Fernando Vergara / AP, from here
borders and migrations
- Jason DeParle takes a look at the World Bank, in the eighth installment of his globe-trotting series in the New York Times, Border Crossings.
- New York City accents, from the free daily AM New York. (Feb. 20: I'm late to it, but if you haven't come across this, give a listen.)
- The bizarre spectacle of the concert "Paz Sin Fronteras" on a border bridge between Colombia and Venezuela. Estimates put more than 100,000 people swarming in the mud pit below the bridge. El Tiempo has splashed news of the concert across its front page all weekend. But did these "chancellors of peace" really succeed in "making the border forgotten" by wearing white? One unhappy partier in this story: President Alvaro Uribe, who was asked by organizer Juanes not to attend. "We're neutral," the rocker said in reference to the concert, "and this is not a political act."
- Tangentially related, but worth a read: Keith Gessen's look at meritocracy hypocrisy, in the Sunday Book Review.
