October 2, 2008 – 10:24 am
Governance in my country suffers a tragic death every moment. It is drowned, it is smothered, it is stabbed, it is genetically altered, it is poisoned with sweet candy and it is given the quietest of all burials.
Yamunprasad asked his neighbour as they trudged kilometres from waist deep water to neck deep water leaving behind their flooded huts and fields; why there is no sign of any Government help. The neighbour replied earnestly that government and the Lord cannot exist together and the Almighty is with them. The neighbour is right, in the land of a billion Gods and trillion Godmen, the state has to jostle with divine beings to provide elementary governance. Spiritual salvation and temporal agony lie in perennial coitus.
River Kosi bursts its embankments, adopts a new course and floods thousands of hectares of impoverished villages in the dark Indian state of Bihar. The Indian government with its booming economy, democratic mandate and behemoth standing army, watches. Read More »
September 8, 2008 – 8:46 am
One late night during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, as the swimmer Michael Phelps smashed yet another world record, I walked through Philadelphia thinking over its history and was struck by how well it represents what America stands for.
Philadelphia is the birthplace of the American Democracy. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both written there. The city’s most famous landmark - The Liberty Bell - sits in the aptly named Independence Hall and one of the museums is named after Ben Franklin, one of the most popular founding fathers.
The city also served as the first capital of the country. It has also been home to some of the most progressive minority groups. Read More »
September 6, 2008 – 5:44 am
Unless you are just now joining civilization, you may have heard of a little film called “Batman: The Dark Knight.” It is not the first Batman film, of course; the popular character from the comic books has been in several before now.
What we are asked to believe, however, about director Christopher Nolan’s new Bat-films – this one and “Batman Begins” – is that they have a special quality of serious crime films containing Political and Philosophical Themes (while the 60s film is knockabout farce, the 80s film an extended Depeche Mode video, and the 90s films simply too 90s to be tolerated).
Mountains of cultural studies essays have been written about this topic already, so I won’t bore you with too much that you can read elsewhere. You probably know the basic argument as to what makes the film ‘right-wing’: the focus is entirely on getting revenge on the criminals of the community, rather than on looking at the community and asking why it produces criminals (an obvious truism – but why obvious?).
What I find interesting – quite apart from the exciting and noisy car-chases, beatings and gun-fights, which always seem such fun when they happen on film – is the extent to which this film has been complacently allowed into the wrong genre and the claims of its advertisers believed. Read More »
The historic streets adjacent to the University of Arizona in Tucson are famed for their oddity shops and restaurants that sell unusual art and bold the house-made seitan on the menu. It’s only logical to conclude that places that advertise the unique likewise attract the… unique.
Last week I just wasn’t in the mood to shoot the breeze with the hobos, so I attempted to be urban and have my coffee at a more upscale place that caters to the rich and retired snowbirds.
After driving toward the mountain foothills I found a coffee shop in a Wal-mart Neighborhood Market. Taking this as a sure sign the place would be weirdo-free, I ordered an espresso and sank into an overstuffed chair across from the only other customers: a mid-aged woman attached to her Blackberry and a half-asleep grandpa.
And as if on cue, in walks an African-American man sporting two Bluetooth ear pieces, black leather gloves, combat boots and a bulletproof vest. Read More »
When I was younger I would ask people the following question: If you could be immortal and all you had to do was chop off the head of the person you most love, would you do it?
Most people would look aghast look and scream: No!
I, however, would laugh at them and tell them that I would happily take off my beloved’s head in exchange for immortality. My reasoning would be that my beloved would love me so much that she’d want me to live forever and give myself to every generation after hers.
I stopped asking this question when I grew older. I realized that no one would love me that much.
I’m kidding. That’s not why.
I stopped asking this question because as each day I grew closer to death, I was less inclined to desire immortality.
This can only mean that while I fear death, I fear life more.
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When I say to the world that men and women are the same, I do not understand why everyone points to their private parts.
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Around the time that Muhammad was singing the praises of Allah, there was Muzahim al-Uqaili, singing lamentations to Allah. He wrote about love. Says the poet: Read More »
