Stratégies militantes : littérature/cinéma – France, 1960-1986

Par Sylvain Dreyer à Fabula LHT No. 2 :

La présente étude entend définir le mode spécifique de restitution d’une expérience liée à l’actualité politique, en interrogeant les stratégies respectives de l’écriture et du cinéma dits « engagés » ou « militants8 ». Il s’agit de questionner les pratiques concrètes et les formes rhétoriques employées au sein d’un corpus de textes et de films qui constituent pour la plupart un témoignage sur les luttes révolutionnaires étrangères de la seconde moitié du vingtième siècle. Ces œuvres mettent en avant leur fonction politique : elles visent une prise de conscience et même un engagement du destinataire dans un contexte d’urgence. Mais la plupart d’entre elles comportent une dimension critique : elles sont aussi le lieu d’une réflexion sur la légitimité et la fonction idéologique du texte ou du film engagé. Elles interrogent en particulier l’usage des mots, des images et des sons, et passent au crible les productions exprimant un point de vue adverse – en premier lieu la presse « bourgeoise » mais aussi des œuvres idéologiquement proches qui sont dénoncées comme dogmatiques ou romantiques. Par cette dimension critique, les rapports entre littérature et cinéma prennent un tour souvent polémique : les films suspectent le « discours » – assimilé rapidement à l’idée de « langage » – d’être un simple vecteur idéologique, quand les textes s’attachent en retour à dénoncer les « clichés » produits par les photographes ou les cinéastes. Enfin, ces œuvres se prennent parfois elles-mêmes comme discours idéologique à défaire, prolongeant ainsi l’exigence exprimée par Barthes au sujet de la critique littéraire : « Toute critique doit inclure dans son discours [...] un discours implicite sur elle-même ; toute critique est critique de l’œuvre et critique de soi-même9 ». Dans une logique autocritique, ces productions contiennent en quelque sorte le mode d’emploi de leur propre déconstruction. Nous proposons de les appeler « œuvres engagées critiques »

Giving Europe a Soul?

Wim Wenders' speech at the conference "A Soul For Europe" in Berlin, at Sign & Sight (20.12.2006).

Where can I get the video?

The Radical Loser

By Hans Magnus Enzensberger at Spiegel International (20.12.2006) :

It is difficult to talk about the loser, and it is stupid not to. Stupid because there can be no definitive winner and because each of us, from the megalomaniac Bonaparte to the last beggar on the streets of Calcutta, will meet the same fate. Difficult because to content oneself with this metaphysical banality is to take the easy way out, ignoring the truly explosive dimension of the problem - the political dimension.

Instead of actually looking into the thousand faces of the loser, sociologists stick to their statistics: median value, standard deviation, logarithmic distribution. Rarely do they entertain the possibility that they too might be among the losers. Their definitions are like scratching a sore place; and as Samuel Butler says, this scratching generally leaves the sore place more sore than it was before. One thing is certain: the way humanity has organized itself - "capitalism," "competition," "empire," "globalization" - not only does the number of losers increase every day, but as in any large group, fragmentation soon sets in. In a chaotic, unfathomable process, the cohorts of the inferior, the defeated, the victims separate out. The loser may accept his fate and resign himself; the victim may demand satisfaction; the defeated may begin preparing for the next round. But the radical loser isolates himself, becomes invisible, guards his delusion, saves his energy, and waits for his hour to come.

Simulated Cities, Sedated Living

By Robert Misik at Eurozine (15.12.2006) :

If, as Rem Koolhaas has remarked, "shopping is the last remaining form of public activity", why does sociology look down upon it as preserve of pop theory and window dressing manuals? Shopping malls simulate the buzz of city centres and create an atmosphere appropriate for consuming. Everything is planned in advanced and controlled; appropriation or adaptation of the space by passers-by is both impossible and forbidden. This rebounds on city centres: prettified, scrubbed, and tidied, they increasingly adopt the mall aesthetic. And in a final twist, malls have begun building reconstructions of city streets.

Also see Rachel Bowlby's two books : Just Looking (Methuen) and Carried Away (Columbia).

