Life vs. Productivity: “What Would You Live and Die to Protect?” “It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself, when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.” -Malcolm X If someone broke into your house, pinned down your loved ones and began pouring poison down their throats, would you stop that person? What if someone poured crude oil all over your crops and livestock? Wouldn’t you try to stop them from doing it? Oyster beds soaked in BP oil. (Photo: Erika Blumenfeld © 2010) Oil filled inland lagoon on Timbalier Island, Louisiana. (Photo: Erika Blumenfeld © … Continue reading What Would You Live and Die to Protect?

Words matter unless they don’t, in 2010. On this side of the Pond, Tony Blair glibly slammed Gordon Brown on the BBC this week, whilst releasing his memoir at the moment his Labour Party began its critical leadership vote. Coincidence? In Arizona’s desert, accidental Governor Jan Brewer refused to answer reporters’ questions about her discredited claim of “headless bodies in the desert,” and so badly blew a prepared gubernatorial debate opening statement that many wondered if this had become the new Republican Tea Party strategy: say nothing for the next two months and pray no one notices. This strategy led … Continue reading Words matter

Hatred and Stupidity … But I Repeat Myself by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed (Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Chris S., Gage Skidmore) 2010 is shaping up to be the Year of the Hate Crime in America, thanks in large part to right-bent Republicans and their Tea Party allies who have nothing to run on in the upcoming midterms. Think about it; would you want to run for office as a Republican these days? Their dearest economic ideas gave us the current recession, their … Continue reading Hatred and Stupidity …

Keeping up appearances A new study demonstrates that how women musicians dress alters the perception of how they play Ben Goldacre guardian.co.uk, Friday 3 September 2010 21.11 BST Article history Everyone likes to imagine they are rational, fair, and free from prejudice. But how easily are we misled by appearances? Noola Griffiths studies the psychology of music, and she’s published a cracking paper on how what women wear affects your judgment of their performance. The results are predictable but the context is interesting. Four female musicians were filmed playing in three different outfits: a concert dress, jeans, and a nightclubbing dress. … Continue reading How women musicians dress alters the perception of how they play

BOOK REVIEW: Of gods and men —by Afrah Jamal Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief By Rick Riordan Penguin; Pp 400; Rs 425 Olympian gods and goddesses are not exactly great role models; their moral compass is frequently out of order and no one dares suggest they get it fixed. The (stormy) age of the gods was great while it lasted but it is over. Rick Riordan reawakens the gods, gives them another shot at (eternal) life with a brand new home, creating a new legion of heroes and heroines in the process. He then combines all these elements to … Continue reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

VIEW: Interfaith harmony for world peace —Mohammad Jamil It is true that cultural conflicts are increasing and are more dangerous today than at any time in history. Yet the fundamental reason for the turmoil and tension in the world is the absence of a just economic order Power has its own dynamics, and there are many instances in history when the victor and the vanquished belonged to the same religion. Of course there were military expeditions of European Christian powers during the 11th to 13th centuries to recapture the holy land from Muslim powers, which both sides claimed as their … Continue reading Interfaith harmony for world peace

ANALYSIS: A gender-blind ‘neo-miratha’ —Farhat Taj Tribal leaders in FATA have been killed along with their female relatives. The aim of such attacks seems to be to wipe out any possibility, no matter how remote it may be, of the female heirs taking up the anti-Taliban struggle Miratha is a Pashto word that refers to the now obsolete practice of killing all males, adult and minors, in a family so that there are no male heirs left to inherit the family property, which is taken over by the executer of the miratha along with the female members of the family, … Continue reading Miratha Manic Mullahs!

<!– –> // VIEW: After Sialkot, anger at the cricketers —Naeem Tahir We associate victory with national honour. Is this not overdoing things to the extreme? We should be able to take pride in the performance of our team or some special players who make an outstanding effort. Why do we have to link an individual action with the larger-than-life concept of ‘national honour’? An angry, aggressive and even vindictive mass is what our people have become. The killings in Sialkot shocked the sensibilities of the sensible and now, in a different way, it is happening to our cricketers on … Continue reading After Sialkot, anger at the cricketers

ANALYSIS: Talking about a revolution —Salman Tarik Kureshi Modern history has seen a number of major revolutions. Those of England in the 17th century, the US in the 18th and France between the 18th and 19th centuries are, in the Marxian paradigm, regarded as bourgeois revolutions, which led to the establishment of capitalist economies and constitutional democracies “I saw…a vision, Of a time when all men walk proudly through the earth, And the bombs and missiles lie at the bottom of the ocean, Like the bones of dinosaurs buried under the shale of eras, And men strive with each other … Continue reading Talking about a revolution