If You Want To Know What Life Is Like For Dishwashers, Ask Them 

There is a popular genre of journalism I call “costume journalism.” Instead of pursuing a story mainly through the traditional forms of reporting — research and interviews — a reporter might instead put on the “costume” of the people they’re reporting on for a day to report on what the experience is like. Last year, …

Creative Teachers Help Teens Thrive, But We Keep Cutting Arts Classes Anyway

Funding for arts education is once again on the chopping block, but that doesn’t mean teachers have stopped encouraging students to develop their creativity. Some of the most expressive work produced this school year by the nation’s middle and high school students was recently recognized at the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards—the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition …

A botched coup and Turkey’s future in western institutions

James Stavridis, NATO supreme allied commander, testifying on Capitol Hill, 2013. Now retired, calls on Obama Administration in Foreign Policy magazine, to be 'nice to Erdogan'.Molly Riley/ Press Association. All rights reserved.Western interpretations of the botched coup in Turkey and its aftermath are varied. Nevertheless, if one draws a vector that represents the divergent arguments …

War, peace and the technological revolution

Discussing open source tecnology in Damascus on Arduino Day 2015. Flickr/Wikilogia. Some rights reserved.Conflict zones were once considered ‘information-scarce environments’. Wars effectively cut off large slices of territory and populations from the rest of the world. No longer. As vicious conflicts from Darfur and South Sudan to Syria amply show, new technologies have changed all …

The Case For Staying Calm About North Korea

The current flare-up over North Korea’s missile tests and Donald Trump’s belligerent response is frightening for many, but anyone worried that Pyongyang wants to start a war is – fortunately – mistaken. For all its fighting talk, missile tests, and mooted plans for an attack on the U.S.’s Pacific territory of Guam, North Korea is …

The war through Raqqa's eyes

Raqqa, Syria. [AP/Press Association Images] All rights reserved. This series of openDemocracy articles started very soon after 9/11. Its many hundreds of contributions since then have focused mainly on international security, with an emphasis on the 'war on terror', the Middle East and the numerous efforts by western states to maintain control. There have also …

A Record Number Of Out Gay Athletes Are Playing College Football This Year

Nervously standing on stage, microphone in hand, Xavier Colvin was about to share some life-changing news with his teammates. “I don’t want to disappoint my teammates or coaches or be looked at as different,” Colvin, a redshirt sophomore on Butler University’s football team, later explained to Outsports of what he was thinking in the moment. But he …

How This Chicago Organization Is Using Sports To Empower Young Girls

Growing up in Chicago, Lucy Mucino did well in school and played rugby at her high school, Rauner College Prep, but there was something missing. “I grew up in a not so well-rounded household,” Mucino says. And even school didn’t feel like the most positive environment. But that changed when her high school guidance counselor …

Two states in one homeland: solving the riddle of Resolution 2334

Jewellery created by PreciousWingsCom on Etsy The UN’s extraordinary resolution 2334 of December 23rd 2016 has confirmed the gaping hole between the consensus of the international community and the realities on the ground.  On the one hand, the resolution sanctifies the legal and international framework for future settlement as two states based on the 1967 borders. …