A Post on Laughter and Remembering in Berlin

Diversity, tension, relief, and the Stolpersteine

“...and this woman in the chic coat: is she going to clean also?”

Responding to advertisements calling for people to “actively remember,” on November 9 and 10, 2013, in Berlin and other German cities, the commemorative Stolpersteine (or “the stumbling blocks”) were physically cleaned. The Stolpersteine are little brass plaques placed ...

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A Post on Laughter and Remembering in Berlin

The Booing of Zuma

The booing of South African President Jacob Zuma at the Mandela memorial gathering – this before a resplendent cast of visiting global dignitaries, around 60,000 audience members and millions of international television viewers – resonated through first the stadium that hosted the 2010 soccer world cup and then the country ...

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The Booing of Zuma

The Forces of Reproduction

Testo Junkie, by Paul Préciado

“Humanity does not exist under the sign of the divine… but of the monstrous.”  -- Paul Préciado “Read, this!,” he said, thrusting a soiled photocopy of a typescript into my hands. “It will change your life!” Then he disappeared back into the public toilet he was cruising. This was my introduction to ...
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The Forces of Reproduction

Against Social Determinism

Getting anything done generally requires the collaboration of people who do different kinds of work, and whose various kinds of work has shaped various kinds of thinking. It calls for some kind of translation or code switching. It can be hard enough getting people who do different kinds of intellectual ...
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