Fotografías de la Ciudad de México desde el aire, Gobierno de Mexico Mexico City is open beauty, the heart that rests on a lake by Ulises Paniagua This city, Mexico City, is a palimpsest. City upon city, city of cities. It has been woven from layers invisible to the passage…
Author: Ars Notoria
We are in favour of humane, democratic socialism
Alexander Medved
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TAKHTI, THE IRANIAN PEOPLE’S CHAMPION
Takhti receiving a medal from the Iranian government with Mossadegh in attendance The embodiment of Fotovat by Ali Hosseyni Gholamreza Takhti’s غلامرضا تختی name is all over Iran and in ever city and town there are wrestling clubs with Takhti’s smiling photograph hanging on the wall in a position of honour. There is…
Art
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SKY, SEA AND VELD
Dirt Road to Hanover, Karoo © Walter Voigt 2024 WALTER VOIGT’S PAINTINGS OF SOUTH AFRICA by Paul Halas While some painters need a sense of detachment to produce their best work, others can’t but help show a sense of intimacy with their subjects. This is mainly true with artists and…
Golem
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When Hollywood rewrote South African History
Hollywood’s Golem version of Mandela by Phil Hall The Western media approved of what seemed like Nelson Mandela’s overly conciliatory beginnings after his release in 1990 and later saw the reflection of their own intentions in the strategies and policies of Thabo Mbeki’s government, the government that followed Mandela’s. In…
Acting
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1. ACTING PRESIDENTS
Bronze statue of FDR with his dog, Fala, Pexels by Norman B. Schwartz In his younger and leaner days, Orson Welles was summoned to the White House by the President of the United States. Franklin Delano Roosevelt greeted the actor, who he admired. “I am delighted to meet the second…
Community
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A Plop in the Ocean
Are offshore tankers a temporary solution to the sewage crisis? by Paul Halas, Phil Hall, Steve Parker, Nicole Stocks, Karl Rutledge . . Officially, the United Kingdom ceased to be a developing country when Sir Joseph Bazalgette CB, a descendent of French Huguenots, designed a new sewage system to solve…
Art
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Seán Lennon’s Rock Dreams
Martin Hayes, Seán Lennon© 2024 . . Kris Kristofferson ‘Thank you for the sadness that you saved me from the madness, baby all I’m crying now are tears of joy..’ ‘In the park I saw a daddyWith a laughin’ little girl that he was swingin’And I stopped beside a Sunday schoolAnd…
Foreign policy realism
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Is Keir Starmer really a foreign policy realist?
Firing British Stormshadow missiles into Russian Federation territory would be absolutely SUICIDAL! by Phil Hall I know that nearly all of us on the left have given up on Keir Starmer and remember his personal betrayal of Jeremy Corbyn with a deep bitterness. But we have to recognise that he…
Aquatic comfort
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Photo essay: The Aquatic Comfort of the Gulf
John Lawrence swimming, Phil Hall by Phil Hall ‘And your Lord taught the honey bee to build its cells in hills, on trees, and in habitations; Then to eat of all the produce of the earth, and find with skill the spacious paths of its Lord: there issues from within…
Bangladesh
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The Brickfields of Dhaka
by Inge Colijn The Brickfields of Dhaka, photo ©Erna Ingeborg Colijn, 2023 The catastrophic air pollution in Dhaka and the damaged topsoil in the surrounding agricultural lands is mainly due to the presence of brick factories. In 2019 the government started destroying many of the illegal facilities which, followed by…
Barrow-in-Furness
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5. THE BLACK HUTS
One of the Huts, photo Margaret Yip by Margaret Yip It is 1977, my children are eleven, ten, seven, six, and three. Elvis has died. His music has accompanied my life since the 50’s, especially his gospel records. My husband Martin arrives home from work at 2.30 pm one day…
Arun Kapil
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Can there be such a thing as an Indian restaurant?
Arun Kapil, the owner of Green Saffron Spices, photo Daragh McSweeney Indian Cooking: the Home, Street and Palace by Arun Kapil Can there be such a thing as an Indian restaurant? The whole Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, is so vast and its beautiful cuisine is so…
Arabian
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THE STORY OF MY COFFEE
Drinking coffee in Abu Dhabi, 2018 by Phil Hall I must have seen those small thick, white Lido hotel porcelain cups and smelled the rank contents long before I tasted the coffee inside them. The Lido is still there. On the road between Pretoria and Johannesburg. It was my grandfather’s…
Andy Hall
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ANDY HALL: NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL
© Andy Hall photographer Exhibition at the Tabernacle Centre W11 2AY Photographer Andy Hall dives into the fray with his camera, showing us scenes, moments and happenings on the streets of west London during Europe’s largest and most diverse annual urban open-air party known as the Notting Hill Carnival. I’ve…
Alfredo Perez Alencart
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Tebræ
Door in Mali, photo Leigh Voigt ISMAËL DIADIÉ HAÏDARA AND HIS EPIGRAMMATIC POETRY ISMAËL DIADIÉ HAÏDARA’s poems may speak of exile, but not in a predictable way that just invokes loss and sadness. He writes: “Exile is not sad. / Far from my home here is love, snow, the sea.” Tebrae is…
European Union
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NATO’S STRATEGIC DELUSIONS RISK WORLD WAR
The nuclear capable TU-160, Vitaly V. Kuzmin, Wikimedia Commons How many steps away are we from thermonuclear Armageddon? by James Tweedie, The war in Ukraine has now been raging for more than two years. While neither has published complete figures for its own casualties, methods such as monitoring online obituaries…
Fletcher Christian
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PITCAIRN’S SIX FORGOTTEN MEN
The Polynesian Men of His Majesty’s Army Vessel, BOUNTY by Glynn Christian The trials and the contributions to Pitcairn Island of the Polynesian women who sailed aboard HMAV BOUNTY with Fletcher Christian have at last been more fully recognised by writers and historians. A few decades ago, a sign at…
Personal experience
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PART 1: WHAT WAS THE USSR?
