On not receiving money from African dictators: A case study in moral politics (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

The resignation of the director of the London School of Economics as a result of links with Gaddafi recalls an episode when the author was Director of the Centre of African Studies at the University of Cambridge. The Nigerian dictator offered to fund a fellowship in the name of his wife, to general approval including that of Nigerian students. This story provokes some reflections on morality and politics featuring Shakespeare's profound insight into the tension between the collective interest and personal morality. Dirty money continues to flow into the coffers of prestigious institutions, but it remains the case that this prestige may be used for good or ill.     

讲政治与讲真实

在志书编纂当中,有一个普遍存在、大家比较苦恼、也绕不过的问题,就是讲政治和讲真实的关系。人们都说,实事求是是编修志书的根本性原则,也是我国修志的优良传统。编修社会主义新方志也不例外。但说起来容易,做起来却很难。从客观上讲,需要有一个相对宽松的社会环境和具有一定支撑力的经济物质环境。从主观条件看,有些是属于制度性制约,有些则是一些领导人认识不到位,思想偏于守旧,不开放,或因利益关系的牵扯,不愿讲真相、写实情。应当说,随着我国改革的深化和开放的扩大,这些方面有了根本性好转,民主、法制、明、富裕、和谐等都成了我们治国的理念,成为实现现代化宏伟目标的主要内容。但是,也应看到,我们处于社会主义初级阶段,思想、化和物质条件还不可能那么宽松,特别是经济体制、政治体制和化制度改革还不到位,还存在某些局部难以求真求实和有意弄虚作假的环境条件。加之我们的一些编纂在思想、品德、化素质、认知能力以及编修经验等方面都存在这样那样的问题,这些都是讲真实难的一个原因。但目前,对多数人来说,最重要也是急需解决的是在政治性和真实性关系上的认识问题。     

论土耳其与泛突厥主义

泛突厥主义是近代以来的民族主义政治思潮 ,也是极端的民族主义运动 ,与土耳其有着不解之缘。在长期的的历史演进过程中 ,泛突厥主义与泛伊斯兰主义、宗教极端主义及“东突”势力交织在一起。目前 ,泛突厥主义不仅已沦为极右翼反动思潮 ,而且对许多国家的安全、稳定和生存构成威胁 ,而且毫无任何积极意义可言。如果从其政治和文化两个层面上看 ,前者时起时伏 ,但一次次失败 ;后者经常在“突厥学”的学术包装下 ,不绝于缕。从后者来看 ,泛突厥主义仍将对 2 1世纪的国际政治产生影响。     

On ideology and aesthetics

Fascist Visions: Art and Ideology in France and Italy. By Matthew Affron and Mark Antliff, eds. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997) ix + 283 pp. $59.50, £45.00 cloth, $19.95, £14.95 paper.     

On Theme and Variation

Abstract

The ways in which the author, the sculptor Peter Randall-Page, has made use of the ideas of D’Arcy Thompson are described. How Thompson showed that commonalities of form and pattern exist across the biological and abiotic realms is described, and the implications that physical constraints limit and sometimes dominate the capabilities of evolutionary natural selection are explored. Since we evolved in a world shaped in this manner, the likelihood that this palette of forms is one that carries strong psychological meanings and associations is examined, and the ways in which these forms are a rich source of inspiration and allusion for visual artists are discussed, hinting at the play of opposing tendencies, the dance between order and randomness, and the ways in which nature can derive variations on a theme.     

格国、倗国考

西周有格伯,格国故地在河南荥阳市北的张楼村一带。金文“倗” 和“冯”二字相通,“冯” 地与格国相邻。     

On realpolitik and its limitations

A largely peaceful collapse of dictatorships both in the communist world and beyond occurred in 1989. That year also saw one notable failure: the violent suppression of peaceful protest in Tiananmen Square, raising the perennial question of how far dictatorships can be effectively undermined by non‐violent methods. This review article offers no definitive answer to the question but provides a series of specific case‐studies from different countries, each chapter written by an expert on the country concerned. Besides covering the collapse of communist rule in the Baltic states, East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia, it examines the role of non‐violence in four post‐communist revolutions: in the rump Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Georgia and Ukraine. But its scope goes far beyond the former communist world. The authors demonstrate that non‐violence has, with varying degrees of success, played a role in many regions—in India under British rule; in the US civil rights campaign; in Northern Ireland prior to the troubles; in Portugal during the transition to democracy in the 1970s; in Iran before the overthrow of the Shah; in the Philippines before the removal of President Marcos in 1986; and in Chile in the late 1980s, gradually ending the Pinochet dictatorship. The negotiated dismantling of apartheid in South Africa is the subject of a long chapter. The book also examines two conspicuous failures of peaceful protest—China in 1989 and Burma in 2007. The book's conclusions are understandably cautious, but the authors concede that civil resistance has proved a more potent weapon than was previously supposed. At all events, so the reviewer argues, the notion that civil resistance can only work in free societies has been proved demonstrably wrong.     

古老的人身装饰艺术—绘身与纹身

绘身与文身是既古老而又时尚的人体装饰艺术。从广义上讲,人体装饰是人类的一种化装行为,但是绘身与文身并不同于一般的生活化装与艺术化装。生活化装需要配合一些供人体穿戴、佩带的精美装饰品,这些装饰品可以脱离人体而存在。艺术化装以表演为目的,要服从于表演的内容,依附表演主体而存在,其独立的意义微乎其微。