Words under occupation
In our post-truth world, the art of messing with words has been perfected. When the Ramallah-based Ashtar Theatre issued a global call to creatives of all disciplines to join the cultural intifada in solidarity with the Palestinian people, I responded by writing a series of poems. Words under Occupation is an act of resistance and disentanglement. It comes in two versions: as text and as video. You will find the link to the video under the text.
Recent articles in Arts
Telling Chinese stories the Chinese way: Why is Ne Zha 2 more than a blockbuster?
One day in February, I had just finished watching Ne Zha 2 when I checked my phone and discovered that the animated film had already grossed more than US$1.38 billion globally a figure I never imagined a Chinese animated film would earn.
A chairman and a president walk into a bar: Review of Donalds Inferno
Only in Australia could such an edgy political satire be put on stage. Sharp and witty, Donalds Inferno, written and directed by Jon-Claire Lee, was launched in Sydney this month to a modest but discerning audience. Buried in its wacky story, the comedy pulled no punches in its description of current tensions between the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan. It concluded with a surprising message of hope.
Leslie landscape prize attracts superb pictures
Its astonishing enough that 403 landscapes by Australian artists were entered in this years John Leslie Art Prize. Even more surprising is the superb quality and diversity of the 52 shortlisted, which are exhibited in Sales Gippsland Art Gallery until 24 November.
Political void: The end of the Wharf
Forty (40) years ago, the ALP ran its national conference at what was then called Noahs Lakeside Hotel, with uranium, Timor, taxation, David Combe and south-west Tasmania prominent in discussions. But, who is this meeting up on the dancefloor after the days debates and double-crossings?
John Olsen's gift to the nation
My dear friend, the great Australian painter John Olsen was, at 77, the oldest artist to win the Archibald Prize.
Scholar or ideologue?
The Economist, a leading British weekly, enjoys wide global readership. It recently covered the thoughts and written work of two scholars, both Chinese, one now government-based, in Beijing and the other based in an academic institution in the US. Only the former, was branded as an ideologue however. Paraphrasing Professor Julius Sumner Miller: Why is this so?
Thinking intensely about the holocaust, Israel and Gaza
The vengeful, scheming, genocidal response unleashed since October last year in Gaza, by Israel, has prompted a profoundly intensified global review of the punishing history related to the establishment of the State of Israel and its colonial-settler expansion ever since 1948.
A welcome new approach to economics
The Alternative: How to build a just economy by American author, Nick Romeo, that has been published by Basic Books UK in recent weeks, is a welcome arrival to a human world in crisis.
When morality and loyalty pull in opposite directions
What to do if morality and loyalty pull in opposite directions: A review of Nicholas Jose, The Idealist
Martin Flanagans The Empty Honour Board draws us in to an unnatural world
The boarding students were far from home and the variable consolations of family life. They were shackled with priestly companions, pledged to lives of celibacy, who also had been removed from their families in their early teens and isolated from society in religious institutions from which they were then turned out, with scant proper preparation, as teachers. How could things not go wrong?
Fred Smith: The Sparrows of Kabul
During the crush at the evacuation of Kabul airport in 2021, a little girl became separated from her mother and was inconsolable and could not be moved. Fred left her for a moment, during which CS gas caused a stampede of marines. When he looked for the girl, she had disappeared.
Book review: The Next Civil War: dispatches from the American future
The United States is going through a profound transition to which there are only difficult and costly choices. In this latest book on Americas political chaos, we are taken deep into the future of an unacceptable but perhaps unavoidable breakup of the union.
