Anna Younes (AY): As someone who was socialized and grew up in Lebanon, it is not immediately clear why you would write a book about The Arabs and the Holocaust. Is there something particular that made you aware that the history of anti-Semitism and the Middle East...
discourse
Book Review: 2010 and South African Denial | Reviewed by Mark Fredericks
South Africa's World Cup A Legacy for Whom? Edited by Eddie Cottle Published by UKZN Press, Durban. 2011. Benito Mussolini once described fascism as "the merger between corporate and state power". If we are to seriously consider Il Duce's words, then surely, South...
Egypt’s Emergent Passive Revolution | by Cihan Tuga
One and a half years after the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian revolutionaries returned to the streets in the first half of June 2012. The huge crowds that filled public squares throughout Egypt defy those accounts that reduce the revolutionary...
The failed emergence of Egypt, Turkey and Iran | by Samir Amin
These three Middle Eastern states should normally have been found in lists of today’s ‘emerging’ states. They have each attempted, in the past, to modernise as a response to the challenge from Europe. Egypt attempted this under Pacha Mohamed Ali of the nineteenth...
Murray Explains Why He Painted “The Spear” | by Brett Murray
“At the outset, I would like to say that I am a proud South African and a former supporter of the ANC. I am not a racist. I do not produce art with an intention to hurt, humiliate or insult, and that includes the painting that has caused this controversy. I...
Unpacking the legal arguments in The Spear case | by Pierre De Vos
The presentation of the legal arguments about whether a final interdict should be granted against the Goodman Gallery and City Press to cease publication (on their websites) of a work of art, depicting someone who looks like President Jacob Zuma with his private parts...
Why I find The Spear unsettling | by Sabelo Ndlangisa
The controversy surrounding Brett Murray’s portrait of President Jacob Zuma has stirred up a hornet’s nest. On the one hand, it has elicited outrage even from people I know to have antipathy towards our head of state. On the other, defenders of The Spear feel that...
Problematising National Democratic Revolution (NDR): the ‘national question’ | by Raymond Suttner
Introduction The moment when one becomes newly curious about something is also a good time to think about what created one’s previous lack of curiosity. So many power structures-inside households, within institutions, in societies, in international affairs-are...
The Arab revolutions: A year after | by Samir Amin
Arab regimes achieved success within a short period but then ran out of steam as a result of their internal limits and contradictions. The ruling circles have given in to neo-liberal globalization, leading to rapid decline in social conditions. That is what caused the...


