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People expect a lot from science—that it will eradicate disease, put us in contact with aliens, create robots that do our laundry—but the claims sometimes border on extravagant. In a New York Times essay this week, Dennis Overbye continues this trend by arguing that science (what he calls the “most successful human activity of all time”) elevates democracy. Because science does not purport to provide ethical guidance, he says, it transcends the divisions of culture and creed to bring people together...
...with insurgents in the south and east in order to demonstrate that a Taliban victory is far from inevitable. Karzai has been cool to any addition of foreign troops and has urged that if they do come, they should be deployed along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. But Karzai's preferences are unlikely to decide the issue: the New York Times reports that "the Obama Administration would work with provincial leaders as an alternative to the central government" in order to reinforce stepped-up combat efforts. (See pictures of Pakistan's vulnerable North-West passage...
Overwhelmingly Christian, the Chin live in the impoverished mountains near the India-Burma border. An armed wing of the Chin National Front, which was founded in 1988, is one of the few remaining forces waging an insurgency against the ruling junta, but it has been accused by human-rights groups of mistreating its own people. Like the Rohingya, the Chin claim the junta persecutes them in part because of their religious beliefs. Most Chin are American Baptists, having been converted by missionaries in the 19th century. Although tens of thousands of Chin are believed to have sought refuge in India...
...Buddhist, the Karen have been plagued by internal strife between rival factions over the past couple of decades. A general ceasefire framework with the central government is in place but occasional flashpoints of fighting still occur. Karen villagers, who tend to live in the Irrawaddy Delta and in the border region between Burma and Thailand, have been victims of forced relocation and labor programs run by the Burmese military...
Congo is the land Rwanda left behind. At the border, the road turns from asphalt to mud and grit. Rwandan officials are famous for their incorruptibility, but Congolese immigration shook me down. Beyond lies the city of Goma, a sprawl of tin- and grass-roofed huts and refugee camps...