Things were simpler in the past. Authority figures told us what “our” gods wanted us to believe and how to demonstrate our beliefs. They established rules and the dire consequences of disobeying. They could even prompt those consequences to […]
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Essay
As a political ideology, populism can be divided into an array of currents, beyond the obvious distinction between right- and left-wing. It can have negative connotations and be written off as demagogy by some individuals of the fortunate classes […]
A quick search of the term populism in cyberspace reveals its increasing popularity (no pun intended) in the last decade, in both traditional and social media. The term democracy, on the other hand, became de rigueur a long time ago […]
Writing and rewriting history are primeval pursuits of human beings. Not all human beings, maybe, but at least those who care for power. The ones in power believe that the past can provide them with some displayable justification for their […]
Sometime in 1976, Jean Baudrillard, the French philosopher, suggested that saturating the media with carefully selected flash news disables the concept of historicity, depth, intelligence and transparency in following daily events, and creates a hyper-reality that challenges or drowns out […]
Alicia Loría, langagière, accro du numérique, mère d’une femme merveilleuse, grand-mère de trois fleurs printanières cherchant leurs vocations professionnelles, et être sensible à nos réalités diverses et à nos contradictions parfois inextricables, se demande si la transition énergétique et […]
By my country, they mean India. Complete strangers will ask me how to get Indian rice to be saffron-coloured.
And now, I’m declaring it, I’m shouting it out: I no longer want to belong to the “dominant culture.”
Qi or Ch’i is often defined as a spiritual force that emanates from, or animates, living beings. In Chinese, Qi literally means breath. So do the words psyche in Greek and atman in Sanskrit. It is perhaps no coincidence […]
As the woman is walking back and forth between the two poles, I try not to think about where I want to be in five years. I also try not to think about where I was five years ago.
One day, I had to face the fact that there were no more options, and even borrowing on the future was no longer viable.
When we were young, some of us were very fond of the phrase, “Live dangerously until the end” (courtesy of Godard, not Nietzsche).
Well then, assuming you’ve got air you can breathe, water to drink, food to nourish you – what more do you want?
Perhaps the notion that indigenous people living on reservations should have the same constitutional right to clean drinking water as non-indigenous people has not really dawned on the city people!
...we need to honour these silenced and silent women and all others who are still exiled and violated and unseened.
Where there is no poverty and oppression – Where there is no prisoner of political dissent – There will be peace Editorial note: This article was first submitted in late 2016 when peace talks were still underway in the […]
Leonard Cohen was unaffectedly honest about his warts and failings and, far from wreaking havoc, his candour revealed a rare, gentle grace and elegance that defeated ego or pretence.
India in the 1960s. We were growing up very quickly, and could not imagine the luxury of a boudoir, or even a room of one’s own, closed to others.
The notion of a place where women can talk among themselves, even sulk – or maybe rant, rage, and agitate – is likely foreign to those who are today engaged in doing this via the various social media that occupy so much daily time.
How long are we going to be in denial about certain fundamental belief systems that have been put in place and are being continuously doctored and prettied up to look good?
Following the rhythm of the seasons suggests an ebb and flow: a life in harmony.
Approximately one hundred and fifty years ago, a remarkable play featuring a Muslim character who hates himself and who embodies what those in power at the time considered to be the villainous opposite of what was considered civilized, true and […]
[Editorial note: Part one was published in December 2013.] III. Shakespeare, Nothingness, and the Audience An actress who worked professionally in the 1920s said to me of Shakespeare: “To appreciate him, I think, you have to realize that Shakespeare was […]
I have become interested in the sonnet form recently after years of writing and publishing books of free verse. My preference is free verse but why not try my hand at writing a sonnet? It would be a […]
An essay on reading Bread and Wine By Ignazio Silone Signet Classics, 2005 – Fiction – 279 pages Forty years ago, I read Bread and Wine while living in Calcutta. Despite my indifference towards the folks who wrote […]
I come before you in this essay without any intellectual pretensions whatever, because that is precisely what I will try to probe here, whether certain varieties of contemporary and short writing, inter alia, can be considered representations of literature. […]
There is something obscenely theatrical about the Bhopal disaster. On the night of December 2nd 1984, a leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant caused a 27-ton cloud of methyl isocyanate to drift across the Indian metropolis of Bhopal, […]
Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was the best-known Afro-American poet of the 20th century. His work also ranged from novels, to plays, to books written for children. And his newspaper columns in The New York Post were sources of amusement and insight […]
Dawson – The New “Other” as The New “Us”? Most writers and journalists who have grown up with the contemporary world and have puzzled about it are also people who think about the perennial divisions of “Us” and “Them.” That […]
The mass shootings in Utoya, Norway seemed to have shocked the average person, who has never noticed the trends and the blunt comments on television made by politicos in which racism camouflages itself as snide commentary. Society has become complacent […]
