Moulay Ismail University of Meknes

School of Arts and Humanities

Department of English
English Studies
Semester II

Readings in Culture

Academic Year: 2020 – 2021

Contents:

1- What is Culture Page 1

2- What is culture and why does it matter? Page 3

3- Cultures within a Society Page 4

4- Culture and language Page 6

5- What can we Learn from other Food Cultures Page 7

6- We Owe Arabs Nothing Page 11

7- Whose Baby Will it Be? Page 13

8- Big Brother at the Mall Page 15

9- Globalization Page 17

10- I took my Kids off line Page 19

11- Social Media Friendship Page 20

12- Overcoming a Bad First Impression Page 21

13- Grandma Knows Best Page 22

14- You don’t Like me Eating with my Fingers Page 24

15-Endangered Languages Page 25

16- The new Arab Woman Page 27

17- Revenge of the Vertically Advantaged Page 30

18- Genes and Empathy Page 31

19- Prison for Abortion Page 33

20- Speaking Up About Rape Page 34

 What is Culture? Definition of Culture

Culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by

everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. Today, in
the United States as in other countries populated largely by immigrants, the culture is
influenced by the many groups of people that now make up the country.

Western culture

The term Western culture has come to define the culture of European
countries as well as those such as the United States that have been heavily
influenced by European immigration. Western culture has its roots in the Classical
Period of the Greco-Roman era and the rise of Christianity in the 14th century.

Other drivers of the Western culture include Latin, Celtic, Germanic and
Hellenic ethnic and linguistic groups. Today, the influences of Western culture can be
seen in almost every country in the world.

Eastern culture

Eastern culture generally refers to the societal norms of countries in Far East
Asia (includingChina, Japan, Vietnam, North Korea and South Korea) and
the Indian subcontinent. Like the West, Eastern culture was heavily influenced by
religion during its early development. In general, in Eastern culture there is less of a
distinction between secular society and religious philosophy than there is in the West.

Latin culture

Many of the Spanish-speaking nations are considered part of the Latin culture,
while the geographic region is widespread. Latin America is typically defined as those
parts of the Central America, South America and Mexico where Spanish or
Portuguese are the dominant languages. While Spain and Portugal are on the
European continent, they are considered the key influencers of what is known as
Latin culture, which denotes people using languages derived from Latin, also known
as Romance languages.

Middle Eastern culture

The countries of the Middle East have some but not all things in common,
including a strong belief in Islam and religion is a very strong pillar of this society. The
Arabic language is also common throughout the region; however, the wide variety of
dialect can sometimes make communication difficult.
African culture

The continent of Africa is essential two cultures — North Africa and Sub-
Saharan Africa. The continent is comprised of a number of tribes, ethnic and social
groups. One of the key features of this culture is the large number of ethnic groups —
some countries can have 20 or more — and the diversity of their beliefs

Northwest Africa in particular has strong ties to European and Southwestern

Asia. The area also has a heavy Islamic influence and is a major player in the Arab
world.

The harsh environment has been a large factor in the development of Sub-
Saharan Africa culture, as there are a number of languages, cuisines, art and
musical styles that have sprung up among the far-flung populations.
 What is Culture and Why Does it Matter?
Culture is our way of life. It includes our values, beliefs, customs, languages
and traditions.  Culture is reflected in our history, in our heritage and in how we
express ideas and creativity.
Our culture measures our quality of life, our vitality and the health of our
society.  Through our culture we develop a sense of belonging, personal and
cognitive growth and the ability to empathize and relate to each other. Direct benefits
of a strong and vibrant culture include health and wellness, self esteem, skills
development, social capital and economic return.
New Brunswick’s cultural policy renewal will address how culture is fostered,
strengthened, recorded and preserved, and how our culture is expressed and re-
interpreted.  It will touch on how we experience culture in our lives, the role of the arts
in creating a vibrant cultural community, our natural, human and built heritage, and
the role of culture as an economic driver.

Culture in our Everyday Lives

Whether you attend a free concert in the park, visit a museum, attend a school
play or sing in a choir, culture is present in many aspects of our daily lives.  Culture is
a key part of wellness and learning, and can play a role in healing and social
development.

The Arts

Artists and arts organizations are central to the creation of works of art,
cultural events and festivals, products and industries. Authors, theatre companies,
dancers, musicians, film makers, businesses or teachers, artists and arts
organizations are at the heart of many of the cultural creations that we enjoy.

Our Collective Heritage

Our historic and contemporary buildings, museums, monuments, libraries,

burial sites and sacred places, archaeology, artifacts and archives are all critical
aspects in our culture and our heritage. Our living heritage – our traditions, customs
and practices – along with our natural heritage, add to the legacy of our ancestors
that are part of the identity and cultural life that we share.

Culture and the Economy

Creative industries and enterprises are extremely significant aspects of our

provincial and national economy.  Wealth is generated by cultural workers, small
businesses, sole proprietors, non-profit organizations, media and marketing
companies, and cultural tourism industries.  The creative economy relies on skilled
cultural workers to create new ideas, enterprises and industries. It also helps attract
new immigrants and helps retain our present citizens.
 Cultures within a society
Large societies often have subcultures, or groups of people with distinct sets
of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are
a part. The subculture may be distinctive because of the age of its members, or by
their race, ethnicity, class, or gender. The qualities that determine a subculture as
distinct may be aesthetic, religious, occupational, political, sexual, or a combination
of these factors.

In dealing with immigrant groups and their cultures, there are various
approaches:

 Leitkultur (core culture): A model developed in Germany by Bassam Tibi. The

idea is that minorities can have an identity of their own, but they should at
least support the core concepts of the culture on which the society is based.
 Melting Pot: In the United States, the traditional view has been one of a
melting pot where all the immigrant cultures are mixed and amalgamated
without state intervention.
 Monoculturalism: In some European states, culture is very closely linked to
nationalism, thus government policy is to assimilate immigrants, although
recent increases in migration have led many European states to experiment
with forms of multiculturalism.
 Multiculturalism: A policy that immigrants and others should preserve their
cultures with the different cultures interacting peacefully within one nation.

The way nation states treat immigrant cultures rarely falls neatly into one or
another of the above approaches. The degree of difference with the host culture (i.e.,
"foreignness"), the number of immigrants, attitudes of the resident population, the
type of government policies that are enacted, and the effectiveness of those policies
all make it difficult to generalize about the effects. Similarly with other subcultures
within a society, attitudes of the mainstream population and communications
between various cultural groups play a major role in determining outcomes. The
study of cultures within a society is complex and research must take into account a
myriad of variables.

Cultures by region
Regional cultures of the world occur both by nation and ethnic group and more
broadly, by larger regional variations. Similarities in culture often occur in
geographically nearby peoples. Many regional cultures have been influenced by
contact with others, such as by colonization, trade, migration, mass media, and
religion. Culture is dynamic and changes over time. In doing so, cultures absorb
external influences and adjust to changing environments and technologies. Thus,
culture is dependent on communication. Local cultures change rapidly with new
communications and transportation technologies that allow for greater movement of
people and ideas between cultures.
Belief systems
The main entrance to the Angkor Wat temple proper, seen from the eastern
end of the Naga causeway. Founded in the 12th century, the temple appears today
on the flag of Cambodia.

Religion and other belief systems are often integral to a culture. Religion, from
the Latin religare, meaning "to bind fast", is a feature of cultures throughout human
history. The Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion defines religion in the following
way:

... an institution with a recognized body of communicants who gather together

regularly for worship, and accept a set of doctrines offering some means of relating
the individual to what is taken to be the ultimate nature of reality.

