The secret history of black Santas
America's biggest shopping mall grabbed headlines this week by hiring its first African-American Father Christmas. But black Santas have been around for a lot longer than you might think - and even played a role in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.
"Everything that Santa represents has to be you. That's my honest belief. You can't have some grumpy old guy who doesn't love kids sitting there representing somebody who is joyful, somebody who is loving."
Japanese, Chinese military aircraft engage in latest tit-for-tat moves in airspace above Western Pacific
BY JESSE JOHNSON
STAFF WRITER
China and Japan have continued their recent tit-for-tat moves in the airspace above the Western Pacific, with aircraft from the two Asian giants on Saturday again engaging in an apparently tense encounter over the high seas between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island.
Fascism might be the word of the year. Read George Orwell on why it’s a slippery term.
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Every Saturday, we round up the best recent writing the web has to offer on books and related subjects. Here’s your link roundup for the week of December 4, 2016. Enjoy!
- Zadie Smith spoke in Berlin about multiculturalism just after the election last month, and now the New York Review of Books has the full text of her speech:
Oliver Stone: ‘We owe Edward Snowden a huge debt. He’s a hero for our time’
The reliably controversial American auteur spent 18 months talking to the CIA whistle-blower for his new film
You don’t need to keep rewinding – and the use of the iconic phrase “back and to the left” is entirely optional – to uncover a pleasingly classical trajectory in the films of Oliver Stone. Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July and JFK all pivot around idealistic men who become increasingly disillusioned with the machinations of the United States’ military, industrial or financial institutions.
To fight poverty, African governments try new-old solution: cash handouts
PATH TO PROGRESS
Most agree that simple cash transfers can help in the shorter-term. But the longer-term effects are uncertain because of a complex mix of factors.
MAKHOARANE, LESOTHO — Like much of Africa, Lesotho is cluttered with clues that the world cares about its plight.
Its sleepy capital, Maseru, is home to an alphabet soup of global do-gooders – FAO, CARE, UNICEF, HELP, SOS – and the roads that cut through its rural highlands are flanked by slouching signboards announcing a seemingly never-ending parade of aid projects: wells and micro-lenders, new school buildings and community clinics.
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