Salon (March 6)
“Someday, not all that far in the future, sea level rise is going to drown our coastal cities. And it’s not only our homes and livelihoods that are at risk, but also our culture.” Of 720 UNESCO World Heritage sites, a new study asserts 136, including the Statue of Liberty and Sydney’s famed Opera House, might be left underwater. Other losses will likely extend to Venice, the Tower of London, the leaning tower of Pisa, Westminster Abbey and central Bruges, Naples, Riga and St. Petersburg.
Tags: Bruges, Culture, Naples, Opera House, Pisa, Riga, Risk, Sea level, St. Petersburg, Statue of Liberty, Sydney, Tower of London, Unesco, Venice, Westminster Abbey, World Heritage sites
Wall Street Journal (August 21)
The senseless killing of an Australian exchange student by 3 Oklahoma teenagers should leave Americans wondering just how to fix “a culture that produces teenagers for whom the prospect of shooting an innocent man in the back on a Friday evening apparently raised not a scintilla of conscience.”
Tags: Australia, Conscience, Culture, Exchange student, Innocent, Killing, Oklahoma, Senseless, Shooting, Teenagers
Time (July 1)
“Japan’s upper house gave final approval on June 12 for a $500 million, 20-year fund to promote Japanese culture overseas. Called Cool Japan, the multidisciplinary campaign is designed to plug everything from anime and manga to Japanese movies, design, fashion, food and tourism…. It’s unfortunate that the name of a campaign to showcase creative originality strongly echoes Cool Britannia, the pop-cultural flowering that took place in the U.K. in the 1990s.”
Tags: Cool Britannia, Cool Japan, Creativity, Culture, Design, Fashion, Food, Japan, Movies, Tourism, U.K.
Forbes (April 23, 2013)
Is growth the root of problems like global warming? No, growth is a panacea that “must not be sold short. Growth is not just morally defensible; it is a moral imperative for achieving lasting human flourishing.” Of course, there have been cases of reckless growth. Overall, however, “hard data documents its positive impact on the things that ultimately matter: education, environmental care, physical health, political freedom, and healthy culture. Failure to realize the transformative power of growth would be a failure of our moral imaginations.”
Tags: Culture, Education, Environment, Freedom, Global warming, Growth, Health
