Pearsall's Books

I'm moving back to London tomorrow, and I won't be posting for a bit as I am then leaving on Friday for Greece, where my cousin is getting married. I'll be back in London on the 28th, when I will get back into the swing of things.

Before I go, though, here are some links (some new, some old) for your consideration:

A fascinating translation of an interview with Singapore's former Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew. Fascinating on the question of China's rise and on the future of relations between the different nations of the North Pacific. He holds the quite provocative view that democracy is unworkable in multiracial societies; I'm not so sure that I agree, this opinion seems more like a post-facto justification for Lee's autocracy.

The Pub Philosopher on the warp speed migration of Somalis to Leicester over the last several years, which reminded me of a 2002 article by Jonathan Tilove on the settlement of Somalis in Lewiston, Maine (I have to admit to a certain irritation when one of the Somali leaders says one of the main reasons for choosing Lewiston was its generous welfare system).

David McDuff has linked to grim overview on the prevalence of nationalism and ethnic bigotry in Russia.

Curious about the origins of a sizeable chunk of Britain's Pakistani population? Have a read of this article about Mirpur, the Kashmiri region that was (and is) home to the largest slice of Pakistani immigrants to Britain.

Thabet from Muslims Under Progress on the difficulties of overlaying a Protestant/Catholic dichotomy on the Muslim Sunni/Shia schism.

And, finally, were humans responsible for the extinction 10,000 years ago in the Americas of megafauna such as mammoths and sabre-tooth tigers? Recent research suggests so.