Category: English

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Aarushi Bhandari, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Davidson College

In 2001, social theorist bell hooks warned about the dangers of a loveless zeitgeist. In “All About Love: New Visions,” she lamented “the lack of an ongoing public discussion … about the practice of love in our culture and in our lives.”

Back then, the internet was at a crossroads. The dot-com crash had bankrupted many early internet companies, and people wondered if the technology was long for this world.

The doubts were unfounded. In only a few decades, the internet has merged with our bodies as smartphones and mined our personalities via algorithms that know us more intimately than some of our closest friends. It has even constructed a secondary social world.

Yet as the internet has become more integrated in our daily lives, few would describe it as a place of love, compassion and cooperation. Study after study describe how social media platforms promote alienation and disconnection – in part because many algorithms reward behaviors like trolling, cyberbullying and outrage.

Is the internet’s place in human history cemented as a harbinger of despair? Or is there still hope for an internet that supports collective flourishing?

Algorithms and alienation

I explore these questions in my new book, “Attention and Alienation.”

In it, I explain how social media companies’ profits depend on users investing their time, creativity and emotions. Whether it’s spending hours filming content for TikTok or a few minutes crafting a thoughtful Reddit comment, participating on these platforms takes work. And it can be exhausting.

Even passive engagement – like scrolling through feeds and “lurking” in forums – consumes time. It might feel like free entertainment – until people recognize they are the product, with their data being harvested and their emotions being manipulated.

Blogger, journalist and science fiction writer Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshittification” to describe how experiences on online platforms gradually deteriorate as companies increasingly exploit users’ data and tweak their algorithms to maximize profits.

For these reasons, much of people’s time spent online involves dealing with toxic interactions or mindlessly doomscrolling, immersed in dopamine-driven feedback loops.

This cycle is neither an accident nor a novel insight. Hate and mental illness fester in this culture because love and healing seem to be incompatible with profits.

Care hiding in plain sight

In his 2009 book “Envisioning Real Utopias,” the late sociologist Erik Olin Wright discusses places in the world that prioritize cooperation, care and egalitarianism.

Wright mainly focused on offline systems like worker-owned cooperatives. But one of his examples lived on the internet: Wikipedia. He argued that Wikipedia demonstrates the ethos “from each according to ability, to each according to need” – a utopian ideal popularized by Karl Marx.

Wikipedia still thrives as a nonprofit, volunteer-ran bureaucracy. The website is a form of media that is deeply social, in the literal sense: People voluntarily curate and share knowledge, collectively and democratically, for free. Unlike social media, the rewards are only collective.

There are no visible likes, comments or rage emojis for participants to hoard and chase. Nobody loses and everyone wins, including the vast majority of people who use Wikipedia without contributing work or money to keep it operational.

Building a new digital world

Wikipedia is evidence of care, cooperation and love hiding in plain sight.

In recent years, there have been more efforts to create nonprofit apps and websites that are committed to protecting user data. Popular examples include Signal, a free and open source instant messaging service, and Proton Mail, an encrypted email service.

These are all laudable developments. But how can the internet actively promote collective flourishing?

In “Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want,” sociologist Ruha Benjamin points to a way forward. She tells the story of Black TikTok creators who led a successful cultural labor strike in 2021. Many viral TikTok dances had originally been created by Black artists, whose accounts, they claimed, were suppressed by a biased algorithm that favored white influencers.

TikTok responded to the viral #BlackTikTokStrike movement by formally apologizing and making commitments to better represent and compensate the work of Black creators. These creators demonstrated how social media engagement is work – and that workers have the power to demand equitable conditions and fair pay.

This landmark strike showed how anyone who uses social media companies that profit off the work, emotions and personal data of their users – whether it’s TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram or Reddit – can become organized.

