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INTERVIEWS POLITICS

On People’s Law Tribunals (saths) and Water Struggles in South Punjab

Asad Farooq (Law Department, LUMS) interviewed by Qalandar Bux Memon on community struggles in Southern Punjab. QM: A set of movements you have been involved with in Punjab is the sath, a form of people’s law. What is a sath and how does it translate? What areas are governed by sath? What is your involvement? Finally, can you explain how the…

A New Humanism

What motivates the desire for Third World solidarity is the shared history of oppression by a common oppressor.In 2009, a few academics, supported by long standing left-wing activists, founded Pakistanis for Palestine, a Lahore based group that aimed to support Palestinians in their struggle for statehood. Critics—which include Pakistanis—of course, wonder why, given Pakistan’s own…

ByQalandar Bux Memon

On The Struggle of Farmer of Dera Sehgal

The road which leads to Dera Sehgal offers a stark contrast between its broken muddy self and the Grand Trunk road which runs perpendicular to it. Barely an hour away from Lahore lies a site of resistance where the humble inhabitants of a few farmlands have taken on a fight to reclaim their lives. The brave…

Aesthetics as First Philosophy: Levinas and the Non-Human

Emmanuel Levinas is usually seen as an ethical and religious philosopher. This reading is understandable to the point of seeming obvious, and certainly matches the philosopher’s own self-interpretation. But on closer scrutiny, the narrowly ethical reception of his thought seems to be one-sided. For Levinas pushes beyond the oppressive totality of beings not just through…

ByGraham Harman

INTERVIEWS POLITICS

Baba Jan: One Year in Jail (an interview)

Interview: Baba Jan Hunzai By: Kiran Nazish. Sub Jail Jutial, Gilgit, G-B. -- BabaJan said he had never imagined torture would bring him so close to death, so many times. And yet not close enough to have him give up on his cause. As he continues to raise voice against the atrocities that the…

Open Letter Demanding the Release of Baba Jan Hunzai

For the past 8 months Baba Jan Hunzai and four fellow activists have languished in various jails of Gilgit. Twice in this period he has been removed from jail and tortured by military and police agents. He and his colleagues have been charged under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Ordinance. Baba Jan, however, is not a terrorist. He is a respected…

Baghdad and the Emergence of the New World Order, 1990 – 2003

“All these developments intend not only to destroy Iraq, but to eliminate the role of the Soviet Union so the United States can control the fate of all humanity.” (Hamid Hammadi, Culture Minister, Iraq, February 1991, in a conversation with Saddam Hussein) On January 1, 2011, Wikileaks published the full cable from the U. S.…

ByVijay Prashad

The Osage Vision in the Words of Agnes Lin

Agnes Lin is a merchandising magnate who grew up in Hong Kong. Starting out as an editorial assistant at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council she moved from merchandising for Swire, to an assistant editor of a garment trade magazine, to establishing Osage Merchandising, her own merchandising business which has taken her across the world.…

ByStephanie Bailey

Hong Kong’s Generation (Re) Generation

Art in Hong Kong has never had it so good. Aside from being the 3rd largest art market in the world after London and New York in terms of auction sales, complete with Christie’s, Sotheby’s and auction-driven Gagosian Gallery presence in the city, the local art fair has fire-rocketed into the upper echelons of art…

ByStephanie Bailey

On Philosophers, Violence, Humour & Tragedy

Simon Critchley Interviewed by Qalandar Bux Memon and Asif Akhtar (Portrait by Luca Del Baldo) Part One (Interview conducted June 2011) Part One: The Role of Philosophers, Violence and Resistance, and Humour. QM - You have claimed that the role and responsibility of the philosopher is, in part, ‘the production of crisis’. Firstly, could you unpack…

BySimon Critchley