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COVID AND THE MYTHS OF EAST AND WEST

August 10, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on why there is no simple divide between “Eastern” and “Western” values, was my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 8 August 2021, under the headline “Can Covid death rates be reduced to a clash of values? It’s not so simple”. “The fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of ‘Asian values’.” “Asian culture’s emphasis on obedience to authority could play a role in explaining how successful public health measures have been in the region.” “The massive […]

Categories: International, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: asian values, china, communitarianism, confucianism, covid 19, east asia, east v west, eastern philosophy, individualism, japan, liberalism, olympics, south korea, taiwan, tokyo olympics, trust, western philosophy

POLICING THE NEW NORMAL

April 14, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on how the coronavirus pandemic may shape policing and surveillance in the post-pandemic world, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 12 April 2020, under the headline ‘Yes, expect more surveillance during a crisis, but beware it once the danger has passed’. ‘We will not at this stage be checking the items in baskets and trolleys to see whether it is a legitimate necessary item,’ Nick Adderley, chief constable of Northamptonshire, warned last week, ‘but if people […]

Categories: Justice & Liberties, Politics • Tags: china, coronavirus, data sharing, pandemic, police, privacyy, surveillance

CAN WE ESCAPE SURVEILLANCE CULTURE?

May 20, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the rise of surveillance culture was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the Brexit Party) It was published on 19 May 2019, under the headline ‘As surveillance culture grows, can we even hope to escape its reach?’ Sometimes, it is the very ordinariness of a scene that makes it terrifying. So it was with a clip from last week’s BBC documentary on facial recognition technology. It shows the Metropolitan police trialling a facial recognition […]

Categories: Britain, Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: cctv cameras, china, facial recognition, police, privacy, smart cities, surveillance, surveillance culture

THE POLITICS OF THE SPACE RACE

January 7, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the politics of the space race from Sputnik to Chang’e-4, was the main article in my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 6 January 2019, under the headline ‘Power politics always drives space conquest. China’s coup is no different’. Nasa had rejected it as too difficult and costly an undertaking. Last week, China declared ‘mission accomplished’ after landing a spacecraft, Chang’e-4, on the far side of the moon. It was a remarkable endeavour. As the […]

Categories: International, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics, Science & Technology • Tags: chang'e-4, china, cold war, john f kennedy, moon landing, nasa, soviet union, space exploration, space race, sputnik, usa, yuri gagarin

ON THE ETHICS OF CRISPR

November 30, 2018 by Kenan Malik

Last week, the Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced the birth of the first CRISPR baby (actually, twins). Two beautiful little Chinese girls, Lulu and Nana, came crying into the world as healthy as any other babies a few weeks ago’, He said in the first of five videos posted on to YouTube. He’s claim is as yet unverified, but if true, it would signal a landmark moment in human genome-editing. It has also been widely met with outrage and condemned […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics, Science & Technology • Tags: bioethics, biotechnology, china, chinese science, crispr, ethics, gene editing, genetics, genome editing, germline editing, he jiankui

A GLOBAL MIDDLE CLASS TIPPING POINT?

October 8, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on claims that half the world is now middle class, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the difference between engaging with public anxieties and following public opinion). It was published in the Observer, 7 October 2018, under the headline ‘As global poverty declines, we should beware the new class wars’. Half the world is now middle class. So ran the headlines reporting a Brookings Institution analysis of global poverty, according […]

Categories: Class, Politics • Tags: china, economic development, india, middle class, poverty, working class

THE FRAUD OF FOREIGN AID

September 3, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate about foreign aid, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the left on both sides of the Atlantic) It was published in the Observer, 2 September 2018, under the headline ‘As a system, foreign aid is a fraud and does nothing for inequality’. The five poorest countries in the world, measured by GDP per capita, are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Uganda, Tajikistan and Haiti. One might […]

Categories: Britain, International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: aid, british politics, china, development, european union, foreign aid, global poverty, global south, migration, poverty, usa

HISTORY, MORALITY AND THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS

April 19, 2015 by Kenan Malik

The Quest for a Moral Compass is now out in paperback. And, to accompany the new edition. I am publishing a number of extracts from the book. This extract, from Chapter 19, ‘Confucianism, Communism and the Clash of Civilizations’, sets out many of the themes of the book against the background of the changing balance of power between China and the West. You can buy The Quest for a Moral Compass in most bookshops, through Amazon or from my Pandaemonium bookstore. From […]

Categories: History of moral thought, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: china, chinese philosophy, clash of civilizations, confucianism, herder, history of moral thought, jiang qing, martin jacques, morality, romanticism, samuel huntington, universalism, west

A SNIPPET FROM THE QUEST: MO TZU, LOST IN HISTORY

September 14, 2014 by Kenan Malik

The North American edition of The Quest for a Moral Compass is published this week by Melville House. I am in New York and Toronto to talk about it. While I am away, I am publishing on Pandaemonium short extracts from the book. This first snippet on Monday was from Chapter 1, and discussed Aeschylus’ Oresteia. This second snippet is from Chapter 6 and explores the ideas of Mo Tzu, a Chinese philosopher lost in history but whose significance is […]

Categories: History, History of moral thought, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: china, chinese philosophy, confucianism, history of moral thought, mo tzu, mohism, universalism, utilitarianism

A BOOK IN PROGRESS [PART 21]: COMMUNISM & CONFUCIANISM

March 27, 2013 by Kenan Malik

This is the last extract from my book in progress on the history of moral thought. The book is now, in fact, no longer in progress, as I have completed it. This might be the final extract, but it is not from the final chapter, but the penultimate one, Chapter 19 (I have already run an extract from chapter 20). Chapter 19 explores moral debate in modern China, particularly after the fall of the dynastic system, and the creation, first […]

Categories: History of moral thought • Tags: china, chinese philosophy, communism, confucianism, democracy, equality, ethics, jiang qing, mao

A BOOK IN PROGRESS [PART 20]: TWO CHINESE PHILOSOPHERS, TWO HISTORICAL FATES

February 28, 2013 by Kenan Malik

This is the penultimate extract from my almost-finished book on the history of moral thought. This is from chapter 6 – another of the chapters I am publishing out of sync – which explores early Chinese philosophy. This extract is about two philosophers, one of whom is well known as China’s most famous thinker – Kongzi, or Confucius as he is known in the West – and the other who has been almost forgotten, even in China, but who should not be […]

Categories: History of moral thought • Tags: china, chinese philosophy, confucianism, equality, ethics, history of moral thought, kong zu, universalism, utilitarianism

ORIENTAL ENLIGHTENMENT

February 10, 2013 by Kenan Malik

A book that I wish I had read many years ago. JJ Clarke’s Oriental Enlightenment is a superb study of ‘The encounter between Asian and Western thought’, as the subtitle puts it. It is primarily a historical study of Western perceptions of Chinese and Indian cultures and philosophies. Any exploration of the role of ‘Eastern’ thought in the Western intellectual tradition necessarily lies in the shadow of Edward Said’s 1978 work Orientalism, which has effectively set the terms of the […]

Categories: History • Tags: china, edward said, history of ideas, india, modernity, orientalism