Meanwhile, there are organizations devoted to designing an internet that promotes collective flourishing. Sociologist Firuzeh Shokooh Valle provides examples of worker-owned technology cooperatives in her 2023 book, “In Defense of Solidarity and Pleasure: Feminist Technopolitics in the Global South.” She highlights the Sulá Batsú co-op in Costa Rica, which promotes policies that seek to break the stranglehold that negativity and exploitation have over internet culture.

“Digital spaces are increasingly powered by hate and discrimination,” the group writes, adding that it hopes to create an online world where “women and people of diverse sexualities and genders are able to access and enjoy a free and open internet to exercise agency and autonomy, build collective power, strengthen movements, and transform power relations.”

In Los Angeles, there’s Chani, Inc., a technology company that describes itself as “proudly” not funded by venture capitalists. The Chani app blends mindfulness practices and astrology with the goal of simply helping people. The app is not designed for compulsive user engagement, the company never sells user data, and there are no comments sections.

No comments

What would social media look like if Wikipedia were the norm instead of an exception?

To me, a big problem in internet culture is the way people’s humanity is obscured. People are free to speak their minds in text-based public discussion forums, but the words aren’t always attached to someone’s identity. Real people hide behind the anonymity of user names. It isn’t true human interaction.

In “Attention and Alienation,” I argue that the ability to meet and interact with others online as fully realized, three-dimensional human beings would go a long way toward creating a more empathetic, cooperative internet.

When I was 8 years old, my parents lived abroad for work. Sometimes we talked on the phone. Often I would cry late into the night, praying for the ability to “see them through the phone.” It felt like a miraculous possibility – like magic.

I told this story to my students in a moment of shared vulnerability. This was in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, so the class was taking place over videoconferencing. In these online classes, one person talked at a time. Others listened.

It wasn’t perfect, but I think a better internet would promote this form of discussion – people getting together from across the world to share the fullness of their humanity.

Efforts like Clubhouse have tapped into this vision by creating voice-based discussion forums. The company, however, has been criticized for predatory data privacy policies.

What if the next iteration of public social media platforms could build on Clubhouse? What if they brought people together and showcased not just their voices, but also live video feeds of their faces without harvesting their data or promoting conflict and outrage?

Raised eyebrows. Grins. Frowns. They’re what make humans distinct from increasingly sophisticated large language models and artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT.

After all, is anything you can’t say while looking at another human being in the eye worth saying in the first place?

Aarushi Bhandari does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Is there any hope for the internet? – https://theconversation.com/is-there-any-hope-for-the-internet-259251

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Jeffers Engelhardt, Professor of Music, Amherst College

As someone who teaches and researches music and religion, I’ve always been curious about inspiration and how it connects humans to other beings.

Musicians can be inspired by great artists, living and dead; by technologies that expand their experience, like artist Brian House’s macrophones that capture low-frequency infrasound; by plants and animals; and by the unseen, unheard presence of the supernatural. After all, the word inspiration is rooted in the Latin for “breathing in.” Often, it was associated with spiritual or divine influence – inspiration coming from other realms.

In my research and teaching, recognizing non-human beings is ethically important and an act of intellectual humility. It ensures that I honor other people’s religious and musical experiences, and it admits that we cannot know precisely what they know. One person’s reality may not translate to our own understanding.

That’s what led me to design this course: “Music, Sound and Research with Non-Humans.”

What does the course explore?

The “with” in the course title is key: I want students to learn about how human knowledge exists in relationship with non-humans. To do this, we read and listen widely.

In research using Actor-Network Theory, for example, relationships between humans and non-humans are central: musicians, scientists and their instruments; you and your smartphone; humans and gods. In each case, humans and non-humans are both considered actors – beings that make a real difference in the world.

Music scholar Peter McMurray uses a similar lens in his work on Alevi “semah” ritual, which involves music, movement and poetry. Alevism is a mystical tradition of Islam in Turkey that has long faced discrimination. Some of the sung poetry used for semah is inspired by sacred animals, such as cranes. In semah, participants experience cranelike flight through music and dance, which are central to Alevi ritual.

