Nation Topics - World | The Nation

Blessed with a great subject, afflicted with it too, J.M. Coetzee has remade its meanings in the light of metaphor often no further from us than our own bodies.

The arrest of Augusto Pinochet in England more than a year ago stunned the world and emboldened those seeking to bring dictators and war criminals to justice.

(With apologies, under the table, to Mother Goose)

"The problem with taking a blood sample for your malaria test is that the cockroaches may eat it in the night," announced the nurse. "Ants are an even worse problem.

The law governing the case of Elián González, the 6-year-old Cuban boy found clinging to an inner tube after his mother drowned on the way here from Cuba, could not be more clear.

It seems so familiar to me:
They know one more tank, one more gun'll
Allow best and brightest to see
The light at the end of the tunnel.

In principle, I rather detest articles or items that begin or end with the words, "You heard it here first." Nonetheless, this is what I told the readers of this column on December 28, 1998, in r

Boris Yeltsin's sudden resignation as President on New Year's Eve provoked ritual praise of his legacy by the same editorial voices that have been championing him for nine years as Russia's great

Research assistance provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute.

Cambridge, Mass.