Culture | Meer

Mentality is the result of training, and training depends on education

Education of citizens in the 21st century

Philosophical bases of a method for our time

Living in the lower floors of high rise apartment draws many concerns

Apartment living: litter from above

Bane or boon of community life?

How does the environment create our home and what does it means to belong to a place?

Becoming other: environment, belonging and identity

A journey close, but far from home

Current entrance today to the Vigna Randanini Catacombs, Rome, ph. Brenda Lee Bohen

Interviewing Micaela Pavoncello and Jessica Dello Russo

Two women contributions to Roman Jewish Catacombs history

A pregnant black woman taking ownership of her womb

Black women: the denial of reproductive choice

The power to not give up their womb

Bread for Slava: Patron Saint’s Day in Serbian culture has remained an intriguing topic for historians and ethnographers

The tradition of Serbian Slava

A long-standing custom that unites past and present, heaven and earth

Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco

A vital role in the preservation of national unity

Moroccan religious constants the basis of spiritual security

Humanity is an entity of the universe, it has energy and matter in its essence

The future of humanity

Princonser's philosophical approach

Observation: A key idea in both a transcendent and immanent philosophy is the idea of noticing and interpreting change

The transcendent economics of nature

An idea for change

Channeling life with arms stretched out as the sun sets

Seizing life and experiencing existence

Comfort can both work in helping you throughout your creative journey, and also work against your self-improvement in the long run

Why comfort is the killer of creativity

The art of persistence

Gazimestan: the memorial site and monument commemorating the Battle of Kosovo

Vidovdan: origin and legends

Tales of the Battle of Kosovo and a Slavic god

Social dementia: a sapping of global empathy and a madness not entirely of today’s choosing

Rising social dementia

Are we heading for cataclysmic failing or philosophical revitalization of life and living?

Facts go beyond theories

Musings on fact versus truth

The subtle difference and why it matters

The essence of education is learning how to ask better and better questions

How to think, not what to think

Say the wrong word and you are vanished

A walk into the woods, such as in Sikkim, North-East India, is a way to get 'out of the woods'! © Ashish Kothari

Rescuing (more) words

How they can regain their transformatory potential

Constitution for the Federation of Earth can change the course of human history

Constitution for the Federation of Earth

My discovery and embrace of the path for human liberation

Wondering and reflecting on how to be a 'butterfly' in nature

Our species is doing the backstroke

Where are 'we' headed?

A House of Windsor residence, Castle Windsor

Time to privatise the House of Windsor

Some traditions belong in the past

Brain: the left hemisphere controls language

Your brain is playing tricks on you

Do we truly know what we think?

Education: based on the purpose of education, the content of education is implemented

Universal Education

From fragmented reason to universal reason

Portrait of Muhammed Ali Pasha King of Egypt in his palace in Cairo, Egypt

Muhammed Ali Pasha of Egypt

The foundation of modern Egypt and the ‘Albanian contribution’

Schweitzer was born in Upper Alsace, 1875, and became a remarkable organist, musicologist and physician

Dr. Albert Schweitzer: physician of peace

A life that wants to live, surrounded by life that wants to live

Marriages in the past were mostly arranged and newlyweds did not actually know each other

The first night(mare) of marriage

Balkan wedding customs of years gone by

Reflecting on the world

Are human traits stopping us from achieving peace?

The hurdles and obstacles facing a peaceful planet

Young and talented: Ellie Archer, the author of The Leaf Gurl

Ellie Archer: The leaf gurl

Reconnecting with nature: a six-year-old author's debut storybook

Rewilding is the philosophy of allowing nature to take the reins

The absurdity of rewilding

A philosophical take on conservation

Exploited children may be used as sex workers, drug couriers or servants

Children at risk

The fate of children in a world out of control

Battle between the American Filibusters and the Central American Alliance

Heroes of Costa Rica

Three brothers who fought against William Walker

Ostrog Monastery: considering primitive equipment and poor transportation, the construction of the cave monastery at the height of 900 meters above sea level in 17th century was a miracle itself

Heaven is a place on Earth

Saint Basil and the Ostrog Monastery in Montenegro

Calling out these attitudes is essential to fight long prevalent stereotypes

Racist discourse and the covid pandemic

Why do toxic stereotypes continue to be perpetuated?

