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How to teach difficult topics in times of crisis
We are going through a crisis in Israel/ Palestine that could have global repercussions, if it is not contained, very soon. The scale, proportion and intensity of this “war” is unprecedented, with the situation on the ground changing day to day. These discussions (and similar ones) are likely to find their way into the class…
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More Charity and less Philanthropy?
Do we need more ‘Charity’ (unorganized, personal giving) and less of ‘philanthropy’ (organized, scientific philanthropy)? While scholarship in the last 25 years of so indicates that there is a growing trend towards philanthropy, we are witnessing new arguments that what we need is really more ‘charity’. Bureaucratized and ‘scientific’ ways of giving don’t really work.…
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Should the real ‘war’ be against lazy thinking and bad English?
As early as 1946, George Orwell argued that English language is facing a ‘decline’ of sorts. In his essay Politics and the English Language, Orwell pointed out that English writing in his age – and I would argue, even in our age – suffers from two main problems, i.e., staleness of imagery and lack of…
