2023
May
02
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

May 02, 2023
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When I was 6, I found independence in journeys to my grandfather’s house, two blocks away. I would hop on my bike and head over for a mini Horizon chocolate milk.

My brothers and I called him Dad-dad, and so did our friends. We knew we could stop by anytime for a treat, or for tea and cookies at 4 p.m. An accomplished woodworker, he finished an eave in his attic, intuiting correctly that it was a perfect space for forts.

“We knew we had a haven there,” said my brother Sam. “And a lot of goodies.”

Sam and a friend, Olivia, said nearly identical things when I asked about memories of neighborliness in Silver Spring, Maryland: “I was always being sent to a neighbor’s to borrow ingredients” and “there was not a day that we were not outside.”

I cherish these memories, but what I cherish most is my grandfather’s curiosity and openness, and his joy to see children knock at the door, whether they were his grandkids or not. In the years since, friends have told me they would stop by Dad-dad’s even without me.

It’s explained by both privilege and a different era that my brothers and our friends were free to play tag across an entire block’s worth of yards, or knock on doors without thinking twice. And while that environment of trust isn’t one the majority of Americans enjoy, it is one many are trying to cultivate.

Michael Dolan, author of a book on porches, invited me not only onto his porch, but also into his living room to discuss today’s story on porch culture. I had a very different experience door-knocking near my old neighborhood, where the few people who did answer the door were standoffish and curt. No one is obligated to talk to a reporter, but it is strange to live in a time where we regard anyone on our front step with suspicion.

As Mr. Dolan explained to me, a culture of neighborliness is inseparable from one where people feel safe. My grandfather had a wide-open heart for the humanity in everyone, and that made kids and adults feel comfortable with him. That was his strength, and I’m starting to think it’s also the key to neighborliness.


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Today's stories

And why we wrote them

To ease its pivot to Asia, the U.S. largely outsourced diplomacy in Sudan. Now, faced with the threat of worsening violence and instability, it must reassess its priorities. Can it achieve both peace and democracy for the Sudanese people?

Story Hinckley/The Christian Science Monitor
Nikki Haley speaks to voters at the "Women for Nikki" launch event in Des Moines, Iowa, April 11, 2023.

The former South Carolina governor could be uniquely positioned to unite the GOP’s warring factions. All she needs is for the front-runners to fail.

Sophie Hills/The Christian Science Monitor
People gather in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington to watch one of 100 performances during PorchFest on April 29, 2023.

Why do some people view a doorbell ringing as a threat? Meet the Americans embracing porch culture and trying to keep a sense of neighborliness and fellow feeling alive in a society with an epidemic of loneliness.

Why does the richest country in the world have so much poverty? Pulitzer Prize-winner Matthew Desmond argues that ending poverty in the United States is a moral choice.

Courtesy of The Dream Journey
The Dream Journey team visits classical musicians in their homes and posts recordings of their music onto YouTube. Their next listening tour is planned for late 2023.

The cultural effects of an oppressive regime can linger for generations. But in Pakistan, a collective of music lovers is reviving the country’s musical heritage and spreading joy across borders.


The Monitor's View

Now in its third week, a civil war in Sudan between competing armed forces has something working against it: a high degree of hospitality in neighboring countries toward people fleeing the violence as well as gratitude for those assisting the exodus and offering sanctuary. The world saw a similar response in Europe just 14 months ago toward Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion. That compassion helped fortify Ukraine’s morale.

The United Nations warns that 800,000 people could soon leave Africa’s third most populous nation, up from the more than 100,000 people who have already fled to neighboring countries such as Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan. More than 330,000 are internally displaced. The prospect of even greater outflows helps explain why so many officials are thankful for any sort of welcome mat across Sudan’s borders.

“Chad has been generously welcoming in Sudanese refugees,” says David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee. In Egypt, people have “opened their homes and everyone is racing for free full hospitality” while the Sudanese refugees insist they pay for their accommodation “so as not to become a burden on the Egyptians,” according to the EMEA Tribune. In addition, the U.N. thanked France for help in evacuating its personnel while Germany thanked Egypt for assisting 700 people of 40 countries to exit.

Sudanese are also aiding their own, especially people from the capital where the fighting is fierce and who have headed toward Port Sudan. “Every village & town we passed thru people would come out with their kerkade (hibiscus) juice and cold water for the ‘Khartoum travellers’,” tweeted one Sudanese woman. Near the Egyptian border, one woman living in a mud hut offers bread to the displaced people. “We will welcome any guest who comes to us. Generosity exists and goodness exists,” Naamat Jabal Sayyid Hasan told Africanews.

The northeast region of Africa has experienced so many conflicts that most of the countries have long hosted refugees from the others. Last week, the African Union asked Sudan’s neighbors and its international partners to “facilitate the transit” of civilians fleeing the violence “without hindrance.” It was a subtle reminder to keep expressing the generosity that already largely exists.


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.

Praying from the basis of our identity as God’s spiritual offspring can stop cycles of anxiety for good.


Viewfinder

Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters
A man sits in a digger's bucket in an agricultural field near Hrakove, Ukraine, from which he operates a demining machine (not pictured) created by Oleksandr Kryvtsov, a general manager at a local agricultural company. Mr. Kryvtsov retrofitted a tractor with armored plates from destroyed Russian military vehicles to clear land that was littered with mines by former Russian occupiers. He was motivated by the need to sow crops and the fact that professional deminers were too busy elsewhere. So far, he told Reuters, the protective armor has needed to be repaired, but the tractor continues to work and no one has been injured.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Please come back tomorrow, when we’ll have a review of a probing spiritual memoir, “Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming,” by Peter Enns.

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2023
May
02
Tuesday

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