Bedsit, with three clowns, and a rottweiler

I was inspired to pick up this book after listening to Chimamanda's 2022 Reith Lectures on the Freedom of Speech. Chimamanda, argues that it feels like freedom of speech is under attack. She names cancel culture, arguments about “wokeness" (I am old enough to remember when we called this political correctness) and the stabbing of Salman Rushdie as producing this atmosphere. Meanwhile, autocrats, populists and an anti-science identity culture have undermined the very notion of an accepted fact-based truth which lives above politics. So how do we calibrate freedom in this context? 'Half of a Yellow Sun,' is as profoundly human, as it is unsettling. The terror and the domestic are cheek by jowl. They live side by side, in the same spaces. I have heard it said that Iris Murdoch's contribution to ethics is that she (along with other feminist philosophers) reframed ethics from the public to the intimate. Similarly, Adichie's narrative highlights that ethics canno...

This compelling anthology of interviews features individuals who have devoted their lives to activism. It has been brought together by Sarah Fitzgerald and the Independent Living Movement Ireland (ILMI) and commemorates 30 years of that organisation's existence. These are the stories of the disabled activists in their own words and illustrate not just their dedication to their cause, but also the very human aspect of their struggle, underscoring the importance of friendship in sustaining their activism. It is tragic to witness, the creeping prevalence of anti-science rhetoric within the dialogue of Ireland's Disabled Persons' Organisations (DPOs), particularly when it concerns autistic people. Empirical evidence can shine a light on our way forward, outlining the steps to progress. However, it is crucial to remember that it is the individuals - the ones who are meant to benefit from this evidence - who must ultimately decide the path to follow. Science should serve humanity...

  Patrick Freyne's heartfelt memoir addresses the comic and tragic with a lightness of touch that makes reading it a joy. For me a particularly affecting essay is when Patrick, describes his experiences supporting a young woman living with a significant disability and additionally disabled by the continual fractures in relationships that are characteristic of organised 'care'. Our systems of care continue to be modelled on an arcane system that removes people from their communities and families. Neither does it sustain or respect the relationships, of the people living in these systems. There are many strands here, touching on the value we put on roles that are vital for the functioning of our communities yet seem to be continually devalued. Of course, these roles are typically female roles. Freyne illustrates the genuine kindness displayed by those operating within this flawed system, yet also reveals how their benevolence cannot rectify the deep-rooted flaws wi...

'What needs fixing, may not reside within you at all.' Nathan Filer's book, "This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health," provides a poignant and sobering account of the systemic brutality of the mental health system, contrasted by the kindness and sincere efforts of individuals working within it. The book is a collection of stories from survivors of the mental health system, shedding light on the perplexing paradox of how the sincere efforts of individuals working within a system can culminate into a system that obliterates personal autonomy. While the book does an excellent job of explaining the how, it neglects to explore the why. Why does the mental health system fail so many people? Why is knowledge about mental illness so misinformed and ignorant? These are critical questions that need to be addressed to truly understand the depth of the problem. Graham Thornicroft, a professor of community psychiatry at King's College London, asserts that popul...

When I started this book, George Floyd was alive.  His name was known only to his loved ones, friends and community.  Now his daughter is without her Daddy, and we know his name.   Imagine a mountain of corpses, George's body is flung somewhere near the top of this pile.  I say near the top since bodies have been added since his murder.  Hochschild's points to the nameless dead, beneath poor George's black body.   Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost needs to be widely read. While it deals with the particular horrors of King Leopold’s reign of terror in the Congo, it makes clear that the butchery characteristic of King Leopold’s reign were features of all European colonies. I first moved from Ireland to England in 1995.  Quickly making English friends, one of the striking observations was how these otherwise well informed and articulate individuals knew next to nothing about Ireland, it’s history and how that history informed it’s current p...

Elif Shafak’s Bastard of Istanbul is a gentle book.  It does not harry us with rushed ideas.  It dips us gently into quiet realisations. The life of a family, principally three sisters and their mother.  It shows a city,   Istanbul, littered with sublime and beautiful things. Fragile things, surrounded by shite and detritus.  The glass teacups, Zalahi has a grá for.  These things always break, being too delicate for this world.  Yet Zalahi doesn’t break, she grows out of the shite of this world to emerge bloody but unbowed.   The Bastard is claustrophobic, the closeness of others bears down upon each of the characters.  This is juxtaposed by the literal and figurative distance between characters.  The physical proximity of the sisters is contrasted with the chasm of unspoken truths between them.  ‘People stuck to one another to disguise their loneliness, pretending to be far more intimate than they actually were.‘.  Gaps b...

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism  Shoshana Zuboff I pored over this book, stayed with the words. Read and reread them. Drank deeply from their wisdom.  It was not an easy read, but ultimately it gave far more than it took. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a seminal text for our age.  Zuboff's account of surveillance capitalism is elegant, poised and persuasive. Yet for all her brilliance, Shonanna’s central thesis suffers a number of fundamental flaws.   Where the Age is at it’s strongest is in the articulation of surveillance capitalism.  Consider this, ‘Who owns your face?’, ‘Who owns your behaviour?’  What you do, where you go, who you know, all this has value and extracting value from these data is the business model of the surveillance capitalist.  But this is only the description, where Zuboff’s account takes a darker turn, is in the control. Once Surveillance Capitalists have provided a d...