New West Network

My Page: Nick Gier

Sometime in 2003 Forrest Church wrote to me praising my book Spiritual Titanism. I was flattered by the compliments, especially his confession that I had convinced him that the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was worth rereading. I kept up e-mail contact until his death. I was especially keen on praising him for his amazing NPR interview with Terry Gross on October 27, 2008 and the good reviews that his books were receiving. Read full version at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/Church.htm [more]

Habib Sadid, an award-winning engineering professor at ISU for 22 years, has been banned from campus and is facing dismissal. On October 23 a faculty appeal board released a report in which, by a vote of 4-1, it found insufficient evidence for Sadid’s termination. The case raises basic issues of the extent of the academic freedom. Read full version at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/sadid.htm [more]

Those who have seen the movie "Gandhi" will remember the dramatic scene where Gandhi is called a "kaffir" (the equivalent of our "N" word) and kicked off a South African train. Most people don't realize that Gandhi never included blacks or coloreds in his campaign for human rights during his 22 years in South Africa. Read the full version at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/GandhiSA.htm [more]

This is a second in a series of columns that I'm writing about a 6-week trip to Southern Africa. On September 2 I visited St. George's Cathedral, which was the beginning of a huge protest march 20 years ago. It marked the beginning of the end of apartheid in South Africa. Read the full version at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/TutuMandela.htm [more]

South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). Many SCV members have come out against Abraham Lincoln, demoting him from the best of presidents to the worst. The John Wilkes Booth "camp," the term by which the SCV is organized, loves to leave Lincoln pennies with "heads up" in urinals. See full version at www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/TwoWilsons.htm [more]

I just returned from a 6-week trip to Southern Africa and I'm filled with new column ideas. The Germans said that they did not have to abide by the Geneva Conventions because the natives were sub-humans. I wonder if the Bush administration’s decision not to grant Muslim detainees protection under the same international law was an unconscious application of the same theory of humanity. Read the full version with pictures of Christ Church, the Reiter Memorial, and the Caprivi Strip at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/Namibia.htm [more]

Some are saying that with regard to detainee and gay rights that President Obama is continuing the ninth year of the Bush Administration. We will not regain our moral standing in the world unless there is progress in these crucial areas. See the full version at www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/ObamaEquality.htm [more]

Once again the Greek government has demanded that the Parthenon Marbles, better known in imperialist circles as the Elgin Marbles, be returned from the British Museum to their rightful owners, the Greek people. The stunning new Acropolis Museum has just opened, and there is a gallery where a plaster copy of half the famous frieze waits to be replaced with the original. For the full version with images see www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/nefertiti [more]

As we approach the 19th anniversary of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, I'd like to focus on the role that King Hussein of Jordan played in trying to avoid this disastrous turn of events. His widow Queen Noor believes that he was betrayed by both his Arab allies and the Bush Sr. Administration. Read the entire column at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/Hussein.htm [more]

This June Greenlanders celebrated their partial independence by distributing two tons of whale meat. The island's Intuits have permission to take 200 fin and 19 minke whales each year, and like our own Makah tribe in Washington State, they insist that eating whale meat is an integral part of their native culture. Read the entire article, complete with an image of the Danish Queen in native costume, at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/greenland.htm [more]