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THIRD BLAIR SPEECH Tony Blair has delivered the third in his series of speeches on the international situation. In this speech, Blair lays out his hopes of defining common, universal values for an interdependent world. In approaching this he briefly examines the question of effective multilateral institutions. The problem is that multilateral cooperation can only get you so far if you do not accept the idea of supranationality (for example in the form of delicate use of majority voting as developed in the European Union). This is the essential question of redefining democracy in an interdependent world.

Continue reading "Weekly roundup, May 29th 2006" »

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RELIGION AND POSTMODERNISM: French philosopher Andre Glucksmann writes: “Civilised discourse analyses and defines scientific truths, historic truths and matters of fact relating to knowledge, not to faith. And it does this irrespective of race or confession. We may believe these facts are profane or undignified, yet they remain distinct from religious truths. Our planet is not in the grips of a clash of civilisations or cultures. It is the battleground of a decisive struggle between two ways of thinking."

Continue reading "Weekly roundup, April 3rd 2006" »

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SWEDISH NEUTRALITY: Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds finally resigned Tuesday over the closure of the Web site of Sverigedemokraterna, a right-wing nationalist party that published caricatures of Muhammad. The Swedish Foreign Ministry and security police contacted the Internet hosting company Levonline and urged them to close down the site in an unbelievable infringement of free speech typical of a Swedish public that too often prefers phoney consensus to healthy disparity. This mentality is perfectly expressed in Göran Rosenberg’s flawed analysis of the cartoons controversy.

Continue reading "Weekly roundup, March 27th 2006" »

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HEZBOLLAH: In a recent speech in Beirut, Hezbollah's Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gave his version of the cause of the cartoon controversy: “If a Muslim had executed the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie [who wrote the ‘Satanic Verses’] then none of those insolent people would have dared to debase Prophet Mohammed - not in Denmark, neither in Norway nor France. If we now forgive, as we did after Salman Rushdie wrote the Satanic Verses, God only knows what they will do later.”

Continue reading "Weekly roundup, March 20th 2006" »

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DEMOCRACY: Jürgen Habermas wants the European Union to move away from the principle of unanimity that defines the structure and restricts the type of decisions made by majority votes. In this speech [in German] published in Der Standard, he suggests that the European countries in favour of more supranationality ought to hold referendums to decide if their peoples want to move forward and establish a more democratic and “core” union with pan-European presidential elections and a European Foreign Minister.

In Part I of Habermas' speech he mostly deals with the state of the public, digital sphere. What is "relevant" and "trustworthy" information on the Net? These questions are part of an essential discussion on Europe's future that is now starting to take place. See also this speech by Rowan Williams that was linked to last week. “[The Internet] provides an environment in which enraged people can gather at cause-centered Web sites and make themselves even angrier” David Ignatius wrote in the Washington Post a while back.

Continue reading "Weekly roundup, March 13th 2006" »

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THE MEDIA: I want to draw attention to the assessments of Rowan Williams in his speech delivered at Lambeth Palace this fall. Williams is the Archbishop of Canterbury. The speech demonstrates that it is possible even for spiritual leaders to present a coherent media critique.

Continue reading "Weekly roundup, March 6th 2006" »

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On Friday London's mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended from office by The Adjudication Panel for England. His offence was comparing a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard. Read Jonathan Freedland’s comment on this case from The Guardian [May 2005].

Continue reading "Weekly roundup, February 27th 2006" »

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"The World Changed, But the Left Stayed the Same": Cristovam Buarque has an insightful conversation with Fernando Henrique Cardoso (president of Brazil from 1995-2003). In it, they discuss the limits and possibilities of the Left – from a Brazilian perspective. What can be accomplished today? Today, the ones who suffer the most at “those human beings who don’t even serve to be exploited; they are the ‘marginalized’. They are not even an army of reserve.”

Continue reading "Weekly roundup, February 20th 2006" »

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NATIONALISM: In Eurozine.com, Jens-Martin Eriksen and Frederik Stjernfelt has an interview with Mihajlo Markovic and Vasilije Krestic about the 1986 “Memorandum”, by many considered a program for Serbian Nationalism in the prelude to the Croatian and Bosnian Wars. Markovic was at that time a leftwing Marxist, while Krestic was a rightwing nationalist. How could two such opposing worldviews unite in the notorious 1986 “Memorandum”?

Continue reading "Weekly roundup, February 12th 2006" »

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Kwame Anthony Appiah's 'Cosmopolitanism' - Kwame Anthony Appiah has written this essay explaining his understanding of “Cosmopolitanism”. He writes that the cultural pessimists' claim that cultural imperialism “structures the consciousnesses” of those outside the West is a theory that treats people “as blank slates on which global capitalism's moving finger writes its message, leaving behind another cultural automaton as it moves on”.

Continue reading "Weekly roundup, February 6th 2006" »

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