe’s safety. Authorities have documented more than 18,000 deaths in the Mediterranean since the start...
One out of seven people around the world, about 30 percent of the world’s urban population, lives in close quarters with minimal access to ventilation, sewage facilities or clean water, all of which help prevent spread of disease. Writing for BBC News, Swaminathan Natarajan describes a family of...
“Fear is now one of the most pervasive factors in perpetuating political regimes,” writes Galal Nassar in an opinion essay for Al-Ahram Weekly. Leaders who maintain control by increasing apprehension over imminent dangers benefit by ever keeping danger close at hand. Intimidation leads to...
A glance at the values and conduct of Arab citizens is enough to show how prevalent fear and intimidation have become. Fear is now one of the most pervasive factors in perpetuating political regimes. It holds back human...
Women wear burqas to conceal their faces and bodies from public view. Writer Taslima Nasrin reviews the history and many theories offered about the personal and social motives behind the concealment: The burqa may constrain sexual reactions from other people, or women may simply want privacy,...
My mother used purdah. She wore a burqa with a net cover in front of the face. It reminded me of the meatsafes in my grandmother's house. One had a net door made of cloth, the other of metal. But the objective was the...
Just before the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden released a new videotape, in which he adopts a neo-Marxist posture, suggesting that mortgage debt, global warming, growing wage inequality and other ills are a result of greed from multinational corporations and politics of the...
Jihad against capitalism: Bin Laden expands his appeal to discontents
of the West while his Islamic mentor Salman al-Oadah (inset) denounces
him for the mayhem
NEW YORK: After Osama bin Laden reappeared on the eve of the...
US presidential candidates have paused campaigns due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The world learned about the deadly disease in early January, and incumbent Donald Trump repeatedly insisted the United States had Covid-19 under control. Months later the United States represents one third of the world’s...
