Sign in Subscribe

Topic

Commentary

A collection of 38 issues

Aravind Eye Hospitals

Dr. G. Venkataswamy is a force of nature. He has performed more than 100,000 successful eye surgeries in spite of the fact that his fingers were severely crippled at a young age from a rare form of rheumatoid arthritis. More impressively, he has helped create a chain of eye

Basic math evades journalists

“It is estimated that 70 million Indians in a population of about 1 billion now earn a salary of $18,000 a year, a figure that is set to rise to 140 million by 2011.” BBC Reports Chaste, who has previously contributed to the site, weighs in on the ‘facts’

Why Not to Think Like a Lawyer

The following article is by Chaste. The article was written as a response to the following two reviews in the New York Review of Books: * Three Questions for America * The Right to Ridicule Note I respond to two articles by Ronald Dworkin to illustrate the pitfalls of using lawyerly thinking

Movie Review: Independent Intervention

General Tommy Franks described the media as the “fourth front” in his (Iraq) war plan, according to Danny Schechter, an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. What he meant by that was that winning the “media war” is an important part of winning the war in Iraq. Three years down the

What is so Foreign About Foreign Aid?

A khaki-clad Western aid worker is helping unload a truck in a sun-baked dusty barren place surrounded by black (sometimes brown) faces. It could be a scene from any of the countless news clips from the equally countless number of crises that continue to rain down upon obscure parts of

Strategic perspectives on dealing with a nuclear North Korea and Iran

The following commentary is Chaste and can be seen as a follow-up to my article on the topic. “I agree with most of your points. And I do understand the strategic value of combating naivete with naivete. After all, there is no strategic value in calling your opponent out on

Why does North Korea want nukes?

The testing of a nuclear device by North Korea has drawn the ire of US, South Korea, and Japan, among others. Countless penny-a-quote pundits have come forth with their opinions as to why North Korea developed nuclear weapons, with most “analysis” limited to understanding North Korea’s development of nukes

The Misspelled Universe

How many times have you typed something in Google to be asked “Did you mean: ….” Next time you reach this page, stay a little longer and take a look at the pages that Google did find. This is your gateway to the parallel universe of misspelled words. Well let me