THE CHAOS THEORY

“Gus Gur on Religion, Democracy, and Peace” edited by Hairus Salim HS

KH Abdurrahman Wahid, or more fondly nicknamed Gus Dur, was Indonesia’s 4th president that ruled during the turbulent political era of post-Suharto reformation (1999-2001). He was the grandson of the founder of Nahdlatul Ulama (the largest Islamic organization in the world) and later its leader, who was famous for preaching tolerance.

As an Indonesian president he dismantled the strongholds of 32-years-dictator Suharto, such as the presence of the military in parliament, Suharto’s propaganda ministry, and the power of some Suharto loyalists, among many others (all of which would backfire later). And perhaps most crucially, Gus Dur also opened up the country to all religion including the re-embracing of Chinese religion Confucius and many different interpretation of Islam.

He had this laid back mannerism in him, with lots of wits and jokes, despite famous for being a scholar and an intellectual who loves to read a wide range of books. He also became partially blind at the age of 45, hence the added mysticism towards this enigmatic figure.

This book is the diligent collection of his best of the best thinking, divided into 13 selected essays (out of hundreds) that truly represent Gus Dur’s thinking:

1. The Muslim masses in the life of the nation and of the state.
2. Is there a concept of an Islamic State?
3. Islam and Pancasila: Development of a religious political doctrine in Indonesia.
4. Religion and democracy.
5. Islam, culture, and indigenization.
6. Is Arabization the same with Islamization? (My favourite essay)
7. Religion and the challenge of culture.
8. The universalism of Islam and cosmopolitanism of Islamic civilization.
9. The revival of Islamic civilization: Is it happening?
10. In search of a novel perspective on human rights enforcement.
11. The republic of Earth on heaven: Another side of religious motive within the people’s movement.
12. Justice and reconciliation.
13. Islam, anti-violence, and national transformation.

The subject matters cover what Gus Dur is expert on: religion (as a scholar and leader of an Islamic organization), democracy (as the president of Indonesia in the transition between Suharto’s dictatorship and democracy), and peace (one of the things that made him famous for, peace and tolerance).

On the latter, his opening up to many different interpretations of Islam has unfortunately also brought back hardliners to the country. Although in fairness to him he did write extensively about the danger of the spread of “transnational Islam” (aka Wahhabism) in Indonesia, just before he passed away in 2009. This was years before it got to alarming levels, especially the politicization of Islam in order to gain power, which is one of the core problems that Indonesia is facing today since 2017.

The book has a phenomenal introduction by its editor, Hairus Salim HS, that provides an excellent context on Gus Dur’s background: from his time at pesantren (Islamic boarding school) to studying in Egypt and Baghdad, to making his name in Jakarta’s intellectual scene as an open minded person with a cosmopolite attitude.

As Hairus remarks, “from the background of coming from a pesantren family, a grandfather who found Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) one of the biggest Islamic organization in Indonesia, a father who became one of Indonesia’s founding fathers, an ancestry connected to rulers of olden Java [his family genealogy was connected to King Brawijaya IV, a ruler of Java on the 15th century], and his readings and modern associated, had formed Gus Dur as a complex and paradoxical man.”

Hairus then dived deep into further explanation on Gus Dur’s origins of thoughts, which covers the traditional Islamic thinking vs the reformation that Gus Dur is teaching, complete with the background arguments (such as Arabization vs Indigenization) and the judgement processes within the council of scholars that will appear more in the 13 essays.

Note that Gus Dur is often placed by scholars as one of Indonesia’s neo-modernism scholar, which means an intellectual movement that reprocesses Islam modernism with combination of actual appreciation towards rich classical traditions. Hence, the importance of this context about his thinking cannot be highlighted enough, a fitting introduction before we read the essays.

All in all, this is one of the most important books about the history and intellectual foundation of Indonesia. Reading them not only gives new insights about the country and the great man himself, but it also gives me the nostalgic feeling about the Indonesia that I grew up in, Gus Dur’s Indonesia.