Japan : Women Make a Mark in Niche Businesses

By Suvendrini Kakuchi at IPS (15.12.2006) :

Rie Nakamura, a tall, slim woman in her forties, started her company -- a highly sophisticated portal sourcing and delivering packaged food from 6,500 companies -- in 2002 and now reports annual sales that touch more than six million US dollars. 

''The beginnings of my venture were extremely humble,'' Nakamura told IPS recently, explaining that after the birth of her son, twelve years ago, she simply wanted to be able to spend more time at home and hit upon the idea of starting her own company that would allow her to do just that.

Nakamura says that while she works very hard, her dream of being able to look after her son has worked. She personally prepares his daily school lunches -- a symbol of motherly love in Japan -- and can be back home to watch over his studies.

The Case for Japanese Constitutional Revision Assessed

By Koseki Sho'ichi at Japan Focus (12.12.2006) :

There’s been much discussion of constitutional revision in Japan. In November 2005, celebrating the 50^th anniversary of its formation, the Liberal-Democratic Party published its “Draft of a New Constitution.” In this rapidly changing world, it’s quite risky for a developed country to make a constitution with an eye to the 21^st century. Why? Because this is an age in which the nation-states that shape the modern era are changing dramatically, and because we still can’t see what lies ahead.

The debate over constitutional revision originates in the incompatibility between the Japanese constitution’s renunciation of armaments and the right to make war, on the one hand, and the primacy of the US-Japan security system on the other. No matter how you look at it, it’s risky to dream up a constitution for the 21^st century without addressing—above and beyond US security demands—the changing character of the modern nation-state. In order to see the future, we must first examine the past. The current constitution of Japan has a history of nearly 60 years, and one might think it would be necessary to begin by assessing that history. But the constitutional research committees of the two houses of the Diet that might be expected to take that as their highest duty have failed to do so.

Mr. Kosek's new book, The Scars of War: The Japanese Home Front in World War II, will be published in 2007.

'Gender equality not neutralising sexes'

By Linda Sieg at IOL (12.12.2006) :

"What I want to stress is that there is no need to neutralise everything," Sanae Takaichi, one of two women in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet, told Reuters in an interview.

"There are aspects that are naturally and instinctively different for women, not just differences created by society."

Takaichi's comments echoed concerns among lawmakers worried about fraying traditional values, who in 2005 prodded authors of a government plan to promote gender equality to include a caveat against eradicating all gender-based customs, from separate changing rooms for kids to a dolls festival for girls.

Ah huh? Ms. Takaichi said like that? Is she instinctively a woman?

US income figures show staggering rise in social inequality

By Jerry White at WSWS (12.12.2006) :

The official poverty line in 2004 was $27 a day for a single adult below retirement age and $42 a day for a household with one child—although the real cost of attaining basic necessities is far higher. The Times article notes that the IRS income data does not include the value of government benefits like food stamps, earned-income tax credits and subsidized medical care. But the social programs for the poor—including federal welfare assistance—have largely been wiped out or curtailed and what programs do remain are not sufficient to lift families out of poverty.

It is often noted that 3 billion of the world’s poorest people live on less than $2 a day. In the US, where the cost of living is far higher, $7 a day is only enough to guarantee a life of destitution. The fact that 60 million people live in such dire poverty—and tens of millions more could face the same fate if they lost their jobs or confronted some other financial catastrophe—is a damning indictment of American capitalism and the free market model it touts around the world.

Shutting Out the Sun

By Todd Shimoda at The Asian Review of Books (06.12.2006). Reviews Michael Zielenziger, Shutting Ou the Sun : How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation, Nan A. Talese, 2006 :

MICHAEL ZIELENZIGER, a former Tokyo-based bureau chief for Knight Ridder Newspapers, illuminates the sad but intriguing case of Japan's hikikomori, mostly young people who shut themselves away in their rooms, refusing to come out for months or years. His premise is that Japanese society with all its faults has created the hikikomori and other social ills such as a high rate of suicide, a rock-bottom birthrate, and a "sullen and desultory" population afraid to be individuals.

Also see Powells.com commentaries.

Our words of the year

By The Japan Times Editorial (10.12.2006). — "Dwarf planet", "Kazakhsan", "macaca", "one, two", "polonium-210", "sectarian violence", "thumpin'", "unity government", "Wii", and "YouTube".

