LA Times has a very interesting though touchy article about Israel and Gaza, by Ben Ehrenreich.
I stumbled upon one sentence that summed up what I think, feel about the conflict:
“Founding a modern state on a single ethnic or religious identity in a territory that is ethnically and religiously diverse leads inexorably either to politics of exclusion (think of the 139-square-mile prison camp that Gaza has become) or to wholesale ethnic cleansing. Put simply, the problem is Zionism.”
The list of ethnic cleansings of the 20th century is impressive. Not much to add…
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I was doing some research for CabEasy.com, and was wondering which are the biggest cities in the world. I found various sources (wikipedia here, world atlas here) but the conclusion is the same.
Continue reading ‘Global economic (dis-)order … ?’
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As I wrote recently, I just finished reading Freedom At Midnight, an amazing account of all events that occurred in 1947 and 1948 in India and in the UK that led to India’s independence and partition.
Continue reading ‘The impact of British colonization on India ? (part 1)’
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It’s been a month that I haven’t written about the campaign, and I wrote more earlier this year about my discovering and understanding of the primaries.
Continue reading ‘Who won the primaries ?’
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A Sikh taking a morning holy bath at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. By Jingye.
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As for certain things in your daily life that you never think of questioning, I realized reading Freedom at Midnight that I knew nothing about the Sikhs, and their religion Sikhism.
Yet they account to 25 millions worldwide, including 19 millions in India and 6 millions in the rest of the world. It’s the fifth largest religion in the world, and is only 400 years old.
So here is, in brief and for the neophytes like me, what Sikhs and Sikhism are.
Continue reading ‘What is Sikhism and who are the Sikhs ?’
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Two weeks ago, I won an photo contest from my company (Air France KLM) with this picture, and the prize was 2 return tickets anywhere in the world. After a few discussions about where we could go (Iran, back to Burma, Philippines, Uzbekistan were discussed) we eventually settled to do what every backpacker has to do at some point, India. And where to “start” in India if not in the Rajasthan (wiki).
The decision was motivated by a recent gift: I am reading an amazing book about India, a best seller from 1975 written by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins: Freedom at Midnight (amazon).
Freedom at Midnight is a detailed and novelized account of all events that occurred in 1947 and 1948 in India and in the UK that led to India’s independence and partition. It’s a fascinating stack of 800 or 900 pages that flew in just a few weeks. But especially, it made me realize how little I knew about India recent history, and how much there was to know !
Continue reading ‘Freedom at Midnight, and the Partition of India’
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I just finished Dawn, Dusk or Night from french writer Yasmina Reza (on Amazon in English / French).
Yasmina followed President Sarkozy during his campaign, trying to find the man behind the candidate. She was initially supporting another candidate from the opposite party (she doesn’t name him, but it might be Dominique Strauss-Kahn, now director of the International Monetary Fund).
I loved the book, I love the writing style, and found the essay very interesting. I won’t start here a political discussion about Sarkozy, even though I like the man, but just note some excerpts that I found thoughtful (note: I read the book in French, this is my translation).
Continue reading ‘Yasmina Reza, L’aube le soir ou la nuit’
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If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. (Psalms, 137, 5-7).
Continue reading ‘O Jerusalem, Gaza strip and West Bank settlements …’
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The subject has been covered over and over (and over and over) again, so I won’t add to it.
Continue reading ‘There will be blood …. between Barack and Hillary !’
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