The Activist's Dilemma: It’s time to start matching our sentiments to our actions.
by Paul Connor
Adbusters
It’s late, maybe 2, or 3 a.m. I’m scanning my email inbox for anything important I might have missed. I notice a message that lists the names of two famous activists – Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein – in its subject header. It’s a call to action, soliciting support for Tim DeChristopher, a climate change activist who faces ten years in jail after disrupting an auction of oil and gas leases in Utah. DeChristopher prevented the Bush administration from selling off 14 parcels of land for fossil fuel extraction by placing fake bids on them, and he is being prosecuted for this crime, despite the new US administration ruling that the land had been inappropriate for sale.
I’m interested in getting involved, because of the kind of activism practiced and the punishment of jail time, but also because I now want to know more about Tim DeChristopher.
On his website (bidder70.org) there is a video of DeChristopher speaking at a climate rally in Salt Lake City last October. An athletic-looking 26-year-old with a shaved head and intense eyes, he speaks loudly and succinctly, like a charismatic churchman in full swing. At times he even breaks into gospel song. And there is more than a hint of spirituality in his speech, too. He tells the small crowd of his own personal awakening – how every day since his action, despite knowing he may soon be behind bars, he has walked a little taller and felt a little freer. He also offers them a kind of salvation, declaring that it will be social struggle and activism that will make us the truly noble beings we were meant to be.
In an interview with Democracy Now, DeChristopher quotes the late US environmentalist Edward Abbey, who said that “sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” For much of his time as an activist on climate change, he explains, he felt a nagging disconnect between the scale of the issue and his response to it. But when he began to bid at the auction and risk imprisonment, he became profoundly calm.
I understand this. As a climate activist I have felt this disconnect … and also the feeling that comes from taking a stand. As I signed on to a never-ending parade of online petitions, wrote letters to politicians and chose ‘eco-friendly’ options at the local supermarket, I felt that such token actions betrayed my true feelings about the importance of the issue. But there have also been times when my actions honestly represented my convictions.
Last September I was arrested for trespassing during a mass civil disobedience action against one of the world’s dirtiest coal power stations. On another occasion I fasted on water and salt outside Australia’s Parliament House from early November till mid-December, calling for action on climate change with Climate Justice Fast! – an international hunger strike I cofounded. On those occasions I experienced the feeling DeChristopher describes. Riding in the back of a police car after my arrest, I felt a warm contentment, and strangely enough, an enormous sense of freedom. Weak and hungry from my fast, I often puzzled the journalists who asked how I felt: I told them I felt very good indeed.
What I found, and what I believe Tim DeChristopher and Edward Abbey found, was that we cannot be at peace if our actions do not reflect what we truly believe. But when they do, our spirits soar. Then we’re alive and free.
This is no groundbreaking revelation. Mahatma Gandhi expressed the same feeling when he said that “happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.” Yet while it is nothing new, there may be few ideas more urgently needed in our time.
In his 2008 book, The Freedom Paradox, Clive Hamilton argues that within free-market capitalism, corporate interests actively discourage us from acting in accord with the values, preferences and desires we would endorse after careful consideration. Very few of us, he writes, would, upon deep reflection, say that it is our innermost desire in life to work incredibly hard at a job we dislike in order to possess the latest consumer products. Yet this is precisely the life our society encourages. From early childhood onward, advertisers expertly instill within us a set of values, preferences and desires that are not our own, but those that corporations wish us to have. As a result, our true ideals become increasingly neglected and stigmatized. This denial of our moral selves, Hamilton believes, can largely explain the discontent increasingly prevalent in affluent societies.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
Thursday, January 13, 2011
R. Colin Tait: That 70s Sequence -- Remembering the Bad Old Days in Summer of Sam
That 70s Sequence: Remembering the Bad Old Days in Summer of Sam
by R. Colin Tait
Cinephile
Why, in the 1990s, did so many films obsess over and imitate distinctly 1970s film style, iconography, and content? A cycle of films, including Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995), Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997), The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, 1997), The Last Days of Disco (Walt Stillman, 1998), 54 (Mark Christopher, 1998), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam, 1998), and The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999), obsessively recreated the ‘bad objects’ of Americana-drugs, gambling, pornography, serial-killing, and bankrupt cities-within the urban spaces of the 1970s. This cycle continued into the 2000s with Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000), Blow (Ted Demme, 2001), and more recently, Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007) and American Gangster (Ridley Scott, 2007). All of these works privileged the 1970s as a lost object of desire, as opposed to earlier nostalgic representations like American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973) and its TV cousin, Happy Days (Garry Marshall 1974-1984), which longed for the innocence of pre-Vietnam, Eisenhower-esque small-town America. Thus, the evocation of the ‘good old/bad old days’ dichotomy warrants that we wade deeply into this murky phenomenon to explain its historical significance, its narrative logic, as well as exactly what this specific brand of nostalgia is trying to express. Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam (1999) provides an excellent case study of how this trend plays out, in a scene that presents a dazzling display of 70s iconography choreographed to The Who’s “Baba O’Riley/Teenage Wasteland.”[1] Not only does the scene absorb the logic of the music video and summarize the film, but it also presents a personalized rendition of the era, which we can deconstruct to get to the root of this nostalgia.
That Spike Lee’s generation of filmmakers came of age in the 1970s might begin to explain their peculiar longing for that decade. Similar to the directors of the Hollywood renaissance before them, the so-called “Rebels on the Backlot” (see Waxman) modelled themselves after the directors and films they watched during their formative years. As deWaard argues, these artists (and Spike Lee in particular) emulated a personal form of filmmaking while branding themselves within in a highly-competitive marketplace. This ciné-literate generation of artists found themselves imitating American icons like Martin Scorsese and setting their scenes to the soundtracks of their youth. One of the hallmarks of this nostalgic practice remains the ‘1970s Sequence’, which filmmakers as diverse as Richard Linklater, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, P.T. Anderson, Todd Haynes, Ang Lee, and Spike Lee all insert into their work. That each of these directors made a tribute film to the 1970s marked the cultural values of a generation (X?) which came of age and rose to prominence. More often than not, these sequences disrupt the coherence of their narratives, presenting what is essentially a music video to a 70s song. While loosely inspired by the events within the movie, they often move outside of their narrative frameworks to express a totally different logic, favouring style over formal structure.
As is the case with Summer of Sam’s “Baba O’Riley” scene, such sequences possess a storytelling function independent of the plot-line, like a condensation of the movie’s emotional spirit, which resembles the movie in miniature. Rapid-fire cutting, temporal manipulation (usually slow-motion), and over-processed and tinted film stocks together comprise a remarkably standard stylistic of the present’s nostalgic gaze upon the 70s. All of these techniques fetishize a lost era’s cinematic style while paradoxically evoking a contemporary visuality supplied by modern (often digital) technology. The influence of postmodernism, whether stated as an economic or aesthetic mode, remains central to this theorization, particularly because these sequences are textbook examples of cinematic pastiche. The curious fascination with this raw and unprepossessing recent past, compounded by an aesthetic that betrays its own present-tenseness, endows these films with a schizophrenic sense of waning affect.
Similarly, one cannot overstate the importance of MTV and the considerable influence that popular music has had in contemporary cinema since the late 1960s. This phenomenon accelerated even further in the 1980s, particularly as directors such as Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, 1986) pioneered the art of short-form (narrative) music video-making for the British pop group Duran Duran. In America, others like John Landis (”Thriller,” 1983) and Martin Scorsese (”Bad,” 1987) joined the ranks of directors who alternated between film and music video making in the 1980s. Additionally, the 1990s saw the rise of a new generation who began their careers in the advertising and music video industries; David Fincher (Madonna’s “Express Yourself,” “Vogue”), Spike Jonze (The Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” Weezer’s “Buddy Holly”), and Michel Gondry (Bjork’s “Human Behaviour”) all moved into feature films within the decade.
As the film and music industries continued to aesthetically converge, videos served to cross-market ancillary products, often under the same corporate banner. The function of the movie soundtrack became increasingly important, not only for the studio’s bottom-line but also for creating investment opportunities that led to cross-ownership between studios and music companies.[2] In this era, traditional cause-and-effect narratives were destabilized to accommodate material that could be repurposed for music videos. The result was a platform that was able to sell both the movie and the soundtrack simultaneously. An early example of this phenomenon was Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977), which contained full-length song and dance sequences within its diegesis in a manner that simultaneously resembled real-time musical numbers and prefigured the multi-angle shots and rhythmic editing of the music video.
To Read the Rest of the Essay and View the Scene From the Film
by R. Colin Tait
Cinephile
Why, in the 1990s, did so many films obsess over and imitate distinctly 1970s film style, iconography, and content? A cycle of films, including Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995), Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997), The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, 1997), The Last Days of Disco (Walt Stillman, 1998), 54 (Mark Christopher, 1998), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam, 1998), and The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999), obsessively recreated the ‘bad objects’ of Americana-drugs, gambling, pornography, serial-killing, and bankrupt cities-within the urban spaces of the 1970s. This cycle continued into the 2000s with Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000), Blow (Ted Demme, 2001), and more recently, Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007) and American Gangster (Ridley Scott, 2007). All of these works privileged the 1970s as a lost object of desire, as opposed to earlier nostalgic representations like American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973) and its TV cousin, Happy Days (Garry Marshall 1974-1984), which longed for the innocence of pre-Vietnam, Eisenhower-esque small-town America. Thus, the evocation of the ‘good old/bad old days’ dichotomy warrants that we wade deeply into this murky phenomenon to explain its historical significance, its narrative logic, as well as exactly what this specific brand of nostalgia is trying to express. Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam (1999) provides an excellent case study of how this trend plays out, in a scene that presents a dazzling display of 70s iconography choreographed to The Who’s “Baba O’Riley/Teenage Wasteland.”[1] Not only does the scene absorb the logic of the music video and summarize the film, but it also presents a personalized rendition of the era, which we can deconstruct to get to the root of this nostalgia.
That Spike Lee’s generation of filmmakers came of age in the 1970s might begin to explain their peculiar longing for that decade. Similar to the directors of the Hollywood renaissance before them, the so-called “Rebels on the Backlot” (see Waxman) modelled themselves after the directors and films they watched during their formative years. As deWaard argues, these artists (and Spike Lee in particular) emulated a personal form of filmmaking while branding themselves within in a highly-competitive marketplace. This ciné-literate generation of artists found themselves imitating American icons like Martin Scorsese and setting their scenes to the soundtracks of their youth. One of the hallmarks of this nostalgic practice remains the ‘1970s Sequence’, which filmmakers as diverse as Richard Linklater, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, P.T. Anderson, Todd Haynes, Ang Lee, and Spike Lee all insert into their work. That each of these directors made a tribute film to the 1970s marked the cultural values of a generation (X?) which came of age and rose to prominence. More often than not, these sequences disrupt the coherence of their narratives, presenting what is essentially a music video to a 70s song. While loosely inspired by the events within the movie, they often move outside of their narrative frameworks to express a totally different logic, favouring style over formal structure.
As is the case with Summer of Sam’s “Baba O’Riley” scene, such sequences possess a storytelling function independent of the plot-line, like a condensation of the movie’s emotional spirit, which resembles the movie in miniature. Rapid-fire cutting, temporal manipulation (usually slow-motion), and over-processed and tinted film stocks together comprise a remarkably standard stylistic of the present’s nostalgic gaze upon the 70s. All of these techniques fetishize a lost era’s cinematic style while paradoxically evoking a contemporary visuality supplied by modern (often digital) technology. The influence of postmodernism, whether stated as an economic or aesthetic mode, remains central to this theorization, particularly because these sequences are textbook examples of cinematic pastiche. The curious fascination with this raw and unprepossessing recent past, compounded by an aesthetic that betrays its own present-tenseness, endows these films with a schizophrenic sense of waning affect.
Similarly, one cannot overstate the importance of MTV and the considerable influence that popular music has had in contemporary cinema since the late 1960s. This phenomenon accelerated even further in the 1980s, particularly as directors such as Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, 1986) pioneered the art of short-form (narrative) music video-making for the British pop group Duran Duran. In America, others like John Landis (”Thriller,” 1983) and Martin Scorsese (”Bad,” 1987) joined the ranks of directors who alternated between film and music video making in the 1980s. Additionally, the 1990s saw the rise of a new generation who began their careers in the advertising and music video industries; David Fincher (Madonna’s “Express Yourself,” “Vogue”), Spike Jonze (The Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” Weezer’s “Buddy Holly”), and Michel Gondry (Bjork’s “Human Behaviour”) all moved into feature films within the decade.
As the film and music industries continued to aesthetically converge, videos served to cross-market ancillary products, often under the same corporate banner. The function of the movie soundtrack became increasingly important, not only for the studio’s bottom-line but also for creating investment opportunities that led to cross-ownership between studios and music companies.[2] In this era, traditional cause-and-effect narratives were destabilized to accommodate material that could be repurposed for music videos. The result was a platform that was able to sell both the movie and the soundtrack simultaneously. An early example of this phenomenon was Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977), which contained full-length song and dance sequences within its diegesis in a manner that simultaneously resembled real-time musical numbers and prefigured the multi-angle shots and rhythmic editing of the music video.
To Read the Rest of the Essay and View the Scene From the Film
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Bluegrass Film Society: Spring 2011 Series
1/19: Terribly Happy (Denmark: Henrik Ruben Genz, 2008: 90 mins)
1/26: Lorna's Silence (Belgium: The Dardenne Brothers, 2008: 105 mins)
Bluegrass Film Society: 2011 screening schedule
By Michael Dean Benton
North of Center
The Bluegrass Film Society is celebrating its sixth year by joining with Ondine Quinn of the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth to initiate a Social Documentary Series and by extending our audience range through a new Family Film Series (suggested by BCTC Librarian Meagan Brock) that will provide films suitable for all ages. Additionally, in April we will screen and discuss Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job, an important documentary about the financial crisis, for the BCTC Peace and Earth Justice Spring 2011 Speaker Series (organized by BCTC Geography professor Rebecca Glasscock).
Below are the dates for our 2011 Spring Semester screenings. All films are shown in the Oswald Building Auditorium on the campus of Bluegrass Community and Technical College at 7:30 P.M. unless otherwise specified. All screenings are free of charge and open to the public. By the time this article hits the streets we already will have screened Terribly Happy (Denmark: Henrik Ruben Genz, 2008) and Lorna’s Silence (Belgium: The Dardenne Brothers, 2008), so we will forgo a caption description and encourage readers to check these films out on their own.
2/2: Demonlover (France: Olivier Assayas, 2002: 129 mins): Olivier Assayas merges a soundtrack by Sonic Youth with the diegetic sounds of this thriller. At times the non-diegetic and the diegetic sounds merge and intertwine, causing us to question what is being presented and what is the reality of the story. An exploration of perception buried in a thriller about corporate intrigues, personal vendettas, and the global spectacle. A film guaranteed to divide audiences.
2/9: Slither (Canada/USA: James Gunn, 2006: 95 mins): Part of the Cult Film Series at Al’s Bar on 6th and Limestone. Making a horror or comedy film must be difficult as evidenced by the onslaught of terrible films from the two genres that are released each year. It is a pleasant surprise then to come across a film that combines both genres in an enjoyable, yet trashy film. Perfect for a bar atmosphere!
2/10: Deep Down: A Story From the Heart of Coal Country (USA: Jennifer Gilomen and Sally Rubin, 57 mins): Part of the KFTC Social Documentary Series. This relevant documentary examines the interests and divisions of two lifelong neighbors in the struggle over coal mining and mountaintop removal in Eastern Kentucky. The film will be followed by a discussion led by KFTC members.