John Lennon's Legacy

By John Wiener at The Notion (07.12.2006). — "Did 'Give Peace a Chance' save a single life? Did the anti-war protest of 1969, or any other year, save any lives?"

Fanaticism: The brief history of a concept

By Alberto Toscano at Eurozine (07.12.2006) :

The label "fanaticism" is increasingly attached to the perceived threat posed by religious fundamentalism. But rarely is the history of the term and the variety of its uses examined. Here, a philosophical history of "fanaticism" from Martin Luther to the present.

Beijing prepares the army to repress domestic unrest

By John Chen at WSWS (05.12.2006) :

The Chinese government issued a new emergency response plan in mid-November, allowing the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to directly intervene to suppress protests of workers and peasants. The plan indicates that preparations are being made to use the army for such purposes for the first time since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

The Central Military Commission headed by President Hu Jintao approved the plan, which allows PLA officers at the regimental level to report directly to provincial and even regional authorities in an emergency, without the authorisation of divisional commanders. Five types of emergency are indicated: small-scale military conflicts, social instability, terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other public security crises.

Secret US database on international travelers exposed

By Joe Kay at WSWS (05.12.2006) :

Details have emerged of a US government program that collects information and creates a “risk profile” of all people entering and leaving the United States. The program, secretly in place since 2002, is part of much broader system of government spying and attacks on privacy rights.

According to an Associated Press (AP) article from November 30, international travelers are given a score “after computers assess their travel records, including where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered.” The program also accesses other federal and commercial databases. The assessment is stored for 40 years.

Qatar, Japan's energy white knight

By Hisane Masaki at Japan Times (05.12.2006) :

Two major trading firms, Mitsui & Co and Marubeni Corp, have stakes in two main projects of Qatar Liquefied Gas Co Ltd (Qatargas). Mitsui and Marubeni each have a 2.5% stake in the Qatargas upstream joint venture (offshore production and the onshore receiving facilities). They also have a 7.5% stake each in the Qatargas downstream joint venture (onshore LNG plant).

In July, Japan's Chiyoda Corp and France's Technip SA received a 180 billion yen (nearly US$1.56 billion) order from ExxonMobil Corp in Qatar to build what will be the world's largest gas-processing plant. Chiyoda and Technip received the order for engineering, procurement and construction of the Al Khaleej Gas Phase 2 Project, or AKG2.

The plant will have capacity to produce 12.5 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day when the project is completed in 2009. Last December, the Chiyoda-Technip alliance received a 500 billion yen contract to construct two LNG production facilities near the AKG2 plant site.

Confucius et Freud trouvent une place dans les prisons

From The People's Daily (04.12.2006) :

"Les hommes, à la naissance, sont naturellement bons." Un groupe de 30 détenus entonnent chaque matin avec leur professeur un des vers les plus célèbres de Confucius, dans une prison du nord-est de la Chine.

La prison de Beijiao, à Changchun, capital de la province de Jilin, a ouvert "une salle de classe confucéenne" et des télévisions installées en circuit fermé permettre au sage antique d'enseigner.

Les détenus prennent des tours pour assister aux conférences durant le jour et pour réviser les textes la nuit. Chacun des détenus a été donné une collection de 66 pages des célèbres textes confucéens, comprenant une amorce sur la Vertu et l'Analects de Confucius et de ses disciples.

Japan's expat rebel with many causes blends music and a wider world view

By David McNeill at The Japan Times (03.12.2006). Interviews Ryu'ichi Sakamoto on his work and environmental issues.

Must we respect religiosity?

By Jan Philipp Reemtsma at Eurozine (02.12.2006) :

It is said that Western societies are entering an age of post-secularity, in which there is a need for a truth beyond that offered by conventional science. Fine, say liberals, simply take your pick from the many faiths on offer. But from religion's standpoint, the idea that "You can believe what you want" seems indifferent and mistaken. Respect between the religious and the non-religious is necessary if this tension is not to become intolerance. Though the basis for respect may be different – the religious person respects the non-religious person as a potential believer, the non-religious person respects the religious person as an individual with the freedom to decide what or what not to believe – the outcome is the same. Secular society takes pride precisely in its refusal to interfere with the beliefs of its members. In excluding Muslim teachers wearing headscarves from state schools, Reemtsma argues, secular society has forgotten this.

