Gleb Olegovich Pavlovsky a Russian political scientist and a self-proclaimed "political technologist") once famously exclaimed that to get people to vote the way you want, “you need to build a fairy tale that will be common to all of them.” Who better to assimilate this fact than Richard Stengel. Mr. Stengel, in his capacity as … Continue reading Information Wars – Richard Stengel
Month: September 2019
Love at the end of the Line
(Photo Credit: Na’ama Yehuda) No one knew what was awaiting them at the end of the queue. The people lining up were instinctively paying obeisance to the attribute of herd mentality. Umbrellas of various hues and colours kept the rain at bay as their wielders stood undaunted and unfazed. Baseball caps and bald heads craned … Continue reading Love at the end of the Line
RETREAT FROM MOSCOW – DAVID STAHEL
Riding on the back of research that can only be appropriately described as ‘monumental’, David Stahel’s “Retreat From Moscow”, portrays in an unsparing and eviscerating fashion, Germany’s ill-fated winter campaign between 1941 – 1942. Drawing on new sources of history, Mr. Stahel argues that the despotic dictator Adolf Hitler’s “first defeat” took place as early … Continue reading RETREAT FROM MOSCOW – DAVID STAHEL
The Philharmoknee!
(Image Credit: Crispina Kemp) Just as he ascended the last of the steps, a lacerating pain shot through the left knee of Venky. White, lancing and dizzying. Before he could realise his legs buckled under him and he collapsed in a heap clutching at his affected knee. An involuntary wail escaped his lips. "You seem … Continue reading The Philharmoknee!
Permanent Record – Edward Snowden
In her bestselling book, “Surveillance Capitalism”, author Shoshana Zuboff while making reference to the insanely popular virtual game, Pokémon Go, writes, “players think they are playing one game – collecting Pokémon – while they are in fact pawns in an entirely different one.” Beneath the seemingly innocuous exterior of a task involving ‘collection’ of creatures … Continue reading Permanent Record – Edward Snowden
Amoebic Puddles of Red
(Photo from Pixabay) By the time, the riot police arrived with their threatening paraphernalia, there was left no activity to disperse, no arson to direct their water cannons at and no clashes to separate with their gleaming black batons. The damage was well and truly done. Wrecked furniture lay atop each other in an asymmetric pattern … Continue reading Amoebic Puddles of Red
Sun, Sand and Nattat
(Rasgado’s Jazz Club, Baía Farta, Angola | Claudio González Jorge, Google Maps) The watchtower-cum-viewing point framed against the bright sky was at once precise and aleatory. While the Geometrical exactness of the structure itself left nothing to chance, the assemblage of buildings themselves gave an impression of being plonked down at random on a randomly … Continue reading Sun, Sand and Nattat
Air
(Photo Credit: CEAyr) Words had long ceased to have meaning and meaning itself, was no longer capable of being articulated in words. The interaction between eyes, words and pages had irretrievably lost its cusp. There was nothing left to either define or redefine. The world itself was a vast endless plateau of never ending books … Continue reading Air
Love Finds a Rustic
Amenable to neither sophistication nor pretense, a veritable rustic of doom Aesthetics was never his forte and he could walk by with nary a glance at a flower in full bloom Like a bolt out a blue, this bucolic specimen was rendered hopelessly besotted Walking around with a weightlessness even though his stomach was knotted … Continue reading Love Finds a Rustic
The Input – Output Fallacy
(Photo Credit: Crispina Kemp) The engine looked straight out of a Lego assemblage. An arresting yellow with a dash of sombre blue. The metal finishing was exquisite and precise to the point of fascination. The "Lord Hinton" was an epitome of perfection. But it was also inscrutable. The 6 axle behemoth popularly known as the … Continue reading The Input – Output Fallacy