During our time in Banda Aceh, Aceh’s provincial capital, one statement was voiced over and over again. “Go back home and tell Americans good things about Aceh,” people told us. The first time I heard this, I was surprised. It was during a conversation about the implementation of sharia law in Aceh with a [...]

Leonard Chitunhu.
After unleashing all manner of ill upon the then known world, Pandora peered inside the box, and all that was left, was hope. She wrapped hope around her knuckles and fought back.
The Roman Senate never heard a woman’s voice. Athenian philosophers rarely saw a woman ‘just taking a jog’ in the streets. The Imperial [...]

Diego Ángeles Sistac
Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM)
Mexico City, Mexico.
There is an entire range of movies and books trying to predict what will be of our future not just eleven years from now, but hundreds and even thousands. However, movies and books have always got it wrong, not because our imagination of “what will be” [...]

BY ANNA KELLAR
When American Evan Lysacek beat Russian Evgeny Plushenko by just over a point in the final of men’s Olympic figure skating, more than a gold medal was on the line. According to many commentators–and Plushenko himself–the result was nothing less than a blow to the sport itself. The controversy boiled down to jumps: [...]

BY DIANA SAVERIN
Curling seemed to be the craze of the Olympics. Even the Wall Street crowd tuned in to witness the heroes of the season. Most assume the sport is reserved for an obscure sector of the population, but I happen to know it a little closer to home.
My great-aunt Liz was Scottish, but lived [...]

BY DIANA SAVERIN
The Winter Olympics seems to exact a greater degree of audience participation than their summer counterparts. The athletes may be equally well trained, but the events they are participating in vary in one important respect: danger. The Winter Olympics have me on the edge of my seat, not necessarily hoping for gold, but [...]

BY NANZI WANG
Culture in Northeast Asia is facing opportunities, problems and challenges in the 21st century. This soft power is increasingly a crucial factor in the cooperation and communication among Northeast Asian brands.
Culture identity surmounts various kinds of cultural differences, on the basis of the approval on human generality and general similarity on the foundation [...]

BY MATTHEW ESCANO
In 2002, a team of scientists led by Mathis Wackernagel, an analyst at Redefining Progress, determined that mankind’s consumption surpassed the earth’s regenerative capacity around 1980. This study, published by the U.S. Academy of Sciences, also estimated that the world’s demands in 1999 exceeded the earth’s capacity by 20 percent. Donella and Dennis [...]

BY TANEJA YOUNG
I was born in Barbados and grew up on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean. Trinidad has a rich and varied culture, having been colonized by the Spanish, the French and finally the British. Under British rule, indentured labourers from India and slaves from Africa came to work on the sugar-cane plantations. [...]