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Yearly Archives: 2012
December 31, 2012
ESSAY
How To Save the Planet and Help the Poor in 2013
At this time of year thought naturally turns to New Year’s resolutions, and there’s one that the team at Via Meadia is thinking hard about making. Resolve to do something this year that will help poor people in rural areas … Continue reading
ESSAY
This is What a Real Fiscal Cliff Looks Like
Income taxes are going up by a third in Portugal on January 1. The FT reports: “A fiscal earthquake”, “armed robbery”, “tax napalm”. Descriptions of the income tax increases facing Portuguese families from January 1 make the fiscal cliff looming … Continue reading
ESSAY
BRICs: Fear of Capitalism Still Holds Them Back
For the BRICs, 2012 is ending on a sober note. Taken as a group, stocks in the once red hot markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China are trailing global equity averages. Currently, India is running scared and moving towards … Continue reading
ESSAY
Peak OPEC?
By all appearances, 2012 was a very good year for OPEC. The cartel’s net oil revenue rose to one trillion dollars this year, with average Brent oil barrel prices the highest they’ve ever been. In real terms, OPEC made more … Continue reading
ESSAY
The Battle for Al-Azhar, the Institution at the Heart of Moderate Islam
Depending on who you ask, al-Azhar University in Cairo is the oldest or second oldest educational institution still operating today. It has a unique status throughout the Sunni world as the most reputable and respected school of Islamic jurisprudence and … Continue reading
ESSAY
Argentina Gets Some Help from US Attorney General
Argentina’s embattled Libertad gunship has been freed from its three-month imprisonment in a Ghanian port, but the lawsuits from angry American creditors continue. Fortunately for its wounded national pride, Argentina has a new ally in its U.S. court battles: the … Continue reading
ESSAY
One in Six Philly Public Schools To Close
Facing dismal student performance, collapsing enrollment due to competition from charters, and a crumbling infrastructure, the Philadelphia school district has proposed to shutter about one out of six schools and plow the money saved back into its existing schools: The … Continue reading
ESSAY
Top Chinese Scholars Call For Democratic Reform
As Xi Jinping prepares to succeed President Hu Jintao, a group of 73 Chinese intellectuals has released an open letter on the internet warning that the failure to enact political reform could lead to widespread social unrest: “If reforms to … Continue reading
ESSAY
Yule Blog 2012-13: Meaning in 3-D
Now it gets tough. Yesterday’s post looked at what divides Christians and other theists from atheists; today we cut deeper and look at what separates Christians from believers in other religions.
And the truth is that nothing separates Christianity from other religions like Christmas. That little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying so cutely in the manger is the biggest trouble maker in world history, and the shocking claims that Christianity makes about who he is and what he means irritate and antagonize people all over the world.
December 30, 2012
ESSAY
A Millenial Church Emerges
Last week we discussed the challenges facing established churches and seminaries attempting to adjust to the changing landscape of the 21st century and finding that many established practices simply don’t work anymore. A new piece in the New York Times … Continue reading
ESSAY
Week in Review
Another Christmas has come and gone, and as we always do this time of year, we are revising, updating and running our 13-part “Yule Blog” in daily installments between Christmas Eve and January 6. Catch up on the first six … Continue reading
ESSAY
There’s a New Bhutto in Town
Since his mother’s assassination in 2007, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has been chairman of Pakistan People’s Party, and heir apparent to a prominent place in the country’s dynastic politics. This past week the 24 year old Oxford graduate made his first major … Continue reading
ESSAY
As Assad Quakes on His Throne, Is Iran Ready to Deal?
Iranian authorities have realized that their longtime ally in Syria is on the way out and have held talks with members of the opposition about a transitional regime, reports the Los Angeles Times. From the piece (with excellent reporting from Ramin Mostaghim and Alexandra Sandels) it appears that the government is still not willing to break with Assad, but is increasingly and reluctantly coming to conclude that efforts to save him are doomed. Continue reading
ESSAY
Visit Your Parents: It’s the Law
While Russia is goes after orphans, China moves in the opposite direction, passing new laws to protect the elderly from neglect by their children. A new law passed Friday requires adult children to pay regular visits to their elderly parents—or … Continue reading
ESSAY
Yule Blog 2012-2013: Personal Meaning
Yesterday I posted an essay about how theists and atheists are the not all that different from each other; we are almost all transcendentalists in the sense that almost all of us find some kind of moral, ethical and even spiritual meaning in life. Life, we feel, amounts to more than eating and scratching our various itches, and whether or not we believe in God, we want to do something real with our lives. We have one itch that mere scratching won’t fix, and that is the itch to understand what life is all about and live meaningfully by the measures that really count.
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