Or consider traditions of chanting revealed in texts like the Quran, which means “recitation” in Arabic. Spiritually, the purpose is not only to learn the scripture, but to draw closer to its sonic essence. Recitation recalls moments of encounter between humans and the divine, most important being the Prophet Muhammad receiving the Quran through the Angel Gabriel.

We also look beyond music, to everything from medicine and biology to economics, to study relationships between humans and non-humans. One of our favorite readings, for example, is “The Mushroom at the End of the World” by anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing. This is a rich ethnographic account of the relationships between humans and matsutake mushrooms, which are highly prized in Japanese cuisine: the piney forests where matsutake grow, the human activities that make them thrive, the foragers who collect them, and the global markets where they are traded.

My students Luana Espinoza and Sofia Ahmed Seid describe our course as exploring a kind of symbiosis: the word biologists use to describe close, often mutually beneficial, relationships between species.

What’s a critical lesson from the course?

This course readies students to confront serious, challenging forms of intellectual diversity, considering how the possibilities of different truths and paradigms might inform their research.

Both students this semester are science majors working on senior theses: Espinoza in chemistry and Seid in neuroscience. By reading and listening to others’ accounts of human and non-human relationships, they say they no longer feel required to leave an essential part of themselves at the classroom door.

Music and sound bridge the physical and metaphysical, the natural and the supernatural. Because of this, they are invaluable for encountering complex truths.

Amherst College students Sofia Ahmed Seid and Luana Espinoza contributed to the preparation of this article.

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Jeffers Engelhardt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Listening to nonhumans: What music can teach about humanity’s relationships with nature and the divine – https://theconversation.com/listening-to-nonhumans-what-music-can-teach-about-humanitys-relationships-with-nature-and-the-divine-256840

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Daniel J. Mallinson, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration, Penn State

This November, there will be no candidate for president, governor, senator or even representative on the Pennsylvania ballot.

Pennsylvanians will vote, however, on three members of their seven-member state Supreme Court.

These are retention elections, which means that voters will decide whether to keep the current members of the court or remove them.

The three seats up for grabs are three of the five Democrats that hold the majority on the court. They are Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht.

While the typical voter may not think much about judicial elections, political operatives and political scientists, like me, know they have consequences.

I think it’s important that voters understand what a retention election is and why state judicial elections are growing in political importance in the U.S.

Retention elections

Federal judges are appointed by the U.S. president, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and can serve for the rest of their lives. State judges, however, are put in place in a variety of ways.

The most powerful state courts are the so-called “courts of last resort.” These are essentially the supreme courts of each state. The method for selecting judges in these courts has varied over time and across the states. Currently, states use either gubernatorial appointment, legislative appointment, partisan elections, nonpartisan elections, or a merit process for selecting the judges of their highest courts.

Pennsylvania has partisan elections, meaning judges run for office attached to political parties, just like a candidate would run for governor or president. However, it is only in their first race for office that a judge runs in a competitive partisan election. After they assume the bench, they participate in retention elections every 10 years. These retention elections are considered nonpartisan, since party labels do not appear on the ballot.

Essentially, a retention election is an up or down vote. If more than 50% of voters cast a vote in opposition to a sitting judge, that judge will be out of the office at the end of their term. The governor, who is currently Democrat Josh Shapiro, then makes a temporary appointment to fill the seat with a special election held in the next odd year – in this case, 2027. But any appointments would need to be confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate, which may not confirm his picks.

Politicization of the state courts

Judges win retention elections over 90% of the time. So why should people bother to cast their vote?

Courts, including state courts, have become highly politicized over the past several decades. A marked increase in politicization occurred for the U.S. Supreme Court after the failed nomination of Robert Bork in the 1980s.

This politicization has since trickled down to lower federal courts and the states.

