The Mantle’s editor in chief reviews Taslima Nasrin’s latest North American release, Revenge.
A stalwart advocate for freedom of speech, Taslima Nasrin is an exiled political and artistic refugee who has had her share of literary revenge. Despite her work being banned in Bangladesh and India, and even as multiple fatwas have called for her head, she continues to write, speak out, and win awards around the world. Her latest North American release, Revenge (Feminist Press, 2010), is a short novel whose title, in keeping with the life of its author, promises struggle and ready action.
Continue reading: http://www.mantlethought.com/content/cold-dish
Filed under Islam, Literature Bangladesh Translation Taslima Nasrin
In the interview, DC-CAM discuss the role of DC-CAM, the extraordinary courts and chambers in Cambodia, the longing to forget in the face of history, notions of justice for past wrongs, personal experiences in the Cambodian genocide, the importance of documenting atrocities, and more.
Listen to the interview here: http://www.mantlethought.org/content/documentation-center-cambodia
Muslims of Metropolis traces the experiences of three Muslim immigrant experiences in the West: a Turk in Germany, a Palestinian in England, and a Bangladeshi in the United States. They may share the same religion, but the experiences in their new countries are hardly the same. M. Junaid Levesque-Alam reviews the intimate portraits sketched by Kavitha Rajagopalan.
Read it here: http://www.mantlethought.org/content/strangers-strange-lands
EXCERPT: Members of the Duma recently proposed “Dymovsky’s law” a bill that would punish not police officers who take bribes, but rather police officers who publically make statements detrimental to their superiors – like accusing them of bribery in the first place. It’s a sad indication of where the fight against corruption in Russia is likely headed. And for all of his good talk about the future, Medvedev’s crusade against corruption will likely be no more successful than Putin’s, in large part because it’s designed not to be effective.
Read more: http://www.mantlethought.org/content/prisoner-siloviki
EXCERPT: The beauty of London River stems from its simple honesty. Truly a film about two people navigating their stereotypes of each other and, in turn, finding comfort in shared experience, the film simply uses the events of 7/7 as a plot motivator. Told from the perspective of a Franco-Algerian director, Rachid Bouchareb invites us into his interpretation of the effects of recent terrorist attacks.
Read more: http://www.mantlethought.org/content/london-river-look-77-unconventional-source
The United Nations doctrine on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is state-centric, there’s no doubt about that, but does that mean states are the only viable actors when it comes to protecting civilians from mass atrocities? In this essay, Corrie Hulse argues that when states fail to act on R2P, it is the responsibility of civilians and N.G.O.s to step up and push governments into action.
Continue reading: http://www.mantlethought.org/content/civilians-rescue
EXCERPT: While I can fully appreciate the film for its stylistic achievements, I am not fully satisfied by its veneration of a naïve, happily-ever-after brand of love. We are spoon-fed wild expectations as to how love will eventually manifest into ultimate happiness, as if we ourselves are not responsible for our own development or self-fulfillment. Movies such as I am love make us hope that there is someone who will complete us, instead of encouraging personal growth within the framework of a real relationship. I’d rather spend my time reading David Schnarch, or watching Ingmar Bergman films, both of whom present more critical and, in turn, valuable, assessments of long-term relationships.
Continue reading: http://www.mantlethought.org/content/i-am-love-serenely-beautiful-nonsense
A News Dissector Writes to a Young Journalist - by Danny Schechter.
In this essay, award-winning, veteran journalist Danny Schechter reflects back on his decades-long career in mainstream and independent journalism and offers advice for the next generation of reporters. Would be muckrakers, media critics, progressive journalists and speakers-of-truth-to-power, listen up: the News Dissector has something to say.
Continue reading: http://www.mantlethought.org/content/news-dissector-writes-young-journalist
EXCERPT: But, putting private sector news empires to one side, the recent debate left me wondering about a group of NGOs that rely on the profits generated from newspaper sales to help homeless people off the streets. Street newspapers, or “street papers” are independent newspapers and magazines sold by homeless people in approximately 40 countries across the globe. The purpose is to give homeless people a first step into business – “a hand up, not a hand out”2. To find out more about street papers I went to visit Danielle Batist, Street News Service Editor at the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) – an umbrella body set up in 1994 which extends its support to over 100 street papers across the globe.
Continue reading: http://www.mantlethought.org/content/street-papers-low-down