And although he only ruled for less than 2 years (he was impeached by the People’s Consultative Assembly using bogus corruption charges that have since been proven false), his policies are still imprinted in the DNA of the country even today. And there’s no better English-language book that can capture this essence than this one. Such an important read.

“Guerilla Warfare” by Ernesto Che Guevara

Ernesto “Che” Guevara is a polarizing figure.

He’s that iconic face on every rebellious teenager’s t-shirt, the unlikely global merchandise (capitalist) icon, and a romantic figure of an Argentinian doctor turned socialist revolutionary figure fighting against US imperialism. The movie “The Motorcycle Diaries” about his travels in Latin America during his doctor days, which first moved him into activism, is still one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.

But you know what they say, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. While he was adored by many as a freedom fighter, Che Guevara is labelled by the US as a terrorist, because alongside Fidel Castro et al he fought and won against US-puppet dictator Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. And one of the first things they did after assuming power in 1959 was to seize the properties of a US company, United Fruit Company, that holds thousands of acres of land in the island and re-distribute them to the Cuban people.

This book was published in 1961, and it immediately became the paramilitary go-to handbook for thousands of guerilla fighters in multiple countries around the globe. It is based on Guevara’s personal experience in the successful Cuban Revolution that stretched for 5 years and 5 months.

The book declares right at the beginning that the victory in the Cuban revolution generates 3 lessons: 1. Popular forces can win a war against the state army 2. Guerillas don’t have to wait until all conditions met to start a revolution, instead they can create them 3. In the underdeveloped Americas the basic place to operate a guerilla movement is in the countryside. Guevara also emphasized that the prerequisite principal of the guerilla warfare is that it can only be implemented after all peaceful and legal means have been exhausted and it has the support of its people.

But when an arms uprising is really needed? The book proceeded to discuss the strategy of warfare in much detail, with topics such as the various forms of combat tactics, hit-and-run strikes, sabotage, ambush, destroying supplies, protracted combat at a distance, encircling the enemy, surprise and rapidity of attacks, splitting into smaller groups when needed, the importance of knowing the battlefield, on saving bullets and use them accurately, replenishing weapons and ammunition using their enemy’s as the source (or even from fallen comrades), luring the enemy to fight in a favorable ground, or adapting to fight in an unfavorable ground.

The book also describes the daily life of a guerilla fighter, including indoctrination and uniformed political beliefs, on supplies and transportation, military discipline, bed time discipline, or how to manage the shifts in daily battles. It covers the subject of physical and mental robustness, where guerillas must be able to sleep anywhere and go without food for days and carry all of their supplies on the back: which includes clothes, a knapsack, a hammock with nylon roof, a weapon, a canteen, canned food, and soap. And shoes, shoes are essential to enable the fighters to mobilize to any terrain, and it is advisable to wear them at all times even when sleeping (so they can get going quickly).

Moreover, Guevara then discusses about the organization of a guerilla operation, the choice of formation, the number of units moving together, what kind of weapons being used in different circumstances, medicine and medical problems, the role of the women, eating equipment, note-taking tools, information intelligence, and perhaps most crucially on establishing a de facto civil government in a friendly area. Along the way, he provides several guerilla examples from history, from Mao Zedong to Ho Chi Minh, from a case in Ukraine against Soviet Union to the story in Algeria against the French.

It is a fast read filled with highly actionable information, perfect as a guide for an uprising. No wonder that the book has become one of the main guides for guerilla war.

PS: Not long after the publication of this book Che Guevara disappeared from public view in 1965, only to be found leading a guerilla force in Congo (unsuccessfully) and then in Bolivia when on 9 October 1967 he was eventually caught by CIA-backed Bolivian army. He was immediately assassinated.

“Pramoedya Ananta Toer Dari Dekat Sekali: Catatan Pribadi Koesalah Soebagyo Toer” by Koesalah Soebagyo Toer

This is a very intimate biography of Pramoedya Ananta Toer; told from the perspectives of his closest little brother, Koesalah Soebagyo Toer, the person who Pramoedya tells almost everything to.

The book consist of short chapters that provide many new angles for Pramoedya’s life story, his everyday personality, his hopes and worries, and his rants over many things. It shows, above all things, that Pramoedya is a strong-headed, principled, and eccentric character full of passion and emotions.