Witnessing Extraordinary Rendition

By Aaron Sarver at In These Times (01.12.2006). Interviews Gillian Caldwell on her work.

L’image immortelle du Che

Par Victor Montoya à La Revue des Ressources (30.11.2006) :

Mémorable Commandant :

Le 8 octobre 1967, ton journal de campagne ainsi que d’autres documents rédigés de ta main se retrouvèrent en possession des Forces Armées après que tu eus livré ton dernier combat à la faille du Churo et fus tombé à la merci de tes ennemis, blessé par balle à la jambe et la gorge irritée par l’asthme. Ils passèrent pour ainsi dire de ton sac de cuir à une boîte de chaussures et ils furent déposés en tant que « Secret d’État du Haut Commandement Militaire Bolivien » ; ta montre Rolex, qu’un soldat t’enleva peu après ta capture, se retrouva au poignet du colonel Andrés Selich ; ton fusil, ce fusil qu’on aurait adoré avoir en héritage pour le porter à l’épaule, comme tu l’as porté tout au long de la lutte en essayant d’allumer la flamme de la révolution latino-américaine, passa aux mains du colonel Centeno Anaya. Celui-ci le prit sans ressentir la même émotion de bonheur qui combla Inti lorsqu’il te rencontra à la « Casa de Calamina » de Ñancahuazú où tu lui donnas la poignée de main de camarade alors que de l’autre, tu lui tendais sa carabine M-2. Ta pipe, de laquelle tu aspiras la dernière bouffée de fumée comme quelqu’un qui est disposé à attendre sereinement l’heure de la mort, c’est au sergent Bernardino Huanca que tu la donnas, lui qui se comporta aimablement avec toi. Mais le capitaine Mario Terán s’avança et cria : « Je la veux, moi ! Je la veux ! » Alors toi, en le regardant avec infiniment de mépris, tu replias ton bras et lui dis : « Non, à vous non. »

25 percent of deceased consumer credit borrowers committed suicide

From Mainichi Daily News (29.11.2006) :

The Financial Services Agency (FSA) investigated the causes of the deaths of borrowers from major consumer credit companies following revelations that Promise Co. falsely reported data on life insurance policies it took out on all of its borrowers.

The results have shown that 25.5 percent of debtors with the five firms, whose causes of deaths are known, took their own lives.

The issue was raised in a session of the House of Representatives Committee on Fiscal and Financial Policies on Tuesday. Akira Nagatsuma, an opposition Democratic Party of Japan member, urged the FSA to check the exact number of consumer credit firm borrowers who committed suicide.

"Data has suggested that the number of those who killed themselves is much larger. Can't you check the exact number of those who committed suicide based on information held by the Federation of Credit Bureaus of Japan?" Nagatsuma said.

Good job, Nagatsuma-san.

War and Empire Are and Always Have Been the American Way of Life

By Paul L. Atwood at Historians Against the War (DOC file).

Young Indians happiest, Japanese most miserable - survey

By Kate Holton at Reuters/Yahoo! News (20.11.2006) :

Young people in developing nations are at least twice as likely to feel happy about their lives than their richer counterparts, a survey says.

Indians are the happiest overall and Japanese the most miserable.

According to an MTV Networks International (MTVNI) global survey that covered more than 5,400 young people in 14 countries, only 43 percent of the world's 16- to 34-year-olds say they are happy with their lives.

Machines and drugs

Par Truls Lie au Monde Diplomatique/Eurozine (17.11.2006) :

Do we really regard technology as an integral part of ourselves in the same way "machines" are composed of flesh and blood and social context? And doesn't the rapture of losing oneself satisfy a natural psychological need? The machines are the compelling drug.

National, local governments scrabble to shore up broken town meeting system

From Mainichi Daily News (18.11.2006) :

One local government came up with an innovative solution for dealing with apathy towards local issues and declining attendance at town meetings: Fill seats with their own employees.

A Mainichi investigation into problems with government-sponsored town meetings has found that the Aomori Prefectural Government dispatched a large number of its own workers to a meeting in Aomori in June 2004, basically making it one between government officials.

