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

'Endure, everyone': final messages from Hong Kong democracy figures before detention

On Sunday, 47 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures were charged with conspiracy to commit subversion over accusations they organised unofficial primary elections aiming to “paralyse” the government by winning a majority and blocking legislation. The election was ultimately postponed for a year, purportedly because of the pandemic. All face terms of up to life in prison if convicted.… Read More 'Endure, everyone': final messages from Hong Kong democracy figures before detention

Dilip

Lauren Aratani: Electricity needed to mine bitcoin is more than used by 'entire countries

It’s not just the value of bitcoin that has soared in the last year – so has the huge amount of energy it consumes. The cryptocurrency’s value has dipped recently after passing a high of $50,000 but the energy used to create it has continued to soar during its epic rise, climbing to the equivalent to the… Read More Lauren Aratani: Electricity needed to mine bitcoin is more than used by 'entire countries

Dilip

Pause. Reflect. Think

Susan Stebbing’s little Pelican book on philosophy had a big aim: giving everybody tools to think clearly for themselves    There is an urgent need today for the citizens of a democracy to think well.’ These words, which could have been written yesterday, come from Thinking to Some Purpose, a popular book by the British philosopher… Read More Pause. Reflect. Think

Dilip

Book review: Pankaj Mishra’s Reckoning With Liberalism’s Bloody Past

One of the unfortunate temptations of the Trump era has been the rush to find radical breaks with the past where, in truth, the lines of continuity are strong. The themes of Trump’s speech were already well circulated among the Anglo-American elite, whether in the work of the political scientist Samuel Huntington or in the… Read More Book review: Pankaj Mishra’s Reckoning With Liberalism’s Bloody Past

Dilip

Book review – 'Love’s labours should be lost': Maria Stepanova, Russia's next great writer

Vladimir Nabokov – one of Stepanova’s many literary companions in In Memory of Memory – once wrote: “I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is.”     Years ago, Maria Stepanova visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC to do… Read More Book review – 'Love’s labours should be lost': Maria Stepanova, Russia's next great writer

Dilip

This obscure energy treaty is the greatest threat to the planet you’ve never heard of

The Energy Charter Treaty allows fossil fuel companies to sue governments for taking action on climate change. It must be stopped before it’s too late.   On 4 February the German energy giant RWE announced it was suing the government of the Netherlands. The crime? Proposing to phase out coal from the country’s electricity mix. The company,… Read More This obscure energy treaty is the greatest threat to the planet you’ve never heard of

Dilip

José Zepeda: Prison has not discouraged Cuba’s leading dissident

José Daniel Ferrer is a prominent Cuban dissident and human rights activist, who was one of 75 dissidents imprisoned during a 2003 government crackdown known as the Black Spring. After eight years in prison, he was released in 2011 and has been permanently harassed ever since, spending more than six months in jail in 2020. He… Read More José Zepeda: Prison has not discouraged Cuba’s leading dissident

Dilip