Tag: critical commentary

How did Australia’s university system get so broken?

Widespread precarity has facilitated a culture of illegal underpayment, with more than $80m in underpayments since 2020 across public universities, according to the National Tertiary Education Union’s wage theft report Jeff Sparrow On Monday, unionised workers at the University of Melbourne (where I teach) will go on strike. In the faculty of arts, the Melbourne law school, student… Read More How did Australia’s university system get so broken?

Dilip

Belligerence and hostility: Trump’s mugshot defines modern US politics

the law is the only thing capable of making people equal: The Judge (2014) Chris McGreal Mugshots define eras. Bugsy Siegel peering malevolently from beneath his fedora in a 1928 booking photo summed up the perverse romance of gangsters in the prohibition age. Nearly half a century later, mugshots of David Bowie, elegantly dressed but dead-eyed after his arrest… Read More Belligerence and hostility: Trump’s mugshot defines modern US politics

Dilip

G20 poured more than $1tn on fossil fuel subsidies despite Cop26 pledges – report

The G20 poured record levels of public money into fossil fuels last year despite having promised to reduce some of it, a report has found Ajit Niranjan The amount of public money flowing into coal, oil and gas in 20 of the world’s biggest economies reached a record $1.4tn(£1.1tn) in 2022, according to the International… Read More G20 poured more than $1tn on fossil fuel subsidies despite Cop26 pledges – report

Dilip

Trump yearns to govern a mafia state. Fitting that he faces racketeering charges

The perfected mafia state uses ostensibly legal procedures and insider loyalty to protect corrupt autocrats from accountability Jan-Werner Müller Could there be such a thing as Trump indictment fatigue? Every week seems to bring a new set of charges; one might be forgiven for losing any sense of what’s what in the four major cases… Read More Trump yearns to govern a mafia state. Fitting that he faces racketeering charges

Dilip

Private military companies continue to expand in Africa

In the wake of the July 26 coup in Niger, the world’s spotlight has once again turned to the expansion of private military and security companies (PMSCs) across Africa. Following the removal of the relatively pro-Western government, Niger’s new military rulers asked Russian PMSC Wagner to help defend against a possible military intervention by the Economic Community of… Read More Private military companies continue to expand in Africa

Dilip

Significance of Ashoka University’s Teachers Calling for a Strike Over Academic Freedom / Solidarity with faculty of Ashoka University by the international academic community

NB: A recurring bad dream.. Here’s relevant correspondence from the time a senior scholar was forced out of Ashoka University in 2021. University authorities should protect their faculty from ideologically motivated attacks, not undermine them. If you dont stand up to such bullying there will never be an end to it. You may as well… Read More Significance of Ashoka University’s Teachers Calling for a Strike Over Academic Freedom / Solidarity with faculty of Ashoka University by the international academic community

Dilip

Modi is hell bent on building an administrative system that treats him as King

Jawhar Sircar There is no doubt that the increasing politicisation of the bureaucracy has been corroding, for quite some time, the pillars on which fair and efficient administration rest. The pains taken by the founding fathers of our constitution to protect and insulate the civil service from political interference had ensured a large degree of… Read More Modi is hell bent on building an administrative system that treats him as King

Dilip

Slavoj Žizek: Manipur is not only in India

With the new Netanyahu government, the anti-Palestinian violence (the pogrom in Huwara, the attacks on the Stella Maris Monastery in Haifa, etc.) is no longer even formally condemned by the state. To a Western European with a vague knowledge of Italian, “Manipur” automatically associates with “mani pulite” (pure hands), the big anti-corruption campaign in the… Read More Slavoj Žizek: Manipur is not only in India

Dilip

Leo Strauss: The Living Issues of German postwar Philosophy (1940)

Talk delivered to the Creighton Philosophical Club at Syracuse University in April 1940 Introductory remark Both the intellectual glory and the political misery of the Germans may be traced back to one and the same cause: German civilisation is considerably younger than the civilisation of the West. The Germans are, strictly speaking, less civilized than the English… Read More Leo Strauss: The Living Issues of German postwar Philosophy (1940)

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Safeguarding Academic Freedom Is the Bedrock of India’s Constitutional Morality

Any attempt to reimagine or recreate a constitution may fall woefully short in its objective if ‘freedoms’ are threatened and ‘unfreedoms’ are instilled by a usurper of power Deepanshu Mohan Source: The Wire In an attempt to initiate a discussion on the ‘new’ foundations of the Indian Constitution, chief economic advisor to the prime minister Bibek… Read More Safeguarding Academic Freedom Is the Bedrock of India’s Constitutional Morality

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