Long before “sustainable development” became fashionable, Indigenous philosophy always considered the impact of decisions on the next seven generations.
Contributors
Maya Khankhoje
The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia is touted as the first radical revolution of the 20th century by those who have forgotten that the Mexican Revolution of 1910 preceded it by seven years.
A critique of India's economic and ethical crises, urging engagement with its future amid upcoming elections
Naomi Klein conceived the idea for this book when the public started confusing her with a feminist author turned right-wing conspiracy theorist.
Susan Neiman is director of the Einstein Forum and a member of both the American Philosophical Society and the Berlin-Brandenburg Akademie der Wissenschaften
They say books are on their way out – and who reads anyway, especially poetry? They say humans will either be done in by wars or melted down by climate change, or be replaced by cyborgs. They say a lot […]
I will say it outright: Fear the Mirror, Cora Siré’s newly minted collection of linked short stories, is the most emotionally satisfying book that I have read in a long time. The author takes readers through the aftermath […]
Ann Eriksson’s Urgent Message from a Hot Planet is a heartfelt plea for all of us to do our bit, however little, to save the planet from global warming. In fact, author Eriksson contends that the term “climate […]
Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda wrote a passionate ode to the humble onion, acknowledging its importance as a staple food both for poor and rich. Marie Antoinette showed up her (wilful?) ignorance when she urged her subjects to eat […]
This compilation of poems and short prose pieces by marginalized Honduran writers reflects the diversity of intent and life experience of the authors themselves.
It is a celebration of the oral and spiritual traditions of the first poets of what today is known as the United States of America
Today is a rainy, slushy, windy, still-winter grey day, and my mood matches the weather.
TAKEWING a.m., written and Illustrated by Brenda J. Wilson. FriesenPress, 348 pages TAKEWING a.m. is Brenda J. Wilson’s first novel, although she has a long track record as a media producer, librarian, photographer and educator. She also wears […]
The zeitgeist of our times is characterized by creativity and innovation, particularly in the fields of art and science. A question often pondered is where these two fields intersect. Do they touch each other at a tangent? Do […]
Cheeky Mathematics He and she fuse their cells with the sticky glue of their warm juices Two cells become one which then divides and multiplies until one plus one adds up to ten perfect little toes Baby trades […]
The 29th edition of the Montréal First Peoples Festival (Présence autochtone) unfolded from August 6 to August 14. On this occasion, it celebrated diversity and creativity through a combination of visual arts, film, music, song, poetry and gastronomy. It […]
Me Artsy, compiled and edited by Drew Hayden Taylor Douglas & McIntyre, 2015 (256 pages) The best way to enter into the spirit of this luminous collection of essays is to quote what Drew Hayden Taylor, its compiler and […]
Kingdom of Olives and Ash, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, 2017, HarperCollins Publishers, 448 pages The “land of milk and honey” generally refers to the promised land of Jewish tradition. As a notion, it denotes a […]
Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead, 2018, Arsenal Pulp Press (Vancouver), 223 pages Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree/nehiyaw, Two-Spirit /Indigiqueer member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty). He is also the author of full metal-indigiqueer and winner of the […]
“The walk is a journey of the spirit carried by the body like a good friend, and sitting is an important part of the walking.”
Nungak delivers an often humorous, in-your-face account of the history of Nunavik
In her personal life, her friendship with a Zimbabwean fellow doctor earns her a brutal “correction” from her fellow countrymen.
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 […]
“Nowhere in these treaties or court decisions does it say we grant you permission to take over management and control of our territory and our lives.”
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 […]
Undoctored is an honest, well-researched, clearly written indictment of an unholy alliance that affects each and every one of us.
In this well-researched and incisive book written at breakneck speed (to match the speed of Donald Trump’s sharp turns in the White House), Klein makes it very clear that Trump’s rise to power is not an aberration, but rather the inevitable culmination of neoliberal politics in recent decades.
