In 2017, Facebook is once again closing accounts of people who go by unofficial names.

Why Africa Is So Poor. It starts with the slave trade and western investment in it.

The article mentions "unfair intellectual property laws", but that generalization is a mistake. I think the laws that are pertinent are copyright law and patent law, but they have almost nothing in common aside from unfairness.

The article cites "structural adjustment", but many readers may not know what that term means because it has been replaced by other terms. It means cutting the state's spending on the public good (for instance, education and medicine) so as to increase profits for the rich. The argument for this policy was "trickle down", which didn't work in Africa any more than it did in the US.

New Labour aimed to increase social mobility in Britain. The Tories have cut social mobility way down. But the amount of social mobility is a side issue — it is no substitute for giving everyone a good life.

Traditional raw fish in Thailand spreads liver parasites that make people ill, and cause cancer in a fraction of them.

In the US, restaurants freeze raw fish before serving it. The parasites are multicellular organisms, and freezing kills them just as it would kill a human. I trust US public health enforcers to make sure restaurants do this, so in the US I do not worry about eating sushi.

In Brazil I don't eat sushi; I don't feel confident that Brazil's restaurant inspection system will ensure it is safe.

After the Crime: Why Employers Should Give Ex-Offenders a Working Chance.

In the US, laws make it almost impossible for anyone who was in prison. They are legally excluded from education and housing aid as well as from many fields of work.