I seem to operate on a multiple levels of contradictions. But what can I do? My heart is one place, my mind is in another, and my mouth has to play an intricate game of brinkmanship all the time just to keep me balanced. I am after all an activist more by necessity than by choice, and always against my better judgment and my natural inclinations. Continue reading “Heretical Haggling!”
Tag: Democratization
A Heretical Balancing Act!
Balancing the human cost of doing nothing vs. the human cost of doing the wrong thing vs. the human cost of muddling through vs. the human cost of trial and error and large-scale social engineering vs. the human cost of historical imperatives vs. the human cost of all things made inevitable on account of someone’s ideological predilections, avarice, mismanagement and/or downright stupidity vs. the human cost of philosophizing at times of trouble when some action, almost any action, is terribly needed…
A Conference in Venice – Part Three!
“Irak sotto nueva dittatura”
Well, well, Venice is still capable of boisterous pronouncements I see. This graffiti scribbled in bold red on a hapless wall in Old Venice is proof enough that no matter how old a city gets and not matter how senile, it is still capable of making such boisterous pronouncements. The words of defiance streaming out of Damascus then, should come as no surprise. Continue reading “A Conference in Venice – Part Three!”
Brother/Sister, Where Art Thou?
This is the study that I have prepared during my first stint as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution (July-December 2004). Though completed, the study was never published by Brookings, it was simply too whimsical to pass as a policy paper, and although I had permission to publish it elsewhere while acknowledging that it was prepared at Brookings, I got too caught up with the activities of the Tharwa Project and my the interrogations I faced upon my return to Syrian to follow up on this. Continue reading “Brother/Sister, Where Art Thou?”
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 