contexploration

Appiah criticizes the Unesco’s convention on the protection and promotion of cultural diversity: The ethics of globalisation should take individuals - not cultures - as the proper object of moral concern. In a review of the book John Gray writes that Appiah’s “value-pluralism” undercuts the claims of all universal moralities, including liberal morality. Gray concludes that cosmopolitanism has very little bearing on the issue: “The point is that one cannot avoid making a moral judgment, and this inescapably means accepting or rejecting certain religious beliefs. Those who favor gay marriage--as I do--do so because they reject the belief that being gay is in any way bad or wrong.” But then again, maybe Gray is wrong. How should you approach another person’s homophobia, for example? Most will try to make the case for tolerance in a discussion with a homophobic person, but cosmopolitans will eventually leave the bigots with their wild hang-ups intact. Doesn’t this type of respect for an individual’s prejudice represent a healthy alertness against moral imperialism, which is close to what Appiah calls “cosmopolitanism”?

In an excellent article from Neue Züricher Zeitung, Seyla Benhabib writes on changing attitudes in Turkey, where internationalisation, strengthening of the rule of law and multiculturalism is an interconnected process. The society is “experiencing a transition from ‘equality’ understood as ‘sameness,’ to ‘equality’ understood as ‘equality in diversity’” she writes. The article gives a hopeful view of the Copenhagen criteria as a guide to Turkey’s entry into the European Union.

An article from The Guardian points to a report that says Britain’s multiculturalism is making the country more tolerant: “Racist incidents are diminishing fastest where immigrants and their families are most established, while it is the parts of Britain with least experience of immigration - the rural areas, on the whole - that are the most hostile.”

To understand the limits of freedom of speech in Norway in relation to racism better, read the two central Supreme Court verdicts: "Kjuus-saken" PDF, 1997 and "Sjølie-saken" 2002 [plenumsavgjørelser/norsk].

The Iraqi Communist Party has issued an interesting and gloomy statement where it says that: “We have to note, with regret, that the Iraqi democratic forces have not received, in their difficult struggle, effective solidarity and support from international forces of the left. As a result, most of the latter have unfortunately been rendered observers of events, rather than exerting positive influence on the ongoing struggle over the future course of developments in Iraq, especially in supporting the struggle for a democratic prospect, at a time when the Iraqi patriotic and democratic forces are in urgent need for such concrete and multifarious support and solidarity.” The Party opposed the military intervention in 2003, but now supports American military presence until security is established.

To experience love “one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God” according to Pope Benedict XVI’s ‘Encyclical Letter’. It is an interesting read, not only because of the pope's fixed ideas about the nature and origin of love (“eros needs to be disciplined and purified if it is to provide not just fleeting pleasure, but a certain foretaste of the pinnacle of our existence”), but because it contains a discussion of the limits and possibilities of charity and justice, which is important to address from a secular standpoint as well. The key to reading this letter is to treat it as a text written by any cultural theorist. Note that the commandment to “love of neighbour” is in a constant scuffle with the need of practical “indifference” on the individual level as a key to co-existence within the “cosmopolitanism” that Appiah envisions.