Indeed he can be difficult at times, but overall he’s a kind hearted person who likes to have snarky comments and the occasional dad jokes. He’s also stubborn over health issues too, which is endearing and reminds me of my late dad.

The book shows all of this through stories about his family structure, his name changes, his two marriages, the difficulties during his many times in prison, suicide thoughts during exile, money matters, family affairs that make him look like a normal family person, or what he’s like as the oldest brother that took care of his siblings after their parents died.

Moreover, the book also discusses about his difficult relationship with his father, the fact that it took him 10 years to finish elementary school, his youth era when he was in a military fighting against the Dutch and allied forces (which inspired several of his books), or many other random stories like his bizarre experience with black magic.

And of course it discusses his many books, where he got the inspirations from, a glimpse of his research process, his diligent habit of reading historical books and documents, on government censorship towards his work, the stressfulness of publishing books, that one time he was being cheated by his publisher, on being nominated for a Nobel Prize, and many others, including his story with fellow writers like Sandjaja, A. K. Hadi, and Asrul Sani.

It is truly a side of Pramoedya that I haven’t seen before, the human side. And it is a great addition to the puzzle piece of knowledge about Pramoedya the sage and the legendary Indonesian writer.

“The Economics Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained” by Niall Kishtainy

I’m a sucker for the history of finance and economics. One of my favourite books of all time is “History of Money” by Jack Weatherford, followed closely by “Debt: The First 5000 Years” by David Graeber, while “Ascents of Money” by Niall Ferguson and “Money: The Unauthorized Biography” by Felix Martin are also largely fascinating.

I also love the more recent “The Price of Time: The Real History of Interest” by Edward Chancellor, or his classic “Devil Take The Hindmost” about market speculations. Or the “Reckoning” by Jacob Soll, about the history of accounting. “Treasure Island” by Nicholas Shaxson, about tax havens. “Currency Wars” by James Rickards, about, well, currency wars. Or even “Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic” by Hugh Sinclair, where my review on the book has led me to get into email exchanges with Sinclair himself and talk more about the dodgy microfinance industry.

And don’t get me started with all the financial market books, from the Market Wizard series, Inside the House of Money, Money Masters of Our Time, to any book about (and by) Soros, Buffett, Munger, Graham, Rogers, Dalio, and many other investment gods. And who doesn’t like the crazy tales about the market? Among many others, Liar’s Poker is a must read, followed by F.I.A.S.C.O, Traders Guns & Money, Monkey Business, When Genius Failed, 13 Bankers, and of course The Big Short.

And then we have economic books, from Marxist Economics to books about Keynes, Friedrich List, every book by Ha-Joon Chang, Joseph Stiglitz, to Thomas Piketty’s Capital, even reading Erik S. Reinert’s eye opening book about the true state of global economy. In fact I read about 30+ finance and economic books in one year at one time, while religiously reading The Economist, several blogs such as ZeroHedge and FT Alphaville, and re-watching the long documentary “The Commanding Heights” for at least 5 times. And that is outside of my master’s degree in finance. Indeed, obsessed is an understatement.

Which brings us to this book. The book covers pretty much every important ideas about finance and economics: ancient currencies, to the birth of banking, central banking mechanism, micro finance, economic crisis, bubbles, inflation, electronic money, trade and protectionism, demographic, the gold standard, Planned economy, property rights, statistics and how to measure the economy, the law of diminishing marginal utility, opportunity cost, currency crisis, bailouts, tax cuts, game theory, ponzi scheme, creative destruction, market crashes, bank runs, taxing pollution, on famine, single currency, economic cycle, price discrimination, collective bargaining, climate change, debt relief, exchange traded companies, financial derivatives, on incentives, international trade, the arguments on how to eradicate poverty, the post-Bretton-Woods global system, developmental economics, economics as a predictable science, economics as a force of nature, Keynes vs. Hayek, and many more fascinating debates and ideas, including my favourite subject behaviour economics.

All written in a concise and light manner. Pretty impressive since the subject of economics is often presented in a heavy, lengthy, and boring fashion.

