President Obama’s Appeal to Memory – But Who Heard?

January 26, 2011

In all the comments I’ve read about President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address Monday, none referenced the bit he asked us to remember:

Is the World Set to Regress?

January 23, 2011

As Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao met in Washington last week, I found myself reflecting on what China has come to mean to the world.

There’s no denying that China’s rise has produced significant benefits within and outside China, in terms of industry, jobs and rising standards of living. China in that way has become synonymous with progress.

And yet that same nation unapologetically steals copyrighted material. It undervalues its currency. It dismisses concerns about human rights and the environment. It doesn’t “meddle” in other countries’ affairs to rationalize doing business with ruthless, destabilizing regimes.

Surely you’ve heard these concerns expressed elsewhere. But the point to consider here is what it collectively amounts to.

Christmas in Paradise

January 11, 2011

On a recent trip to the Pyramids, my tour guide interrupted his perfunctory regurgitation of obscure dates to emphasize, “Today, we are Muslim and Christian – but there is no tension. We are all Egyptian.”

I was en route to Malaysia, a country that made similar claims of oneness between Muslim and non-, but where, during my seven years there, I had witnessed a destructive swing toward a conservative, more intolerant strain of Islam. While part of the regression related to domestic history and politics, it was also being informed by a broader shift in outlook among Muslims since 9/11 – to feel under siege by non-Muslims and view life more narrowly through the prism of their faith.