2/16: Dogtooth (Greece: Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009: 94 mins) Lanthimos’s film has caused a sensation for its vivid, emotional and brutal science fictional/ surreal exploration of the structures of family and society. Just as shocking as the film’s subject matter was its nomination for Best Foreign Language Film by the normally conservative Oscar judges.
2/23: The Cove (USA: Louie Psihoyos, 2009: 92 mins): This 2010 Oscar winning documentary is a hard hitting expose of an annual hidden massive roundup and slaughter of dolphins in a Japanese cove. This is activist filmmaking in action and is one of the most intense documentaries ever made, a thrilling narrative of environmental activism against political corruption and ecological destruction. The film is devastating in its horrific reality and absolutely necessary viewing.
2/24: An Unfinished Dream (USA: Andrea Ortega and Margarita Reyes, 2010: 58 mins): Part of the KFTC Social Documentary Film Series this film will be followed by a discussion led by DREAM ACT advocate Erin Howard. The film examines the issues surrounding the DREAM Act and the struggles of the students who are fighting for its passage.
3/2: Howl’s Moving Castle (Japan: Hayao Miyazaki, 2004: 119 mins): Part of the BCTC Family Film Series (we will have a showing later in the Spring of the animated film Despicable Me). Miyazaki is a master of animated films and they can be equally enjoyed by adults as they are by children. Miyazaki continues to hand draw his cells rather than rely on computers and the lush colors of his films are matched by the vivid complex narratives. Miyazaki is not only a master of animated filmmaking, he also should be considered as ranked amongst the world’s best fantasy storytellers.
3/9: Valhalla Rising (Denmark: Nicholas Winding Refn, 2009: 93 mins): Just as winter hopefully leaves Lexington, we will screen a dark brutal tale of an enigmatic warrior from the frozen wastelands. Refn upped the ante with his previous bombastic 2008 bio- pic of England’s notorious prisoner Bronson. Now he dials it down for this imagistic, although at times even more brutal, tone poem ala Jodorowsky acid westerns. If you expect non-stop action based upon the movie’s poster and its trailer, you will be disappointed (although the first 15 minutes has more battles than most films), but if you are open to stunning imagery, Mads Mikkelsen’s enigmatic portrayal of One-Eye, and open-ended storytelling, then this will be your cup of tea!
3/10: Toilet Training (USA: Tara Mateik, 2004: 30 mins) Part of the KFTC Social Documentary Series. A look at the difficulties transgendered people have in using gender segregated public toilets and the fight to bring awareness to this issue. Film will be followed by a discussion led by KFTC members.
3/23: Mother (South Korea: Bong Joon-Ho, 2009: 128 mins): Bong Joon-Ho is the celebrated director of Memories of Murder (2003) and The Host (2006). With Mother he continues to build his reputation as one of the best directors coming out of South Korea. Mother follows the struggles of a devoted mother whose son has been charged with the murder of a young woman. He claims he had nothing to do with it and she sets out on a journey through the underside of Korean society. As is typical with many of the new wave of Korean films released in the US, this film artfully blends genres, provides lush colors and images, and provides laughs as well as chills.
3/30: The Trap (Serbia: Srdan Golubovic, 2007: 106 mins): How much is a life worth? Can we compare the value of a life to another life when one of those lives means everything to us and the other is a stranger? What would you be willing to do to save the life of someone you love? One father and husband must answer this question in Post- Milosovic Serbia as he is pressed by the demands of the cold realities of a privatized healthcare system and the opportunities of a sinister possible benefactor who asks of him only one favor in return for his monetary help.
4/13: Inside Job (USA: Charles Ferguson, 2010: 120 mins): Special 2 P.M. showing and discussion for the BCTC Peace and Earth Justice Spring Speaker Series. Charles Ferguson, the director of the superb Iraq War documentary No End in Sight (2007), turns to an examination of the causes of the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 (and onwards) in Inside Job.
Ferguson is uniquely qualified to tell this story. He has a B.A. in Mathematics (UC Berkeley 1978), a Ph.D. in Political Science (MIT 1989), worked at the Brookings Institute, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, was a consultant for various high-tech companies, and founded Vermeer Technologies where he created the Front-Page software. Ferguson is also a critical researcher and relentless interviewer, and in this film these skills are put to good use as he maps out the root causes of our current economic crisis.
4/20: Still Walking (Japan: Hirokazu Koreeda, 2008: 114 mins): A beautiful, subtle exploration of a family coming together to heal in the long aftermath of a tragedy. Koreeda, the director of Afterlife (1998) and Nobody Knows (2004), provides a rich literary experience that examines all of the intricacies, heartbreak and joy of family without sliding into mawkish melodrama. It is celebrated as a masterpiece and was released on DVD by Criterion Collection in a high-quality transfer.
1/26: Lorna's Silence (Belgium: The Dardenne Brothers, 2008: 105 mins)
Bluegrass Film Society: 2011 screening schedule
By Michael Dean Benton
North of Center
The Bluegrass Film Society is celebrating its sixth year by joining with Ondine Quinn of the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth to initiate a Social Documentary Series and by extending our audience range through a new Family Film Series (suggested by BCTC Librarian Meagan Brock) that will provide films suitable for all ages. Additionally, in April we will screen and discuss Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job, an important documentary about the financial crisis, for the BCTC Peace and Earth Justice Spring 2011 Speaker Series (organized by BCTC Geography professor Rebecca Glasscock).
Below are the dates for our 2011 Spring Semester screenings. All films are shown in the Oswald Building Auditorium on the campus of Bluegrass Community and Technical College at 7:30 P.M. unless otherwise specified. All screenings are free of charge and open to the public. By the time this article hits the streets we already will have screened Terribly Happy (Denmark: Henrik Ruben Genz, 2008) and Lorna’s Silence (Belgium: The Dardenne Brothers, 2008), so we will forgo a caption description and encourage readers to check these films out on their own.
2/2: Demonlover (France: Olivier Assayas, 2002: 129 mins): Olivier Assayas merges a soundtrack by Sonic Youth with the diegetic sounds of this thriller. At times the non-diegetic and the diegetic sounds merge and intertwine, causing us to question what is being presented and what is the reality of the story. An exploration of perception buried in a thriller about corporate intrigues, personal vendettas, and the global spectacle. A film guaranteed to divide audiences.
2/9: Slither (Canada/USA: James Gunn, 2006: 95 mins): Part of the Cult Film Series at Al’s Bar on 6th and Limestone. Making a horror or comedy film must be difficult as evidenced by the onslaught of terrible films from the two genres that are released each year. It is a pleasant surprise then to come across a film that combines both genres in an enjoyable, yet trashy film. Perfect for a bar atmosphere!
2/10: Deep Down: A Story From the Heart of Coal Country (USA: Jennifer Gilomen and Sally Rubin, 57 mins): Part of the KFTC Social Documentary Series. This relevant documentary examines the interests and divisions of two lifelong neighbors in the struggle over coal mining and mountaintop removal in Eastern Kentucky. The film will be followed by a discussion led by KFTC members.
2/16: Dogtooth (Greece: Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009: 94 mins) Lanthimos’s film has caused a sensation for its vivid, emotional and brutal science fictional/ surreal exploration of the structures of family and society. Just as shocking as the film’s subject matter was its nomination for Best Foreign Language Film by the normally conservative Oscar judges.
2/23: The Cove (USA: Louie Psihoyos, 2009: 92 mins): This 2010 Oscar winning documentary is a hard hitting expose of an annual hidden massive roundup and slaughter of dolphins in a Japanese cove. This is activist filmmaking in action and is one of the most intense documentaries ever made, a thrilling narrative of environmental activism against political corruption and ecological destruction. The film is devastating in its horrific reality and absolutely necessary viewing.
2/24: An Unfinished Dream (USA: Andrea Ortega and Margarita Reyes, 2010: 58 mins): Part of the KFTC Social Documentary Film Series this film will be followed by a discussion led by DREAM ACT advocate Erin Howard. The film examines the issues surrounding the DREAM Act and the struggles of the students who are fighting for its passage.
3/2: Howl’s Moving Castle (Japan: Hayao Miyazaki, 2004: 119 mins): Part of the BCTC Family Film Series (we will have a showing later in the Spring of the animated film Despicable Me). Miyazaki is a master of animated films and they can be equally enjoyed by adults as they are by children. Miyazaki continues to hand draw his cells rather than rely on computers and the lush colors of his films are matched by the vivid complex narratives. Miyazaki is not only a master of animated filmmaking, he also should be considered as ranked amongst the world’s best fantasy storytellers.
3/9: Valhalla Rising (Denmark: Nicholas Winding Refn, 2009: 93 mins): Just as winter hopefully leaves Lexington, we will screen a dark brutal tale of an enigmatic warrior from the frozen wastelands. Refn upped the ante with his previous bombastic 2008 bio- pic of England’s notorious prisoner Bronson. Now he dials it down for this imagistic, although at times even more brutal, tone poem ala Jodorowsky acid westerns. If you expect non-stop action based upon the movie’s poster and its trailer, you will be disappointed (although the first 15 minutes has more battles than most films), but if you are open to stunning imagery, Mads Mikkelsen’s enigmatic portrayal of One-Eye, and open-ended storytelling, then this will be your cup of tea!
3/10: Toilet Training (USA: Tara Mateik, 2004: 30 mins) Part of the KFTC Social Documentary Series. A look at the difficulties transgendered people have in using gender segregated public toilets and the fight to bring awareness to this issue. Film will be followed by a discussion led by KFTC members.
3/23: Mother (South Korea: Bong Joon-Ho, 2009: 128 mins): Bong Joon-Ho is the celebrated director of Memories of Murder (2003) and The Host (2006). With Mother he continues to build his reputation as one of the best directors coming out of South Korea. Mother follows the struggles of a devoted mother whose son has been charged with the murder of a young woman. He claims he had nothing to do with it and she sets out on a journey through the underside of Korean society. As is typical with many of the new wave of Korean films released in the US, this film artfully blends genres, provides lush colors and images, and provides laughs as well as chills.
3/30: The Trap (Serbia: Srdan Golubovic, 2007: 106 mins): How much is a life worth? Can we compare the value of a life to another life when one of those lives means everything to us and the other is a stranger? What would you be willing to do to save the life of someone you love? One father and husband must answer this question in Post- Milosovic Serbia as he is pressed by the demands of the cold realities of a privatized healthcare system and the opportunities of a sinister possible benefactor who asks of him only one favor in return for his monetary help.
4/13: Inside Job (USA: Charles Ferguson, 2010: 120 mins): Special 2 P.M. showing and discussion for the BCTC Peace and Earth Justice Spring Speaker Series. Charles Ferguson, the director of the superb Iraq War documentary No End in Sight (2007), turns to an examination of the causes of the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 (and onwards) in Inside Job.
Ferguson is uniquely qualified to tell this story. He has a B.A. in Mathematics (UC Berkeley 1978), a Ph.D. in Political Science (MIT 1989), worked at the Brookings Institute, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, was a consultant for various high-tech companies, and founded Vermeer Technologies where he created the Front-Page software. Ferguson is also a critical researcher and relentless interviewer, and in this film these skills are put to good use as he maps out the root causes of our current economic crisis.
4/20: Still Walking (Japan: Hirokazu Koreeda, 2008: 114 mins): A beautiful, subtle exploration of a family coming together to heal in the long aftermath of a tragedy. Koreeda, the director of Afterlife (1998) and Nobody Knows (2004), provides a rich literary experience that examines all of the intricacies, heartbreak and joy of family without sliding into mawkish melodrama. It is celebrated as a masterpiece and was released on DVD by Criterion Collection in a high-quality transfer.
Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen on the state of energy and climate politics in DC; Lucia Green-Weiskel on Cancún and Chinese energy and climate politi
Behind the News with Doug Henwood (KPFA: Berkeley, CA)
Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen on the state of energy and climate politics in DC • Lucia Green-Weiskel, author of "Climate Clash in Cancun", on Cancún and Chinese energy and climate politics
To Listen to the Episode and Access More Resources
Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen on the state of energy and climate politics in DC • Lucia Green-Weiskel, author of "Climate Clash in Cancun", on Cancún and Chinese energy and climate politics
To Listen to the Episode and Access More Resources
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Ben Jervey: Offshore Drilling Oversight Necessary
Offshore Drilling Oversight Necessary
by Ben Jervey
Good
In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, as the oil still gushed into Gulf waters, the president formed a commission to figure out what went wrong, and how to prevent a similar disaster in the future. Commission members claim that the president told them to "follow the facts wherever they led," and so for six months they've been doing exactly that.
Today, the commission released its final report. Impressively, the authors didn't mince words, essentially saying that if industry's practices and government oversight don't improve, another disaster is all but inevitable.
It's a monster of a document (398 pages), and I haven't come close to finishing it yet. But I have tackled the intro, the first couple chapters, and the recommendations. It's actually a pretty fascinating read. Chapter One is honestly the best narrative journalism I've read of that fateful day in April. Chapters Two and Three are good history lessons on offshore drilling in America and the regulation (or lack thereof) of the industry.
The conclusions and recommendations, though, are probably most important. A summary of the commission's conclusions, provided in the intro, may look on first glance like common sense criticism that you've probably spouted off to your friends, but in the world of D.C. politics, they are pretty severe.
To Read the Commentary and To Access the Original Report
by Ben Jervey
Good
In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, as the oil still gushed into Gulf waters, the president formed a commission to figure out what went wrong, and how to prevent a similar disaster in the future. Commission members claim that the president told them to "follow the facts wherever they led," and so for six months they've been doing exactly that.
Today, the commission released its final report. Impressively, the authors didn't mince words, essentially saying that if industry's practices and government oversight don't improve, another disaster is all but inevitable.
It's a monster of a document (398 pages), and I haven't come close to finishing it yet. But I have tackled the intro, the first couple chapters, and the recommendations. It's actually a pretty fascinating read. Chapter One is honestly the best narrative journalism I've read of that fateful day in April. Chapters Two and Three are good history lessons on offshore drilling in America and the regulation (or lack thereof) of the industry.
The conclusions and recommendations, though, are probably most important. A summary of the commission's conclusions, provided in the intro, may look on first glance like common sense criticism that you've probably spouted off to your friends, but in the world of D.C. politics, they are pretty severe.
To Read the Commentary and To Access the Original Report
David Dayen: Right Wing Hopping Mad Over Culture of Violence They Have Wrought
Right Wing Hopping Mad Over Culture of Violence They Have Wrought
By: David Dayen
Firedoglake
Right now, the public isn’t ready to believe an argument that Jared Loughner was motivated by right-wing rhetoric. Fortunately, nobody has said that, because it’s the wrong claim to make. Nobody has claimed that crosshairs on a map or talk of “Second Amendment remedies” is specifically to blame (some on the right have blamed heavy metal music and a skull in his backyard, and that’s just as silly). The main claim is that the toxic stew of noxious rhetoric, particularly in Loughner’s home district and home state of Arizona, creates an environment that amps up a lunatic fringe. Loughner couldn’t help but trip over that, and indeed his writings do have a cockeyed resonance to some of the really far-right groups like Posse Comitatus and the Patriot movement. That doesn’t make those practitioners of angry rhetoric culpable, but it sure doesn’t mean what they’re doing helped, either.
But even if you throw all of that away – and mind you, I think Loughner bears more resemblance to a Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris and Cho Seung-Hui than anyone else – I don’t think that the trend on the right is particularly deniable. Consider that, in the wake of the shooting, the feds arrested someone threatening Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Danny Davis received an email over the weekend saying he was next, and a leader of the Minutemen responded to the Tucson shooting by writing “Too bad Traitor Raul Grijalva wasn’t with her! He won’t be missed!” All three of these politicians are Democrats.
