1. The French Revolution did not give rise to the contemporary human rights movement, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man was as puny as Oswald de Andrade said it was. Hunt pays homage to the soft power of humanity. Toussaint, for his part, found it necessary to resort to weapons. 2. Newly discovered … More Des livres pour les vacances
1. What is terrorism? Who is and who is not classified as a terrorist? Why? CubaCentral says this: The first terrorist attack in this hemisphere targeting an aircraft was perpetrated by Luis Posada Carriles against a Cuban airliner, and the United States, which has its own experience with airborne terror, should be certifying Posada as … More Terrorism, Mezcal, Trade Winds
Linda Kintz’ article whose title I have appropriated here reminds me with 20/20 clarity why we read Derrida, what we did not like, how important the phrase locus of enunciation is, where it came from, and how people like Paulo Freire really do help to break the colonial mirror. Here are some excerpts from Kintz’ … More On Performing Deconstruction: Postmodern Pedagogy
Finals week is almost over, so it is almost time to sing. Here are two songs about struggles harder than finals. The first one especially is unmissable, de ne pas manquer. Antiviolent Hip Hop This is the Rio de Janeiro band AfroReggae, about which we can learn even more in the film Favela Rising. Rosemary … More Imagine
I read statistics like those which follow over ten years ago. It seems that the situation has not changed. – 28% of adult Louisianians surveyed were not literate enough to find an intersection on a road map, or two stated facts in a sports article. Rates of illiteracy at this level in some parishes are … More Des Statistiques
In the Daily Mail today is a precious picture of George W. Bush winking at the Queen. In the Guardian we find Maid Service, an article on the question of corruption. Below are some highlights, with interesting information on contemporary Peru. I have of course bolded the most shocking paragraph. Why is corruption endemic in … More On Inequality and the Origins of Corruption
Regin Dahl (Tórshavn 1918-København 2007) will be buried in Tórshavn on the summer solstice. He was a piano player and composer with a strong tenor/baritone voice we can hear on the MySpace page someone has set up for him and us. He worked as an editor and proofreader, but is best known as a poet. … More Regin Dahl
The Kingfish has an excellent post on our useless senator David Vitter, and how Barack Obama is having to do his job for him. Meanwhile one of my activist acquaintances has sent me an e-mail on our similarly useless representative Bobby Jindal. The message is important since Congressman Jindal is believed by some to be … More Two Phantoms
One of my friends works in an EU country and describes corruption and the ‘black’ economy there. These are the kinds of stories which inspire my fantasies of studying Economics. According to my sources, friends high up at the large security company which packages and ships all of the cash for the National Bank, the … More Cloak and Dagger Economies in the EU
Nicolas Sarkozy has been elected President of the Republic of France, and he has a triumphalist video. The White House is of course pleased and I, of course, am not. A year or so ago this blog was being attacked by French people opposed to the Iraq war. They said that as an American, I … More Travail, famille, patrie
coldhearted scientist وداد 