The right to citizenship
An immigrant arriving with peaceful intentions has the right to enter another country, however, Yale philosopher Seyla Benhabib wonders in this video-interview with Resetdoc, what restrictions are there to his right to citizenship? As explained by scholars Olivier Roy and Renzo Guolo, this is a controversial subject that clashes with the mood of public opinion, with racism and the problems that exist in really understanding the religion and customs of those asking to become part of our communities.
MIGRANTS
Is Italy a racist country?
Guerrilla warfare broke out at the beginning of January in Rosarno, in the province of Reggio Calabria, between part of the local population and illegal African immigrants. There were clashes in which shots were also fired. And yet those immigrants were the only ones in the town who revolted against the ‘ndrangheta. Roberto Saviano, the author of ‘Gomorra’ wrote “Immigrants do not only come to Italy to take the jobs Italians no longer want, but also to defend rights that Italians no longer wish to defend.” Are we sure we want to get rid of them?
UNESCO PHILOSOPHY DAY
Dear Veneziani, this is why boycotting Teheran is right
Opposing Teheran’s candidature to host the next World Philosophy Day does not mean inflicting “philosophical sanctions” on Iran, nor does it mean “boycotting” a UNESCO initiative in the name of an assumed “priority of democracy over philosophy.” Marcello Veneziani is mistaken when in Il Giornale he attributes such ideas to those who, like Giuliano Amato and the members of Resedoc’s scientific committe, emphasise it would be grotesque to make a place “in which one can risk one’s life in the name of one’s ideas” the capital of doubt and critical debate. Veneziani is wrong, because if it is true that philosophy is exalted wherever humankind needs saving, it is equally true that it is certainly not the executioner who concedes a philosopher’s right to citizenship. What is at stake is understanding who or what could guarantee a free exchange of ideas between participants, should they meet in November 2010 in the capital of Ahmedinejad’s regime. Veneziani himself perhaps?
DEBATES
World Philosophy Day in Iran? No, thank you
Valentine M. Moghadam, Fred Dallmayr, Karel von Schwarzenberg, Navid Kermani, Pietro Marcenaro, Gianfranco Pasquino and Luigi Spaventa. These are just a few of Resetdoc's many friends and readers who have signed the appeal Giuliano Amato, Giancarlo Bosetti and Ramin Jahanbegloo, members of Resetdoc’s scientific committee, have sent to UNESCO’s General Director Irina Bokova to prevent the 2010 World Philosophy Day from being hosted by Iran. If you want to join our protest, send a message of support to info@resetdoc.org.
(Click here to read the article from Liberation).
HUMAN RIGHTS
Iran and the West’s dilemma
The regime in Teheran continues to repress dissent and goads the international community on the subject of nuclear power. What can the West do? How can the West help the ‘Green Wave’? In a video-interview with Resetdoc, philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo emphasises how this movement manages to unite Islam and human rights. Are new sanctions necessary as suggested by The Economist?
ASIAN UNIVERSITY FOR WOMEN
«This is how we give hope to the women of Bangladesh»
“In Asia female disempowerment is still a big issue and the history of the region is constantly marked by ethnic and religious clashes.” That is why Kamal Ahmad founded the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh, where the leadership potential of women is cultivated and a new sense of tolerance is taught. In this interview he speaks of his project and of how, thanks to scholarships, women from all over Asia learn to aspire to have different lives than their mothers.
LITERATURE
New voices of Arabia
We Westerners still see the Arab world as a monolithic block, and as such we see its contemporary literary production, which seems as one, simply because it is all written in the same language. There are instead 22 countries in the Arab League and each has its own history, explains Isabella Camera D'Afflitto. In the Arabian Peninsula (from Saudi Arabia to the Emirates and including Yemen), for example, a new generation of novelists has emerged in recent years, daring to address burning issues, speaking of slavery, taboos, traditions and superstitions, social disruption, individual responsibilities and relationships between men and women.
CULTURE
«I, a liberal philosopher, have been refused entry to Kuwait»
The Egyptian intellectual Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, a member of Resetdoc’s Board of Directors, has no doubts; the worst enemy of freedom of thought in the Arab world is “the Catholic marriage between Islam and politics.” It was this marriage that last December induced Kuwaiti authorities, under pressure from Islamist members of parliament, to refuse him entry at the border after previously giving him a visa. “This is the first time it has happened,” said Abu Zayd. On the day he was refused entry, the liberal theologian was obliged to get back on a plane at Kuwait City’s Sheikh Saad Airport, where he had earlier landed to speak at the Women’s Cultural Social Society about the manner in which women are seen in Shari’a and in the Koran and the reform of the Islamic school of thought.
