Cilaw

LATEST ARTICLES ( 91 )

• George Galloway on Crime and Consent

  

  Rape, like the introductory offer at my yoga studio, is a charge that only applies on the first visit. This, according to George Galloway, in defence of... Read more

  Posted on 22 August 2012 CULTURE, DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Sikh Temple Shooting – Domestic Terrorism?

  

  I flippantly suggested that random violence is only “domestic terrorism” if the perpetrator is wearing a turban. I was wrong. It’s domestic terrorism if anyone... Read more

  Posted on 07 August 2012 CULTURE, DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Creating The Consumer

  “The American citizen’s first importance to his country is now no longer that of citizen but that of consumer.” The Century of Self tells how Sigmund Freud’s... Read more

  Posted on 03 August 2012 CULTURE, DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Media Makes You Lonely

  

  NB: I wrote shortly after moving to Glasgow in 2010, hence the outdated celebrity references. If I were less lazy I could scrounge up contemporary examples but... Read more

  Posted on 26 July 2012 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Denver Batman Shooting – Define Terrorist Please

  

  Forget apple pie, baseball and flagwaving: random mass murder is the the true defining characteristic of America. A Denver, Colorado shooting left at least 14... Read more

  Posted on 20 July 2012 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Meet The Pickleman – the Story of St John and Dolly Smith

  

  Chris Smith, founder and sole proprietor of St. John & Dolly Smith’s, looks out of place amidst the leggy, Rayban-and-cuffed-trouser clientele. Small,... Read more

  Posted on 15 July 2012 FOOD & DRINK

• How To Do What You Really Want

  

  In one of my favorite lines in my favourite book Zooey comments that: “Anyone who’s using his real ego doesn’t have time for goddamn hobbies. Read more

  Posted on 12 July 2012 CULTURE, SOCIETY

• Waging War on Privilege

  

  Our responsibility is to use the gifts we have righteously and to not make excuses. Just because we can’t save someone doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help them; and... Read more

  Posted on 24 June 2012 DEBATE, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Modern Life and Rubbish

  

  Have a vague idea that people throw too much stuff away, and that they should recycle more? Well, you’re right. We do, and we should. In fact, we should... Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2012 SOCIETY

• Working It Out

  

  Mother Jones is running a great series called Speed Up on the corporate exploitation of working Americans. Here is a particularly cogent warning about how to no... Read more

  Posted on 07 June 2012 CULTURE, DEBATE, SOCIETY

• An All-American Truth

  

  British author Kenneth Allsop was writing about the Great Depression in this quote but it rings true today… American has always been saved by the citizen’s... Read more

  Posted on 30 May 2012 CULTURE, DEBATE, SOCIETY

• London Vegan Restaurant Review: InSpiral Café Camden

  

  InSpiral Café perches above Camden Lock, overlooking the dark, sluggish swirl of the canal and the snaking crowds of tourists that turn this corner of north... Read more

  Posted on 21 May 2012 DINING OUT, FOOD & DRINK

• How Women Can Win

  

  In the epilogue to her 1992 feminist classic Backlash Susan Faludi writes: The backlash watchtowers flashed their warning signals without cease, and like... Read more

  Posted on 05 May 2012 CULTURE, DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Brown Rice Arsenic Scare – An Alternative Reading

  

  Beware hippies! Organic brown rice is laced with arsenic. Your do-gooding, Mother Earth-loving, weird eating habits are going to KILL YOU. Mwah hahahahaha.... Read more

  Posted on 05 April 2012 DEBATE, HEALTH, SOCIETY

• How To Be Happy – an Anti-Marketing Manifesto

  There is something hovering just beyond my fingertips. My brain is rolling around, trying to see the connections. I know it’s all there: the link between... Read more

  Posted on 03 April 2012 CULTURE, DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Time to Legalise Drugs

  

  A doff of the hat to Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina for calling for discussion of the decriminalisation to end the War On Drugs:“We have seen that the... Read more

  Posted on 25 March 2012 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Women’s Rights? Not in Chile

  I’ve long cherished a desire to visit Chile, based mostly on a huge affection for their fine wines and excellent techno music. This Guardian column took a lot o... Read more

  Posted on 08 March 2012 CULTURE, DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Irrational Behaviour Makes Us Human

  

  Watching ‘The Happening’ on TV I get annoyed at the formulaic horror-film behavior. The characters, when they realize the unseen enemy is only attacking, bunch... Read more

  Posted on 04 March 2012 CULTURE, DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Why Corporations Are Better Than Politicians

  

  Ultimately, the driving force of consumerism is not identity-creation, it is the need for agency. People engage with corporations because when they buy shit the... Read more

  Posted on 18 February 2012 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Drugs On The Internet

  

  I love the smell of a moral panic in the morning. It smells like… British journalism. Some bright spark at the BBC recently discovered that – oh my – maybe... Read more

  Posted on 03 February 2012 ART & DESIGN, BOOKS, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, POLITICS, SOCIETY