Suchergebnisse

"A personal essay on Barack Obama, Keanu Reeves and mixed-race experience in our increasingly divided world. At once personal and political, Mixed-Race Superman is a reflection on the lives of two very different supermen: Barack Obama and Keanu Reeves. In an era where a man endorsed by the Klu Klux Klan can sit in the White House, Will Harris argues that the mixed-race background of each gave them a shapelessness that was a form of resistance. Reeves, as Neo in The Matrix, portrayed the chosen one on the silver screen, while Obama, for a brief moment, took the shape of a superhero on the world stage. Drawing on his own personal experience and examining the way that these two men have been embedded in our collective consciousness, Will Harris asks what they can teach us about race and heroism

This article focuses on the archaeological site of Kantarodai (Tamil) or Kadurugoda (Sinhala) on the Jaffna peninsula at the northernmost tip of Sri Lanka to examine the power of spatially embodied, contested histories within postcolonial and post-war communities. The Sri Lankan military who control Kantarodai view it simply as a Sinhala Buddhist site. However, when it is viewed through the lens of international archaeological scholarship, its multi-ethnic and multi-religious history becomes clear. Its present situation speaks of a failure to affirm the narratives connected with this history. In examining this case study, I first evoke the changing political and religious landscapes of the peninsula in the recent past, drawing on my own visits to Jaffna during Sri Lanka&rsquo ; s ethnic war. Second, I examine one dominant imaginary that is projected onto the peninsula, from the Sinhala Buddhist community, the most powerful community in the island. Thirdly, I move to Kantarodai, focussing on two recent representations of its history and the privileging of one of these in Sri Lanka&rsquo ; s post-war polity. I then assess the consequences for Sri Lanka of the failure to affirm multiplicity at Kantarodai, drawing out its wider relevance for the study of post-colonial and post-war societies.

In 2001, plans were unveiled by a private developer for a 32-storey residential tower next to the Tate Gallery of Modern Art in Bankside. Although not the tallest building proposed within London's high-rise landscape, this tower became a minor cause célèbre within the city's media. The twists and turns involved in attempts to win — and oppose — planning permission for the building are charted in this paper. Yet, the vociferous battle involved does not reveal distinct political and social fault-lines. Instead, it highlights how an agenda of corporate property-led development has come to dominate efforts to regenerate and re-imagine contemporary London.

Cloning - few words have as much potential to grip our imagination or grab the headlines. No longer the stuff of science fiction or Star Wars - it is happening now. Yet human cloning is currently banned throughout the world, and therapeutic cloning banned in many countries. In this highly controversial book, John Harris does a lot more than ask why we are so afraid of cloning. He presents a deft and informed defence of human cloning, carefully exposing the rhetorical and highly dubious arguments against it. He begins with an introduction to what a human clone is, before tackling some of the most common and frequently bizarre criticisms of cloning: Is it really wicked? Can we regulate it? What about the welfare of cloned children? Does it turn human beings into commodities? Dismissing one by one some of the myths about human cloning, in particular that it is degrading and unsafe, he astutely argues that some of our most cherished values, such as the freedom to start a family and the freedom from state control, actually support the case for human cloning. Offering a brave and lucid insight into this ethical minefield, John Harris at last shows that far from ending the diversity of human life or creating a race of super-clones, cloning has the power to improve and heal human life

Corporations spend significant amounts of money on art collecting and art sponsorship, but little research has been done on the question of whether such activities are permissible in light of directors’ duties. This article addresses that issue by examining whether corporate expenditure on art collecting and sponsorship is consistent with the duty to act in the bests interests of a corporation, the duty to exercise powers for a proper purpose and the fiduciary duty not to make improper use corporate information or position. This is done first by examining the scale of corporate expenditure on art and then by analysing the case law on various directors’ duties, before discussing whether corporate art collecting is legitimate in light of those duties. The article examines the most important reasons why a corporation may collect art – as an investment, in furtherance of corporate social responsibility goals and in order to enhance the psychological well-being of employees – and concludes that while art collecting for such purposes does not amount to a breach of directors’ duties, this is subject to the requirement that a corporation put into place safeguards contained in a formalised art collecting and sponsorship policy, the key principles of which are stated at the end of the article.