WEEKLY ROUNDUP: FIRES, EXTINCTION, AND TONI MORRISON
Black man led through the streets by white policeman on horseback in Texas On Monday night, the police chief of Galveston Texas, Vernon L. Hale III apologised publicly after footage emerged of mounted police leading a black man along the street by a rope. He said: “First and
Moving Towards Architectural Forgiveness in Poland
Following the Second World War, when nearly ninety percent of Warsaw was reduced to rubble, the city was rebuilt according to the vision of socialist realism and Stalinist classicism. The architectural zenith of this vision was undoubtedly the central Pałac Kultury i Nauki (PKiN), which has since e
[Not-So] Subtle Asian Traits
A 2am Facebook notification was the gateway to hours scrolling away and lecture slots suppressing my laughter. My cousin, a student at Tufts University across the Atlantic, had added me to a Facebook group I’d never even heard of: subtle asian traits. “subtle asian traits” is anything but subt
Keeping Tabs
Imagine you’ve committed a crime. You’re going to court. Maybe you’re being accused of murder, or getting involved in a few burglaries. You’re guilty, but you’re desperate to walk free. You’re organising your case with your lawyer, and at a certain point in proceedings you have to pr
Unity in the Face of Imminent Climate Collapse
Roger Hallam is a wiry man – slim but tough. He has dark eyebrows, eyes sunk deep in their sockets, and wisps of hair either side of his face. He’s married, a father. What stands out the most though, when he starts to speak, is that somewhere – not too far beneath the surface – […]
Recentring Death
“It is hard to have patience with people who say, ‘There is no death’ or ‘Death doesn’t matter.’ There is death. And whatever is matters. And whatever happens has consequences, and it and they are irrevocable and irreversible. You might as well say that birth doesn’t matter.” ― C.S
Sri Lanka Needs a Prayer – But it Also Needs a Revolution
Ten years after the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, terror has returned to plague our country once more. Police reported 250 deaths and over 500 people injured during a series of eight bomb blasts on Easter Sunday. The attacks took place across a number of locations, including three churches and thr
The Woman of the Perfume Ad
The woman of the perfume ad is a complex construct. The advertisers who create her are geniuses of manufacturing desire, of finely chiselling models into shape with slogan and sign. Perfume ads come with tropes: her armpits are hairless; no blemish taints her skin; her hair is slicked back with seaw
Did We Get Marie Kondo Wrong?
That manky old jumper doesn’t spark joy anymore? Bin it. What about those trousers you never wore? Chuck them. Those books you meant to read but never did? That essay that made everyone in the tutorial cry in a moment of collective mourning for your failed intellectual potential? What about your a