Norwegian man arrested for Oslo bombing and Utøya shootings

One of the first reactions to the terrible incident in Norway I came across was by a Facebook friend and acquitance of my wife’s. Without any shred of evidence, he blamed “the bastard sons of Muhammad” for the attacks,which were supposedly revenge for the Danish cartoons reprinted in Norway in 2006. The man is a [...]

Lluvia y el dulce sabor circular del tiempo

Por Mercedes López, 2011. Ha estado lloviendo a chaparrones en los últimos días. Tras un periodo luminoso y soleado, volvemos a un otoño templado o una primavera fría. A pesar de estar en el mes de Julio, como Irlanda está más cerca del Ártico y Groenlandia, las estaciones son las de otro mundo verde, no [...]

Eskimo Avenue: Pejorative Arctic ethnonyms as the final frontier of racism?

Kenn Nakata Steffensen   At the recent Media for All Conference in London I came across a stall marketing a new division of the subtitling company Broadcast Text International. The rather unfortunate name they have chosen is Eskimo Avenue. It could not have been named Paki Street or Nigger Lane, but it seems that Eskimo [...]

Movimiento 15M y la ruptura del contrato social

(c) Mercedes López Invarato, 2011. Este texto es aún un borrador y un trabajo en curso. Son unas notas rápidas con pensamientos sobre las críticas que se están aireando en España contra los políticos profesionales, el sistema y proceso electoral y lo que interpreto como una aguda y profunda crisis de legitimidad. Esta crisis ha [...]

Defending Denmark’s borders and its international reputation: Mutually exclusive messages in two languages

Kenn Nakata Steffensen The Danish government’s recent decision to impose border controls in possible violation of its Schengen Treaty obligations has caused concern among the country’s EU partners, its immediate neighbours Sweden and Germany in particular. The apparent intention to permanently reintroduce border controls (unlike France’s temporary closure earlier this year) has cast the EU’s [...]

True Democracy Now in Cork: Some questions and comments from a sympathetic observer

Kenn Nakata Steffensen I have followed in the news media what is happening in Spain and the support it has engendered around the world, including here in Cork. It is interesting and potentially politically transformative. It is inspiring to see people peacefully protesting against injustices. Hopefully, something better than what has existed until now will [...]

Michael Mumisa takes aim at Satoshi Kanazawa and shoots himself in the foot

Kenn Nakata Steffensen Today is the first time I have come across the works of Sheikh Michael Mumisa of Cambridge and Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics. One is a South African Quranic scholar and Ph.D. candidate in literature, the other a Japanese evolutionary psychologist and reader in management. Both are of [...]

Subtitling on BBC World Service Newshour 20th May 2010

There was a short item on subtitling on the World Service’s Newshour programme on 20th May 2010. Michael Brook of the BFI was interviewed. Frankly, he does not seem to know much about the subtitling industry or the craft of subtitling. I will have a few words to say about it later, but I am [...]

Cop-enhagen: Memories of the Danish police

Kenn Nakata Steffensen Recent media reports of Danish police brutality brought back memories of my student days in “wonderful Cop-enhagen”. Some days ago, the police there arrested almost a thousand mostly peaceful and law-abiding marchers and were only able to charge a dozen with any offences. All had their hands tied and were held for [...]

Is existentialism nationalism?

Kenn Nakata Steffensen Is existentialism nationalism? The “turbulent priest” and Danish People’s Party parliamentarian Søren Krarup argues that it is. The following is a translation of an article he published in Politiken on 10th November 2009. He draws on Kierkegaard to argue that a change of system has taken place in Denmark, and that the [...]