State supreme courts have always made big decisions, but the nationalization of American politics – where national partisan politics drive voter behavior in local elections – has elevated the controversy over state supreme court decisions on issues such as reproductive rights, trans rights, COVID-19 restrictions, environmental protection and more.

This issue became more acute when courts in battleground states were thrust to the center of adjudicating false claims of election fraud during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. And judges have faced increasing threats, particularly when opposing actions of the Trump administration, as President Donald Trump is prone to calling out specific judges in decisions that he does not like.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has received additional attention, in part due to the outsized role it has played in recent redistricting. In 2018, the court threw out the congressional districts drawn by the General Assembly in 2011 and invited a new plan from the governor and General Assembly. The two came to a political loggerhead, so the Supreme Court ended up using its own map as a replacement.

In 2022, the state Supreme Court once again took control of redistricting after Pennyslvania’s then-Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed the congressional district map approved by the General Assembly.

Given the importance of state supreme courts, particularly in federal elections cases in battleground states like Pennsylvania, it is little wonder why their elections are gaining attention.

The April 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race was the most expensive state judicial race in U.S. history, with $100 million in spending, including significant contributions from billionaires Elon Musk and George Soros.

That was one seat.

Pennsylvania has three up for grabs in November 2025, with the potential to swing the current Democratic majority.

And retention elections are politically simple for opponents. As one Republican political consultant told investigative news outlet Spotlight PA: “This is a political consultant’s dream, because your message is just one thing, and that’s ‘No.’”

This can give some advantage to Republicans in a state that Trump won in 2024 and in a low-turnout election. The question will be whether there is more energy motivating opponents to turn out against the Democratic majority or supporters seeking to maintain the status quo.

The stakes for Pennsylvania in 2025

Much is at stake for Pennsylvanians in the fall. Republicans see this as their best opportunity to break the firm 5-2 Democratic majority on the court. This would pave the way for very different judicial decisions. Many of the court’s recent election-related rulings were made on narrow 4-3 votes that could swing differently if the composition of the court changes.

Republicans have had their power in Harrisburg diminished with Shapiro in the governor’s mansion and a one-seat Democratic majority in the state House of Representatives over the past two terms.

A Republican majority on the court would significantly change the balance of power in Harrisburg.

But it is important to focus not only on the top court. The state’s two appellate-level courts – one step below the state Supreme Court – also have two important races and two retention votes in November that will decide the judiciary’s relationship with the governor and General Assembly.

Daniel J. Mallinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Most Pennsylvania voters ignore judicial elections − a political scientist explains why they matter, especially in a battleground state – https://theconversation.com/most-pennsylvania-voters-ignore-judicial-elections-a-political-scientist-explains-why-they-matter-especially-in-a-battleground-state-259775

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Brian P. McCullough, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Michigan

When the FIFA World Cup hits North America in June 2026, 48 teams and millions of sports fans will be traveling among venues spread across Canada, the United States and Mexico.

It’s a dramatic expansion – 16 more teams will be playing than in recent years, with a jump from 64 to 104 matches. The tournament, whether you call it soccer or football, is projected to bring in over US$10 billion in revenue. But the expansion will also mean a lot more travel and other activities that contribute to climate change.

The environmental impacts of giant sporting events like the World Cup create a complex paradox for an industry grappling with its future in a warming world.

A sustainability conundrum

Sports are undeniably experiencing the effects of climate change. Rising global temperatures are putting athletes’ health at risk during summer heat waves and shortening winter sports seasons. Many of the 2026 World Cup venues often see heat waves in June and early July, when the tournament is scheduled.

There is a divide over how sports should respond.

Some athletes are speaking out for more sustainable choices and have called on lawmakers to take steps to limit climate-warming emissions. At the same time, the sport industry is growing and facing a constant push to increase revenue. The NCAA is also considering expanding its March Madness basketball tournaments from 68 teams currently to as many as 76.

