TMR 7
TRUTH?
Discerning the truth is one thing for a news junkie and another for a flaneur reading a novel — the search for truth can be literal — imagine a reporter chasing after facts, stats, quotes and “balance” — while a poet is after something else altogether, something more elusive, but nevertheless precious, like a pearl in an oyster.
- TMR 7
- CENTERPIECE
Dinner at the White House, in the Lion’s Den
Francisco Letelier searches for the truth about his father's assassination in Washington DC while excavating US government complicity in its cover-up.
14 March 2021 • By Francisco LetelierMORE FROM THIS ISSUE
France’s Fake Islamo-Leftist Crisis
One of France's prime "Islamo-leftist" suspects, Raphaël Liogier, explains why the term does not apply and what the true danger is (hint: it's not Islam).
14 MARCH 2021 • BY RAPHAëL LIOGIER
Torture Is the Nasty Center of the 9/11 Case at Guantánamo
In our centerpiece this month, Lisa Hajjar takes us inside the war on terror and the dystopia that is Guantánamo.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY LAYLA ALAMMAR
A visual poem from Hala Alyan: Gaza
A spoken word poem from the author of The Twenty-Ninth Year and The Arsonists' City.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY
Secrets, Leaks, and the Imperative of Truth and Transparency
Stephen Rohde on how widespread government secrecy, alongside the punishment of truth-tellers, betrays fundamental principles underlying democracy.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY STEPHEN ROHDE
The Truth About Syria: Mahmoud’s Story
Mischa Geracoulis shares the story of an art project among refugee children that helped Mahmoud Ismail through hard times.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY ALIA MOSSALLAM
Truth or Dare? Reinterpreting Al-Harīrī’s Arab Rogue
Farah Abdessamad reviews a new English translation of Impostures from Basra-born Al-Hariri that revives the "eloquent rogue" genre of classical Arabic literature.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY DANIELLE HAQUE
Academics Decry French Attacks on “Islamo-Leftists”
Hundreds of French and Anglophone academics are speaking out against what they call the French government’s “conspiracy theory” and “witch hunt” of so-called Islamo-leftists.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY
The New Gatekeepers: How proprietary algorithms increasingly determine the news we see
Would you trust an algorithm to sell you a used car? Andy Lee Roth peers under the hood of Big Tech and finds plenty we should be worrying about.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY ANDY LEE ROTH
On Literacy and the Lack Thereof
Marcus Gilroy-Ware, the author of After the Fact, The Truth About Fake News, warns that literacy and numeracy are on the wain.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY MARCUS GILROY-WARE
Memory and the Assassination of Lokman Slim
Claire Launchbury writes of one man's long search for the truth about Lebanon's civil war, cut short by his mysterious murder this year.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY CLAIRE LAUNCHBURY
The Crash, Covid-19 and Other Iranian Stories
Malu Halasa reviews the new graphic novel by former political prisoner and editorial cartoonist Mana Neyestani, released in 2021 by IranWire.com.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY MALU HALASA
Allah and the American Dream
Rayyan Al-Shawaf reviews the second novel from Syed Masood, but isn't sure he likes its happy ending.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY RAYYAN AL-SHAWAF
Two Poems for Truth by Ammiel Alcalay
Two new poems by Ammiel Alcalay, "Kashoggi or Kashog-ji?" and "Translation Theory", explore versions of the truth.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY RAYYAN AL-SHAWAF
Secrets, Leaks, and the Imperative of Truth and Transparency
Stephen Rohde on how widespread government secrecy, alongside the punishment of truth-tellers, betrays fundamental principles underlying democracy.
14 MARCH 2021 • BY STEPHEN ROHDE