Kai Bird - Radio Open Source

Radio Open Source had a most fascinating conversation with Kai Bird, which I highly recommend. (feed) Before you go and listen it would be useful to know (what is left implicit on the show) that he is the son of a US foreign service employee and as a result of that spent most of his youth abroad. Among places such as Cairo and Beirut, he grew up in East Jerusalem and as such he experienced the Arab-Israeli conflict from nearby. He has written a book about it: Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978.

What I like especially in this show is that the Arab Israeli conflict was discussed with criticism, but without the righteousness that is so common when the subject comes up. I was especially pleased by that as I feel that this sense of righteousness, whether it lives on either side of the conflict or within the rest of the world has a devastating effect on the conflict. It somehow feeds the extremists on both sides, it compels more propaganda war and media attention that is also drawn to the outspoken.

The lesson Bird wants to teach with his book is that Jews and Arabs can and should be able to peacefully live together in one land. Among others, he gets his inspiration from an old zionist from the nationalist, revisionist flank: Hillel Kook. This came as a surprise to me as Kook stems from the same roots as the less peaceful political stream in current Israel.

More Open Source:
Amartya Sen on India,
Mustafa Barghouti,
Jackson Lears,
Two communities in one region,
We want Obama.

399 podcasts reviewed on Anne is a Man

Here is just a quick post to point you to the updated podcast list. We now have 399 podcasts reviewed. There are over 1600 posts on the blog.

This month I switched to the new design (how do you like it), which is tremendously flexible - I will be able to play with background pictures and color schemes without messing anything up and I may be doing that just for the fun of it. Be prepared to not always find this light blue atmosphere.

For example it might turn orange if my craze for the Dutch national football team gets the better of me, during the coming World Cup. For readers of Dutch, you might want to read at my World Cup blog at Gezond WK. For the not so versatile in Dutch, there are quite a number of embedded videos with footballing scenes, which you might like.

New podcasts in May 2010 - Anne is a Man

In the past month, I have reviewed eight podcasts for the first time, four history podcasts, two philosophy podcasts and two podcasts about football (soccer).

Center for Jewish Studies Podcast (Duke) (review, site, feed)
The audio that sits in the feed reflects the sessions of a conference that was held at the center on the subject of Archaeology, Politics and the Media.

Ancient Rome Refocused (review, site, feed)
An excellent new history podcast. It is not just about Roman history, which is grippingly narrated, but it is also about contemporary parallels.

Romanticism (Open University) (review, site, feed)
Six useful audio essays delineating critical aspects of nineteenth century Romanticism.

Russian Rulers History Podcast (review, site, feed)
The history of Russia, told by means of going through its rulers successively.

Heidegger (review, site, feed)
Lecture series on Heidegger by J. Drabinski.

Reith Lectures 2010 (BBC) (review, site, feed)
Lecture series by Martin Reese about challenges to science in the modern world.

World Cup Buzz (review, site, feed)
Football podcast, dedicated to this summer's World Cup.

Total Footbal Soccer Show (review, site, feed)
Soccer show that among others relates to World Cup 2010.


Subscribe in a reader
Paste the link
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Anne_Is_A_Man
into the RSS reader of your preference. (What is RSS? - Help on getting subscription)

I love to get new podcast recommendations. You can let me know your preferences by commenting on the blog or sending mail to Anne is a Man at: Anne Frid de Vries (in one word) AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk

Connect with Anne is a Man on
Facebook,
Twitter
The Podcast Parlor on Ning.
The Podcast Parlor on Facebook.

Plundered Planet - LSE

The natural resources of our planet are being squandered. Not only are the very few profiting, in stead of many, but also the revenues are consumed in stead of invested such that also future generation are being robbed of the wealth the earth has to offer. And in case you thing this is a problem of the poor countries, also rich countries make this mistake, as we can learn from a recent lecture at the LSE podcast (feed).

Guest speaker was Paul Collier, author of The Plundered Planet and he has been on LSE before, last September he spoke about Resource Management and this talk is partly a repetition, partly a continuation of the previous lecture; Collier has fine-tuned his analysis as well as his presentation. What I find both impressive and attractive is that he finds a way between conservational ecologism and market fundamentalism. Which means that neither does he say that we should not exploit nature, nor does he argue that we should let market forces steer the exploitation of natural resources. As in his previous lecture he argues for resource management.

To this extent he has written his book and he hopes to give sound advice to both the developed as well as the developing countries. Simply put, in his view, natural resources must be exploited in such a way that the whole population of profits from the income (which demands proper taxation and administered extraction) and that also future generations profit (which demands ample investment in infrastructure and new industries). When done properly, a country can exploit a resource to exhaustion (some resource are limited by nature), but in the end this will have cause an economic evolution which lifted the whole community to a higher and sustainable level.

More LSE:
China and India,
The China Hegemony,
The myth of work,
Pasts and futures of Christianity,
Global capitalism - the Gray view.

Gandhi - History 174c UCLA

In Vinay Lal's previous course, History of India, there was about half a lecture about M.K. Gandhi; in the latest course, The history of British India - UCLA (feed), that I just finished listening to, there is sufficiently more attention to India's most famous nationalist.

Already when Lal arrives in his chronological narrative at the late nineteenth century, there is a short high-light - just to let you know that Gandhi is born and goes, as so many Indian intellectuals, to England to study law. But Gandhi was to disappear from India and Indian history for a longer span of time. For about twenty years he was to spend his life in South-Africa. Only by 1915 he was to return to India. He'd return, as Lal, puts it, not as an overly famous, but certainly a known Indian. From there he made a fast career in the ranks of the Indian National Congress and he was to dominate the party even when he was no longer holding an official position.

Recently on Radio Open Source, Amartya Sen stated something also Lal emphasizes in this course and this may come as new fact about Gandhi for the average reader and listener. Gandhi's was ardently anti-modern, up to the point he was even against rail-roads - an example that is pointed out by both Sen and Lal. Within the wider framework of his philosophy, I suppose, this is a very complex element for especially westerners (see also Introduction to nonviolence), but also for Indians to deal with. Hence it is an important issue to be aware of.

More History of India:
Sati,
A story of India,
History of British India,
Trade,
The search goes on.

Reith Lectures 2010

The Reith Lectures will be podcast by the BBC just like last year when Michael Sandel gave a wonderfully inspiring performance. The lectures will be delivered in the same feed as last year. I expect that also, just like last year, the podcast will not be kept in the feed. So my advice is to subscribe, download and keep. This year, the lectures will be delivered by the astronomer Martin Rees. Under the title Scientific Horizons he explores the challenges to science today.

About the Reith Lectures in 2009:
A new politics of the common good,
The bioethics concern,
Morality in Politics,
Morality and the Market.