Religion often codifies behavior, such as with the Ten Commandments of

Christianity or the five precepts of Buddhism. Sometimes it is involved with
government, as in a theocracy. It also influences arts.

Western culture spread from Europe most strongly to Australia, Canada, and
the United States. It is influenced by ancient Greece, ancient Rome and Christianity.
Western culture tends to be more individualistic than non-Western cultures. It also
sees man, god, and nature or the universe more separately than non-Western
cultures. It is marked by economic wealth, literacy, and technological advancement,
although these traits are not exclusive to it.
 Culture and Language
Common culture and common language facilitate trade between people.
Minorities have incentives to become assimilated and to learn the majority
language so that they have a larger pool of potential trading partners. The value
of assimilation is larger to someone from a small minority than to one from a large
minority group. When a society has a very large majority of individuals from one
culture, individuals from minority groups will be assimilated more quickly.
Assimilation is less likely when an immigrant's native culture and language is
broadly represented in his new country. Also, when governments protect minority
interests directly, incentives to be assimilated into the majority culture are
reduced. Both factors may explain the recent rise in multiculturalism. Individuals
do not properly internalize the social value of assimilation and ignore the benefits
others receive when they learn the majority language and become assimilated. In
a pluralistic society, a government policy that encourages diverse cultural
immigration over concentrated immigration is likely to increase the welfare of the
population. In the absence of strong offsetting effects, policies which encourage
multi-culturalism reduce the amount of trade and have adverse welfare
consequences. Conversely, policies that subsidize assimilation and the
acquisition of majority language skills can be socially beneficial. The theory is
tested and confirmed by examining U.S. Census data, which reveals that the
likelihood that an immigrant will learn English is inversely related to the proportion
of the local population that speaks his or her native language.
 What can we learn from other food cultures?
Food feeds the soul. To the extent that we all eat food, and we all have souls, food is
the single great unifier across cultures. But what feeds your soul?

For me, a first-generation Korean-American, comfort food is a plate of Kimchi,

white rice, and fried Spam. Such preferences are personally meaningful — and also
culturally meaningful. Our comfort foods map who are, where we come from, and
what happened to us along the way. Notes Jennifer 8. Lee (TED Talk: Jennifer 8. Lee
looks for General Tso), “what you want to cook and eat is an accumulation, a function
of your experiences — the people you’ve dated, what you’ve learned, where you’ve
gone. There may be inbound elements from other cultures, but you’ll always eat
things that mean something to you.”

Jennifer Berg, director of graduate food studies at New York University, notes
that food is particularly important when you become part of a diaspora, separated
from your mother culture. “It’s the last vestige of culture that people shed,” says Berg.
“There’s some aspects of maternal culture that you’ll lose right away. First is how you
dress, because if you want to blend in or be part of a larger mainstream culture the
things that are the most visible are the ones that you let go. With food, it’s something
you’re engaging in hopefully three times a day, and so there are more opportunities
to connect to memory and family and place. It’s the hardest to give up.”

Food as identity
The “melting pot” in American cuisine is a myth, not terribly unlike the idea of a
melting pot of American culture, notes chef Dan Barber (TED Talk: How I fell in love
with a fish). “Most cultures don’t think about their cuisine in such monolithic terms,”
he says. “French, Mexican, Chinese, and Italian cuisines each comprise dozens of
distinct regional foods. And I think “American” cuisine is moving in the same direction,
becoming more localized, not globalized.”

American cuisine is shaped by the natural wealth of the country. Having never
faced agricultural hardship, Americans had the luxury of not relying on rotating crops,
such as the Japanese, whose food culture now showcases buckwheat alongside
rice, or

the Indians, or the French and Italians, who feature lentils and beans alongside
wheat. “That kind of negotiation with the land forced people to incorporate those
crops in to the culture,” says Barber. And so eating soba noodles becomes part of
what it means to be Japanese and eating beans becomes part of what it means to be
French.

So if what we eat is what we are, what are Americans? Well, meat. “If
Americans have any unifying food identity, I would say we are a (mostly white) meat
culture,” says Barber. “The protein-centric dinner plate, whether you’re talking about
a boneless chicken breast, or a 16-ounce steak, as an everyday expectation is
something that America really created, and now exports to the rest of the world.”
 Every single culture and religion uses food as part of their celebrations, says
Ellen Gustafson, co-founder of the FEED Project and The 30 Project, which aims to
tackle both hunger and obesity issues globally. (Watch her TED Talk: Obesity +
hunger = 1 global food issue.) “The celebratory nature of food is universal. Every
season, every harvest, and every holiday has its own food, and this is true in America
as well. It helps define us.”

Food as survival
Sometimes food means survival. While the Chinese cooks who exported
“Chinese” food around the world ate authentic cooking at home, the dishes they
served, thus creating new cuisines entirely, were based on economic necessity.
Chinese food in America, for example, is Darwinian, says Lee. It was a way for
Chinese cooks to survive in America and earn a living. It started with the invention of
chop suey in the late 1800s, followed by fortune cookies around the time of World
War II, and the pervasive General Tso’s Chicken, in the 1970s. Waves of more
authentic Chinese food followed, as Hunan and Sichuan cooking came to the U.S. by
way of Taiwan.

In Chinese cities, meanwhile, only grandparents are cooking and eating the
way that people from outside of China might imagine “Chinese” food. The older
generation still would shop every day in the wet market, bargain for tomatoes, then
go home that night and cook traditional dishes, says Crystyl Mo, a food writer based
in Shanghai. But most people born after the Cultural Revolution don’t know how to
cook. “That generation was focused purely on studying, and their parents never
taught them how to cook,” says Mo. “So they’re very educated, but they’re eating
takeout or going back to their parents’ homes for meals.”

Food as status
Those slightly younger people have been the beneficiaries of the restaurant
culture exploding in Shanghai. The city is home to 23 million people, and has more
than 100,000 restaurants, up from less than ten thousand a decade ago. Now, you
can find food from all of the provinces of China in Shanghai, as well as every kind of
global food style imaginable.

The introduction of global foods and brands has compounded food as a status
symbol for middle-class Chinese. “Food as status has always been a huge thing in
China,” says Mo. “Being able to afford to eat seafood or abalone or shark’s-fin or
bird’s-nest soup, or being able to show respect to a VIP by serving them the finest
yellow rice wine, is part of our history. Now it’s been modernized by having different
Western foods represent status. It could be a Starbucks coffee, or Godiva
chocolates, or a Voss water bottle. It’s a way of showing your sophistication and
worldliness.”
 Eating is done family style, with shared dishes, and eating is the major social
activity for friends and families. Eating, exchanging food, taking photos of food,
uploading photos of food, looking at other people’s photos of food — this is all a way
that food brings people together in an urban center. Even waiting in line is part of the
event. People may scoff at the idea of waiting two hours in line to eat in a trendy
restaurant, says Mo, but waiting in line for a restaurant with your friends is an
extension of your experience eating with them.

Food as pleasure
“Food in France is still primarily about pleasure,” says Mark Singer, technical
director of cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. “Cooking and eating are both past time
and pleasure.” The French might start their day with bread, butter, jam, and perhaps
something hot to drink — “There’s no way that it would expand to eggs and bacon,”
says Singer — but it’s a time of the day when the whole family can be united. Singer,
who was born in Philadelphia, has lived in France for more than 40 years. (He
doesn’t eat breakfast.)

How a country savors a food is also telling. In Italy, as in France, takeout is still
relatively rare. “Eating fast is not at all part of our culture,” says Marco Bolasco,
editorial director of Slow Food and an Italian food expert. Our meals are relaxed,
even during lunch break.”

