I hope everyone is having a great weekend and enjoying the slow pace that comes with the holidays. I am enjoying my Christmas break and taking time to slowdown and think about what comes next, both personally, professionally and philosophically. More on that in the coming weeks, but in the interim, here are seven stories that might be worth reading during this long holiday break.

  • Who will claim you? This memoir of placelessness by Akwaeke Emezi, a recent recipient of a 2015 Morland Writing Scholarship will touch your heart and make you wonder about the world, its border, ethnicity and most importantly, about being an immigrant of the soul. One of the best things I read this week. http://bit.ly/1MeQeyt 
  • Let’s stop pretending that we give a damn about climate change: Christie Aschwanden, an independent writer and essayist writes about the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that recently concluded in Paris. The historic agreement generated a lot of headlines, but as she explains nothing really has changed. It “contains no binding targets and is essentially just an aspirational document,” she notes and adds,”this new agreement provides only empty words until the member states decide to take real action.” My feelings exactly. http://bit.ly/1Os3ZRW
  • The Siege of Miami: Elizabeth Kolbert, one of my favorite writers brings climate change to a level that most people can understand. Alternatively, nothing like falling real estate values give Americans a reality check.  http://bit.ly/1IP1d6Q
  • The Commercial Zen of Muji: Muji is a well designed, minimalistic and brandies version of Japanese Zen lifestyle, that exists mostly in a catalog. Fuji “is a neat paradox, like a Zen koan: massive minimalism through perpetual growth,” writes Silvia Killingsworth for the New Yorker. http://bit.ly/1Ppn320
  • The Transatlantic Data War: Europe is fighting back against the NSA. Foreign Affairs magazine investigates. This has big implications for Silicon Valley giants. http://fam.ag/1NBaoa2
  • Is Facebook luring you into being depressed? A very good question. http://bit.ly/1lZygL8
  • ISIS is a revolution: Argues Scott Atran, a director of research in anthropology at the CNRS, École Normale Supérieure, and a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford. Writing for Aeon magazine, he points out that it is “dynamic, countercultural movement of world-historic proportions spearheaded by ISIS,” and why the world (especially the west) is underestimating this revolution. A very sobering essay. http://bit.ly/1IZaIAq [Additional reading: Inside the surreal world of ISIS propaganda machine. http://wapo.st/218GQrf]

Here are a couple of things I wrote:

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Om Malik is a San Francisco based writer, photographer and investor. Read More