world
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Is War in Southern Sudan Inevitable?
Reports from Southern Sudan’s capital, Juba, are that preparations are already well under way for festivities planned for July 9 to celebrate the independence of Africa’s newest nation. (Five months ago, the South overwhelmingly voted for a referendum to break away and form its own nation.) But those celebrations may be short-lived thanks to recent…
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Interview: Alice Walker on the Mideast Conflict
Interview by Robert Zeliger Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker will join the flotilla of ships [this] week that will try to break Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip. She says the goal is to bring supplies and raise awareness of the situation there. Last May, during a similar attempt by activists, Israel raided six…
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French Quota Flap Is About More Than Soccer
Last month the French Football Federation buried a scandal over racial quotas with a light reprimand of the man who heads the national training program for soccer. The outcome was not a surprise: The FFF investigated itself after a website leaked a discussion about limiting black and Arab youngsters to 30 percent of the slots…
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Blacks and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Blacks in the United States have a complicated history with the Middle East. We identify with the Jewish Old Testament history. Think how many times we’ve crossed the Jordan River or told Moses to tell Pharoah to let our people go. In Moses’ time, Egyptians — Africans — held Jews in captivity. In the mid-20th-century…
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An African American in Ireland
Watching Barack Obama enjoying a pint on Monday at that pub in Moneygall, Ireland — the town of at least some of his forebears — during his visit to that country and the U.K., I couldn’t help recalling my own biracial encounters with Ireland. Not surprisingly, the president was given a warm reception. I, too,…
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Young Africans Who Want to Be Porn Stars
I have been dreaming of becoming a porn actor since a very young age. I live in the Ivory Coast and I am looking for a producer or a director to sign a contract and to be in a movie … I am relying on you to make my dream come true. This is the…
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Is Nigeria Heading Toward a Second Civil War?
The signs are ominous, and strangely familiar: communal warfare raging in the politically volatile Muslim Northern regions, with supporters of the ruling party stabbed, hacked or shot; churches, mosques and homes burned; and hundreds believed dead and tens of thousands more displaced. That’s the scene so far in parts of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation,…
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Black Canadian Like Me
My friends and I attended a Jill Scott concert in Toronto a few years back. We were very excited. Her music was like an oasis of craft in a desert landscape of mediocrity. As Jill belted out those notes, we sang along and swayed. She led into her wicked tune “It’s Love” by inviting the…
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Lessons From Qaddafi's Last Defeat
The spirited assortment of mostly inexperienced fighters who make up the Libyan resistance have a lot to learn before they can defeat the regime in Tripoli. Even with all the Western training they’re getting, they’ve yet to become anywhere near a credible fighting force. What they could use are a few lessons from their African…
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France's Irrational Ban on Muslim Veils
I’ve never been one to participate in the American sport of French bashing. But after the French ban on the wearing of face-covering veils in public began last week, I’m ready to start ordering “freedom fries” at the drive-through. Referring to traditional Muslim coverings worn by some women — which range from the nijab or…