Pandaemonium

MORTALITY, INEQUALITY AND LESSONS FROM AMERICA

September 21, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on lessons from America about the relationship between inequality and mortality rates, was my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 19 September 2021, under the headline “America’s mortality gap should sound a blaring alarm across the Atlantic”. Americans die younger than Europeans. That is true whether they are rich or poor, black or white, toddlers or OAPs. The latest confirmation of the mortality gap across the Atlantic comes from a newly published study that tracked death rates in the […]

Categories: Class, International, Politics • Tags: america, angus deaton, anne case, britain, covid 19, deaths of despair, europe, health policy, inequality, levelling up, mortality rates, poverty, race, race and class, usa

OMAR LITTLE AND MORAL COMPLEXITY

September 14, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the significance of Michael K Williams, Omar Little and The Wire, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 12 September 2021, under the headline “In an age too given to moral certainty, let’s remember The Wire’s Omar as a study in complexity”. It’s not often that a shotgun-wielding thief and killer comes to be seen as possessing a moral core. But then it’s not often that you have a character like Omar Little. Or an actor […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: baltimore, black lives matter, cop shows, david simon, left behind, michael k williams, morality, omar little, television, the wire, trumpism

THE MAGICAL QUALITY OF WHITENESS

September 7, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on immigration, identity and the obsession with whiteness, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 5 September 2021, under the headline “To be truly British, the country needs to stay largely white. Really, Lionel Shriver?” They have seen the passing of the American Indian and the buffalo; and now they query as to how long the Anglo-Saxon may be able to survive.” So wrote William Ripley in an essay for the Atlantic Monthly in 1908. Ripley was one of […]

Categories: Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: britishness, conservatism, douglas murray, identity politics, immigration, lionel shriver, racism, white decline, white identity, whiteness, william ripley

CREATING INEQUALITY BEYOND THE PANDEMIC

August 31, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on inequality in the post-pandemic world, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 29 August 2021, under the headline “The rich nations’ take on the world post-pandemic? ‘I’m all right, Jack’”. Rich countries have administered more doses of Covid vaccine than the size of their populations – an average of 105 doses per 100 people. In low-income countries, that figure is just two per 100 people. It is a disparity that is likely to define the post-pandemic […]

Categories: International, Politics • Tags: africa, covax, covid 19, fortress europe, global inequality, immigration controls, immigration panics, immigration policy, inequality, offshoring, pandemic, selfishness, vaccination, vaccine nationalism

REFUGEE POLICY FROM INSIDE THE BUNKER

August 24, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the Afghan crisis and Home Office refugee policy, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 22 August 2021, under the headline “Britain’s offer to Afghan refugees is not ‘generous’. It’s blindly inhumane”. Boris Johnson and Priti Patel believe that Britain’s “bespoke scheme” for Afghan refugees is “one of the most generous in our country’s history”. That says more about their ignorance of British history than it does about the scheme itself. The government has promised 5,000 refugees […]

Categories: Britain, International, Race & Immigration • Tags: afghan refugees, afghanistan, asylum seekers, boris johnson, david blunkett, deportations, home office, hungarian refugees, iran, margaret thatcher, nationality and borders bill, pakistan, priti patel, refugees, ted heath, ugandan asians, vietnamese boat people

FROM THE ESL TO NOT MUCH BETTER

August 17, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the trouble with football, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 15 August 2021, under the headline “It was only yesterday we saved football’s soul. We might be losing it again…” It was like the football version of the race between Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos to be the first dick in space. The race, that is, to pull off the most stratospheric transfer deal. On Thursday, Chelsea announced the signing of Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku for an […]

Categories: Sport • Tags: abu dhabi, barcelona, chelsea, esl, football, football finance, harry kane, jack grealish, jürgen klopp, lionel messi, manchester city, psg, qatar, roman abramovich, romelu lukaku, sheikh mansour

COVID AND THE MYTHS OF EAST AND WEST

August 10, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on why there is no simple divide between “Eastern” and “Western” values, was my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 8 August 2021, under the headline “Can Covid death rates be reduced to a clash of values? It’s not so simple”. “The fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of ‘Asian values’.” “Asian culture’s emphasis on obedience to authority could play a role in explaining how successful public health measures have been in the region.” “The massive […]

Categories: International, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: asian values, china, communitarianism, confucianism, covid 19, east asia, east v west, eastern philosophy, individualism, japan, liberalism, olympics, south korea, taiwan, tokyo olympics, trust, western philosophy

