Make Sense of the world
Unique insight from 2,000+ contributors in 80+ Countries
As we once again remember Martin Luther King (MLK), we pause and reflect on what he would make of a world that appears to be retreating back to the isolationism and racism that was common in the time he lived. Cut short in his prime, King’s legacy must be discussed with “what if” scenarios....
You know how certain technologies can be dangerous together? Texting and cars. Cigarettes and filling stations. Blood thinners and surgery. It turns out that data science and neuroscience are like that. Those barely-overlapping disciplines each understand complementary things about human...
The specter of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate, standing before the UN’s highest legal body to defend Myanmar against charges of genocide is striking. Suu Kyi was once the revered face of international human rights, but she is now defending the most indefensible of crimes. But beyond...
The morning after the night before is always a difficult moment. In taking stock of what happened in Britain on December 12, a multitude of raw emotions and feelings rush around in the mind. The old adage that the opposition never wins elections, but it is the government that loses them, could...
The leaders of neo-Nazi and other white nationalist groups in the United States face a major problem, one having to do with their claims of white or Aryan racial superiority. What to do if the groups involved appeal primarily to white men — and some women — who, by most standards,...
In a recent interview with The Economist, French President Emmanuel Macron shocked fellow NATO allies by calling the organization “brain dead.” His words, described as “astonishingly candid,” received a harsh rebuke from Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as from Turkey’s...
The last time Iranians staged a revolution, they overthrew the oppressive Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who ruled his country from 1941 to 1979 with an iron fist. Pahlavi was a staunch US ally, but his reign left millions disgruntled due to unemployment, corruption, soaring inflation and...
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has changed. Gone are the days when it would use its lending powers to strong-arm countries into adopting a slate of “free market” reforms that put the interests of investors before those of the people — or so it claims. The IMF truly has progressed...
Students at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India, staged a protest lasting more than two weeks against the appointment of Dr. Firoz Khan as a faculty member at the Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vijnan (SVDV). At the crux of the matter is the fact that a Muslim scholar was appointed to...
In September, citizens of the former East German states of Brandenburg and Saxony headed to the polls to elect their new legislatures. The results were, on the one hand, a breath of fresh air for traditional parties, in particular the Social Democrats (SPD) who, following a series of disastrous...
Despite having a technocratic president in Cyril Ramaphosa, are the structural underpinnings of the economy so weak that South Africa’s future is endangered? Allied to weak economic foundations are the questions of corruption and extremely poor public administration. The mismanagement at both...
