Abortion, Turkey, Lynch Poetry, Holocaust, Doping
Nobody Helps The Rohingya
Richard Cooke | The Monthly | 3rd August 2015
A visit to Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. "There’s a strange feeling in the room. An unusual aspect of being subjected to a 21st-century genocide-in-progress is that there are templates, blueprints, precedents. They know the fate of the Bosnian Muslims, of the Vietnamese boat people, of the Tutsis. They know this will take a long time, that their fate is uncertain. There is patience, and much more humour than I anticipated" (7,100 words)
We Do Abortions Here
Sallie Tisdale | Harper's | 7th August 2015
Excerpt from a longer article behind Harper's paywall; but so powerful is the writing and the subject that an excerpt may suffice. "In abortion the absolute must always be tempered by the contextual, because both are real, both valid; both hard. How can we do this? How can we refuse? Each abortion is a measure of our failure to protect, to nourish our own. Each basin I empty is a promise—but a promise broken a long time ago" (640 words)
Being Black In Turkey — You Should Have Warned Us
Mosa Nkoko | The Land Beyond | 3rd August 2015
"I am sitting here thinking of how I should introduce this topic to you because I have a lot to say. First of all let me start by saying, hi! My name is Mosa and I am a black African; you already knew that didn’t you? I find it very hard to believe that in this era black people continue to cause a great stare amongst other races. Look! I am not about to pull a race card on you, No! I am not about that life" (1,500 words)
The Literature Of Lynching
Hollis Robbins | Chronicle Of Higher Education | 10th August 2015
Richard Wright’s poem, Between The World And Me, is an astonishing piece of writing from which Ta-Nehisi Coates draws the title of his new book about race in America. But you will not find Wright's poem in any mainstream anthology of modern American poetry. American poetry is segregated by race and by category, and Between The World And Me crosses both lines: it is by an African-American writer, and it is about a lynching (2,470 words)
Shoah: The Failure Of The West
Water Laqueur | Tablet | 10th August 2015
At what point and by what means did the Allies receive the first authentic information that Nazi Germany had embarked upon the industrialised killing of all European Jews? Why was there so little response? Historian Walter Laqueur, whose book The Terrible Secret, has been the standard work for 30 years, returns with some further questions. "Specific issues have been clarified, others, on the contrary, are now less clear than before" (4,750 words)
The Case For Doping In Sport
Clive Cookson | Financial Times | 10th August 2015 | | Read with 1Pass
Science will provide new opportunities for enhancement from genetic engineering to bionic implants. Many biological molecules have barely been exploited in sport; for instance footballers could be given oxytocin, the “bonding hormone”, to intensify co-operative spirit. Instead of fighting a demoralising battle in pursuit of an impossible drug-free ideal, regulators would do better to relax doping rules and enjoy the spectacle (600 words)
Video of the day: White God
What to expect: Film trailer. Recommended for the dog uprising which begins at 1'22" (2'33")
Thought for the day
An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out
Will Rogers