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Category Archives: current affairs
Tariq Ali: From Cairo to Madison – The Arab Revolution and a World in Motion
Tariq Ali: From Cairo to Madison – The Arab Revolution and a World in Motion from N Alexander on Vimeo.
Also posted in comment/analysis, philosophy, politics, religion, videos Tagged arab revolution, current affairs, democracy, history, left, politics, religion, tariq ali, us politics Leave a comment
In London and Athens, protesters are rekindling the true European spirit
by Costas Douzinas
from The Guardian
Dual identities create tensions. I was born in Greece but have lived most of my life in Britain. When I arrived in London, after the fall of the Greek dictatorship in 1974, I was told in no uncertain terms by an elderly gentleman walking his bulldog that Britain does not belong [...]
Also posted in articles, comment/analysis, philosophy, politics Tagged current affairs, democracy, douzinas, europe, european political history, european union, guardian, history, left, politics Comments closed
Not Crushed, Merely Ignored
by Tariq Ali
from: London Review of Books
A Kashmiri lawyer rang me last week in an agitated state. Had I heard about the latest tragedies in Kashmir? I had not. He was stunned. So was I when he told me in detail what had been taking place there over the last three weeks. As far as [...]
Also posted in articles, comment/analysis, politics Tagged ali, current affairs, kashmir, london review of books, philosophy, politics Leave a comment
No New Deal is Possible
by Antonio Negri
from: Radical Philosophy
John Maynard Keynes was a gentleman ? that is, an honest bourgeois, not a petty-bourgeois like Proudhon, or an ideologue, but an easy man ? and when political economy was still concerned with the political ordering of market and society every classical economist knew this. Keynes thought that knowledge functioned factually [...]
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Cornelius Castoriadis interviewed
Also posted in comment/analysis, documentaries, interviews, philosophy, politics, videos Tagged castoriadis, contemporary greek philosophy, interview, philosophy Leave a comment
Greek debt crisis: Let's not return to status quo
by Alexandros Stavrakas
from: The Guardian
If by “hope” we mean a feeling of yearning and expectation for something to happen, and by “change” we mean an improvement of our present condition, then this is Greece’s moment of hope and change – and it is an overdue moment indeed. But, before this moment is [...]
Also posted in comment/analysis, politics Tagged greece, greek debt crisis, greek politics, guardian Leave a comment
The Greek Crisis – Politics-Economics-Ethics
Listen here to the debate at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, held on May 5th.
Speakers:
• Stathis Kouvelakis, Kings College, London
• Kevin Featherstone, Director, Hellenic Observatory, LSE
• Costas Lapavitsas, Economics, SOAS
• Peter Bratsis, Politics, Salford University
• Costas Douzinas (Chair) Birkbeck
Introduction by speakers:
[audio http://bedeutung.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/2010_05_05_greekcrisis_speakers.mp3]
Open debate:
[audio http://bedeutung.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/2010_05_05_greekcrisis_audience_comments.mp3]
Also posted in comment/analysis, politics Tagged 2010 economic crisis, birkbeck, bratsis, debate, douzinas, featherstone, greece, greek debt crisis, kouvelakis, lapavitsas 2 Comments
Beg, Borrow or Steal: the Greek Crisis
by Alexandros Stavrakas
The commentary on the Greek crisis has predictably descended into a spectacle of cheap moralisation. Over the past months, we have been bombarded with accusatory tirades aimed against corrupt politicians, greedy bankers, depraved technocrats and more or less anyone who’s had a chance to use and abuse the system in order to advance [...]
Also posted in articles, comment/analysis, politics Tagged european union, greece, greek debt crisis, greek politics, IMF 1 Comment
Jacqueline Rose on the Dreyfus Affair
Jacqueline Rose’s talk at the Asia Society on April 21 – organised by the London Review of Books on their 30th anniversary. Rose discusses parallels of the Affair with today’s political predicaments, including the role of the public intellectual.
