Social Europe: Migration Cannot Be Cast In Terms Of Individual Rights

Well, first of all, I’m very glad that the German government is indeed now giving very serious attention to African economic development. I think that’s the right thing to do and now is a good time to do it because Africa faces rather challenging economic circumstances and so it’s important that we do what we can to help. I think it’s unfortunate that it’s cast as a strategy to prevent migration. I’ve been working for 40 years on trying to help Africa to catch up with the rest of the world and I think that’s a vital first order matter. [...]

So brain drain is not a myth in that context. 

Yes, that’s right. And in fact it’s not just a matter of Africa; it’s also true of the poorer countries in Europe. There was a study by the IMF just last month which concluded that emigration from Eastern Europe had delayed catch-up. But, of course, the people themselves benefit and the host countries benefit. But there are many people left behind and the solution cannot be that a whole country empties. Obviously, that is not an appropriate or a feasible solution. And so policies have to be driven primarily by the idea of what helps the people who stay in the country to catch up as fast as possible. [...]

It’s still there in a placid piece of Eurocentrism. In 1967 it was declared to be a global convention. It isn’t a global convention, it never has been and it never will be. Most refugees are in ten haven countries, none of the governments of those ten countries were signatories to the convention. So it’s irrelevant. Modern refugees are overwhelmingly not persecuted individuals, they are groups fleeing disordered state breakdown, famine, that sort of thing.

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The Washington Post: In Poland, a window on what happens when populists come to power

In the land of Law and Justice, anti-intellectualism is king. Polish scientists are aghast at proposed curriculum changes in a new education bill that would downplay evolution theory and climate change and add hours for “patriotic” history lessons. In a Facebook chat, a top equal rights official mused that Polish hotels should not be forced to provide service to black or gay customers. After the official stepped down for unrelated reasons, his successor rejected an international convention to combat violence against women because it appeared to argue against traditional gender roles. [...]

Yet nothing has shocked liberals more than this: After a year in power, Law and Justice is still by far the most popular political party in Poland. It rides atop opinion polls at roughly 36 percent — more than double the popularity of the ousted Civic Platform party. [...]

Trump is promising a tax code rework that could trigger a bonanza of cash rebates for Americans. In Poland, Law and Justice put cash in pockets in other ways, but always while merging social conservatism and nationalism with populist economics. The new government doled out money to families with children. They also slashed Poland’s retirement age — to as young as 60 for women and 65 for men.

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4Liberty: Does Poland Need the Left Wing?

The leaders of the left have no recipe for neither themselves, nor their parties. It seems that they have no clue who to address, what people consistute their target audience – whereas in order to create a viable political option, defining and gathering the core, loyal electorate are indispensible. And although it is not only a problem typical of only Polish parties, in our country it is manifested in a particularly radical form: the lack of any left-wing representation in the Parliament. In many places in “the West” we witness the weakening of socio-democratic and socialist parties and a significant increase in power of right-wing populists, who start to better (at least rhetorically) address the needs of the previously socialist electorate. [...]

Now, the main line dividing the society goes between those who desire openness, tolerance, cooperation, trade and those who wish to be separated from others by a fence and who seek safety in tradition and nation, while at the same time deeming trade as a threat. This divide starts to be more visible geaographically: the residents of big cities versus the inhabitants of the provinces. Meanwhile, the left – especially in Poland – positioned itself across this divide, in turn losing the popularity among both groups.

After the “moral revolution” in 1968, the left more actively used and still uses liberal slogans of the sexual revolution – the revolution which now reflects the prevailing way of thinking of the big-city middle class, but which in Poland is to a great extent foreign to the excluded groups or the inhabitants of provinces, who still remain very conservative. At the same time, the leaders of the new Polish left (Barbara Nowacka of the United Left party or Adrian Zandberg of the Together party), due to their cultural and social background, education, or simply their language and behavior, address their political offer to middle class and are credible in their eyes – this, however, does not work for the working-class electorate or the province’s electorate.

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Independent: After 72 years, historians have a new theory about Anne Frank

For decades, Anne's father, Otto, tried to figure out who tipped off the Nazis — a question historians have debated for 72 years.

Now, the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam has put forth a new theory: It was a coincidence.

For decades, the common theory has been that Anne Frank's family was betrayed, possibly by a new employee at her father's business or a conspirator's wife, unsympathetic to the plight of the eight Jews.

But according to a research paper published this month by the Anne Frank House, “this explicit focus on betrayal, however, limits the perspective of the arrest. … [O]ther scenarios tend to be overshadowed.”

Previous theories were based on Otto Frank's suspicions, which centered on Willem van Maaren, a new employee who hadn't been let in on the secret about the hiding place.

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BBC4 Thinking Allowed: Men and Violence - Stag Parties

Men, Masculinities and Violence. Laurie Taylor talks to Anthony Ellis, lecturer in Criminology and Sociology at the University of Salford, about his ethnographic study conducted with men involved in serious crime and violence over the course of two years in the North of England. How do some men come to value physical violence as a resource? Historian Joanna Bourke joins the discussion. Also, stag parties and consumerism. Daniel Briggs, Professor in Criminology at the Universidad Europea de Madrid, unpicks the commercial and emotional motivations of men taking part in stag 'dos'. Is such stereotypical excessive and deviant behaviour ultimately rooted in commercial ideology?

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