April 15th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
With its perpetually (and historically) rocky relationship, the Arab and European worlds have seldom met in a peaceful manner (or without suspicion) during the past half a millenium ever since the downfall of the Moorish civilization in Spain. In this context the on-going London Book Fair, with the “Arab World” as guest of honour and Arab writers present in force, provides yet another opportunity to build a bridge between the two worlds.
The Independent writes: “Imperial bureaucrats, soldiers and scholars on one side; radical nationalists, pious militants and oil-rich oligarchs on the other – all have had their various axes to grind, and to wield. Now, perhaps, the writers of the Arab world can begin to find a voice in the West again. It’s always easier to love distant stars when they can shine, plainly and legibly, on the page in front of us.
“The (London) fair will be the culmination of a long-term plan, steered by the British Council, to forge firmer cultural bonds. And, although he comes from far beyond the Arab world (and writes in English), the Afghan author Khaled Hosseini’s double coup in topping the UK charts both with The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns has helped to put a spring in the step of everyone who wants to widen the readership for literature from the Middle East and North Africa.
(The Kite Runner novel was the third best-seller for 2005 in the United States, according to Nielsen BookScan. It’s been published in 38 countries, translated into 42 languages, turned into an Oscar-nominated movie – and sold more than 10 million copies — one of the publishing industry’s greatest success stories. Now the search is on for the next big thing to come from the East. The Kite Runner is a 2007 Academy Award-nominated film directed by Marc Forster based on the novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini (click here for more…)
“In the Gulf, lavishly funded new competitions such as the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the ‘Arab Booker’) and the Sheikh Zayed Awards have signalled the intention of the emirate of Abu Dhabi to build up its name as a global centre of culture. Not to be outdone, and fretting perhaps at its current reputation as the world capital of bling, neighbouring Dubai begins a new literary festival next year. Also in Abu Dhabi, the Kalima translation project has launched an ambitious, state-financed programme to bring, at the rate of 100 per year, classic and contemporary books from around the world into Arabic for the first time and to distribute them across the region. ” More here…
I lived in London during the mid-1970s. I extensively covered there a major “World of Islam Festival” for The Statesman newspaper in India. The festival was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. “As far as anyone can remember, such an attempt had never been made before—and probably could not have been. It is only recently that one civilization has been capable of looking at another civilization objectively, rather than as a potential rival or convert. Read the rest of this entry »
March 15th, 2008 by DAVID SCHRAUB, Assistant Editor
About a year ago, I penned a post entitled “Taking Thomas Seriously”, about the particularly political ideology held by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In it, I noted that both liberals and conservatives misunderstood Thomas’ orientation because the tried to map him onto “standard” (White) political categories. Thomas is a conservative, yes, but specifically he is a Black Conservative, which is a very particular philosophical tradition that does not perfectly align with plain old vanilla White conservatives.
Not all Black conservatives are Black Conservatives (that is, there are conservative Black people, such as Ward Connerly, who I would not identify as part of the Black Conservative tradition), and, more importantly, not all Black Conservatives are conservative (in that, on our “traditional” left/right axis, some would be placed on the left). However, because most people, particularly most Whites, aren’t familiar with Black Conservative ideology, it leads to significant misunderstanding about where its adherents are coming from when they do show up on the national stage. All this is preface to point out that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, he who has nearly derailed Obama’s campaign, is a Black Conservative. To be sure, he’s not a conservative (needless to say, capitalization matters in this post). But he’s not a “liberal” either — his political alignment doesn’t comfortably fit onto models premised on White ideological positioning. Black Conservatism, like Black Liberalism, is not wholly divorced from “standard” Conservatism and Liberalism — but at best they intersect at odd angles.
February 16th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
I was a Beatles’ fan in my teens. A few years after the famous British pop group had visited their Guru’s ashram, I undertook a journey to Rishikesh in India. Situated on the banks of the mighty/holy river Ganga/Ganges when it enters the plains (with the Himalayas providing a picturesqe backdrop), the ashram became our abode for a few days in the early 1970s. Our co-blogger at the TMV, Brij Khindaria, who was then with the Reuters, accompanied us.
It was a fascinating experience. Although I ‘crashlanded’ learning the Maharishi’s ‘flying yogic’ technique, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay for a couple of days there…
“Crank? Crackpot? Charlatan? Maybe all three. Yet Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who died on February 5th (in his ‘home’ in the Netherlands), was generally benign,” says The Economist. “He did not use his money for sinister ends. He neither drank, nor smoked, nor took drugs. Indeed, he is credited with weaning the Beatles off dope (for a while). He did not accumulate scores of Rolls-Royces, like Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh; his biggest self-indulgence was a helicopter.
“Nor was he ever accused of molesting choirboys; his greatest sexual impropriety, it was said, was to make a pass at Mia Farrow…After the 1960s he seldom appeared in public.
