Comments on: Sunday Reading for the Gods

By: sharon

sharon — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 19:57:28 +0000

Interrupting all the serious politics: India v Pakistan final! Howzat?! Still bored with it?

Please gods let it not end in another bowl out though.

By: Desi Italiana

Desi Italiana — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:32:12 +0000

““The only way to discourage Islamist extremism in Pakistan in the long run is through democracy.” Hey, Economist, they didn’t listen to me, why would they listen to you?”

Sepoy, where have you been? Besides the Economist, EVERYONE knows that democracy will counteract extremism [close sarcasm tags].

Let me explain my snark: I was told by a well known figure in Pakistani politics(who shall remain unnamed)that everyone in the US- both in political and mass media circles- knows that Mush needs to go and there needs to be democracy. According to this person, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind in the US that democracy will counteract extremism. Apparently, John Edwards was just joshing with us when the NYT quoted him as saying that you can’t let democracy reign in Pakistan because of all the fundies.

Then, this person told me off about how I don’t know what I’m talking about when I brought up a series of NYT articles which argue (or insinuated) that democracy is just not fit for some countries like Pakistan, and then said person hung up on me.

By: Saadia

Saadia — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:03:25 +0000

Re Lilla: ‘Christian political theology encouraged the development of Enlightenment progressiveness the way that runaway mitosis encourages the discovery of cancer cures.’, not to mention ‘Some readers may want to challenge Lilla’s inference regarding Christian specificity and the limits of the lessons of the Enlightenment. Contemporary Japan and India, among other non-Christian countries, have also embraced the Great Separation. It’s not so clear that the Christian West is exceptional in anything except for first proposing the answer that has gradually gained momentum almost everywhere except in the Islamic Middle East.’
um, yeah

By: akbar

akbar — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:50:02 +0000

Re His toughness problem ….. and ours

‘Podhoretz points out that religious terrorism is less the result of poverty than of political oppression. As long as millions of Muslims are ruled by dictators, terrorism will grow apace. The neocon strategy, adopted by the US administration, is to “drain the swamps,” to get rid of terrorism by democratizing the Middle East.’

I think it would be pertinent to re-visit this essay by Eqbal Ahamd

Terrorism: Theirs and Ours
By Eqbal Ahmad
(A Presentation at the University of Colorado, Boulder, October 12, 1998)

http://www.sangam.org/ANALYSIS/Ahmad.htm

By: sharon

sharon — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:10:28 +0000

Two things: 1, bowl outs are stupid, and 2, nothing beats Test cricket. Glad that’s settled.

But still, Twenty20 is perfect entertainment and I love it to bits. And Pakistan just beat the Aussies to go through to the Quarter finals! (I also love free live TV streaming through the internet…)

By: European Notes « Europe Endless

European Notes « Europe Endless — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 14:23:29 +0000

[...] Perry Anderson has an article in the London Review of Books, “Depicting Europe“, that looks quite dilectible. (HT: Chapati Mystery) [...]

By: elizabeth

elizabeth — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:39:20 +0000

Frequent opportunities for LRB thievery = one of the things I miss most about Oxford common rooms. But in any case, I am rather interested to hear what you yourself might have to say about the Guha and the Nussbaum books.

also, bookclub: yes.

By: Qalandar

Qalandar — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:33:56 +0000

20/20 is an affront to cricket. Actually despite being a child of the ODI age I must say it never managed to equal test cricket for me, though the good thing about post-ODI test matches was that so many more of them had results….

It isn’t about nostalgia, it’s also about the fact that prodigies like Muhammad Asif notwithstanding, there isn’t much for the bowler to do in most ODIs today, and it’s embarrassing to see bowlers in the 20/20s.