“More than anything, one is struck by the light.”
- Ryszard Kapuściński, The Shadow of the Sun
Author Archives:
Clouds Over Kigali
My relationship with Rwanda began with total rejection. Kigali laughed in our silly pasty white muzungu faces while managing to seduce us at the same time. As our small, half-empty plane attempted to descend upon it, Kigali deployed the most beautiful fortifications I have ever seen.
On the Causes of Terrorism Part 2: Common Misconceptions
There are many popular misconceptions amongst the general population about terrorism. This is due to a combination of ignorance and misinformation, which are in turn the result of lazy and misleading media framing, and deliberate state propaganda.
An Elegy for Passion
There is a word in Russian for which there is no translation. The word is toska, and the complexity of its meaning is enough to set a linguist’s heart aflutter. Indeed, every linguist worth their salt knows this word, as it is legendary in the world of languages in its stubborn disobedience to translate. It is in fact so complex and nuanced in its meaning, that it would take an English-speaking Russian literary genius to properly explain it. Fortunately we have such a luxury.
Social Media and Russian Civil Society
One of the reasons that Vladimir Putin has managed to secure such a strong following in Russia has been the state’s control of most television news. Under Putin, TV news is, in the words of former Moscow correspondent David Remnick, “exquisitely monitored and unwatchably bland.” The Russian state directly or indirectly controls all three of Russia’s national channels. Eighty-five percent of Russians use TV as their primary news source, yet only 17 percent believe TV provides a complete and objective picture of the world, and 63 percent believe it is censored by the government. The most popular newspapers also tow the Kremlin’s line.
In Defence of Sadness
Of melancholy is a fearful gift;
What is it but the telescope of truth?
Which strips the distance of its fantasies,
And brings life near in utter nakedness,
Making the cold reality too real!
Lord Byron, The Dream
What is Happening in Russia?
A Timeline of Recent Events
On September 24, 2011, it was announced that Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, who served as president from 2000 – 2008, and has been prime minister since 2008, would once again run for president in March of 2012, with current president Dmitri Medvedev to serve as his prospective prime minister. This effectively meant that Russians would be faced with 12 more years of Putin, since there are no viable contenders for president. To add insult to injury, Putin also added that this arrangement had been the plan all along, and was decided “several years back.”
The Hazard, Hubris, and Hypocrisy of an Attack on Iran
Lately there has been much talk of Israel and/or America attacking Iran. The most recent conversation started with a column published (in Hebrew) on October 28 by Israel’s most influential journalist, Nahum Barnea (though Seymour Hersh wrote in the New Yorker in 2007 that the Bush Administration was planning to attack Iran). Barnea contends that Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak are conspiring to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Haaretz later reported that Netanyahu and Barak recently persuaded foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who had previously opposed attacking Iran, to support an attack. There’s currently only a “small majority” left in the Israeli cabinet who oppose such a move.
My Notepad
I smile as they cringe when they see you. You are my samurai sword. You have the power to save lives and dispel lies, to end wars and help the poor, to shed light unto injustice, and to conjure fear into the hearts of the corrupt. You are my badge, signifying who I am. You are my License to Ask, my affirmation of identity, and my legitimacy. You are an umbrella against a downpour of doubt. You are my compass, my lantern, my map, guiding me towards the Truth. You are the birthplace of ideas and the incubator of thoughts. You are my faithful sidekick, going where I go. You give me herculean memory, seamlessly receiving my thoughts and diligently recalling them on command, knowing that each entry brings you closer to your end. You give me the resolve to go where I need to go, and to do what I must. You are an impetus to turn curiosity into questions, questions into answers, and answers into ideas. You give me courage and remind me of who and what I am, and where I want to go. You are not simply a notepad. You are self-empowerment. You are identity.
The Assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki and President Obama’s Impunity
The Obama administration’s decision to assassinate American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki without any shred of due process sets a very dangerous precedent for executive power in the United States, and is further evidence of President Obama’s complete disregard for both domestic and international law.
