Mike Marqusee – Page 21 – Writings on politics, culture and sport

Feb 1, 2006

Sticks and balls

Cricinfo Magazine, February 2006 It’s always a sweet sight. The swing of the bat, the ball scuttling across the earth or arching through the air, human figures moving purposefully, gracefully, at speed, across a vast green lawn. No cricket fan could resist it, even if it’s baseball. The two great modern stick-and-ball games are not… Read more

Jan 22, 2006

Mistaken priorities

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 22 January Thanks to a minor but persistent ailment, I recently paid a series of visits to my local doctors’ surgery. As always, the waiting room was filled. The patients – mostly working-class, many from the Turkish and Kurdish communities that are prominent in the area – were calm. We… Read more

Jan 8, 2006

Cricket and its consequences

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 8 January THE third successive instalment of what has become the annual India-Pakistan fixture is occasion for both celebration and reflection. After decades in which this premiere sporting encounter was disrupted and distorted by political antagonism, the normalisation of cricketing links over the past two years must be good news… Read more

Jan 4, 2006

Heart and soul

The Guardian, December 31 Review: Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick (Little, Brown) If Sam Cooke had created nothing but the posthumously released “A Change Is Gonna Come”, the first masterpiece of socially conscious soul and one of the shining artistic legacies of the civil rights movement, he would still be… Read more

Jan 1, 2006

Beyond Chutzpah

Red Pepper, January 2006 Review: Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History by Norman G. Finkelstein (Verso) When celebrity trial lawyer and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz published ‘The Case for Israel’ in 2003, it was acclaimed by leading US opinion-makers, including The New York Times and Boston Globe, and quickly… Read more

Dec 27, 2005

Free speech and the war on terror

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 25 December Two pieces of legislation currently wending their way through Britain’s Parliament illustrate how the war on terror is being used to dismantle the very freedoms it’s supposed to secure. Both criminalise the expression of ideas and neither is likely to deal effectively with the problem it purports to… Read more

Dec 11, 2005

Brian Lara: celebration and sadness

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 11 December BRIAN LARA has made a habit of beating world records. In 1994 he posted the then highest Test innings of 375, quickly following it with the highest ever first class score of 501 not out. Last year, he re-took the Test innings record with a score of 400… Read more

Nov 27, 2005

Heeding the call

Poem published in Future Welcome: The Moosehead Anthology 10 edited by Todd Swift Heeding the call In the night-wind the house quakes. Its arthritic timbers mutter sarcastically, and chase me pyjama-clad into the empty, watchful garden. Agricultural vehicles like steel-limbed insects ply the lanes, igniting the hedgerows. Nettles probe the air. On patrol in the… Read more

Saga of an on-going crime

BOOK REVIEW: Secrets and Lies: The True Story of the Iraq War by Dilip Hiro (Politico’s, ?9.99 paperback) The Spokesman, Issue 88, November 2005 In August 2003, the Bush administration published its “100 Days in Iraq” report, declaring confidently: “Most of Iraq is calm, and progress on the road to democracy and freedom not experienced… Read more

Revisiting recent history

WHEN Bill Clinton told a group of students in Dubai recently that the Iraq war had been a “big mistake”, champions of the current White House occupant were quick to accuse him of hypocrisy. For once, they had a strong point. To be clear, Clinton’s criticism was confined to the conduct of the war, not… Read more

Out now: Definable Traces in the Atmosphere

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