Estimates for the 2026 World Cup show what large tournament expansions can mean for the climate. A report from Scientists for Global Responsibility estimates that the expanded World Cup could generate over 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, nearly double the average of the past four World Cups.

This massive increase – and the increase that would come if the NCAA basketball tournaments also expand – would primarily be driven by air travel as fans and players fly among event cities that are thousands of miles apart.

A lot of money is at stake, but so is the climate

Sports are big business, and adding more matches to events like the World Cup and NCAA tournaments will likely lead to larger media rights contracts and greater gate receipts from more fans attending the events, boosting revenues. These are powerful financial incentives.

In the NCAA’s case, there is another reason to consider a larger tournament: The House v. NCAA settlement opened the door for college athletic departments to share revenue with athletes, which will significantly increase costs for many college programs. More teams would mean more television revenue and, crucially, more revenue to be distributed to member NCAA institutions and their athletic conferences.

When climate promises become greenwashing

The inherent conflict between maximizing profit through growth and minimizing environmental footprint presents a dilemma for sports.

Several sport organizations have promised to reduce their impact on the climate, including signing up for initiatives like the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework.

However, as sports tournaments and exhibition games expand, it can become increasingly hard for sports organizations to meet their climate commitments. In some cases, groups making sustainability commitments have been accused of greenwashing, suggesting the goals are more about public relations than making genuine, measurable changes.

For example, FIFA’s early claims that it would hold a “fully carbon-neutral” World Cup in Qatar in 2022 were challenged by a group of European countries that accused soccer’s world governing body of underestimating emissions. The Swiss Fairness Commission, which monitors fairness in advertising, considered the complaints and determined that FIFA’s claims could not be substantiated.

Aviation is often the biggest driver of emissions. A study that colleagues and I conducted on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament found about 80% of its emissions were connected to travel. And that was after the NCAA began using the pod system, which is designed to keep teams closer to home for the first and second rounds.

Finding practical solutions

Some academics, observing the rising emissions trend, have called for radical solutions like the end of commercialized sports or drastically limiting who can attend sporting events, with a focus on fans from the region.

These solutions are frankly not practical, in my view, nor do they align with other positive developments. The growing popularity of women’s sports shows the challenge in limiting sports events – more games expands participation but adds to the industry’s overall footprint.

Further compounding the challenges of reducing environmental impact is the amount of fan travel, which is outside the direct control of the sports organization or event organizers.

Many fans will follow their teams long distances, especially for mega-events like the World Cup or the NCAA tournament. During the men’s World Cup in Russia in 2018, more than 840,000 fans traveled from other countries. The top countries by number of fans, after Russia, were China, the U.S., Mexico and Argentina.

There is an argument that distributed sporting events like March Madness or the World Cup can be better in some ways for local environments because they don’t overwhelm a single city. However, merely spreading the impact does not necessarily reduce it, particularly when considering the effects on climate change.

How fans can cut their environmental footprint

Sport organizations and event planners can take steps to be more sustainable and also encourage more sustainable choices among fans. Fans can reduce their environmental impact in a variety of ways. For example:

• Avoid taking airplanes for shorter distances, such as between FIFA venues in Philadelphia, New York and Boston, and carpool or take Amtrak instead. Planes can be more efficient for long distances, but air travel is still a major contributing factor to emissions.

• While in a host city, use mass transit or rent electric vehicles or bicycles for local travel.

• Consider sustainable accommodations, such as short-term rentals that might have a smaller environmental footprint than a hotel. Or stay at a certified green hotel that makes an effort to be more efficient in its use of water and energy.

• Engage in sustainable pregame and postgame activities, such as choosing local, sustainable food options, and minimize waste.

• You can also pay to offset carbon emissions for attending different sporting events, much like concertgoers do when they attend musical festivals. While critics question offsets’ true environmental benefit, they do represent people’s growing awareness of their environmental footprint.

