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Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969), a pseudonym meaning ‘he who enlightens’, was the leader of the independence struggle in Vietnam and served as the President of North Vietnam (1945-1969). He was a leader of the anti-colonial struggle in Asia, advocating for revolutionary action long before the establishment of the Community Party in 1930. A short book, […]

Tags: #Anti-colonial struggle #Colonialism #Equality #Ho Chi Minh #Imperialism #Revolution #Struggle #Vietnam

Thought Provokers
Teach for Arabia

Teach for Arabia

After some politically-oriented books on Qatar, I was pleased to find Neha Vora’s “Teach for Arabia: American Universities, Liberalism, and Transnational Qatar” (2019). The book takes a quasi ethnographic approach to Education City (individual interviews and personal experience) and the author is reflexive about a wide range of topics and experiences. “Field” research was conducted […]

Tags: #Education City #Liberal Piety #Neha Vora #Qatar #Teach for Arabia

Thought Provokers
Confronting Empire

Confronting Empire

Eqbal Ahmad (1933-1999) is a fascinating activist academic; not the least because he came into his own in the 1960s in North Africa, largely in Algeria, where he worked with Frantz Fanon in the struggle for liberation. He was also quite close with Edward Said. He was born in India, studied in Pakistan, then the […]

Tags: #Colonialism #Confronting Empire #Eqbal Ahmad #Fanon #Post-colonial

Thought Provokers
Warriors in a Time of Sacrifice

Warriors in a Time of Sacrifice

Ambassador of Panama to the State of Qatar, Oreste Del Rio Sandoval, prepared a paper for a presentation made at Camilo Jose Cela University, Spain, on his experience in Qatar. The work turned into a book, titled ‘Warriors in a Time of Sacrifice’ (2019), published by Lusail. The title draws from a line in the national […]

Tags: #Oreste Del Rio Sandoval #Qatar #Warriors in a Time of Sacrifice

Thought Provokers
Small State, Big Politics

Small State, Big Politics

Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar, Mehran Kamrava, penned one of the most read / taught books on Qatar in 2013 (with a 2015 adding an updated Preface): Qatar: Small State, Big Politics. Having read a few books on Qatar, this is one of the best, although increasingly dated (the content essentially up […]

Tags: #Hedging #Politics #Qatar #Small State #Smart Power

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Culture and Imperialism

Culture and Imperialism

 Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) is a foundational text in critical studies, as of this writing was cited nearly 70,000 times. In 1993 Said wrote Culture and Imperialism, which broadens the view, broadens the literature, and engages more literature from the liberation activists and writers, but is cited less (at of this writing nearly 30,000; which […]

Tags: #Colonization #Culture #Edward Said #Imperialism #Revolution

Thought Provokers