The Icebreaker Yamal, made in a Leningrad shipyard in 1986, photo Pink floyd88 A personal view by Philip Hall In the first place, anyone who has been involved in the struggle against colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism in Latin America, Africa and Asia and in the more neglected parts of Europe…
Barrow-in-Furness
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4. THE YIP FAMILY BOXING DAY
Margaret Yip in the 1970s by Margaret Yip It is 1974. Debts caught up with Martin up once again. We left Cardiff and returned to Barrow-in-Furness, where Martin found a job in a new paper factory. We rented one room in the centre of Barrow from the lady who owned…
Al Hilla
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MEMORIES OF OLD BABYLON
by Betty Hossaini Al-Hilla, ٱلْحِلَّة is only fifteen minutes away from Old Babylon. It is the capital of Babylon Province. When I was a child, I remember when they took me to Babylon. It was not like it looks like now, in modern times. Not at all! Babylon was a…
Afri Aysha
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WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD FOR DEMOCRACY IN BANGLADESH?
Inauguration plaque of Dhaka Metro Rail photo by Mehdi Abedin, Wikicommons The 2024 elections are over in Bangladesh. What now? by Afri Aysha Bangladesh held parliamentary elections on 7th January 2024. The current Sangsad (parliament) was scheduled to expire on 29 January 2024. In order to guarantee that the election…
Education
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RAMBLIN’ PETE ON EDUKASHUN
by Pete Field I. In which I grumble about the Americans’ use of English in the education system – lack of trust at work Interesting factoid: apparently the USA has, overall, the same level of educational achievement as Mongolia, so why do we keep copying them? Does one Harvard or…
Geopolitics
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SAUDI ARABIA: FROM WESTERN SATRAPY TO INDEPENDENT NATION?
Ismael’s Jambia, photo Phil Hall by Phil Hall The Saudi monarchy, historically propped up by Western powers since its inception—first by the UK and later under U.S. influence—has long balanced between asserting autonomy and reliance on its imperial sponsors. Today, Saudi Arabia aspires to lead the Arab nations and be…
Art
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THE RIGHTS OF MAN & FISH
An introduction to The Rights of Man and Fish by Paul Halas History is bunk, to quote Henry Ford – which, of course, ignores the wider context of what he said, but then he wanted to sell us motor cars and probably wasn’t all that interested in the truth of…
Acorns
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APPLES FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE BOG
An old Rosemary Russet in Wisley Gardens , photo Phil Hall by Phil Hall Eating an apple is like drinking milk. Apples come from a living organism, a relative. The original apple was a fig. Our ancestors co-evolved with fig trees. We are a by-product of fig tree ecology—along with…
Doctor Pangloss
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PANGLOSSIAN DREAMS OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
John Singer Sargent | Joseph Jefferson as Dr. Pangloss | The Metropolitan Museum of Art PR is not a solution to the political impasse in the UK by Phil Hall There is no gimcrack technical electoral fix to the problem of inequality. When I was a teenager at school, I…
Barrow-in-Furness
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3. MARGARET & MARTIN
Martin Yip by Margaret Yip I met Martin in Whitehaven, where I worked for him. He was only 21. Martin had lots of energy. His restaurant was on three floors. The kitchen was in the basement. He could carry five or six plates in his left hand and on his arm…
Bangladesh
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THE ENDANGERED ALPHABETS PROJECT
Mandiac script, Carving by Tim Brookes, The Endangered Alphabets Project Writing Rights, Human Rights by Tim Brookes I had been researching, carving and speaking about endangered alphabets for a decade before it struck me that the few reference sources on the topic said nothing about why these Indigenous and minority…
1960s
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2. ISOBAL ALONE
Photo of Isobal with her son, Joseph By Margaret Yip I left school in 1964 at the age of 15. It was a Friday. I needed a job. By Monday, I had an interview which took place in my home. The wife of a housemaster at a private boys’ school…
Art
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EXHIBITION AMEN
by Zeek Fharkha Zeek Fharkha is an artist, musician, punk, with 2 masters and an honours degree. Fine arts, digital arts and an MBA. He is reading for a PhD at wits business school in Design thinking.
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