Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Nassim Nicholas Taleb the 52 year old Lebanese American essayist and scholar whose work focuses on problems of randomness, probability and uncertainty is the subject of a critical review from Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times for his latest publication ‘Antifragile’. Kakutani in the article ‘You Are All Soft! Embrace Chaos!’ states”A reader could easily run out of adjectives to describe Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s new book “Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder.” The first ones that come to mind are: maddening, bold, repetitious, judgmental, intemperate, erudite, reductive, shrewd, self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, provocative, pompous, penetrating, perspicacious and pretentious. …Taleb contends that we must learn how to make our public and private lives (our political systems, our social policies, our finances, etc.) not merely less vulnerable to randomness and chaos, but actually “antifragile” — poised to benefit or take advantage of stress, errors and change… For the most part, however, the author is way better at identifying examples of fragility than he is at laying out specific strategies to become more antifragile. Often the narrative hops and skips from broad-stroke hypotheses to personal anecdotes …Taleb seems to revel in being contentious and controversial, perhaps betting that such notoriety will win him and his book some added buzz. He consigns television, air-conditioning, newspapers and economic forecasts to the category of “offensive irritants.” And he talks about rationing the supply of information because, he insists, “the more data you get, the less you know what’s going on.” “Antifragile” is also riddled with contradictions. Mr. Taleb offers predictions about the future, though he keeps talking about the unreliability of predictions. He repeatedly attacks theorists and academics as the sorts of people who would presume to “lecture birds on how to fly.” And yet he’s an academic himself (whose main subject matter, his book jacket tells us, is “decision making under opacity”), and the book he’s written is nothing if not one big, hyperextended, overarching theory about how to live in a random and uncertain world.”

Inspired by Michiko Kakutani ow.ly/gdCWq image source Sarah Taleb ow.ly/gdDij

Yehia Jaber the Lebanese poet celebrated for the bitter comedic work he often performs like stand-up comedy has been profiled by filmmaker Roxana Vilk on Aljazeera. In the profile titled ‘Yehia Jaber: Laughter is My Exit’, takes us on a journey across Lebanon, and into his past, to explain why this former fighter of Lebanon’s long civil war now battles for change with nothing but words. Vilk states “There is something very enticing about filming poets. Here are these characters, reflective and questioning by nature, living through a truly historic time of change in the Middle East. …when I first met him, it was his laughter that immediately drew me in: it is warm, infectious, and cannot help but gather you up in its path. …he is everything you imagine a poet to be, questioning society and politics around him, and spot on with his sharp, funny observations of life. …Lebanon’s history is complicated. The country has been ravaged by so many wars, and Yehia with his own complex past seemed like the perfect quirky character to guide us. “In this comedy that is Lebanon,” as he sees it, “we are always re-building and re-war-ing.” …[he] become a communist fighter during the civil war and the consequent invasion by Israel. It was the horror and disillusionment of his fighting years that finally led him to pick up his pen. “Now this violence inside me, it will be by words, because there is no blood. Perhaps this is now my play yard to fight by words,” he says.”

Inspired by Roxana Vilk ow.ly/dPbDA image source Twitter ow.ly/dPbvX

Forfeiture complaint fails to provide evidence (February 29th)

Nour Samaha the Qatar freelance journalist has analyzed a pending legal action against the Lebanese Hezbollah that seeks to link the organization with drug related money laundering, finding the allegations wanting. In an article published on Aljazeera, Samaha states “The allegations span South American cocaine shipments, US-used car dealerships, money-laundering in West Africa, several money-exchange houses, and end up in a Lebanese bank. In December the US justice department filed a civil claim against certain assets both in Lebanon and in the United States in what is seen as the US government’s latest attack on Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia political movement… The in rem forfeiture complaint, filed in the district of New York with the aim of seeking almost half a billion dollars… However a close reading of the 65-page forfeiture complaint fails to provide concrete evidence of a Hezbollah-led operation aimed at procuring funds through money laundering… On numerous occasions the complaint highlights individuals as either being “members”, “operatives”, or “supporters” of Hezbollah, but fails to provide evidence of these alleged connections, or clarify what defines the characteristics of these terms.”

Inspired by Nour Samaha http://ow.ly/9doO1 image source Twitter http://ow.ly/9dph0