Current Events
« Previous Entries Next Entries »American guilt and the Youssif craze
Thursday, September 20th, 2007Four and a half years and 75,000 Iraqi and 3,800 American deaths later, the best thing America has to show for the invasion and occupation of Iraq is this single story, which is turning out to be more about easing a guilty American conscience than it is about helping those whose lives have been irreversibly [...]
Cultural pluralism in Syria
Monday, July 2nd, 2007Sasa has posted a link to a very interesting article about Syria’s disenfranchised and repressed Kurdish population. Besides my concern about the article’s failure to note that the Kurdish issue is a regional one and not one exclusive to Syria, I think it is a good opportunity to comment on the way the Syrian government, [...]
Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and the Boycott of Israeli Universities
Monday, June 18th, 2007Chancellor Robert Birgeneau issued a statement in which he says that the British boycott of Israeli universities “violates the fundamental principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech that are the hallmarks of great universities” and that those who “seek to isolate Israeli universities… must also include Berkeley… in [the] boycott.” Putting aside the [...]
Congress gets a conscience?
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007The House of Representatives is preparing a bill that will cut US aid to Egypt, which is the second largest recipient of US money next to Israel.
“The $200 million cut is substantial,” said Rep. James Moran, a Virginia Democrat on the House panel. “Our ally is not upholding the principles that define us.”
Taken to its [...]
The brilliant scholars of Syracuse University
Friday, June 8th, 2007This time, Laurence Thomas of Syracuse University has written a post called “Angry Muslim Arabs and the Black Man” (as if the response he got to his earlier post about there being no Muslim marches for peace was based on the fact he is black). In it he talks about “so-called oppressed groups” (what, you [...]
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