2023
July
31
Monday

Monitor Daily Podcast

July 31, 2023
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Ken Makin
Cultural commentator

Boston Celtics star guard Jaylen Brown has worn the city’s name on his heart for the past seven seasons. Last week, on the heels of securing the biggest contract in NBA history, Mr. Brown wore something new on his heart: a shirt with a word that spoke to what he planned to do with his newfound wealth – “BRIDGE.”

In a news conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, Mr. Brown said he wanted to close the wealth gap and “bring Black Wall Street to Boston.” It was a callback to the prominent Tulsa, Oklahoma, neighborhood, which was violently brought down by white rioters. “Being an athlete, you have a lot of influence in your community, and if you use it responsibly, you can make the world a better place,” Mr. Brown told CBS News.

For years, Mr. Brown has attacked defenses with his athleticism. But his activism has proven to be just as daunting. In 2020, he drove 15 hours to Atlanta, just outside of his hometown in Marietta, Georgia, to lead a Black Lives Matter protest. A few months later, he was one of the leading voices in support of the Milwaukee Bucks’ wildcat strike.

His on-court efforts have placed the Celtics at the cusp of a championship. His off-court efforts are trending in a similar fashion and may soon draw comparisons to the likes of Bill Russell and Jim Brown, who were key figures in the Civil Rights Movement.

Mr. Brown’s $300 million contract can’t cure systemic racism. But imagine if Mr. Brown’s conscientiousness caught on – among not just millionaires, but everyone. The type of community care that sees inequity and dares to change it for the better is indeed the bridge to a better tomorrow.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

U.S.-Israel relations, it has long been said, reflect shared values as well as interests. Now the deep turmoil in Israel over legislation that some fear weakens democracy shows signs of having an impact on both.

With artificial intelligence advancing at lightning speed, many experts, and increasingly policymakers, say that Washington needs to move faster than usual on regulation and oversight.

Colette Davidson
Freelancers in the W'in Coworking offices in Nantes, June 7, 2023, say they appreciate the calming energy of the space, installed in the former Marie-Réparatrice Chapel.

France has too many empty church buildings. No one wants to tear them down, but how do towns find new purposes for them while navigating sensitivities about those new roles?

Books

A novelist with deep regard for his fellow North Carolinians delivers a clear-eyed critique of the blindspots of the South – both past and present.  

Difference-maker

Sawyer Pollard
Diane Hammer maneuvers a kayak as other members of Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage hunt for trash during a cleanup at Mares Pond, near Falmouth, Massachusetts, July 15, 2023.

The goal, says the founder of Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage, is to show that older women, working as a team, can do a lot more than people might think. The experience, participants say, is one of reverence.


The Monitor's View

REUTERS
A Somali trader winnows wheat imported from Ukraine at the Bakara open air market in Mogadishu, Somalia July 15.

A military coup in Niger last week – the 10th attempted in Africa since 2020 and the seventh to succeed – has brought swift reprisals. The European Union suspended financial aid and security cooperation to the West African country. Neighboring leaders yesterday threatened military intervention unless the junta restores the democratic government within a week.

Those responses underscore how African and international leaders have become increasingly impatient with what appears to be a backsliding of democracy on the continent. If or when the rebellious generals in Niger back down, however, their decision may be influenced more by Africa’s changing mental atmosphere than by military might or diplomatic isolation.

Published just days before the coup in Niger, a United Nations study of causes and responses to unconstitutional power grabs based on interviews with 8,000 people across Africa found “in a compelling manner that tolerance for ongoing inequality, government under-performance and elite self-enrichment is sharply waning across the continent.”

The study found that poor governance – measured by high levels of corruption, weak security, and uneven economic opportunity – elevates the risk that governments may be overthrown. Only 11% of the Africans surveyed expressed a preference for nondemocratic forms of rule. Inclusive development, particularly for women and youth, the study found, “is prevention, and prevention means peace.”

One country that may be starting to model that route toward stability is Somalia. It fell into dysfunction following the collapse of its long-ruling military regime in 1991 and has seen dozens of failed attempts at restoring the rule of law ever since. In the absence of a strong, central government, the Islamist extremist group Al Shabab extended its control over large parts of the country partly by setting up its own courts to give people access to justice.

Now, a new central government is trying to rebuild democratic institutions, starting with the judiciary. In early July, the country opened its first anti-corruption trial in decades against four top government officials. To boost transparency, the proceedings are televised. The trial follows the adoption of a package of new anti-corruption measures signed into law earlier this year. And those reforms coincide with electoral reforms that will base future elections on the votes of individuals rather than clan elders.

These are fledgling steps, but they mark an attempt to build a more inclusive society based on equality and the rule of law. “We cannot forget the painful past but we can forgive,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said during his swearing-in last year. “We do not need grudges. No avenging.”

For the international community, Niger was seen as a last bulwark against the spread of Islamic extremism across West Africa. Both France and the United States have forces stationed there. As much as the coup poses a challenge for African leaders defending democracy, it offers the international community a nudge for rethinking its security priorities. As the think tank Responsible Statecraft noted last year following a coup in Niger’s neighbor Burkina Faso, outside governments should help African leaders “concentrate on helping civilians.”

Another coup notwithstanding, Africa’s democratic future rests on the highest qualities of governance that its citizens increasingly seek.


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.

Considering others the way God sees them opens the door to reconciliation and harmony, as a woman experienced after a rocky start with her college roommates.


Viewfinder

Bruna Prado/AP
A woman dances during the Black Women's March against racism, violence, and oppression, at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, July 30, 2023.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thank you for spending time with the Monitor today. Please come back tomorrow when we look at a profile in leadership. For members of the group Heirs of Slavery, the first step toward confronting ancestors’ uncomfortable legacy is humility.

More issues

2023
July
31
Monday

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