Peaceful existence on this beautiful planet

Creating peace on Planet Earth

A theoretical perspective

This generation is not only being denied the opportunity to shape the world according to their own vision, but is being denied the possibility of life itself

I weep for the children

We are denying the next generation the truth, the complexity of life, the beauty of the gifts of the earth

Piana degli Albanesi, in Southern Italy

The Arbëresh of Italy

An anthropological miracle?

“War is the father of all,” said Heraclitus the ancient Greek philosopher

Homo sapiens and a perpetual casus belli?

Human history is all about wars

The Paris-World of more than two centuries ago is a city destined to repeat itself and fascinate

La Paris fin de siècle in five literary steps

I created Montmartre!

The Cyrus Cylinder is considered to be the world's first statement of human rights

Cyrus the Great: father of a nation

The first administrator of human rights

The Ark of the Covenant is the most sacred relic of the Israelites

Events repeated

"Experimenter" (2015), film about Milgram's experiment

Submission and dehumanization

Red Easter eggs: what do the colors symbolize?

Coloring Easter eggs

Why do so many countries and cultures follow this custom?

Robben Island in South Africa, by Moheen Reeyad

On Nelson Mandela's island prison

The true power is that of love

Sandra Gering in the Vatican Library

Sandra Gering’s Tikunei haZohar

An artistic replica of the most popular work of the medieval Jewish Kabbalah

Ruins of the ancient Apollonia town, Albania

The Arvanites of Greece

The ‘Old Albanians’ of the Hellenic Republic

Giovanni Bellini, The Murder of Saint Peter Martyr

The Cathar Revenge

Bogomils and Cathars

International Women's Day is celebrated annually on the 8th March

A celebration of International Women's Day

Four heroines from around the globe who made great sacrifices for humanity

Many languages, and consequently communities, are strongly affected by the pressure of dominant languages and discriminatory and racist linguistic ideologies

Endangered minority languages

A reflection on the importance of revitalizing them

Since the old times, people regard dreams as mysterious and meaningful

Dreams interpretations

Meaning of dreams in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Police officers are stationed at many schools in the USA

School punishments

Student infractions: the school-to-prison pipeline in the USA

In arranged marriages, a couple may only meet shortly before the wedding

Old and odd Balkan wedding traditions

Preservation of unusual traditions promotes the uniqueness of cultures and nurtures cultural sensitivity

INDH in the Kingdom of Morocco is fully committed to the emergence of a united vision of education

Morocco's initiative in support of primary education

A powerful tool for the development of society

Giacomo Lenghi, Watercolor, 1830 ca., Jewish Museum of Rome

Le Cinque Scòle

The five synagogues ‘under one roof’ in the Jewish Ghetto of Rome

Black Panther demonstration

Black Power in print

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning

The erasure of all our most important values and principles

Truth is now hate

Dr. Roberto Savio is somewhat unique as an eyewitness to history and builder of institutions, a man who turns his visions into reality

Conversation with a media icon: Dr. Roberto Savio

The Inter Press Service co-founder is part of a vanishing breed

No one certainly wants to be “tiger kinged”

Are we being “tiger kinged”?

Living in dangerous times of media algorithm

Countering gender stereotypes is not easy

Gender stereotypes

Is it possible to get rid of them?

Capote’s literary value is well recognized in the United States, but he is more admired in Europe and Latin America

Truman Capote’s whip

Chained to a merciless master

Edward Hopper, Hotel By A Railroad, detail

2022 intentional: human completeness

Now is the time for Americans to recognize the crucial need to treat and act more “human” to each other

In the language humans use to communicate, they agree on the meaning of the words to avoid misunderstandings

Words, words, words...

On the power of words and their relation to things

A pig roasted on the spit has been an unavoidable Christmas dish in Orthodox Balkan families and the apple was used as a universal remedy

Superstitions of an Orthodox Christmas

Odd archaic rituals can help us to prioritize domestic harmony, health and spiritual wellbeing

Bronze Capitoline she-wolf, 5th century BCE, the symbol of Rome

Understanding how Rome shaped the rabbis

An interview with Rabbi Burton Visotzky

Instead of just photos, some will decide for a painting of a scene of the wedding by an artist who live paints

An American wedding

In the USA it is a whole different story, made of hundreds of small and big things

Budo teaches complete determination combined with mental flexibility and constant adaptation

