…About What Makes “Them” — and “Us” — Tick
I was watching The Long Way Down the other night: it’s a documentary about a road trip that the actor Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman take via motorcycle from London to Cape Town. At one point, they reach Rwanda and are gobsmacked by the horrors displayed at the Genocide Museum. When they ask a Rwandan why he thinks the world ignored that genocide for so long, the man gently and wearily answered, “There was a lot going on at the time. The World Cup was happening in the United States. The day before the genocide started, Kurt Cubain died…Most people couldn’t find Rwanda on the map.”
I’m determined not to be one of “those” people. This book helps with that goal:
The Geopolitics of Emotion: How Cultures of Fear, Humiliation and Hope are Reshaping the World
Dominique Moïsi is a leading authority on international affairs, and I find this to be an enlightening and original look at the puzzle pieces of our post-9/11 world.
To give you a taste at some of the provocative and, I think, intriguing ideas he puts forth, Mr. Moïsi contends that “both the U.S. and Europe have been dominated by fears of the ‘other’ and of their loss of a national identity and purpose. Instead of being united by their fars, the twin pillars of the West are more often divided…by bitter debates over how best to confront or transcend them.
“For Muslims and Arabs, the combination of historical grievances, exclusion from the economic boon of globalization, and civil and religious conflicts extending from their homelands to the Muslim diaspora has created a culture of humiliation that is quickly devolving into a culture of hatred.
“Meanwhile, Asia has been able to concentrate on building a better future and seizing the economic initiative from the America-dominated west- and so creating a new culture of hope.”
A worthy and edifying read or listen
Here it is on Audible: I LOVE AUDIBLE!
…About Science and One Woman’s “Immortal Cells”
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
Compelling and fascinating and brilliant…as will you be after reading this unforgettable book.
The basic facts:
You have Henrietta Lacks — 31. Black. Mother of five. Victim of cervical cancer in 1951.
Without her or her family’s knowledge, her doctors took tissues from her cervix and ended up spawning “immortal cells” that created the first productive cell line. That HeLa cell line have been used, over that past 60 years, in medical discoveries ranging from vaccines and treatments for everything from polio to HIV. Bioethics and intellectual property and class and race might not seem to be the stuff of page turners, but trust me: this book will keep you up all night if you let it.
Science journalist Rebecca Skloot is my new hero.
