Here’s a headline that SHOULD be top page news, but won’t be:
1,500 farmers commit suicide in India
also here
April 2009
Monthly Archive
April 16, 2009
April 15, 2009
It looks like things are turning once again to pirates and piracy. A good time to recall the classic critique of empire:
Augustine, City of God, IV.4 – “Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.”
I just found this fascinating early modern text: Vidiciae contra tyrranos. (1579). Also here and here.
April 2, 2009
How ironic is the name of Bernie Madoff’s now-seized yacht? I would have thought “Con” or “Swindle” or “Dupe” or “Killing”, but this works too.
The Blinded Eye 