FROM Seattle to Sydney, protesters have taken to the streets. Whether they are inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York or by the indignados in Madrid, they burn with dissatisfaction about the state of the economy, about the unfair way that the poor are paying for the sins of rich bankers,…
Nine girls and young women reportedly committed suicide over a 10-day period this month in Batman Province, Turkey. Women’s rights activists believe some victims may have been murdered. After more than ten years, Batman, a province in the eastern part of Turkey, and its eponymous capital city, have been known for a particularly…
A human migration that started more than a month A table made of bits and pieces, an old notebook, green crumbling walls: this is where Luul Mohamed, the 46-year-old head of the pediatrics department at Banadir Hospital in Mogadishu examines a hundred children every day. Sheesam comes in with her mother. She…
TWEETER AGAIN AI WEI, a prominent Chinese artist and critic of the government, has begun to probe the limits of the strict conditions that set by the authorities upon his release from custody seven weeks ago. First it was a toe dipped back into online social-networking, a medium he had…
The Vladimir Putin era sometimes calls to mind Nicolai Gogol, a master of absurdist and biting social critiques of Czarist Russia. In the latest chapter, the prosecutor’s office in Moscow recently announced the reopening of a tax evasion case against Sergei Magnitsky, who has been dead for two years. A week earlier the…
The Real Reason Behind The Turkish Generals’ Mass Resignation Op-Ed: Turkey’s top military brass resigned en masse, setting off speculation of why, and what will happen next. But the origins of the move can be traced to the military’s many attempts to discredit the ruling party of Prime Minister Erdogan.
Castro Opponents Cast Off Differences In New Push For Democracy In Cuba Efforts by the government to reorganize the island’s economy have sparked renewed opposition demands for serious democratic reforms. Willing for now to overlook their own differences, dissidents have joined forces under a new declaration More than a half…
Decadent’ Russian Art, Still Under the Boot’s Shadow By ELLEN BARRY Published: March 7 th, Story reprinted from NYT MOSCOW — Later this week moviegoers in New York will learn the strange story of Igor V. Savitsky, an obsessive collector credited with saving tens of thousands of avant-garde artworks from Soviet authorities who forced artists…
The John Next Door The men who buy sex are your neighbors and colleagues. A new study reveals how the burgeoning demand for porn and prostitutes is warping personal relationships and endangering women and girls. Paul Popper / Popperfoto-Getty Image Men of all ages, races, religions, and backgrounds do it. Rich men do it,…
Sila Sahin is current poster child of naked dissent Germany’s ongoing struggle with integration, usually carried out with grim zeal and intellectual debates, experienced a surprisingly sensual turn last week. The appearance of Turkish-German actress Sila Sahin’s attractive, naked body in the May issue of Playboy magazine shows how young women with immigrant backgrounds can…