"Regele o pornea pe din dos îmbrăcat civil (...) aborda câte o prostituată, o ducea la Palat și, după câte o ședință, îi dă drumul cu un bilet de 500 sau 1000. La ieșirea din Palat era ridicată de agenții poliției si dusă la G.Marinescu, care îi mai da 500 și o amenință cu moartea dacă spune ceva."

A list of some of his students, each of them has a crazy life story of their own & broadened theories and concepts of their field, highly recommend reading the book to find out about them: -Margaret Mead -Ruth Benedict -Ella Deloria -Zora Neale Hurston 4/

Boas, a German Jew who immigrated to the US end of the 19th c, revolutionized the nascent field of anthropology: he fought against scientific racism and highlighted the important of culture in social groups. His debate against eugenicist Madison Grant recalls White supremacist theories of today. 2/

📖 Gods of the Upper Air (still no clue as to why they picked this title...) by Charles King was a very interesting book about the School of anthropology lead by Franz Boas, who produced some of the most famous anthropologists of the time, many of them women! 1/

Pendant que des diplomates négocient à la virgule des résolutions qui ne seront jamais appliquées, il y a chaque fois plus de morts et plus de territoires occupés & grignotés (quel que soit le parti au pouvoir en Israël) C'est irritant de voir Bibi déjà traiter chacun de Nazi dans les années 90. 4/

Il y a quelque chose de désespérant à voir les mêmes schémas se répéter en empirant à chaque génération: les USA qui se prétendent les arbitres du conflit tout en soutenant de plus en plus ouvertement Israël, la complicité impuissante des Européens, la corruption et clientélisme des pays arabes. 3/

📖- C'est suite à ceci que je me suis mise à lire le monumental "Question juive, problème arabe" d'Henry Laurens, qui couvre l'histoire de la région entre 1798-2001. Il m'aura fallut plus de 6 mois pour en venir à bout, mais cela vaut la peine pour donner du contexte à ce qui suit depuis 2001. 2/

📖 What an oppressing story, but greatly written! Die Wand by Marlen Haushofer will join the pile of books I loved but that I will never touch again.

Nevertheless, the book concludes on a hopeful note. The Pinochet case questioned his immunity as former head of state, paving the way for trials in Chile. Ever since, dictators are limited in their travels in certain countries as arresting them is no longer taboo (e.g. putin in South Africa). 4/

The Nazi/DINA part reads like a proper detective investigation. Sands is very thorough in his allegations. What struck me the most was how much Justice depends on the will & tenacity of very few people invested in the case. Sometimes it is even pure luck (one guy agrees to sign a paper). 3/

The book discusses the effects of impunity: in the end both men died without paying for their numerous crimes. Rauff, as a direct consequence of fleeing Justice, probably helped the DINA in Chile to commit crimes against humanity, by giving advices for torture, interrogations and body disposal. 2/

📖 Another great book by @philippesands.bsky.social 38 Londres Street tells the intertwined stories of the arrest of Chile dictator Pinochet in London in 98 at Spain's request and the schemings of Nazi Walther Rauff in Patagonia (Chile) after his flight from Germany following WW2. 1/

La conclusion est excellente. Elle prend l'exemple de la déchéance d'Elizabeth Holmes et la manière dont la presse, qui l'avait d'abord encensée, clame que son idée était forcément irréaliste. Cette même presse ne s'émeut pas par contre des idées de Musk : hyperloop, colonisation de Mars, etc... 3/

Suivent ensuite les entrepreneurs des siècles passés (Carnegie par ex), avant de faire le lien avec les actuels de la tech et le mythe du "parti-de-rien". Bill Gates par exemple, venant de la classe aisée, ne pouvait pas prétendre à ce rôle. Il s'est alors construit un perso de geek sympathique. 2/

📖 J'ai adoré le livre d'Anthony Galluzzo sur le mythe de l'entrepreneur, un sujet auquel il s'attaque de manière très intelligente. Le premier chapitre, Steve Jobs, est un cas d'école de construction de cette image de visionnaire incompris & de grande maîtrise du storytelling. 1/

One of the Sixtiers she most talks about is Alla Horska, a Ukrainian artist killed by the KGB in 1970. 52 years later, a russian bomb destroyed one of her mosaics in Mariupol. The continuum of russian destruction of Ukrainian art and authors throughout the last century really makes one sick. 4/

She has made an interesting narrative choice: alternating between her own experience & choices through the war, various accounts by various women across the country and connecting it with stories of the Executed Renaissance in Ukraine in the 60s, a movement I didn't know a thing about. 3/

Would she have wanted the diary published without her final say in it ? But while reading it, the book really grew on me. I think her friends have done an honest job wrapping it up. The unfinished excerpts are clearly indicated and the selected testimonies of the war are very powerful. 2/

📖🇺🇦 When I started reading Looking at Women Looking at War by Victoria Amelina, I wasn't too sure about it. The author, a young Ukrainian novelist turned war crimes researcher, was killed by a russian missile attack in the summer of 2023, leaving the book unfinished. 1/

Suisse à 10 millions : J'aime beaucoup ces graphiques du Temps qui démontrent que moins la commune est densément peuplée, plus elle a voté <Oui> Par exemple, ce village du Valais de 71 habitants (3 hab/km2) a voté à 65% oui pour limiter la population suisse 🙃

@voxeurop.bsky.social has a great article about the first expulsions by Poland. They did it with a military airplane on their own (without Frontex), without the taliban's consent, mobilising a polish team of 25 persons. All of this for 3 Afghans, with no criminal record. voxeurop.eu/en/deportati...

Hilarious: at the remigration party in Portugal, some of the participants were wondering whether the Portuguese hosts really belong to the "white race"

📖J'ai beaucoup aimé l'humour de Friday et Friday d'Antonythasan Jesuthasan qui, à travers ses différentes nouvelles, raconte le quotidien d'un réfugié tamoul en France en alternance avec des histoires de vie au Sri Lanka lors des différentes guerres (sur lesquelles je ne connais absolument rien) 1/

Still having a hard time believing the French would fall for this empty shell

Voici un vrai titre d'article concernant le bombardement ukrainien d'un terminal pétrolier à St-Pétersbourg et qui fait plaisir à lire après le titre "both-sideist" du @letemps.ch qui m'a fort dépité :

All the stories from the book have angered and disgusted me. It doesn't seem to require some brilliant intuition to trade with SA during Apartheid or with various dictators around the world. These people have no shame whatsoever: destroying climate, buying politicians, manipulating the markets. 2/

📖- I don't know if it was J. Blas & J. Farchy's aim, but their book The World For Sale managed to disgust me even more of commodity traders. The way they are talked of in business they sometimes come out as adventurers at the markets' edges, bold investment cowboys with a unique flair. 1/

📖 - Préliminaires pour un verger futur par Karim Kattan est un recueil de 3 nouvelles parlant de près et surtout de loin de la Palestine. Elles ont pour thème l'exil, la poésie & la difficile relation à la langue arabe à l'étranger. Le poème d'introduction, publié en 2024, est très beau & très dur:

📖 - Finally finished Theodoros. This is the third novel by Cărtărescu that I read & I don't really know why I've put myself through it *again* (other than the fact that it was a gift from a family friend)

Slowly, every country yearns to go back to their most glorious past. This novel is a cure for idiotic populist/nationalist nostalgia. As the Auden WW2 poem puts it: we must love one another or die. "Tomorrow was September 1" 3/