We also get to learn about the many economic theories from thinkers such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, David Hume, Jean Bodin, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Irving Fisher, Milton Friedman, Ha-Joon Chang, Alfred Marshall, Theodore Schultz, John Stuart Mill, Kenneth Arrow, Joseph Schumpeter, Paul Krugman, Ben Bernanke, John Nash, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, Irving Fisher, Hyman Minsky, Jean-Baptiste Say, Jeffrey Sachs, Eugene Fama, Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, Dani Rodrik, Friedrick von Misses, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, and many, many more, including lesser known economists (but crucial to the development of the modern world) such as Gerard Debreu, or the power couple Beatrice Webb and Sidney Webb who created the concept of trade union.

As always, DK compiles all of these vast knowledge into a very well-written short chapters filled with concise explanations, which includes the ever helpful timeline, mind map, pictures, and even the context for the arguments. It is really everything we need to know about finance and economics in one book, and that comes from a guy who is obsessed with finance and economics books.

“Larasati” by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

This is an incredible story about Indonesia in the post-independence era (17 August 1945 – 27 December 1949), which often dubbed as Indonesian National Revolution. It was when not long after Indonesia declared independence from Japan, the Dutch forces came back with the backing of the allied forces to re-capture the country that they have occupied for centuries.

The story evolves around Larasati, an actress who pledged her allegiance to the Republic, in the battle between the Republic (the natives) vs. NICA (Netherlands-Indies Cicil Administration). In the story she travelled from Republic-controlled Yogyakarta (where she has made her living) by train to NICA-controlled Jakarta to come visit her mother, only to find herself caught in the middle between the Republic guerilla movement against the NICA.

Along the journey, she met with various different types of characters: The NICA officers, the Dutch jail warden that forced her to witness her fellow natives being tortured, the native traitors that supported the NICA, the local youths in the slums creating independent rebel group, the local grandpa and grandma, the struggling poet, the rich Arab, and more men who will cheat her freedom and even her posessions, and some who will save her.

Indeed, the book has strong characters with rich details, and it also shows the impressive descriptions about how horrifying life was like during those highly turbulent 4 years, that brings the rigid textbook history into life. Too real, in fact, that I can almost feel myself being inside the frightening story and feel the nationalism burning through my veins. That’s what makes Pramoedya a maestro.

“Ernest Hemingway on Writing” Edited by Larry W. Phillips

This is a book that gathers what seemingly a hard task to do: compiling Ernest Hemingway’s many quotations on his writing methods, work habits, discipline, his aims and principles as a writer, and his general outlook on many topics in his books.

A hard task, because, as remarked in the foreword by his publisher and friend, Charles Scribner, Jr., Hemingway has this “almost superstitious reluctance to talk about writing, seeming fearful that saying too much might have an inhibiting effect on his muse.”

Hence, this gem of a book is the testament of the diligence of the author, Larry W. Phillips, who gathered all of the nuggets of wisdom from “his novels and stories, in letters to editors, friends, fellow artists, and critics, in interviews and in commissioned articles on the subject” where Hemingway do discuss about writing, and organized them all into 13 different categories.

You know what they say about wisdom being an organized knowledge? As Phillips elaborates, “comments apparently made at random, at different times, often decades apart, and in different cities or countries, magically began to fit together like pieces of a puzzle.” And the organization of these knowledge makes it easy to learn them all.

So what do the book have in store for the readers? Here’s my re-organizing from Phillips’ organizing:

[On doing the research]: Hemingway is teaching us about deep observation, about understanding everything without judging, about capturing a moment and dissect it to see which emotions fill that moment (and try to rewrite that). He reveals that when writing a story, he almost never know what’s going to happen in the ending. He also addresses being uninvolved politically, having no political alliance, instead understanding them from observing from far away.

[On writing]: He teaches about firstly write down the truth, and then add the emotions around it. On telling everything from the good, the bad, and the ugly to give the reader the complete picture (because if it’s all beautiful, the reader won’t believe it). On how to find inspiration for the title of the book. On creating living people in the novel and not characters. He also emphasize on writing a short enough stories, because long stories (and especially epics) are dull and boring. And write them in straight English, to make it extra clear, because the power of the book is in the story not the vocabulary. And try to avoid slangs, because slang language have expiry period. He also tell about how and when to use profanity (if needed).

