Exiles (III)

More against that kind of fashionable metropolitan cosmopolitanism where freedom of decision seems always guaranteed. The name of the clip “Betik eskamak kentzen” refers to a Basque popular song by fishermen’s wives “always removing the scales from the fish” .

Exiles (II)

Last week we ended by placing emphasis on the possibility of positive things happening from living in a state of exile and marginality. This week we explore the tension between the exile’s search for evasion within the different homes/worlds inhabited and the necessity of continuous self-assessment. Central to the clip below is a poem called The River by Basque exile Joseba Sarrionaindia. 

Exiles

Last week I mentioned Edward Said, a huge thinker of Palestinian origin who died a few years ago after a long illness with leukaemia. Following a more or less deserved holidays we should all have settled down by now. Here I continue with his reflections on exiled intellectual life. No major short-circuits and no animals this time. Just a straightforward series of quotes on his honour, and a video clip by Joseba Sarrionaindia, perhaps the Basque writer who better epitomises the ups and downs of exile life.

On Summer and travel –and III- Mask lovers, lobsters & polyglots

Last on the lazy summer series. Since the log is also about the language of migrants and exiles here below is a clip in memory of Edward Said.