2021
May
05
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

May 05, 2021
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

The Christian Science Monitor is a peculiar publication. It doesn’t exist simply to tell the news. It exists to prove the power of journalism to uplift the world – showing that one can engage with the news without losing hope or humanity. So every day, Monitor reporters and editors begin their day with a simple question: What does the world need most from the Monitor?

When we asked that question recently, the answer was to start a new project on respect. Why respect? Because while the high goal is to love one’s neighbor, sometimes a simpler first step is needed. In a time of historic partisanship and broad disinformation, even that simpler step of respect can seem prohibitively hard. Also, respect is complicated. Sometimes it is used as a cudgel to force submission as much as a waypoint to deeper love and understanding.

Starting today, the Monitor will examine the graces and complexities of respect in a half-dozen stories spread out over the next three weeks. We open with Harry Bruinius looking at what respect is and its historical importance to our public dialogue. Along the way we’ll look at education, politics, race, and the tension between religious and gay rights.

But most important, we will look for where respect is operating and how it can begin to open hearts and transform adversaries, revealing ways forward. We hope you will read along and share your feedback with us at editor@csmonitor.com.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

A deeper look

Respect is a core civic value to American democracy, but it can also be used as a tool of repression. As a fractured nation seeks to knit itself together, the ability to disagree yet not hate is seen as essential. This is part of the Monitor’s Respect Project.

Ann Hermes/Staff
Incorporating current events into her classroom – and digging deeper to address topics like power, bias, and racism – is something Nafeesah Muhammad, an English language arts teacher at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis, believes is essential in order to connect with her students and help them succeed.

The murder of George Floyd jolted many educators to prioritize teaching about structural racism and social justice – and resulted in pushback over student “indoctrination.” Minneapolis schools offer a window.

Heidi Levine/Special to The Christian Science Monitor
Ibrahim Abbassi stands on the roof of his family's home in East Jerusalem, May 1, 2021. It's a two-story, 200-year-old stone house built into the foot of a hill in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem, just outside the Old City walls. Behind his home, Israeli flags and an oversize Star of David hang on one of the buildings where a group of Jewish Israelis moved in, part of a contentious campaign to change the demographics of East Jerusalem.

Jerusalem’s recent riots punctured a facade of calm that obscures deep fault lines. As Jews seek to change the city’s demographics, Palestinians see their cultural and political life suppressed.

Essay

Ann Hermes//Staff
Carl Chan, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce has been dubbed the "mayor" of Chinatown for his outspoken advocacy for Chinatown residents and businesses, April 7, 2021, Oakland, California.

Sometimes an event moves a supporting character onto center stage. That happened recently to someone our reporter had interviewed, and it shined a light on his heart and humanity.

Points of Progress

What's going right

In our global progress roundup, intense efforts by volunteers as well as scientists are protecting animal life, from vulnerable turtles nesting in Cyprus to pollinators that need more habitats in the U.K.


The Monitor's View

Reuters
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele speaks to foreign ambassadors at the Presidential House May 3.

During a visit to Ukraine this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will no doubt deal with Russia’s military threat to its neighbor. Yet the top American diplomat may be more focused on what he often calls the “internal threat” to Ukraine – the vast corruption that undermines its democracy.

The United States has long used its extraterritorial powers to influence Ukraine’s anti-graft direction. It has imposed sanctions on Ukrainian oligarchs and leaned on the International Monetary Fund to withhold a $5 billion loan. Now the Biden administration wants to ensure Ukraine, which seeks to become a U.S. ally, finally adopts honest governance under President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“We’ve stressed for many years in our efforts to help Ukraine that the key reforms in terms of transparency, in terms of fighting corruption, are what will be most important to Ukraine’s stability and future progress,” says acting U.S. Assistant Secretary Philip Reeker for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

The Biden administration faces a similar task in Central America. Just five weeks after the president assigned Vice President Kamala Harris to reduce immigration from the region, she faces a crisis of corruption in El Salvador.

On May 1, President Nayib Bukele and his ruling party in the legislature removed all five justices of the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court. The move was widely seen as a way to block anti-corruption investigations of top officials. Ms. Harris said the U.S. “must respond” to this judicial coup, although she did not say how.

President Joe Biden has promised to invest $4 billion in Central America. Yet, said Ms. Harris, “We will not make significant progress if corruption in the region persists. If corruption persists, history has told us it will be one step forward and two steps back. We know corruption causes government institutions to collapse from within, preventing people from getting their children educated, from getting a business started, from getting a fair trial.”

These events in Ukraine and El Salvador illustrate how much the U.S. leads the world in battling corruption and encouraging people in other nations to demand equality before the law and an end to impunity. For decades, its most effective tool has been the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA. The law targets companies with a U.S. presence that engage in bribery. It also provides a strong incentive for American companies to keep their hands clean overseas.

The number of prosecutions under FCPA has risen in recent years. And the law’s success inspired the United Kingdom to pass a similar measure in 2010. The U.S. has worked with more than a dozen countries in prosecuting cases. Its share of global anti-corruption enforcement actions is 66%, according to Trace, a business association dedicated to good governance.

“The fact that more countries are opening more investigations into possible transnational bribery occurring within their own borders is a promising sign that enforcement authorities globally are building investigative capacity and taking anti-corruption seriously,” says Trace President Alexandra Wrage.

FCPA’s greatest impact may be in ensuring American companies set a good example – which can give them a competitive advantage in winning foreign contracts. “I’ve seen countries say, ‘We’re going to use an American company to build this road because we know that that contract was not obtained through illicit means,’” says Jose Fernandez, a Biden nominee to become an undersecretary of state.

The long arm of U.S. law, along with pressure on countries to reform, touches a universal desire for honesty. Steadily, the U.S. can set a new world norm.


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.

A spiritual understanding of what we are leaves no room for conflict or division based on our uniqueness.


A message of love

Charles Krupa/AP
Boston Red Sox's Xander Bogaerts high-fives teammates while being pushed in a laundry cart through the dugout after his two-run home run against the Detroit Tigers during the second inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston on May 4, 2021.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow when we look at how the pandemic has affected universities’ efforts to bring in students of all backgrounds – and what universities are doing to push forward.

More issues

2021
May
05
Wednesday

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