The precariat is growing because “there was a crude social compact in the globalisation era.”
“War on drugs is hell,” announced Candide to his friend. “Someone’s always trying to rip off your grow-op. They better learn to cultivate their own garden if they know what’s good for them.”
The title of The Invention of Wings is inspired by ancient black folklore which maintains that Africans were able to fly before they lost their wings when trapped into slavery.
The speakers, however, made little reference to people from different cultures, ethnic origins or language groups, with the exception of Charles Bender, a First Nation’s speaker.
...they were born in a country where female foeticide – and even infanticide – is endemic.
A man awakens from his coma, his caregivers, family and colleagues realize that he suffers from “neglect syndrome”.
Boudoir (/ˈbuːd.wɑːr/; French: [bu.dwaʁ]) is a woman's private sitting room or salon in a furnished accommodation usually between the dining room and the bedroom, but can also refer to a woman's private bedroom.
The story of a marriage in decline and the reasons that will inexorably lead it to its fatal conclusion
Montreal is an island in the St. Lawrence River so wherever you turn, you can see water, provided you poise yourself on rooftops, stand on top of Mount Royal or cycle your way close enough to the shore. But that […]
Chomsky himself has stated on numerous occasions over the years, it is his duty as a citizen of the United States to speak out against the atrocities committed by his country on foreign shores
Dheepan is a Tamil-language film directed by French director Jacques Audiard, featuring Jesuthasan Anthonythasan as Dheepan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan as his wife Yalini, and Claudine Vinasithamby as their daughter Illayaal. However, things are not what they seem. Dheepan is in fact […]
Rampant globalization, senseless war, anthropogenic climate change, unbridled technological innovation and even (why not?) old-fashioned greed are the ingredients that lead to massive destabilization of human populations.
Hu has a lithe and beautiful body which he struts throughout the film in a fluid graceful calligraphy
The 11th Edition of the Montreal International Black Film Festival [Sept. 29-Oct. 4, 2015] has chosen Martin Luther King III as recipient of the 2015 Humanitarian Award. This is a fitting tribute to the son of the man who led […]
They say everything happens for a reason. That’s what they say, but what they really mean is that you only know the reason why something happened when it’s too late. Take accidents, for example. If you turn your car to […]
DISCONTENT AND ITS CIVILIZATIONS. Dispatches from Lahore, New York and London. Mohsin Hamid, Penguin, 2015. Discontent and Its Civilization, the title of this collection of essays by Mohsin Hamid, is a take-off on Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents, published in […]
Siddharth, 2013, Richie Mehta’s second feature film, opened the 5th South Asian Film Festival of Montreal on September 11, 2015. This festival is an annual feature of the Kabir Centre for Arts & Culture, a Montreal-based charitable organization whose mission […]
Medicine, Healthcare and the Raj. The Unacknowledged Legacy. By Daya Ram Varma. Three Essays Collective, 2015, Gurgaon, India. Dr. Daya Ram Varma (1929-2015) graduated with honours from the prestigious King George Medical University in Lucknow, India. He obtained his […]
Author note: Written in 1993 for a wellness conference sponsored by The Gazette, Montreal. It was one of ten winning submissions. Many people aspire to a ripe old age, but when they reach it, they spend most of their […]
Rethinking AGING. Growing Old and Living Well in an Overtreated Society. Nortin M. Hadler, M.D., The University of North Carolina Press, 2011. “The days of our years among them are seventy years and if, with special attributes of […]
The 10th Montreal International Black Film Festival – 10 MIBFF – closed on September 28 with the screening of Half of a Yellow Sun, a United Kingdom/Nigeria coproduction. It is based on the novel by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie […]
The Universe in a Single Atom. The Convergence of Science and Spirituality By His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Morgan Road Books, New York) Review by Maya Khankhoje. Reviewing a book with such a momentous title is no small task. Can […]