Food in Italy is love, then nutrition, then history, then pleasure, he says. An
Italian child’s first experience with food is not buns or rice or eggs, but probably ice
cream, notes Bolasco. Status and wealth play less of a role in food than say, in
China.

Food as community
In Arab cultures, community is key to the food culture. The daily iftar that
breaks the fast during Ramadan, for example, features platters of traditional fare
such as tharid and h’riss that are shared by all who are sitting down to break the fast,
eating with their hand from the same dishes. Families and institutions will host private
iftars, of course, but mosques, schools, markets and other community organizations
will also offer large iftar meals, and all are open to the public and shared. This family
style of eating is not dissimilar to the dishes on a Chinese dinner table, where one
does not eat a single portioned and plated dish, but is expected to eat from shared,
communal platters.

Food as humanity
Perhaps cuisine, though, isn’t so much about progress as it is about restraint.
“One of the great things about cuisine is that it the best way to hold back our worst
kind of hedonism,” says Barber. “There is no landscape in the world that sustainably
allows us to eat how we think we want to.” In another sense, says Barber, food is the
physical manifestation of our relationship with the natural world. It is where culture
and ecology intersect. It can become even more important than language, and even
geography, when it comes to culture.
 “Your first relationship as a human being is about food,” says Richard Wilk,
anthropology professor at the University of Indiana and head of its food studies
program. “The first social experience we have is being put to the breast or bottle. The
social act of eating, is part of how we become human, as much as speaking and
taking care of ourselves. Learning to eat is learning to become human.”
 W e Owe Arabs Nothing
Arabs are “suicide bombers, limb-amputators, women repressors”

We are told by some of the more hysterical critics of the war on terror that “it is
destroying the Arab World”. So? Should we be worried about that? Shouldn’t the
destruction of the despotic, barbarous and corrupt Arab states and their replacement
by democratic governments be a war aim?

After all, the Arab countries are not exactly shining examples of civilisation, are
they? Few of them make much contribution to the welfare of the rest of the world.
Indeed, apart from oil-which was discovered, is produced and is paid for by the West-
what do they contribute?

Can you think of anything? Anything really useful? Anything really valuable?
Something we really need, could not do without? No, nor can I. Indeed, the Arab
countries put together export less than Finland.

We are told that the Arabs loathe us. Really? For liberating the Iraqis? For
subsidizing the lifestyles of people in Egypt and Jordan, to name but two, for giving
them vast amounts of aid? For providing them with science, medicine, technology
and the other benefits of the west? They should go down on their knees and thank
God for the munificence of the United States.

What do they think we feel about them? That we adore them for the way they
murdered more than 3,000 civilians on September 11 and then danced in the hot,
dusty streets to celebrate the murders?

That we admire them for the cold-blooded killings in Mombasa, Yemen and
elsewhere? That we admire them for being suicide bombers, limb-amputators,
women repressors? I don’t think the Arab states should start a debate about what is
really loathsome.

But why, in any case, should we be concerned that they feel angry about and
loathe us? The Arab world has not exactly earned our respect, has it? Iran is a vile,
terrorist supporting regime – part of the axis of evil. So is the Saddam Hussein –
supporting Syria. So is Libya. Indeed, most of them chant support for Saddam. That
is to say they support an evil dictator who has gassed hundreds of thousands of their
fellow Arabs and tortured and murdered thousands more. How can they do this and
expect our respect?

Why do they imagine that only they can feel anger, call people loathsome? It
is the equivalent of all the European nations coming out in support of Hitler the
moment he was attacked by the US, because he was European, despite the fact that
he was attempting to exterminate the Jews – and Arabs. Moreover, the people who
claim we are loathsome are currently threatening our civilian populations with
chemical and biological weapons. They are promising to let suicide bombers loose in
Western and American cities. They are trying to terrorise us, disrupt our lives. And
then they expect us to be careful of their sensibilities?
 We have thousands of asylum seekers from Iran, Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, Libya,
Yemen, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries living happily in this country on social
security. This shows what their own people think of the Arab regimes, doesn’t it?
There is not one single British asylum seeker in any Arab country. This says it all
about which country deserves the epithet loathsome.
NB: The writer of this article is Robert KILROY SILK, honorary member of The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a racist, secret political
organization whose members must be protestant white men born in the United State

Whose Baby will it be

 Four years ago surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead ignited a national
debate in the United States when she sued to regain custody of her daughter. Since
then, 10 states have passed laws governing surrogacy contracts like Whitehead’s, in
which birthmothers are artificially inseminated with the father’s sperm. But the issue
of surrogate motherhood is far from settled. Last week a suit filed by a pregnant
California woman raised troubling questions about the uses of even more
sophisticated reproductive techniques. For the first time, a judge will have to decide
whether a birthmother can keep a child that is not genetically hers, but rather the
product of another couple’s sperm and egg.

In January, Anna Johnson, a 29-year –old vocational nurse and single mother
from Orange County, agreed to bear a child for Mark and Crispina Calvert for a total
fee of $10,000. An embryo created through the in vitro fertilization of an egg from the
Calverts was implanted in Johnson’s uterus. Crispina Calvert has previously
undergone a hysterectomy and could not bear children herself. Under the terms of
their surrogacy contract, the Calverts were to pay Johnson $150 monthly and $2.000
every trimester. Johnson claims the relationship soured in June, when she went into
false labor and the Calverts refused to drive her to the hospital. She also claims their
monthly payments were late. Now she wants to keep the child. Mark Calvert, 34, an
insurance underwriter, and his wife, a 36-year-old nurse, deny Johnson’s claims and
say the woman is just trying to exploit them financially and emotionally. They contend
that they have not only upheld the contract but have gone beyond it, making two
$2,000 payments at least a month ahead of schedule.

Surrogate arrangements are still relatively rare. In the past decade, there have
been an estimated 2,000 such births. The vast majority were so-called traditional
surrogacies, like the new Jersey case in which Mary Beth Whitehead was artificially
inseminated with the sperm from the natural father, William Stern. In that suit, the
birthmother was granted visitation rights and the New Jersey Supreme Court
held that commercial surrogacy contracts are illegal because they constitute baby
selling; however, the ruling was based on New Jersey law and applies only to that
state. The Johnson case represents an even more unusual arrangement:
gestational surrogacy, where a fetus conceived in a test tube is implanted into the
surrogate mother’s uterus. Experts in surrogate motherhood estimate that there have
been between 50 and 80 such births in the United States, although the technology
has been available for five years.

California has no law governing either gestational or traditional surrogacy,

although several such measures have been introduced in the state legislature in
recent years. The civil code defines the mother as the woman giving birth. Beyond
the legal issues experts in reproductive medicine have reservations about gestational
surrogacy.

In a recent ethical position paper, the American Fertility Society says that there is no
research on the long-term psychological effects. The society considered a “clinical
experiment”. At this point, it is a social and legal experiment as well. Two months
from now, when the Johnson-Calvert baby is born, it will be a judge who decides
which mother will take the child home.

Big Brother at the Mall

Retailers go high tech in the war on shoplifters

The next time you look at a mannequin, she might just be looking back at you.
Jerry Gutierrez, a Denver, Colorado, mannequin repairman, plans to market a new
security device called Anne Droid to department stores across the United States.
With a video camera in her eye and a microphone up her nose, this high-tech Mata
Hari can catch shoplifters in the act-on video tape. “In most cases you never know
she is looking at you,” says Gutierrez, who will install a complete system in any
figurine for $1,150. “There’s only one specification: she has to have eyeballs.”

