The rise of new regions of power in recent decades has provoked much discussion of understanding the post-colonial state. While the global influence of the U.S. and the European Union appears to have diminished in past years, the significance of some post-colonial states, such as India and Pakistan, has consistently increased. The challenge for progressive thinkers is to formulate a theoretical model that can coherently explain the specific and general trajectories of these countries.

I'm writing while on what I think of as my cradles of western civilization tour. It consists of Greece and Israel. My travelling companion (to echo Paul Simon on his way to Graceland) is 13 years old, my only child. When I was in university, Athens and Jerusalem were served to us as the separate wellsprings of western civilization. Their status was a given, like western civ itself. I'm finding though, that it may be a bit late; the old categories don't seem as firm.

Robert Lepage's enchanting play "Blue Dragon" was performed at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto from January 10 to February 19. Lepage is one of the world's greatest experimental directors: this production -- and perhaps all of his work -- is characterized by his unprecedented technological wizardry that sets the stage for tales of fragmented individuals longing for an end to the impermanence of love, living their ambivalent desire for Otherness, while permeated by the inexhaustible drive for immortality.

Even now, as we speak, 153 august trade ministers from the nations of the World Trade Organization are gathered in Geneva to chant the ancient spells for warding off economic disaster. Beware of beggar thy neighbour (Woooo). Firmly resist protectionism in all its forms (Woooo). Canada's own Ed Fast will join a lively "anti-protectionism" news conference.

This is the time-honoured response to crises: hoary phrases meant to inject wisdom gained from earlier crises. It's the economic equivalent of fighting the last war to avoid thinking about the one now raging. No, wait: it's more like droning a few clichés about the last war to avoid thinking about it too.