When Clarence Dupnik gained national attention by spotlighting the role of violent rhetoric (“We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry”… “pretty soon we’re not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people willing to subject themselves to serve in public office”), he didn’t actually mention any political party or movement in his statement. The fact that conservatives moved swiftly to marginalize and demonize him and his words, that was a tell. They didn’t like what Dupnik said because they’re afraid people would get the idea that he’s right. And right-wing talk radio hosts, for whom bile and anger is the coin of the realm, they felt the need to rebut Dupnik right away:
This sounds like one of those polls on the Ed Schultz show that miraculously gets 98% of the vote. Of course the radio hosts and call-in guests agreed. They’d have to reassess themselves and their career choices if they didn’t.
To Read the Rest of the Commentary
By: David Dayen
Firedoglake
Right now, the public isn’t ready to believe an argument that Jared Loughner was motivated by right-wing rhetoric. Fortunately, nobody has said that, because it’s the wrong claim to make. Nobody has claimed that crosshairs on a map or talk of “Second Amendment remedies” is specifically to blame (some on the right have blamed heavy metal music and a skull in his backyard, and that’s just as silly). The main claim is that the toxic stew of noxious rhetoric, particularly in Loughner’s home district and home state of Arizona, creates an environment that amps up a lunatic fringe. Loughner couldn’t help but trip over that, and indeed his writings do have a cockeyed resonance to some of the really far-right groups like Posse Comitatus and the Patriot movement. That doesn’t make those practitioners of angry rhetoric culpable, but it sure doesn’t mean what they’re doing helped, either.
But even if you throw all of that away – and mind you, I think Loughner bears more resemblance to a Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris and Cho Seung-Hui than anyone else – I don’t think that the trend on the right is particularly deniable. Consider that, in the wake of the shooting, the feds arrested someone threatening Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Danny Davis received an email over the weekend saying he was next, and a leader of the Minutemen responded to the Tucson shooting by writing “Too bad Traitor Raul Grijalva wasn’t with her! He won’t be missed!” All three of these politicians are Democrats.
When Clarence Dupnik gained national attention by spotlighting the role of violent rhetoric (“We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry”… “pretty soon we’re not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people willing to subject themselves to serve in public office”), he didn’t actually mention any political party or movement in his statement. The fact that conservatives moved swiftly to marginalize and demonize him and his words, that was a tell. They didn’t like what Dupnik said because they’re afraid people would get the idea that he’s right. And right-wing talk radio hosts, for whom bile and anger is the coin of the realm, they felt the need to rebut Dupnik right away:
Phone calls poured in to stations across the dial to denounce Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik of Pima County, who said at a news conference over the weekend that Arizona had become “the mecca for prejudice and bigotry” and that local TV and radio hosts should do some “soul-searching.”
The radio hosts struck a defensive, even embattled tone at times on Monday. They said Saturday’s shooting had nothing to do with either their broadcasts or the state’s tense political environment; they read e-mails over the air that were critical of their political stances, and some spoke about death threats they had received.
All agreed that Sheriff Dupnik had embarrassed Arizona and unfairly denigrated talk radio by linking it with the shooting.
This sounds like one of those polls on the Ed Schultz show that miraculously gets 98% of the vote. Of course the radio hosts and call-in guests agreed. They’d have to reassess themselves and their career choices if they didn’t.
To Read the Rest of the Commentary
Ed Yohnka: A "Near-Death Experience" for Death Penalty Abolition in Illinois
A "Near-Death Experience" for Death Penalty Abolition in Illinois
Blog of Rights (ACLU)
by Ed Yohnka
On Thursday afternoon, the Illinois House of Representatives was a raucous place — with talk of a deal on a tax increase, Medicaid reform and proposed budget cuts all sweeping around the chamber, members created a cacophony of sound that echoed around the huge chamber. But late in the afternoon, as the House began to consider Senate Bill 3539 — a measure to end Illinois' broken death penalty system — the chamber became hushed. Every member seemed to grasp the importance of the debate, coming after a decade in which the State of Illinois has operated under a death penalty moratorium because so many innocent men were released from death row.
Rep. Karen Yarbrough and other supporters made clear, concise points in favor of repeal. They noted that the state has spent more than $100 million over the past decade prosecuting death penalty cases, despite the fact that no one has been executed. They also made clear that the death penalty is not a deterrent and that supporting the death penalty means accepting the very real possibility that the state of Illinois will execute an innocent person. Perhaps most compelling were the voices of several previous supporters of the death penalty — including Reps. Susan Mendoza, Paul Froehlich and Mike Boland — who said that they no longer could support the risk of executing the innocent. It was compelling and moving.
Opponents of the bill trotted out two familiar but ultimately empty arguments. First they suggested that the only appropriate penalty for those who committed heinous crimes is the death penalty and relied repeatedly on gruesome references to murders in Illinois. These repeal opponents also pushed the notion that law enforcement needed the death penalty as a "tool" to coerce suspects to confess to particular acts. Yet one of the sad realities in Illinois is that we have seen a host of false confessions; confessions elicited by law enforcement using such "tools."
To Read the Rest of the Report
Blog of Rights (ACLU)
by Ed Yohnka
On Thursday afternoon, the Illinois House of Representatives was a raucous place — with talk of a deal on a tax increase, Medicaid reform and proposed budget cuts all sweeping around the chamber, members created a cacophony of sound that echoed around the huge chamber. But late in the afternoon, as the House began to consider Senate Bill 3539 — a measure to end Illinois' broken death penalty system — the chamber became hushed. Every member seemed to grasp the importance of the debate, coming after a decade in which the State of Illinois has operated under a death penalty moratorium because so many innocent men were released from death row.
Rep. Karen Yarbrough and other supporters made clear, concise points in favor of repeal. They noted that the state has spent more than $100 million over the past decade prosecuting death penalty cases, despite the fact that no one has been executed. They also made clear that the death penalty is not a deterrent and that supporting the death penalty means accepting the very real possibility that the state of Illinois will execute an innocent person. Perhaps most compelling were the voices of several previous supporters of the death penalty — including Reps. Susan Mendoza, Paul Froehlich and Mike Boland — who said that they no longer could support the risk of executing the innocent. It was compelling and moving.
Opponents of the bill trotted out two familiar but ultimately empty arguments. First they suggested that the only appropriate penalty for those who committed heinous crimes is the death penalty and relied repeatedly on gruesome references to murders in Illinois. These repeal opponents also pushed the notion that law enforcement needed the death penalty as a "tool" to coerce suspects to confess to particular acts. Yet one of the sad realities in Illinois is that we have seen a host of false confessions; confessions elicited by law enforcement using such "tools."
To Read the Rest of the Report
Saturday, January 08, 2011
Judge John Roll Dead, Rep. Gabby Giffords Shot in the Head In Tuscon Shooting; Sarah Palin's PAC Puts Gun Sights On Democrats She's Targeting In 2010
(Update at 4:36 PM: Talking Points Memo: Gifford Is Alive and Doctors Optimistic)
"Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win."
--Sarah Palin defending her violent metaphors used to, in her words, "target" Democrats who supported the Healthcare reform bill
Rep. Gabby Giffords and Six Others Have Died In Tuscon Shooting
Related stories:
Sarah Palin's PAC Puts Gun Sights On Democrats She's Targeting In 2010 (Gabrielle Gifford was one of the 20 democrats they placed on a map with a gun target)
"Sarah Palin Sticks to Her Guns, and Gun Imagery, in Message to Supporters"
Giffords Opponent, Jesse Kelly, Held June Event to “Shoot a Fully Automatic M16″ to “Get on Target” and “Remove Gabrielle Giffords”
Chief Judge John Roll Dead in AZ Shooting, Received Death Threats Over 2009 Immigration Case
"2nd Suspect Sought in Arizona Shooting."
A Cautionary Tale
"Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win."
--Sarah Palin defending her violent metaphors used to, in her words, "target" Democrats who supported the Healthcare reform bill
Rep. Gabby Giffords and Six Others Have Died In Tuscon Shooting
Related stories:
Sarah Palin's PAC Puts Gun Sights On Democrats She's Targeting In 2010 (Gabrielle Gifford was one of the 20 democrats they placed on a map with a gun target)
"Sarah Palin Sticks to Her Guns, and Gun Imagery, in Message to Supporters"
Giffords Opponent, Jesse Kelly, Held June Event to “Shoot a Fully Automatic M16″ to “Get on Target” and “Remove Gabrielle Giffords”
Chief Judge John Roll Dead in AZ Shooting, Received Death Threats Over 2009 Immigration Case
"2nd Suspect Sought in Arizona Shooting."
A Cautionary Tale
HUM 221: Peace and Conflict Studies
(Under Construction: for students, visitors and fellow-travelers..... these are resources designed to provoke us to ask how should we live, how should we treat others, what is a just world, what are the problems that continue to prevent peaceful existence between peoples, beings and cultures, and, where do we go from here? There is not a separate section for "peace" because this whole archive, even when discussing war and violence, is about building a more peaceful world. Any one source is only placed in a few of the most relevant thematic sections for convenience. These resources are mostly designed to provide a counter-narrative to the American mainstream corporate media that frame our understanding of the world; so that we can think more fully about global, national and local issues. Once a topic has 10 or more sources it is moved to its own link-archive. Please feel free to make comments about this project, to alert me to defunct/faulty links, and to suggest good resources for this archive.)
Recommended Essays/Videos/Podcasts/Websites:
Awards/Prizes
Karski, Jan. "Polish Resistance Figure Jan Karski, Honored with Posthumous Medal of Freedom, in His Own Words" Democracy Now (June 5, 2012)
Nordlinger, Jay. "Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, The Most Famous and Controversial Prize in the World." After Words (May 27, 2012)
Borders/Boundaries
Barghouti, Mustafa. "Is There Room for Gandhi in Palestine?" Open Source (April 30, 2010)
Connors-Manke, Beth. "Ciudad Juárez: Reckoning with feminicide, part 2." North of Center (November 9, 2011)
Mountz, Alison. Seeking Asylum: Human Smuggling and Bureaucracy at the Border. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010. [Available in BCTC Library JV 6201.M68 2010]
Cities/Urban
Milstein, Cindy. "On Radicalism." Deep Green Philly (November 8, 2011)
Planetizen ["Planetizen is a public-interest information exchange provided by Urban Insight for the urban planning, design, and development community. It is a one-stop source for urban planning news, commentary, interviews, event coverage, book reviews, announcements, jobs, consultant listings, training, and more. Planetizen prides itself on covering a wide number of planning, design, and development issues, from transportation to global warming, architecture to infrastructure, housing and community development to historic preservation. We provide a forum for people across the political and ideological spectrum, ensuring a healthy debate on these and other important issues. Planetizen is read by a diverse array of people interested in the built and natural environments, and their interaction. Planetizen's audience includes professional urban planners, developers, architects, policy makers, educators, economists, civic enthusiasts and others from across the United States and around the world."]
Comics/Graphic Novels/Film Adaptations
Bleasdale, John. "Avengers Dissemble: A Polemic." Alternate Takes (June 10, 2012)
Hedges, Chris, Jim Powell and Tim Maby. "Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco: drawing America's invisible poor - audio slideshow." The Guardian (July 12, 2012)
Zborowski, James. "The Dark Knight Rises." Alternate Takes (July 22, 2012)
Consumerism
Zizek, Slavoj. "First as Tragedy, Then as Farce." RSAnimate (July 28, 2010)
Critical Thinking
The Skeptic's Dcitionary ["The Skeptic's Dictionary is a website and a book. Each features definitions, arguments, and essays on topics ranging from acupuncture to zombies, and provides a lively, commonsense trove of detailed information on things supernatural, paranormal, and pseudoscientific. Dozens of topics in logic, perception, science, and philosophy are also covered to help explain the appeal and popularity of occult beliefs and to provide a guide for critical thinking."]
Disability
"Seeing and Perceiving." To the Best of Our Knowledge (February 6, 2011)
Taylor, Sunaura. "Humane Meat? No Such Thing." Yes! (March 27, 2011)
Emotions
Frazen, Jonathan. "Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts." (Commencement address to the graduates of Kenyon College) The New York Times (May 29, 2011)
Fascism/Right Wing
Alternative Right ["AlternativeRight.com, launched on March 1, 2010, is an online magazine of radical traditionalism. It marks an attempt to forge a new, independent intellectual Right." Funded by the National Policy Institute.]
Britt, Laurence W. "14 Characteristics of Fascism." Council for Secular Humanism (July 25, 2004)
Grossman, Zoltan. "The Tucson Shooter and the Real Fascists in Our Midst." Z Net (January 12, 2011)
Harkin, Shaun. "Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It." We Are Many (June 17, 2010)
Kumar, Deepa. "The Rise of Anti-Muslim Hate." International Socialist Review #74 (November-December 2010)
National Policy Institute [Augusta, GA: "White Americans have been led to believe that “diversity” and “multiculturalism” are sacred. We’re conditioned to be shy when it comes to standing up for our own beliefs. But doesn’t every race, ethnic subculture, and special interest—from left-handers to lesbians—have all sorts of organizations working for them? Isn’t it about time someone spoke for us? It’s not just the minority lobby who opposes our interests while advancing their own: even America’s white leaders—conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats—routinely push for policies that disadvantage their own people. Well, it is about time we had a voice in public policy—that’s why THE NATIONAL POLICY INSTITUTE (NPI) was formed. NPI promotes the American majority’s unique historical, cultural, and biological inheritance—and advances policies that, without prejudicing the legitimate rights of others, fearlessly defends our rights… our heritage. Our school children are special targets in a culture war—they are taught that their parents and ancestors have exploited and victimized the other peoples of the earth. Public institutions named for such Founding Fathers as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are being renamed for radicals like Malcolm X and Cesar Chavez—even the holiday that honors America’s discoverer, Christopher Columbus, is now under attack. Young people are trained to be sensitive towards “oppressed minorities,” but are stripped of pride for what their own people have accomplished. This anti-white—anti- American—campaign of an intellectual elite is waged in the most vicious language and it assigns collective guilt to our kinship in a way that would be considered intolerable if directed at other groups. While minority celebrities, loyalties, and faiths are increasingly promoted in schools and other public places, symbols of the historic beliefs of European-Americans — from Christmas trees to crosses — are discouraged or even forbidden. Government policies are shrinking the majority and underwriting the geometric growth of minorities. The tax and welfare system forces white families to postpone children for financial reasons while politicians use our tax dollars to support large minority families.”]
Potok, Mark. "The Year in Hate and Extremism, 2010." Southern Poverty Law Center (Spring 2011)
Public Eye ["Political Research Associates is a progressive think tank devoted to supporting movements that are building a more just and inclusive democratic society. We expose movements, institutions, and ideologies that undermine human rights. The Public Eye: PRA publishes The Public Eye, our signature quarterly, presenting insightful reports by scholars and journalists on trends within the US Right."]
Smith, Martin. The Rise of the Right in Europe." We Are Many (June 17, 2010)
Youth for Western Civilization ["Youth for Western Civilization was incorporated in 2006 and began actively organizing in 2008. The founder was Kevin DeAnna, a graduate student at American University. While some events were held in the fall of 2008, Youth for Western Civilization first came to public attention in the spring of 2009 by hosting speakers such as Congressman Tom Tancredo, Bay Buchanan and Congressman Virgil Goode. Events were held at campuses around the country including: American University, Vanderbilt University, the University of North Carolina and Providence College. Since then, Youth for Western Civilization has stirred up debate on controversial issues like illegal immigration, multiculturalism and classical education that were thought to be driven off college campuses. YWC stands alone in challenging the dogmatic left-wing orthodoxy of American higher education."]
