Wednesday, Feb 8th 2012
Letter from Tehran: Can Iran Change?: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
A lengthy and thorough profile of Iran and its leader. Excellent stuff.
Ahmadinejad is a Twelver Shiite and a fervent Mahdist, which means that, in the modern Iranian context, he is the equivalent of a born-again Christian. In the Shia tradition, the Twelfth Imam, or [...]
Israeli Arabs fear a Gaza backlash as far right prepares for power role | World news | The Observer
“The difference between Lieberman and [Austria's] Jörg Haider and Jean-Marie Le Pen, to whom he has been compared,” said Tibi, “is that they were locals acting against immigrants. Lieberman is an immigrant acting against the locals. And [...]
The American Conservative — Another War, Another Defeat
John Mearsheimer, author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, on the motives behind Israel’s mobilisation in Gaza. He correctly observes that Israel is locking itself into a millenarian-tinged ‘eternal war’, confident it can ride the wave of international condemnation and a surge in Palestinian support for [...]
YouTube - Rocky Road To Dublin Peter Lennon Documentary
Peter Lennon's 1967 documentary that was effectively banned for decades from RTE. An angry exposé of the stifling de facto theocracy then in place, it competed at Cannes in 1968 but was denied a prize when Godard and Truffaut's protest led to the festival being suspended. Godard's [...]
I’m Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq - washingtonpost.com
Article by former US army interrogator:
'It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers [...]
What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been
Bill Ayers' account of his cameo role in the US elections just past. It tallies pretty accurately with Obama's.
Darfur: the dangers of celebrity imperialism
A measured summary of perspectives on Darfur which disputes the indiscriminate use of the word 'genocide'. With authorities such as Rony Brauman, co-founder of Médicins sans frontières, Alex De Waal and David Rieff cited, it is no blindly ideological apologia for the Khartoum regime.
I’ve always found dubious the notion that certain times in the past were ‘a more innocent age’; it is bandied about a lot when referring to the more demure sexual mores of times gone, the 1950s being the prime example. Of course the ‘innocence’ of comely young ladies (and it is nearly always ladies who [...]
Work in Progress
Catalan director José Luis Guerín's illuminating essay on his wonderful 2001 film 'Work in Progress' (original title 'En Construcción'). The film charts, in semi-documentary fashion, the demolition of a century-old building in the Barrio Chino, Barcelona's old red-light disctrict, and its replacement by a block of modern apartments. It examines the old working-class [...]
In country after country, democratic reforms are in retreat. The surprising culprit: the middle class - The Boston Globe
As seen recently in Bolivia, democracry quickly loses its lustre for the middle classes when elections fail to go their way. A good article even though it is dubiously reticent about Chavez, ignoring, like most Western media, [...]