If this sounds a bit Orwellian, it is. Fed up with losing as much as $35 million
dollars a day to sticky-fingered customers and dishonest employees, retailers are
adopting electronic surveillance techniques worthy of Big Brother. FBI statistics show
that shoplifting is the nation’s fastest growing crime, up 33 percent in the last four
years. Companies spend more each year to stop it -some $200 million in 1987, up
almost 1 percent from the previous year, according to a recent survey conducted by
Arthur Young & Co. The new devices are designed to combine greater efficiency with
unobtrusiveness. “Retailers are walking a fine line,” says retail-theft consultant Peter
Berlin. “They do what they have to do to prevent theft, but they try to do it without
offending customers.”

Some products give retailers eyes and ears around their stores. Sensormatic
Electronics Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Florida, produces a close-circuit surveillance
system that allows store managers to watch cashiers on one side of a split screen
and cash-register receipts on the other. Some stores hide cameras behind smoked-
glass ceiling domes. A number of upscale chains like Marshall Field’s in Chicago
station store detectives in hollow eight-foot columns with two-way mirrors known as
Trojan Horses. At least a dozen major retailers broadcast barely audible
subliminal messages over store audio systems. The sounds range from police sirens
and clanging jail-cell doors to muffled mantras like “Stealing is dishonest.”

Other stores prefer sophisticated versions of the old plastic clothes bar. Rich’s
department store in Atlanta recently outfitted its pricey men’s suits with Sensormatic’s
new Tell Tag -a device embedded with a lithium battery-powered microchip. It beeps
whenever someone tampers with it or tries to walk out of the store with a tagged
garment; Says Rich’s vice president for security Timothy Allen: “when people walk
through the gate at once, you know the guilty one right away. He’s the one with the
beeping bag.” B. Dalton, the nationwide bookseller, relies on Chameleon, a hair thin
micro-magnetic thread made by Knogo Corp. that can be hidden on a price label or
bar-code sticker. Color Tag, Inc., sells a

tag with a dye-filled capsule that erupts when it is removed incorrectly, leaving a
nasty stain on the item and the culprit. The firm claims its product helped Eaton’s, a
Toronto-based retailer, reduce losses by 75 percent in some departments.
 While it can help, going high tech isn’t the only effective way to thwart
shoplifters. Three years ago the Marshall Field’s chain in Chicago removed plastic
tags from 70 percent of its merchandise. At the same time, it set up a comprehensive
program to train employees how to stop shoplifters-and started holding managers
accountable for losses. The store even offered $500 rewards for tips leading to
pilfering employees. Stealing dropped by 33 percent. “You can’t solve the retail-theft
problem by putting people into jail,” says Lewis Shealy, Marshall Field’s vice
president for loss prevention. “But you can prevent theft by making employees aware
of the problem and holding them accountable.” In the end, a watchful salesman may
still be the best security device of all.

Globalization
 Covering a wide range of distinct political, economic, and cultural trends, the
term “globalization” has quickly become one of the most fashionable buzzwords of
contemporary political and academic debate. In popular discourse, globalization often
functions as little more than a synonym for one or more of the following phenomena:
the pursuit of classical liberal (or “free market”) policies in the world economy
(“economic liberalization”), the growing dominance of western (or even American)
forms of political, economic, and cultural life (“westernization” or “Americanization”),
the proliferation of new information technologies (the “Internet Revolution”), as well
as the notion that humanity stands at the threshold of realizing one single unified
community in which major sources of social conflict have vanished (“global
integration”). Fortunately, recent social theory has formulated a more precise concept
of globalization than those typically offered by pundits. Although sharp differences
continue to separate participants in the ongoing debate, most contemporary social
theorists endorse the view that globalization refers to fundamental changes in the
spatial and temporal contours of social existence, according to which the significance
of space or territory undergoes shifts in the face of a no less dramatic acceleration in
the temporal structure of crucial forms of human activity. Geographical distance is
typically measured in time. As the time necessary to connect distinct geographical
locations is reduced, distance or space undergoes compression or “annihilation.” The
human experience of space is intimately connected to the temporal structure of those
activities by means of which we experience space. Changes in the temporality of
human activity inevitably generate altered experiences of space or territory. Theorists
of globalization disagree about the precise sources of recent shifts in the spatial and
temporal contours of human life. Nonetheless, they generally agree that alterations in
humanity’s experiences of space and time are working to undermine the importance
of local and even national boundaries in many arenas of human endeavor. Since
globalization contains far-reaching implications for virtually every facet of human life,
it necessarily suggests the need to rethink key questions of normative political theory.

1. Globalization in the History of Ideas

The term globalization has only become commonplace in the last two
decades, and academic commentators who employed the term as late as the 1970s
accurately recognized the novelty of doing so (Modelski, 1972). At least since the
advent of industrial capitalism, however, intellectual discourse has been replete with
allusions to phenomena strikingly akin to those that have garnered the attention of
recent theorists of globalization. Nineteenth and twentieth-century philosophy,
literature, and social commentary include numerous references to an inchoate yet
widely shared awareness that experiences of distance and space are inevitably
transformed by the emergence of high-speed forms of transportation (for example,
rail and air travel) and communication
(the telegraph or telephone) that dramatically heighten possibilities for human
interaction across existing geographical and political divides (Harvey, 1989; Kern,
1983). Long before the introduction of the term globalization into recent popular and
scholarly debate, the appearance of novel high-speed forms of social activity
generated extensive commentary about the compression of space.

Writing in 1839, an English journalist commented on the implications of rail

travel by anxiously postulating that as distance was “annihilated, the surface of our
country would, as it were, shrivel in size until it became not much bigger than one
immense city” (Harvey, 1996: 242). A few years later, Heinrich Heine, the émigré
German-Jewish poet, captured this same experience when he noted: “space is killed
by the railways. I feel as if the mountains and forests of all countries were advancing
on Paris. Even now, I can smell the German linden trees; the North Sea's breakers
are rolling against my door” (Schivelbusch, 1978: 34). Another German émigré, the
socialist theorist Karl Marx, in 1848 formulated the first theoretical explanation of the
sense of territorial compression that so fascinated his contemporaries. In Marx's
account, the imperatives of capitalist production inevitably drove the bourgeoisie to
“nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, and establish connections everywhere.” The
juggernaut of industrial capitalism constituted the most basic source of technologies
resulting in the annihilation of space, helping to pave the way for “intercourse in every
direction, universal interdependence of nations,” in contrast to a narrow-minded
provincialism that had plagued humanity for untold eons (Marx, 1979 [1848]: 476).
Despite their ills as instruments of capitalist exploitation, new technologies that
increased possibilities for human interaction across borders ultimately represented a
progressive force in history. They provided the necessary infrastructure for a
cosmopolitan future socialist civilization, while simultaneously functioning in the
present as indispensable organizational tools for a working class destined to
undertake a revolution no less oblivious to traditional territorial divisions than the
system of capitalist exploitation it hoped to dismantle.
 I took my kids off line
Susan Maushart was fed up. All she saw of her 15-year-old son, Bill, was the
back of his head as he played video games. Her elder daughter, Anni, 18, had
become overly reliant on social networking sites, and 14-year-old Sussy seemed
physically attached to her laptop, often staying logged on the internet through the
night.

"My concern", she says, "was that we had ceased to function as a family. We
were just a collection of individuals who were very connected outwards - to friends,
business, school, and sources of entertainment and information. But we simply
weren't connecting with one another in real space and time in any sort of authentic
way."

Having decided to take action, Maushart came up with a plan. She initiated an
"experiment in living" and banned all technology at home for six months. Her kids
really didn't believe her at first. But once they realized their mother was serious, they
adapted well to an off line world.

