“These days, I wonder even if he would turn into a cynic, observing how far the world has turned its back on the Arab Spring generation of young men and women who dared to hope. Many are languishing as political prisoners, often under horrendous conditions. I can’t ask what he thinks, though, because he’s been…
Category: tragic politics
The tragedy of Haiti in history, drama, and performance
Last week, as I read in The New York Times the four-day series “The Ransom – The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers” and I continued work on Aimé Césaire’s superb drama The Tragedy of King Christophe (1963, 1970) for my book-length project The Tragedy of Revolution, I took the train to Chicago and…
“The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers” (ΝΥ Times)
“In 1791, enslaved Haitians did the seemingly impossible. They ousted their French masters and founded a nation. But France made generations of Haitians pay for their freedom — in cash.”
“Naomi Klein on How Egypt’s Failed Revolution Continues to Inspire Struggle Worldwide”
“But,” Alaa adds to his stark assessments, “the revolution did break a regime.” It defeated much of Mubarak’s machine, and the new junta that is in its place, while even more brutal, is also precarious for the thinness of its domestic support. Openings, he tells us, remain. In this way, Alaa acts as the revolution’s…
Karim Alrawi: A Time of Monsters: On Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated”
“In a series of personal accounts and short essays, Alaa takes the reader through the last eleven years, as the progress towards democracy in Egypt was rolled back by a degree of repression unknown in the country’s modern history.”
“Nicaragua Descends Into Autocratic Rule as Ortega Crushes Dissent”
“Daniel Ortega became a hero in Nicaragua for helping overthrow a notorious dictator. Now, 40 years later, he has become the kind of authoritarian leader he once fought against. After methodically choking off competition and dissent, Mr. Ortega has all but ensured his victory in presidential elections on Sunday, representing a turn toward an openly…
‘What Have We Done With Democracy?’ A Decade On, Arab Spring Gains Wither
“Tunisia, birthplace of the pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Arab world, now looks to many like a final confirmation of failed promise.”
Sumanta Banerjee: “Embers of the Paris Commune”
“This year we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune of 1871 – the biggest urban insurrection of the nineteenth century, that led to the setting up of a grass roots based popular government in Paris, albeit for only about two months, before it was crushed by the Versailles troops at the end…
Brian Meeks: “How a Revolution on the Tiny Island of Grenada Shook the World”
“Revolutions are, inevitably, fraught periods of great danger and uncertainty. At their moment of triumph, the old order is temporarily prostrate, but there remains great hostility to the new regime both internally and internationally. The chances of initial consolidation and success are slim, and the very act of asserting authority in order to survive becomes…
Adom Getachew interviewed on “The Anti-Colonial Revolution”
“Radical post-colonial leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere didn’t just want independence — they wanted to break the political and economic order that kept the Global South in subjugation.”