May | 2021 | Pandaemonium

FOUR COLOURS: YELLOW

May 30, 2021 by Kenan Malik

Continuing my series of posts on photographs composed largely of single colours, in an almost monochromatic fashion, this time yellow. (The previous post was on blue.) For more, check out my photography website, Light Infusion. . Sydney Opera House at sunset . Foggy sunset over the Cambrian hills . Sun and storm over London . Parliament building, Budapest, reflected . London South Bank . Buddha, Dambulla, Sri Lanka . Eden Project, Cornwall . Flower in the wet . Lip (in […]

Categories: Photos

A SHARED FUTURE FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA

May 25, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on cancel culture and hypocrisy.) It was published on 23 May 2021, under the headline “From the river to the sea, Jews and Arabs must forge a shared future”. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, runs a Palestinian slogan. Originally a call for a secular state in historic Palestine between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean, it soon […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: anti-semitism, anti-zionism, benjamin netanyahu, bernard lazare, gaza, hamas, israel, jerusalem, likud, palestine, racism, sheikh jarrah, tony judt, west bank, zionism

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB #80

May 23, 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. . Ghosts in the land Adam Shatz, London Review of Books, 3 June 2021 The territory it governs lies in ruins, but Hamas has reason to celebrate. While 90 per cent of its rockets were repelled by Iron Dome, Israel’s defence system, 100 per cent hit their other target: the Palestinian Authority, which looks […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

FREE SPEECH AND POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY

May 18, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the government’s plans for free speech, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on Michel Barnier’s immigration comments.) It was published on 16 May 2021, under the headline “Challenge bigotry by all means, but outlaw it? I’d rather not”. “Blacks are genetically less intelligent.” “Muslims do not belong in this country.” “It is right to discriminate against gays.” Three bigoted statements. According to a new draft law, the Online Safety Bill, social media companies […]

Categories: Britain, Free Speech • Tags: censorship, free speech, gavin williamson, higher education (freedom of speech) bill, michelle donelan, online harm, online safety bill, prevent, social media, tories, universities

NAPOLEON, CHURCHILL AND HORRIBLE HISTORIES

May 12, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the need to acknowledge the complexities of historical figures, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on what ancient burials tell us about being human.) It was published on 10 May 2021, under the headline “Let’s be honest – every national hero is tainted by the values of our time”. With distance can come greater perspective. We often better appreciate a physical object, whether a mountain or a monument and its relationship […]

Categories: History, International • Tags: culture wars, emmanuel macron, france, frederick douglass, history wars, napoleon, winston churchill

FOUR COLURS: BLUE

May 9, 2021 by Kenan Malik

My favourite use of colour in photography is almost as monochrome, minimising the palette of colours being used. So, I thought I might publish a series of posts on photographs using largely single colours, beginning with blue. And for more, check out my photography website, Light Infusion. . Looking South from Achmore (in Lewis) . Storm over Scapa Flow . Storm over the Brittany Coast . Like a Turner – Mt Field in the Canadian Rockies . Crane and Shard . […]

Categories: Photos

GRENFELL, CORRUPTION AND THE HOLLOWED-OUT STATE

May 4, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the corruption revealed by the Grenfell Inquiry, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 2 May 2021, under the headline “Grenfell is still giving up its secrets and they retain the power to shock”. It is not just the broken promise, it is also the pitilessness of it. In February, Boris Johnson told parliament, in the wake of the cladding scandal, that “no leaseholder should have to pay for the unaffordable costs of fixing defects […]

Categories: Britain, Justice & Liberties, Politics • Tags: arconic, boris johnson, building research establishment, celotex, cladding scandal, corruption, cronyism, fire safety act, flammable cladding, free market, grenfell tower, hollowed-out state, kingspan, privatisation, regulation, sleaze, state regulation, the state

ORIENTALISM AND AHISTORICISM

May 2, 2021 by Kenan Malik

I wrote a short piece for my Observer column on Edward Said, Hannah Arendt and James Baldwin and why I have come to appreciate them more despite (or perhaps because of) the contradictions in their arguments. I thought it might also be useful as a counterpoint, to publish a short part of my original critique of Said’s Orientalism from my 1996 book The Meaning of Race. It is part of a much longer critique, but gets to the essence of […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: aijaz ahmed, edward said, enlightenment, essentializing, greek philosophy, orientalism, west