world
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In Defense of South Africa
JOHANNESBURG — The word “dysfunctional” as it relates to South Africa continued to stick in my craw several days after I was interviewed on a U.S. radio program. The lead-in to the interview mentioned South African “dysfunction” in the context of stories (and I think some opinions) about crime and corruption in the country. And…
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What Africa's Click Tongues Tell of Our Origins
A quirky article by Quentin Atkinson in Science magazine reinforces once again the news that would have surprised so many smart people not so very long ago: that humanity began in Africa. This time, it’s language that gives it away — specifically, those languages with the clicks in them. They’re called Khoi-San (or Khoisan) languages,…
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African Women and the 'Arab Spring'
Some 600 African women gathered under a white tent in Tangier, Morocco, earlier this month. They traveled from all over the continent to celebrate the 100th Annual International Women’s Day, but also to talk about governance and government. The meeting was the first forum of locally elected African women organized by the United Cities and…
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Qaddafi and Aristide: Dumped by a Fickle America
The United States plunged into its third Middle East conflict Saturday, launching missile strikes against Muammar Qaddafi’s armed forces in Libya even as our leaders denied that we were going to war. With the approval of the Arab League and the U.N. Security Council in hand, the U.S. took its first active step in what…
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Surviving Japan's Quake, Shaken But Unbroken
Nate Ingram, a choral director and vocal coach based in Japan, is happy to be alive. While practicing on his trumpet in his home this past Friday, the 60-year-old Philadelphia native felt the sharp jolts of the 9.0-magnitude undersea earthquake that struck just off the coast of northern Japan on March 11. The quake damaged…
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What Libya and Côte d'Ivoire Have in Common
Here’s the scene: An illegitimate leader thumbs his nose at the international community and sends his security forces and armed supporters into the streets to gun down mostly unarmed opponents, who are demonstrating on behalf of democratic rule. Tribal and regional fault lines give way. Allegations of widespread human rights abuses grow as tens of…
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Arguing About Race in South Africa
In South Africa, a raging debate is under way about race, an issue that has never stopped simmering since the black-led government came to power, but which is mostly unattended and sometimes reaches the boiling point and, like now, boils over (not unlike in America since the end of slavery). The ingredient that sparked it…
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Your Take: The Bridge Between Ghana and Black America
At the stroke of midnight on March 6, 1957, as the new day began, so, too, began a new nation. It was the moment at which the Union Jack was replaced with a flag of red, gold and green with a distinctive black star at is center. The British-ruled Gold Coast was now a self-ruled…
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Egypt's Nawal El Saadawi: 'We Will Not Let Egypt Burn'
Nawal El Saadawi — an Egyptian psychiatrist, scholar, novelist, feminist and activist — has been agitating for change in her home country for more than 50 years. An outspoken opponent of female genital mutilation, she was fired from her position as Egypt’s director of health education in 1972. When President Anwar Sadat threw her in…