Anni, Bill, and Sussy confronted boredom - something that they were
previously unfamiliar with because of their endless access to online entertainment.
They found out that it made them resourceful. Indeed, their mother thinks boredom is
fundamentally important in terms of creativity: "if nothing's wrong, you're never
motivated to change, to move out of that comfort zone."

Maushart had high expectations for her experiment: "I hope that it would
transform our lives -that we would become a close family, read more, sit around the
table to eat and play more music...that we would feel closer to one another." To her
delight, many of these expectations were met.

During their half-year of technological deprivation, the family did eat together
more regularly. They talked more. They played board games. They went on outings
to the cinema and restaurants. Anni started studying in the university library. Bill
rediscovered his saxophone and got into reading novels. Sussy, as the youngest and
most technologically literate, struggled more, but eventually succumbed.

The family hasn't remained app-free, but there have been permanent changes.
Because they'd come to understand how it was interfering with their social life, her
older two teenagers have both taken holidays from Facebook. Bill sold his game
console to buy a new saxophone, and Anni still prefers to study in the library, in a
social-networking free zone.

Maushart's children have all expressed a willingness to go offline again. It is

something she too would love to do. "I'd look forward to a technology vacation," she
says, "just like I look forward to going on a yoga retreat. I see it as an intermittent
thing that straightens your head out, not a way of life.
 How Social Media
Translate into Real Friendship
When social media first gained attention, I heard many people say online
connections couldn't possibly be real friends. Some even feared people might trade
face-to-face interaction for a virtual life online. But now the majority of people I know
consider at least some of their online friends to be like extended family. Which made
me wonder -does social media actually encourage people to connect "in real life"?

One example of online life translating into real-life interaction happens on

Mashable's Social Media Day, when thousands of people attend in-person meet-ups
to celebrate the power of online connections. Another example is location-based
apps that help users connect face-to-face by allowing them to see who else has
checked in at the same store, restaurant, or party - or even who is living in a city they
plan to visit. They might then decide to seek each other out "in real life."

A Pew Internet and American Life Project report found that people using
social networking sites have more close relationships and receive more support than
others. They are also more likely to reconnect with old friends and use social
networking to keep up with those they are already close to.

Other research shows that social media may also deepen what could
otherwise be passing relationships. A study by Dr. Rey Junco found that college
students who interacted with each other and their professors on Twitter were more
likely to meet outside class to study. They also developed unexpected real-life
connections and were also more likely to ask questions in class.

"What I find most fascinating is that I've consistently seen that students who
start a course being more introverted and not speaking up during class discussions
become more extraverted and participate more when encouraged to communicate
through social media with their professors and their classmates," Junco said.

However, if social media does increase the likelihood of real-life interaction, it

can also sometimes complicate it. When fans of social media meet face-to-face, their
computers and mobile devices may actually make the meeting less productive.
Instead of looking at each other, they may be glued to their screens!
 Overcoming a Bad First Impression
Have any of these situations happened to you? Forgetting someone's name
after you've just met, spilling coffee on your potential boss during an interview, or
unintentionally insulting a co-worker on your first day? Ouch! You never have a
second chance to make a first impression, so what happens when that first
impression is a negative one? Here is how you can recover.

Apologize immediately. As soon as you realize that you may have offended
someone, address it. The more time that passes, the more the story can become
blown out of proportion. While first impressions stick, so do last impressions. Take
control of the situation by making your last impression a positive one.

Avoid over-apologizing. Saying you're sorry is important, but overdoing it

can create another uncomfortable situation. Your goal is to acknowledge your
mistake and reposition yourself as being responsible and sensitive. If you repeatedly
bring up the past, grovelling and begging for forgiveness, you're defeating your
purpose. It puts the other person in the uncomfortable position of having constantly to
reassure you.

Make no assumption. It's easy to assume that others think the worst of you,
but usually what we imagine is far worse than reality. So, don't start out with, "You
must think I'm an idiot." say something like, "I'm uncomfortable with how I behaved
yesterday because I realized I might have offended you. Did you feel the same way?
The other person may think it was no big deal.

Be sincere. A sincere apology requires three steps. First, don't blame what
happened on other people or circumstances. Second, acknowledge how your actions
affected the other person - which means listening without defending yourself. Third,
explain what you will do differently in the future to avoid making the same mistake.
Such an apology might sound like, "I want to apologize for what I said yesterday.
After speaking with you, I can hear how much my comments offended you and
caused embarrassment. I want you to know that in the future I will be more sensitive."

Humour works. A little self-deprecating humour can save you, but make sure
it is really only directed at yourself and does not increase anybody else's level of
discomfort. Sometimes humour breaks the tension and provides an opening for you
to recover.

Monitor future behaviour. Communication has a cumulative effect. Every

impression you make builds on the previous one. Overcoming a bad impression
requires that all future behaviour be consistent with how you want to be perceived. It
will take time and trust to change perceptions, but it can be done.
 Grandma knows best
Four million kids are being raised by their grandparents. Now these families are
demanding respect

Harriet Jackson-Lyons long ago earned her stripes as a mom. She raised six
children alone in the tough Boston neighbourhood of Roxbury and put them through
college. By now she expected to be enjoying life as an indulgent grandma, making
chicken and dumplings, spoiling her grandkids rotten—and then sending them home.
If only life played out according to plan. Jackson-Lyons, 74, is once again a full-time
mother. She's raising her 9-year-old grandchild, Charlene, since the death of her
daughter three years ago from a massive coronary. The tragedy nearly broke her
emotionally. But she's come through it with a steely new sense of purpose. "I don't
want anyone's pity," says the straight-talking grandmother, leafing through the pile of
children's books and homework papers on her lap. "I'm doing the only thing I could
do. What I want now is for society to recognize me."

She's making sure it does. The retired medical clerk founded her own group,
Raising Our Children's Children (ROCC). In its second year of incorporation, the
neighbourhood-based organization has more than 100 members and is lobbying for
expanded rights and financial support for grandparent caregivers. It is just one of
hundreds of support groups that are springing up nationwide. "These families are
finally realizing they are not alone. They are waking up to the fact that there is power
in their numbers," says Margaret Hollidge, head of the AARP's Grandparent
Information Centre. Hollidge has close to 700 groups like ROCC in her database.
Hundreds more, she says, are operating without official links.

It's a movement born out of desperation. There are more than 2.5 million
grandparent-headed families in America, as a result of death, drugs, mental illness,
incarceration or abandonment. In nearly a third of these families the parents are
completely absent. In others, parents are in the picture but are either financially or
emotionally unable to raise their children on their own. These "skipped-generation
households," as experts call them, have increased by more than 50 percent in the
past decade. Contrary to the stereotype of the inner-city welfare mom who's raising
her teenage daughter's baby, the majority of grandparent caregivers are white, are
between the ages of 50 and 64 and live in nonmetropolitan areas.