Fashion/Style
Gamman, Lorraine. "If Looks Could Kill: On gangster suits and silhouettes." Moving Image Source (May 8, 2012)
Games
Sirota, David. "The Real Problem with Bin Laden Killing Video Games. Once again, the Pentagon is co-opting electronic entertainment to sell us on the military." Common Dreams (May 18, 2011)
Genocide
Gourevitch, Philip. "Reporting the Story of a Genocide." Conversations with History (February 11, 2000)
"Responding to Genocide Today." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Ongoing Project)
Geography
Mitchell, Don. "You Who are the Bureaucrats of Empire, Remember Who We Are" History of a Weapon (April 6, 2004: Address at The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University)
Identity
"The Being Deaf Show." RE:SOUND (2007)
Fernandez, Ingrid. "Visions of the Other: The Return of the Abject in Roman Polanski's The Tenant." Bright Lights Film Journal #78 (November 2012)
Knight, Michael Muhammad. "The Innocence of White People." Vice (September 18, 2012)
Ullman, Sharon and Gus Stadler. "ICPR H 290 INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER:
POWER, PERFORMANCE, AND IDENTITY." (Fall 2008: Course Syllabus)
Literature
Anderson, Sam. "The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami." The New York Times (10/23/2011)
DJ Monk One. "The Last Thing I Learned From Gil Scott Heron." Ill Doctrine (June 23, 2011)
Ford, John. "Reads and Discusses John Cheever's Short Story 'Reunion.' The New Yorker (December 26, 2006)
Mosson, Greg. "Ars Poetica: The Case for American Political Poetry." The Potomac (Summer 2009)
Militias
Gellman, Barton. "The Secret World of Extreme Militias." Time (September 30, 2010)
"Hate and Extremism." Southern Poverty Law Center (Ongoing Archive and Mapping)
Potok, Mark. "The Year in Hate and Extremism, 2010." Southern Poverty Law Center (Spring 2011)
Nations/States
Ryan, Yasmine. "Anti-terrorism and uprisings: North African leaders have worked with the West against Islamists and migrants - becoming more repressive as a result." Al Jazeera (February 25, 2011)
"Southern Sudan Referendum 2011" Global Voices [Online archive of citizen media reports]
Wallerstein, Immanuel. "Structural Crisis in the World-System: Where Do We Go from Here?" Monthly Review (March 2011)
Nationalism/Patriotism
Carlin, Dan. "Pyrrhic Schadenfreude." Common Sense (May 2, 2011)
Gellman, Barton. "The Secret World of Extreme Militias." Time (September 30, 2010)
Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. "Tea Party Nationalism." (Special Report: Fall 2010)
Marvin, Carolyn and David W. Ingle. "Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Revisiting Civil Religion." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 64.4 (Winter 1996)
---. Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the American Flag. Cambridge University Press, 1999. [excerpt, first ten pages]
Sharlet, Jeff. "Norwegian Shooting Suspect’s Views Echo Xenophobia of Right-Wing Extremists in U.S., Europe." Democracy Now (July 27, 2011)
Wise, Tim. Killing One Monster, Unleashing Another: Reflections on Revenge and Revelry (Website for the Author: May 2, 2011)
Native Americans
Bagley, Will. "Blazing the Trails Westward." Radio West (September 5, 2011)
Marxism and Native Americans. ed. Ward Churchill. Boston: South End Press, 1992. [Available in BCTC Library]
Pacificism
Cornell, Andrew. "Anarchism and the Movement for a New Society: Direct Action and Prefigurative Community in the 1970s and 80s." Institute for Anarchist Studies (2009)
Parenting
Williamson, Ben. "On Parenting, Media, Education and Phobias." DMLcentral (February 14, 2011)
Performance/Theater
"Critical Art Ensemble: When Thought Becomes Crime." Dialogic (October 5, 2005)
Robbins, Tim. "Actor, Director Tim Robbins Takes Up Historic Vietnam War Protest in Production of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine." Democracy Now (August 27, 2009)
Ullman, Sharon and Gus Stadler. "ICPR H 290 INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER:
POWER, PERFORMANCE, AND IDENTITY." (Fall 2008: Course Syllabus)
Photography
Keller, Bill. "The Inner Lives of Wartime Photographers." The New York Times (May 8, 2011)
LGBT Pride Parades The Big Picture (July 8, 2011)
Mattei, Mario. "The True Meaning of Pictures." International Guild of Visual Peacemakers (April 15, 2011)
Young, Lloyd. "Ramadan Begins." The Big Picture (August 3, 2011)
Police/Law Enforcement
Police/Law Enforcement: Peace and Conflict Studies Archive
Poverty
Brown, Pamela. "Rolling Jubilee: Buying Up Distressed Debt, Occupy Offshoot Bails Out the People, Not the Banks." Democracy Now (November 15, 2012)
Carrion, Maria. "General Strike Sweeps Europe as Millions Reject Austerity as Solution to Economic Crisis." Democracy Now (November 14, 2012)
The End of Poverty (USA: Philippe Diaz, 2008: 106 mins)
Hooper, Simon. "British ban squatting to tackle ‘anarchists': Squatting in empty properties is now a criminal offence, but homeless people say they are being unfairly criminalised." Al Jazeera (November 12, 2012)
King, Martin Luther, Jr. "The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Presidential Address: August 16, 1967." Hartford Web Publishing (Also known as "Where Do We Go From Here" speech)
Seal, Kevin. "News of the Occupation: Occupiers Past and Present – Oakland Union of the Homeless." The Occupied Oakland Journal (November 17, 2011)
Shaw, John. "The problem of the poor: faith, science and poverty in 19th century Britain." The National Archives Podcast Series (September 28, 2006)
Prisons/Prisoners/Jails
Prisons/Prisoners/Jails: Peace and Conflict Studies Archive
Privatization
Brickner, Mike and Mike Fasano. "Florida Lawmakers Defeat Prison Privatization amid National Push for For-Profit Jails." Democracy Now (February 17, 2012)
Crabtree, Susan. "Report: U.S. Has Wasted Tens Of Billions Of Dollars On Contractors In Iraq And Afghanistan." Talking Points Memo (February 28, 2011)
Lapon, Gary. "College, Inc.: The abuses of the growing for-profit higher education industry." Socialist Worker (August 27, 2012)
"Wells Fargo Profits from Private Prisons." Media Roots (November 22, 2011)
"Why a Michigan High School is Ground Zero for US Politics." The Rachel Maddow Show (April 22, 2011)
Radio
Wu, Timothy. "The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires." The Center of Internet and Society (May 15, 2011)
Representation
Mattei, Mario. "The True Meaning of Pictures." International Guild of Visual Peacemakers (April 15, 2011)
Seniors
Sandiumenge, Lili. "Spain: The Rebel Grandparents of the 15M." Global Voices (February 9, 2012)
Taxes
Baxter, Joan. "How corporate tax breaks hurt humanity. Truth be told: taxation is only certain for the ordinary law-abiding citizen, the non-rich." Rabble (March 18, 2011)
Bybee, Roger. "The Great Corporate Tax Swindle." In These Times (September 1, 2011)
"Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010." Citizens for Tax Justice (November, 2011)
Guevara, Marina Walker, Michael Hudson and Gerard Ryle. "Likely Largest Journalism Collaboration In History." The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (April 3, 2013)
Johnson, Dave. "Actually, 'the Rich' Don't 'Create Jobs,' We Do." TruthOut (May 14, 2011)
"Taxday 2011: Where did your 2010 Federal Income Taxes Go? National Priorities Project (March 22, 2011)
Tax Justice Network ["TJN is an independent organisation launched in the British Houses of Parliament in March 2003. It is dedicated to high-level research, analysis and advocacy in the field of tax and regulation. We work to map, analyse and explain the role of taxation and the harmful impacts of tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax competition and tax havens. Our objective is to encourage reform at the global and national levels. We are not aligned to any political party. Our network includes:
Academics; Accountants; Development organisations and NGOs; Economists; Faith groups; Financial professionals; Journalists; Lawyers; Public-interest groups; Trade unions. Our founding objectives are: To raise the level of awareness about the secretive world of offshore finance; to promote links between interested parties around the world, particularly involving developing countries; to stimulate and organise research and debate; to encourage and support national and international campaign activity. In particular we aim to: Promote more local campaigns for tax justice, especially in developing countries; provide a medium through which tax justice issues can be promoted within multilateral agencies such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund [IMF] , the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development [OECD] and the European Union."]
Technology
Technology: Peace and Conflict Studies Archive
Telecommunications
Wu, Timothy. "The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires." The Center of Internet and Society (May 15, 2011)
Time:
"Facing Time." To the Best of Our Knowledge (October 10, 2010)
Sukhdev, Sandhu. "'Slow cinema' fights back against Bourne's supremacy." The Guardian (March 9, 2012)
Torture
Torture: Peace and Conflict Studies Archive
Travel/Tourism
Iyer, Pico. "The World Dreamed But Not Judged." The Marketplace of Ideas (August 10, 2011)
Papayanis, Marilyn Adler. "Sex on the Beach: The Yin Yang of Female Sex Tourism in Two Films." Bright Lights Film Journal #78 (November 2012)
"Seeing and Perceiving." To the Best of Our Knowledge (February 6, 2011)
"Travel." To the Best of Our Knowledge (July 19, 2009)
Veganism/Vegetarianism
Taylor, Sunaura. "Humane Meat? No Such Thing." Yes! (March 27, 2011)
Water
Adams, Mike. "Collecting rainwater now illegal in many states as Big Government claims ownership over our water." Natural News (July 26, 2010)
Goodman, Amy, et al. "Poisoned Water, Fossil Fuels." Making Contact (May 22, 2012)
Welfare
Taibbi, Matt. "The Real Housewives of Wall Street." Rolling Stone (April 11, 2011)
Recommended Essays/Videos/Podcasts/Websites:
Awards/Prizes
Karski, Jan. "Polish Resistance Figure Jan Karski, Honored with Posthumous Medal of Freedom, in His Own Words" Democracy Now (June 5, 2012)
Nordlinger, Jay. "Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, The Most Famous and Controversial Prize in the World." After Words (May 27, 2012)
Borders/Boundaries
Barghouti, Mustafa. "Is There Room for Gandhi in Palestine?" Open Source (April 30, 2010)
Connors-Manke, Beth. "Ciudad Juárez: Reckoning with feminicide, part 2." North of Center (November 9, 2011)
Mountz, Alison. Seeking Asylum: Human Smuggling and Bureaucracy at the Border. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010. [Available in BCTC Library JV 6201.M68 2010]
Cities/Urban
Milstein, Cindy. "On Radicalism." Deep Green Philly (November 8, 2011)
Planetizen ["Planetizen is a public-interest information exchange provided by Urban Insight for the urban planning, design, and development community. It is a one-stop source for urban planning news, commentary, interviews, event coverage, book reviews, announcements, jobs, consultant listings, training, and more. Planetizen prides itself on covering a wide number of planning, design, and development issues, from transportation to global warming, architecture to infrastructure, housing and community development to historic preservation. We provide a forum for people across the political and ideological spectrum, ensuring a healthy debate on these and other important issues. Planetizen is read by a diverse array of people interested in the built and natural environments, and their interaction. Planetizen's audience includes professional urban planners, developers, architects, policy makers, educators, economists, civic enthusiasts and others from across the United States and around the world."]
Comics/Graphic Novels/Film Adaptations
Bleasdale, John. "Avengers Dissemble: A Polemic." Alternate Takes (June 10, 2012)
Hedges, Chris, Jim Powell and Tim Maby. "Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco: drawing America's invisible poor - audio slideshow." The Guardian (July 12, 2012)
Zborowski, James. "The Dark Knight Rises." Alternate Takes (July 22, 2012)
Consumerism
Zizek, Slavoj. "First as Tragedy, Then as Farce." RSAnimate (July 28, 2010)
Critical Thinking
The Skeptic's Dcitionary ["The Skeptic's Dictionary is a website and a book. Each features definitions, arguments, and essays on topics ranging from acupuncture to zombies, and provides a lively, commonsense trove of detailed information on things supernatural, paranormal, and pseudoscientific. Dozens of topics in logic, perception, science, and philosophy are also covered to help explain the appeal and popularity of occult beliefs and to provide a guide for critical thinking."]
Disability
"Seeing and Perceiving." To the Best of Our Knowledge (February 6, 2011)
Taylor, Sunaura. "Humane Meat? No Such Thing." Yes! (March 27, 2011)
Emotions
Frazen, Jonathan. "Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts." (Commencement address to the graduates of Kenyon College) The New York Times (May 29, 2011)
Fascism/Right Wing
Alternative Right ["AlternativeRight.com, launched on March 1, 2010, is an online magazine of radical traditionalism. It marks an attempt to forge a new, independent intellectual Right." Funded by the National Policy Institute.]
Britt, Laurence W. "14 Characteristics of Fascism." Council for Secular Humanism (July 25, 2004)
Grossman, Zoltan. "The Tucson Shooter and the Real Fascists in Our Midst." Z Net (January 12, 2011)
Harkin, Shaun. "Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It." We Are Many (June 17, 2010)
Kumar, Deepa. "The Rise of Anti-Muslim Hate." International Socialist Review #74 (November-December 2010)
National Policy Institute [Augusta, GA: "White Americans have been led to believe that “diversity” and “multiculturalism” are sacred. We’re conditioned to be shy when it comes to standing up for our own beliefs. But doesn’t every race, ethnic subculture, and special interest—from left-handers to lesbians—have all sorts of organizations working for them? Isn’t it about time someone spoke for us? It’s not just the minority lobby who opposes our interests while advancing their own: even America’s white leaders—conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats—routinely push for policies that disadvantage their own people. Well, it is about time we had a voice in public policy—that’s why THE NATIONAL POLICY INSTITUTE (NPI) was formed. NPI promotes the American majority’s unique historical, cultural, and biological inheritance—and advances policies that, without prejudicing the legitimate rights of others, fearlessly defends our rights… our heritage. Our school children are special targets in a culture war—they are taught that their parents and ancestors have exploited and victimized the other peoples of the earth. Public institutions named for such Founding Fathers as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are being renamed for radicals like Malcolm X and Cesar Chavez—even the holiday that honors America’s discoverer, Christopher Columbus, is now under attack. Young people are trained to be sensitive towards “oppressed minorities,” but are stripped of pride for what their own people have accomplished. This anti-white—anti- American—campaign of an intellectual elite is waged in the most vicious language and it assigns collective guilt to our kinship in a way that would be considered intolerable if directed at other groups. While minority celebrities, loyalties, and faiths are increasingly promoted in schools and other public places, symbols of the historic beliefs of European-Americans — from Christmas trees to crosses — are discouraged or even forbidden. Government policies are shrinking the majority and underwriting the geometric growth of minorities. The tax and welfare system forces white families to postpone children for financial reasons while politicians use our tax dollars to support large minority families.”]
Potok, Mark. "The Year in Hate and Extremism, 2010." Southern Poverty Law Center (Spring 2011)
Public Eye ["Political Research Associates is a progressive think tank devoted to supporting movements that are building a more just and inclusive democratic society. We expose movements, institutions, and ideologies that undermine human rights. The Public Eye: PRA publishes The Public Eye, our signature quarterly, presenting insightful reports by scholars and journalists on trends within the US Right."]
