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The programme that explains the present by exploring the past

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.

The Forum: Us and Them

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German primary school children in tugowar by Jens Ulrich Koch / Getty

27/04/2013 GMT

Us and Them

BBC World Service - The Forum, Us and Them

Why divide ourselves into two camps - is what separates us stronger than what unites us?

Do you see the world in terms of 'us and them'? Why divide ourselves into two camps - is what separates us really stronger than what unites us?

Is it helpful to view the world as being divided along fault-lines of gender, class, race or religion? Matthew Taylor talks to anthropologist Laura Nader, who says we need to find new dialogues between the West and the Middle East that recognise our common humanity; historian David Cannadine who says that as well as studying conflict, we should explore our undivided past; and novelist Aminatta Forna, who examines the aftermath of civil war through her fiction; what about when 'them' also means 'us'?

Image: Children playing tug-of-war, Credit: Jens-Ulrich Koch/AFP/Getty Images

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