world

By now, we’re used to seeing foreign fingers in the African pot. For the latest act of this timeless drama, one need look no further than the Chinatown in Lagos, Nigeria. For years, a small community of Chinese workers ran restaurants or sold textiles in the city; today, however, a walled-off square is brimming with…

When I moved to Berlin eight years ago—in the wake of a rash of neo-Nazi attacks against foreigners of color—I wondered if people stared at me because they didn’t want me in their country. I suspected men who came on too fast were merely toying with a fetish. I thought the cold, standoffish manner from…

I sat there, day after day, week after week, listening to the ways and means of South African terror. How white security forces hacked, shot, burned, poisoned and blew up anti-apartheid activists. How they killed children and bombed churches and received congratulations from their superiors. How they battered Steve Biko to death and dismembered and…

The United States and Europe face a host of common economic and security challenges that are well-known and well-debated: The risk of future terrorist attacks, the effects of global warming, exorbitant gas and food prices and the global credit crunch are recognized as transnational threats for which transatlantic cooperation will be critical. A recent article…

Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir has just been indicted for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. It’s a nice gesture. Better 19 years late than never. Whether the warrant issued by the ICC will result in Bashir’s arrest and trial, however, is a dubious prospect. It will take more than…

Last year, Congress passed a measure calling for better gas mileage by the year 2020. Last week, the G-8 proposed reducing global gas emissions by the year 2050. I’m making some major announcements, too. I will be coming to work on time (starting in 2010). I will clean up my garage (by 2015). I will…

When we started talking about Haiti, my usually goofy and jocular college homeboy turned gloomy. Every word and every movement a brew of desperation and despair. When he lived in Haiti in the 1980s, everyone seemed to be poor but at least they had food, he told me. But times have changed and folks are…

You might be wondering what business I have recommending any kind of travel when a recession is looming. With fuel costs rising daily, even a weekend road trip is starting to look like a relic of summers past. Not to mention the fact that many airlines are beginning to tack checked baggage fees onto already…

Zimbabwe will hold a run-off election on June 27. Presidential contender Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, insists that he and his party have already won. But Robert Mugabe, the wily leader of the ruling ZANU-PF party refused to accept the results and in time—an unprecedented long time—the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission…

I’d had enough of the political horse race which seemed to consume every intelligent – and not so intelligent – conversation for months. So I left the country, hoping a week in France would rescue me from the unending palaver about the Democratic presidential campaign. It didn’t work. Seems the folks over there are just…