Tuesday, December 30, 2003
African Links
I just added some new and important African links to my site on the 'Links Page'. The intention is that I will monitor these more closely over 2004....these are SADC, the African Union, and NEPAD. Let us hope we some constructive developments here in 2004 as these institutions are critical to the future of Africa and breaking down Afro-pessimism. .....
Monday, December 29, 2003
Back in Belfast
Back from 3 weeks in South Africa. It was a good trip and South Africa feels very positive at the moment. Belfast in turn is freezing and I returned to a broken down boiler and car with a dead battery. Let's hope the political situation does not match this in 2004. Soon it will be back to work, several papers and articles to finish, mainly on reparations and I will be running several workshops in Belfast in January. .....
Thursday, December 25, 2003
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Wednesday, December 24, 2003
The Other Side of Silence
I am still in South Africa, enjoying a break and being home. Just finished reading Andre Brink's "The Other Side of Silence", hardly light holiday reading! A very violent and disturbing book about the German occupation of Nambia (then South West Africa) in the early part of the 1900s. The book is interesting though mainly because the main protagonists are all women, and secondly because it deals with the subject of revenge. It is an important, albeit haunting, contribution in this regard. Now for something lighter....like Christmas. .....
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Monday, December 15, 2003
I am away in South Africa
Currently I am away in South Africa. Blogging will be regular again once back in Ireland. But hopefully will get to to it from time to time. Andie, I see has been keeping it rolling...still not sure, I must say, what to make of Coetzee's lecture....more to follow.... .....
Sunday, December 14, 2003
Saturday, December 06, 2003
As we know
"Reports that say something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know."
-- Donald Rumsfeld
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Thursday, December 04, 2003
Die lange Reise der Versohnung in Südafrika
Zusammenleben ist (noch) keine Selbstverstandlichkeit
Die Arbeit der Wahrheits- und Versohnungskommission hatte zur Folge, dass weder weisse noch schwarze Südafrikaner die Greueltaten der Vergangenheit jemals mehr verleugnen konnen. Weitere Schritte auf dem schwierigen Weg der Versohnung müssen jetzt in den einzelnen Gemeinden des Landes getan werden...article... .....
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Coetzee and Cricket
The preposterous notion that reading a JM Coetzee novel is less challenging than watching a cricket match has been propagated. Not quite in these austere sports pages, but in the pull-out section that accompanies the Mail & Guardian. Nonetheless, the notion must be resisted and rejected. More...
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Tuesday, December 02, 2003
International War Crimes Conference...Streaming Video
International War Crimes Trials: Making a Difference?, organized by Stephen Ratner at the Univ of Texas Law School. The presentations are available on streaming video...more and view... .....
Apartheid Victims Press for Reparations
Sun Nov 30, 9:20 PM ET
By ELLIOTT SYLVESTER, Associated Press Writer
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Members of a support group for victims of apartheid disrupted a ceremony held in their honor Sunday to press their demands for long-promised reparations payments. About 300 members of the Khulumani group, led by veteran anti-apartheid activist Shirley Gunn, forced their way into the VIP tent during the "healing ceremony" in Cape Town's Company Gardens. More... .....
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