Heads-up for 4 September 2010

Philosopher's Zone
Being a person in West Africa - Ajume Wingo
When the President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda said that Margaret Thatcher was "truly a person," what on earth did he mean? He was invoking a concept central to the philosophy of the Akan people of West Africa. This week, we look at what it means to be a person in a culture where the community matters more than the individual and why the idea has very immediate practical implications.
(review, feed)

TED Talks (video)
The world's oldest living things - Rachel Sussman (2010)
Rachel Sussman shows photographs of the world's oldest continuously living organisms -- from 2,000-year-old brain coral off Tobago's coast to an "underground forest" in South Africa that has lived since before the dawn of agriculture.
(review, feed)



I will update this post later

Oslo accords - Witness

There are walls here in Israel where the graffiti, translated, reads: bring the Oslo criminals to trial! It shows how a certain segment of the population considered the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians as a crime and those who negotiated and signed them as criminals that should be brought to Justice - whatever Justice can be in this perspective.

BBC's Witness paid attention to the Oslo accords and recounted how they were secretly negotiated in an Oslo kitchen. The witness they let speak is the Norwegian host who had, among others Uri Savir and Abu Alaa in her house to make the breakthroughs. (feed)

While new talks seem to be on their way it is very timely to look back at those. And I am sure there will be enough who want to trial and convict the current negotiators. Seeking peace, is sometimes a crime.

More Witness:
Witness BBC.