January 2012
Laina with January Movies
By Laina Farhat-Holzman
War Horse
As everyone was shuffling out of the movie, sniffing and wiping away tears, I was angry. That a movie that could well have been added to my list of Best War Movies was not just a mess of great battle scenes and manipulative sentimentality about a horse. Spielberg now has clay feet for me.
The story follows the fortunes of a British boy from Devon and his colt, Joey, obviously a thoroughbred who would not be g more...
War Horse
As everyone was shuffling out of the movie, sniffing and wiping away tears, I was angry. That a movie that could well have been added to my list of Best War Movies was not just a mess of great battle scenes and manipulative sentimentality about a horse. Spielberg now has clay feet for me.
The story follows the fortunes of a British boy from Devon and his colt, Joey, obviously a thoroughbred who would not be g more...
Democracy Can Have a Dark Underbelly
As much as I love democracy, Western Liberal Democracy, this institution has a dark side. There are problems with our own American democracy; even more troubling are democracies such as that of Russia, and worse, democracy in the Muslim world. Why is democracy so under assault?
Liberal Democracy is a system in which people do have choices, but there are also rules that keep the “people’s will” from becoming tyranny. Voting is the last step of building a democracy, w more...
Attacking the British Embassy is an Iranian Rite of Passage.
On December 1, Iranian thugs attacked the British Embassy in Tehran in hours-long violence. This recalled the Iranian seizure of the American Embassy in 1979, holding American diplomats hostage for 444 days. When the 1979 assault happened, right after the Iranian Revolution, the Revolutionary Government initially denied complicity (which may have been true). However, in short order, the Ayatollah decided to take credit for this act.
This time, the Iranian press claimed tha more...
What Happens When People Suddenly Have Choices?
The very notion that people have choices in their lives is so new that much of world is still reeling from this idea. For the millennia since the emergence of homo sapiens, choices have been limited. Survival depended upon families, tribes, and later kingdoms, where individual choice was inconceivable, except for the leader, whether father, clan chief, or king. Bad decisions could bring disaster on them all, and leaders were always challenged by others who would then make decisions. Dict more...
Arab Spring Is a Conflict between Religion and Nationalism.
The enthusiasm for the Arab Spring and its birth of democracy in the Middle East gives me heartburn. What we hoped is not what we got. Now, as disillusion sets in, not only ours, but also that of the young demonstrators (particularly young women) who shed their own blood in Tahrir Square and Tunisia, we need to see what the optimists missed.
We have again mistaken voting for democracy. Although people who have never had choices love to vote, they really do not like choices more...