Blogs
Features, Ideas, Music & Dance - Sunday, August 29, 2010 23:54 - 7 Comments
Formed a band? Made a record? Now what?
Every starting band knows the situation: you record something, spend more than you can afford on getting a few hundred professionally-printed copies made, and then you spend ages wait for sales that never come. As someone who's seen it all before, Alex Andrews shares top 5 tips on how to sell your record the clever way.
Jody Mcintyre's Life on Wheels - Sunday, August 15, 2010 12:00 - 0 Comments
Week 70 – Thoughts on Equality
By Jody Mcintyre Ni’lin really is a surreal place. When I first arrived in the small West Bank village that I would spend the next week in, I didn’t expect to see an orthodox Jewish settler getting his car fixed… I stared at him in complete disbelief, and he smiled and waved back. Stealing people’s land […]Columns, Features, Ideas, In Theory - Friday, August 13, 2010 13:30 - 4 Comments
In Theory We come in peace – shoot to kill: On the perils of peacekeeping
The creation of the UN, sixty years ago, has introduced the concept of "international peacekeeping" into the public lexicon. The UN peacekeeping missions are now regular features of news bulletins from conflict zones. And yet, both in its theoretical underpinnings and its practical manifestations, peacekeeping remains a highly problematic idea. Political theorist Andrew Robinson presents the many issues surrounding the idea of peacekeeping, and conducts an impassioned and lucid analysis of how peacekeeping efforts often get things wrong, and what needs to be done to set them right.Features, Ideas, Politics - Wednesday, August 11, 2010 11:02 - 3 Comments
Think Big! In defence of ideology
The protracted aftermath of the worst world recession in living memory has seen not a fundamental questioning of the basic ideological premises of liberal capitalism, but a call for technocratic, ideologically "neutral" solutions instead. Is this another failure of the left to seize the moment and present a credible alternative? Alex Andrews bemoans the growing reticence towards big ideologically-driven programmes and says thinking big is the only thinking worth doing.
Jody Mcintyre's Life on Wheels - Monday, August 9, 2010 12:00 - 0 Comments
Week 69 – Happy Birthday Haifa
By Jody Mcintyre The fact that we managed to smuggle a Palestinian girl from Ramallah through an Israeli check-point proves an important point; the Wall that they have built around the West Bank is not for security, and never has been. It is purely a symbol of the system of apartheid that Israel is imposing on […]Blogs, Books, Ceasefire Bites, Editor's Desk - Saturday, August 7, 2010 22:17 - 1 Comment
R.I.P. Tony Judt (1948-2010)
It's with great sadness that we've received news of Tony Judt's death.
This is, without a doubt, a loss of monumental scale for both the world of ideas and the fight for global social justice.Tony Judt was one of the most emnient historians of his generation. His status as master chronicler of post-war europe (Notably with his book, Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945, published in 2005) was well deserved and will surely continue to be appreciated for generations to come.
Columns, Ideas, In Theory - Friday, August 6, 2010 15:53 - 9 Comments
In Theory Anarchism, war and the state
Of the many movements and "isms" that have emerged in the past two centuries, none have had the run of stigma, mischaracterisation and sheer venom thrown at it as has the idea of Anarchism. Some use the term as shorthand for political violence, others for nihilistic rejection of societal coherence. Even those who admire its general principles often find themselves in conflict over how those principles are to manifest themselves in the world of reality. In a brilliant and thorough tour d'horizon, Ceasefire columnist Andrew Robinson looks at the development of the Anarchist response to war and the state. He uncovers some striking affinities as well as the nuances in difference within this widely variant (and much maligned) field of thought and offers a neat encapsulation of the major strands involved
Columns, Devil's Advocate, Ideas, Politics - Thursday, August 5, 2010 14:02 - 9 Comments
Devil’s Advocate: Is Democracy overrated?
Everyone knows -or at least pays lip-service to- Democracy as an exalted ideal. Is everyone wrong? Is this a concept we have been too lazy, or too blind, to fully examine? what is so special about a system that is aimed at creating a good society yet rarely delivers on that promise? In a controversial piece, the first of his 'Devil's Advocate' columns, Omer Ali examines the impact of democracy as well as its theoretical underpinnings. In the process, he draws on examples from politics and economics and takes aim at a few sacred truths.
