This is not an ordinary guide to Melaka. This book weaves together history, cultures, architecture and cuisine to tell a more multifaceted story of Melaka, once a great trading port fought over by various colonial powers, resulting in a rich heritage that is still salient today, resulting in a multicultural city reflecting its cosmopolitan journey over the centuries. Journey along the old streets of Melaka and past its ruins, where its rich history, reflecting hundreds of years of Asian and European influence, remains alive and evolving to this day.

Amidst the growth challenges encountered by numerous Chinatowns across America, this timely work offers insightful perspectives on a sustainable model for urban and community development, as demonstrated by the transformative journey of Houston’s New Chinatown.

Bhikhu Parekh argues for a pluralist perspective on cultural diversity. Writing from both within the liberal tradition and outside of it as a critic, he challenges what he calls the "moral monism" of much of traditional moral philosophy, including contemporary liberalism--its tendency to assert that only one way of life or set of values is worthwhile and to dismiss the rest as misguided or false. He defends his pluralist perspective both at the level of theory and in subtle nuanced analyses of recent controversies. Thus, he offers careful and clear accounts of why cultural differences should be respected and publicly affirmed, why the separation of church and state cannot be used to justify the separation of religion and politics, and why the initial critique of Salman Rushdie (before a Fatwa threatened his life) deserved more serious attention than it received. Rejecting naturalism, which posits that humans have a relatively fixed nature and that culture is an incidental, and "culturalism," which posits that they are socially and culturally constructed with only a minimal set of features in common, he argues for a dialogic interplay between human commonalities and cultural differences. This will allow, Parekh argues, genuinely balanced and thoughtful compromises on even the most controversial cultural issues in the new multicultural world in which we live.

This encyclopedia provides a premier reference guide for students, scholars, policy makers, and others interested in assessing the moral consequences of global interdependence and understanding the concepts and arguments that shed light on the myriad aspects of global justice.

"This is a book I didn′t know I needed until I read it. But now that I have read it, I will read it again and again with my leadership team. The authors have provided some powerful lessons about transformative leadership through personal stories that are moving, compelling and captivating." —Sarah Jerome, Superintendent Arlington Heights School District 25, IL "The authors serve as wonderful role models for young women of color, who will enjoy reading about where the authors come from and how far they have gone. Their insightful stories will contribute to the development of more female leaders in our country." —Daniel Domenech, Executive Director American Association of School Administrators "Franco, Ott and Robles share three compelling stories that answer both the why and how questions concerning the urgent need for culturally proficient learning experiences for every American student." —Robert Hill, Director of Education Initiatives The Ball Foundation Three successful superintendents share how to educate all students Extending democracy into schools so that every child has the opportunity to achieve is the topic of many books and conversations. The three Latina superintendents who coauthored this book do more than discuss the issue of equity in education—they live it. They grew up affected by it, taught students who needed it, and changed the minds of those who resisted it. These trailblazing women chronicle their childhoods, careers, and challenges and share their vision to transform schools into places of equity and excellence. They use the lens of cultural proficiency to enhance readers′ understanding of: Barriers to educational opportunity and equity Conditions that help promote success for underserved students Ways to leverage culture as an asset Links between high-quality education for some and excellence for all learners A Culturally Proficient Society Begins in School is filled with reflective prompts, self-check protocols, and other tools for deep and meaningful professional learning. Not only do these remarkable women serve as role models for students from all cultures, their success stories are a source of inspiration to all educators who aspire to extend the promises of democracy to every North American student.

Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt extends Paul Gottfried’s examination of Western managerial government’s growth in the last third of the twentieth century. Linking multiculturalism to a distinctive political and religious context, the book argues that welfare-state democracy, unlike bourgeois liberalism, has rejected the once conventional distinction between government and civil society. Gottfried argues that the West’s relentless celebrations of diversity have resulted in the downgrading of the once dominant Western culture. The moral rationale of government has become the consciousness-raising of a presumed majority population. While welfare states continue to provide entitlements and fulfill the other material programs of older welfare regimes, they have ceased to make qualitative leaps in the direction of social democracy. For the new political elite, nationalization and income redistributions have become less significant than controlling the speech and thought of democratic citizens. An escalating hostility toward the bourgeois Christian past, explicit or at least implicit in the policies undertaken by the West and urged by the media, is characteristic of what Gottfried labels an emerging “therapeutic” state. For Gottfried, acceptance of an intrusive political correctness has transformed the religious consciousness of Western, particularly Protestant, society. The casting of “true” Christianity as a religion of sensitivity only toward victims has created a precondition for extensive social engineering. Gottfried examines late-twentieth-century liberal Christianity as the promoter of the politics of guilt. Metaphysical guilt has been transformed into self-abasement in relation to the “suffering just” identified with racial, cultural, and lifestyle minorities. Unlike earlier proponents of religious liberalism, the therapeutic statists oppose anything, including empirical knowledge, that impedes the expression of social and cultural guilt in an effort to raise the self-esteem of designated victims. Equally troubling to Gottfried is the growth of an American empire that is influencing European values and fashions. Europeans have begun, he says, to embrace the multicultural movement that originated with American liberal Protestantism’s emphasis on diversity as essential for democracy. He sees Europeans bringing authoritarian zeal to enforcing ideas and behavior imported from the United States. Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt extends the arguments of the author’s earlier After Liberalism. Whether one challenges or supports Gottfried’s conclusions, all will profit from a careful reading of this latest diagnosis of the American condition.