Stuff and Nonsense

Apologies for the distinct lack of posts over the last few days. I don't really have an excuse, although the large dent in my financial reserves and the not inconsiderable quantitites of alcohol I consumed over the weekend may have contributed to my absence from the blogosphere. Hopefully the miscellaneous delights below will go someway towards mitigating my disappearance.

Timx kindly pointed me in the direction of Radio 4 who on Wednesday aired a play based on the experiences of the Chagossians, exiled from their island homes to make way for a US military base. You can find details and a real player version of the play from here (although the play will only be available for seven days after the broadcast).

Elsewhere Australia's Green Left Weekly continues to be one of the best sources for information on the Chagossian issue by publishing a brief history of Mauritian socialist group Lalit (which in French Creole means 'Struggle'), based on an interview with leading militant Ram Seegobin.

Meanwhile in the deepest realms of cyberspace the guys at Riseup.net and others have developed Activista, an activist search engine. Which is nice. Those of you running Firefox (and if not, why not?) or Mac's Sherlock can even get it as a plugin.

For those of you looking for something a little more pretentious you may care to check out "Anarchism and the Politics of Ressentiment" by Saul Newman which I found via the funky Postanarchism Clearinghouse. Warning: This is an academic text including extensive reference to post-isms and impenetrable scholarly turns of phrase. Beware! If you can get beyond the not very user-friendly appearance, however, there is much of interest for anybody interested in anarchism and its relevance in the modern world.