Some interesting articles...
(3.5 stars) "Racists are not one-dimensional, evil people. They can be good people too, and often are. Not many people engaging in racism see themselves in the image of our dominant negative stereotypes of what a racist should be like," writes anthropologist Ghassan Hage in the SMH. Are our ideas about who 'racists' are too simplistic and unhelpful? Are all racists necessarily white, either? "What is particularly evil about racism is that its ordinariness and banality can transform very rapidly and before we know it into a Grand Evil such as mass extermination. Our era is generating such lopsided logics."
(3 stars) "Today, surprisingly, many nice, clean, sweet-smelling middle-class folk have somehow persuaded themselves that the tribal world, where there is no soap, no toilet paper, no shampoo, no deodorant and certainly no tampons, represents a better way of life than their own," writes Roger Sandall in Saturday's The Australian. As societies have become more materially wealthy and prosperous, and has our quality of life has improved, there has been a corresponding yearning for the past, a time of simpler, more moral, vales. This is seen in the modern fascination with more 'primitive,' less economically developed cultures. "the modern phenomenon of anti-civilisational xenophilia is indeed a genuine puzzle. It is by no means obvious how it arose. What is clear at the outset, however, is that it involves an inversion of much that is natural, normal, and universal in social life."
(4 stars) "Look inside a personal computer or under the bonnet of a car and you see parts made in many different countries," writes Ross Gittins in today's SMH. The containerisation (shipping containers) of global trade has revolutionised economic geography in the developed and industrialising world alike. Goods can be produced in efficient, dispersed production plants and shipped around the world in ever lengthening supply chains. Transport costs have falled remarkably as a result of these humble steel boxes, by no means high technology. "What gives the humble container extra power is standardisation. Tens of millions of shipping containers move around the world each year, but they're all of the same dimensions: eight feet wide, eight feet high and 20 or 40 feet long."
And...
(3.5 stars) Bill Leak has a funny cartoon today.
(3 stars) "Today, surprisingly, many nice, clean, sweet-smelling middle-class folk have somehow persuaded themselves that the tribal world, where there is no soap, no toilet paper, no shampoo, no deodorant and certainly no tampons, represents a better way of life than their own," writes Roger Sandall in Saturday's The Australian. As societies have become more materially wealthy and prosperous, and has our quality of life has improved, there has been a corresponding yearning for the past, a time of simpler, more moral, vales. This is seen in the modern fascination with more 'primitive,' less economically developed cultures. "the modern phenomenon of anti-civilisational xenophilia is indeed a genuine puzzle. It is by no means obvious how it arose. What is clear at the outset, however, is that it involves an inversion of much that is natural, normal, and universal in social life."
(4 stars) "Look inside a personal computer or under the bonnet of a car and you see parts made in many different countries," writes Ross Gittins in today's SMH. The containerisation (shipping containers) of global trade has revolutionised economic geography in the developed and industrialising world alike. Goods can be produced in efficient, dispersed production plants and shipped around the world in ever lengthening supply chains. Transport costs have falled remarkably as a result of these humble steel boxes, by no means high technology. "What gives the humble container extra power is standardisation. Tens of millions of shipping containers move around the world each year, but they're all of the same dimensions: eight feet wide, eight feet high and 20 or 40 feet long."
And...
(3.5 stars) Bill Leak has a funny cartoon today.
