We can start with intellectual property. There are two aspects to this idea a) respect and b) money. To acknowledge an author was historically to show respect. “This idea came from X”. There are complexities in this such as the assertion of lineage and authority. ‘Confucius , he say…’ is an appeal to authority just as ‘it is said in the Bible’. In the world of poetry and the arts acknowledgement is a deep form of respect. As to…
Reviewing the views1 of Benny Morris as expressed in his writings is illuminating. Paraphrasing his words is likely to lead to disbelief so he must be allowed to speak for himself. In 2004 Benny Morris wrote: ‘There are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing. I know that this term is completely negative in the discourse of the 21st century, but when the choice is between ethnic cleansing and genocide—the annihilation of your people—I prefer ethnic cleansing.’ Of course,…
Seymour Hersh has curious view of the Israeli invasion and bombing of Gaza.1 According Hersh: ‘The Israelis had mapped the system and thus were able to assassinate many Hamas brigade commanders and their families, in their beds ….’ It seems indisputable that their families were not combattants but were nevertheless deliberately targetted without any need from an operational point of view. This was merely an act of terror. ‘Israeli intelligence, which has mapped the tunnel system, understood early on…
Roberts1 suggests in a recent article that one should consider the post war large -scale population transfers. I presume that he does not consider the population transfers of Jews to Israel or to concentration camps as an acceptable model. He asks the Palestinians to accept their displacement as ‘an irreversible historical fact’ . This is an astonishing statement for a historian. The juxtaposition of ‘irreversible’ and ‘fact’ reveals the deep deceit. Whether the change is ‘irreversible’ is an opinion not…
Afton Titus has written an article on Chinese investments in Africa implying more costs than benefits.1 What is more important is how she puts her article together. She violates almost all the rules either of academia or of international tax. She is aware of the many arguments that China is involved in debt trap diplomacy but she is also aware that most of those arguments have been discredited. She has arrived with a new argument. What is this new…
Jim Jones led a religious movement that ended in mass suicide. Initial reports suggested that Jim Jones led a solely Black congregation with the silent implication that these Black people were just dumb idiots who would commit suicide if a white leader told them to. Though Jim Jones was anti-racist, his congregation was not exclusively or majority Black. Jim Jones had fervent dreams of bringing about a better world and was driven by these dreams. Self-awareness was not one…
We are in this story following a tradition from Canon Doyle. What is missing might be the important and strong clue as in ‘the dog that did not bark’. Let us consider the current analysis of The Duran (Alex Mercouris and Alex Christoforou). They have accepted that the Ukraine war is part of a conflict between US on one side and China and Russia on the other. They also accept that China and Russia have an unbounded relationship. However,…
There is a strange situation in the world. America is riding tall even though it is only one event from a catastrophic fall. Consider the geo-political environment. If Germany had broken loose from the Western alliance and decided to join hands with Russia then US dominance would collapse overnight. Russia and Germany would be a great power actually greater in a short time than the US. Russia and Germany would be beyond US military intimidation. This would be Mackinder’s…
Ndlovu-Gatsheni writes: ‘Wole Soyinka’s widely cited injunction against Négritude, ‘a tiger does not proclaim its tigritude, it pounces’ (Ischinger 1974, 23), suffers miserably from ahistoricity. If the tiger’s essence or being as a tiger was questioned and renamed derogatively as an ant or something similar, it would definitely be forced to proclaim its tigritude (its essence or being) as part of its resistance and defensive self-constitution.’ 1 Soyinka’s famous phrase is widely misunderstood. I am not fussed about the…
Sometimes the worst insult is the one you don’t know you are giving. Moscow Times gives the final insult to Russia. Russia is a major global power and a democracy. Russia has been on the receiving end of US’s complete disdain and disrespect. It has also been on the receiving end of complete lack of sincerity in negotiations, with the US believing it has no obligation to commit to previous agreements. It is strange and important that no one…
