Roland Boer's Blog, page 52

Roman cities in the pre-underwear age

A little on Roman cities in the pre-underwear age, as I am immersed in finishingThe Time of Troubles. Although public baths had toilets, albeit shared in common, and although the most lavish peristyle house might have had a latrine next to the kitchen, most places did not. So people would relieve themselves on the street, in alleys, on stairways of houses, a corner of the bathhouse or even on tombs. A walk along the street would encounter many piles of fresh and not so fresh piles. Apart from...

Major statement by Xi Jinping on socialism with Chinese characteristics

Following on his statement that philosophy and the social sciences should flourish in China, Chairman Xi Jinping has made a major statement on the nature of socialism with Chinese characteristics (you can use the automatic translator in some search engines if needed).

The enlightened ancient Greeks: Hesiod’s advice

The early Greek, Hesiod, had this advice for a young man (in Works and Days):

First get a house, a woman and a plough-ox – one bought, not married, who can also follow the oxen.

Roman hygiene: urine as detergent

With a few weeks to go untilTime of Troubles is due with the press, I am engaged in intensive reading and writing, which absorbs me for most of the day. Every now and then, I come across a delightful insight. This one comes from a study of Roman bathhouses.

People urinated into buckets in the middle of the street (and the urine was then used asdetergent), men and women shared open toilets at the public latrines. Overall, in this pre‐underwear age, bodyparts that we today tend to conceal were...

The Crucifixion of North Korea: an article by Carla Stea

Carla Stea has written a great piece on the DPRK (North Korea) and UN Security Council Resolution 2270. It is called ‘The Crucifixion of North Korea, The Demonisation of the DPRK’ and is published in the Australian Marxist Review.

The farce of the ‘freedom of the seas’: Concerning the South China Sea

On 12 July, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague made a non-binding ruling concerning the Law of the Sea. The former regime of the Philippines (under Aquino) had made a unilateral application to have the Nanhai Zhudao (South China Sea Islands, known in English as the Spratley Islands) declared rocks rather than islands and therefore solely under its jurisdiction. The tribunal found in favour of the Philippines, which has led to the inevitable flurry of arguments back and fort...

What everyone needs – a rewards chart

One of my grandsons:

Images of Copenhagen

Despite, or perhaps because of, its faults, Copenhagen is one of the great cities in the world. From last April:

In the mountains

I haven’t been there for a while, but I am off to one of my favourite places in the world for a few days on my bicycle for some winter riding.

Marxism and the Chinese dictionary

Haven’t been blogging here as regularly as I would have liked, so I hope to be in form from now on. One of the great things about having Marxism as the state position, as well as having it as part of one’s culture, is the way it shows up regularly even in the dictionary. Nearly every second word I look up has a distinctly Chinese Marxist moment. Let me give ope or two examples.

Correct (xu) leads to yishudaishi: ‘Let correct ideology guide practical work’. Or we havebupianjiubi, ‘rectify a de...