The world may be shrinking, but we’ll never tire of leaving home
I PEERED AGAIN at the group of sixty travellers, mostly women, leaning in to hear their English-language guide as their hijabs kept slipping toward their shoulders. Every one of these visitors to Iran’s desert city of Yazd in the fall of 2013 hailed from China. I could barely recall how, when first I touched down in Beijing, in 1985, almost the only glimpse of foreignness that Chinese citizens could get was at a bowling alley that had just opened up in the capital. Eleven months after my trip to Iran, I found myself chatting with the others in my tour group to North Korea: I remember a physician from Tehran, a Googler from Germany, and two spirited executives from Silicon Valley on a long sabbatical from Apple. The last time I’d visited Pyongyang, I’d been in a group of one.
Denne historien er fra June 2018-utgaven av The Walrus.
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Denne historien er fra June 2018-utgaven av The Walrus.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Dream Machines - The real threat with artificial intelligence is that we'll fall prey to its hype
Some of the world's largest companies, including Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet, are throwing their full weight behind AI. On top of the billions spent by big tech, funding for AI startups hit nearly $50 billion (US) in 2023.
MY GUILTY PLEASURE
MY CHILDREN are grown, with their own partners, their own lives.
The Quest to Decode Vermeer's True Colours
New techniques reveal hidden details in the Dutch master’s paintings
Repeat after Me
TikTok and Instagram are helping to bring Indigenous languages back from the brink
Smokehouse
I WAS STANDING THERE at the corner, the corner where the smaller street intersects with the slightly wider one.
How Could They Just Lose Him?
The Huronia Regional Centre was supposed to be a safe home for people with disabilities. Then, amid suspicions of abuse at the facility, twenty-one-year-old Robin Windross vanished without a trace
Prairie Radical
How conspiracy theorists splintered a small town
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe
Scott Moe rose quietly through the ranks. Now the Saskatchewan premier and his party are shaping policies with national consequences
The Accommodation Problem
Extensions. Extra exam time. Online everything. Addressing the complex needs of students is creating chaos on campus
MY GUILTY PLEASURE
I WAS AS SURPRISED as anyone when I became obsessed with comics again last year, at the advanced age of forty-five. As a kid, I loved reading G.I. Joe and The Amazing Spider-Man.