Implementing budo-based tools

Combining full determination with mental flexibility in daily life

Hope must be based in truth and reality

These are not normal times

We must always continue to hope

Connection to nature is central to many indigenous cultures

Why we need spiritual ecology

Significant ecological changes demands a change of perspective

There are no minimum wage or overtime pay requirements for prison work

Modern slavery in the US prison system

Iranian writer Sadegh Hedayat

Sadegh Hedayat: as influential as Kafka, yet in his shadow

One of the greatest Iranian writers and pioneer of modern Persian literature

In 1992, Rigoberta was youngest person and first indigenous person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize

Rigoberta Menchú: an extraordinary woman

An interview with the Nobel laureate and Guatemalan indigenous rights activist

In everyday language, guilt is understood as responsibility

Guilt and forgiveness

How to deal with guilt?

How could we possibly start to understand another's point of view if we do not take the time to listen?

How cancel culture only cultivates disconnection

I want you to believe I am having a human experience

In northern Serbia, česnica is an essential sweet of crispy layers filled with walnuts and raisins

Orthodox Christmas in the Balkans

Christian and pagan customs intertwine to celebrate life

French film "Joyeux Noël" shows the ceasefire on Christmas Eve 1914

Merry Christmas at war

Venezuelans in World War I

Budo teaches complete determination combined with mental flexibility and constant adaptation

Budo for education

Combining full determination with mental flexibility in daily life

Luca Lampariello is more than just a polyglot

Learning foreign languages for real!

Interview with Luca Lampariello, one of the greatest polyglots in the world

The aim of this campaign is to unite people from the seven corners of the earth

Promoting peace through global memory

The New7Wonders movement explores symbols, peace and collective experience

Titanic tragedy really shows the class system in a nutshell

In memorial of Titanic and the great widows it left behind

Julie Cook relives her authorial journey with a candid interview

Scientists have warned that the present level of commitments would drastically increase heat waves, droughts, flooding and wildfires across the globe

Climate change conference of the parties 26

Do we still have leaders capable of making hard decisions?

The rapid ingress of the transgender movement into so many of our professional and personal lives

Questioning transgender ideology

We must demand better theory, better research and much more careful practice

Dialogues take centre stage during the Cortona Week, participants are encouraged to build meaningful connections

A vital need for augmenting the traditional educational system

Statue of the wounded Amazon, Capitoline Museums, Rome

Was the queen of Amazons a spy?

A way of stabilizing peace, very common in ancient times

Montenegro is tiny country with long and turbulent history

An interview with Paul S. Cutter, code name Siberian monk

A new light to the origin of Montenegrin family Petrovic-Njegos

The world is at a dead-end and facing the most serious crisis in history

Philosophy on the ropes? Not in Lima, not in Mexico

A Latin American response

The Caucasian Albania capital during antiquity was Qabala (Gabala)

Caucasian Albania

The ancestors of the Balkan Albanians?

Our conversations ranged about everything

A neighborhood corner conversation

There is something else beyond objectivity and opinion

Your job as a witness is simply to tell the truth

Expert tips for smart and relaxed testimony

The more clear and neutral you are, the more you will be a trustworthy and helpful witness

Two beams of light mark the location of the old World Trade Center towers

Memories of 9/11

Stories of heartbreak and survival

Maya Lin, American designer and sculptor, within her “Ghost Forest” (2021) installation. Courtesy of the artist and Madison Square Park Conservancy. Photo credit: Andy Romer

The alarming increase of ghost forests

An artistic intervention in New York City underlines the problem

Venice is a fragile city that only its inhabitants can make live

Venice, “the Serenissima” since 1600 years

With Nicola Sene and Silvano Gosparini, resistant craftsmen-artists

September 11, 2001, New York

A Venezuelan in each tower

Twenty years ago, New York

There is no humanity without philosophy

Is philosophy on the ropes?

Unesco’s Audrey Azoulay takes culture to Belfer

View on the Roman Forum

Ancient Jewish Rome

An interview with Micaela Pavoncello

Italy influences global culture in a pivotal way, like no other country on the planet

Did you just Google "how to learn Italian easily?"

Francesca Ruberti solves your doubts

Transgenderism has become a social movement

Gender transition

An article I didn't want to write

Ernest Hemingway in Finca Vigía, Cuba

Hemingway’s connection to Latin America

The influence of Cuba on his writing

It is more important than ever to be sure that our children are learning an honest and accurate American history

Future generations need to be able to think critically

Why the fear of teaching true American history?

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