For many, support groups provide a much-needed shoulder to cry on. In the
upper-middle-class Los Angeles suburb of Sherman Oaks, 10 grandmothers and one
grandfather are gathered around the beige sectional sofa of author and activist Sylvie
de Toledo for their twice-weekly venting session. Erica Tannen, 51, is heartbroken.
Her 6-year-old grandson came home from school with a writing assignment that
started off, "I love my Mom best because..." "The kid was sitting there and didn't
know what to write," says Tannen, with a soft Eastern European accent. "The
teachers know he lives with me, but he didn't want to make a big deal. He wanted to
be like everyone else." Heads nod in silent affirmation.
 But mutual understanding is just part of what brings groups like de Toledo's
together. They also have battles to fight. Soothing wounded souls is a breeze
compared with hurdling the bureaucratic obstacles grandparent caregivers face.
Often, guardianship is informal. Getting legal custody requires suing your own child,
a step too heartbreaking for many families to take. Without custody, grandparents
have few rights. Simple tasks like enrolling children in school and getting medical
care become nightmares. Housing is another problem. Many senior residences don't
allow or have space for children. And financial assistance, like that given to foster
families, is hard to come by. "We can't get help to pay for day care," says Pat Owens,
57. Owens, a customer-service clerk in Frederick, Md., and her electrician husband,
Ken, care for their 3i-year-old grandson, Michael. "We're not trying to take advantage
of the system. We're trying to save our family."

Government aid comes at a cost. Eighteen states, including Arizona, California

and Wisconsin, have what are called Subsidized Guardianship Programs, which
provide financial and legal support. But most require children to become wards of the
state before assistance kicks in. "There's no way I'm handing my grandchild over to
the Department of Social Services," says Owens. "What kind of a solution is that?"
Owens has identified more than 1,000 informal grandparent-headed households in
Frederick County. This month her coalition will hold its first political-action meeting to
call for a state task force on grandparent-led families.

The noisy seniors are scoring some victories. Kentucky and Indiana have
enacted de facto custodian laws, giving long-term grandparent caregivers the same
status as parents. (Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton helps raise his grandkids.) And Boston
Aging Concerns has founded Grand Families House, the first senior-housing facility
in the country designed exclusively for grandparent-headed households. (Safety rails
in the bathroom for Grandma. Safety bars on the windows for Junior.) Opened in
1998, it is now home to 26 families. "I don't know where we'd be without this place,"
says fireman Carl Bowman, 51, who shares a two-bedroom apartment with wife,
Nettie, and their 9-year-old grandson, Brandon. "We're all in the same boat here. We
all help one another." Several cities, including Atlanta, Los Angeles and Cleveland,
are considering similar complexes, and advocates are lobbying Washington
lawmakers to fund more.

The movement keeps Jackson-Lyons motivated. She's cleared out the front
room of her apartment and turned it into an office. ROCC wants Massachusetts to
pass liberal guardianship laws like those in Kentucky. For Jackson-Lyons there are
petitions to file, speeches to give, politicians to write. And then there's the tough stuff.
Grandma has to get Charlene into summer camp.
 You Don’t Like me Eating with my Fingers
These days my husband needs a wife who will offer cigarettes to his guests
and help pave the road to the top of him by any means necessary.

He once found me sitting in the sun with the servants. He glared with that look
that said he would shoot me had he a gun in his hand. I felt at a loss, followed him
upstairs, then came down again and sat poised on the edge of the sofa as if I were in
someone else's house. He walked past me, and I followed him into the dining room.

We sat at lunch with the table between us as though I were applying to him
for a job. By then we have drifted far apart. A wall had seemed to rise in the
intervening space. His face was that of a stranger, unfamiliar to me. The more I
looked at him the more distant he became. He ate with a fork and I with my fingers.
The sound of his fork hitting the plate stopped and I looked up. Again he was
glaring as if he wanted to kill me. I stood up, tipping over my chair which crashed to
the floor.

"You don't like me eating with my fingers? It doesn't please you that I sit with
the servants? We fought colonialism in their name and now you think like the
colonizers!" I left the table and went upstairs, I heard his car start, its engine
screeching as he pulled out into the street.

The situation had reached a stage where there was nothing I could do to put it
right. I understood that he felt he could not properly enjoy the fruits of change, that he
needed a new woman in every sense of the word, and I guessed that he was
preparing for that. However, my deductions remained mere suspicious until the day
our driver did not pick me up from the bath house. Later he apologized, saying he
had had to take my husband's secretary to the hotel.

"The hotel?" I asked, fearful that I understood only too well.

"Yes, with the typewriter. They've been working there." This man is either a fool
himself or trying to fool me. "Never mind then, it's nothing to do with you. It seems the
age of secretaries has begun."

I prepared a speech to make his heart bleed when he came home. But he didn't
return that night. When I heard his car in the morning, I dashed downstairs to
confront him. He walked in and skipped up the steps. I rushed after him.

"Where have you been?"

"At work," he said, continuing upstairs.

"At work in hotels with secretaries?" He stopped, stunned that I knew. "Are they
hotels or whorehouses? And what do you do with the bill? Send them to the finance
department?"

At the bedroom door he turned around and slapped me. Holding my face with one
hand, I pointed at him the other and shouted with all my strength as if addressing an
imaginary crowd. "And we are waiting for reform to come from the likes of these!
You're more dangerous than the colonizers!"
 Endangered Languages
Marie Smith Jones seems an unlikely activist. But this 80-year-old woman is
carrying the memories of the once flourishing Eyak, an Alaskan culture that began its
journey toward extinction about 100 years ago. Smith Jones, who serves as chief of
the 132-member tribe, is the only fool-blooded surviving Eyak. She is also the last
speaker of its language. “Sometimes I could just kick myself for not teaching my
children the language,” says Smith Jones.

She is among a growing number of indigenous people who are working with
linguists to call attention to endangered languages and cultures throughout the world.
“When I was in school, we were beaten for speaking our language. They wanted to
make us ashamed,” she says. “I have 17-and-18-year old kids coming to me crying
because the elders of their tribes won’t teach them their own language.” Scholars
estimate that 6,000 languages are spoken worldwide today. About half are
endangered—meaning children no longer learn the language and the youngest of its
speakers are well into middle age, explains Stephen Wurm, professor emeritus at the
Australian National University and editor of UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s
Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Conservative estimates say that within the
next century, 40 to 50 percent of the world’s languages may vanish, pushed into
oblivion by the spread of English and other “big” languages.

Every region on earth is prone to language extinction. In Europe, Irish and

Scottish Gaelic are endangered, and Cornish, Norn and Manx Gaelic have
disappeared. Romany, the idiomatic language of the Gypsies, is also on the critical
list, victim of both assimilation and centuries-old government hostility toward these
nomadic people. The former Soviet Union, with its policy of “Russification,” all but
wiped out many of the region’s indigenous languages. Australia, which once boasted
250 different languages, is now down to about 20.

“There’s always a belief that you should forget the ‘small’ languages, the
languages of the minorities, because they have no value,” says Wurm. “There was a
time when the U.S., the British, the Australians, the French and the Russians, for
example, pushed monolingualism. The truth is most of the world isn’t monolingual.
It’s odd to be monolingual.”

Still, linguists aren’t without hope. Wales, perhaps best known for corgis, coal
and Tom Jones has shown the world that David can beat Goliath. Although Welsh is
still considered “endangered” by the experts, a recent resurgence of what Welsh
linguist Cefin Campbell calls “Welsh pride” may stop its gradual erosion. “What we’re
seeing right now is parents who don’t speak Welsh, insisting their children learn the
language,” says Campbell, director of language planning at Trinity College,
Carmarthen. “That’s good news. Because it is ultimately the children who save a
language.” Grass-roots efforts are also underway to ensure the viability of the
remaining indigenous languages in Australia. And in Papua New Guinea—once
home to an estimated 1,300 dialects—local governments are urging regions to use
their remaining native tongues in the early school years.
 Linguist Martha Macri of the University of California, Davis, explains that of
North America’s roughly 250 Native American languages, about 25 percent are
spoken in California—placing the state behind only New Guinea and the Caucasus in
linguistic diversity. She has set up a program at UC Davis, in which speakers of
Native American languages are made available to students, most of whom have no
prior linguistic training. “I am hopeful about the Indian people and their cultural
influences and their resurgence of pride,” says Macri, a Cherokee. “Learning about
your language, learning about your culture, your traditions is like sex. It is intrinsically
pleasurable,” says Macri, only slightly embarrassed by the analogy. If that premise
proves to be true, then maybe endangered languages throughout the world actually
have a chance at survival.
 The New Arab Woman

Don't judge her by her dress—or anything else. She's much more complex
than that.

