A new podcast with journalist Ravi Somaiya, to promote his book “Golden Thread“, discusses some of the latest thinking on a 1961 assassination of the UN Secretary-General: Dag Hammarskjöld was called ‘the greatest statesman of our century’ by John F. Kennedy, but he was found dead with an Ace of Spades mysteriously placed on his … Continue reading Ace of Spades: Assassination of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld
The Guardian gives a contemporary political analysis of how Nazis today use propaganda centers to push their talking points into the US regime’s mouthpiece The conspiracy theory of “white genocide” has been a staple of the racist far right for decades. It has taken many forms, but all of them imagine that there is a … Continue reading Southern Africa History and the “Genocide” of White Farmers
by Jimmy Carter (from the World of Poetry which also has a video of Carter reading his poem) When I behold the charm of evening skies, their lulling endurance; the patterns of stars with names of bears and dogs, a swan, a virgin; other planets that the Voyager showed were like and so unlike our … Continue reading Considering the Void
by Dag Hammarskjold (1905-61) tr. by Leif Sjoberg He will come out Between two warders, Lean and sunburnt, A little bent, As if apologising For his strength, His features tense, But looking quite calm. He will take off his jacket And, with shirt torn open. Stand up against the wall To be executed. He has … Continue reading 18 JUNE 1961
Dag Hammarskjold, Markings, p. 190-191 (Translated from Swedish by Leif Sjoberg and W. H. Auden) Congenial to other people? It it with yourself That you must live. Denied any outlet, The heat transmuted The coal into diamonds. Alone in his secret growth, He found a kinship With all growing things. The manuscript for the book … Continue reading Haiku for today