Photo by Juan Cole, LaMarsa, Tunisia, May 2012 (Note that if you are viewing with an internet browser, you can enlarge the photo by pressing Control and the plus sign.) In May, the upscale neighborhood of LaMarsa in the northeast of Tunis commemorated the hundredth anniversary of its founding. A street was blocked off, with […]
Archives for July 2012
Omar Khayyam (442) “I wish there were a place to rest…”
I wish there were a place to rest or that this long, long road would end; and that a hundred thousand years from now, there were a hope that from the earth we’d bloom to breathe again. Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 442
The Moroccans (Matisse Painting)
The Moroccans Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954) Issy-les-Moulineaux, late 1915 and fall 1916. Oil on canvas, 71 3/8″ x 9′ 2″ (181.3 x 279.4 cm). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel A. Marx. © 2012 Succession H. Matisse, Paris For Matisse in Morocco, see this page. Here is the MOMA audio description: See also my previous […]
Fighting Spreads to Damascus; but is it a Turning Point
It is significant, but not decisive, that fighting raged for a second day in the Syrian capital of Damascus Monday. The southern district of Tadamun was especially affected, though there were reports of clashes even in Midan, right down town. There also continued to be demonstrations and clashes around the country, which left 67 dead […]
The Tanks that did not Defeat Misrata (Photo)
Photograph by Juan Cole, May 2012 Line of tanks that Mu’tasim Qaddafi deployed against the civilians of the city of Misrata, Libya, March-August 2011– destroyed and kept as a memorial outside the city.
Omar Khayyam (493) “I passed a potter at his wheel”
The other day I passed a potter at his wheel, displaying every moment a new skill; and it occurred to me, though one less clear-eyed wouldn’t see it: It is our ancestors’ clay in a potter’s hands! Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 493
Matisse: “Algerian Woman” (Painting)
Henri Matisse. The Algerian Woman. 1909. Oil on canvas. Musee National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France The depiction of the Middle East has, since Edward Said’s Orientalism, often been approached in binary terms and in the framework of “power/knowledge” in the tradition of Friedrich Nietzche and Michel Foucault. There is, however, an argument […]
Jimmy Carter’s Greatest Victory: Guinea Worm on Verge of Extinction
The guinea worm may be the second major human disease after small pox to be completely eradicated. It is a parasite that you get from drinking water with small fleas in it. The larvae of the worm are in the fleas, and they migrate into your muscles. After growing there for a year, as a […]
Dear Microsoft: Please give us Non-Profit News
Microsoft has sold its remaining 18% share of MSNBC, which now becomes, just NBC. It is being reported that Microsoft wants to be free to develop MSN.com as a news portal. MSN general manager Bob Visse issued a statement saying, “We’re talking about using technology and using data to solve information delivery and news delivery […]
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