[The prehispanic part of the story is based on sociological findings and traditional legends. The modern part is based on fiction. Sac Nicte and Can Ek were the real names of the doomed lovers.] They had told her she would […]
The City of Glass. Tokyo, is a compelling Japanese film screened during the 38th Montreal World Film Festival, 2014. It has all the ingredients that attract an audience interested in the seamier side of life: sex, suicide, murder, necrophilia and […]
This British/American/Chinese techno-thriller depicts a scenario in which a technical singularity reaches a point of no return and the events following this crucial moment. The technical singularity in this case is that of a quasi-sentient computer uploaded with the intelligence […]
“ROBOT & Frank”, as the title implies, is a film about human-robotic interactions. Frank is an elderly retired cat burglar who is losing it. His children consider institutionalizing him but before doing so, they get him a robot to help […]
CHEF, 2014. Featuring Jon Favreau, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale, Emjay Anthony, Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman, Sofia Vergara, Oliver Platt, Amy Sedaris, Robert Downey Jr. and Russell Peters. Chef is a feel-good movie about food, father-son relationships, creativity vs control, […]
Fatima woke up and rushed to turn the alarm clock off. She did not want the rest of the household to wake up before it was strictly necessary. She had taken her shower the night before just before slipping […]
The Lowland. A Novel. Jhumpa Lahiri. Random House India, 2013. A priori The Lowland appears to be yet another novel about the immigrant experience, the alienation imposed by geography, the gut-wrenching loneliness of the expat, the numbing pain of losing […]
El Amor Amargo de Chavela or Dreaming Chavela, if you wish, is a 2013 documentary about Mexican ranchera music singer Chavela Vargas who died in 2012 at the age of 81. This documentary is what at first sight appears […]
As Trixie and I filed out of the interpretation booth for the coffee-break, a smiling woman intercepted us. Trixie and I exchanged a look, returned the woman’s smile and said hi. She explained that she was training as a […]
MIBFF MIBFF MIBFF Gideon’s Army , 2012, US, is an HBO documentary following the stories of three public defense lawyers in the United States who are idealistic enough to work long hours, earn a miserable pay and sometimes suffer death […]
By Day, By Night. Writings on Art. By Edmund Alleyn. Edited by Jennifer Alleyn and Gilles Lapointe. les editions du passage 2013 This slim volume is the first in a hopefully long series of books on art. As the title […]
It is generally accepted that the term caste as applied in India was introduced by the Portuguese when they established their first colonies there. The word is derived from the Latin castus which means pure or unmixed. According to some […]
Jennie was seven when she first met Tai, her father’s sister. Sadashiv, her father, had been longing to return to India after long years of training and then marriage in London but had hesitated to broach the subject with his […]
Montreal Serai’s cultural critic ***** Le Siecle de Cartier-Bresson. France, 2012. Pierre Assouline. Whoever has seen photographs of Gandhi’s funeral, Nehru’s meeting with Lord Mountbatten and his wife Edwina, the liberation of Paris or other landmarks of the 20th Century […]
The Tao Book Club gang was safely ensconced in the corner of the restaurant mezzanine by the time I got there. I peeled off my coat, shook the droplets of water on the dark carpet and sank into a chair. […]
Take a pinch of Conrad, a soupçon of Chekhov, shake vigorously and you get Rushdie. Not quite, but their forenames were the beards behind which Salman Rushdie hid during the nine-year fatwa against him. 1989 was a low point in […]
Malinchista, derived from La Malinche, is a Mexican slur denoting a person who betrays the fatherland. La Malinche was an Aztec noblewoman who is considered to be the mother of all Mexicans by having given birth to the first officially […]
The 41st Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema (10-21 October) follows in the heels of the 8th International Montreal Black Film Festival held in Montreal Serai’s hometown and reviewed by us. Montreal is a very festive and highly cultural city. Faced […]
