The latest (somewhat random) collection of essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Xenophobia turns migrants into scapegoatsJan Bornman, New Frame, 23 September 2020 In recent months, as South Africa has been dealing with the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been growing calls for migrants to be deported and for the government to take action against crimes allegedly committed by people born outside […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest (somewhat random) collection of essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . ‘The biggest monster’ is spreading. And it’s not the coronavirus.Apoorva Mandavilli, New York Times, 3 August 2020 Until this year, TB and its deadly allies, H.I.V. and malaria, were on the run. The toll from each disease over the previous decade was at its nadir in 2018, the last year for which data […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest (somewhat random) collection of essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . The triumph of American idealismAlex Hochuli, Damage, 17 June 2020 What has motivated people from Sweden to New Zealand to take to the streets, for non-Americans to express solidarity with an American cause? We are all horrified to see police brutality and think racism is bad, of course, but that hardly suffices as […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest (somewhat random) collection of essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . China forces birth control on Uighurs to suppress populationAssociated Press, 29 June 2020 The Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uighurs and other minorities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population, even as it encourages some of the country’s Han majority to have more […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest (somewhat random) collection of essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Shouting into the institutional voidGeorge Packer, The Atlantic, 5 June 2020 The urban unrest of the mid-to-late 1960s was more intense than the days and nights of protest since George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis policeman. More people died then, more buildings were gutted, more businesses were ransacked. But those years had […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest (somewhat random) collection of essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. .   The urgency of critique New Frame, 21 May 2020 In South Africa there is, to our collective shame, a long list of unarmed people who have been killed by the police in the post-apartheid era. People have been killed during protests, as well as during various forms of armed state action such […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest (somewhat random) collection of essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Why we fail to prepare for disasters Tim Harford, Financial Times, 16 April 2020 You can’t say that nobody saw it coming. For years, people had warned that New Orleans was vulnerable. The Houston Chronicle reported that 250,000 people would be stranded if a major hurricane struck, with the low-lying city left 20ft […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest (somewhat random) collection of essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Social distancing is a privilege Rama Ayyub, Foreign Policy, 28 March 2020 Ghanshyam Lal, a migrant laborer who works in a Mumbai tannery, has been feeding a family of eight on his daily wage of $3 a day. He told me he didn’t care about the virus as much as he did about […]

Categories: Pandaemonium