Yesterday I returned from the Association of American Geographers conference in NYC, and walked through a remarkable exhibit in the San Francisco Airport on animated dolls. SFO is actually certified as a museum, and the general quality of the exhibits is excellent. This exhibit provoked me to think again about the modern world, through the […]
November 17, 2011 On the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, I am re-posting some older essays I have written that pertain to this movement. I strongly endorse the OWS policy of not taking any specific position. I think it makes sense to simply point out what I call confiscatory inequality. That is to say,
Common-sense political economics Read More »
Today we assume that modern nation-states are the successors to early-modern kingdoms and royal colonies. In a spatial sense, I still agree with this: the Republic of France occupies the same territory as the prior Kingdom of France; India occupies space formerly ruled by the British Crown Colony, and so forth. However, something less obvious
From Corporations to Nation-States Read More »
08 November 2007 / 17 Aqrab 1386 Writing the essay on October 19, and then presenting and discussing the paper yesterday has clarified a few things for me. It seems that the Third-World War is underway. Simply put, it is a struggle by the elite against social justice, a struggle to assert extraordinary impunity. However
The Third World War Read More »
19 October 2007 / 25 Mizan 1386 Two weeks ago I took a field trip to a UNHCR resettlement site north of Kabul. We traveled in a bullet-proof white SUV, with doors that must weigh 200 pounds and windows that do not open. I thought it was a little surreal that a refugee agency is
Hawks hiding among doves Read More »
Those of you who are following these webpages know that I am focused on post-war urban reconstruction and political-economic development. And I think Franz Fanon and Desmond Tutu describe the critical steps necessary to get beyond a condition of war: psychological and spiritual transformation. In the long run these internal, personal changes are what show
The Turkish Cultural Center is the building in the middle. It is very (post)modern, but it fits into the urban fabric extremely well, in part because it makes several comments about the adjacent fabric. I believe this is another new cultural center (Larisa please verify). The entry pavilion obviously refers back to Ottoman ablution-fountains, but
Conflict and modernity Read More »
24 June 2007 / 3 Saratan 1386 On June 17, a bomb placed in a police academy bus exploded while the bus was parked in a busy area just outside of the public gate of the Police Commandery. Thirty-five people were killed including twenty-four police officers and eleven bystanders. The next day (Aug 18) as
Paying respects for the dead Read More »
17 June 2007 / 27 Jauza 1386 I have not blogged in two weeks because I have been working on my dissertation prospectus and a draft of one of the chapters. That is good, and it helps me process information; but so do these pages. The paradox is that the more that is happening, the
History not quite repeating itself Read More »
25 May 2007 / 4 Jauza 1386 Note: I have interspersed portrait-photos of Afghans I have taken. In conformance with the principles of the Committee to Protect Human Subjects–to which I am bound as an American university researcher–I must say nothing about who they are personally. However I do not intend to imply that these
Portraits, and thoughts on oppression Read More »