The Nomad and the Olive Branch

I didn't know what to expect when reading a book composed by one of the most prominent Muslim intellectuals of the 21st Century. For a second, I thought I was gonna read a book about the traditional tropes of radicals in the 3 Abrahamic faiths being rooted in a minority of their respective followers. The shocking thesis of Reza Aslan portrayed in this book describes a much more endemic problem: the idea of a "cosmic war" between what each radical group perceives as "good" and "evil", and how that differs and at the same time finds common ground between the 3 faiths. The backdrop of globalization further emphasizes the de-nationalization of identity and the construction of a new identity that transcends geographical and racial boundaries, whether he talks of the radical groups such as Al Qaeda, the Christian right-wing extremists in the USA, or the Zionist settler groups in the West Bank. He asserts that such a history goes back to some of the ear...

I know this is old, but it's a rather memorable lecture/seminar from the late Edward Said, posted for your watching pleasure, or displeasure if you're allergic to enlightenment. Either way, Said's voice is one of the most articulate, intellectual, moderate, and, above all, intelligent. His loss severely damaged, in my opinion, the level of intellectual discourse amongst and from Palestinians as a whole. Here's to hoping that there are Palestinians willing to grow a pair (like this man did) and stand outright against the injustices perpetrated by the political groups - Israel's government, Fatah, and Hamas (surprised?) - who take advantage of the oppression of Palestinians to maintain dominance and control. Salaam, from Saracen

A user named "dodg531" uploaded this 10-part documentary on America's war on democracy. If you're reading this, dodg531, kudos to you from myself. Notice the onus of this film and how it's illustrated in this first part: comparing the sheltered bubble that we all live in to the grim situation which many in third-world countries endure daily, and view each passing second as a struggle for survival. The desperation is largely blamed at "American domination" through right-wing dictators like Pinochet who stratified the pyramid of economic inequality and widened its base for the interests of the upper quintile. Despite this, Simon Bolivar, the known "El Libertador" of South America, is brought forth as a reminder that revolution can crush a foreign influence given the people unite. Chavez is brought up as a potential change and antagonist towards American foreign policy, which, through "aggressive media coverage", brought forth opposition...

I mean, come on: who's better at spreading democracy like it should be done than the U.S. government? And who's even better at colonial suppression than the U.K.'s? Ever since the end of World War II, the U.S. government established itself as a superpower by nuking two separate cities in Japan, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese, all under the pretext of "saving the lives of millions"? This is not to relieve blame from the Axis Powers, but to highlight the fact that two wrongs don't make a right. However, the U.S. government kept using that pretext to elect governments that serve its interests all around the world. After all, it is the U.S. government, the no. 1 hombre of freedom and democracy, that is choosing those governments, so why should we be pissed? My horrible sarcasm aside, the U.S. government has hid behind the auspices of freedom and democracy to mask its subduing post-colonialist neo-imperialist interests the world over. But I must...

Africa is probably the poorest continent on the face of the Earth if not one of the poorest. It has always had a bad reputation thanks to your local indoctrination cent... I mean, news station. Over the past few centuries, Africa was host to tens of Empires occupying its lands, enslaving its people and plundering its wealth. Because of its substantial dependence on Western economies to keep it surviving, much of Africa has grown into a haven for third-world countries to exist, let alone develop thanks to the political, tribal and fanatical pressures that have squeezed Africa almost devoid of any progress. Nowadays, almost anything that has to do with Africa is exploited, even, believe it or not, charity; on that note, this post promises to be not a Bono speech about "saving Africa". Let's take a look first at what made Africa what it is today, starting with one of the most famous and yet most understudied accounts by modern men, that of the 2 explorers Henry Morton Stanle...