Articles by: Mustapha Marrouchi

The Kiss in the Time of SARS-CoV-19

The Kiss in the Time of SARS-CoV-19

For Suda J., who lives in M’rira (Tunisia) I dare not ask a kiss; I dare not beg a smile; [. . . ] No, no, the utmost share Of my desire, shall be Only to kiss that air, That lately kissed thee. Robert Herrick, To Electra, 23. What is it that we just love about an embrace and why[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
The Undoing of “White Privilege”

The Undoing of “White Privilege”

“Of course it is … impossible until it is done.” Daniel K. Young, A House Divided, 139. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage. Peggy McIntosh, White[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
It’s Cruel and it’s Mean – Ugliest Thing You Ever Have Seen

It’s Cruel and it’s Mean – Ugliest Thing You Ever Have Seen

White people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this—which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never—the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed. James Baldwin, “Letter from a Region in my Mind,”[Read More…]

by 05/06/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The Immediacy of Touchlessness

The Immediacy of Touchlessness

Part I   My motive for writing this piece is to reach, by some other way, Barbara Bryson, and tell her that we love her.   The citation below is taken from the album “Exodus” by the late Bob Marley, whose music rekindles hope for a better future.  It stands out because it brings us peace of mind at a[Read More…]

by 29/05/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Slow is Beautiful!

Slow is Beautiful!

Misfortunes never come singly, do they? The pandemic which has turned us into emotional cripples illustrates our culpable sin of negligence of duties and obligations to the environment. Like old age, it has diminished our power to live our life as we used to see fit. To speak of the growing sense of pessimism that has taken hold of us[Read More…]

by 18/05/2020 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
The Shortcomings of our Slow in Coming Modernity

The Shortcomings of our Slow in Coming Modernity

The empty stare we have been projecting onto the outside world ever since SARS-Cov 2 invited itself into our life is pretty disconcerting. Although spring is here, and it is perfect, with no sign of a cataclysm like the ones we experienced in the past (drought, flood, famine, war), we do not seem to take notice of it, let alone[Read More…]

by 10/05/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Negative Hallucination à la Trump

Negative Hallucination à la Trump

The English Language gave birth to William Shakespeare, John Keats, and James Joyce, to name but a few of the many bright stars.  It also spawned the likes of Donald J. Trump, a kind of genetically-modified product grown in a hothouse; a man who not only stumbles over every word he utters but coins new and bizarre phraseology to convey[Read More…]

by 23/02/2017 1 comment World
A Portrait Of The President As A ‘Mad’ Man

A Portrait Of The President As A ‘Mad’ Man

When the French psychologist and philosopher Michel Foucault wrote Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason in 1973, he did not have in mind President Donald J. Trump because his study sought to answer the question of insanity from 1500 to 1800 only.  Still, the book, a milestone both by reason and skill, sheds some[Read More…]

by 09/02/2017 2 comments World
The Question Of Jerusalem

The Question Of Jerusalem

The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President has ushered in a new era of uncertainty, nowhere more so than in the Middle East.  The rules of the game have indeed taken a turn for the better for Bibi Netanyahou, who gave the final push to the construction of 566 new homes in East Jerusalem.  The new lodgings will[Read More…]

by 06/02/2017 1 comment World
Islamophobic With A Smile—The Quebec Case

Islamophobic With A Smile—The Quebec Case

When the Indian-Canadian and later Indian-American novelist Bharati Mukherjee complained in the 1970s that Canada was more racist than America, many people thought she was harsh in her reading of the Canadian society. Only a handful of people told her that she was right. I personally think she was dead right. I can testify to her anguish in that I[Read More…]

by 06/02/2017 2 comments World
What Is To Be A Muslim In America Today?

What Is To Be A Muslim In America Today?

Can one define what a Muslim is in the wake of the decision that President-elect Trump wants to take to ban all Muslims from entering America? The late Edward Said—were he still alive—may attempt an answer to the question I pose here as he did in the late seventies but I gather it will not be sufficient in that we[Read More…]

by 10/01/2017 1 comment World
Dial O For Obama

Dial O For Obama

As he prepares to say good bye to the White House, President Barak Hussein Obama leaves a trail of successes and failures.  Notorious among the former are the Iran deal, the US abstention in the December 2016 resolution demanding a halt to all Israeli settlement in Occupied Palestine, the killing of unarmed Osma bin Laden, the visit to Cuba, the[Read More…]

by 29/12/2016 1 comment World