The finding comes on the heels of the discovery that staged questions were being asked at meetings, and suggests the town meetings initiative -- which is supposed to provide a chance for the government to converse directly with the local community -- is breaking down.

This is the Japanese way. The American should accuse the Japan Gov't of having insulted the town meeting system.

Jürgen Habermas on Immigration

A lecture by Jürgen Habermas transcript at Sign and Sight (16.11.2006).

Amateur Videos Are Putting Official Abuse in New Light

By Mary Jordan at Washington Post (15.11.2006) :

"Do I really have to do this?" Hemy, who had never been arrested before, pleaded with the female officer standing in front of her in a tiny police station locker room.

She said her head was pounding from the humiliation and she feared what might come next. But what was happening at that moment changed her life: A male officer was secretly holding his cellphone and its tiny camera between the bars on the window, making a video clip that would ultimately expose more than Hemy's nakedness.

The clip began circulating phone to phone, e-mail to e-mail. Eventually it was posted on YouTube and other Internet sites, to be viewed by millions. What started as cheap voyeurism escalated into an unstoppable cyberspace phenomenon, which forced the prime minister to establish an official inquiry that led to changes in police practice. The episode also underscored the growing power of amateur video, shot on cellphones and ever-tinier digital cameras, to hold the powerful to account.

La chute des trois tours du World Trade Center

Par Arno Mansouri à Réseau Voltaire (14.11.2006) :

Deux évènements survenus le 11 septembre 2001 ont été gommés de la mémoire collective : l’incendie de l’annexe de la Maison-Blanche et l’effondrement de la tour n°7 du World Trade Center qui n’avait été touchée par aucun avion. C’est bien normal, car ces faits ne sont pas intégrables à la version gouvernementale des attentats et, par leur existence même, la contredisent partiellement. Ils ne sont donc pas même mentionnés dans le rapport de la Commission d’enquête présidentielle. Dans son livre Le Procès du 11 septembre , Victor Thorn revient en détail sur l’effondrement « mimétique » de la tour 7 qui abritait une base de la CIA. Son éditeur français, Arno Mansouri, résume ici son propos.

Schooled for a spell of trouble

By Shelley Gare at The Australian (11.11.2006). "Jokes about softening of education standards would be funnier if they weren't so true."

Jonathan Miller on Atheism

The Atheist Mama :

Very much by accident, I came across a rare television series about atheism,  Jonathan Miller’s A Rough History of Disbelief, produced for BBC 4 in England. It’s a three-part program in which Miller explores the origins, development, and current implications of atheism through conversations with scientists, historians, writers, and philosophers. Miller himself is articulate and insightful, and his personal observations bind the series together in a very compelling way.

One minor criticism I have is the captioning; not only is it distracting, but often inaccurate. If you can get past that, however, it is an hour well-spent.

Part 2 can be found here, but part 3 seems to have disappeared since I first found it a month ago. This really is a shame; perhaps someone out there can make sure it finds its way back.

Enjoy!

The Ethnic Detective and the Atomic Bomb: A Japanese American Mystery series

By Mark Schreiber at Japan Focus (08.11.2006) :

This past summer, I was delighted to discover a new "ethnic detective" character named Masuo "Mas" Arai, an elderly Japanese American gardener whose credentials include a green thumb and a nose for sniffing out criminals. The creation of Los Angeles-based journalist and author Naomi Hirahara, Arai made his literary debut in 2004 in "Summer of the BIG BACHI." A year later he was assisting the NYPD in "Gasa-Gasa Girl." This year, he's back cruising the L.A. freeways in his battered pickup truck in "Snakeskin Shamisen," where a traditional Okinawan musical instrument left at the scene of the crime led him to the killer.

Reenacting War

"Reflections on a Country Losing Its Humanity" by Doug Troutman at TomDispatch (10.11.2006).

Britain is Determined to Protect Its Right to Kill Civilians at Random

By George Monbiot at The Guardian/CommonDreams (07.11.2006).

Mr. Fujita Speaks to the World

Mr. Togo (or Tougo) Fujita held a press conference at FCCJ yesterday, and the video files (seven parts) are uploaded at YouTube. A must watch.

