It is seems appropriate that the New York Times Book Review asked Joseph Stiglitz to review Naomi Klein’s new book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Stiglitz was once a World Bank golden boy and was as much responsible for the ‘Washington Consensus’ that has ruled macro-economic policy since the end of the [...]
Archive for September, 2007
‘Shock Economics’ and South Africa
Posted in Books, Joseph Stiglitz, Naomi Klein, New York Times on September 30, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Life on the Block
Posted in New York City, photography on September 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
These two images are from the New York City Barcelona-based photographer Adriana Lopez Sanfeliu‘s photo series “Life on the Block.” This series is currently part of an exhibit Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art at the Brooklyn Museum in Park Slope. The subjects of the photo series are a group of Puerto Rican women and their [...]
Paris Hilton goes to ‘Africa’
Posted in Paris Hilton, Rwanda on September 29, 2007 | 4 Comments »
Paris Hilton will travel to Rwanda (apparently ‘a troublespot of notorious proportions,’ according to one celebrity magazine) in November this year. When asked why she’s going, Ms Hilton responded: There’s so much need in that area, and I feel like if I go, it will bring more attention to what people can do to help [...]
‘When you go to Rwanda Congo take me on a genocide tour’
Posted in M.I.A., Music, popular culture, postmodernism, tagged Jimmy, Kala, M.I.A., Music, postmodernism, videos on September 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
more about “Mia – Jimmy (full length video)“, posted with vodpod M.I.A., the postmodern Guerrilla Goddess, queen of pastiche, based her single ‘Jimmy’ from her second, and latest, album “Kala” on her briefly falling for an aid worker in Liberia (as she told Spin magazine earlier this year). In the video the songs origins are [...]
Photography: Fazal Sheikh
Posted in human rights, Kenya, photography, Princeton University Art Museum on September 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The American-born photographer Fazal Sheikh is exhibiting his ‘… two most recent Indian projects. LADLI (“Beloved Daughter”) explores the lives of girls and women facing perils that include infanticide, bride sale, prostitution, and “dowry death.” MOKSHA (“Heaven”) focuses on the city of Vrindavan, home to a community of outcast widows’ from throughout the India‘ at [...]
Yes Anthony Sher. It’s all about you.
Posted in post-1994 South Africa on September 26, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Britain’s Channel More 4 (a part of Channel 4) this week broadcast a documentary by South African-born actor Anthony Sher. The film, ‘South Africa: Murder Most Foul‘ was billed apocalyptically as Sher visiting South Africa to: “… investigate why post-apartheid South Africa is tearing itself apart in an orgy of violent crime. Has the dream [...]
‘South African Rugby: No Rainbow’
Posted in Jake White, Peter de Villiers, post-1994 South Africa, rugby, South Africa, sports on September 26, 2007 | 4 Comments »
My best achievement in competitive rugby was the semi-final of a regional high school tournament in the now disbanded, but necessary at the time, South African Council on Sports in 1987 (we lost to a more powerful team from Mitchell’s Plain, but the selfish tactics of our flyhalf also had much to do with it). [...]
White Man’s Burden
Posted in Human Zoo, humanitarianism, magazine covers, Newsweek on September 26, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The cover of the American edition of the latest issue of Newsweek magazine.
‘Linton Kwesi Johnson is newsworthy’
Posted in Jamaica, Linton Kwesi Johnson, poetry on September 25, 2007 | 3 Comments »
With these unfortunate words a BBC commentator grudgingly greeted the news in 2002 that Linton Kwesi Johnson‘s poetry had been included into the Penguin Classics series. Today I went to hear him. Johnson recalled that misplaced put-down and other insults (the Daily Telegraph ran a frontpage story ‘Reggae Rebel joins Betjeman’) as he recalled his [...]
‘The New Apartheid’?
Posted in Helen Epstein, Nelson Mandela, pharmaceutical companies, post-1994 South Africa, South Africa on September 23, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Hillary Mantel reviews two new books on AIDS: regular New York Review of Books contributor Helen Epstein’s The Invisible Cure: The West and the Fight Against AIDS and French anthropologist Didier Fassin’s translated (from the French) ethnography When Bodies Remember: Experiences and Politics of AIDS South Africa, in the London Review of Books.