[audio http://bedeutung.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/dreyfus-affair-jacqueline-rose1.mp3]
If the player doesn’t work, click the link below:
Dreyfus Affair – Jacqueline Rose(1)
Also posted in audio/podcasts, comment/analysis, literature, philosophy, politics Tagged dreyfus affair, london review of books, racqueline rose Leave a comment
Obama's War
A talk by Tariq Ali in New York on Monday April 19th – organised by the London Review of Books
[audio http://bedeutung.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/obamas-war-tariq-ali.mp3]
If the player doesn’t work, click below:
Obama’s War – Tariq Ali
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The End of Politics (2): Europe
by Costas Douzinas
How different does Europe look today from ten years ago. In 2000, influential commentators hailed the dawn of the ‘new European century’ to replace the atrocious ‘American’ 20th century. Europe was on the way to becoming the model polity for the new world. The re-unification of Germany, the successful introduction of the Euro [...]
Also posted in articles, comment/analysis, politics Tagged 2010 politics, douzinas, euro, europe, european union, germany, greek financial crisis Leave a comment
The end of politics and the defence of democracy
In this month of the ‘Greek passion’ one thing is certain. The country will never be the same again. But while the commentators, academics and ‘experts’ discuss endlessly the economic crisis, the deep political malaise has gone unnoticed. The three ‘waves’ of ‘stability’ measures have befallen Greece like an evil tsunami which will turn the current recession into a depression with no clear end. But they also attack the foundations of democracy. The unfolding events offer a panorama of the symptoms of ‘the end of politics’.
Also posted in articles, comment/analysis, philosophy, politics Tagged austerity measures, douzinas, greek financial crisis, greek politics, neo-liberalism Leave a comment
Thatcher, Thatcher, Thatcher
by John Gray
from the London Review of Books
There wasn’t anything inevitable about David Cameron’s rise. If Kenneth Clarke had stirred himself into running something like a campaign when competing for the leadership with Iain Duncan Smith and been ready to appear more tractable on Europe; if David Davis had moved decisively in the immediate aftermath [...]
Also posted in articles, comment/analysis, philosophy, politics Tagged david cameron, john gray, london review of books, margaret thatcher, UK politics Leave a comment
Why Google is the Nike of the internet
by Alexandros Stavrakas
from The Guardian
Google decided two weeks ago to shut down its hitherto self-censoring search service in China. This allegedly costly gesture, intended as a bold statement rather than a formal articulation of corporate “foreign policy”, is congruous with the company’s liberal philosophy and juxtaposed to the aged conformity of, say, Microsoft. But far [...]
Also posted in articles, comment/analysis, philosophy, politics Tagged censorship, china, freedom of expression, google, guardian, internet Leave a comment
Peter Hallward on “Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment”
from Democracy Now
Haitian President Rene Preval said Sunday that the death toll from the earthquake could reach 300,000 once all the bodies are recovered from the rubble. We speak to Peter Hallward, professor of Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University. “Unless prevented by renewed popular mobilisation in both Haiti and beyond, the perverse international emphasis [...]
Also posted in comment/analysis, videos Tagged casualties, haiti 2010 earthquake, international aid, peter hallward 1 Comment
Our role in Haiti's plight
by Peter Hallward
from The Guardian
Any large city in the world would have suffered extensive damage from an earthquake on the scale of the one that ravaged Haiti’s capital city on Tuesday afternoon, but it’s no accident that so much of Port-au-Prince now looks like a war zone. Much of the devastation wreaked by this latest [...]
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Slavoj Žižek – Living in the End Times
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.4452279&w=600&h=400&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]
Also posted in comment/analysis, politics, videos Tagged contemporary continental philosophy, philosophy, video, zizek 1 Comment
The Pictures of War You Aren’t Supposed to See
By Chris Hedges
from truthdig.com
War is brutal and impersonal. It mocks the fantasy of individual heroism and the absurdity of utopian goals like democracy. In an instant, industrial warfare can kill dozens, even hundreds of people, who never see their attackers. The power of these industrial weapons is indiscriminate and staggering. They can take down apartment [...]
Also posted in articles, politics Tagged lori grinker, peter van agtmael, photography, war veterans Leave a comment
Slavoj Zizek: Catastrophic But Not Serious