LEVELLING UP? MORE LIKE HAMMERING DOWN

July 27, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the government’s new immigration proposals, was my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 11 July 2021, under the headline “Levelling up should take many forms. And don’t forget London’s poorest need it too”. Levelling up is hard to do. Well, in one sense it is. Providing new opportunities for people and places that most need but have least access to them requires strategic vision and political will. Boris Johnson’s recent word salad of a speech, supposedly the […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: benefits, boris johnson, communities, conservative party, covid 19, inequality, levelling up, london, poverty, sick pay, social infrastructure, tories, universal credit

INEQUALITY AND THE POLITICS OF DIVISION

July 20, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the violence n South Africa, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the GB News debacle) It was published on 18 July 2021, under the headline “Gross inequality stoked the violence in South Africa. It’s a warning to us all”. “It feels qualitatively different this time.” There are few people I know in South Africa who don’t think this about the carnage now engulfing the nation. Violence was institutionalised during the years of apartheid. […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: anc, apartheid, corruption, covid 19, economic freedom fighters, identity politics, inequality, jacob zuma, police killings, poverty, racism, sectarianism, south africa

FAREWELL PATREON

July 18, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. A few years ago, I set up a Patreon account to help fund improvements to Pandaemonium. Patrons have been incredibly generous, and I am thankful for all the support I have received. However, I have not had the time and space to do much of what I hoped to do, such as digital books and podcasts. And now I am working on a (physical) book, due out autumn next year, which means that I have even less time to […]

Categories: Kenan Malik, Pandaemonium

CYNICISM & CRUELTY DRESSED UP AS LAW

July 13, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the government’s new immigration proposals, was my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 11 July 2021, under the headline “After Priti Patel has finished, which refugees will carry a torch for Britain?” “Before I died I contemplated how drowning would feel.” So opens Gulwali Passarlay’s 2015 book The Lightless Sky. Passarlay was, in 2006, a 12-year-old boy in a rural village in Afghanistan, caught in the crossfire between Taliban and American forces. After his father was shot […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: asylum seekers, british politics, gunwale passarlay, immigration, nationality and borders bill, people smugglers, priti patel, sabir zazai, the lightless sky

ON BEING A 90-MINUTE ENGLISHMAN

July 7, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on football and Englishness, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 4 July 2021, under the headline “I love the football team but can’t get tribal about England. What’s going on?” Yes, I shouted with joy when Raheem Sterling scored against Germany last week. I would have been equally joyful had he scored against Scotland. And when India play England in a Test series next month, I will be rooting for England, not for the country of my birth. […]

Categories: Britain, Politics, Sport • Tags: britishness, england, englishness, eric hobsbawm, football, identity, john denham, nationalism, racism, roger scruton, sport, sunder katwala, tebbit test

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB #81

July 5, 2021 by Kenan Malik

The latest (somewhat random) collection of essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . The Brazilianization of the worldAlex Hochuli, American Affairs, Summer 2021 The reality is that the twentieth century – with its confident state machines, forged in war, applying themselves to determine social outcomes – is over. So are its other features: organized political conflict between Left and Right, or between social democracy and Christian […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

THE POWER NOT TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ONE’S POWER

June 29, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on Grenfell and the culture of impunity, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 27 June 2021, under the headline “From Grenfell Tower to the Met police, shirking responsibility has become endemic”. Being accountable for one’s actions seems about as fashionable these days as a foreign holiday. It is telling that Dido Harding can oversee the debacle that was the test-and-trace programme and yet still be in the running to be the next boss of NHS England; that the […]

Categories: Britain, Justice & Liberties, Politics • Tags: accountability, corruption, cressida dick, dido harding, grenfell fire, grenfell tower, kctmo

OFFENCE, CRUELTY AND PUBLIC DEBATE

June 23, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, transgender rights and the nature of contemporary public debate, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 20 June 2021, under the headline “Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie captures the hypocrisies of too many ‘social justice’ zealots”. “The more she wrote, the less sure she became. Each post scraped off yet one more scale of self until she felt naked and false.” So wrote Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about Ifemelu, the central character in her […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech, Justice & Liberties • Tags: akwaeke emezi, americanah, chimamanda ngozi adichie, feminism, identity politics, jess de wahls, jk rowling, public debate, selina todd, social media, trans rights, transgender, transphobia, transphobic