In the aftermath of Islamic jihadis — the Boko Haram — enslaving Christian school girls in Nigeria, the Muslim intelligentsia, instead of doing some serious introspection, has chosen to exercise damage control. Columns by my co-religionists have appeared in newspapers ranging from the Toronto Star to The Independent in London and on CNN.com, where they Read more
Lulu Mitshabu tells us to close our eyes. ‘Imagine your brothers, sisters, your mothers, your nieces, your nephews, your children, everybody that makes you smile, the good time you’re having,’ she says. ‘Open your eyes. The time that you took closing your eyes and thinking of your people, imagine now everybody you thought of disappeared Read more
There’s something quite peculiar and absurd about being a Nigerian. It’s a country of—so to speak—unspecified data and dimensions. Nigeria is not simply plagued by inexactitude; it cultivates numerical and other forms of fuzziness. The other day, Ikhide Ikheloa, one of Nigeria’s most pugnacious gadflies, was waxing indignant on Facebook and Twitter. His grouse? Nigeria has Read more
An image of the Child Jesus stands in the midst of the rubble, leaning – naked and homeless – against a wall that is about to be torn down. Images of the Child Jesus, popularly known as the Santo Nino, have been dislodged from their altars as the shanties of slum dwellers in five villages Read more
“Egali-what?” Even as New Zealand’s income gaps have yawned open in recent decades, public concern about that inequality has fallen. Egalitarianism used to be one of New Zealand’s touchstones, a term that conveyed a kind of pride in being a country with relatively small income gaps. Even among the politically active, the word has little Read more
Do you recall The Great Jubilee Year 2000? For a few years before the turn of the century, almost every statement by a bishop or other church leader or organization contained some paean to the jubilee. The pope had called for it, and so all sorts of people either sincerely or for show acted as Read more
New Zealand minister of Justice, Judith Collins is hailing the success of restorative justice conferences as a way to bring down crime rates. She says it’s clear restorative justice conferences are a useful tool in keeping offenders from going on to commit other crimes. “It’s estimated from the 1569 meetings held in 2011 and 2012, Read more
First impressions aren’t always accurate. But in my first days here I have been struck by the extent of trauma people have experienced – and real worries that the violence that has rocked South Sudan since mid-December may not be over. The capital of Juba is calm, but it is only “outwardly” so, one of Read more
In a meeting room under Holy Name Cathedral, a rapt group of black Roman Catholics listened as Barack Obama, a 25-year-old community organiser, trained them to lobby their fellow delegates to a national congress in Washington on issues like empowering lay leaders and attracting more believers. “He so quickly got us,” said Andrew Lyke, a Read more
At our school we have a motto; ‘Opere Et Veritate’ or ‘In word and in deed.’ It calls on us as students to put our words into actions, a concept that seems simple but often is not undertaken. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, or Pope Francis as we know him, has been dubbed by not only the Read more