“Moreover, his message was entirely laudable. He did not promote a cult or even a mainstream religion preaching original sin, purgatory and the likelihood of eternal damnation. He just wanted to end poverty, teach people how to achieve personal fulfilment and help them to discover ‘Heaven on Earth in this generation’. And yogic flying, of course…”
February 11th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
My daughter in Australia has drawn my attention to a death that seems to have gone virtually unnoticed in this world. And I was moved to tears… Read the full obituary here…
Is the over-dependence on the use of English hampering Puerto Rico economically and socially? According to this op-ed article from Argentina’s Argenpress, Puerto Rico must have its national sovereignty, not only to correct cultural and historical wrongs committed by the ‘United States Empire,’ but to revert to Spanish simply to do business with the growing number of other countries that embrace Spanish over English.
“Those who wish to remain isolated from the rest of the world, either by extending Puerto Rico’s current colonial status or through annexing it as a U.S. state, care little about the fate of the Spanish language, because their worldview has shrunk.”
By José R. Bas García
Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
December 28, 2007
Argentina - Argen Press - Original Article (Spanish)
In Puerto Rico, there remains a constant debate about language that has its roots in the inconclusive political status of the island. There are the same divisions on the issue of status as there are on the defense of Spanish or English. Those who favor independence [for Puerto Rico] see Spanish as an integral part and a unifying factor of the Puerto Rican nationality. Those statesman [those in favor of U.S. statehood] have adopted a seemingly pragmatic position, downplaying the importance of the cohesive value of Spanish and extolling the teaching and use of English as an instrument for achieving better economic conditions. “English is a universal language of business,” they insist. Many, following the false notion that if their children don’t learn English they won’t be able to succeed in life, make great sacrifices to keep them in exclusive and prohibitively expensive private schools, where the teaching is done in English.
But the myth of English seems to be waning. According to a news article [ - in Spanish] published on a Web site devoted to the Spanish language, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the teaching of Spanish restored to her nation’s public schools. Information has been circulated unofficially that suggests the teaching of Spanish in Philippine schools will begin in January 2008.
Nearly 80 French police officers were injured during clashes with youths in a working- and lower-class suburb north of Paris last night, and six are in serious condition, police officials said, after some of the youths used hunting shotguns as well as more conventional guns, fire bombs and rocks.
November 8th, 2007 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
An interesting book claims that in the next few decades one of the strongest forces shaping American culture—perhaps the strongest force—will be Mexican. More here…
Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) gives all Americans the chance to gain insight into the nation’s largest minority.
You might as well give it a try. There are more than 44 million Hispanics in the United States, and the Census Bureau estimates that — by 2050 — we’ll represent one in four Americans.
And despite efforts by nativists to keep out both legal and illegal immigrants in a desperate attempt to turn back the demographic clock, Hispanics aren’t going anywhere. Why should we? In many cases, we were here first.
June 5th, 2007 by DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, TMV Columnist
During tonight’s Republican debate, Congressman Tom Tancredo (R) Colorado, said definitively: We “… must STOP all LEGAL immigration…”
Tancredo said that only “family members and refugees” should be allowed into the USA for as long a time as it takes, to close off all legal immigration, until ‘we don’t have to press for English…’ [being the exclusive language]
Wolf Blitzer immediately asked other candidates whether they agreed with Tancredo. Those who responded were vehement in their disagreement.
Mayor Giuliani looked as though he thought that Tancredo was NOT speaking English himself, but rather some form of gibberish. But Senator McCain, reacted in facial expression and tone of voice as though Tancredo might have lost his mind and floated up in a pink fairy dress way beyond the pale.
In response to Blitzer asking if he agreed with what Tancredo had just said, McCain replied in slow measured words: “It’s. Beyond. My. Thinking…”
There’s a saying amongst handlers of various public figures, or those who want to be public figures: If you can’t distinguish yourself from others from your own successful experience in the matter, if you fail at eloquence, if you have no track record to point to… try to say something far to the right or left, over the top or under the bottom of what others are saying. If Joe Blow says ten, you say 100. If John Doe says blue, you say red. If Jane Smith bids 500, you bid the whole house.
It’s not a strategy to endear oneself to seasoned politicos who look to work with reliable side arms, not cannons that rotate at will.
It is the party’s third consecutive presidential defeat. The Socialists now face the question of whether they can ever regain power without ditching their anti-capitalist rhetoric, as the mainstream left has done across almost all of Europe.
Ms Royal can argue that she did better than Lionel Jospin, who in 2002 led the Socialists to a humiliating third place behind Jacques Chirac and far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. But France’s main opposition party still faces a wrenching crisis.
Well, it’s very simple: they can all point the finger to themselves. They are all to blame, as is their socialist ideology. Socialism has had its day; socialism has brought moral decline, high unemployment rates, weak, unstable economies, huge governments, regulation in just about every area of one’s life; it has caused something called personal responsibility to disappear; it has brought moral relativism; it has learned us that we cannot be proud of our respective country; it has made large groups of people unnecessarily dependent on the government; it has forced us to accept the failed concept of multiculturalism; it has taught us (I mean Europeans in general with that) that whatever you do, you have to be politically correct; it has created an environment in which one is not allowed to name problems, let alone deal with them; it has taught us that criminals are not to blame for their crimes, society as a whole is and that they, therefore, should be coddled instead of punished… oef, the list goes on and on.
Socialism has weakened France, and Europe as a whole; it is time to get rid of it.