The Creators, South Africa, 2011. UPDATE: Awarded Honourable Mention for BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Maya Khankhoje [This is the last film reviewed by Montreal Serai for the 8th International Montreal Black Film Festival which closed on September 30. Montreal Serai thanks […]
Ganesh, also known as Ganapati, was the son of Siva and Parvati, two high-ranking deities in the Hindu pantheon. It is said that Parvati, while bathing, fashioned her son out of the dust on her body and then asked […]
1956 was the year that marked a sea change in my life. I had to leave a private grade school to attend a public high-school that was so poor that our classroom only had three walls, the fourth being […]
******** March 24, 2012 Elle s’appelait Simone Signoret. France. 2010. French with English subtitles. The American public will remember Simone Signoret as the first French actress to win a Hollywood Oscar. French filmgoers will, more often than not, think […]
Canadian literature is as rich as its native children such as Joseph Boyden, who, Through Black Spruce, has allowed city folk to breathe in the heady scent of aboriginal life in the north, Hugh MacLennan, who bridged […]
** Editor’s note: We rarely re-print essays of a recent pedigree, but in this case, we found this essay particularly relevant to the theme of this issue. Originally published in 2008. When I return from a trip and open the […]
******** August 27, 2011 What a Beautiful Day. Italy. Director: Gennaro Nunziante. What we have here is what Italians know how to do best: a comedy that will make you laugh and tons of love, art, religion and […]
I love Montreal, tu sais because English here is charmant and French c’est cool because locals know that a ridge is really a mountain because tortillas & chapattis & pitas & bagels have no quarrel with pâté chinois because […]
I have a recurrent dream in which I am flying over a large body of turquoise water. The air is balmy, the water is deep, transparent, welcoming. Just as I am about to plunge, I wake up. I have […]
The Art and Science of Healing Since Antiquity. By Daya Ram Varma, MD, PhD. www.Xlibris.com, 2011. *** Why should a book on the history of medicine be reviewed in a magazine mainly dealing with the arts, culture and politics? Because […]
If you observe a mappemonde carefully you will notice a large body of blue water surrounded by land on all sides. Well, almost all sides, except for some straits that allow whales in, vessels out and the back-and-forth of water […]
My sister, all of four years older than me, kindly informed me very early on that Santa Claus didn’t exist, thereby converting me into a life-long skeptic. She also let me know in no uncertain terms that I had been […]
The words aboriginal, indigenous, native, primitive, adivasi, tribal and first nations are used almost synonymously although there are subtle differences setting them apart. The word aborigine or aboriginal is associated with Australia, indigenous makes us think of Latin America even […]
THE LOVE QUEEN OF MALABAR. Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das. Merrily Weisbord, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal, 2010. In order to understand why we should care to read the memoir of a friendship between two writers who were born […]
Ilustrado. By Miguel Syjuco, Hamish Hamilton Canada, an imprint of Penguin Group, 308 pp., Toronto 2010. Miguel Syjuco (pronounced See-hoo-koh), with Ilustrado, has achieved what Salman Rushdie achieved with Midnight’s Children: a brilliant irruption into the literary scene. He also […]
I am a Japanese Writer. By Dany Laferrière. Translation by David Homel. Douglas & McIntyre, 2010. I am a Japanese Writer is a novel about a writer who is neither Japanese nor speaks Japanese, but is actually Black and hails […]
From Rajahs and Yogis to Gandhi and Beyond. Images of India in International Films of the Twentieth Century, by Vijaya Mulay. Seagull Books, 2010, London, New York and Calcutta. [Vijaya Mulay, a.k.a. Akka, or Elder Sister, was born in […]
It was exactly a hundred years ago that Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party of Germany, tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day. The occasion was the Second International Conference of […]
Dr. Shree Mulay , Professor Emerita of the Department of Medicine of McGill University in Montreal, is currently Associate Dean and Professor of Community Health and Humanities Division, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s. Dr. Mulay served for […]