On a crowded beach in Beirut, girls wearing head scarves and track suits
splash in the waves. Their mothers picnic on the sand, chatting and sucking on
hookah pipes. Down the coast, at the posh St. George's Yacht Club, well-oiled young
women in bikinis lounge poolside, some with lips and breasts perfected by Lebanon's
finest plastic surgeons.

It's easy to tell which women are traditional Arabs and which are more
modern. Or is it? In today's Middle East, appearances can be deceiving. A "modern"
Arab woman isn't necessarily one in Western clothes, and a veiled woman isn't
always oppressed. The St. George's set may fly to Paris to stock up on Chanel, but
that doesn't mean they work. Talk to the veiled women on the beach, and they'll tell
you that their freedom has grown considerably. "Before, you'd just sit home to cook,
clean and raise babies," says Ghada Ajami, who recently moved to Beirut from
Michigan to expose her kids to Arab culture. "But now we've got the same freedoms
as in the States. I can do anything here."

Discovering the new Arab woman on a single strip of Beirut coast is complex
enough. Coming up with a profile that would fit all women in all 21 Arab League
countries is virtually impossible. How to compare a Jordanian Internet entrepreneur
with a Yemeni housewife? A Christian Palestinian poet with a Muslim shepherdess in
the Atlas Mountains? As Arab societies try to balance traditional values with
modernizing economies, women's rights and roles can seem schizophrenic at times.
In Saudi Arabia, women can own businesses—but are banned from driving to them.
Kuwait boasts women economists and professors—none of whom have the right to
vote. Egyptian women work as managers in multinational corporations, but need
permission from a male member of the family to travel.

One thing is sure: the old Middle East—where men worked and women were
shrouded from the outside world—is fading fast. Elite Arab women have had access
to good education for centuries; what's changed in the last generation is the rising
standard of education for ordinary Arabs—men and women alike. Since the Beijing
World Conference on Women five years ago, women across the Arab world have
become better educated, more aware of their rights and readier to use them. Last
year Qatari women gained the right to vote; some even ran for office—though none
won. A constitutional court in Kuwait agreed last month to hear women's petition for
the vote. The Internet and satellite TV have flooded Arab countries with sights and
sounds unimaginable even three years ago. Cheap air fares have made it easier
for Arabs to
travel abroad. For some, globalization has meant transnational careers. "You go for a
job, and your competition's a woman who's smarter than you are, who's better
educated than you are and who's worked harder than you have," says Amar Captan,
a Lebanese business student. "It's scary."

The changes are even more frightening for conservative Arabs. Women's
rights cut to the heart of the Muslim Arab world's delicate balance between tradition
and modernity. In the past Islamic clerics stressed women's roles as wives and
mothers. Not until recently, when a freshly educated crop of women went back to the
Qur'an to question male interpretations on issues from the veil to abortion, did Arabs
have lively debates about a woman's place in society. Muslim women are now
looking to role models like Khadidja, the prophet's first wife, who ran a caravan
business in seventh-century Mecca. It's not just conservative clerics who feel
threatened by women's new roles. At a U.N. development conference in Beirut last
year, after a Kuwaiti woman argued for her right to vote, an irate bureaucrat berated
her. "Where do you think you are?" he bellowed. "The United States?"

Not by a long shot. More than 52 percent of Arab women still can't read, and
women's representation in the labour force still hovers at 27 percent, according to the
latest U.N. figures. Leaders who try to push too quickly for reform meet resistance.
When Mohammed VI became king of Morocco last year, he pledged to bolster
women's social and legal rights. But when the government issued a draft plan for
change, Islamic hardliners denounced it as "a ticket to prostitution." A board of
women's activists, government officials and Muslim scholars are hammering out a
plan, to be passed on for approval to the king.

Though conservatives might blame Western influences for the changes, most
have emerged from grassroots networks. Last month 550 Saudi Arabian women
gathered for an information session for the Jedda Holding Co.—the first time in Saudi
history that women had been invited to help found an investment company. "Seventy-
five percent of banks have female accounts in them," notes Nadia Ba'eshir, a Jedda-
based management consultant who gives training classes for Saudi businesswomen.
"Women have to know that this money has to be tapped. They just lack the
experience and networking skills."

They're starting to acquire them. Women's business networks have recently

sprung up in Egypt, Lebanon and Kuwait. Political leaders, anxious to meet
recommendations from the Beijing conference that women be included in decision
making, are pushing women's participation in government. Younger women are less
squeamish than their mothers about tackling jobs outside teaching and nursing. In
Yemen, agricultural and fishery schools have started enrolling women. Last month
seven women started driving taxis in Dubai. And last summer Roula Maalouf became
the first female bellhop in the Middle East. "It was the most beautiful period of my
life," she recalls. "I wanted to do something different from other people. I've got
ambition."
She didn't mind the nine-hour shifts; her only discomfort was taking tips. "It's the
business world," a bellboy chided her. "Take the money!" The appeal to her
professionalism convinced her: "I said, 'OK, if taking tips is part of the work, then I'll
do it'."

Women don't always enter public life of their own accord. Military wars in
Lebanon, Palestine and Algeria have left many women heading households. In
Algeria, a female trio named Les Messageres raps about Algeria's civil war. "Rap is
the only way I can express myself," says Awatef, the group's lead singer. Her rap
lyrics shocked audiences at first. "Older people think we're a bunch of hoodlums,"
she says. But the group is so popular that it's a household name throughout Algeria,
and its first album is due out this month.

Mostly, simple economics are propelling Arab women into the modern era.
The collapse of the oil economy in the Persian Gulf has increased the need for dual-
income households. And more and more, men want wives who are willing to work. "In
the past most men preferred wives who'd stay home to raise kids and take care of
the house," observes Mona Al Munajjed, of the United Nations' Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia. "But now he wants a girl who has a salary at the end
of the month to help him." Whether she wears a bikini or a burka is really beside the
point.
 Revenge of the Vertically Advantaged
The world is a challenge for Rob Bruntjes. At 2.21 meters, he stands out
wherever he goes. He can’t sit in a movie-theatre seat or sleep in a hotel bed.

Bruntjes is a towering exception. Boosted by rich diets, improved health care

and other comforts of prosperity - all conditions that help us fulfil our genetic potential
- Europeans are growing taller at a rate never seen before in history. In general,
northerners are taller than southerners. French army recruits are, on average, 10
centimeters taller today than they were a century ago. Each generation of Germans
is two cm taller than the previous; among Britons, the differential is .57 cm.

The tallest of the tall are getting organized. All over Europe, they are forming
groups to alert governments and companies to their special needs. Huguette de
Bortoli, 1.83 m, a Paris pharmaceuticals saleswoman, helped found Altitude, whose
members measure at least 1.93 m for men and 1.83 m for women. They often travel
in groups, and when a gang of Altitudinists enters a restaurant, says de Bortoli,
“people are impressed.”

(Altitude is an association for exceptionally tall people)

Genes and Empathy

It helps us to make close connections with people, and influences how we behave in
a range of situations, from the workplace to a party.

