Dispatches, November 10, 2008. From Cape Town, Ottawa, Kuala Lumpur, Rome and wherever you emails take us.

Banks or tanks: the choices facing Obama and what can hurt him, from a venerated Canadian diplomat. For gay women in Malaysia, a new wave of religious intolerance is creating a state of "Taliban Lite." What's breaking up the fabled unity of the African National Congress of South Africa? And, opera without all that singing; an Italian compopser takes a cultural touchstone one step further in an effort to keep up with the times.