Smith, Martin. The Rise of the Right in Europe." We Are Many (June 17, 2010)
Youth for Western Civilization ["Youth for Western Civilization was incorporated in 2006 and began actively organizing in 2008. The founder was Kevin DeAnna, a graduate student at American University. While some events were held in the fall of 2008, Youth for Western Civilization first came to public attention in the spring of 2009 by hosting speakers such as Congressman Tom Tancredo, Bay Buchanan and Congressman Virgil Goode. Events were held at campuses around the country including: American University, Vanderbilt University, the University of North Carolina and Providence College. Since then, Youth for Western Civilization has stirred up debate on controversial issues like illegal immigration, multiculturalism and classical education that were thought to be driven off college campuses. YWC stands alone in challenging the dogmatic left-wing orthodoxy of American higher education."]
Fashion/Style
Gamman, Lorraine. "If Looks Could Kill: On gangster suits and silhouettes." Moving Image Source (May 8, 2012)
Games
Sirota, David. "The Real Problem with Bin Laden Killing Video Games. Once again, the Pentagon is co-opting electronic entertainment to sell us on the military." Common Dreams (May 18, 2011)
Genocide
Gourevitch, Philip. "Reporting the Story of a Genocide." Conversations with History (February 11, 2000)
"Responding to Genocide Today." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Ongoing Project)
Geography
Mitchell, Don. "You Who are the Bureaucrats of Empire, Remember Who We Are" History of a Weapon (April 6, 2004: Address at The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University)
Identity
"The Being Deaf Show." RE:SOUND (2007)
Fernandez, Ingrid. "Visions of the Other: The Return of the Abject in Roman Polanski's The Tenant." Bright Lights Film Journal #78 (November 2012)
Knight, Michael Muhammad. "The Innocence of White People." Vice (September 18, 2012)
Ullman, Sharon and Gus Stadler. "ICPR H 290 INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER:
POWER, PERFORMANCE, AND IDENTITY." (Fall 2008: Course Syllabus)
Literature
Anderson, Sam. "The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami." The New York Times (10/23/2011)
DJ Monk One. "The Last Thing I Learned From Gil Scott Heron." Ill Doctrine (June 23, 2011)
Ford, John. "Reads and Discusses John Cheever's Short Story 'Reunion.' The New Yorker (December 26, 2006)
Mosson, Greg. "Ars Poetica: The Case for American Political Poetry." The Potomac (Summer 2009)
Militias
Gellman, Barton. "The Secret World of Extreme Militias." Time (September 30, 2010)
"Hate and Extremism." Southern Poverty Law Center (Ongoing Archive and Mapping)
Potok, Mark. "The Year in Hate and Extremism, 2010." Southern Poverty Law Center (Spring 2011)
Nations/States
Ryan, Yasmine. "Anti-terrorism and uprisings: North African leaders have worked with the West against Islamists and migrants - becoming more repressive as a result." Al Jazeera (February 25, 2011)
"Southern Sudan Referendum 2011" Global Voices [Online archive of citizen media reports]
Wallerstein, Immanuel. "Structural Crisis in the World-System: Where Do We Go from Here?" Monthly Review (March 2011)
Nationalism/Patriotism
Carlin, Dan. "Pyrrhic Schadenfreude." Common Sense (May 2, 2011)
Gellman, Barton. "The Secret World of Extreme Militias." Time (September 30, 2010)
Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. "Tea Party Nationalism." (Special Report: Fall 2010)
Marvin, Carolyn and David W. Ingle. "Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Revisiting Civil Religion." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 64.4 (Winter 1996)
---. Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the American Flag. Cambridge University Press, 1999. [excerpt, first ten pages]
Sharlet, Jeff. "Norwegian Shooting Suspect’s Views Echo Xenophobia of Right-Wing Extremists in U.S., Europe." Democracy Now (July 27, 2011)
Wise, Tim. Killing One Monster, Unleashing Another: Reflections on Revenge and Revelry (Website for the Author: May 2, 2011)
Native Americans
Bagley, Will. "Blazing the Trails Westward." Radio West (September 5, 2011)
Marxism and Native Americans. ed. Ward Churchill. Boston: South End Press, 1992. [Available in BCTC Library]
Pacificism
Cornell, Andrew. "Anarchism and the Movement for a New Society: Direct Action and Prefigurative Community in the 1970s and 80s." Institute for Anarchist Studies (2009)
Parenting
Williamson, Ben. "On Parenting, Media, Education and Phobias." DMLcentral (February 14, 2011)
Performance/Theater
"Critical Art Ensemble: When Thought Becomes Crime." Dialogic (October 5, 2005)
Robbins, Tim. "Actor, Director Tim Robbins Takes Up Historic Vietnam War Protest in Production of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine." Democracy Now (August 27, 2009)
Ullman, Sharon and Gus Stadler. "ICPR H 290 INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER:
POWER, PERFORMANCE, AND IDENTITY." (Fall 2008: Course Syllabus)
Photography
Keller, Bill. "The Inner Lives of Wartime Photographers." The New York Times (May 8, 2011)
LGBT Pride Parades The Big Picture (July 8, 2011)
Mattei, Mario. "The True Meaning of Pictures." International Guild of Visual Peacemakers (April 15, 2011)
Young, Lloyd. "Ramadan Begins." The Big Picture (August 3, 2011)
Police/Law Enforcement
Police/Law Enforcement: Peace and Conflict Studies Archive
Poverty
Brown, Pamela. "Rolling Jubilee: Buying Up Distressed Debt, Occupy Offshoot Bails Out the People, Not the Banks." Democracy Now (November 15, 2012)
Carrion, Maria. "General Strike Sweeps Europe as Millions Reject Austerity as Solution to Economic Crisis." Democracy Now (November 14, 2012)
The End of Poverty (USA: Philippe Diaz, 2008: 106 mins)
Hooper, Simon. "British ban squatting to tackle ‘anarchists': Squatting in empty properties is now a criminal offence, but homeless people say they are being unfairly criminalised." Al Jazeera (November 12, 2012)
King, Martin Luther, Jr. "The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Presidential Address: August 16, 1967." Hartford Web Publishing (Also known as "Where Do We Go From Here" speech)
Seal, Kevin. "News of the Occupation: Occupiers Past and Present – Oakland Union of the Homeless." The Occupied Oakland Journal (November 17, 2011)
Shaw, John. "The problem of the poor: faith, science and poverty in 19th century Britain." The National Archives Podcast Series (September 28, 2006)
Prisons/Prisoners/Jails
Prisons/Prisoners/Jails: Peace and Conflict Studies Archive
Privatization
Brickner, Mike and Mike Fasano. "Florida Lawmakers Defeat Prison Privatization amid National Push for For-Profit Jails." Democracy Now (February 17, 2012)
Crabtree, Susan. "Report: U.S. Has Wasted Tens Of Billions Of Dollars On Contractors In Iraq And Afghanistan." Talking Points Memo (February 28, 2011)
Lapon, Gary. "College, Inc.: The abuses of the growing for-profit higher education industry." Socialist Worker (August 27, 2012)
"Wells Fargo Profits from Private Prisons." Media Roots (November 22, 2011)
"Why a Michigan High School is Ground Zero for US Politics." The Rachel Maddow Show (April 22, 2011)
Radio
Wu, Timothy. "The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires." The Center of Internet and Society (May 15, 2011)
Representation
Mattei, Mario. "The True Meaning of Pictures." International Guild of Visual Peacemakers (April 15, 2011)
Seniors
Sandiumenge, Lili. "Spain: The Rebel Grandparents of the 15M." Global Voices (February 9, 2012)
Taxes
Baxter, Joan. "How corporate tax breaks hurt humanity. Truth be told: taxation is only certain for the ordinary law-abiding citizen, the non-rich." Rabble (March 18, 2011)
Bybee, Roger. "The Great Corporate Tax Swindle." In These Times (September 1, 2011)
"Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010." Citizens for Tax Justice (November, 2011)
Guevara, Marina Walker, Michael Hudson and Gerard Ryle. "Likely Largest Journalism Collaboration In History." The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (April 3, 2013)
Johnson, Dave. "Actually, 'the Rich' Don't 'Create Jobs,' We Do." TruthOut (May 14, 2011)
"Taxday 2011: Where did your 2010 Federal Income Taxes Go? National Priorities Project (March 22, 2011)
Tax Justice Network ["TJN is an independent organisation launched in the British Houses of Parliament in March 2003. It is dedicated to high-level research, analysis and advocacy in the field of tax and regulation. We work to map, analyse and explain the role of taxation and the harmful impacts of tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax competition and tax havens. Our objective is to encourage reform at the global and national levels. We are not aligned to any political party. Our network includes:
Academics; Accountants; Development organisations and NGOs; Economists; Faith groups; Financial professionals; Journalists; Lawyers; Public-interest groups; Trade unions. Our founding objectives are: To raise the level of awareness about the secretive world of offshore finance; to promote links between interested parties around the world, particularly involving developing countries; to stimulate and organise research and debate; to encourage and support national and international campaign activity. In particular we aim to: Promote more local campaigns for tax justice, especially in developing countries; provide a medium through which tax justice issues can be promoted within multilateral agencies such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund [IMF] , the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development [OECD] and the European Union."]
Technology
Technology: Peace and Conflict Studies Archive
Telecommunications
Wu, Timothy. "The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires." The Center of Internet and Society (May 15, 2011)
Time:
"Facing Time." To the Best of Our Knowledge (October 10, 2010)
Sukhdev, Sandhu. "'Slow cinema' fights back against Bourne's supremacy." The Guardian (March 9, 2012)
Torture
Torture: Peace and Conflict Studies Archive
Travel/Tourism
Iyer, Pico. "The World Dreamed But Not Judged." The Marketplace of Ideas (August 10, 2011)
Papayanis, Marilyn Adler. "Sex on the Beach: The Yin Yang of Female Sex Tourism in Two Films." Bright Lights Film Journal #78 (November 2012)
"Seeing and Perceiving." To the Best of Our Knowledge (February 6, 2011)
"Travel." To the Best of Our Knowledge (July 19, 2009)
Veganism/Vegetarianism
Taylor, Sunaura. "Humane Meat? No Such Thing." Yes! (March 27, 2011)
Water
Adams, Mike. "Collecting rainwater now illegal in many states as Big Government claims ownership over our water." Natural News (July 26, 2010)
Goodman, Amy, et al. "Poisoned Water, Fossil Fuels." Making Contact (May 22, 2012)
Welfare
Taibbi, Matt. "The Real Housewives of Wall Street." Rolling Stone (April 11, 2011)
Friday, January 07, 2011
American Society of Cinematographers: Rodney Taylor on That Evening Sun
That Evening Sun: Rodney Taylor, ASC
American Society of Cinematographers
Rodney Taylor, ASC, cinematographer of That Evening Sun, talks with AC’s Jim Hemphill about shooting a low-budget anamorphic feature on location and finishing using old school photochemical techniques.
To Listen to the Episode (MP3)
American Society of Cinematographers
Rodney Taylor, ASC, cinematographer of That Evening Sun, talks with AC’s Jim Hemphill about shooting a low-budget anamorphic feature on location and finishing using old school photochemical techniques.
To Listen to the Episode (MP3)
2011 Film Viewing Diary
(Capsule comments--mostly)
2011 Films:
To find info about films: Internet Movie Database
Sex and Lucia (Spain: Julio Medem, 2007: 128 mins) ***
Interesting premise spirals off into increasingly ridiculous coincidences. Sexy at times, boring at others. Overall a step beyond the typical romance-sexuality film, but unfortunately fails to live up to its potential.
Moliere (France: Laurent Tirard, 2007: 120 mins) ****
I was suprised by how much I enjoyed this film. Romain Duris gives a stellar performance as Moliere and Tirard imaginatively fills in the gap in the official biographies of Moliere's life. I'm not very familiar with Moliere's plays, but LW is and she seemed to get even more out of it (and supplied me with background info). The film made me eager to see a Moliere play!
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (USA: Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, 2009: 92 mins) *****
Amazing story of a man shifting his ideological position/perspective, of the courage of one's convictions, and damn, surprisingly, a powerful story of the power of the love of a strong unwavering person (the influence of Patricia Ellsberg and someone he almost lost).
The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea: Kim Ji-Woon, 2008: 139 mins) ***
This film is indebted to its Spaghetti Western namesake, but it also goes in some interesting directions and provides a “resistance” backdrop that is unfortunately never realized. Of course it is a straightforward action film with quirky characters. A saving grace is its forsaking of CGI/Special Effects and the actors doing most of their stunts.
Made in the U.S.A. (France: Jean Luc Godard, 1966: 90 mins) *
Why do I bother watching Godard films and why do people fawn over him?
Matt and Khym: Better Than Ever (USA: Tony Comstock, 2007: 53 mins) ***
Attractive, caring couple in their early 30s, who have cared for others most of their lives discuss and demonstrate how they have kept the fire alive over the years. Comstock films is dedicated to making documentary style films that explore sexuality and sex through “real” people.
Shortbus (USA: John Cameron Mitchell, 2006: 101 mins) *****
10th time I have seen this film (watched it with someone who hadn't seen it) and I still well up emotionally. An earlier response to the film American Culture: Sex and Sexuality, Pt. 1
True Grit (USA: The Coen Brothers, 2010: 110 mins) ****
Surprisingly funny, while portraying a strong young girl who is ahead of her time. Jeff Bridges erases the John Wayne version. Strong dialogue and witty interplay between the three main characters increases the appeal of this film.
2011 Films:
To find info about films: Internet Movie Database
Sex and Lucia (Spain: Julio Medem, 2007: 128 mins) ***
Interesting premise spirals off into increasingly ridiculous coincidences. Sexy at times, boring at others. Overall a step beyond the typical romance-sexuality film, but unfortunately fails to live up to its potential.
Moliere (France: Laurent Tirard, 2007: 120 mins) ****
I was suprised by how much I enjoyed this film. Romain Duris gives a stellar performance as Moliere and Tirard imaginatively fills in the gap in the official biographies of Moliere's life. I'm not very familiar with Moliere's plays, but LW is and she seemed to get even more out of it (and supplied me with background info). The film made me eager to see a Moliere play!
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (USA: Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, 2009: 92 mins) *****
Amazing story of a man shifting his ideological position/perspective, of the courage of one's convictions, and damn, surprisingly, a powerful story of the power of the love of a strong unwavering person (the influence of Patricia Ellsberg and someone he almost lost).
The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea: Kim Ji-Woon, 2008: 139 mins) ***
This film is indebted to its Spaghetti Western namesake, but it also goes in some interesting directions and provides a “resistance” backdrop that is unfortunately never realized. Of course it is a straightforward action film with quirky characters. A saving grace is its forsaking of CGI/Special Effects and the actors doing most of their stunts.
Made in the U.S.A. (France: Jean Luc Godard, 1966: 90 mins) *
Why do I bother watching Godard films and why do people fawn over him?
Matt and Khym: Better Than Ever (USA: Tony Comstock, 2007: 53 mins) ***
Attractive, caring couple in their early 30s, who have cared for others most of their lives discuss and demonstrate how they have kept the fire alive over the years. Comstock films is dedicated to making documentary style films that explore sexuality and sex through “real” people.
Shortbus (USA: John Cameron Mitchell, 2006: 101 mins) *****
10th time I have seen this film (watched it with someone who hadn't seen it) and I still well up emotionally. An earlier response to the film American Culture: Sex and Sexuality, Pt. 1
True Grit (USA: The Coen Brothers, 2010: 110 mins) ****
Surprisingly funny, while portraying a strong young girl who is ahead of her time. Jeff Bridges erases the John Wayne version. Strong dialogue and witty interplay between the three main characters increases the appeal of this film.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Adi Kuntsman: Online Memories, Digital Conflicts and the Cybertouch of War
Online Memories, Digital Conflicts and the Cybertouch of War
by Adi Kuntsman
Digital Icons
Wars, conflicts and commemoration occupy the minds of today’s users of new media across the globe; and those in Russia, Eurasia and Central Europe are no exception. Digital reporting of military actions and virtual museums of past wars and genocides; hacker attacks against websites and databases and computer war games; online antiwar organising and digital performances of postwar trauma; flashmobs of political protest or racist incitement and digitalised personal memories and family histories – these are only some of the examples of the ways in which war, conflict and commemoration are narrated, experienced and performed in contemporary digital media. Thus, the aim of the special issue entitled ’War, Conflict and Commemoration in the Age of Digital Reproduction’ is to explore these and other phenomena, by looking at various forms and segments of digital media: Internet sites, blogs and forums, online news and discussions, social networks, commemoration sites and virtual museums, digital games, video performance and computer crimes.
