In her new controversial book Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo argues that, so far from helping Africa, foreign aid has impeded economic growth and made poor countries even poorer.  She notes that Asian economies have flourished with little foreign aid, while Africa has stagnated despite billions from Western governments.  Aid, she argues, is the problem.
Dambisa Moyo [...]

In India, courts have spoken forcefully against assaults and murders committed by relatives of the victim for the sake of family honour. Yet, honour killings appear to be increasing in north-west India (map at right), in large part because police sympathise and even collude with family members who feel they have been shamed.
Young [...]

The British Columbia College of Teachers began a a long-running campaign of professional persecution against school teacher Chris Kempling after he wrote letters to a local newspaper opposing normalisation of homosexuality. He was cited for misconduct and suspended in 2002. He initiated a legal challenge of the College’s actions, but the BC Court [...]

Here’s the home page of the University of Calgary’s website, as it appears this morning. (Click on image for larger view.)

Unless you’re pro-life. In that case, the university does not want you to “get involved on campus”. If you get involved in pro-life activities on campus, the university will send Calgary police [...]

The Japanese government maintains that, because it pays for citizens’ health care, it must monitor everyone’s diet and lifestyle and correct those who may impose “excessive” costs on the system.
Imagine a country where the government regularly checks the waistlines of citizens over age 40. Anyone deemed too fat would be required to undergo diet counseling. [...]

Felix Mendelssohn was born on this day in 1809. His fortunes in popular esteem have had their ups and downs.
He was thought of as a genius during his lifetime, then thought of as too old-fashioned by the late-Romantic, Austro-Germanic musical scene, but hailed in Victorian England. During World War II, Nazi Germany tried [...]