Author of The Rape of Nanking created awareness and controversy.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Politics and Morality
Nov 13th, 2004 10:07 pm | By Ophelia BensonOkay, here I am doing my best. Brushing the sweat out of my eyes, swatting at mosquitoes, worrying about frostbite, avoiding hidden cravasses, catching bullets in my teeth, eating old bread with maggots and weevils and turnip crumbs in it, being charged by cranky lions and rhinos and people who sell insurance. Here’s one item I was thinking about before the virus pounced and turned my computer into an evil demon. Mark Bauerlein has an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Ed – but even though it’s interesting I have some disagreements with it. It’s about the familiar subject of lefty groupthink in (US) universities. One problem is that he says campuses, colleges, academics, rather than specifying ‘certain branches’ … Read the rest
Inferno
Nov 13th, 2004 6:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonWell perhaps not as bad as I thought.
I can’t just delete now because of the RSS feed.
And look what I just found! What a lovely surprise. I can pretend I’m still there.… Read the rest
Rohan Jayasekera Answers His Critics
Nov 13th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSort of.… Read the rest
The Fundamentalist El Niño
Nov 13th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEvangelicals have taken advantage of religion’s immunity from criticism.… Read the rest
Blogger Threatened for ‘Insults’ to Allah
Nov 12th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAllah not threatened for insults to blogger.… Read the rest
Livingstone Under Investigation over al-Qaradawi
Nov 12th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonInvitation to al-Qaradawi not popular with women, gays, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, some Muslims, non-bombers – most people.… Read the rest
Michael Fitzpatrick Reviews Richard Horton
Nov 11th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLancet editor’s new book on MMR panic doesn’t explain why he published Wakefield’s flawed research.… Read the rest
Trip Nostalgia
Nov 10th, 2004 11:33 pm | By Ophelia BensonIt’s beautiful here today, in an odd, subdued sort of way. I went for a walk and gazed out over the Sound an hour or so ago. Everything is grey – the sky, the water – but it’s a bright, translucent grey in places. The clouds are shapey and various as opposed to being a single pewter-coloured blanket, and there are places where the sun almost shines through them, so in the distance the water is quite silvery. I’ve been back for a week (plus a bit). Things have shaken down as they do after a trip (that’s one of the fun things about trips: the sense of strangeness when you get back), and I’ve had time to think it … Read the rest
Oxford Wins Extension to Animal Rights Injunction
Nov 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOrder grants ‘no harassment’ zone around all its buildings in the city. … Read the rest
‘Slaughterhouses’ Found in Fallujah
Nov 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIraqi troops have found houses where hostages were held and killed by the ‘resistance’.… Read the rest
Arundhati Roy Speaks to Australia
Nov 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Why should people allow a novelist to influence their political views?’… Read the rest
Arundhati Roy Defends Views on Iraqi ‘Resistance’
Nov 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Several critics said Roy’s views on Iraq should have disqualified her.’… Read the rest
Kristallnacht March in Oslo Forbids ‘Jewish Symbols’
Nov 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCommemoration ended without a single representative from Norway’s Jews.… Read the rest
Calls For End to Violence at van Gogh Funeral
Nov 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnger, hatred, sorrow, fear, remorse, all mix it up in aftermath of murder.… Read the rest
Court Rules Vlaams Blok Party is Racist
Nov 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBelgium’s highest court has ruled Flemish far-right Vlaams Blok is racist. … Read the rest
A Word from George Eliot
Nov 9th, 2004 9:34 pm | By Ophelia BensonA bit of old business I’ve been meaning to get to for several days. This question of religion and the focus of its public rhetoric and exhortation on a narrow view of sexual morality with a comparable neglect of social justice – of, if you prefer, poverty, oppression, exploitation, bad working conditions, injustice, and the like. One of our readers took issue with that view of the matter, and I thought I would offer one or two more places where I’d seen the idea discussed.
One is this piece by Ishtiaq Ahmed in the ‘Daily Times’ of Pakistan.
… Read the restThe Islamic position on life on earth was that Muslims should enjoy the good things of life within limits prescribed by Sharia…What
Does Affirmative Action Hurt Black Law Students?
Nov 9th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonStudy suggests some counter-productive effects; critics respond.… Read the rest
Elaine Showalter on Tom Wolfe’s New Novel
Nov 9th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNot a satiric view of the university but a leering exposé of undergraduate sexual behaviour.… Read the rest
Index on What?
Nov 9th, 2004 2:21 am | By Ophelia BensonThe comments by Juan Golblado on the ‘Paying Too Much Attention’ Comment have prompted me to hurry up and do what I’ve been meaning to do, which is to say a word or two about this bizarre article at Index on Censorship. It is, as Mr Golblado says, a striking case of the fox being invited into the henhouse. Unless of course the Index on Censorship is supposed to be an organization that sings the virtues of censorship, but I kind of thought it wasn’t supposed to be that kind of organization.
… Read the restVan Gogh’s juvenile shock-horror art finally led him to build an exploitative working relationship with Somalia-born Dutch MP Ayann Hirsi Ali, whose terrible personal experience of abuse