Author Archives: Kenan Malik

A REFUGEE CRISIS – AND A CRISIS OF RESPONSE

September 15, 2015 by Kenan Malik

In October 2013, a ship carrying migrants sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean. Some 300 people drowned. European leaders expressed anger and outrage. The Italian government declared a national day of mourning. ‘I hope that this will be the last time we see a tragedy of this kind’, said Jean-Claude Mignon, head of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly, ‘and I make a fervent appeal for specific, urgent action by member states to end this shame’. […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: europe, european union, fortress europe, germany, immigration, refugees

CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL

September 12, 2015 by Kenan Malik

There is a thrill to seeing close up a whale swimming with her calf, or a cheetah on the prowl, or a lion simply languidly stretched out across your path, that no photograph can ever convey. Nevertheless, here is a collection of photos of creatures great and small from my recent trip to South Africa. Most were taken in the De Hoop and Kwandwe Reserves.

Categories: Photos • Tags: photos, south africa

LEADING THE LABOUR PARTY – TO DO WHAT?

September 9, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This weekend, the British Labour Party will choose a new leader. Below is the full version of my article on Labour Party and the leadership election published last month in the International New York Times. The Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon may be as baffling for those who follow British politics as the Donald J Trump phenomenon is to those who keep an eye on American politics. Both are running for the leadership of parties that have suffered traumatic electoral defeat. Both […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: british politics, jeremy corbyn, labour party, left, tony blair

A TRIBUTE TO YOU, RICO

September 6, 2015 by Kenan Malik

I can still remember the thrill of first hearing the opening bars of The Specials’ A Message to You Rudy. The brass, the bass, the attitude. It was music rediscovered. And at the heart of that sound was the trombonist Rico Rodriguez.His death this week marks not only the loss of an outstanding musical talent, and one of my musical heroes, but also a break in a musical thread that winds itself through several generations and genres. Born in Havana, Rico […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: music, rico rodriguez, ska, the specials, two tone

THE BROKEN RAINBOW: THOUGHTS ON SOUTH AFRICA

September 3, 2015 by Kenan Malik

These are some initial thoughts on the current state of South Africa, and how it has arrived at this point, emerging from various discussions I had with activists and academics while I was out there. I write, of course, as an outsider. But sometimes an outsider’s perspective can be quite useful, especially as I’ve engaged with many of issues at the heart of South African politics – such as race, class, identity, social change – though in a different context. […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: anc, apartheid, democracy, freedom struggles, identity politics, jacob zuma, nelson mandela, nonracialism, racism, south africa

APARTHEID, THEN AND NOW

August 30, 2015 by Kenan Malik

District Six lies at the heart of Cape Town, along the flank of Table Mountain, and just south of the city centre. It was so-called because it was the sixth municipal district in Cape Town. In it lived freed slaves and immigrants, labourers and artisans. It was a rundown area, overcrowded, many houses without running water or sewage. But District Six was also Cape Town’s cosmopolitan heart. In a nation defined by ‘aparthood’ it was an area in which blacks […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties, Photos • Tags: anc, apartheid, cape town, district six, freedom struggles, racism, south africa

FROM THE ARCHIVES: IGNATIEFF ON BERLIN

August 28, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Continuing my series of old book reviews that I am publishing while I am away in South Africa, here is my review of Michael Ignatieff’s biography of Isaiah Berlin, originally published in the Independent on Sunday, 25 October 1998. Review of Michael Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin: A Life Independent on Sunday, 25 October 1998 In the autumn of 1951 Isaiah Berlin wrote an essay in the Jewish Chronicle putting the case for Zionism. Until the founding of Israel, he observed, no Jew […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: anti-semitism, human nature, isaiah berlin, israel, liberalism, michael ignatieff, palestine, pluarlism, ts eliot, zionism

FROM THE ARCHIVES: KAUFMANN ON RELIGION

August 25, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Continuing my series of old book reviews that I am publishing while I am away in South Africa, here is my review of Eric Kaufmann’s Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?, originally published in the Observer, 1 May 2010. Review of Eric Kaufmann, Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? Demography and Politics in the 21st Century Observer, 1 May 2010 Europe, 2020. The Islamists have stormed to power right across the continent. No English pub can sell alcohol. Every French woman […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Culture & Books • Tags: demography, eric kaufmann, islam, mark steyn, religion, secularism

WHAT IS THE LABOUR PARTY FOR?