The issue brings together ten authors, working in a variety of formats – articles, essays, reports, ethnographic film and digital performance – and reflecting on the following questions:
What is the role of new media in understanding, representing, negotiating and remembering (or forgetting) war and genocide?
What is the status of testimony, evidence and reportage in the age of digital reproduction?
What practices of memory do new information and communication technologies entail?
What structures of feeling operate in online reports and debates around military operations and human suffering?
How can digital mediations of conflict bring people and communities together, while tearing others apart?
And lastly, how can the embodied, physical violence intensify in digital interactions, and how can it be diffused, resisted and remembered?
This special issue was born out of a sense of political and intellectual necessity, posed by recent developments in digital media and its use. Digital media is fundamentally changing the terrain of politics, due to its reach and speed, and its function in the lives of civilian populations and states alike. For example, together with ‘citizen journalism’, enabled by blogs, the Internet has given a platform to political extremism, racism and neo-Nazism. (While Web 2.0 technologies allow non-hierarchical participation,
they also, at times, turn the Internet into a digital war zone (Karatzogianni 2006, 2009).
In today’s ‘global matrix of war’ (Kaplan 2009), digital technologies are used by both state and non-state actors, often blurring the line between military and entertainment and between control and resistance. Attacks on the ground and in the air now go hand in hand with information warfare, propaganda and racist attacks in blogs and YouTube vlogs; conflicts between states or stateless groups reverberate in cyberattacks by hackers from each side; and testimonies of atrocities are captured on mobile phones and circulated on Facebook, irrevocably changing our modes of witnessing, feeling and remembering violent and traumatic events (Ibrahim 2009; Kaplan 2009; Reading 2009).
Politically, then, the topic of war and conflict and of their relations with digital media is clearly an urgent one. In that respect, Central and Eastern Europe is not unique. The region, however, has its own, very particular, record of past wars and conflicts that scar social and mnemonic fabrics of today’s life: World War II, German occupation and the Holocaust, decades under communism, twenty years of post-communist transformation, and waves of conflicts and bloodshed they brought.
More recently, the region has witnessed a rise in the right wing nationalism and extremist racism, struggles for sovereignty and independence, ‘wars on terror’ and localised armed conflicts. Addressing all these together, through the lens of shared political conditions, while remaining attentive to each country’s unique culture and
circumstances, is what encouraged me to assemble this collection.
The special issue is also motivated by an intellectual need to shed light on the role of digital media in these processes across the region. With the growing integration of digital media into most aspects of our lives, we witness an explosion of scholarly interest in the subject, cutting across many disciplines. Similarly, the topic of war, conflict and memory is widely explored. The two, however, only recently began to intersect, for example in the special issue of Journal of Computer Mediated Communication (2006), ‘War Coverage in Cyberspace’ (2006) or in edited collections such as Digital War Reporting (Matheson and Stuart 2009) or Save As… Digital Memories (Garde-Hansen et.al. 2009).1 But even when the two fields are explored in conjunction, they mostly concentrate on one narrow aspect – such as war coverage and reportage, or memories – rather than a complex examination of how digital media and computer technologies affect the warfare itself, its social perception and the ways of remembrance and commemoration. Such complex approach is precisely what unites the papers in this special issue, when they examine how war and conflicts of past and present are negotiated, performed and remembered on the Internet and in other digital media tools.
To Read the Rest of the Introduction to the Special Issue and to Access the Issue's Essays
by Adi Kuntsman
Digital Icons
Wars, conflicts and commemoration occupy the minds of today’s users of new media across the globe; and those in Russia, Eurasia and Central Europe are no exception. Digital reporting of military actions and virtual museums of past wars and genocides; hacker attacks against websites and databases and computer war games; online antiwar organising and digital performances of postwar trauma; flashmobs of political protest or racist incitement and digitalised personal memories and family histories – these are only some of the examples of the ways in which war, conflict and commemoration are narrated, experienced and performed in contemporary digital media. Thus, the aim of the special issue entitled ’War, Conflict and Commemoration in the Age of Digital Reproduction’ is to explore these and other phenomena, by looking at various forms and segments of digital media: Internet sites, blogs and forums, online news and discussions, social networks, commemoration sites and virtual museums, digital games, video performance and computer crimes.
The issue brings together ten authors, working in a variety of formats – articles, essays, reports, ethnographic film and digital performance – and reflecting on the following questions:
What is the role of new media in understanding, representing, negotiating and remembering (or forgetting) war and genocide?
What is the status of testimony, evidence and reportage in the age of digital reproduction?
What practices of memory do new information and communication technologies entail?
What structures of feeling operate in online reports and debates around military operations and human suffering?
How can digital mediations of conflict bring people and communities together, while tearing others apart?
And lastly, how can the embodied, physical violence intensify in digital interactions, and how can it be diffused, resisted and remembered?
This special issue was born out of a sense of political and intellectual necessity, posed by recent developments in digital media and its use. Digital media is fundamentally changing the terrain of politics, due to its reach and speed, and its function in the lives of civilian populations and states alike. For example, together with ‘citizen journalism’, enabled by blogs, the Internet has given a platform to political extremism, racism and neo-Nazism. (While Web 2.0 technologies allow non-hierarchical participation,
they also, at times, turn the Internet into a digital war zone (Karatzogianni 2006, 2009).
In today’s ‘global matrix of war’ (Kaplan 2009), digital technologies are used by both state and non-state actors, often blurring the line between military and entertainment and between control and resistance. Attacks on the ground and in the air now go hand in hand with information warfare, propaganda and racist attacks in blogs and YouTube vlogs; conflicts between states or stateless groups reverberate in cyberattacks by hackers from each side; and testimonies of atrocities are captured on mobile phones and circulated on Facebook, irrevocably changing our modes of witnessing, feeling and remembering violent and traumatic events (Ibrahim 2009; Kaplan 2009; Reading 2009).
Politically, then, the topic of war and conflict and of their relations with digital media is clearly an urgent one. In that respect, Central and Eastern Europe is not unique. The region, however, has its own, very particular, record of past wars and conflicts that scar social and mnemonic fabrics of today’s life: World War II, German occupation and the Holocaust, decades under communism, twenty years of post-communist transformation, and waves of conflicts and bloodshed they brought.
More recently, the region has witnessed a rise in the right wing nationalism and extremist racism, struggles for sovereignty and independence, ‘wars on terror’ and localised armed conflicts. Addressing all these together, through the lens of shared political conditions, while remaining attentive to each country’s unique culture and
circumstances, is what encouraged me to assemble this collection.
The special issue is also motivated by an intellectual need to shed light on the role of digital media in these processes across the region. With the growing integration of digital media into most aspects of our lives, we witness an explosion of scholarly interest in the subject, cutting across many disciplines. Similarly, the topic of war, conflict and memory is widely explored. The two, however, only recently began to intersect, for example in the special issue of Journal of Computer Mediated Communication (2006), ‘War Coverage in Cyberspace’ (2006) or in edited collections such as Digital War Reporting (Matheson and Stuart 2009) or Save As… Digital Memories (Garde-Hansen et.al. 2009).1 But even when the two fields are explored in conjunction, they mostly concentrate on one narrow aspect – such as war coverage and reportage, or memories – rather than a complex examination of how digital media and computer technologies affect the warfare itself, its social perception and the ways of remembrance and commemoration. Such complex approach is precisely what unites the papers in this special issue, when they examine how war and conflicts of past and present are negotiated, performed and remembered on the Internet and in other digital media tools.
To Read the Rest of the Introduction to the Special Issue and to Access the Issue's Essays
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Chris Hedges: The Left Has Nowhere to Go
‘The Left Has Nowhere to Go’
by Chris Hedges
TruthDig
Ralph Nader in a CNN poll a few days before the 2008 presidential election had an estimated 3 percent of the electorate, or about 4 million people, behind his candidacy. But once the votes were counted, his support dwindled to a little over 700,000. Nader believes that many of his supporters entered the polling booth and could not bring themselves to challenge the Democrats and Barack Obama. I suspect Nader is right. And this retreat is another example of the lack of nerve we must overcome if we are going to battle back against the corporate state. A vote for Nader or Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney in 2008 was an act of defiance. A vote for Obama and the Democrats was an act of submission. We cannot afford to be submissive anymore.
“The more outrageous the Republicans become, the weaker the left becomes,” Nader said when I reached him at his home in Connecticut on Sunday. “The more outrageous they become, the more the left has to accept the slightly less outrageous corporate Democrats.”
Nader fears a repeat of the left’s cowardice in the next election, a cowardice that has further empowered the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, maintained the role of the Democratic Party as a lackey for corporations, and accelerated the reconfiguration of the country into a neo-feudalist state. Either we begin to practice a fierce moral autonomy and rise up in multiple acts of physical defiance that have no discernable short-term benefit, or we accept the inevitability of corporate slavery. The choice is that grim. The age of the practical is over. It is the impractical, those who stand fast around core moral imperatives, figures like Nader or groups such as Veterans for Peace, which organized the recent anti-war rally in Lafayette Park in Washington, which give us hope. If you were one of the millions who backed down in the voting booth in 2008, don’t do it again. If you were one of those who thought about joining the Washington protests against the war where 131 of us were arrested and did not, don’t fail us next time. The closure of the mechanisms within the power system that once made democratic reform possible means we stand together as the last thin line of defense between a civil society and its disintegration. If we do not engage in open acts of defiance, we will empower a radical right-wing opposition that will replicate the violence and paranoia of the state. To refuse to defy in every way possible the corporate state is to be complicit in our strangulation.
“The left has nowhere to go,” Nader said. “Obama knows it. The corporate Democrats know it. There will be criticism by the left of Obama this year and then next year they will all close ranks and say ‘Do you want Mitt Romney? Do you want Sarah Palin? Do you want Newt Gingrich?’ It’s very predictable. There will be a year of criticism and then it will all be muted. They don’t understand that even if they do not have any place to go, they ought to fake it. They should fake going somewhere else or staying home to increase the receptivity to their demands. But because they do not make any demands, they are complicit with corporate power.
“Corporate power makes demands all the time,” Nader went on. “It pulls on the Democrats and the Republicans in one direction. By having this nowhere-to-go mentality and without insisting on demands as the price of your vote, or energy to get out the vote, they have reduced themselves to a cipher. They vote. The vote totals up. But it means nothing.”
Advertisement
There is no major difference between a McCain administration, a Bush and an Obama administration. Obama, in fact, is in many ways worse. McCain, like Bush, exposes the naked face of corporate power. Obama, who professes to support core liberal values while carrying out policies that mock these values, mutes and disempowers liberals, progressives and leftists. Environmental and anti-war groups, who plead with Obama to address their issues, are little more than ineffectual supplicants.
Obama, like Bush and McCain, funds and backs our unending and unwinnable wars. He does nothing to halt the accumulation of the largest deficits in human history. The drones murder thousands of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as they did under Bush and would have done under McCain. The private military contractors, along with the predatory banks and investment houses, suck trillions out of the U.S. Treasury as efficiently under Obama. Civil liberties, including habeas corpus, have not been restored. The public option is dead. The continuation of the Bush tax cuts, adding some $900 billion to the deficit, along with the reduction of individual contributions to Social Security, furthers a debt peonage that will be the excuse to privatize Social Security, slash social services and break the back of public service unions. Obama does not intercede as tens of millions of impoverished Americans face foreclosures and bankruptcies. The Democrats provide better cover. But the corporate assault is the same.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
by Chris Hedges
TruthDig
Ralph Nader in a CNN poll a few days before the 2008 presidential election had an estimated 3 percent of the electorate, or about 4 million people, behind his candidacy. But once the votes were counted, his support dwindled to a little over 700,000. Nader believes that many of his supporters entered the polling booth and could not bring themselves to challenge the Democrats and Barack Obama. I suspect Nader is right. And this retreat is another example of the lack of nerve we must overcome if we are going to battle back against the corporate state. A vote for Nader or Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney in 2008 was an act of defiance. A vote for Obama and the Democrats was an act of submission. We cannot afford to be submissive anymore.
“The more outrageous the Republicans become, the weaker the left becomes,” Nader said when I reached him at his home in Connecticut on Sunday. “The more outrageous they become, the more the left has to accept the slightly less outrageous corporate Democrats.”
Nader fears a repeat of the left’s cowardice in the next election, a cowardice that has further empowered the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, maintained the role of the Democratic Party as a lackey for corporations, and accelerated the reconfiguration of the country into a neo-feudalist state. Either we begin to practice a fierce moral autonomy and rise up in multiple acts of physical defiance that have no discernable short-term benefit, or we accept the inevitability of corporate slavery. The choice is that grim. The age of the practical is over. It is the impractical, those who stand fast around core moral imperatives, figures like Nader or groups such as Veterans for Peace, which organized the recent anti-war rally in Lafayette Park in Washington, which give us hope. If you were one of the millions who backed down in the voting booth in 2008, don’t do it again. If you were one of those who thought about joining the Washington protests against the war where 131 of us were arrested and did not, don’t fail us next time. The closure of the mechanisms within the power system that once made democratic reform possible means we stand together as the last thin line of defense between a civil society and its disintegration. If we do not engage in open acts of defiance, we will empower a radical right-wing opposition that will replicate the violence and paranoia of the state. To refuse to defy in every way possible the corporate state is to be complicit in our strangulation.
“The left has nowhere to go,” Nader said. “Obama knows it. The corporate Democrats know it. There will be criticism by the left of Obama this year and then next year they will all close ranks and say ‘Do you want Mitt Romney? Do you want Sarah Palin? Do you want Newt Gingrich?’ It’s very predictable. There will be a year of criticism and then it will all be muted. They don’t understand that even if they do not have any place to go, they ought to fake it. They should fake going somewhere else or staying home to increase the receptivity to their demands. But because they do not make any demands, they are complicit with corporate power.
“Corporate power makes demands all the time,” Nader went on. “It pulls on the Democrats and the Republicans in one direction. By having this nowhere-to-go mentality and without insisting on demands as the price of your vote, or energy to get out the vote, they have reduced themselves to a cipher. They vote. The vote totals up. But it means nothing.”
Advertisement
There is no major difference between a McCain administration, a Bush and an Obama administration. Obama, in fact, is in many ways worse. McCain, like Bush, exposes the naked face of corporate power. Obama, who professes to support core liberal values while carrying out policies that mock these values, mutes and disempowers liberals, progressives and leftists. Environmental and anti-war groups, who plead with Obama to address their issues, are little more than ineffectual supplicants.
