Since we were babies, we’ve been told that the world “just is” a certain way. As we get older, we start to ask ourselves that even though the world “is” like how we were told, should it be? Polish artist Pawel Kuczynski and Austrian artist Gerhard Haderer have been using their talents to answer that… Read More Brutally Honest Illustrations Show What's Wrong With Today's Society
NB: One of the favorite (and cringeworthy) terms in Indian mass media is ‘Indian origin’. Well, ladies and gents, here’s an ‘Indian origin’ racist for you. DS It wasn’t long ago that Patel refused to condemn football fans who booed as England players kneeled in protest against racial injustice. Taking the knee was dismissed by… Read More Priti Patel and English racism. By Anita Mureithi
The 45th president is out of office and Michael Wolff has brought his Trump trilogy to a close. First there was Fire and Fury, then there was Siege, now there is Landslide. The third is the best of the three, and that is saying plenty. Three years ago, Trump derided Fire and Fury as fake news and… Read More Book review: Michael Wolff’s third Trump book is his best – and most alarming
The thesis of Macbeth is also the Socratic thesis, set forth especially in the Republic and the Gorgias, that the worst fate that can befall a human soul, far worse than becoming the victim of a tyrant, is to become a tyrant Macbeth is a moral play par excellence. In this, it stands in stark contrast to two more recent… Read More Harry V. Jaffa: Macbeth and the Moral Universe
“Stan Smith (84) passes away. The system sucks. UAPA. No bail. Little hope of early trial. Others too languish in jail. Lawyers , Academics , Social Activists ….raise their voices for the voiceless. They too are now “voiceless”. The State calls them “ terrorists,” Kapil Sibal, Congress MP, tweeted on July 5, 2021. Sibal got the name wrong.… Read More Farah Naqvi: Father Stan, UAPA and the Performative Solidarity of Politicians
The political elite elected ostensibly to represent the majority, is effectively — and often all too obviously – under the influence, if not direct control, of elements of the monied minority. It is a classic case of who pays the piper invariably calling the tune. If the “tune” – the policies and decisions affecting the… Read More Terry Bell writes from South Africa: The challenge of real democracy
Saudi Arabia’s role as a counter-revolutionary force in the Middle East is widely understood and thoroughly documented. Historian Rosie Bsheer calls the Saudi kingdom “a counter-revolutionary state par excellence,” indeed one that was “consolidated as such.” The Saudi monarchy has gone into counter-revolutionary overdrive since the onset of the Arab uprisings, scrambling to thwart popular… Read More Danny Postel – The Other Counter-Revolution: Iran’s Role in the Shifting Political Landscape of the Middle East
A judicial probe has been ordered in France into the corruption surrounding the Rafale fighter jet deal with India. In India, the Supreme Court and the Comptroller and Auditor General have already given a clean chit to the Narendra Modi government in the deal. The Parquet National Financier (PNF) responsible for tracking down complex economic… Read More Bharat Bhushan – Rafale deal: Could French investigations turn up a Bofors?
He was the star of my favourite film, Madhumati (1958). It was the first film shot in the Kumaon hills near our town of Nainital. For a few weeks, all of us in school strained our ears, above the teachers’ unending lessons, to hear the song, Aaja re pardesi, reverberating down in the valley, where… Read More Mrinal Pande: Goodbye Dilip Kumar, creator of our first dreams of love
“If justice perishes, human life on earth has lost its meaning” – Immanuel Kant “Once crime was as solitary as a cry of protest; now it is as universal as science. Yesterday it was put on trial; today it determines the law” – Albert Camus The death of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy in judicial custody Monday brings… Read More "I will probably die" – Express Editorial on Stan Swamy // A Requiem for Father Stan Swamy: Justice of the Supreme Court (Retd) Madan Lokur
After the truth-shower 