Politics

Dear Dr. Schleicher: We write to you in your capacity as OECD’s director of the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA). Now in its 13th year, PISA is known around the world as an instrument to rank OECD and non-OECD countries (60+ at last count) according to a measure of academic achievement of 15 year old students in mathematics, science, and reading. Administered every three years, PISA results are anxiously awaited by governments, education ministers, and the editorial boards of newspapers, and are cited authoritatively in countless policy reports. They have begun to deeply influence educational practices in many countries. As a result of PISA, countries are overhauling their education systems in the hopes of improving their rankings. Lack of progress on PISA has led to...

Dear Saj, Thank you for your message congratulating me on my election to the European Parliament and asking for my vote in your bid to become President of the European Parliament. You say that Europe and EU institutions need to 'show unity', 'demonstrate a clear vision' and that we 'cannot rely on old approaches that have turned away citizens from the European project'. Interestingly, you also want us to 'seek a lasting re-engagement with the people whom we represent'. Last but not least, you also seem to urge a general distancing from 'party machines'. You have been elected an MEP once more as a candidate of the British Conservative Party, of which you have been (again) a member since 2007. The Conservative Party has unfortunately, in its recent years in government, chosen to,...

Dear Susan Booysen, I write this letter a disappointed man, but also hope it is a true representation of the feelings of the many starving Zimbabweans currently back home, and of course, those in the diaspora. This is because of your involvement with the Mass Public Opinion Institute that carried out what I believe is a mockery of a real and reliable survey. I’ve always followed through many of your political analyses which have sometimes proven not only to be objective but prophetic. I’ve also held you in high esteem given that you come from the Witwatersrand University, which I shall continue to respect regardless of your recent negative attitude towards Zimbabwe’s opposition politics. Given that President Jacob Zuma is currently mediating in the Zimbabwean crisis, your...

Dear Mr. President, I am fully aware that these are days in which the federal government is — for all practical purposes — unlimited in its power. As it stands, you — sir — can detain any American citizen without due process simply because you suspect him of being a terrorist, you have magically managed to become the Chairman of the UN Security Council without the approval of Congress — despite that awkward Article 1.9 of the Constitution — and you — along with the FCC — seem to think the Internet is thine to regulate. Now I’m sure this sudden growth in power was seen as necessary, proper and really-cool by all of your staff, and thus I join in with their applause (but with those annoying, ironically-spaced claps that continue long after everyone else has finished.) For there are those...