Primavera festival: transported by sound
What is it that Jarvis Cocker sang in that Pulp song? Oh yeah. Tugging on strands of blissed-out escapism, Cocker links rave’s field-trip culture to hanging around aimlessly on grass, neatly...
Ahmadi killings – we are all guilty
On Friday, May 28, 2010, gunmen wearing suicide jackets and carrying grenades opened fire on two separate Ahmadi congregations in the city of Lahore as they were gathered for Friday prayer. Men got...
The oil spill is NOT “Obama’s Katrina”
Oil has been flowing into the gulf for over a month now and it seems that a resolution continues to remain just out of reach. The disaster is now openly being compared to Hurricane Katrina – and...
Oil spills and economic crises: once more, with feeling
A clip on Rachel Maddow's show Thursday showed that the oil leak still pouring into the Gulf of Mexico bears an uncanny resemblance to one from 1979. Each one of the failed containment plans (top...
The Miami Gym: A safari
I'm grateful that gyms exist; without them, I’m sure I would have turned to messier alternatives for stress relief, such as pooping in mailboxes and shouting at small dogs. But the more time I...
Rand Paul and the fervent cult of The Market
Rand Paul claims to represent the Kentuckian masses and their disinterest in the political status quo: both with the Obama Administration's policies on everything from the bailout to punishing BP for...
“Presumed Guilty” at the 2010 Human Rights Watch festival
“Presumed Guilty” is the title of this year’s closing night doc at the 2010 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, a co-presentation of Human Rights Watch and The Film Society of Lincoln Center that...
Tony Abbott and the Liberals: Truthiness Down Under
The American satiric comedian Stephen Colbert famously introduced the word “truthiness” into the contemporary English lexicon. Dictionary Merriam Webster named it their Word of Year in 2006,...
A different sort of female genital mutilation
About thirty years ago, there was an informal secret society in the city of Cork. Perhaps a loose net of those with a shared interest might be more accurate. This group passed the names of certain...
The Ryan Report one year later: Still no accountability for the Church
Thursday was the first anniversary of the publication of the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse. Commonly called the Ryan Report, its publication cumulated in the realisation of the extent of the...