Michael May
Michael May is the former managing editor of the Texas Observer, and his radio pieces have aired on programs such as This American Life and Marketplace, among others. After tracking down the only Russian swing band conductor to perform during the Stalin years and having his piece aired on NPR’s All Things Considered, May quit his job and declared himself a journalist. He has explored tensions between Israelis and Palestinians over shared water resources and reported on Bolivian prisoners who live with their families and hold jobs, including manufacturing cocaine to sell to visiting tourists. May prefers traveling as a journalist to tourism, because it gives him an excuse to follow his curiosity.
The wide world of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, from Brooklyn to Tibet
Yauch provided a rough and aggressive rumble that roared through the speakers. But his Beastie persona obscured the person who spent the last 20 years as a committed Buddhist and helped make "Free Tibet" a rallying cry for cyncial Gen-xers....
A race for re-election? Israel likely to go to the ballot before the U.S.
Some have speculated that Netanyahu wants to move the election date up before the U.S. elections in November. If Obama wins, he might up the pressure on Netanyahu to make a deal with the Palestinians. ...
From Jakarta or Mars? The answer is Zeke Khaseli
What do you get when you cross Beck, the Flaming Lips and Indonesia? The remarkably strange stylings of this Indonesian youngster. Khaseli is a testament to the creative melting pot of our wired world, and the dawn of multi-media rock-and-roll.
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From Colombia: Secret Service exploits, and the sound of champeta
Secret Service agents are trained for all sorts of situations. But they perhaps were unprepared for the force of Cartagena's party culture and the local booty-shaking rhythm champeta....
Did Nigeria’s D’banj sell out when he crossed over to U.S.?
He's good with Oliver Twist, Mr. Endowed or the Koko Master. But here's why Nigeria's D'Banj won't be known as Daniel Banjo anymore....
Tarek Mehanna is defiant before being sentenced for terrorism
At the sentencing of Tarek Mehanna, an Egyptian American convicted of traveling to Yemen in search of terror camps and translating and posting Jihadist documents online, the judge, prosecution and defense all agreed: this case was different than other terror cases....
Weird World Roundup: pandas, Russian patriarchs’ bling and lots of snakes
It's a weird, weird world, and every Saturday we bring you a few of the strangest stories we've come across this week...
Hindi pop star turns American teenagers into insane dancing freakazoids
A Hindi pop hit has become an Internet phenomenon. Beware: the gyrations of Daler Mehndi are very, very addictive....
The Arab Spring has a dope beat
Fight the Power? That's what Khaled M, Omar Offendum and other artists do via their hip hop-fueled protest songs. Don't believe the hype? Have a listen....
As Obama and Netanyahu meet, Israel is split on Iran
One rumor making the rounds in Israel: “Sometime between early June and mid-August, just before the Republican nominating convention, will be the ideal moment to drag the United States into war, the planners believe.”...
GPS condoms, unwed Australian moms and lesbian bonobos
You can now plot your (safe) sex life on the web. In Australia, coming to grips with a legacy of shameful treatment of unwed mothers, and in Africa, a look at the social life of its gayest apes....
Stories to watch: U.S., Egypt fight over NGO prosecutions
An Egyptian writer says that if the United States was really concerned about civil society and freedom of expression, then it would have raised a similar hue and cry over the imprisonments, deaths and injuries of protestors under the transitional government....
Syrians sing for freedom
In Syria today, singing the wrong song can bring a death sentence. Here's the revolution in song, including a rousing performance of a revolutionary chant that cost the singer his life....
Syrian Americans join the revolution at home
Here are the stories of two Syrian Americans turned activists: An immunologist in Chicago who spent 12 years being tortured by the Assad regime and is just now speaking out. And a poet in Arkansas who decided to take a risk and boarded a plane ...
Tinariwen rocks the Tuareg rebellion
It isn't every day that a separatist movement produces a great band. Listen, learn and enjoy!...
Estonian lawmaker says Facebook is “running out of space.”
Estonia is known as one of the most digitally savvy countries in the world. They’ve issued national ID cards that link to web profiles, and citizens can use them to pay their taxes, feed parking meters and share cute kitten videos (or at least two out of the three). So, it’s not surprising that Minister ...
Orthodox women fight the power
In Israel, a new feminist group is rising up to challenge an extremist—and patriarchal—worldview. But these feminists are Orthodox Jewish women, and they’re backed by a host of sympathetic Orthodox rabbis. The move is a reaction to a growing radicalism in the Orthodox community in Israel, which has led to a series of scandals in ...
