2019
April
25
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

April 25, 2019
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Clayton Collins
Director of Editorial Innovation

The strength of a well-functioning community can seem just … organic.

But before you arrive at a set of people who have confident agency, you need someone with a vision for creating it.

You need a local hero – or an aspiring one.

Detroit entrepreneur Raphael Wright understood what a pride-bringing community anchor a good neighborhood grocery could be. It also was not lost on him that his city – with a population that is 80% African American – had no black-owned grocery stores.

So since 2017 he’s been crowdfunding, lining up managers, and laying plans for a major store in Detroit. Meantime, he’s building a small bodega. Mr. Wright’s aim is high.

“It goes back to how you control your community,” he tells Civil Eats. “Whoever feeds you really controls you. And if we’re not in control of that – it’s bigger than just the economic consequence. We lose a piece of our culture.”

In Winchester, Virginia, Erik Jones already had a store. His Four Color Fantasies sells comic books. Mr. Jones’ view of community extends to those in his state who are illiterate, including recent immigrants. He understood how the visual storytelling that fills his shelves could be an especially accessible medium. So he approached his favorite artists at comic conventions for help in creating comics that could teach.

“The worst they could say is no,” he tells Nation Swell. “Everyone I asked said yes.” The results are now being auctioned, with bids rising and winners to be announced May 4. Benefits will go to a local literacy group. Like Mr. Wright, Mr. Jones is feeding a need – and strengthening a community.

Now to our five stories for your Thursday, looking at a peacemaking twist on the Korean Peninsula, ingenuity in opposition tactics in Latin America, and the playoff perseverance of a pro athlete. 


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Mic Smith/AP
Former Vice President Joe Biden takes a selfie following the funeral for former U.S. Sen. Ernest 'Fritz' Hollings at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, April 16. Mr. Biden formally launched his candidacy for president April 25.

Former VPs were once seen almost as presumptive nominees. While Mr. Biden has name recognition and big donors, the fundamentals in politics are shifting. Some wonder if he represents the past more than the future.

Jacob Turcotte/Staff, Photos: AP

Is there now an area in which Russia is not in competition with the U.S.? Our Moscow correspondent offers a look at Vladimir Putin in a mediator’s role.

Florida has been a poster child for election glitches. Yet its efforts since 2016 show both the scope of a nationwide threat of election hacking and paths for states to face that threat.

Sometimes a hard no from authorities just winds up generating a more creative opposition. Nicaraguans aren’t letting a government ban on large-scale protests quiet their calls for fresh elections.

Gerry Broome/AP
Jordan Staal (r.), Justin Williams (c.), and Justin Faulk (l.) of the Carolina Hurricanes celebrate Mr. Staal's goal against the Washington Capitals during the third period of Game 6 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series in Raleigh, N.C., April 22.

Often being the best isn’t as important as being what’s needed in a given moment. That principle was on display during a Wednesday night NHL playoff game.


The Monitor's View

Reuters
Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka pray for the victims of the suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday.

First shock, then flock.

That may be the best way to describe the response of dozens of people standing outside St. Anthony’s Church in Sri Lanka’s capital on Easter Sunday after a terrorist bombing struck Christians worshipping inside. According to press reports, local residents of all faiths and ethnicities rushed to help the victims staggering out of the Catholic church.

“Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian and Hindu citizens of that crowded, oldest, part of the city were the ‘first responders’ even before the emergency services arrived,” stated the Daily News media outlet. “The sheer spontaneity of the people’s immediate collective response symbolized Lanka’s social unity and sheer grit in the face of extreme violence and tragedy.”

This story, along with similar ones about Sri Lankans coming together after the country’s worst terror attack, is worth retelling because it serves an important purpose. Narratives of shared purpose could quell instincts toward retaliation against the minority Muslims, who make up about 10% of the population.

One goal of jihadist bombers is to provoke vicious cycles of revenge in a society and eliminate any coexistence between faiths. Social division can then drive Muslims into extremist violence and toward a final apocalyptic battle. This helps explain why Islamic State (ISIS) took responsibility for the April 21 attacks that killed more than 250 people.

“Intercommunal conflict and schism is precisely what ISIS hopes to provoke,” wrote Alan Keenan, project director in Sri Lanka for the International Crisis Group, about the attack.

“In addition to the Christian community that was the direct target of the bombings,” he adds, “what was attacked was Sri Lanka’s strained but still living tradition of inter-religious and inter-ethnic cooperation and friendship.”

Tales of Sri Lankans uniting after the bombing are starting to create a virtuous cycle that can counter the vicious one. Both Muslims and Buddhist monks have aided Christian mourners. Representatives of Islamic nations have met with Catholic clergy. Religious leaders of all faiths have appealed for calm.

“In a situation of this nature, we should not point our finger at any individual or group holding them responsible for the recent acts of violence. As a united nation, we have to rise from the ashes of destruction,” says one Catholic bishop, Raymond Wickramasinghe.

Last Sunday, after emergency workers arrived at St. Anthony’s Church, the residents who had helped the victims continued to stand together. They held hands and prayed. Like the Easter that had been celebrated in the church, they rose above the scene of death with a different story. They were living out Sri Lanka’s centuries-old tradition of religious harmony. And perhaps such acts can crowd out any cycle of revenge.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

Today’s contributor shares how she prayed during a challenging situation, leading to her doing one of the “many small things” that “many small people in many small places do,” which a Berlin Wall mural says “can alter the face of the world.”


A message of love

Marko Djurica/Reuters
The queen bee is seen on the frame of a hive in a village of Ripanj, Serbia. The country’s bees are being poisoned by insecticides, beekeepers say, with crop losses of $200 million estimated. While Serbia, which wants to join the European Union, has issued strict guidelines on chemicals in agriculture, many farmers ignore them, said Nenad Savic, a beekeeper in Ripanj.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Come back tomorrow. Dominique Soguel will have a report on how Western societies deal with young women who ran off to join ISIS and now want to return home. 

More issues

2019
April
25
Thursday

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