Jacob Dayan - UCLA Israel Studies podcast

An irregular podcast about Israel and its position in the geopolitics of the Middle-East is that of the UCLA Israel Studies Program (feed). Months can go past until a new update. The feed may even seem faded for a long time and then new episodes are posted again.

Recently a lecture by Jacob Dayan an Israeli Consul to the US was posted. The lecture had the recent war in Gaza looming over it and one of the most interesting parts of Dayan's talk was the way he explained the war. In his view the war was one between the moderates and the radicals in the region. He sort of made it look the moderate Arabs were all too happy Israel took on Hamas and by proxy Iran. It was a nice attempt at official reconstruction, but the whole point seems rather poor to me. I can't see how the moderate Arab can be happy with hundreds of Palestinians being slain in Gaza and I cannot see how Israel will be happy to fight the moderates' war for them.

However, Dayan's reasoning bears on a fact that is frequently forgotten in the geopolitics of the region. The rise of Iran and of the religious, militant fundamentalists is not welcome for many of the, if not moderate then at least more secular establishment of the region. This ranks from Abbas and Fatah, through King Abdallah of Jordan, the Mubarak regime in Egypt to the royal rulers of Saudi Arabia. Even if they are not happy with the Gaza war, which they undoubtedly aren't, should Israel succeed in dealing a blow to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran it is very welcome to them. In stead of using this reality to war, it should be applied in peace diplomacy. Rephrasing to towards an explanation to the war is a feeble ex post facto job.

Previously about UCLA Israel studies podcast:
Gabriela Shalev,
Galia Golan, Aaron David Miller,
Shimon Shamir.

The Brothers Grimm - In Our Time podcast review

The latest programme of BBC's In Our Time about the Brothers Grimm has a bit of a slow start, but if you are willing to bear with that a lot of good is to be had.

The project of sampling folk tales turns out to have a much wider importance than that of a kind of anthropological or historic or linguistic effort. Even though the tales eventually make up the landscape of children's tales, their meaning are that of a romantic search for the German. The culture that was so shattered and that was coming together in this new nation and needed some unity. This also explains the liberties that were taken with the material.

The thought struck me that the meaning went even further. If the tales spoke so profoundly to the whole of Europe, even if it were as children's tales, in a way this collection took on some unifying meaning of European culture. And then you may see that there is the romantic idea there is such a beast and there is the forced construction of one, in order to supply the need.

More In Our Time:
The modest proposal,
History of history,
Darwin special,
The Consolation of Philosophy,
The Great Fire.

De wetenschappers in veertien achttien

Er zijn episodes in de podcast serie Veertien Achttien, die ruimer zijn dan een biografie. De laatste aflevering, die over Marie Curie, is daar een voorbeeld van. Natuurlijk wordt uitgebreid stilgestaan bij het leven van Curie, maar het onderwerp reikt door middel van een aantal verhalen over anderen net even verder. Curie en anderen, in dit geval, de wetenschappers.

Curie begaf zich naar het front om met de moderne stralingstechnieken de medici te assisteren. Meneer Roentgen, naar wie de stralen vernoemd waren, ging niet zover, maar schreef wel, samen met vele andere Duitse intellectuelen een publieke brief waarin hij achter de Duitse oorlogsinspanning ging staan. En dat is dan het meer uitgebreide onderwerp van presentator Tom Tacken in deze aflevering: waar stond de Europese intellectele elite in dit conflict.

Hoewel de meesten hun vaderland steunden zijn er ook de uitzonderingen, met name Albert Einstein. In het universum van Tacken, waarin helden en schurken bestaan, zijn dit de helden, de visionairen en hij laat zien hoe ze in hun kritiek op de oorlog de tijd ver vooruit zijn en ook ver vooruit aan zien komen.

Meer Veertien Achttien:
August von Mackensen,
Franz Hipper,
Enver Pasha,
Veertien Achttien premium,
Hindenburg.

Bill Gates on TED

With Bill Gates talking about how to battle malaria and emphasizing how important it is to improve education TED has kicked off for 2009. It has been noted elsewhere Gates is even funny. Well, he surely attempts to be and fortunately doesn't wander off with it.



If you choose to watch Bill Gates on the TED site, you will be offered to continue with a talk from 2007 by Bjorn Lomborg which gives the problem of global warming a rather surprising rating in the list of world problems. The problem of malaria rates higher, to name one that Gates addressed.

More TED:
Stephen Petranek,
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
Philip Zimbardo,
Jonathan Haidt,
Lennart Green.

Anne is a Man in De Standaard

Here is just a short update for those of you who didn't know it yet: I have been invited to blog for the Belgian newspaper De Standaard (Weblogs - En nu even elders - Israel). There I write about once a week about daily life in Israel. The latest entry is about the elections. Previously I have written a lot about the war in Gaza.

The stark difference in experience is that in De Standaard, the blog attracts much more comments. And since it turns out to be a political statement to BE an Israeli, the comments are very frequently molded as personal attacks, where they actually are attacks on Israel or expressions of frustration with the situation in Israel.

The blog is in Dutch.

Slavery - Hardcore History podcast review

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History has the occasional 'blitz' show. Obviously distinct from the interview shows, they are, but less so from the regular shows. However, taken in mind the previous blitz show which was about drug use (mostly alcohol) through the ages and the last one which is about slavery through the ages, the blitz shows are, apparently more thematic.

On the theme of slavery Dan Carlin argues that slavery is of all times and of all places. He goes over a series of examples and appears to use as his main source Milton Meltzer's book Slavery: a World history. On the one side slavery turns out to be a humane alternative to death, but all in all the whole feature of enslavement, servitude and hard labor is problematic. It also remains so, in spite of the numerous attempts to justify it.

The bottom-line Carlin steers to, is that slavery exists still today and not only that, but also that we all, Carlin and his audience, profit from slavery. There are just enough grades of separation that allow us to not actively know of it and feel we can reject slavery as immoral. Carlin takes the additional step, suggesting, if people are like this, they are really evil. The thought that arose with me, however, was that if low-wage work is similar or even equal to slavery, how different is it with higher-wage work if apart from the higher wage, the employee is just as much owned by his employer and his life is governed by his work.

More Hardcore History:
Gwynne Dyer Interview,
Interview with Victor Davis Hanson,
Punic Nightmares III,
Punic Nightmares II ,
Punic Nightmares I.