Literary pop songs

1 November 2009 Literary pop

I have a fascination with wordy songs. Done well, I think they can make a song into a great intricate system of hidden compartments and false bottoms. I love coming across songs with secrets, letting them reveal themselves over many listens. Nuance, I guess you’d call it, but all spangled up with syllables.
I submit this [...]

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In defence of the average novel

18 October 2009 Books

Don’t criticise books for the fun of it. Read books for the fun of it.

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Dear Old People Who Run the World

17 October 2009 Uncategorized

Just read a spectacular open letter to the ‘old people who run the world’ by Umair Haque. I bloomin loved it. Do yourselves a favour, people. Will write more about it later.

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Quote of the day

11 October 2009 Uncategorized

‘You always admire what you really don’t understand.’

- Blaise Pascal

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Critical Review: Chris Brown, Human Rights

11 October 2009 Academic Writing

There is an ethical and idealistic spirit to the notion of human rights that is easily lost sight of in complex discourses. It is in the sense of aspiration for an everyday justice, the pursuit of minimum standards of human well-being, and the striving for a doctrine that is humane, universal and inclusive.
This spirit was [...]

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Patrice Lumumba and the Congo’s Cold War

12 September 2009 Academic Writing

CONGO EXPERIENCING CLASSIC COMMUNIST EFFORT TAKEOVER GOVERNMENT… WHETHER OR NOT LUMUMBA ACTUALLY COMMIE OR JUST PLAYING COMMIE GAME… ANTI-WEST FORCES RAPIDLY INCREASING POWER CONGO AND THERE MAY BE LITTLE TIME LEFT IN WHICH TO TAKE ACTION TO AVOID ANOTHER CUBA.
Lawrence Devlin, CIA Station Chief Leopoldville
There is so much talk about two blocs. The question of [...]

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On Rwanda, 1994

12 August 2009 Academic Writing

Introduction
As the Rwandan genocide of 1994 grows more distant in the global collective memory, diminished in its horror perhaps by time and subsequent atrocities elsewhere, our comprehension of the event remains tentative and incomplete. Certainly the basic facts are known, the sequence of events and their broad political context. Following the shooting down of a [...]

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