Quartz:
The number of people driven from their homes by wars and persecution has hit a record high, with the majority stemming from just three countries.…
On average, 24 people were displaced from their homes every minute of every day during 2015, compared to six per minute in 2005, according to UNHCR.
NYT:
For many members of Congress, being open to an immigration overhaul is increasingly a matter of political survival: About 27.3 million Latinos are qualified to vote in this year’s election, according to the Pew Research Center, constituting a record 11.9 percent of eligible voters. Latino organizations have been focused on encouraging turnout in a year some speculate could make Hispanic voters an electoral heavyweight for years to come.
Ted Hesson in The Atlantic:
But immigration, on the whole, bolsters the workforce and adds to the nation’s overall economic activity. Look at the impact on cities that attract the most foreign-born residents. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston are all major immigrant destinations and also economic powerhouses, accounting for roughly one-fifth of the country’s gross domestic product.
This article is about a year old, but the data points it contains are good to remember as political rhetoric ramps up over the next couple of months.
Bruce Ashford reviewing Os Guinness’ new book, Impossible People in TGC:
Modernity, it turns out, is an equal opportunity offender, posing challenges not only to monotheistic religions but also to atheism…. however, atheism is Christianity’s leading rival in the West and is the dominant worldview of those with cultural power. The new atheists attack Christianity overtly while social and political activists attack it implicitly by presupposing atheism. If atheists win the day in the West, political liberalism will become increasingly illiberal and eventually nihilistic. In response to the pervasive influence of atheism, Guinness challenges the church to love atheists individually to help them see that atheism is bad for them and bad for society, and to work with them corporately to forge a constructive way forward for Western society.
Excellent book review full of thought-provoking content. I was particularly struck by the discussion of “threats to the West.” One might expect things like “secularism” or “individualism” to threaten Western ideals in general and Christianity in particular, but reading of the Western Christian tendency to “ignore or minimize spiritual realities and spiritual warfare” also as a threat provided a sobering reality check.
Bart Schaneman in The Week:
You can attempt to relate your experiences to your friends and family, but you can only start so many sentences with “In Asia…” [or “In Latin America…”] before their eyes start to glaze over. Handing out a stack of pictures in your family living room helps, as long you’re okay with some of the most formative experiences of your life reduced to the same level of interest as your second cousin’s trip to Branson.
I nodded along to every paragraph. Beautifully written.
Richard Florida in CityLab:
The top ten metros account for nearly a third (30.7 percent) of the world’s super-rich, while making up less than two percent of the world’s population. The top twenty account for more than 40 percent (43.5 percent), while making up just 3.5 percent of the world’s population. And the top 50 metros account for nearly two-thirds (63.6 percent) of the world’s billionaires, while making up just seven percent of the world’s population.
Vikki Ortiz Healy for the Tribune:
When two Pullman residents, the Rev. William Cowardine and Jennie Curtis, a seamstress, brought the unfair work conditions to the attention of the American Railway Union in 1894, it prompted a nationwide shutdown of railways that begged action from then-President Grover Cleveland.
(h/t Lindsay Greer)
Time:
[Pornography’s] producers have one goal: to get men off hard and fast for profit. That means eroticizing the degradation of women. In a study of behaviors in popular porn, nearly 90% of 304 random scenes contained physical aggression toward women, who nearly always responded neutrally or with pleasure.
Growing numbers seem to be recognizing pornography’s destructive effects. (Never mind that the first line of the linked article is negated by the entire body of the same article.)
Robert Loerzel for WBEZ:
And another reason to look at the Ike [I-290]: It was the first superhighway in the heart of Chicago. However, by the 1960s — after more expressways were built, more neighborhoods were torn up, and traffic stayed as terrible as it was before — grassroots groups began fighting against these projects and even managed to kill one off.
It’s difficult to pinpoint data about precisely where the people displaced by the Eisenhower’s construction ended up. No one tracked their whereabouts. But we do have an answer for Jillian. After talking with historians and people who lived through the upheaval, a picture emerges of how the expressway reshaped the Chicago region, scattered some of the city’s ethnic communities and forever changed many lives. That picture’s best consumed in parts. We’ll move east to west along the Ike.
Excellent article and accompanying photos and graphics.
Emma Green in The Atlantic, expounding on Pew data:
The experience of those who are losing their religion shouldn’t obscure the experience of those who are finding it, though. Twenty-seven percent of people in the survey say they’re attending services more often than they did in the past, cutting against the country’s overall decline in religious practice. This was most common among evangelical Protestants, three-quarters of whom say they go to church at least once or twice a month. Half of the people who said they’re going to services more often explained the change in terms of their beliefs: They’ve become more religious; they found that they need God in their life; they’ve gotten more mature as they’ve aged. By contrast, relatively few said they started going to church more often for practical reasons. Belief brings people to worship, it seems, while logistics keep people away.1
Emphasis mine. ↩
Pew:
Two-thirds of Christians say they now attend religious services at least once or twice a month, including 35% who say there was a time during their adult life when they did not attend as often as they do now. Among Christian traditions, 44% of evangelical Protestants, 33% of members of the historically black Protestant tradition, 31% of mainline Protestants and 28% of Catholics say they now go to church regularly — but that they did not always attended religious services with the same frequency.
So while there are more “nones” (those who don’t affiliate with any religious tradition), those who do attend church services are attending more and more regularly. The top three reasons given for more consistent participation? “Changing beliefs,” “Need God,” “Becoming more mature.”
Also interesting is the number one factor in determining which church to attend: “Quality of sermons.”
Estately’s blog:
Excellent long-form reporting — a year in the making — from Steven Brill1 in The Atlantic:
This is the story of the first 15 years of how we have dealt with that newfound fear—how we have confronted, sometimes heroically and sometimes irrationally, the mechanics, the politics, and the psychic challenges of the September 12 era.
Have we succeeded in toughening up what overnight became known as “homeland security”? Absolutely. But not without a series of extravagant boondoggles along the way.
I’ve been a fan of Brill’s content (pun intended) for years, particularly his reporting on healthcare costs. ↩
Lynsey Chutel in Quartz:
While the term coloured seems antiquated and cringe worthy in some social contexts, particularly in the United States or Britain, it is still a recognizable identity and culture in South Africa. Somewhere else, van Niekerk would probably have been black. In South Africa, his racial classification remains a key identifier as he moves through the world. For many coloured South Africans, the sight of coloured man winning the medal was affirming, seeing themselves represented—and succeeding—at the world’s premier sporting event.
Here’s a great interview with van Niekerk. And here is his record-breaking race.
Jessica Hullinger in The Week:
Relationships — with other humans, and with physical places — are really complicated. They require vulnerability and persistence and trust. You cannot just wait around hoping one will blossom before you. The only way to truly foster and nurture a long-lasting stable romance is to experience it with an open heart and an enduring sense of optimism. It takes time, but that’s okay. Eventually you get to the really good stuff.
Such a great piece on knowing and loving where you live, and getting through that difficult period between honeymoon and long-term romance.
Update: Hullinger’s move from New York to London reminded me of the phenomenon of migration between the two cities (and among cities generally). It’s so common, in fact, that it’s generated its own portmanteau: NYLON. (And nylonkong if you throw in Hong Kong.) And then there’s the acronym, filth for “failed in London, try Hong Kong.”