ISLAM IN EUROPE
Fear of minarets
«The Swiss referendum has revealed that Islam’s visibility is distressing in the eyes of Europeans – writes Nilüfer Göle, Director of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris – The concept of acknowledging Islam and Muslims as a phenomenon endogenous to Swiss society has been rejected.» On November 29th a majority of Swiss citizens approved a constitutional banning the construction of new minarets in their country. It was a shocking vote in a country where Muslims are a well integrated minority. How could this have happened? Is this a warning for all of Europe?
AFTER COPENHAGEN
The European Union: a “non binding” power
The European Union has confirmed its characteristic of being an “economic giant” and a “political dwarf” and its weakness – that should decrease thanks to the Lisbon Treaty – in speaking effectively with “one voice”, only way to weigh in the renewed international context. How can we explain its marginal role?
HUMAN RIGHTS
Being gay in the Arab-Islamic world
In spite of the fact that according to President Ahmadinejad «this phenomenon» does not exist in Iran, homosexuals are a reality throughout the Arab-Islamic world. Theirs is not an easy life, although, as the Lebanese movement Helem proves, they are beginning to speak out. Is their discrimination “written” in the Koran or explained by the same conservative culture we also see in the West? Opposing opinions concerning the spread of the homosexual movement in the Arab world are expressed by activist Hossein Alizadeh and by Professor Joseph Massad.
VIDEO
Black breakfast (From: Stories on Human Rights)
To mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and a non-governmental organisation, Art for the World, commissioned a series of 22 short films created by some of the world's leading directors. The films are associated with a book which features the works of 12 internationally-known writers, including five Nobel Prize Winners, and posters designed by arts students. The project was made possible thanks to the commitment and creative support of many individuals, and the financial support of the European Union, the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, and SESC in São Paulo, Brazil.
VIDEO
Dangerous games (From: Stories on Human Rights)
To mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and a non-governmental organisation, Art for the World, commissioned a series of 22 short films created by some of the world's leading directors. The films are associated with a book which features the works of 12 internationally-known writers, including five Nobel Prize Winners, and posters designed by arts students. The project was made possible thanks to the commitment and creative support of many individuals, and the financial support of the European Union, the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, and SESC in São Paulo, Brazil.
DEBATES
On tolerance
In times of economic crisis, when European nations close their borders, expelling legal and illegal immigrants, the philosopher Carlos Thiebaut believes that to speak of tolerance and acceptance may seem bitterly ironic. And yet, it is all the more necessary. We discuss this with Mario Tronco, who with his Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio uplifts the name of one country, Italy, which does not stand out for its respect for immigrants and those who are different.
CULTURE
Dissident Galileo, 400 years later
In December 1609 while observing the sky above Padua, Galileo Galilei carried out his first astronomical observations using a telescope. Exactly four hundred years later we remember this great Western scientist and intellectual, the modernity of his methods, his difficult relationship with the Church, his humanist culture and above all the dramatic choices made by a free dissident forced to recant by a tyrannical power.
NOVEMBER 9, 1989
The day that changed Europe
Twenty years ago, on November 9th 1989, tens of thousands of Berliners crossed the border between the East and the West and started to knock down the wall that for 28 years had divided their city and with it a whole continent. Slowly the people of the East returned to freedom and democracy thanks above all to the courage of Mikhail Gorbaciov and Helmut Kohl. Resetdoc revisits those events that posed the foundations for the reunification of Europe.
MIDDLE EAST
«If the peace process were in the hands of entrepreneurs...»
The son of Jews who survived the World War II Holocaust in Europe, inventor of the Evergreen Investment Funds, with head offices in Tel Aviv, entrepreneur Jacob Burak is now one of the richest men in Israel. His book “Do Chimpanzees Dream of Retirement?” was one of the best-selling books in Israel in recent years. In this interview he speaks of his work, of the need to humanise the world of finance and the peace process between Israel and the Arab world.
POLITICS
The bipolar system of hatred that must be opposed through culture
I do not wish to seem irenical, but there is something more serious going on, almost a tragic destiny. A bipolar system of hatred one cannot avoid and one hard to escape; an element that infiltrates and becomes a founding element of many aspects of Italian life. The antagonism present in the public sphere is also visible in social life. Ours (Italy) is an angry and anxious country. Due to the crisis experienced by the great political and social networks, the breakdown induced by neo- techno-capitalism, people live isolated lives or at best stay within the family circle. Hence the emotive dimension of individuals has become amplified, alone in front of a TV set, reacting to symbolic-personalities and events.
ISLAM
The burkini dilemma
In Verona, Italy, a Moroccan woman was asked to leave a municipal swimming pool because she was wearing a ‘burkini,’ an ‘Islamically correct’ swimsuit. The reason was that she “frightened the children.” The same thing happened a few days earlier not far from Paris. The xenophobe right exalted, the media made comments ranging from expressing concern to amusement, while the public debated the matter. Can the ‘burkini’ really be considered a “Islamic” swimsuit? Does it humiliate women? In the meantime, in Afghanistan...