Karma police, arrest this man!
It is a scene dubbed from a pirated copy of Baraka. Even by seven a.m. the sun has already provoked Hlaing Thar Yar bus station, west of Yangon, into an angry arpeggio of discordant activity. The taxi driver takes both hands from the wheel, looks at me in the rear-view mirror and makes an ill-formed [...]
Sympathy for the Devil: Lars Von Trier’s Fettnäpfchen
I think I understand the man (Hitler),” (film director Lars) Von Trier said. “He’s not what you would call a good guy, but I understand much about him and I sympathize with him a little bit. But come on, I’m not for the Second World War, and I’m not against Jews. I am of course [...]
Under the veil of Islamic gender politics
A woman in her early twenties, wearing a full length black dress and a hijab which covers her hair and much of her face, gets onto a public bus in the new part of the ancient city of Aleppo, Syria. She buys her ticket and, searching left and right, walks past a number of free [...]
Done to Death: a photo essay on Lebanon
Beirut’s surely been done to death. The Lebanese people have been done by Israel, by Syria and by themselves. The marks are obvious, both physical and cultural. In Beirut, nobody’s saving for a retirement that will never happen: if you have it, you flaunt it. But in the south, [...]
Superstition: a Friday the 13th special
The mind of man is subject to certain unaccountable terrors and apprehensions, proceeding from the unhappy situation of private or public affairs, from ill health, from a gloomy and melancholy disposition, or from the concurrence of all these circumstances. In such a state of mind, infinite unknown evils are dreaded from unknown agents; and where [...]
Tokyo Guys & Dotombori Bitches
Part I: Tokyo Guys Japan has a way of making you feel very lonely. The Japanese, while overtly friendly, accommodating, and above all extremely courteous, are nevertheless indescribably aloof, curiously cold despite all the apparent manifestations of warmth. The proliferation of host and hostess bars in Japanese cities is testament to the fact that this [...]
I wuv you, Waleed Aly
Waleed Aly. If there is a more sane, reasonable voice in Australian political commentary, perhaps even world political commentary, I am not aware of it. Do yourselves a favour and watch these two videos (at the bottom of the linked page). Unfortunately, the fact that he’s a declared Muslim means that he is unlikely to [...]