Now scientists say empathy is not just something we develop through our
upbringing and life experiences - it is also partly inherited. A study of 46,000 people
found evidence for the first time that genes have a role in how empathetic we are.
And it also found that women are generally more empathetic than men.

'Important step'

Empathy has an important role in our relationships. It helps us recognise other

people's emotions and it guides us to respond appropriately, such as by knowing
when someone is upset and wants to be comforted. It is largely considered to be
something we develop through childhood and our life experiences.

But in this new paper, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry,

scientists looked to see if how empathetic we are can be traced to our genes.

• Can you teach people to have empathy?

• Do you inherit your parent's mental illness?

Participants in the study had their "empathy quotient" (EQ) measured with a
questionnaire, and gave saliva samples for DNA testing. Scientists then looked for
differences in their genes that could explain why some of us are more empathetic
than others. They found that at least 10% of the differences in how empathetic
people are is down to genetics.

Varun Warrier, from the University of Cambridge who led the study, said: "This
is an important step towards understanding the role that genetics plays in empathy.
"But since only a tenth of the variation in the degree of empathy between individuals
is down to genetics, it is equally important to understand the non-genetic factors."

The research also found differences in empathy between the sexes. Out of a
maximum of 80 from the EQ questionnaire, women on average scored 50, as
opposed to 41 for men. But researchers said they were unable to find any genetic
differences behind this.The scientists also found genetic differences that are
associated with lower empathy were also linked to a higher risk of autism. However,
they acknowledged there were limitations to the research.

The empathy quotient is a self-reported survey, which can skew results. And
although they found genetic differences between people who were more and less
empathetic, they were not able to find specific "empathy genes" that were
responsible for this. They added that future research to find the genes that affect
empathy would benefit from more people taking part in the study.

Gil McVean, professor of statistical genetics at the University of Oxford, told

the BBC the study established that genes had a role in empathy, but this was "minor"
compared to environmental factors. "We know that basically anything you can
measure in humans has a genetic component, and this establishes that empathy
does have some heritable component."

Dr Edward Barker, a reader at the department of psychology at King's College

London, said the paper had some "very interesting" findings and was a "first step" in
exploring the link between our genes and empathy. "But as the authors say, it's the
first analysis of its kind and could benefit from a larger study," he added.

Prison for Abortion

 A 34-year-old woman in El Salvador has been freed after spending 15 years in
jail for having an abortion. Maira Verónica Figueroa Marroquín was released after her
30-year sentence for aggravated murder was reduced.

Abortion is banned in El Salvador, a predominantly Roman Catholic nation, in

any circumstances. Ms Figueroa always maintained her innocence. She said she
suffered a stillbirth in a house where she was working as a maid in 2003. She was
taken to hospital, arrested and eventually sentenced for inducing an abortion.

Her parents, as well as journalists and activists, were outside the prison in
Ilopango, near the capital San Salvador, to welcome her. "I am happy to be with my
family," she said. "I want to study law to understand what happened to me and help
other women," she added. Ms Figueroa has spent almost half of her life at the
Ilopango Women's Rehabilitation Centre "I'm going to start again and make up for
lost time." Ms Figueroa is the second woman this year to have her sentence for
abortion reduced by the Supreme Court. Teodora Vásquez, 35, had her
sentence commuted a month ago. She spent 10 years in jail after her baby was
found dead and she was sentenced for murder.

Complete ban on abortions

El Salvador is one of a handful of countries in the world where abortions are

completely banned and carry heavy sentences. The punishment is up to eight years
in jail but in many cases in which the foetus or newborn has died, the charge is
changed to one of aggravated homicide, which carries a minimum sentence of 30
years.

While El Salvador is not alone in Latin America in having a total ban on

abortions, the country is particularly strict in the way it enforces it. Doctors have to
inform the authorities if they think a woman has tried to end her pregnancy. If they fail
to report such cases, they too could face long sentences in jail.

Human rights groups say this results in a criminalisation of miscarriages and

medical emergencies, with more than 100 convicted of abortion-related crimes in El
Salvador since 2000.

Speaking up about rape

 in conservative Kazakhstan
In the conservative Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan, many women are
afraid to speak up about rape and sexual harassment. But a local campaign - one
which predates the MeToo and Time's Up movements - has been urging women not
to stay silent.

Saina Raisova almost breaks down when she recalls the day she was raped
by two men last year. The 26-year-old jumped out of a third floor window in order to
escape from her attackers, breaking her pelvis and a heel. She survived her fall, but
says that following her rape, "the first thing I thought of was to commit suicide. I
thought I wouldn't be able to live with this." Saina lives in constant pain now due to
her injuries. But it's been no less harrowing for her to achieve justice.

Speaking up about sexual assault is considered extremely shameful by many

in Kazakhstan, and Saina tells the BBC she faced severe pressure to stay silent
about her rape. "I had to fight not only with law enforcement agencies, but also with
myself and with my relatives. Because they were shocked. They didn't understand.
"'Why do you need to make this public,' they said. 'Leave it with Allah. He will punish.'
"My parents wanted to hide this completely, it was a great stigma for them."

Last year, after seeing that the criminal case she brought was progressing
slowly, and fearing that the rapists could go unpunished, Saina decided to go public
and talk about her case. In January, the court sentenced one of her rapists to 10
years. Another man, alleged to be the second rapist, is still on the run.

"Many people blame victims, not the criminals. They tell me you shouldn't have
gone, you shouldn't have agreed [to meet], you got what you wanted," she says.
Saina is one of many women to join the "don't be silent" movement - a group that
helps victims of sexual violence get their voices heard.

Since being set up in 2016 the movement has helped 19 women take their
cases to court and within one year of the launch, the #НемолчиKZ hashtag (which
translates to "don't be silent") has been used nearly 100,000 times online.

Dina Smailova, a former producer of children's music shows, is one of the

founders of the movement. The movement began after she revealed on Facebook
that she had been raped when she was 20. Her post caused a storm on social media
- people started sharing their stories, offering help and calling for action. Dina says
the key aim of the movement is to try to change attitudes. "Society has imposed this
concept of shame, the victim is always dirty, not the rapist. "We say it's not shameful
to be raped, it's shameful to be a rapist. That's why we go public showing our faces
and saying that we're not ashamed. They should be ashamed."

According to the Committee for Legal Statistics, there were 2,250 cases of
sexual violence registered in Kazakhstan in 2017. But activists say these figures do
not reflect reality since the vast majority of victims prefer not to go to the police. The
"don't be silent" movement organises seminars to raise awareness amongst students
and law enforcement agencies - and public talks where victims can share their
experiences. Yelena Ivanova, 19, spoke openly for the first time about being raped at
one of their events. Last year, she took a microphone and faced the crowd, and
spoke between pauses and sobs. "I went through… harassment and rape," she said,
her weak voice cutting through the silence. Some in the audience wiped away tears
as they listened to her. Despite the taboo over speaking about rape, Yelena said
speaking up was her only option. "If you're not silent, then people, the society will see
that you're fighting for the truth." "And when other people join, I feel more secure as I
know that I am not alone in my struggle," she told the BBC.

"Don't be silent" has also been lobbying for legislation that better protects
victims of sexual violence. Under current legislation, sexual assault cases can be
closed if both sides reconcile and the assault is not considered an "aggravated
assault" such as a rape over an extended period of time or gang rape.

But critics say victims can come under massive pressure to accept financial
compensation and agree to reconcile with the attacker - from relatives of the
defendant, law enforcement officers, and even their own lawyers. This creates a
feeling of impunity. "It's important to change the attitude of society but first we need to
change the law," Dina says. "The punishment should be unavoidable and [rapists]
must know that they will answer for their crime."