This week columnist Mesfin Negash writes about the importance of researching, writing, and interpreting history in order to learn from it.
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Tarik Gunersel suggests we recognize the invention of writing as the turning point in history, transcending God-related labeling of turning points.
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In this week’s Night Watch Venezuelan writer Israel Centeno traces the history of violence in Venezuela from the turn of the 20th century up to the present. “Venezuela is a cocktail of poverty, injustice, resentment, a rentier mentality, and clientelistic wealth.”
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Israel Centeno reviews Double Lives by Stephen Koch, which looks back at Willi Müzenberg and the Innocents’ Clubs of the early 20th century. Such groups of naïve left intellectual sympathizers of “good despots”, Centeno argues, still abound today.
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While researching my article on the Burmese refugee community in Pittsburgh, I heard time and again that the refugees struggle with adapting to the American education system. They are used to a pedagogy based almost entirely on rote memorization. This is to ensure that the students won’t develop the kind of critical thinking skills that would enable to them to criticize the government or organize opposition. The government also strictly controls what information is available to students, leading to a skewed perspective on history and politics.
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Sampsonia Way's companion guide to City of Asylum’s Exiled Voice of China and Tibet literary event, featuring standout pieces from its three year coverage of exiled and persecuted writers. READ
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