The notion of purity and pollution underpins personal habits, social mores, public health challenges and India’s resilient caste system. This is the last of a three-part series.  This final piece of a three-part series examines the Indian psyche and how it effects society and everyday lives. It...

Japan is set up for a stint in the international spotlight, hosting the G20 summit at the end of June and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It will be a busy few years for Japan, which hosts the G20 summit on June 28-29 followed by the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. The international attention sparks questions...

The politics of Idlib are extremely complicated, particularly with respect to outside powers that have vested interests in the outcome of the fight for the province. The delicate balance of power in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib appears unsustainable and, to say the least, it is...

The World Bank Group’s Mahmoud Mohieldin believes innovative financing and partnerships are needed to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Countries that have invested in human capital, infrastructure and decent systems of social protection have made more progress than others in...

Michael Jackson, who died on June 25, 2009, has become one the most castigated figures in recent history. What if he’d lived to see it? What if, on June 24, 2009, the paramedics had arrived at Michael Jackson’s home in Los Angeles at 12:24pm — two minutes earlier than they actually did when...

A parent in Tennessee discovers that her daughter’s introduction to the Civil War includes asking to think like a slaveholder. Everyone knows that the most prominent founders of United States — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison — were slaveowners. Americans also know that...

In this edition of The Interview, Fair Observer talks to Dr. Tsedale Melaku, a critical race and gender scholar at the City University of New York.  The United States thrives on being a multicultural and diverse society that guarantees individual freedoms and rights to all its citizens. However,...

Attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman are an effort to signal to the rest of the world that no one is beyond Iran’s reach. There is a tendency in Western policymaking circles to view the consequences of Iran’s actions as being confined to the Middle East. Recent attacks on oil tankers in...