Author Archives: Kenan Malik

THE SUPREME COURT AND SOCIAL CHANGE

July 9, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate about Donald Trump’s judicial pick for the Supreme Court, and what it tells us about the relationship between courts, democracy and social change, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on an exhibition in Florence on the Islamic influence on European art.) It was published in the Observer, 8 July 2018, under the headline ‘The law, whether in the US or UK, can’t change society if we resist’. […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: democracy, donald trump, judicial activism, judicial system, justice, law, roe v wade, scotus, supreme court, usa

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB

July 6, 2018 by Kenan Malik

The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . ‘It’s nothing like a broken leg’: why I’m done with the mental health conversation Hannah Jane Parkinson, Guardian, 30 June 2018 I will admit that I am not well. That writing this, right now, I am not well. This will colour the writing. But it is part of why I want to […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

A CRISIS THAT HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH MIGRATION

July 2, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the drivers of the ‘migration crisis’, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on tribalism in sport and politics.) It was published in the Observer, 1 July 2018, under the headline ‘Hostility to migrants is not born of rising numbers but a failure of hope’. Another migration crisis, another EU summit, another banal resolution. Last week’s gathering of EU leaders was dominated by the migration issue, and shaped by the different needs […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: bence sagvari, european union, fortress europe, immigration controls, migration, migration crisis, vera messing

DEBATING HUMANS AND MACHINES

June 25, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on what the remarkable achievement of IBM’s ‘Project Debater’ tells us about the differences between humans and machines, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the persecution of the Roma.) It was published in the Observer, 24 June 2018, under the headline ‘Machines may beat us in debate, but will they ever have the human touch?’ So, a machine can now not only demolish you at chess or devastate you […]

Categories: Human, Philosophy & Ethics, Science & Technology • Tags: a1, Human, ibm, machine, meaning, project debater, semantic networks, social

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB #41

June 22, 2018 by Kenan Malik

The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . No, it’s not a gig economy Doug Henwood, Jacobin, 8 June 2018 Despite the voluble testimony of pundits and bar companions, the world of work is not one of Uber drivers and temp workers. In fact, the share of US employment accounted for by contingent and ‘alternative’ arrangements is lower now than […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

WHAT DON’T WE TALK OF IN TALKING OF DIVERSITY?

June 18, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the row between Lionel Shriver and Penguin Random House and on what we mean by ‘diversity’, was my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 17 June 2018, under the headline ‘We’re now confusing diversity and equality. Which is our priority?’ What do we mean by diversity? And why is it good – or not? For all the myriad debates about diversity today, such questions are rarely addressed in any depth. The latest hoo-ha […]

Categories: Britain, Culture & Books, Race & Immigration • Tags: adolph reed, conservatism, david lammy, diversity, equality, immigration, inequality, lionel shriver, mslexia, oxford university, penguin random house, racism, sivanandan

THE CHURCHES OF KOSZEG

June 15, 2018 by Kenan Malik

Kőszeg is a small Hungarian town almost on the Austrian border. Its roots lie in the 13th century, and it is suffused with history, and full of architectural gems. Its churches are historically fascinating, being witness to shifting religious alliances and affiliations, and often strikingly beautiful. I did not, unfortunately, have the chance to visit many. The two here are St James’ Church, built at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries supposedly from the remnants of a demolished […]

Categories: Photos • Tags: churches, hungary, koszeg, photography

LOOKING CLOSER TO HOME

June 11, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This is a transcript of my opening keynote talk at the ‘Dehumanising the Other’ conference at the CEU in Budapest. It was called ‘Looking Closer to Home: How mainstream politics paved the way for the demonization of migrants’. A shorter version of the talk was published as the Sunday essay in the Observer on 10 June 2018. In October 2013, a ship carrying migrants sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa. Some 300 people drowned. It was not the first […]

Categories: International, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: africa, britain, emmanuel macron, european union, far right, fortress europe, greece, immigration, italy, lesbos, liberalism, populism, racism, theresa may, victor orban, windrush generation

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB #40

June 8, 2018 by Kenan Malik

The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Centrists are the most hostile to democracy, not extremists David Adler, New York Times, 23 May 2018 The warning signs are flashing red: Democracy is under threat. Across Europe and North America, candidates are more authoritarian, party systems are more volatile, and citizens are more hostile to the norms and institutions of […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

THE DYING OF TRADE UNIONS

June 4, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the crisis facing trade unions, was the main part of my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on Roseanne and that tweet.) It was published in the Observer, 3 June 2018, under the headline ‘Unions are too vital to democracy to be allowed to gentrify and die’. Two reports last week exposed both the changing character of the labour market and the degree to which the power of the organised working class […]

Categories: Britain, Class • Tags: amazon, labour movment, precariat, strikes, trade unions, ucu, working class

NARCISSISM AND PHILIP ROTH

June 1, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay was first published in Göteborgs-Posten, 31 May 2018. ‘The epithet American-Jewish writer has no meaning for me’, Philip Roth once said. ‘If I’m not an American, I’m nothing.’ Since the American novelist’s death last week, there have been many fine eulogies to Roth, and to his place in the modern literary pantheon. Some critics have focused on his themes of Jewishness and sex, and with his obsession with himself. Others have looked upon his work as chronicling the […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: american literature, american pastoral, goodbye columbus, i married a communist, identity politics, literature, misogyny, narcissism, novels, philip roth, portnoy's complaint, the american dream, the human stain, usa

POPULAR ANGER AND THE REPACKAGING OF POWER

May 28, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the outcome of the Italian elections and the formation of the new government, was the main part of my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on Chris Froome and the thrill of sport.) It was published in the Observer, 27 May 2018, under the headline ‘With no progressive force to give it shape, Italians’ anger has hit a wall’. ‘A political prime minister of a political government.’ So said Luigi Di Maio, […]

Categories: International, Politics • Tags: five star movement, forza italia, giuseppe conte, italy, left, lega, silvio berlusconi

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB #39

May 25, 2018 by Kenan Malik

The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Novelist’s brilliance was to make America uncomfortable Jason Diamond, Rolling Stone, 23 May 2018 In a way, what the Marx Brothers and Mad magazine were to comedy or the Ramones were to rock music, Roth was for American literature. He was a sly smile and smartass remark aimed at the establishment, rather than a […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

OSMAN KAVALA AND THE IMPRISONMENT OF HOPE

May 21, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the imprisonment of Osman Kavala and what it signals about repression in Turkey, was the main part of my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on Meghan Markle and why making inherited privilege more ‘diverse’ is not cause for celebration.) It was published in the Observer, 20 May 2018, under the headline ‘In Erdoğan’s warped world, even intellectuals are now “terrorists”‘. Imagine a seminar in London. Around the table are Blairites and Corbynistas, […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties, War on terror • Tags: britain, erdogan, free speech, osman kavala, turkey, war on terror

‘TROUBLE IS AT THE HEART OF WHAT WE DO’

May 18, 2018 by Kenan Malik

Last week Pater Mayer died. He was a giant of the publishing industry. An American, he was in 1978 given the job of rescuing the venerable British publishers Penguin, which then had become almost defunct. He turned it into a global brand, and a major force in publishing. He transformed publishing in India by founding of Penguin India. Ten years later came the event that was to define both Mayer and Penguin. In September 1988 Penguin published Salman Rushdie’s The […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: ayatollah khomeini, fatwa, free speech, islamism, penguin books, peter mayer, publishing, rushdie affair, salman rushdie, the satanic verses