The essay by Tahar ben Jelloun, about the Tunisian street vendor and the Egyptian nobody who symbolized everyone, and how they sparked the revolutions in their countries, was especially moving. Pico Iyer's essay is great too - he welcomes the white affluent Westerners to his world where dark-skinned people from not-the-west are routinely viewed with suspicion. Post 9-11 we all get to share in feeling aggrieved as we are treated by police, airport security, etc. as guilty of something. Nadeem Aslam's story Punnu's Jihad shows how little autonomy a young Afghan man has. The warlords control everything and so control the arc of his life.
Some good stories and essays, predictable but powerful nonetheless. ( )

The essay by Tahar ben Jelloun, about the Tunisian street vendor and the Egyptian nobody who symbolized everyone, and how they sparked the revolutions in their countries, was especially moving. Pico Iyer's essay is great too - he welcomes the white affluent Westerners to his world where dark-skinned people from not-the-west are routinely viewed with suspicion. Post 9-11 we all get to share in feeling aggrieved as we are treated by police, airport security, etc. as guilty of something. Nadeem Aslam's story Punnu's Jihad shows how little autonomy a young Afghan man has. The warlords control everything and so control the arc of his life.
Some good stories and essays, predictable but powerful nonetheless. ( )

The essay by Tahar ben Jelloun, about the Tunisian street vendor and the Egyptian nobody who symbolized everyone, and how they sparked the revolutions in their countries, was especially moving. Pico Iyer's essay is great too - he welcomes the white affluent Westerners to his world where dark-skinned people from not-the-west are routinely viewed with suspicion. Post 9-11 we all get to share in feeling aggrieved as we are treated by police, airport security, etc. as guilty of something. Nadeem Aslam's story Punnu's Jihad shows how little autonomy a young Afghan man has. The warlords control everything and so control the arc of his life.
Some good stories and essays, predictable but powerful nonetheless. ( )