[On breaks during writing]: He shows that he likes to stop writing when it is going well and knows what will happen next, to leave it for the next day so that he will never get stuck and can pick up where he left off. Distract yourself during the break, in fact, with exercise, with sex, with reading other books. And to not think about the book during the break, otherwise you will exhaust your mind before you even start writing tomorrow. You will never know how good your writing is until you read it again after taking a break from it.

[On editing]: He says the hard part in writing a novel is to finish it, especially in deciding what to leave out. He talks about hiding all the complications and big knowledge at the background, and instead express them in a simple narrative but with big analogies, meanings, wisdom, etc. He teaches that we can use the “skeleton” of a previously bad writing and fill it with new exciting things. And put it away when you’re finish writing the book, let it cool, and then re-read it again in few weeks/months while editing it.

Chapter 11 in particular is exquisite, where Hemingway talks about other writers, their style, their books, and money matters for living as a writer. Here’s an excerpt of it, when Hemingway said “I’ve been reading all the time down here. Turgenieff to me is the greatest writer there ever was. Didn’t write the greatest books, but was the greatest writer. That’s only for me of course. Did you ever read a short story of his called The Rattle of Wheels? It’s in the 2nd vol. of A Sportsman’s Sketches. War and Peace is the best book I know but imagine what a book it would have been if Turgenieff had written it. Chekov wrote about 6 good stories. But he was an amateur writer. Tolstoi was a prophet. Maupassant was a professional writer, Balzac was a professional writer, Turgenieff was an artist.”

All in all, this book is nothing but an absolute treasure trove. It is so precious to me that I feel like I want to hold it close to me, and want to buy several physical copies just in case this digital version that I’ve read is somehow lost. Definitely will read and re-read it several times in the future.

“Monumen” by NH. Dini

This is an Indonesian-language book, but I’m writing the review in English because its quality deserves the broader attention as a hidden gem of Indonesian literature.

It is a book of 10 short stories, that aims to portray the many different point of views in a diverse society: 1. A crippled boy from a village who goes to the big city to do scrap jobs at the bottom of society 2. A village administrator being set up for an arranged marriage 3. A rags-to-riches success story of an incredible man who becomes too cocky and succumbed into worldly sins and ended up isolating himself in an island 4. An honest government official in his retirement days, being tested by his rule-breaking neighbour 5. A mother whose son got involved in a religious extremist group 6. An Asian immigrant’s life in Paris 7. The local affairs within a housing complex, from a house maid’s point of view 8. An infrastructure project in a village that failed because there’s no education for the locals 9. The struggles of a spoiled child of a wealthy millionaire family 10. A story of a highly educated woman being domestically abused.

One thing that becomes immediately obvious when reading this book is the richness of the narrative in these stories, where in a short enough length the author, Nh. Dini, is able to provide a depth of character, can show complex relationships between the personalities, and able to elaborate them with a wild diversion that makes the plot really unpredictable.

Like story no 10 that begins as merely a domestic violence story, which later expand into a disturbing pedophilia and grooming story, and then a second plot twist that quickly damages the victim’s character from being emphatical to exasperation. Although I really don’t like the morale of this particular story, it is also a testament of Dini’s understanding of psychology and masterful technique as a writer that intentionally pushes her story right to the edge of comfort.

The richness of the story can also be found all the way at the beginning in story number 1, where in just few pages it tells the tale of a person’s hardship since birth, to his toughness on overcoming his disability, his drive to work hard in the city, his daily struggles in the harshest environments, and all the plot twists within this story that highlight the many social injustices. This story provides different kind of lessons, which ultimately show how life looks like at the bottom of the social class.