Through all these options, it’s clear that sports face a significant challenge in addressing their environmental impacts and encouraging fans to be more sustainable, while simultaneously trying to meet ambitious business and environmental targets.

In my view, a sustainable path forward will require strategic, yet genuine, commitment by the sports industry and its fans, and a willingness to prioritize long-term planetary health alongside economic gains – balancing the sport and sustainability.

Brian P. McCullough does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. 2026 FIFA World Cup expansion will have a big climate footprint, with matches from Mexico to Canada – here’s what fans can do – https://theconversation.com/2026-fifa-world-cup-expansion-will-have-a-big-climate-footprint-with-matches-from-mexico-to-canada-heres-what-fans-can-do-259437

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Brandon Prins, Professor of Political Science, University of Tennessee

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Who was the first pirate? – Yandel R., age 11, Lakewood Ranch, Florida

When most people imagine a pirate, they picture actor Johnny Depp playing the mad but likable swashbuckler Jack Sparrow, captain of the sailing ship the Black Pearl.

Depp’s pirate portrayal was inspired by seafaring bandits in older make-believe tales, such as Long John Silver in “Treasure Island,” Captain Hook in “Peter Pan,” or sailor Edmond Dantès in “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

Pirates in these stories were mischievous but also glamorous, courageous and mostly kindhearted. They wore flashy costumes. They had missing limbs, like Captain Cook’s iron hook for a left hand and Long John Silver’s wooden peg leg. They buried treasure chests of gold and silver, forced enemies to walk the plank and had talking parrots as shipboard companions. They flew the Jolly Roger skull and crossbones flag from the ship’s mast to frighten enemies. The new Netflix series “One Piece,” which is based on a Japanese comic book, continues this popular depiction of pirates.

While fun, these portrayals of pirates are mostly invented.

I’m a political scientist who studies modern-day commerce raiding: robbing of private cargo vessels on the high seas. I’m interested in where it happens in the world, who does it and what can be done to stop it. My research finds today’s pirates to be less like swashbuckling Jack Sparrow and more like regular old thieves.

Pirates in the ancient world

Since pirates have been around for as long as people have moved things by boat, it is hard to pin down the very first pirate.

But archaeological evidence shows that boatbuilding goes all the way back to the ancient Egyptians, who used boats made from papyrus reeds as early as 6,000 years ago. These vessels likely carried valuable goods up and down the Nile River, and where valuable goods can be found, you can usually find thieves too. In fact, researchers know that pirates – basically just thieves on the water – targeted these river boats, because Egyptian pharaohs left records grumbling about pirates and their widespread pillaging.

By 3,500 years ago, thieves were using sailing vessels to raid coastal towns and villages in and around the Nile Delta, as well as the Aegean and Adriatic basins. Attacking ships far from land on the high seas and stealing the cargo was a logical next step in the tactics of seafaring raiders.

As trade increased across the Mediterranean Sea, boats carrying valuable cargo, such as pottery, silk, glass, spices and metals, became the targets of ancient pirates. Given the worth of these goods, pirate attacks became widespread across the ancient Mediterranean Sea. With money from the Roman senate and strong effort by a military leader named Pompey, the Roman navy worked hard to stop the pirates – and for a while it did.

The earliest named pirate?

The first mention of a pirate by name may have been in a Greek history book written in the fifth century BCE by an ancient historian named Herodotus.

He briefly describes the adventures of a naval commander by the name of Dionysius who was from Ionia, which is in modern-day Turkey. Dionysius set up a pirate base on the island of Sicily that allowed him and his fellow pirates to plunder ships that happened to sail past.

Pirates of the Caribbean

While Dionysius may have been the first recorded pirate, the most famous pirates lived during the 17th and 18th centuries, which came to be known as the golden age of sea piracy.

