September 2013

“The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands, bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
Franklin D Roosevelt, 22 May 1932
It’s five years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, on 15 September 2008. Since then, the legitimacy of capitalism as a way of organising society has been undermined; its promises of prosperity, social mobility and democracy (...)

Many countries have signed international conventions guaranteeing democracy and human rights, but there is — as yet — no authority to ensure those commitments are honoured and no sanctions for those who dishonour them.

The world, especially the US, has reacted pragmatically to the July coup, its repressive aftermath and Mubarak’s release from prison. They want to protect the interests of nations other than Egypt, peace with Israel, military agreements and the suppression of Al-Qaida.

Genuine liberalism that allies neither with the Islamists nor the army and its regimes is a minority position in Egypt, and a friendless one.

Egypt mourned the death this year of one of its first ballet dancers, Abdel Moneim Kamel, whose artistic life was the extraordinary by-product of Soviet cultural alliances in the Middle East.

The response of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to this summer’s protest movement in Turkey made clear his worsening authoritarianism. Yet his AKP party was founded on inclusivity and pragmatic compromise.

The euro will fail, and the Eurozone’s member states will revert to national currencies. That may be the only way to create, a new euro with a proper future, on a different foundation.

Four former eastern bloc countries have not only not given up on nuclear power: they are expanding their generating capacity to become more energy independent, in the hope of exporting electricity to Germany.

The state-sponsored education systems of 19th-century Europe created the initial demand for school textbooks and over time they grew into a steady publishing business. Now, with globalisation, that business is facing stiff competition.

Maths textbooks for francophone Africa are also a primer of gender relations — not as they are, but as the authors think they should be.

There is a difference between what is set out in a history textbook and what is taught in the classroom, where teachers may synthesise their lessons from many sources.

For years the governments of Peru, and the municipality of Lima, had a working deal with rural migrants who flocked to the city: we’ll plan the place, you build it, amenities will arrive. Then came the cheap neoliberal substitute of granting land titles — and the speculation began.

One very fashionable mode of dress and behaviour for educated young women in Saudi Arabia is to ignore all prescribed female norms and adopt short hair, loose shirts and trainers.