Mediterranean Cosmopolitanism
Once upon a time, the Mediterranean Sea was—as its name suggests—the centre of the world. It was experienced that way by its inhabitants and by travelers from other parts, for the two thousand years or more from the rise of the Greek polis until sometime after the opening of the sea-route around the Cape to India and the discovery of America in 1492. The borders of the Mediterranean world were described by Alcibiades in the fourth century BCE, when he reminded the young men of Athens of their oath to “account wheat and barley, and vines and olives, to be the limits of Attica.” These four crops later set the limits of Rome, and defined the territory in which its successors—Byzantium, the Ottoman Empire, Venice and others—contested for supremacy.
The eastern Mediterranean region was the birthplace of the earliest human civilization —that is, where literacy and urban life began.[3] It was not the only place where civilization began. But the Mediterranean region was unlike China, India and central America in the diversity of languages, religions, cultural traditions and sources of political... READ MORE
Palestine Solidarity across Generations
In his report to the inaugural AGM of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (South Africa) on 20 October 2012, Martin Jansen said that active membership of the Cape Town branch of the PSC (SA)—known for most of its history as the Palestine Solidarity Group—had not really grown over the years. Younger people have come to PSG/PSC meetings recently. But they soon stop coming and lose contact. This raised the question of how to get young South Africans involved in solidarity with the people of Palestine—a cause that often seems to them remote or intractable or ancient.
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I’m prompted to respond to this question because I’ve been involved in the University of Cape Town Palestine Solidarity Forum since early 2010, and I’m aware of how different its organizing style is from that of the older PSC (SA). he UCT PSF style of organizing emerged partly in response to the needs of young people and partly at their initiative. (The group of 15 or 20 that discussed the formation of UCT PSF in 2010 was about equally divided between staff and students. Its first committee was dominated by staff. Since its launch in August 2010... READ MORE
Solidarity with the Palestinian People
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has its roots in the 1890s, when a Zionist movement emerged in Europe, with the aim of creating a Jewish state in Palestine. According to the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, such a state would “form a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization against barbarism
The Zionist movement gained a powerful ally in 1917, when the British government gave its support to their aims. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, Britain took over the government of Palestine under a mandate from the League of Nations. It used this mandate to enable Jewish settlers to acquire land and weapons and to organize militarily and politically. At the same time, the British crushed Arab Palestinian organizations, exiled their leaders and jailed or hanged Palestinians resisting their rule.
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In 1947, Britain asked the United Nations to decide the future of Palestine. The majority of the UN Special... READ MORE
The Philosophers' Cold War
Peter Laslett’s 1956 introduction to a collection of essays on Philosophy, Politics and Society begins by reflecting on the contemporary situation of political philosophy in Britain. He writes:
It is one of the assumptions of intellectual life in our country that there should be amongst us men who we think of as political philosophers. Philosophers themselves and sensitive to philosophic change, they are to concern themselves with political and social relationships at the widest level of generality. They are to apply the methods and the conclusions of contemporary thought to the evidence of the contemporary social and political situation. For three hundred years of our history there have been such men writing in English, from the early seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, from Hobbes to Bosanquet. Today, it would seem, we have them no longer. The tradition has been broken and our assumption is misplaced.. READ MORE
'n Ander Wêreld Is Moontlik
Resensie van Breytenbach se Notes from the Middle World
In Oktober 1997 het Breyten Breytenbach ‘n merkwaardige lesing ter ere van die Portugese skrywer Fernando Pessoa by die destydse Universiteit van Natal gegee, met die titel “Notes from the Middle World.” In 1998 is ‘n Afrikaanse weergawe van die lesing in die filosofiese tydskrif Fragmente gepubliseer.
In die jare daarna het verwysings na die Middelwêreld hier en daar in Breytenbach se werk verskyn, sonder dat dit ‘n sentrale metafoor in sy werk geword het. In 2007, in ‘n onderhoud oor sy onlangs gepubliseerde Veil of Footsteps, het hy laat weet daardie boek is die eerste deel is van sy Middelwêreld-kwartet... READ MORE