The Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy Drives Record Military Spending By William J. Astore (Tomdispatch.com) – Imagine this scenario for a moment: a “great power” watches another major power fight a war in a nearby nation for 10 years before its army limps home defeated and, not so very long after, that country implodes. A little over a decade later, by… Read More Imperial Dominance Disguised as Democratic Deterrence
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Palestinian newspaper Amad reports that tens of thousands of Israelis took part on Saturday evening in demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa protesting the new Israeli government, headed by Binyamin Netanyahu. The Hebrew press reported a massive police presence at these sites. The Israeli center-right is finding out what Palestinians… Read More Israeli Opposition Warns of “Civil War,” “End of Democracy” as 80,000 Rally against Netanyahu
by Joey Watson with pictures by Muzafar Ali Muzafar Ali, who lives in Adelaide, grew up as a refugee in Pakistan after his family fled Afghanistan in the mid-1980s. As a child, the only pictures he saw of his birth country were through Taliban-issued jihadi calendars and the occasional news report. Photo: Muzafar Ali / The Guardian Ali is… Read More One Afghan refugee’s stunning photographs of the country’s ‘many stories that need to be told’
Chandan Gowda Sara Aboobacker and her husband, an engineer with the government, moved to Bangalore in 1981. He had been transferred from Mangalore. One day, as she was heading out of a public library in Halasur, Lankesh Patrike, which was dangling in a roadside stall, caught her eye. She bought a copy of the eight-page Kannada… Read More Nadoja Sara Aboobacker
Catherine Bennett Early signs are that Prince Harry’s revelations may not, frustratingly for experts and republicans alike, seriously threaten the monarchy. Even if he’d wanted to, he probably picked the wrong moment, the public still being in an exceptionally forgiving mood. For all his divulging, to seriously “stain” or “trash”, as alleged, the royal brand,… Read More Prince Harry has left the zoo, so why is he being treated like a caged animal?
Stephanie Kirchgaessner A prominent pro-reform law professor in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to death for alleged crimes including having a Twitter account and using WhatsApp to share news considered “hostile” to the kingdom, according to court documents seen by the Guardian. The arrest of Awad Al-Qarni, 65, in September 2017 represented the start of a crackdown against dissent by… Read More Saudi Arabian academic on death row for using Twitter and WhatsApp
By Alex Christian After working for less than a year in fashion retail, Sarah secured an e-commerce assistant role in the head office of a global luxury brand. In both jobs, she was surrounded by like-minded twenty-somethings, all of whom wanted to succeed in the fashion world. “It’s like any creative industry: young people always… Read More The companies that churn through young workers
Bharat Bhushan Bhagwat claims that the ‘1000-year war’ against ‘foreign aggressions’ has now been transformed into a war with the “enemy within’ It is a measure of the marginalisation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) under the Narendra Modi regime that its head Mohan Bhagwat is compelled to symbolically reassert his authority time and again. His latest… Read More Two Popes: Mohan Bhagwat’s feeble attempts to reassert himself
A man who cultivates his garden, as Voltaire wished.He who is grateful for the existence of music. He who takes pleasure in tracing an etymology.Two workmen playing, in a café in the South, a silent game of chess. The potter, contemplating a color and a form.The typographer who sets this page well, though it may… Read More The Just. By Jorge Luis Borges
The Cult of the Nation is the professionalism of the people. This cult is becoming their greatest danger, because it is bringing them enormous success, making them impatient of the claims of higher ideals. The greater the amount of success, the stronger are the conflicts of interest and jealousy and hatred which are aroused in men’s… Read More Rabindranath Tagore’s essay on the cult of the nation
After the truth-shower 