Rene Wadlow, Author at Toward Freedom

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: ‘Let us change our course!’

Rene Wadlow August 7, 2008 Rene Wadlow

I want to push through

To the very essence of everything:

Straight to the core of days gone by,

To what made them,

To the foundations, to the roots,

The heart of the matter.

– Boris Pasternak

The Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who died on August 3, 2008, wrote in his most autobiographical novel The First Circle, that "A great writer is, so to speak, a second government. That is why no regime anywhere has ever loved its great writers, only its minor ones." The writer as the conscience of the people has a long tradition in Russia both in Czarist and Soviet times. Turgenev was compelled to live much of his life abroad, and many of his works were suppressed. Chekhov felt this duty of public conscience so strongly that, even though suffering from tuberculosis, he insisted on making a long journey to the Sakhalin Islands to report on the conditions of exiles there. Leo Tolstoy was regularly censored and finally excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church which banned any prayers at his funeral. read more

Justice and Genocide in Sudan

Rene Wadlow July 29, 2008 Rene Wadlow

Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir

On July 14, 2008, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) presented to a three-judge panel a request for an arrest warrant against Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. He is to be charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes related to the war in Darfur. Moreno-Ocampo presented solid evidence of a policy of genocide against the Fur, Massaliet and Zayhawa peoples. This is the first time that a charge of genocide has been made against a Head of State in power.

The Mediterranean-Black Sea Union: The Ship Sets Sail

Rene Wadlow July 16, 2008 Rene Wadlow

On July 13, in the Grand Palais, an ornate meeting hall built for the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, the Mediterranean-Black Sea Union ship was set to sea with many good wishes from the assembled 44 heads of State or Government. How sea worthy the ship is and what it will carry is too soon to tell.

Israeli-Hamas Truce: Bold Steps for Gaza

Rene Wadlow July 7, 2008 Rene Wadlow

The truce between the Israeli government and the Hamas-led authorities of the Gaza strip began on June 19. There are many in Israel, in Gaza, and in the Fatah-led West Bank who believe that the truce will be short lived and will not change the deep divisions among Palestinians and between Palestinians and Israelis. The truce is fragile in an area where only a few sparks are needed to start a blaze.

George Russell: The Song of the Greater Life

Rene Wadlow June 17, 2008 Rene Wadlow

George Russell

At a time when rising food prices have become a global concern and food riots are weakening governments, we need to look beyond short-term measures to deeper structural reforms. It is important to understand the political and cultural background of necessary changes, and it is appropriate to look at the contributions of earlier reformers. George Russell (1867-1935) helped create agricultural cooperatives in Ireland after Independence as part of a larger aim of spiritual awakening to a greater life.

Rabindranath Tagore: Balancing the Local and the Universal

Rene Wadlow June 3, 2008 Rene Wadlow

Rabindranath Tagore

In a period of rapid change as we face today, it is often difficult to find the right balance between the cultural contributions and needs of the local, the national, and the universal. One way of finding this balance is to look at the life and work of others, who earlier confronted the same challenges. One such person was the poet, writer and cultural reformer Rabindranath Tagore.