Author: Dilip

I'm a scholar, writer and teacher; and my blog is designed for intellectual exploration. It carries no advertisements and requires no cash subscription

Israel-Hamas War: US arms industry stocks rocket (October 10)

NB: The only people benefiting from this conflict are arms dealers. Western establishments make immense profits from warfare, and have an interest in eternal conflict. As Orwell said, war has been abolished by becoming permanent. DS Defence majors such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Gruman, Huntington Ingalls, L3Harris Tech and General Dynamics have gained at least… Read More Israel-Hamas War: US arms industry stocks rocket (October 10)

Dilip

Wrestling with relativism

Bernard Williams argued that one’s ethics is shaped by culture and history. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is right Daniel Callcut Travel and history can both inspire a sense of moral relativism, as they did for the Greek historian and traveller Herodotus in the 5th century BCE. What should one make of the fact… Read More Wrestling with relativism

Dilip

Israel must stop weaponising the Holocaust

Scholars of genocide are criticizing the dangerous use of the Holocaust to justify Israeli mass violence against Palestinians…This weaponization of Holocaust memory by Israeli politicians runs deep. In 1982, Israeli PM, Menachem Begin compared the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Beirut to Adolf Hitler in his bunker in Berlin… in October 2015, Netanyahu took this weaponization to… Read More Israel must stop weaponising the Holocaust

Dilip

Rare eastern osprey chick hatches in South Australia, captivating birdwatchers around the world

Birdwatchers from around the world have celebrated the arrival of a rare eastern osprey chick in South Australia. Fran Solly, secretary of the Friends of Osprey conservation group, says everyone in Tumby Island and Port Lincoln knows about the chick that hatched last Thursday. But the livestream has captivated bird watchers from as far away as… Read More Rare eastern osprey chick hatches in South Australia, captivating birdwatchers around the world

Dilip

Marked by Stars: Agrippa’s Occult Philosophy

By Anthony Grafton Reading Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s encyclopedic study of magic is like stumbling into a vast cabinet of curiosities, where toad bones boil water, witches transmit misery through optical darts, and numbers, arranged correctly, can harness the planets’ powers. Anthony Grafton explores the Renaissance polymath’s occult insights into the structure of the universe, discovering a… Read More Marked by Stars: Agrippa’s Occult Philosophy

Dilip

Natalie Zemon Davis, Historian of the Marginalized, Dies at 94

NB: A great scholar, a deeply humane person and an optimist of the spirit. This is sad news, but one must be grateful that she lived a long and fulfilling life. She and her husband Professor Chandler Davis were committed war resisters and anti-imperialist intellectuals. I salute them both; and offer my deepest condolences to… Read More Natalie Zemon Davis, Historian of the Marginalized, Dies at 94

Dilip

Is the US about to blindly march into yet another catastrophic war?

On 18 October, Brazil proposed a security council resolution calling not even for a ceasefire but merely for “humanitarian pauses” in Israel’s bombing of Gaza. The US, in a sole vote, vetoed it. In the US Congress, over a dozen House Democrats signed on to a ceasefire resolution put forward by Cori Bush, the Missouri congresswoman. The Democratic lawmaker… Read More Is the US about to blindly march into yet another catastrophic war?

Dilip

What will the children who survive the onslaught of Gaza think of those who let it happen?

At least 3,250 children have been injured, with 1,240 needing specialised medical care, as of last week. Many have extensive burns and shrapnel wounds or have lost limbs. Yet hospitals and clinics that have been damaged or destroyed or are short of medical supplies – due to Israel’s siege – are unable to treat them… Read More What will the children who survive the onslaught of Gaza think of those who let it happen?

Dilip

Making Gaza Unliveable: Economic dimensions of the war on the Gaza Strip according to international humanitarian law

Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute – MAS – Year: 2023 Today, MAS issued the first edition of the “Economic Summary of the War on Gaza”, monitoring the comprehensively destructive approach adopted by the Israeli military forces in their war on the Gaza Strip. It focuses on Israeli policies and practices that affect the basics of human… Read More Making Gaza Unliveable: Economic dimensions of the war on the Gaza Strip according to international humanitarian law

Dilip

Iceland’s first full-day women’s strike in 48 years aims to close pay gap

Miranda Bryant in Reykjavík Tens of thousands of women and non-binary people across Iceland, including the prime minister, are expected to stop work – both paid and unpaid – on Tuesday in the first strike of its kind in nearly half a century. Organisers hope the women’s strike – whose confirmed participants include fishing industry workers, teachers,… Read More Iceland’s first full-day women’s strike in 48 years aims to close pay gap

Dilip