As expected, Mitt Romney in Israel tried his hardest to make casino mogul and Likud Party stalwart Sheldon Adelson happy. Adelson has pledged $100 million to Romney’s presidential campaign. Romney put all options on the table (a euphemism for illegally launching a war) with regard to Iran. But in an interview with Jim Muir of […]
“Kuwait Stock Exchange” (Andreas Gursky Photograph)
Andreas Gursky, “Kuwait Stock Exchange,” Photograph, 2007. Discussed here at Quaerentia as showing us a new way of looking at ‘capitalism in its temple.’
Top Ten Most Distasteful things about Romney Trip to Israel
The trip of Republic Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to Israel is in bad taste for lots of reasons. 1. He is holding a fundraiser at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. It is distasteful for an American political candidate to hold a high profile fundraiser abroad, implying a commitment to a foreign country as a […]
“Dubai World III” (Gursky Photograph)
Andreas Gursky, “Dubai World III,” Photograph, 2008. Gursky (b. Leipzig, 1955) studied at the Dusseldorf Art Academy and is known for his large scale prints and interest in world tourist sites. This photograph references the controversial “Dubai World” project started by Nakheel Properties, which built artificial islands off the United Arab Emirates, with the ensemble […]
Diary from Damascus (John Wreford)
John Wreford writes at Yourmiddleeast.com Photographer John Wreford has lived in Syria for many years and still remains in his house in Damascus’ Old City. Here, he gives a very personal account of the last couple of weeks’ events. A warm summer evening sitting in a central Damascus restaurant overlooking the city, the mountain of […]
The Olympics and the Muslims
The Olympic Games are rooted in an ancient Greek custom, but they were revived in the 1890s very much in the framework of the emergence of a world of nation-states. Athletes are envisioned as representing their nation, and the abstraction, that everyone now has a nation-state, covers up a lot of cultural conflict that besets […]
“The Bride” by Sughra Rababi (Painting)
Sughra Rababi, The Bride, 1986 Sughra Rababi (1922-1994) is a major modern Pakistani painter. She studied in Karachi and at Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan Fine Arts University in Bengal.
Defections mount as Syrian Regime invests Aleppo
The Baath regime of President Bashar al-Assad is preparing for a major military operation to crush the uprising in Aleppo on Friday afternoon, according to rebel and Western sources. Even as the regime continues to pound rebel-held neighborhoods with tank and helicopter gunship fire, it is massing troops and armor to invest the city. But […]
Romney in the Land of the Anglo-Saxon Uncertain Olympics: Not Ready for Prime Time
Mitt Romney, astonishingly, managed to turn what should have been an easy set of photo-ops and feel-good platitudes into a diplomatic comedy of errors that raise strong questions about his readiness for the presidency. First, an adviser to the Romney campaign referred to “our” common Anglo-Saxon heritage with the United Kingdom, and said that President […]
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