Make Sense of the world
Unique insight from 2,000+ contributors in 80+ Countries
You can understand Meghan Markle’s frustration. There she is, half of one of the most illustrious, acclaimed and renowned couples on the planet. Practically every time she switches on the TV, she’s reminded of what could be. “All that money, publicity and influence — and what do they...
Björn Höcke is public enemy number one in present-day Germany. At least that’s what German media suggest. Höcke is a leading exponent of the “völkisch” wing of Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country’s radical right-wing populist party. And Höcke is a fascist....
My Kenyan friends have long asked me to write on their country. After much hesitation, I am penning my impressions. At the outset, readers must know that I am no expert on Kenya. So, they must take everything I write with a fistful if not a pinch of salt. The most striking impression I have of...
A poem arrives like a hand in the dark. Who knows where inspiration comes from, and where it goes. I submit that even artists don’t — at least not yours truly. After something of a dry patch, where I began to refer to myself as an “ex-writer,” I find that I'm writing poetry, again:...
There is no doubt that great strides have been made since Tarana Burke started the original “me too” campaign over 10 years ago — a movement that gained momentum after Alyssa Milano’s 2017 tweet using the hashtag went viral. As a result, the number of rapes and sexual assaults reported to...
Last night, the caregiver who comes to help my 98-year-old mother take a shower and get ready for bed arrived looking a little shocked. She’d just been angrily rejected by another patient, an elderly man who had complained, “You’re not even white.” He was white; she is African Caribbean...
Kabir Singh is a drunkard. He’s also an angry lover. And a sociopath. Kabir Singh is the archetypal abusive man: He falls head over heels for a woman at first sight, pursues her until she gives in, wards off other suitors by threatening them, and slaps her when he is angry. What does the...
Meena (name changed), a 26-year-old woman from Pune, India, has been receiving assistance from the Family Planning Association. One day, she rushed to the clinic in tears, desperately hoping for some help. Meena continued to cry as the counselor screened her for signs of domestic violence. She...
Ulises Ali Mejias, co-author of “The Costs of Connection: How Data is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism,” has penned an article in which he draws our attention to a seemingly invisible fact when he claims that “there is a new form of colonialism emerging in the world:...
In Adam Shankman’s film, “What Men Want,” Taraji P. Henson’s character solicits a compliment from a man. “My ass doesn’t look good in this skirt?” she asks rhetorically. The man replies, “In the current cultural climate it feels inappropriate for me to comment on your body.”...
Journalist Priyanka Dubey, in her book "No Nation For Women — Reporting on Rape From India, The World's Largest Democracy," boldly remarked that "rape is the only crime in India for which the victim is blamed." The statement makes absolute sense in the light of India’s social context, where a...
