This early 1960s portrait of President of Cote d’Ivoire Félix Houphouët-Boigny uses a mix of appeals to French and Ivorian authority. Houphouët-Boigny, never shy in using his power, is the peacemaker, a role many Ivorians look back on fondly.
Pagnes
African Commemorative Cloth: A Series
by Tommy Miles • • 4 Comments
Welcome to my collection of commemorative African printed textiles. I love them not just because of their colors or designs, or because of the history they bring to life, but also because they represent a true multicultural tradition, by which African communities mixed, chose, and formed objects drawing on Asian and European traditions, creating something unique, practical, and beautiful.
Current Events, History, Lefty, Mali, Niger
The Measurement of a “World in Turmoil” : Background to a Terrible Idea.
by Tommy Miles • • 1 Comment
A new video making the rounds purports to show every protest in the world since 1979, and draws conclusions that we are living in a “world of turmoil”. Not only is it built on bad data, it returns to the original sin of “statistical” social science : that human society does not appear with numbers attached to it.
Blog, Current Events, NYC, Solidarity
Hurricane Sandy: Staten Island in a Race for Lives
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Artsy Fartsy, NYC, Photos
Hurricane Sandy: Alice Austin House Park, Wednesday Morning
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
NYC, Photos
Hurricane Sandy on Staten Island
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Current Events, Media
Update on Jay Lehr: His price is pretty low.
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
You may remember Jay Lehr from an earlier comment on his use by CNN and other reputable news organization as a nuclear safety expert. Now a leak from within The Heartland Institute — the craven industry backed advertising agency for which Lehr is “Science Director” — has revealed all sorts of nasty details.
Afrique, Current Events, French, Mali, Media
Mali: French papers’ Mali MIG evidence is photo of a truck
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Current Events, Lefty, Niger
World Mental Health Day: Facts are the First Step, Action the Next
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Lefty, NYC, Photos
OWS: October 5th at Liberty Square
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Current Events, Lefty, NYC, Solidarity
OWS: “The NYPD is doing PR for the protesters”
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Lefty, NYC, Photos
OWS: From the October 1 Brooklyn Bridge March
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Current Events, Media
Finding Bin Laden and Failing.
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Blog, Current Events, Lefty, Liberation Struggles
More thoughts on Cole’s uneducated gut
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Glenn Greenwald is one of several “progressive” (USA-ian for “Social-Democratic”) commentators who have been debating Juan Cole on his tempestuous “Open Letter to the Left”. Greenwald’s “Question of Juan Cole” takes what Cole says seriously, and applies serious criticism to…
Current Events, Lefty, Media
Misinformed Commentary: A Response to Juan Cole From the Left
by Tommy Miles • • 5 Comments
..., Blog, Current Events, Lefty
The US Military “Cut” is Window-dressing
by Tommy Miles • • 1 Comment
Afrique, Blog
Leaking a President out of Power
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Afrique, Blog, Photos
Nice to CC
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Image by Tomathon via Flickr In reading about the worrying and hopefully shortlived chaos attending the results of the Cote d’Ivoire elections, I was pleasantly surprised to see a photo of mine used for Radio France International’s article on Ivorian…
Afrique, Blog
What the World Bank Means by Democracy
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Foreign entities such as the World Bank push for continuity of authoritarian central governments with the imprimatur of newly elected heads of state. This has obvious advantages for Africa’s leaders. It does not, though, look much like democracy. And we cannot be surprised when the outcomes are not very democratic.
Antifa, Blog, NYC
Open Letter to the BBC
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Image via Wikipedia To the editors of the BBC, Your appalling “Muslim Brotherhood expands westward” by Magdi Abdelhadi seems entirely based on two writers who have no academic qualifications or credibility and one of whom has a long history of…
Blog, NYC
Just a note
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Sometimes you just need to hear that not everyone has lost their minds.
Blog, Footy, Mali
The US joins the Football world
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
…by complaining about the officiating. Also see Koman Coulibaly’s Wikipedia Page Defaced Within Minutes of US Draw Poor Koman Coulibaly. He had a tough match, and as much as I love Mali and Malian football, that was a goal he…
Afrique, Blog, History, Mali, Me
Bibliographic References for Sunny Days
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Better choices for sunny afternoons: Outside the African Dance Fest in Brooklyn last week. It’s beautiful in New York, and the world if full of things to argue about. Here are three important issues I’ll have to get back to…