This was the heyday of pirates such as Blackbeard, also known as Edward Teach; William Kidd; Henry Morgan; Calico Jack; and Anne Bonny. They plundered Spanish treasure ships in the Caribbean, known as the Spanish Main, that were carrying silver from the mines in Bolivia back to the king of Spain.

Islands such as Jamaica, Tortuga and the Bahamas, as well the North Carolina coast, all became notable pirate havens. Port Royal, on the island of Jamaica, in particular, was a notorious pirate refuge. It was ideally positioned for preying upon Spanish galleons sailing across the Atlantic from ports in Panama and Venezuela. Johnny Depp’s character, Jack Sparrow, swashbuckled around a fictionalized Port Royal in the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” film.

21st-century pirates

The 2013 Hollywood movie “Captain Phillips,” starring Tom Hanks, drew attention back to real-world pirates and piracy. The movie was based on a real-life 2009 attack by Somali pirates on a ship named the MV Maersk Alabama, which was carrying food to Kenya. The 500-foot-long vessel and its crew were rescued by the U.S. Navy.

To better understand 21st-century piracy, my research team compiled data on all pirate attacks from 1995 to the present day. We found three main piracy hot spots: the Gulf of Aden near Somalia, the Strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia and the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa. All three locations experience the conditions that attract pirates: ship traffic, valuable cargo and weak governments.

Why become a pirate?

People become pirates for many reasons, not the least of which is to escape poverty and enslavement. Others just want adventure and to travel the world. These are the same motivations that drove commerce raiding in the ancient world, during the golden age of piracy, and even today.

While we may never know the first pirate, just like we will never know the very first thief, historical evidence shows that sea-raiding has been around since the very first boats traversed the world’s waterways. Despite efforts to end piracy, my research shows that the conditions that produce ship looting remain and will likely always exist.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

Brandon Prins received funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research, through the Minerva Initiative, awards #N00014-21-1-2030 and #N00014-14-1-0050.

– ref. Who was the first pirate? – https://theconversation.com/who-was-the-first-pirate-256314

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Iqbal Akhtar, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Florida International University

When Zohran Mamdani announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City, political observers noted his progressive platform and legislative record. But understanding the Democratic candidate’s background requires examining the rich cultural tapestry woven into his very surname: Mamdani.

He takes the name from his father, Mahmood Mamdani, a prominent academic who was raised in Uganda and whose work focuses on postcolonial Uganda. I studied the history of the Khoja community for my doctoral work and have helped develop Khoja studies as an academic discipline. The Mamdani surname tells a story of migration, resilience and community-building that spans centuries and continents.

The Khoja history

Mamdanis in Uganda belong to the Khoja community, a South Asian Muslim merchant caste, that shaped economic development across the western Indian Ocean for centuries.

The name originates from greater Sindh, a region in South Asia that today includes southeastern Pakistan and Kachchh in western India.

Its etymology is twofold. Mām is an honorific title in Kachchhi and Gujarati languages, meaning kindness, courage and pride. Māmadō is a local version of the name Muhammad that often appeared in surnames in Hindu castes that converted to Islam, such as the Memons.

The Khoja were categorized by the British in the early 19th century as “Hindoo Mussalman” because their traditions spanned both religions.

Over time, the Khoja came to be identified only as Muslim and then primarily as Shiite Muslim. Today, the majority of Khoja are Ismaili: a branch of Shiite Islam that follows the Aga Khan as their living imam.

The Mamdani family, however, is part of the Twelver community of Khoja, whose Twelfth Imam is believed to be hidden from the world and only emerges in times of crisis. Twelvers believe he will help usher in an age of peace during end times.

Around the late 18th century, the Khoja helped export textiles, manufactured goods, spices and gems from the Indian subcontinent to Arabia and East Africa. Through this Western Indian Ocean trading network, they imported timber, ivory, minerals and cloves, among other goods.

Khoja family firms were built on kinship networks and trust. They built networks of shops, communal housing and warehouses, and extended credit for thousands of miles, from Zanzibar in Tanzania to Bombay – now Mumbai – on the western coast of India.

