October | 2015 | Pandaemonium

THE STENCH OF A ROTTEN DEAL

October 28, 2015 by Kenan Malik

My latest column for Al Jazeera English is about the new EU-Turkey deal on migration. It was published under the headline ‘The EU’s stinking refugee deal with Turkey’. Over the past few weeks, the European Union has been stitching together a deal with Turkey to try to resolve Europe’s refugee crisis. More than half-a-million migrants and refugees have arrived at the EU’s southern and eastern borders this year alone. It has led to EU’s eastern borders being sealed off and bitter […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: angela merkel, erdogan, european union, fortress europe, immigration, refugees, turkey

DETROIT, DIEGO RIVERA AND THE WORTH OF ART

October 25, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Downtown Detroit looks almost like any other American city. Clusters of skyscrapers, huddles of cranes throwing up new high rises, expensive hotels with a dozens of valets lounging outside. Yet, look a bit closer, and you notice that in many of the blocks the windows are blacked over or broken, and bushes are growing on the ledges. Step outside the centre, and you find beautiful houses – standing in the middle of what appears like desolate fields. You spot kestrels […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: art, detroit, detroit industry murals, detroit institute of art, diego rivera, working class

EXTREMISM AND THE LAW

October 21, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Back in 2008, I gave a talk at an Index on Censorship conference on ‘Extremism and the Law: Free Speech in an Age of Terror’ in which I suggested that: One of the most significant shifts in recent years has been the mutation of the notion of ‘extremism’ from being a description of a political claim to being a quasi legal term. From the BNP to Hizb ut-Tahrir to Buju Banton’s homophobic lyrics, to label speech as extremist is to label it […]

Categories: Free Speech, War on terror • Tags: censorship, counter-extremism, free speech, war on terror

THE COLOUR OF FLIGHT

October 18, 2015 by Kenan Malik

I’m no twitcher. I probably couldn’t distinguish the call of a starling from that of a swift. But in South Africa, while the big beasts – the lions and the leopards, the elephants and the cheetahs, the giraffes and the rhinos – grab the wildlife headlines, what really caught my eye was the birdlife. South African birds are strikingly beautiful, varied and different. South Africa has almost 1000 different species, some 10 per cent of all the bird species in […]

Categories: Photos • Tags: birds, photos, south africa, wildlife

THANK YOU – AND DO PATRONISE ME

October 14, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This is to say ‘thank you’ again to all those who have become patrons of Pandaemonium – I greatly appreciate your support. It is also to encourage others who would like to help Pandaemonium develop and grow (with the launch, too, of ebooks, podcasts and, possibly, videos) also to become patrons. You can patronize Pandaemonium through Patreon, a crowdfunding platform for funding the work of writers, artists and musicians. Like a cross between Kickstarter and Paypal, Patreon allows supporters to make […]

Categories: Pandaemonium • Tags: patreon

DAVID CAMERON AND THE CENTRE GROUND

October 11, 2015 by Kenan Malik

The Observer asked a number of commentators whether David Cameron’s speech to the Conservative Party conference last week, in which he staked a claim to the centre ground of politics, will reshape the political landscape. Here’s my response. All the responses (including ones from Michael Heseltine, Shirley Williams, Rob Ford and Stefan Collini) are in the Observer. There is nothing new in ideological clothes-swapping. Under Tony Blair, New Labour won three successive elections with the help of “triangulation” – stealing […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: british politics, centre ground, conservative party, david cameron, new labour, tony blair

RADICALIZATION IS NOT SO SIMPLE

October 7, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This is a transcript of my talk entitled ‘The Making of European Jihadis’ that I gave to the International Institute at the University of Michigan this week. (I have not had time to put in the links and references; I will do so soon.) Ifthekar Jaman was born in Portsmouth, on the south coast of England, one of four children. His parents, Enu Miah and Hena Choudhury, were first generation immigrants from Bangladesh, who had come to Portsmouth in 1981, opened […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, War on terror • Tags: europe, france, identity politics, islam, islamic state, islamism, jihadism, left, multiculturalism, racism, radicalization, working class

PEOPLE SMUGGLERS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM

October 4, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Hein de Haas is professor of sociology at the University of Amsterdam and a leading researcher on migration. This essay challenges the conventional way of thinking about people smugglers. It was first published on Hein de Haas’ blog, which is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in the issue. My thanks to Hein for allowing me to republish the essay on Pandaemonium. Hein de Haas Don’t blame the smugglers The billions spent on the militarisation of border controls over the […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: european union, fortress europe, immigration, migration, people smuggling