Mike Marqusee – Page 17 – Writings on politics, culture and sport

Jan 28, 2007

Unreality TV

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 28 January ALL words can be cheapened by misuse, especially when they are misused by the powerful. The reality they refer to is disguised, rather than revealed. But what happens when the word in question is “reality” itself? On his visit to India, Gordon Brown, still the bookie’s favourite to… Read more

Jan 14, 2007

Behind the Iraq “surge”

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 14 January It beggars belief. After nearly four years of occupation, resulting in the deaths of 650,000 Iraqis, the US and its British lapdog have decided that the only remedy for the Iraq debacle is more of the same. Despite a clear-cut desire on the part of the majority of… Read more

Jan 13, 2007

Bribing your way to the front of the queue

The Guardian, 13 January After a long flight, I took my place in a slow moving but orderly queue waiting to pass through Indian immigration at Chennai airport. A middle-aged man with an attache case strode calmly past our ranks to insert himself at the front, blithely oblivious to the objections of those prepared to… Read more

Dec 31, 2006

A magician bows out

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 31 December IN the final scene of the film, the wounded gunfighter (played by Alan Ladd) rides off into the distance as the hero-worshipping eight-year-old boy (played by Brandon de Wilde) cries after him: “Shane, Shane, come back!” Before it became a popular boys name down under, “Shane” was most… Read more

Dec 17, 2006

A rasika’s tribute

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 17 December HERE I am in London and the December season is underway in Chennai. To the unconverted, Carnatic music is staid, forbiddingly technical, repetitive, elitist. And some of its devotees do seem determined to live up the stereotype, preoccupied with tradition, treating the music like a zone of purity,… Read more

Dec 3, 2006

Beyond polarities

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 3 December IN the Draa Valley, in southern Morocco, flanked on one side by an oasis densely planted with date palms and on the other by the high crumbling mud walls of what had been the Jewish quarters of an old and now abandoned village, I read about the Israeli… Read more

Nov 5, 2006

Nightmare figures all too real

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 5 November Whenever scientific research produces results that are inconvenient to people in power, they seek to deny, discredit or downplay them. On October 12th, The Lancet, one of the medical world’s most respected journals, published a peer-reviewed study conducted by Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health, one of… Read more

Nov 1, 2006

Veiled threats

Red Pepper, November 2006 Open hostility to multi-culturalism used to be the preserve of the nationalist right, but since 9/11, it’s flooded the mainstream and bamboozled more than a few who proudly declare themselves liberals. In recent months, it’s been noisily blamed for homegrown terrorism and the alleged “self-segregation” of minority groups, damned as a… Read more

Oct 15, 2006

Starbucks goes to India

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 15 October STARBUCKS, the world’s largest coffee retailer, recently unveiled ambitious plans for expansion into major new markets, including Russia, Brazil, Egypt and, of course, India. By the end of 2007, the company will boast 20,000 outlets in 41 countries. Starbucks is, among other things, a symbol, a superstar performer… Read more

Oct 6, 2006

Double Jack’s standards

Comment is free, The Guardian, October 6 It has become routine in this country for those who wish to give vent to prejudice to insist that they only wish to start a “debate”. How could anyone object? Debate is always a good thing. But when the premises informing the putative debate are riddled with double… Read more

Out now: Definable Traces in the Atmosphere

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