2014년 12월 30일 화요일

Year-End Roundup: Best Blogs Of 2014

LDPOST YEAR-END ROUNDUP
Best Blogs Of 2014
WorldPost Illustration
Historians may look back and see 2014 as the tipping point when the world started falling apart instead of coming together.

Visionary scientists remain enthusiastic that, thanks to converging new technologies from artificial intelligence to regenerative medicine, genetic synthesis and green energy, our civilization is on the threshold of a new and harmonious singularity. Yet, all around us the signs of splintering abound in revived nationalisms, ardent religious wars and the reappearance of geopolitical blocs. Even the global connectivity of the Internet once thought to embody a world spirit is balkanizing.

At this contested historical moment, the open mind of Malala meets the caliphate dogma of Boko Haram, the Islamic State and the child-massacring Pakistani Taliban. The hopeful Xi-Obama deal on climate change meets obstructionist deniers at home in Congress. The other AI -- authentic ignorance -- is aggressively asserting itself. The good news is that vaccines are conquering the world. But impoverished urban hot zones in West Africa are nourishing the spreading Ebola epidemic.

The Syria carnage goes on. Another Gaza war has generated even more hatred. The U.S. is sending troops back into the Middle East. Desperate immigrants are drowning at sea. China and Japan are rattling each other's historical nerves. Putin is trespassing on the post-Cold War rules. North Korea is threatening American moviegoers with a 9/11 type attack. It is no wonder Pope Francis declared earlier this year that we are already in "a piecemeal World War III." 

Since launching in Davos last January, The WorldPost has been one place where first person voices from around the world have met to address whether we are headed toward a new Renaissance of human flourishing or back into the Dark Ages.

In this year-end review, and on the current blog rail, we highlight only an eclectic sampling of some of The WorldPost's best and most popular blogs and interviews among the hundreds we have published in the year gone by.

Yo-Yo Ma gives us a rare look behind the cello into his views on creativity and the mind. Turkish novelist Elif Shafak makes an urgent appeal for the "cosmopolitan ideal" to fight resurgent nationalism. Jack Miles, editor of the acclaimed Norton Anthology of World Religions, looks back at the wars within Christianity as a guide to how the wars within Islam will finally come to a conclusion. MI6 legend Alastair Crooke explains the Saudi Wahhabist roots of ISIS.

Tesla and Space X entrepreneur Elon Musk discusses the key innovations that will change our lives.

Indian novelist Chetan Bhagat takes on the recent rape epidemic in his country, which conservatives have blamed on women because of the way they dress. Bina Shah writes about how women's bodies have become the "ultimate battleground" of the wars in 2014.

Bill Gates has some good news to share: Vaccines are conquering the world. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim reports that, for the first time, more Latin Americans are middle class than poor.

Historian Walter Russell Mead asks whether we are now in a "pre-war" instead of a "post-war" period. Russian analyst Artyom Lukin spins out a scenario for WWIII in 2034 if the present geopolitical conflicts consolidate into new rival blocs. In an exclusive interview with The WorldPost, Chinese President Xi Jinping raises the peril of the historical conflict between rising and established world powers. On the other end of the hierarchy, Chinese college students offer WorldPost Senior Editor Kathleen Miles their surprising views about America.

In an interview, Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk explains the concept behind his Museum of Innocence in Istanbul, "a museum for the person, not for power." Before she passed away this year, South African Nobel laureateNadine Gordimer talked with The WorldPost about her "post-Mandela disillusion."

Rock musician Moby makes the case against eating meat. Genome mapping pioneer Craig Venter explains why we are on the brink "of a new phase of [human] evolution." And Mexican poet Homero Aridjis cries "Enough!" over the impunity and corruption in his country that led to the horrific massacre of 43 students in Iguala by drug gangs linked to local authorities. 

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