Society and Culture

In Hollywood, North Korea means drama. Films like The Interview (2014) or Red Dawn (2012) entertain and alarm at the same time. The fictional story of an attempt by CIA agents to assassinate Kim Jong-un, The Interview caused North Korea to mount a cyberattack on the distributor, Sony Pictures Entertainment. In Red Dawn, a group of American high school students stand up against North Korean troops invading the U.S. mainland.

How a Plan to Save the National Museum Failed

The root of the problem: governance.

By Mariana Barbosa, Brazil Journal

Approximately 20 years ago, businessman Israel Klabin received an 80 million dollar check from the World Bank to renovate and modernize the National Museum of Brazil. A team of volunteers came together to begin work on an initial project for renovation to be presented to the bank.                

Today, we live in a world of increasing democratic backsliding and attacks on free speech are not uncommon. Pakistan is no different–print or media journalists who are perceived to have crossed certain red-lines can face censorship and intimidation while the media houses that employ them could be financially undercut. As the Pakistani state cracks down on the mainstream media, social media has become a bastion of critical voices, but now the Pakistani authorities have turned their attention to social media and bloggers are facing similar consequences.

The concept of environmentalism has changed over time. Initially focused on flora and fauna, conservation efforts increasingly strive to include the populations who have traditionally inhabited these lands. The change was partially prompted by criticism of traditional conservation strategies, which tend to follow Yellowstone’s top-down approach to conservation that favors extremely limited land use by local populations.