“I’m sorry, I can’t let you through without orders,” said the Iraqi civilian manning the makeshift checkpoint, smirking at the befuddled policeman he had waved down in the capital Baghdad. After a month of defying official curfews and road closures to protest, Iraqis have flipped the rule book. One recent evening, police officers erected a row of concrete t-walls on the same street, sealing off access to Tahrir Square, ground zero for protests in the capital. Demonstrators — one riding a motorised red rickshaw known as a tuk-tuk — sprung into action, chasing down the police. The tuk-tuk came to Read More
The Land Where the Sun Sets
James Gelvin on the Kurdistan Rojava Project (cf Dilip Simeon’s Blog): James Gelvin: Turkish attack on Syria endangers a remarkable democratic experiment by the Kurds Posted: 13 Oct 2019 07:56 AM PDT Turkey’s attack on Kurdish-run territory in northern Syria will likely snuff out a radical experiment in self-government that is unlike anything I have seen in more than 30 years studying the Middle East. In a surprise Oct. 6 statement, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw its troops from northern Syria. Approximately 1,000 American soldiers had been stationed in that region as a buffer separating Kurdish forces Read More
Gandhi’s Legacy
Posted by Dilip Simeon The Compass Posted: 03 Oct 2019 03:44 AM PDT NB: This article appeared today in the Deccan Chronicle, as part of a series commemorating Mahatma Gandhi’s 150 birth anniversary. DS The Compass Gandhi’s life-work combined a complex of ideals, concepts and practical endeavour that could inspire millions of ordinary Indians, but also irritate many sophisticated minds. His activity pointed toward an overcoming of the binary distinctions between tradition and modernity; individual and community; faith and religion; the nation and the world; Indians and humanity; ethics and politics. It is impossible to reduce Gandhi to any Read More
Solidarity Event for Hongkong, Berlin 22.9.,2019
John’s Song
Gordon Lightfoot once came up with a song, which became John’s favorite….. Our newly commended Giraffe, Dimi Dumortier rendered it for him together with Nathan Frei.
True Decision Building
The American Soul As Reflected in the Questions of the Heart by Jacob Needleman Why Do We Live? Reason, Liberty and Love “To repeat, this capacity which they called “reason” has little to do with what we usually refer to by that name. It is not something that can be programmed into a computer; nor is it a collection of information and data; nor is it the power to develop ingenious hypotheses for the purpose of short-term prediction and material advantage—all these are capacities of the mind which in their way are shared by the animals and many of which Read More
Hongkong 100 Days of Creativity
AFP, September 16th, 2019 With Hong Kong shaken by 100 days of huge pro-democracy protests, activists have adopted a host of creative ways to fuel their movement away from the barricades. From laser pen light shows, to flashmob singalongs and human chains, we look at some of the inventive methods embraced by a movement that shows no signs of abating. – Flashmob singalongs – Music has long played a prominent role in Hong Kong’s years of democracy rallies. The tune that received the most traction early on in this summer’s protests was the catchy Christian hymn “Sing Hallelujah to the Read More
The Hongkong Way
Antony Dapiran: The Hong Kong Way protest shows enchantment is a powerful weapon Posted: 27 Aug 2019 08:30 AM PDT by Dilip Simeon. The feeling of “enchantment”, according to political theorist Jane Bennett of Johns Hopkins University, is something that stops you in your tracks, leaving you transfixed and spellbound – a suspension of time and movement. Places or moments of enchantment can inspire a sense of wonder or awe, even fill us with overwhelming feelings of generosity and love for the world. But enchantment can also serve a political purpose. It almost felt like magic. A few people standing Read More
Out of Silence
“…. This energy is not what we ordinarily call thought. But it is this energy that has the power to do what we have wrongly imagined our ordinary thought can do. It can direct all our functions, including our mental thought. This book, therefore …. is in itself a step toward the work of the mind that desperately needs to be rediscovered in our era. The proper work of the mind is to function at two levels, the level of silence and the level of expression. And it is expression that is secondary – that is, truth in the form Read More