Most of us want to make a difference in some observable way to this world, but the best of our intentions give way to the day’s demands, fatigue and inertia. For instance, just like any other decent, environmentally-conscious organization, my workplace too hopes to encourage its employees to go at least a little bit green and make a difference. One of the more obvious initiatives is taking the staircase instead of the elevator so that we reduce electricity usage and stay fit. As part of the plan, there are big posters outside and inside elevators that advice us in green, [...]
Archive > October 2009
‘The Dalits of Europe’
While reading Pardeep Singh Attri’s account of his experiences as a Dalit activist traveling in Hungary in the brilliant Insight Young Voices blog, I was struck by the similarity of the plight of Hungarian Romas and the Dalits ( regarded as Untouchables) in India. Both groups are victims of deep and persisting discriminations arising from their historical status in society. What struck me even more though was the appropriation of the ideas B. R Ambedkar by the Roma in their struggle for equal rights. Writes Pradeep:
One of the most interesting facts that Derdak Tibor informed me was that his group [...]
Culture Choc
Having spent most of the last three months in South Africa, a minor culture shock was to be expected when I arrived back in the Netherlands last week. As beautiful a country as South Africa is, it is still dealing with the aftermath of apartheid; while racial segregation has legally been abolished, it persists in socio-economic terms. This in turn feeds into continuing socio-spatial segregation, as the ability to make use of certain amenities is inextricably linked to income. Moreover, having spoken to a bunch of white and black South Africans myself, it is clear that divisive attitudes are still [...]
Freddy ‘Mustapha’ Mercury
Check out Queen’s brilliant, hysterical song ‘Mustapha’. I could not be sure, but Freddie Mercury is singing in Arabic, Persian and English, mashing names of prophets with ‘As-salam-alalikum’. The song is part of the Queen’s 1978 album Jazz, and they performed it live regularly.
In live performances, Mercury would often sing the opening vocals of “Mustapha” in place of the complex introduction to “Bohemian Rhapsody“, going from “Allah we’ll pray for you” to “Mama, just killed a man…”. However, sometimes the band performed an almost full version of the song from the Crazy Tour in late 1979 to The Game Tour [...]
Obama Love-Fest Continues
While I count myself amongst fans of Barack Obama, the Nobel Committee’s decision to award him with the Peace Prize did come as a WTF moment this morning (to lots of people judging by FB news-feed). The Nobel Committee honoured him this morning for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.
Obama excels at public diplomacy, and has a cult-like following around the world. No other world leader shares his commitment towards nuclear disarmament and a multilateral world. However, awarding the Nobel to him with the war in Afghanistan bringing new dead everyday, Guantanamo still open and [...]
Ian Buruma on Enlightenment, Language and Multiculturalism
I spent a large part of today watching Prof. Ian Buruma’s brilliant lecture series at Princeton university entitled ‘No Divine Rights: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents’ which I am posting here. Buruma is a scholar of great versatility. His subjects range from a fictional-biography of an Indian cricketer-prince, to works on European and Japanese history. In this lecture series he tackles the relation between state and religion in America, Asia and Europe, in which he makes extremely revelatory connections between religion and state in different societies. All the lectures here are extremely interesting especially for students of global history.
Buruma’s [...]
The On-going trials and tribulations of an Austrian-American living in Japan
(Written originally as an email and adapted slightly for posting here)
Greetings from the east side (of the world). Hope everything is going well over in the Occident, life is rocking over here. I’m loving it here and am seriously contemplating staying for two years. Anyway, there is weird and bizarre shit going on all the time around here, I never quite know what to expect…I figure I should stay the second year so that by that time i can hopefully have some sort of idea of what’s going on around me At any rate, I’ve been here 2 [...]