Filed under Politics …

Make Love in a Canoe

Recently I explained to a good friend of mine why I consider erotic love a basic human necessity, and why I dare to say that without it, life is incomplete. While one could argue with me by undoing the notion of love with a genealogy or archaeology of the concept, I say, in the widest … Continue reading →

Honoris Causa

In Du bon usage de la Francophonie, Beninese scholar Guy Ossito Midiohouan tells us he habitually corrects people when they refer him as a Professor of French. Professor of literature, he insists. I understand his plight, as in my case, I was often asked, if not challenged, by people in Hong Kong why I would … Continue reading →

Voix

During this long absence, I finally got my act together. I discuss a lot of things in my dissertation, but one of those, and by far the most satisfactory one, remains my critical engagement with this Franco-Vietnamese novelist Linda Lê’s work entitled Voix. In French phonetics, la voix is indistinguishable from la voie. The two … Continue reading →

The Romance of Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo

Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions, courage that could be described as “grace under pressure”—grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure. Within a system which denies … Continue reading →

Thank You Hillary

During the last presidential primary campaign season, my friend Sue gave me a shout about this last minute campaign stop by Hillary near her home in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Since she had gone to Iowa and could actually see and hear Hillary up close, there was no reason for her to go again. I did go, … Continue reading →

The Queen in My Heart

I have some friends who are pretty oblivious to politics. Education cannot be a factor in deciding how they want to conduct their collective, social lives because I have seen extreme some cases of people seeking doctoral degrees from renowned research universities but do not even regularly read any news–in paper, online, mainstream, alternate, local, … Continue reading →

Lettre morte

Since I have just finished a 40-page draft, and taken care of some housekeeping issues, I felt like I had earned some rights to goof around. What makes me feel incredible stupid is that every chapter of my dissertation revolves around a rather self-evident, if not at all silly, idea, that is, it appears self-evident … Continue reading →

Dog Chow

I don’t even know where or how to begin. No matter how politically pungent or extreme some commentators are in this great country, as “opinion leaders,” they still have to submit to the marketplace of opinions. They either risk being sidelined and thus recede into total oblivion, or they lose all credibility and influence in … Continue reading →