Arjun Appadurai in The Guardian issues a diagnosis of the current government's project of dismantling the institutions and infrastructures of liberal democracy. He doesn't have, however, much on the way of prescription to at some point revert the process.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

R.I.P Fulbright Program. I was a Fulbright Scholar in 2022 and it was the experience of a lifetime. I hope this will just be a hiatus, the Dark Ages, and by the end of the decade it will be back up.

I took this video yesterday at the Miami protest. Please watch it if you want to remain hopeful about our collective future!! ❤️

The MAGA mayor of Miami Beach is evicting a cinema because it showed the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. Now local officials too feel empowered to censor and repress oppositional views. This is the political culture of the day. Fascism trickles down. www.miamiherald.com/news/local/c...

I was a 2022 Fulbright scholar. I can't even imagine being left stranded with no funding half way through the program!

The non-profit agency that administers the Fulbright as well as our alumni association need to take this government to court!

www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

Fantastic talk by Yanis Varoufakis a couple of days ago with a detailed proposal for European governance and policy road map. He declares the European dream dead and calls for all of Europe to ditch NATO. He also has social and economic proposals worth a listen.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXJK...

Not even Bezos' censorship dictums and pro-Right instructions can hide the truth. See the online front page of the Washington Post this morning. Judging from the news, one would think that the U.S. government has been seized by rogue saboteurs....

Must-attend. Has a zoom option. Organized by my friend and former colleague David Pedersen at UC-San Diego. @jskur.bsky.social

USAID knickknacks quickly get a second life in Johannesburg, South Africa, at a Chinese flea market (pics by my close friend and Wits anthropology professor Hylton White). At the same time, news out of Nepal report that China may have offered to complete unfinished USAID projects.

Someone spraypainted a swastika on a Tesla.

I guess that's another risk now as well as exploding in flames.

An important site to be aware of, for all immigrants and immigration scholars, advocates, and concerned persons.

An extraordinary person that I deeply admire is leaving life.

“Life is a beautiful adventure and a miracle,” he said. “We are too focused on wealth and not on happiness. We are focused only on doing things and, before you know it, life has passed you by.”

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

This recent interview with the great Pepe Mújica, former president of Uruguay, is worth every word. For many reasons, but mostly for his clear views and mappings of the world today, and his philosophy of life (an updated stoicism). Sadly, no Eng subtitles.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dhu...

Brilliant corrido to Luigi Mangione. It is a matter of time that estampitas will pop up at the border crossing in SD/TJ, with all the other folk santos.

(Via Elijah Wald, author of Narcocorridos).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnii...

Very well written piece, with a great "food for thought" kind of ending. The authorities might imprison him and kill him, but the myth has been created.

Cuba scholars out there! Please join - comment and I'll add you.

go.bsky.app/8wKCAQC

David Graeber's posthumous collection of essays, reviewed in the L.A. Times. The review gives a good idea of the ground covered, and one can see and hear David's laughing already, particularly with the last essay on play. I can't wait to read it!

lareviewofbooks.org/article/anar...

Yet another "pack". Hopefully it will keep growing as we find each other.... go.bsky.app/Sf8CnAB