-
On Hinduism, Hitler, and the mosaic of truth
I lived in New Delhi for half a year, where I was lucky to find a good and interesting friend. When one day we met over coffee, he showed me a beautiful sentence: “… the material which one has acquired through reading must not be stored up in the memory on a plan that corresponds to the successive chapters of the book; but each little piece of knowledge thus gained must be treated as if it were a little stone…
Related posts
On India, poverty and religion
-
Dubai: world’s least cosmopolitan city
Dubai is possibly the most international place in the world, with less than 10% of its inhabitants holding the local passport. But calling Dubai 'cosmopolitan' would be a mistake, based on a wrong understanding of the term and of reality of life in the Arab Gulf. In fact, Dubai is maybe the least cosmopolitan city there is.
-
Andalusia’s ambivalence: between convivencia and Islamophobia
Andalusia's history is often romanticized for its 'convivencia': religious coexistence. But this image exists alongside widespread Islamophobia.
-
Identity and nationality in the Gulf
Few countries in the world have more foreigners than locals living within their borders. It is the case in the Arab Gulf states, where the majority of the population consists of immigrants: up to more than 85% in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. For the locals, this poses unique challenges to their concepts of identity and nationality.
-
Amritsar: conflict and harmony
The city of Amritsar in north-western India is not big, but attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal. Its two main attractions are symbols of harmony and conflict, respectively: the Sikh religion's holiest temple complex where everyone is welcome, and the nearby border with Pakistan where on a daily basis people on both sides assemble to celebrate the gates closing. I wrote this article for the Center for Intercultural Dialogue.
-
A Sunday in Delhi: the difficult case for inter-religious dialogue
Leaves falling from the trees, umbrellas appearing in the streets, and girls covering up their faces with scarfs: in New Delhi these are signs that the summer sun is arriving. In India’s hottest season, mornings have to be put to good use. Many a Sunday I would get up at six o’clock to visit the weekly Old Delhi book market, returning before the heat would become unbearable and in time for my weekly Bible group. One morning, walking through the…
-
On India, poverty and religion
Different religions deal with poverty differently, and in India you find a lot of both. At one point or another, the visitor of the subcontinent will inevitably be faced with more misery than one can bear and the challenging question how to approach it. What answers do religions provide?
-
In search of Buenos Aires
"My contemplations streamed into a gaping expectation of novelty that was not filled by Buenos Aires. As a European, I had covered inhumane distances to get here and yet it seemed I had only traveled in terms of time - some 24 hours - and not in space. It was not a New World; it was a copy of the old one."
-
Still(ed) waters: a very short history of Mexico City
How a lake turned into one of the largest cities in the world: this is the story of Mexico City. Before the Spanish conquest, Mexico City was a kind of Venice in the middle of a couple of connected lakes, surrounded by volcanoes. It was called Tenochtitlan: ’the place of many tunas’ (notwithstanding the watery environment, a tuna here being the fruit of a cactus).
