Reading: Forlorn (忧 郁) by Bei Dao
Emboldened by my anthologizing habit, today I discover the Chinese poet Bei Dao (a pseudonym that means “northern island”). As usual, I’ll say what I like about this poem. I take the elevator from an underground parking lot up to sea level deep thoughts continuing up, through blue color like doctors you can’t stop them, …
Reading: M – Black Monday by Marcin Świetlicki
Today there is this compact poem by Marcin Świetlicki for our ideosyncratic anthology. As usual, I’ll say what struck me about these lines. The moment when all the town’s streetlamps light up simultaneously. The moment when you say your incredible “no,” and suddenly I don’t know what to do next: die? go away? not respond? …
Urban sketch #3
On today’s walk I go further than ever before: all the way to the Sky Park and the Sunset Park, two wonders of urban development right next to the neighborhood I live in since March. The Parks were formerly the world’s largest mound of municipal waste, spreading an unbearable stench and belching forth methane, which …
Habit #2: Language learning
Habits seem to work better if you can divide them in smaller chunks that can give you an instant sense of accomplishment without taking up too much time. One very ‘chunkable’ habit is language learning. We have a plethora of resources at our fingertips, so I won’t go into that here. Google yields all the best …
Habit #1: daily summary of famous literature
Like most people on the Internet, I’m looking for better habits. The Scroll of Facebook and Twitter with its plethora of information and disinformation is an assault on the mind and eats up our time. Binging Netflix can be fun and is really effective to take your mind off of something, but it also messes …
In Defense Of The Philosophy Faculty
When I began studying philosophy in 1997 some people called it navel-gazing. It is no different in 2017, as calls for austerity affect everything that doesn’t generate a direct cash return. The reputation of philosophy, because it has no (and cannot have) direct practical value, is that of a complex game of words that refuses …
How a slew of privileges earned me a Basic Income
I don’t think it’s because I am white. My online clients don’t always see my profile photos and my first name, Kamiel, doesn’t radiate whiteness unequivocally, while my inofficial surname, Choi (최) is unambiguously Korean. Though the name might play a role, I am sure there are other factors. I was once given two academic …
Weightism
The obsession with equality, forged in the boredom of the post-war world order, has spawned concepts like ableism, genderism, and so on. By claiming to be fully inclusive, they make the denial of those differences not protected by the neologisms all the more cruel. Manufacturing an -ism for each difference, alluring as it is because …
culotte – Khulood
When I learned that a Saudi Arabian model by the name of Khulood had been arrested because she walked around butt-naked in a mini-skirt in the old town of Ushaiger, my mind filled with self-righteous anger, that forces itself out in this puff of half-informed vitriol. I don’t need to know all the details. I want …
Subway station
I imagine feeling elated when I walk in the underground concrete counting irksome smiles and turnstiles breathing bubbles into transient thoughts that need not be fierce and piercing I imagine yellow trains leaving on the lower levels that connect the shopping and further I imagine electric voices barking liberation from melting speakers and all the …