August 22, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This is an extract from my latest column in the International New York Times about the Labour Party leadership contest in Britain. Read the full article in the INYT. In truth, Mr. Blair is neither saint nor sinner. His election victories were as much the product of the exhaustion of the Conservative Party after 18 years in power as they were of his political acumen. And he did not so much rob Labour of its soul as recognize that it […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: british politics, labour party

FROM THE ARCHIVES: SCRUTON ON PESSIMISM

August 19, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Continuing my series of old book reviews that I am publishing while I am away in South Africa, here is my review of Roger Scruton’s The Uses of Pessimism, originally published in the Observer, 6 June 2011. Review of Roger Scruton, The Uses of Pessimism: And the Dangers of False Hope Observer, 6 June 2010 Two voices echo through Roger Scruton’s new book: those of Edmund Burke and Michael Oakeshott. A nation, wrote Burke, the founder of modern conservatism, ‘is a partnership between those who […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: conservatism, edmund burke, michael oakeshott, optimism, pessmism, roger scruton, thomas paine

FREE SPEECH IN AN AGE OF IDENTITY POLITICS

August 13, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This is a transcript of my TB Davie Memorial lecture that I gave at the University of Cape Town on Thursday 13 August. It is truly an honour and pleasure to be able to deliver this lecture, and to be able to follow the speakers who have gone before me, speakers such as Walter Sisulu, Wole Soyinke, Edward Said and Noam Chomsky. It is an honour, too, to be the fiftieth speaker in this great series. But being the fiftieth speaker raises […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: academic freedom, black identity, censorship, free speech, identity politics, left, moral autonomy, offence, pluralism, racism, therapeutic society, trigger warnings, universalism, universities

FROM THE ARCHIVES: TONY BLAIR’S JOURNEY

August 10, 2015 by Kenan Malik

I am in South Africa for the next three weeks, to give the TB Davie Memorial Lecture, and hopefully to do a bit more besides. While I am away, I will be raiding the archives for articles – mainly book reviews – not published before on Pandaemonium. This first ‘From the archives’ review is of Tony Blair’s memoirs, My Journey, memoirs that, in the context of the current Labour leadership contest, have renewed currency. The review was first published in he Norwegian […]

Categories: Britain, Culture & Books, Politics • Tags: british politics, iraq, labour party, tony blair

IN THE WILDERNESS ABOUT CHARLIE HEBDO

August 8, 2015 by Kenan Malik

I took part on Friday in a debate on ‘The state of free expression after Charlie Hebdo‘ at the Wilderness Festival, with Anshuman Mondal and Tahmima Anam. It was a good debate, but frustratingly short. I agreed with virtually all the issues raised by Tahmima Anam (her main argument, from the perspective of a Bangladeshi-born writer, was that the state is amore dangerous threat to free speech than extremist groups.) But Anshuman Mondal (‘There is almost nothing that Kenan and I […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: anshuman mondal, censorship, charlie hebdo, free speech, freedom struggles, pluralism, racism, rights

TRIBALISM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

August 5, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This is the full version of the article I wrote for the New York Times last month reflecting on the tenth anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in London (I cannot publish my New York Times articles in full on Pandaemonium until a month later). On July 7, 2005, 52 people were killed when four suicide bombers detonated explosive devices on subways and buses. There were commemorations across the nation to honor the victims, including a ceremony of remembrance at the […]

Categories: Britain, War on terror • Tags: 7/7, british politics, british values, islamism, islamophobia, jihadism, muslims, racism

TALKING ALL OVER THE WORLD

August 2, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Not quite a world tour, I know (I can fantasise can’t I?), but this is probably the closest I will ever get to one. Over the next few months I am giving talks in places as distant as Ann Arbor and Lahore, Sweden and South Africa. Here’s a round up of my talks; do come along if you are able. . 7 August 2015 The state of free expression after Charlie Hebdo Wilderness Festival Cornbury Park Oxfordshire, UK 17.00 A […]

Categories: Kenan Malik • Tags: talks