Denis Brutus, born in 1924 in what was then British Rhodesia to South African parents, shot to prominence (and jail) in the 1960s campaigning for a boycott of South Africa in the sporting world. A veteran activist, poet and Professor of African Studies and African Literature, Brutus continues to campaign vigorously against economic injustice. His […]
“Two centuries ago no one could have imagined that something as valuable as cochineal, ranked alongside gold and silver as one of the great treasures of the Spanish empire, would eventually be forgotten,” explains historian Amy Butler Greenfield, author of A Perfect Red. Cochineal, for the uninitiated is a small insect that when dried and […]
The 2nd of August is a sad day, here in Bologna, at least for those who still remember or force themselves to remember. Twenty-five years ago the city was the 'location' for a tragic event that changed for ever the lives of hundreds of people, an event organised and then covered up by hidden forces, […]
“The mafia, in the strict sense of Cosa Nostra, the hierarchical criminal organization based in Sicily, does not ‘run Italy’ as you sometimes hear people rather glibly say,” explains John Dickie, senior lecturer in Italian at the University of London, and author of Cosa Nostra – a history of the Sicilian Mafia. It’s in response […]
Trevor Manuel, the South African Minister for finance, famously commented on the rise of global protest movements, &ldquoI know what they're against but I have no sense of what they're for”. It's an accusation levelled frequently, primarily by representatives of the established order, ranging from members of the IMF, WTO and World Bank, through to […]
“In the words of Archdeacon R.H.Charles in 1931, science may have ‘exposed many superstitions of the dark ages and laid bare the falsity of the religious and secular magic of the past and present, yet in their stead it has introduced legions of new alarms that beset our lives from the cradle to the grave’” […]
The brutal murder of an unarmed man in a Belfast pub by members of the IRA in January – coming only weeks after the IRA's robbery of the Northern Bank – provoked a wave of outrage and demands for the disbanding of the IRA. The international campaign for the prosecution of the killers mounted by […]
In the year 2000, during restoration work, a rare and important mural was uncovered at the communal fountain of the Tuscan town of Massa Marittima. It was not necessarily a welcome surprise, at least at first, as this painting from the Middle Ages depicted a tree covered with phalluses. “At first when the painting was […]
It is March 18th, the day after the day before. Ireland is suffering from a giant hangover. Callers to radio shows throughout the day describe how the Irish have made a show of themselves in front of the whole world, and newsreaders are suggesting that the level of disgraceful drunkenness was unprecedented. Things have never […]
Some people seem to take pleasure in boasting about how long it takes them to drive to work. Like the Yorkshire men in the Monty Python sketch, they get up half an hour before going to bed the night before in order to arrive at work on time in the morning. They live, for the […]
