Not yet being a Bodhisattva, I do not always feel one hundred percent sisterly. Some days I have extreme difficulty being nice to certain well-heeled women I know who are very proud of their so-called independence and authority but are actually running dogs of patriarchy (as Mao might have said). One such informs me now … More Patriarchal Women II
Back to Shahrazad III At dinner that night I discovered that the past week’s FARC attack had taken place just outside Pasto. As a left leaning, petit bourgeois intellectual I do not know what to feel, someone said. The FARC are excellent guerrillas, we really like them. Usually nothing happens anyway, the boys just come … More Shahrazad IV
For ridiculousness, one of my favorite academic experiences of all time was the telephone call I received from a senior person in Women’s Studies who announced that I was the least oppressed person on the faculty: no husband, no children, not a woman of color, not disabled, not gay. As the least oppressed person, it … More Patriarchal Women I
Back to Shahrazad II Tupac drove us to a gated and heavily guarded compound. Inside the white walls were a lawn, a restaurant, and a number of pavilions. This was the club of the Bank of the Republic, where we were to stay. Official and fancy though it was, its nighttime attendant seemed a bit … More Shahrazad III
Back to Shahrazad I About a week after the phone call, or the dream, a fax arrived from the Bank of the Republic of Colombia: we urgently need the title of your lecture. So now I phoned. It seemed I was to cancel my regular classes for a week to participate in a symposium at … More Shahrazad II
I can compose calmly and directly now instead of having my brain expand and pulsate in asymmetrical ways. And composition is craftsmanlike and pleasant. As it gets sharper, I can feel the synapses click and the blood run through the capillaries in my temples. I have more wind in my chest, and more space in … More Shahrazad I
From the May 30 State of the City address, given at the D-Day Museum: “It was time for a change, a new prescription,” he said. “In spite of some opposition, I stood firm and we swallowed the pill and what we are doing is working. Everyone has noticed the change in our appearance. We look … More Nagin on New Orleans
One of the prisoners I know was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 1999 but not told until last week. No treatment for this disease is given in prison until acute liver failure sets in. Why he was not told is my question. Still, summer has begun. I can tell, because I am refreshed. * If … More Trinity Sunday
By Karen Polster, via Zuky: The poems at Angel Island are among the most dramatic finds in American literature. The crumbling buildings of the former immigration station in San Francisco were scheduled to be demolished, when bits and pieces of Chinese writing were glimpsed behind the peeling paint. These characters turned out to be poetry, … More Poems at Angel Island
Dambala calls our attention to the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, which appears to have been made law May 9 essentially by decree. Dambala says it “supercedes the National Emergency Act and re-constitutes the mandates of martial law.” In the event of a ‘national emergency’ . . . defined by the executive branch … More Martial Law
coldhearted scientist وداد 