Getty Ambau’s new epic novel Desta narrates a family saga — spanning three generations and dealing with their dark and mysterious past in a world of monkeys, goats and spirits. Read More
London Review of Books reviews “Against Passion” (by James Meek). What is identity politics? Is it, to paraphrase Dylan Thomas, a part of society you don’t like that’s fighting for its interests as fiercely as yours does? Read More
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Race…”We all wish it was not. But it’s a lie. I came from a country where race was not an issue; I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America.” Read More
Recipe for Mocha Cake…”Mocha” is the term used for chocolate flavor. Caffé Mocha (also called Moccachino) is a variant of coffee made of espresso and hot milk with added chocolate. The chocolate used may be in the form of sweet cocoa powder or and can either be dark or milk chocolate. Read More
Where is there or is there a country
Made up of People of reason;
People with hearts that live and love
People who seek knowledge and justice
And beauty and truth and don’t think
That they know what it’s all about
And therefore don’t tell anyone else what
To believe, and instead of telling each other
what to think they gently encourage each other
to seek and find because that is one of
the nicest things about being human
Inequality…a Poem
Inequality leaves us in a great big pickle
Making us act in ways that are fickle
We take our eyes off the prize
and do otherwise
So that the guy with a dime despises
The guy with just a nickel.
Goodbye Twentieth Century
From death camps to space
It’s been a race
So much pain and so much gain
As we sought to find
A new way to frame
our future and our past
in a way that would last
beyond our foibles and our foolishness
and kiss goodbye all our ghoulishness
and leave behind those memories
Earthbound and earth-hugging
As if History itself had been
the victim of a mugging
and the only cure for Auschwitz
is the comedy of Space
Herr Hegel talked about Being
And said consciousness can be freeing
And about how in this modern age of ours
We all know that we’re free
So maybe the cure for what ailed us
In that century that often failed us
With death camp and gulag,
with wars that were global
Is to count on space flight
to make us more noble
What better way to escape
from all that depravity
Than by going up up and up
away from all that Gravity
’till memories of Hell just simply fall away
like the morning fog
on a late August day
Retreating in mid-morning
From the San Francisco Bay
– David Klein
Says the in-group to the out-group: “You are not us!”
The out-group answers: “Because we are not you we are not even us.”
Therefore we will now begin to create a “we” that is based on our not being
you, a “we” that consists of our saying “Yes you the in-group are we and while
part of the we that is you and not us really has nothing to do with us because
this “we” says we only exist for you and exist therefore not to really exist and
the funny thing is the more we try to exist in this quandary, this predicament
of predicaments the less we feel that we even know what existence is let
alone have any kind of right to know it and love it.
And if and when we see through all this and choose to create a “we” which is
no longer just a reaction to not being you, then won’t we really be reacting
even more reactionarily reinforcing our initial stance of non-being because this
new us is really just a “not-you?!”
When we become aware of this, what is to be done? Is transcendence the
only way out here, something based on the transformation of self but of all
selves and the idea of self…itself?!?!
We have more phones today ever, so we do more talking on the phone.
Do we do more thinking too, because we do more talking?
Maybe we do less thinking because we do more talking and the fact
that we think less, instead of leading to our talking less, leads us to the exact
opposite state of affairs so that instead of talking less and thereby creating
the possibility of thinking more we (instead) think mainly about what we’re
going to say/do/eat /watch (as in tv) next without any thought of whether
this/these actions will be good, bad or indifferent nor any thought about
whether this planet-wide explosion of cell phones, smart phones, tablets,
mobile devices, mp3 players and all the rest of this specific, general and/or
all-purpose digital stuff,shyte and whatever else that we have invented to talk
now and forever with every-and anybody else on the planet or on other
planets) instantly,instantaneously and maybe someday or soon at or
exceeding the speed of light until we become a jungle full of parrots (no
offense to same/they haven’t become the slaves of technology and probably
make more sense in their nonstop nattering than we do iin ours)chattering
ourselves into an oblivion of devolution and rapid-fire texting sans sight, sans
mind and sans meaning.
Who is Bell Hooks?
The following biography of Bell Hooks is taken from The European Graduate School / “Bell Hooks, is an American social activist, feminist and author. She was born on September 25, 1952. Bell Hooks is the nom de plume for Gloria Jean Watkins. Bell Hooks examines the multiple networks that connect gender, race, and class. Read More