Matthew Bremner On an early summer’s day in 2000, Manuel Ramírez was hosting a dinner at his home in Tepexpan, a dusty mining town near Mexico City. Family and friends had come to meet his month-old son. Guests reclined in wicker armchairs, drinks in hand, and fawned over the newborn. At around 8.30pm, several men burst into the house. They claimed to be police officers but produced no identification or warrant, and gave no reason for the intrusion. They crowded into the front room waving guns and spouting threats. One man knocked Ramírez’s Dobermann unconscious. “Who is Manuel Ramírez? Where…

The late Ghanaian economist and scholar George Ayittey distinguished between Africa’s ‘hippo’ and ‘cheetah’ generations and advocated for the latter. Because the cheetah is one of the most agile animals and features among the most successful hunters, it’s an appropriate analogy for business leaders on a culturally diverse continent. Ayittey described the cheetah generation as opportunistic, fast and agile. In the continent’s multicultural melting pot, a fundamental component for effective leadership and organisational success is cultural agility. The inevitability of diversity Because of globalisation and the technology that helps drive it, business leaders worldwide have increasingly been confronted by the…

At least since the 1950s psychologists have been peddling creativity training, but ask the average person on the street if creativity can be taught and they'll probably shrug and say, not really. Sure, various techniques can marginally boost creative thinking, but a great many people still believe that you're basically stuck with whatever level of creativity your brain is naturally wired for. That persistent belief that creativity is basically unteachable doesn't say great things about the last 70 or so years of creativity training. Which is why a group of researchers recently set out to re-imagine the field entirely. In…

Stephen C. Meyer Headlines lately have not been encouraging for the faithful. A Gallup poll shows that the percentage of Americans who believe in God has fallen to 81 percent—a drop of 10 percent over the last decade and an all-time low. This accelerating trend is especially pronounced among young adults. According to a Pew Research Center poll, 18-29 year-olds are disproportionately represented among so-called "nones"—atheists, agnostics and the religiously unaffiliated. Pastors and other religious leaders have attributed this trend to many factors: young people being raised outside the church, an unfamiliarity with liturgy and church culture, even Covid-19. We…