Obama, like Bush and McCain, funds and backs our unending and unwinnable wars. He does nothing to halt the accumulation of the largest deficits in human history. The drones murder thousands of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as they did under Bush and would have done under McCain. The private military contractors, along with the predatory banks and investment houses, suck trillions out of the U.S. Treasury as efficiently under Obama. Civil liberties, including habeas corpus, have not been restored. The public option is dead. The continuation of the Bush tax cuts, adding some $900 billion to the deficit, along with the reduction of individual contributions to Social Security, furthers a debt peonage that will be the excuse to privatize Social Security, slash social services and break the back of public service unions. Obama does not intercede as tens of millions of impoverished Americans face foreclosures and bankruptcies. The Democrats provide better cover. But the corporate assault is the same.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Worldview: Shakespeare and Company Bookshop -- Parisian mecca of bookshops survives in era of Amazon
Parisian mecca of bookshops survives in era of Amazon
Worldview
Over the past decade I’ve watched the iconic cultural places in our city disappear one by one. Places like Maxwell Street and Halsted, the birthplace of Chicago jazz and blues and a hangout for writers like Nelson Algren, destroyed and rebuilt with a glossy soulless exterior.
I just assumed it was the same story everywhere. That’s when I found out Shakespeare & Company Bookshop was still open for business. I’d first heard about the shop when I began reading Earnest Hemingway’s work. When I got into Kerouac, there it was again. Many of the Beats hung out there and slept amongst the bookshelves.
These were the two generations more than any other in American literature that made me want to be a writer, so I decided to drop in during my trip to Paris this past summer.
Shakespeare & Company sits in a small stone courtyard just across the Seine from the Notre Dame Cathedral.
A sign scribbled in chalk near the entrance reads, "Some People call me the Don Quixote of the French Quarter because my head is so far up in the clouds that I can imagine all of us Angels in Paradise."
It finishes with the line, “I have been doing this for fifty years, now it is my daughter’s turn.”
The message is dated January 2004. That’s when George Whitman handed over his beloved bookshop to his then-24-year-old daughter Sylvia. His daughter is named after the shop’s original owner, an American expatriate named Sylvia Beach who first opened Shakespeare & Company’s doors in the early 20th century.
Upon entering the bookshop, I didn’t have to look far to find Sylvia Whitman, perched at her desk just inside the shop’s left-side entrance where the antique books are sold. Sylvia is a fair-skinned, bright-eyed, 29-year-old businesswoman. She grew up in the apartment above the shop, where authors like Lawrence Durrrell regularly visited.
“Running around without shoes on, hiding in corners and being read stories upon stories upon stories. It was a fairy tale childhood,” Whitman said.
While many independent bookstores have closed their doors because of declining sales, Sylvia has maintained Shakespeare & Company’s loyal customer base and its legacy.
“I’ve tried to keep the atmosphere and the philosophy that Dad created, so we still have writers sleeping in the bookshop,” she said.
To Listen to the Episode
Worldview
Over the past decade I’ve watched the iconic cultural places in our city disappear one by one. Places like Maxwell Street and Halsted, the birthplace of Chicago jazz and blues and a hangout for writers like Nelson Algren, destroyed and rebuilt with a glossy soulless exterior.
I just assumed it was the same story everywhere. That’s when I found out Shakespeare & Company Bookshop was still open for business. I’d first heard about the shop when I began reading Earnest Hemingway’s work. When I got into Kerouac, there it was again. Many of the Beats hung out there and slept amongst the bookshelves.
These were the two generations more than any other in American literature that made me want to be a writer, so I decided to drop in during my trip to Paris this past summer.
Shakespeare & Company sits in a small stone courtyard just across the Seine from the Notre Dame Cathedral.
A sign scribbled in chalk near the entrance reads, "Some People call me the Don Quixote of the French Quarter because my head is so far up in the clouds that I can imagine all of us Angels in Paradise."
It finishes with the line, “I have been doing this for fifty years, now it is my daughter’s turn.”
The message is dated January 2004. That’s when George Whitman handed over his beloved bookshop to his then-24-year-old daughter Sylvia. His daughter is named after the shop’s original owner, an American expatriate named Sylvia Beach who first opened Shakespeare & Company’s doors in the early 20th century.
Upon entering the bookshop, I didn’t have to look far to find Sylvia Whitman, perched at her desk just inside the shop’s left-side entrance where the antique books are sold. Sylvia is a fair-skinned, bright-eyed, 29-year-old businesswoman. She grew up in the apartment above the shop, where authors like Lawrence Durrrell regularly visited.
“Running around without shoes on, hiding in corners and being read stories upon stories upon stories. It was a fairy tale childhood,” Whitman said.
While many independent bookstores have closed their doors because of declining sales, Sylvia has maintained Shakespeare & Company’s loyal customer base and its legacy.
“I’ve tried to keep the atmosphere and the philosophy that Dad created, so we still have writers sleeping in the bookshop,” she said.
To Listen to the Episode
Global Notes: Tony Sarabia's top world music picks for 2010
Global Notes: Tony Sarabia's top world music picks for 2010
Worldview (WBEZ: Chicago)
For the final Global Notes of 2010, Radio M and mid-day host Tony Sarabia shares his top albums of the year. Everything from Indonesian garage rock to South African house is represented. Because the year was full of memorable comps, he included another list just for reissues and rediscovered nuggets from around the globe.
To Listen to the Episode
Worldview (WBEZ: Chicago)
For the final Global Notes of 2010, Radio M and mid-day host Tony Sarabia shares his top albums of the year. Everything from Indonesian garage rock to South African house is represented. Because the year was full of memorable comps, he included another list just for reissues and rediscovered nuggets from around the globe.
To Listen to the Episode
Global Notes: Local musician teaches at Haitian school, learns about underexposed Haitian composers
Global Notes: Local musician teaches at Haitian school, learns about underexposed Haitian composers
Worldview (WBEZ: Chicago Public Media)
Tom Clowes is a graduate student at Roosevelt University's Chicago Conservatory of Performing Arts. For the past several summers, he’s taught at Port-au-Prince’s Holy Trinity Music School. Before the earthquake, it served as Haiti's de facto national orchestra.
Clowes talks about his experiences teaching music in Haiti, and he performs some Haitian compositions in our Jim and Kay Mabie Performance Studio.
To Listen to the Episode
Worldview (WBEZ: Chicago Public Media)
Tom Clowes is a graduate student at Roosevelt University's Chicago Conservatory of Performing Arts. For the past several summers, he’s taught at Port-au-Prince’s Holy Trinity Music School. Before the earthquake, it served as Haiti's de facto national orchestra.
Clowes talks about his experiences teaching music in Haiti, and he performs some Haitian compositions in our Jim and Kay Mabie Performance Studio.
To Listen to the Episode
Monday, January 03, 2011
Francis Shor: WikiLeaks, Ideological Legitimacy and the Crisis of Empire
WikiLeaks, Ideological Legitimacy and the Crisis of Empire
by: Francis Shor
TruthOut
While empires try to maintain their hegemony through economic and military prowess, they must also rely on a form of ideological legitimacy to guarantee their rule. Such legitimacy is often embedded in the geopolitical reputation of the empire among its allies and reluctant admirers. Once that reputation begins to unravel, the empire appears illegitimate.
The establishment of the US empire in the aftermath of World War II built upon its economic and military supremacy. That empire created an architecture of financial and geopolitical institutions that served not only its own interests, but also those of global capital and international legal and democratic structures. There were, of course, myriad contradictions that materialized throughout the earliest cold war period, but much of the West accepted the general framework and ideological legitimacy of the empire. While a crisis of legitimacy emerged around the Vietnam War and the undermining of the Bretton Woods agreement by the Nixon administration, it was not until the end of the cold war and the development of reckless unipolar geopolitics over the last decade that a real decline in US hegemony became apparent.
Given the battered economic and military standing of the United States over the past several years, the hysterical reaction of the American political class over the recent release of State Department cables by WikiLeaks is not surprising. However, it is instructive to note the response of those in the West to such "displays (of) imperial arrogance and hypocrisy" as reported by Steven Erlanger in The New York Times. Erlanger cites an important editorial from the Berliner Zeitung that underscores the question of ideological legitimacy: "The U.S. is betraying one of its founding myths: freedom of information. And they are doing so now, because for the first time since the end of the cold war, they are threatened with losing worldwide control of information."
To Read the Rest of the Essay
by: Francis Shor
TruthOut
While empires try to maintain their hegemony through economic and military prowess, they must also rely on a form of ideological legitimacy to guarantee their rule. Such legitimacy is often embedded in the geopolitical reputation of the empire among its allies and reluctant admirers. Once that reputation begins to unravel, the empire appears illegitimate.
The establishment of the US empire in the aftermath of World War II built upon its economic and military supremacy. That empire created an architecture of financial and geopolitical institutions that served not only its own interests, but also those of global capital and international legal and democratic structures. There were, of course, myriad contradictions that materialized throughout the earliest cold war period, but much of the West accepted the general framework and ideological legitimacy of the empire. While a crisis of legitimacy emerged around the Vietnam War and the undermining of the Bretton Woods agreement by the Nixon administration, it was not until the end of the cold war and the development of reckless unipolar geopolitics over the last decade that a real decline in US hegemony became apparent.
Given the battered economic and military standing of the United States over the past several years, the hysterical reaction of the American political class over the recent release of State Department cables by WikiLeaks is not surprising. However, it is instructive to note the response of those in the West to such "displays (of) imperial arrogance and hypocrisy" as reported by Steven Erlanger in The New York Times. Erlanger cites an important editorial from the Berliner Zeitung that underscores the question of ideological legitimacy: "The U.S. is betraying one of its founding myths: freedom of information. And they are doing so now, because for the first time since the end of the cold war, they are threatened with losing worldwide control of information."
To Read the Rest of the Essay
Another World is Possible: Michelle Alexander -- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Another World is Possible
Michelle Alexander argues that mass incarceration of people of color in the US constitutes the newest structure of racialized social control, replacing slavery and Jim Crow to create an African American undercaste. She argues that the vastly disproportionate imprisonment (and the resultant disenfranchisement and exclusion from numerous aspects of mainstream society such as education and employment) of African Americans constitutes the single most important impediment to equality and civil rights in the US.
To Listen to An Audio Podcast of the Book (Broken into parts--scan down the page)
Another World is Possible
Michelle Alexander argues that mass incarceration of people of color in the US constitutes the newest structure of racialized social control, replacing slavery and Jim Crow to create an African American undercaste. She argues that the vastly disproportionate imprisonment (and the resultant disenfranchisement and exclusion from numerous aspects of mainstream society such as education and employment) of African Americans constitutes the single most important impediment to equality and civil rights in the US.
To Listen to An Audio Podcast of the Book (Broken into parts--scan down the page)
Worldview: Megacities Must Not Lose Their Humanizing Qualities
Megacities Must Not Lose Their HumanizingQualities
Worldview (WBEZ: Chicago Public Media)
Shanghai's population is approaching 20 million and as it, and other mega cities expand, Barry hopes that our global obsession with development doesn't come at a great cost…
Traveling through the world's megacities has resembled the journey described in Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. In this fictional masterpiece Marco Polo describes to Kubla Khan what he saw on his journey. After four decades of visits to megacities, it is also difficult to describe, let alone understand, the modern megacity, world city or global city. What they have in common are qualities of size, scale, shape and speed that are new in human development and unique in the history of globalization. For example, size proportionately affects both the physical and mental health of people and geometrically increases the global footprint of a city. We make cities, but they remake us.
The megacity, determined by a population of ten million or more, or the global city, determined by capital concentration, signals a new partition of the world. This spatial partition is represented within the city by formal vs. non-formal settlements or vertical vs. horizontal growth.
These new (in)human settlements are full with both promise and peril, beauty and barbarism. More important than the fact that half the world's population is living in cities is the emergence of the very large city. It is in the megacities that the fate of global and planetary development rests. In such cities there is a dance between promise and peril, each partner uncertain of who is leading.
The promise of the megacity can be the diversity of experience, people and cultures; economies of scale; human capital; or the concentration of science-technology-innovation. The peril of the megacity includes both planetary and global threats, such as inequality, pollution, violence or earthquakes. Martin Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, recognized that “Today's city is the most vulnerable social structure ever conceived by man.”
The bewildering methods of defining and measuring urban population suggest that even our conception of the city is indefinite. The megacity has been the subject of numerous horrific fictional accounts. But no one has managed to depict a city of twenty, thirty or forty million people as equitable and ecological. Such an idea cannot be sustained in the imagination.
Cities are problems in “organized complexity,” stated Jane Jacobs in 1961. The most difficult challenge facing megacites is to discover the challenge of this “organized complexity”. It is the interaction between the hard and soft infrastructure that sustains the urban area, including the full array of global and planetary systems that engage or are engaged by cities. One obvious example is the Icelandic Volcano. A planetary event dramatically impacted the global system of air traffic, and related activities.
Looking at the movement in and out of people, freight, power, ideas, services, waste in cities, it is obvious that Tokyo, New York, Shanghai, Mumbai, Sao Paulo or Lagos represent distinct examples of “organized complexity.” They are driven by factors that are poorly understood in isolation, let alone in their interaction.
To Listen to the Episode
Worldview (WBEZ: Chicago Public Media)
Shanghai's population is approaching 20 million and as it, and other mega cities expand, Barry hopes that our global obsession with development doesn't come at a great cost…
Traveling through the world's megacities has resembled the journey described in Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. In this fictional masterpiece Marco Polo describes to Kubla Khan what he saw on his journey. After four decades of visits to megacities, it is also difficult to describe, let alone understand, the modern megacity, world city or global city. What they have in common are qualities of size, scale, shape and speed that are new in human development and unique in the history of globalization. For example, size proportionately affects both the physical and mental health of people and geometrically increases the global footprint of a city. We make cities, but they remake us.
The megacity, determined by a population of ten million or more, or the global city, determined by capital concentration, signals a new partition of the world. This spatial partition is represented within the city by formal vs. non-formal settlements or vertical vs. horizontal growth.
These new (in)human settlements are full with both promise and peril, beauty and barbarism. More important than the fact that half the world's population is living in cities is the emergence of the very large city. It is in the megacities that the fate of global and planetary development rests. In such cities there is a dance between promise and peril, each partner uncertain of who is leading.
The promise of the megacity can be the diversity of experience, people and cultures; economies of scale; human capital; or the concentration of science-technology-innovation. The peril of the megacity includes both planetary and global threats, such as inequality, pollution, violence or earthquakes. Martin Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, recognized that “Today's city is the most vulnerable social structure ever conceived by man.”
The bewildering methods of defining and measuring urban population suggest that even our conception of the city is indefinite. The megacity has been the subject of numerous horrific fictional accounts. But no one has managed to depict a city of twenty, thirty or forty million people as equitable and ecological. Such an idea cannot be sustained in the imagination.
Cities are problems in “organized complexity,” stated Jane Jacobs in 1961. The most difficult challenge facing megacites is to discover the challenge of this “organized complexity”. It is the interaction between the hard and soft infrastructure that sustains the urban area, including the full array of global and planetary systems that engage or are engaged by cities. One obvious example is the Icelandic Volcano. A planetary event dramatically impacted the global system of air traffic, and related activities.
Looking at the movement in and out of people, freight, power, ideas, services, waste in cities, it is obvious that Tokyo, New York, Shanghai, Mumbai, Sao Paulo or Lagos represent distinct examples of “organized complexity.” They are driven by factors that are poorly understood in isolation, let alone in their interaction.
To Listen to the Episode
The Daily Notebook: Pete Postlethwaite, 1945 - 2011
Pete Postlethwaite, 1945 - 2011
by David Hudson
The Daily Notebook
...
"Pete Postlethwaite had one of those faces — weathered, folded, kneaded, endlessly interesting — that demanded to be on camera, even as it denied him any possibility of leading man status." Guy Lodge at In Contention: "And yet, in the latter half of his career, Postlethwaite... made a convincing case for the character actor as star. Neither his visage nor his gratifyingly alliterative name threatened more than a career as 'that guy,' but somehow we got to know him better than that." In his final film performance, he gave us a "vivid, knowing character sketch in Ben Affleck's The Town — it's a cruel irony that we last saw Postlethwaite on screen as a man who knew his number was up, but he couldn't have asked for a more affecting exit."
