Michael C - Instablogs
Nov 24 2008
The problems faced by the modern Arab World are largely due to its modernisation. And therein lies a cruel irony. Most Arab societies did not initiate their own processes of modernisation, because those processes came into being under European...
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Nov 21 2008
I am disgusted. That means that you are about to (or not, as you wish) read my last article here. ANONYMOUS REGULATION AND MORALISM. This is the straw that broke my camel’s back. “This exchange cheapens this site! This is a current events and...
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Oct 30 2008
I am high above the silent Earth, floating freely, looking down calmly and serenely at my home planet. I know that there is no such thing as time. I am here because I am waiting, timelessly, for what I know must come. This is a strange yet...
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Oct 27 2008
He was born into a world of illusory peace, during the years that followed World War 1, and over the years he was gently lullabyed into being happy. It was the age of the first black-and-white films, gramophone records, smoky chimneys and hard-working...
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Oct 25 2008
Slid from a greasy street into the neon clammy subway on a rainy working morning to join the other black-clad human statues placed respectfully apart. Two minutes later all thrust together like chickens into the green train with no noise except the...
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Oct 23 2008
Many of you know Zola, Molière, Balzac or Hugo. You may also know of Flaubert, Maupassant, Céline or Beaudelaire. They were great and extremely influential French writers. I say “were” of course, because they are all dead now, and have been for...
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Oct 19 2008
A woman in France died yesterday after setting herself on fire to protest the expulsion of her boyfriend to Armenia. She had phoned journalists and arranged to meet them in front of the prison where he was being held, and, when they arrived, she lit...
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Oct 17 2008
I am appalled by the current state of world affairs, and if you are a Westerner or a Muslim you should be too. It is striking how ignorant the West is of the Muslim world, and the worst critics of it come from people who have never (or hardly)...
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Oct 13 2008
There are two things I hate in this life. One is having to take a cold shower and the other is hypocrisy. Cold showers are my problem, but hypocrisy is everyone’s, so I’ll write about hypocrisy instead. Fact 1. Around 1.5% of western children...
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Oct 11 2008
This article is a big thank-you for all the inspiring comments on my last article (Meditation time, girls and boys). Those comments were gentle and moving, friendly and generous. More importantly though, they have provoked a lot of thought in me. And...
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