Show, don't tell
Thanks for your recent cover section on fundamentalisms (October-November). Your coverage was not only useful to me as a bideshi but also, I can assume, to the citizens of Southasia who want to better understand their own world. After all, from time to time everybody needs to be reminded of their collective past and its link to today.
Although your articles present a breadth of objective perspectives, I would caution Himal against allowing its pages to be an open tribune for the revival of the left wing. Of course I'm not against the idea of a more equal world, but a magazine's first duty is to inform correctly, in order to give the readers the tools to build their own minds. Unhappily, this can also be the first step in feeling good about telling readers what they should do and how they should do it.
I bring up such points particularly due to this kind of sentence, from Pervez Hoodbhoy's article: "It is to the left to bring sanity to the world." Such sentiments go against the role of the journalist – sanity is everybody's business anyway. Likewise, subsequent subheads in that same article – "What Muslims must do", "What America must do", are off-track.
Guillaume Arnaud
Boudha, Kathmandu ——————————————————————————–