Protestors wear blackface in South Africa
Talk about the medium overshadowing the message: White protestors in South Africa wore blackface on Monday to protest what they derided as “racial targets” in education here. The protest took place in front of the country’s Department of Education to protest the affirmative action policies at the Veterinary Science Faculty of the University of Pretoria, ...
Israelis make fun of Americans on tour with Birthright Israel
For many American Jews, Birthright Israel has become almost a rite of passage. The program gives Jews between the ages of 18 to 26 a free 10-day trip to Israel, with obligatory stops at the Western Wall and the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem. The goal of the organization is lofty—connecting the Jewish diaspora with their ...
Hollywood visits Africa with a gun and a Bible
The Hollywood movie, “Machine Gun Preacher,” has just opened in South Africa. The film dramatizes the true-life exploits of American Sam Childers, a criminal turned born-again Christian who spreads the gospel, and, yes, machine-gun fire, in Uganda and Southern Sudan. The movie was panned by critics when it opened in the U.S. last fall. But ...
Amsterdam Orthodox suspend Rabbi over anti-gay statement
Orthodox Jews generally agree that they’re against homosexuality. But a story out of the Netherlands today shows that the country’s reputation for tolerance extends into the synagogue. The chief rabbi of Amsterdam, Aryeh Ralbag, signed a statement in the U.S. saying that homosexuality was “not an acceptable lifestyle” and that “same-sex attraction can be modified ...
Cyberwar heats up in the Middle East
A cyber-war between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli hackers is heating up. A group calling itself “Nightmare” targeted the Israeli stock exchange and El Al, the national airline on Monday, January 16. Nightmare launched “denial of service” attacks, which overwhelm a website with requests and messages, on Monday, and disrupted both sites. This latest cyber squabble began ...
Who hates Nelson Mandela?
Who could hate Nelson Mandela, arguably the most revered politician alive? Well, apparently some South Africans. Not white South Africans pining for the good old days. No, the harshest words for the man who led the country out of Apartheid come from Black activists. Brent Meersman, a columnist for South Africa’s Mail and Guardian, wrote ...
U.S. efforts to promote gay rights abroad sparks African backlash
As the Republican primaries have shown, the culture war—and particularly the battle over gay rights—has taken a back seat to bread-and-butter issues like the economy and the national debt. Not so in Africa. In fact, American evangelical groups and gay rights organizations have taken their battle overseas. Most infamously, a few Christian evangelicals found common ...
The ANC at 100: sold out or just upwardly mobile?
This weekend, South Africa’s African National Congress, or the ANC, celebrated its 100th anniversary by spending millions on lavish parties. The party of Nelson Mandela even splurged for a round of golf at a luxury club. All this just a stone’s throw from the small church where the party was founded a century ago. The ...
South Africans riled up after execution in China
This week South Africa got the “rare opportunity to bemoan the supposed failings of another nation,” as William Saunderson-Meyer, a columnist for the Mail & Guardian put it....
Tarek Mehanna: From suburban teenager to convicted terrorist
It’s unusual for an accused terrorist to have an American fan base. But that’s the situation with Tarek Mehanna, a second-generation Egyptian American...
Africa’s digital revolution
In a piece posted on South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, writer and advertising executive Rick de Kock argues that there’s a digital revolution happening across Africa – even though technology and social media hit Africa much later than the developed world. Over the past decade, according to De Kock, cell phone use has increased by ...
Despite distractions, Oprah’s academy graduates its first class
Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls, a school for impoverished girls in South Africa, just graduated its first class of 72 students. From its inception five years ago, the $40 million dollar facility has faced criticism. It was called too posh for poor African girls, derided for creating an expectation that being a leader means ...
Neurotic in Johannesburg
It’s not everyday that you see the TV show Desperate Housewives and African-American writer James Baldwin cited in the same piece—and in the South African press to boot. The young white blogger Jason Hickel invoked both in his hotly debated editorial, “Rich, White and Crazy,” about widespread neurosis gripping the wealthy white suburbs of Johannesburg. ...
Occupy the world
The Occupy Wall Street protests remain at this point an expression of rage against income inequality in the United States. It’s a burgeoning movement in search of platform. And, as such, it remains open to interpretation, just like the Arab Spring that preceded it. In the United States, the media alternately casts the protesters as ...