"In recent years Postlethwaite became known as much for his political activism as his acting," writes Matthew Weaver in the Guardian. "He was the front man in the climate change film The Age of Stupid, arriving at the 2009 London premiere on a bicycle. After the film's release he threatened to hand back the OBE he was awarded in 2004 in protest at the government's controversial decision to give the go-ahead for Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent. He also adapted his home to become environmentally responsible, installing a wind turbine and other features. In 2003 he marched against the war in Iraq and was a vocal supporter of the Make Poverty History campaign." Also: Rosanna Greenstreet's quick Q&A with Postlethwaite in January 2009 and the Guardian's last interview (video, 3'35").
Former UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in the Guardian: "I first saw Brassed Off — the tale about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of their pit — in June 1997. The story, loosely based on the Grimethorpe Colliery Band was moving but it was Pete Postlethwaite's speech right at the end that had a deep effect on me. His character, band leader Danny, after spending his life wanting to win the national brass band trophy, symbolically turns it down because he knows it's the only way he can get publicity for the 1000 miners who were sacked from his pit. The line that got me was: 'This government has systematically destroyed an entire industry — our industry. And not just our industry — our communities, our homes, our lives. All in the name of 'progress'. And for a few lousy bob.
To Read the Entire Post and Access Hyperlinked Resources
by David Hudson
The Daily Notebook
...
"Pete Postlethwaite had one of those faces — weathered, folded, kneaded, endlessly interesting — that demanded to be on camera, even as it denied him any possibility of leading man status." Guy Lodge at In Contention: "And yet, in the latter half of his career, Postlethwaite... made a convincing case for the character actor as star. Neither his visage nor his gratifyingly alliterative name threatened more than a career as 'that guy,' but somehow we got to know him better than that." In his final film performance, he gave us a "vivid, knowing character sketch in Ben Affleck's The Town — it's a cruel irony that we last saw Postlethwaite on screen as a man who knew his number was up, but he couldn't have asked for a more affecting exit."
"In recent years Postlethwaite became known as much for his political activism as his acting," writes Matthew Weaver in the Guardian. "He was the front man in the climate change film The Age of Stupid, arriving at the 2009 London premiere on a bicycle. After the film's release he threatened to hand back the OBE he was awarded in 2004 in protest at the government's controversial decision to give the go-ahead for Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent. He also adapted his home to become environmentally responsible, installing a wind turbine and other features. In 2003 he marched against the war in Iraq and was a vocal supporter of the Make Poverty History campaign." Also: Rosanna Greenstreet's quick Q&A with Postlethwaite in January 2009 and the Guardian's last interview (video, 3'35").
Former UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in the Guardian: "I first saw Brassed Off — the tale about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of their pit — in June 1997. The story, loosely based on the Grimethorpe Colliery Band was moving but it was Pete Postlethwaite's speech right at the end that had a deep effect on me. His character, band leader Danny, after spending his life wanting to win the national brass band trophy, symbolically turns it down because he knows it's the only way he can get publicity for the 1000 miners who were sacked from his pit. The line that got me was: 'This government has systematically destroyed an entire industry — our industry. And not just our industry — our communities, our homes, our lives. All in the name of 'progress'. And for a few lousy bob.
To Read the Entire Post and Access Hyperlinked Resources
Thinking About 2010 and Looking Forward to 2011
Inspired by Ondine
The Bad
The 2010 elections
Michael/Stephanie having to go to Amsterdam to find work
Austerity (and the propaganda surrounding the concept)
The continuing militarization of our society linked to a call for us to police ourselves.
The sad state of cinema (and art in general)
Corporate consolidation of media ---> limitation of public awareness about important social/political issues
Citizen United vs U.S.
Emergency surgery
The Good
Laura comes home from France at the end of the year
Building a home
Comrades that make life worth living
Students that seize upon the concept of learning as a life long collective project
Spending time with family in California
Realizing that I still don't have the answers, but still searching for the questions that might help.
North of Center, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, Socialist Student Union, Lexington Film League, Gay/Straight Alliance, KY Theater, Peace and Justice Coalition, Peace Training-Peace Learning Institute
Teaching--and the opportunity to interact with new students
Wikileaks
2011: The Hopes
Continuing to build a home with Laura and a forge a strong community of comrades
Working on my doubts/insecurites about myself and developing strength so that I can help others do the same
Developing a local coalition of activists/artists/citizens that want to fight for justice and still desire to act freely--individually and collectively
Build the most beautiful backyard herb garden
Travel to Amsterdam to visit Michael/Stephanie
Go to the 2011 Socialist Forum
Work on my novel, write essays, develop my film criticism, and write for North of Center.
Get tenure and celebrate it by writing a slew of poems (and to get up at the Holler to read them--already have a bunch just need to "do it").
Realize my philosophy of anarchism through my most intimate individual relations all the way to my most collective (instituional) obligations.
Talk to people about what socialism is really about.
The Bad
The 2010 elections
Michael/Stephanie having to go to Amsterdam to find work
Austerity (and the propaganda surrounding the concept)
The continuing militarization of our society linked to a call for us to police ourselves.
The sad state of cinema (and art in general)
Corporate consolidation of media ---> limitation of public awareness about important social/political issues
Citizen United vs U.S.
Emergency surgery
The Good
Laura comes home from France at the end of the year
Building a home
Comrades that make life worth living
Students that seize upon the concept of learning as a life long collective project
Spending time with family in California
Realizing that I still don't have the answers, but still searching for the questions that might help.
North of Center, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, Socialist Student Union, Lexington Film League, Gay/Straight Alliance, KY Theater, Peace and Justice Coalition, Peace Training-Peace Learning Institute
Teaching--and the opportunity to interact with new students
Wikileaks
2011: The Hopes
Continuing to build a home with Laura and a forge a strong community of comrades
Working on my doubts/insecurites about myself and developing strength so that I can help others do the same
Developing a local coalition of activists/artists/citizens that want to fight for justice and still desire to act freely--individually and collectively
Build the most beautiful backyard herb garden
Travel to Amsterdam to visit Michael/Stephanie
Go to the 2011 Socialist Forum
Work on my novel, write essays, develop my film criticism, and write for North of Center.
Get tenure and celebrate it by writing a slew of poems (and to get up at the Holler to read them--already have a bunch just need to "do it").
Realize my philosophy of anarchism through my most intimate individual relations all the way to my most collective (instituional) obligations.
Talk to people about what socialism is really about.
Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
strange, made me think of Over the Edge that I saw when I was a kid (15) that encapsulated my rage at the blandness, conformity, control and consumerism of my s. california society and then i later saw that someone set the song to the same film
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Judith Vidal-Hall: A press fit for the purpose?: Finding a new model for press and public service broadcasting
A press fit for the purpose?: Finding a new model for press and public service broadcasting
by Judith Vidal-Hall
Eurozine
...
Millions of words and a good deal of hot air have been spent on the WikiLeaks phenomenon, some, more illuminating than many, on this website.[1] Opinion runs the gamut of emotions: in the USA it stops little short of outright panic and calls for the execution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on a charge of "treason" – though even Fox TV also takes full advantage of the leaks to sex up its evening broadcasts. Others concentrate on securing his arrest and extradition on what appear to be spurious charges of rape in Sweden. Among more rational voices there seems to be a consensus that Assange and his team have taken freedom of expression and transparency to an unprecedented level. Not since the darkest days of glavlit and censorship in the Soviet Union has free speech been so fashionable a cause.
Others, however, argue that the link between press and Internet has been irrevocably changed for the worse; yet others that the symbiosis demonstrated between the print media and the new technology has given the latter a new lease of life at a moment it needed it most. As Marc-Olivier Padis, editor of the journal Esprit, points out in a forthcoming issue, opinions have an inconvenient habit of dividing along the lines of that small and happy band chosen for the publication of the WikiLeaks data – New York Times, Guardian, Le/ Monde, El Pais and Der Spiegel – and their rivals, who could only look on with envy.
Extreme political reactions are not our business here, more the impact of the leaks on the future of the press. Are we being blinded by the scale of the revelations – 251,287 separate cables amounting to some 13,000 pages – to the fact that we have been here before? Is this the way of the future or simply the past come to life? Isn't it more or less what journalists have always done, particularly that supposedly endangered species, the investigative journalist? Is WikiLeaks more than simply a provider, the source mediated to the page, much as Woodward and Bernstein did for "Deep Throat", the anonymous source who spilled the beans on the Watergate affair that eventually brought down Richard Nixon? Or is it a breakthrough in a new and very different construct of democracy?
As Henry Porter, commenting in the Observer, reminds us, "Nothing is new."[2]
In the 1770s in Britain, a libertine, wit and radical journalist fought parliament and succeeded in forcing it to allow the daily publication of each day's proceedings in the House, something that had been denied previously by those in power on the grounds that it would endanger national security and prevent the smooth running of the nation's affairs. The name of this reprobate, John Wilkes MP, became synonymous with liberty and a free press. He was prosecuted for "seditious libel" against the person of King George III and forced to flee to France – not then synonymous with freedom of any kind. On his return, he was imprisoned in the Kings Bench Prison in south London, despite the protests of an unruly mob of supporters at the prison gates. Assange's incarceration in Wandsworth Prison would have made him something of a neighbour.
"It took a libertine to prove that information enriched the functioning of British society," says Porter. The government fought him with the legal instruments at its disposal and some that were not. Attempts to destroy his credibility by sexual entrapment failed, as did his expulsion from parliament. The government was finally forced to climb down. The kingdom continued to function much as before, the people were the wiser on the doings of their representatives – and today a statue of the man stands at the heart of London's Fleet Street, onetime centre of the UK newspaper industry.
So far so good; the parallels are almost too obvious. But what of the nature of the information supplied by WikiLeaks and the manner in which it has been served up to the papers involved?
The answer is probably yes: size does matter. The sheer volume and scope of the material and the threat it poses to the security systems of those who are the victims of its exposures – diplomats, kings and politicians, bureaucrats and bankers, and, no doubt, more to come – have changed the game. These are not the one-off revelations on Iraq and Afghanistan: this source will continue to drip feed the press for months yet and change the relationship between newspapers and the Internet as it does. The future of information looks very different from the past.
In the meantime, the besieged print media has been given a shot in the arm when it most needed it. Though the Internet is a powerful vehicle for freedom of expression and opinion, it has not usurped the traditional media's role as "Fourth Estate" – a phrase also coined in the eighteenth century by Edmund Burke, a passionate rival of Wilkes. The press will remain for some time the visible face of the watchdog on power and guardian of the people's interest – though if Julian Petley is right, it has already forfeited that role. How else than through the journalists and front pages of Europe's more serious newspapers could Assange have got the stories out? Who, other than the men and women trained to do it, is going to wade through the sheer volume of raw data and make sense of it for the reader?
To Read the Entire Editorial
by Judith Vidal-Hall
Eurozine
...
Millions of words and a good deal of hot air have been spent on the WikiLeaks phenomenon, some, more illuminating than many, on this website.[1] Opinion runs the gamut of emotions: in the USA it stops little short of outright panic and calls for the execution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on a charge of "treason" – though even Fox TV also takes full advantage of the leaks to sex up its evening broadcasts. Others concentrate on securing his arrest and extradition on what appear to be spurious charges of rape in Sweden. Among more rational voices there seems to be a consensus that Assange and his team have taken freedom of expression and transparency to an unprecedented level. Not since the darkest days of glavlit and censorship in the Soviet Union has free speech been so fashionable a cause.
Others, however, argue that the link between press and Internet has been irrevocably changed for the worse; yet others that the symbiosis demonstrated between the print media and the new technology has given the latter a new lease of life at a moment it needed it most. As Marc-Olivier Padis, editor of the journal Esprit, points out in a forthcoming issue, opinions have an inconvenient habit of dividing along the lines of that small and happy band chosen for the publication of the WikiLeaks data – New York Times, Guardian, Le/ Monde, El Pais and Der Spiegel – and their rivals, who could only look on with envy.
Extreme political reactions are not our business here, more the impact of the leaks on the future of the press. Are we being blinded by the scale of the revelations – 251,287 separate cables amounting to some 13,000 pages – to the fact that we have been here before? Is this the way of the future or simply the past come to life? Isn't it more or less what journalists have always done, particularly that supposedly endangered species, the investigative journalist? Is WikiLeaks more than simply a provider, the source mediated to the page, much as Woodward and Bernstein did for "Deep Throat", the anonymous source who spilled the beans on the Watergate affair that eventually brought down Richard Nixon? Or is it a breakthrough in a new and very different construct of democracy?
As Henry Porter, commenting in the Observer, reminds us, "Nothing is new."[2]
In the 1770s in Britain, a libertine, wit and radical journalist fought parliament and succeeded in forcing it to allow the daily publication of each day's proceedings in the House, something that had been denied previously by those in power on the grounds that it would endanger national security and prevent the smooth running of the nation's affairs. The name of this reprobate, John Wilkes MP, became synonymous with liberty and a free press. He was prosecuted for "seditious libel" against the person of King George III and forced to flee to France – not then synonymous with freedom of any kind. On his return, he was imprisoned in the Kings Bench Prison in south London, despite the protests of an unruly mob of supporters at the prison gates. Assange's incarceration in Wandsworth Prison would have made him something of a neighbour.
"It took a libertine to prove that information enriched the functioning of British society," says Porter. The government fought him with the legal instruments at its disposal and some that were not. Attempts to destroy his credibility by sexual entrapment failed, as did his expulsion from parliament. The government was finally forced to climb down. The kingdom continued to function much as before, the people were the wiser on the doings of their representatives – and today a statue of the man stands at the heart of London's Fleet Street, onetime centre of the UK newspaper industry.
So far so good; the parallels are almost too obvious. But what of the nature of the information supplied by WikiLeaks and the manner in which it has been served up to the papers involved?
The answer is probably yes: size does matter. The sheer volume and scope of the material and the threat it poses to the security systems of those who are the victims of its exposures – diplomats, kings and politicians, bureaucrats and bankers, and, no doubt, more to come – have changed the game. These are not the one-off revelations on Iraq and Afghanistan: this source will continue to drip feed the press for months yet and change the relationship between newspapers and the Internet as it does. The future of information looks very different from the past.
In the meantime, the besieged print media has been given a shot in the arm when it most needed it. Though the Internet is a powerful vehicle for freedom of expression and opinion, it has not usurped the traditional media's role as "Fourth Estate" – a phrase also coined in the eighteenth century by Edmund Burke, a passionate rival of Wilkes. The press will remain for some time the visible face of the watchdog on power and guardian of the people's interest – though if Julian Petley is right, it has already forfeited that role. How else than through the journalists and front pages of Europe's more serious newspapers could Assange have got the stories out? Who, other than the men and women trained to do it, is going to wade through the sheer volume of raw data and make sense of it for the reader?
To Read the Entire Editorial
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Midnight on the Mavi Marmara: The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and How it Changed the Course of the Israel/Palestine Conflict
Midnight on the Mavi Marmara: The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and How it Changed the Course of the Israel/Palestine Conflict
Panel discussion with Moustafa Bayoumi, Max Blumenthal, Rashid Khalidi, Alia Malek, Arun Gupta, Phil Weiss and Adam Horowitz
We Are Many
To Listen to the Podcast
Panel discussion with Moustafa Bayoumi, Max Blumenthal, Rashid Khalidi, Alia Malek, Arun Gupta, Phil Weiss and Adam Horowitz
We Are Many
To Listen to the Podcast
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)