Category Archives: American And Her Wars

When All Else Fails, Give Them Our Games…

They tried invasions, occupations, complete imperial rule. They tried bunker-busting bombs, Uranium tipped missiles. They have tried drones, and night raids, and torture and indefinite detention. They have tried the full weight of a rhetoric of love of man and human rights. And now they will try the….skate board.

April 19, 2015 – 3:45 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars | Comments Off on When All Else Fails, Give Them Our Games…

The Silence Of The Lambs

A big congratulations to the New York Times Lens blog for yet another obfuscatory, confusing, and overtly misleading piece about Libya, ISIS and the chaos that reigns there. Oh, but you will argue, this is not about that, but about the suffering of the families of the Christians who were killed by ISIS. Its an emotional […]

April 4, 2015 – 10:36 am | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars, Photography | Comments Off on The Silence Of The Lambs

Our Protection Of Frivolous Speech And Our Prosecution Of Political Speech

Our silence is hypocritical – we conflate bigotry with ‘free speech’ and celebrate ourselves, while refusing to fight the more uncomfortable, difficult and problematic acts of ‘free speech’ itself as in this case of the young British citizen. Free speech laws and rights are most in need of defense when speech is problematic and disturbing, […]

January 7, 2015 – 6:30 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars, Musings On Confusions, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on Our Protection Of Frivolous Speech And Our Prosecution Of Political Speech

The Self-Flagellating Native Intellectual And The Quest For The Pleasures Of Empire

There is a remarkably succinct and clear moment in Gauri Viswanathan’s brilliant work Masks of Conquest: Literary Study And British Rule In India when she points out that colonizer’s self-representation: …to native Indians through the products of his mental labor removes him from the place of ongoing colonialist activity-of commercial operations, military expansion, and administration […]

October 2, 2014 – 2:10 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars, Musings On Confusions, Pakistan, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on The Self-Flagellating Native Intellectual And The Quest For The Pleasures Of Empire

The Photojournalist As A Victim Of Ideology

The New York Times Sunday Magazine joins the game of re-writing the war. The New York Times efforts – through the use of its correspondents and pundits, to obfuscate and outright distort this latest Israeli initiated and unnecessary mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza (with over 550 documented deaths of children alone, a war crime […]

September 3, 2014 – 10:30 am | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars, Essays On Embedded Photojournalism, Journalism, Musings On Confusions, Photography | Comments Off on The Photojournalist As A Victim Of Ideology

Till Palestine

The Palestinian Mohammad Assaf wins the Arab Idol content.

August 27, 2014 – 6:10 am | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars, The Question Of Palestine | Tagged , | Comments Off on Till Palestine

Where The Wild Things Are!

The Pashtun of Waziristan, Pakistan has today become an avatar for violence, terrorism, rebellion, guerrilla warfare and other things deviant and vile. There is however a long heritage of depicting these people of the tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan as genetically prone to violence and culturally prone to resistance to ‘civilised’ politics. This prejudice […]

July 7, 2014 – 7:59 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars, Background Materials, Journalism, Musings On Confusions, Pakistan, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on Where The Wild Things Are!

Can non-Europeans think, and if so, can the non-European be allowed to speak?

Hamid Dabashi makes an argument that should have been made much earlier. So indeed, why are all the incredible voices emerging from South Asia, China, Africa and elsewhere always and consistently missing from any discussion about philosophy and society?  Can non-Europeans think? – Opinion – Al Jazeera English. As Dabashi argues: Why is European philosophy “philosophy”, […]

July 1, 2014 – 10:05 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars, Journalism, Musings On Confusions | Comments Off on Can non-Europeans think, and if so, can the non-European be allowed to speak?

Congressional Disappearences And Drone Victim Appearences

They–Rafeeq, Zubair, and Nabeela–travelled all the way from North Waziristan to give testimony to the US Congress about the devastation and suffering caused in their communities by the American and Pakistani drone attacks. It was the first time that victims of drone attacks were “permitted” to actually stand face-to-face with those defining and defending the […]

November 3, 2013 – 1:44 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars, Pakistan | Comments Off on Congressional Disappearences And Drone Victim Appearences

Searching For Ghosts

They are ghosts, and I have spent nearly two months trying to find a trace of them. They are the 33 Pakistani men who remain imprisoned, without charge or evidence, by the Americans at the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. Many have not been see or heard by anyone other than their immediate families – they […]

June 20, 2013 – 5:12 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars, Pakistan, Pakistan Justice Project Essays | Comments Off on Searching For Ghosts