And of course, story number 8, where the book gets its title. It is a cheeky analogy of what Indonesia is all about: a multi-religion and multi-ethnic effort to build a project together, complete with all the cross-social-class struggles and doubts, which naturally require a sacrifice from the poor; but somehow successfully built, only to be quickly discarded simply due to the lack of planning to educate the intended users. And thus, an abandoned public toilet becomes yet another “monument” of mismanagement and miscommunication that we can unfortunately find all across the country.

I just love how Dini can play around with the reader’s emotions, and shows a masterclass of storytelling within just a limited amount of space. And once you start reading it, it is quite difficult to put down. I had to read it all the way to the end in one sitting, before I can finally stop.

“Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk” by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

“She liked her lovers half-dead.”

This is a tale about the undesirables, the misunderstood, the trouble makers. They are the misfit people in society that found each other and found their creative outlets through music. Punk music.

The stories are written with an energy matching with punk’s chaotic vibe. It’s honest, uncensored, filthy, sometimes funny, and surprisingly detailed account of some of the most rebellious people on Earth (and their groupies). It’s raw, it’s rude and scandalous, filled with borderline psychotic people with low morals, worthy of the stigma of sex, drugs and rock & roll.

The book itself is the culmination of hundreds of original interviews conducted in the 1990s by the authors, Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain (hence, oral history), while in some cases interviews and text were excepted from other secondary sources such as journals, magazines, anthologies, other interviews, and other books.

And the way the authors stitch them all up in the book is quite unique: the entire book consist of quotes and excerpts from various people in the interviews, but all somehow knitted together into a nice smooth flow of conversation. It is as if these rock legends are all talking in the same room, collectively remembering the many events from the origins of many songs, to the many wild stories from behind the scenes, to a lot of quirks such as how Iggy Pop got his nickname “Pop” or who coined the word “punk” for the music genre.

And whenever there’s a conflict (and there are tons of them in this drugged-up, hyper toxic, environment), the book shows all perspectives directly from the conflicting people. Likewise, whenever there’s an epic or hilarious incident, there will surely be several people reminiscing and laughing about it that will show the complete story from many different vantage points.

In a way, this conversation-style of storytelling makes this book a casual reading perfect for the subject of unassuming punk rock. I just can’t believe that the authors only use 5-10% of the materials they’ve gathered to make this thick book of 725 pages, to ensure that all the information in it are the absolute meat with no bone. And it was such a blast reading it.

Recently I got shadowbanned again by Instagram (the 6th time in 2024, at the very least) for speaking against genocide.

But this time around, I thought instead of ineffectively keep posting on Instagram to only 10% of my normal views, I should collect everything and write it here on WordPress-powered blog (and then post the link to Instagram).

Will it work, and can it bypass the censorship? If you’re reading this right now, chances are it works, as it appears on your stories. Anyway, here are the things that happened during my shadowban:

