Archive for October 17, 2006
Last time Daniel Cohn-Bendit was interesting was in 1968. Bendit explaining Arendt is like Tony Danza explaining Marx.
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
” The Lebanese poet and journalist Abbas Beydoun is a cultural correspondent for the Lebanese daily as-Safir. He is also a frequent guest commentator for a number of German newspapers. Interestingly enough, those of his articles which appear in German differ markedly from his pieces in Arabic. In Der Tagespiegel of July 26, 2006 and [...]
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
So I watched Khudur `Awarki on AlJazeera’s Ittijah Al-Mu`akis. He spoke in praise of Iran and Hizbullah. He fiercely attacked Saudi Arabia. Yet, he could not stop praising the Kuwaiti government every 2 minutes.
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
Many of you (too many) sent me the video clip of Julia Butrus’ new song. I felt that it fails at every level. As is well-known, SSNP poet Ghassan Matar composed the lyrics from the words of Hasan Nasrallah’s speeches during the Israeli war on Lebanon. The music is characterless, and the words just don’t [...]
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
“Secretary Rice has charged me with engaging the American people and America’s private sector which is critical to our success in public diplomacy. Our private sector reflects the generosity and ingenuity of the American people. Collaboration with U.S. companies, universities and foundations is essential to our public diplomacy efforts, and I established the Office of [...]
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
I was expecting to see pork on this White House menu.
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the stars of the Saudi TV show, Tash ma Tash, to avoid displeasing the clerics. (I ask all to make sure to displease the king AND the clerics).
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
Don’t abandon me. I am your puppet, damn it. “Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki told President Bush on Monday that U.S. officials have been undermining his government, and sought reassurance that the administration was not preparing to abandon him.”
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
“George Bush and Tony Blair were looking more isolated than ever last night as the ground shifted further under their strategy of remaining in Iraq “until the job is done”. The President and the Prime Minister were left clinging to the dream of establishing a lasting democracy in Iraq as their advisers urged them to [...]
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
“Saudi police have detained four people in a city in the country’s eastern region, which is home to the kingdom’s Shi’ite Muslim minority, for supporting Hezbollah, residents said on Tuesday.”
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
A brief description of “liberation”: “A third of Iraq’s professional class is reported to have fled to Jordan, a flight of skills worse than under Saddam. UN monitors now report 2,000 people a day are crossing the Syrian border. Over a hundred lecturers at Baghdad university alone have been murdered, mostly for teaching women. There [...]
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
“Doctors in Gaza have reported previously unseen injuries from Israeli weapons that cause severe burning and leave deep internal wounds, often resulting in amputations or death. The injuries were first seen in July, when Israel launched operations in Gaza following the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants.”
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
I relish the dramatic decline of An-Nahar newspaper: this right-wing, sectarian Christian newspaper has played a very powerful role in the formation of the contemporary political and popular cultures of Lebanon. It also has (especially under Jubran Tuwayni) produced racist anti-Palestinian, anti-Syrian (people) venom.
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
For those who care, my tour of (east) Canadian universities is now set for January.
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
Hand-in-hand: but toward where?
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
“Despite the surge of women into the work force, mothers are spending at least as much time with their children today as they did 40 years ago.”
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
“Airline passengers and crew seized as “human shields” by Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf war yesterday demanded a public inquiry following claims that they were used by the government as cover to smuggle special forces into Kuwait. Claims made in a BBC documentary suggest officials knew the flight was entering Kuwait in the early [...]
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
“A few weeks ago, I took the F.B.I.’s temperature again. At the end of a long interview, I asked Willie Hulon, chief of the bureau’s new national security branch, whether he thought that it was important for a man in his position to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. “Yes, sure, it’s right to [...]
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad
“At first, interrogators said Mr. Hajj had shot video of Osama bin Laden during an Al Jazeera interview, but it turned out that they may have mixed him up with another cameraman of a similar name. When that assertion fell apart, the authorities offered accusations that he had ferried a large sum of money to [...]
Posted on October 17, 2006 by As'ad