Taking Root. The vision of Wangari Maathai. Documentary. DVD 2008, Mongrel Media. Taking Root is the story of Wangari Maathai’s life-long journey as a child in her native village in Kenya all the way to […]
PERFECT HOSTAGE. Aun San Suu Kyi, Burma and the Generals. By Justin Wintle. Arrow, 2007. In Burma there is no prejudice against girl babies. In fact, there is a general belief that daughters are more dutiful and loving […]
Literature has always been important, is still important and will continue to be important for as long as human beings have a speech centre in their brain. And were an errant blood vessel to flood this important area of […]
Samira sat on the floor of her adobe hut studying her hands as carefully as if she were plucking a daisy or reading the constellations on a bright night or counting the drops of water that dripped […]
They say home is where the heart is. Or is it the hearth? Or both? What constitutes homelessness? Are people homeless because they brought it upon themselves, as some would argue, or because they have no choice, as mounting evidence […]
The Soloist. Written by Steve Lopez and Susannah Grant. Directed by Joe Wright. Starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. The Soloist could have been easily called The Duo since it is the true story of how Los Angeles […]
The glare from the neon lights bores through my eyelids making them flutter. I fight back and force them shut. They flutter again and one sleep-crusted edge disengages from its counterpart with a subliminal pop. Re-entering my dream is […]
[From the book The Men Who Killed Me: Rwandan Survivors of Sexual Violence, © 2009, by Anne-Marie de Brouwer & Sandra Ka Hon Chu, with photographs by Samer Muscati, published by Douglas & McIntyre: an imprint of D&M Publishers Inc. […]
Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art. Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. By Ruud Priem and others. Vancouver Art Gallery and D & M Publishers Inc, 2009. Art is often likened to a gadfly […]
[Short listed by the CBC-Quebec Writers Federation Literary Competition and first published in In Other Words. New English Writing from Quebec, Edited by Claude Lalumière, Véhicule Press, 2008] A huge black crow was doing a balancing act on the […]
Unembedded. Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting. By Scott Taylor. Douglass & McIntyre, 2009. Review by Maya Khankhoje Unembedded is the mid-life autobiography of a toy-soldier-playing boy turned real soldier, of a soldier turned journalist, of a fervent admirer […]
Persepolis is an Oscar-nominated film that premiered last year and which I regret not having seen on the big screen. Based on a graphic autobiographical novel by Marjane Satrapi, the author and her studio mate Vincent Paronnaud created a highly […]
Gao Xingjian, playwright, novelist, essayist and painter born in eastern China and self-exiled in Paris, was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1992. In 2000 he went on to receive the […]
Animal’s People. By Indra Sinha, Simon and Schuster, London, 2007. On December 2, 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, leaked methylisocyanate gas into the atmosphere causing the death of over 15,000 people and maiming hundreds of thousands […]
Planta’s Plaint I had returned to Siderea my ancestral home spending my time hitching rides on stars, swimming in milky ways, zipping in and out of darkness and thoroughly enjoying myself from my vantage point I would drink in […]
Guerrilla Gardening. A Manualfesto by David Tracey. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC., 2007. The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose. — Henry Kissinger. Guerrilla gardening can be summarily defined […]
Racists. (Kunal Basu, Penguin, 2006). While sipping comforting cocoa in the cafeteria of a high-tech Indian hospital that provides health services internationally, my eyes fell on a book displayed on the shelves of the gift shop. Three words caught my […]
Tempus Fugit Yes. It was true. There was no doubt about it. The telltale signs on the grass and leaves and asphalt were visible from her third-floor balcony. She took a big gulp of air and her nostrils confirmed what […]
Icons of a well-weathered life I have taken to brushing my cheek Against the silky smoothness My babies! Of your first Christmas snapshots I have taken to running my fingers Through your brushed and shining hair My first-born! Staring back […]
