A. J. Fries/Artist

A. J. Fries/Artist

This ongoing series started with simple portraits of the toys I remembered from childhood, evoking the nostalgia and celebrating the simplistic brilliance of their design. Well-loved and enthusiastically played with, these portraits remind the viewer of the world they left behind when they grew up…

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Fabia Wong/In Search Of …

Fabia Wong/In Search Of …

How a city looks and what it represents depends on where you stand, and such is the case with Hong Kong. From the perspective of many Westerners, Hong Kong is a gateway to the Orient: a jumping off point for travelers to Southeast Asia, with a glittering airport replete with European luxury goods, where exquisite cuisine gives way to a raucous night-life. It is a free-market capitalist’s paradise where English is a common language, there is rule of law and sufficient institutional stability for investment.

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In search of… /Fabia Wong

The fair result of any negotiation is premised upon an equality of arms that simply does not exist in the justice system. Effective defense advocacy – whether at the bargaining table or before a jury – requires a command of the details of a case. It is expensive and unavailable to the majority of accused persons. On the flip side, as illustrated by the deal struck by Mr. Epstein’s counsel, those with the resources can force a lopsided result using political pressure or other objectionable means. Negotiations reduce what is supposed to be an impartial procedure to an arm-wrestling match, rigged in favour of whomever has the heavier billfold.

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The Age of Jackals/Henry A. Giroux

The Age of Jackals/Henry A. Giroux

What must be remembered here is that neoliberal fascism cannot be understood narrowly as simply an economic system. It also functions as a form of public pedagogy and mode of persuasion and rationality intent on naturalizing its own worldview. Most importantly, it works through a range of cultural apparatuses to depoliticize by colonizing justifiable forms of mass anger and redirecting them into cesspools of hatred aimed at those populations considered disposable.

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Primer to the Primaries/Redux

Primer to the Primaries/Redux

The ideological struggles noted speak to the tensions between economic and social (wo)man that have existed throughout human history.  In other words, it’s always been a contest over how to best manage the two elements tied to human nature.  Whatever systems might develop, this is something to keep in mind, particularly given that some form of capitalism may best serve the contemporary interests of both social and economic man.

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Jim Palombo/Politics

 In this day and age it is not existential thinking to ask “who are we” or “what kind of country do we want to be?”  Nor is it out of the realm to consider whether we can realistically achieve our societal goals given the ideological behavior we’ve exhibited over time, including our actions related to empire building, consumption, individualism, social responsibility, and so forth. Put another way can we, in “real time,” individually and collectively face-up to the enormous task of looking at ourselves as ourselves and make changes accordingly? Moreover, under what conditions might this form of collective self-analysis legitimately occur?

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How higher education in the era of Trump has been weaponized — and how it can be redeemed

How higher education in the era of Trump has been weaponized — and how it can be redeemed

onald Trump’s ascendancy in American politics has made visible a plague of deep seated civic illiteracy, a corrupt political system, and a contempt for reason that has been decades in the making. It also points to the withering of civic attachments, the undoing of civic culture, the decline of public life, and the erosion of any sense of…

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Henry Giroux/Politics

Trump’s Racist Language of Pollution Drives His Neoliberal Fascism   President Trump speaks to the media after a meeting with congressional leaders about ending the partial government shutdown, in the Rose Garden at the White House on January 4, 2019, in...

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Henry A. Giroux/Politics

(As true today as it was then...) Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation is not an isolated event, and in the current historical moment has dark meaning Even in the darkest of times we have the right to some illumination. -- Hannah Arendt by Henry A. Giroux [dropcap...

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Fabia Wong/In search of…

Fabia Wong/In search of…

In tandem with these reductions in timeframes, the law proposes to double the permissible period to detain an individual whose claim for asylum has been rejected. This measure is only undertaken where the person presents a flight risk. According to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, states are authorized to detain aliens to prevent unlawful immigration if there are appropriate safeguards and if there is a judicial decision authorizing the detention.  By extending the period, the government has effectively bought itself more time before such detention is considered “illegal”. 

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