Cousins and brothers would send money and goods across the ocean with only a letter. The precarious nature of trade in this period meant that families also served as insurance for each other. In times of wealth, it was shared; in times of disaster, help was available.

Khoja contributions in Africa

The Khoja became instrumental in building the commercial infrastructure of eastern, central and southern Africa. But the Khoja contribution to the development of Africa extended far beyond trade.

In the absence of colonial investment in public infrastructure, they helped build institutions that formed the foundation of the modern nation-states that emerged after colonization. The institutions both facilitated trade and established permanent communities.

For example, the first dispensary and public school in Zanzibar were constructed by a Khoja magnate, Tharia Topan, who made his wealth through the ivory and clove trades. Topan eventually became so prominent that he was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1890 for his service to the British Empire in helping to end slavery in East Africa.

The Khoja community continues to invest in East Africa. The most famous example is the Aga Khan Development Network, whose hospitals and schools operate in 30 countries. In places such as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, they are considered the best.

Khoja in Uganda

Like in other parts of Africa, the Khoja settled in Uganda as a liaison business community to develop a market to serve both African and European needs. The linguistic and cultural knowledge, developed over centuries, helped facilitate business despite the challenges of colonization.

However, in 1972, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin expelled all Asians – approximately 80,000 – forcing families like the Mamdanis into exile. These included indentured laborers, who were brought in to help build the railroad and farm during the British colonial period, and free traders, like the Mamdani family.

Amin saw them all as the same and famously said: “Asians came to Uganda to build the railway. The railway is finished. They must leave now.”

The experience was a bitter one. Families lost everything, and many left with only the clothes on their backs.

Mahmood Mamdani, who came from a Khoja merchant family, was 26 when he was exiled. Yet, unlike most Ugandan Asians, he chose to go back. At Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, Mamdani set up the Institute for Social Research, which helped to provide rigorous social science training to Ugandan researchers trying to improve their society.

While the earlier generations of the Khoja tended to choose business or adjacent professions, such as accounting, the subsequent generations – particularly those educated in the West – embraced the knowledge economy as professionals, academics and nonprofit leaders.

Several of Mahmood Mamdani’s generation of Khoja academics conducted path-breaking work on Afro-Asian solidarity – a way of thinking about the world beyond colonial categories, such as the category of religion as a separate domain from the secular. These scholars, such as Tanzania’s Issa Shivji and Abdul Sheriff, worked on creating solidarity among the newly independent states of the Global South.

Mahmood Mamdani is known for his influential post-9/11 academic work, “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim,” which examined how Muslim identities are stereotyped. He argued that these identities are complex and varied, shaped by accumulated history and present experiences.

Interfaith identity

The Khoja community – known globally as the Khoja Shia Ithnasheri Muslim Community – has developed strong transnational connections. Today, they are concentrated in the United Kingdom, Canada, United States and France. However, Khoja can be found in almost any country in the world. In 2013, I met members of the community in Hong Kong.

The Khoja community plays an important role in interfaith dialogue and global development initiatives. A prominent Ismaili Khoja, Eboo Patel, the founder of Interfaith America, has dedicated his life to pluralism and mutual understanding through building up civil society.

Zohran Mamdani’s mother, acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair, is Hindu by birth. This interfaith marriage exemplifies the flexibility, diversity and tolerance of Khoja Islam, which has historically navigated between Hindu and Islamic traditions.

Whether Mamdani’s policies prove practical remains to be seen, but his background offers something valuable: a deep understanding of how communities build resilience across generations and geographies.

Iqbal Akhtar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Zohran Mamdani’s last name reflects centuries of intercontinental trade, migration and cultural exchange – https://theconversation.com/zohran-mamdanis-last-name-reflects-centuries-of-intercontinental-trade-migration-and-cultural-exchange-259967