1. Jordana Cutler, Meta’s policy chief on Israel-Palestine issues (overseeing Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads), happens to be the Public Policy director for Israel and the Jewish diaspora. As a result, as BBC investigation confirmed, Meta has restricted Palestinian news outlets since October 2023, not to mention shadowbanning accounts that post about the genocide that would make Israel look bad.
2. BBC Middle East editor Raffi Berg is an openly Netanyahu fan-boy, whose book on Israel was endorsed by Netanyahu himself. Every single news about Israel Palestine on BBC must be approved by him, that’s why the BBC is incredibly biased on supporting Israel’s genocide.
3. Israeli spy Elizabeth Tsurkov revealed that 12 Syrian “rebel groups” were directly funded by Israel. Israel isn’t even hiding it, with defense minister Israel Katz literally claimed “… we toppled the Assad regime in Syria.”
4. Since the [horrible] Assad regime was toppled by the coalition of US-Israel-Turkey, the [even worse] Israel regime bombed Syria 800 times in a week and annexed land 3x the size of Gaza in a coordinated move: US-backed “rebel group” HTS cleared the path, and then Israel march forward without any resistance from HTS (the suppposedly new de facto ruler in Syria).
5. The head of HTS, Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani, was an ISIS and Al-Qaeda fighter. HTS itself is a re-branding from Jabhat al-Nusra (which is Al Qaeda in Syria). The Western media are trying to re-label him by saying he’s “reinvented” himself from Jihadist to revolutionary leader, in order to hide the tracks. But the truth cannot be clearer than this: The US-and-Israeli-backed-group consist of al-Nusra-ISIS fighters. That should give you a massive clue about whose attack dog al-Nusra-ISIS really is. Al-Jolani also appoints former al-Nusra-ISIS people in Syrian government positions, including Anas Khattab as head of intelligence.
6. After Assad regime was toppled, the gas pipeline project from Qatar to Turkey (via Syria) will likely to resume. Never trust Erdogan whenever he said any anti-Israel PR stunt. In fact, his son Burak Erdogan was revealed to have traded with Israel during the ongoing genocide.
7. French journalist Marine Vlahovic was found dead, whilst making a documentary about Gaza. This is of course on top of the 5 journalist killed last week in Gaza, or the total of 201 journalists killed. If the truth is not your enemy, why kill the truth messengers?
8. Israel went from denying that it attacked a hospital (remember the arguments on 17 October 2023 over the attack on Al-Ahli hospital?) to destroying the entire Gaza healthcare system in a year without consequences and setting the last hospital standing – Kamal Adwan Hospital – on fire. And Zionist supporters went from gaslighting to total silence over this issue.
9. Zionist supporters are now starting to try to distance themselves from the genocide by saying “this is not my Zionism.” Firstly, this is still gaslighting because they can see what’s happening (and don’t want to be associated with it), but yet still support the perpetrator and refuse to acknowledge that it is happening. Secondly, this is like saying “this is not my colonialism”, which implies that there is a good version of colonialism project. Colonialism is colonialism, it involve stealing the native’s land, subject them to brutal control (and/or extermination), and robbing everything in the land. And if you try to justify it by using religion, it is called religious extremism. Thirdly, this is an attempt to whitewashing their crimes, at par with saying the “conflict” is “complicated” (it’s really not, Zionism is just another label for settler-colonialism, planned since 1917 and executed since 1948), or try to portray this as a “war” implying that both sides have equal power (while the fact is one side is a guerilla group, and the other side receive billions of dollars of funding, weapons supplies from US and EU, media control, protected by veto power and no enforcement over the ICJ and ICC war crime sentences).
10. Right now Israel is still destroying and torturing Gaza with impunity, repeatedly violating the ceasefire in Lebanon, and occupying Syria at the same time. But but but, what about Khamas? At this Greater Israel expansion period, and after all the mounting evidence of what Israel have done right in front of our eyes for more than a year, if you still think that this is about Hamas and what happened on 7 October 2023, you’re fucking hopeless.

Censor this, Jordana Cutler.

“Tolstoy in Search of Truth and Meaning: Wisdom from his Letters, Novels, Essays and Conversations” by Leo Tolstoy and Bob Blaisdell

This is a brilliant book about the best of the best quotations from Tolstoy’s many works. It is written and edited by Bob Blaisdell, someone who is obsessed with Tolstoy and who have read everything about him. And I mean everything.

As Blaisdell remarks, “[t]he quotations come from his earliest surviving diary (begun when he was eighteen); his fiction (published from the time he was twenty-three until his death-and after); religious writings; political tracts; conversations with his acquaintances and visitors; and letters to his family, friends, and, as in the case of his inspirational note to Mohandas Gandhi, worldwide correspondents.”

From all of these treasure trove, Blaisdell then selected the best of the best lines, organized them, and arranged them in a chronological order in connection with Tolstoy’s life experiences. Beginning from childhood in chapter 1, all the way to the age where he was approaching death in chapter 6.

As a result, we can see the growth of the person from the words and from his train of thoughts, as well as the bitterness during his crisis years, which shed a light into Tolstoy the flawed human being and not as a sage that he is often referred as. Which makes his writings more humanly relatable.

It is the best possible introduction to Tolstoy’s writings. Or more precisely for me, it is like the gateway drug back to his writings, since I didn’t finish War and Peace and I wasn’t too moved by A Calendar of Wisdom. You know what they say, third’s time a charm.

Can’t wait to read his other works, this time around will read the ones with the reputable English-language translators.