Une parole de femme s'est tue

Par Xavière Gauthier au Monde (02.11.2006).

Continue reading "Une parole de femme s'est tue"

Nationalism under Globalization through the eyes of Google

By Prof. Laksiri Fernando at Asian Tribune (07.11.2006).

Parallel lives

By Ted Cantle at Eurozine (03.11.2006).

All history is the history of migration

By Moris Farhi at Eurozine (03.11.2006).

Multiculturalism: A failed experiment?

By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Candace Allen, Ted Cantle, & Dreda Say Mitchell at Eurozine (03.11.2006).

Adachi Ward scraps plan to base school budget allocations on students' test results

From Asahi.com (08.11.2006) :

Following a wave of criticism, Tokyo's Adachi Ward scrapped a plan to allocate funds to public elementary and junior high schools based on their students' academic achievement test results, officials said Tuesday.

The plan was to take effect in April and would involve grading public schools from A to D according to the results of the students' tests. The size of budget allocations would be based on those grades.

Conspiracy of complacency costs countless lives on the roads

By Roger Pulvers at The Japan Times (05.11.2006) :

Some years ago, a drunk truck driver, with a record of negligent driving, took the lives of two toddlers sitting in the back of their parents' car. It was the perseverance of the parents, including their tearful but adamant pleas on television for justice, that persuaded the Japanese public to start taking this problem more seriously.

More recently a young speeding driver crashed into the back of a car, sending it tumbling into a river. The parents survived, but the three little children in the car drowned. The mother tried desperately to save her children by diving down to the car four times, but in vain.

The Japanese approach to many social problems, be it drunk-driving, child abuse, domestic violence, etc., is, "If you don't hear about it, it probably doesn't exist to any significant degree in Japan."

People in bars, pubs and restaurants ply their colleagues with liquor, even knowing that the latter will have to drive home. The media has assiduously avoided taking up the problem until very recently. Could this be because some of the main advertisers in newspapers, and sponsors on television and radio, are car manufacturers? Is this another case of a huge problem that "doesn't exist"?

Does the mass media in Japan Hide The truth?

Mission for Freedom and Democracy makes an appeal to journalists and reporters around the world :

Although Mr. Fujita may yet believe mass media in Japan, many Japanese people do not believe mass media in Japan. They are afraid that the mass media in again ignored his claim. Please interview Mr. Fujita. He is glad to take your interviews. Not only he but also many Japanese people ask for your assistance.

What's happening to Mr. Fujita? See From the Inside, Looking in (19.10.2006).

Via Digg.

* * * *

Japanese mass media are controlled by the ruling parties and their companies. I seldom watch TV and read newspapers. I get informations from some honest Japanese bloggers. Mr. Fujita's messages have been published by Kikko's Diary and Rakuchin Lamp. Japan is ranked at the 51st place regarding "la liberté de la presse", reports Reporters sans frontières. Japan will get much worse, I'm afraid.

Terrorism : Facts Versus Myths

By Ram Puniyani at Countercurrents.org (01.11.2006). A great job. Verifies some myths about Islam one by one.

European Islamophobia

By Lee Sustar at Countercurrents.org (01.11.2006) :

European politicians from London to Moscow are bashing Islam and immigrants, legitimizing politics previously limited to the anti-immigrant extreme right.

The latest high-profile venture in Islamophobia is taking place in Britain, where Labour Party minister Jack Straw suddenly announced in an October 5 newspaper column that he felt "uncomfortable" speaking to Muslim women wearing the full-face veil known as the niqab, calling it a barrier to community relations. Prime Minister Tony Blair chimed in days later, calling the niqab a "mark of separation."

The Labour Party's intervention represents the liberal version of Islamophobia, a complement to the right-wing variant, which has included Pope Benedict's speech portraying Islam as a violent religion, George W. Bush's tirade against "Islamofascism," and the publication of racist anti-Islamist cartoons by a right-wing Danish newspaper.

Disastrous North Korean Famine Looms

By Peter Alford with an introduction by John Feffer at Japan Focus (28.10.2006).

Interview with Ray McGovern

Part 1 and Part 2 by Christopher Bown at OhMyNews International.

Interview with Camille Paglia

Published by Salon.com (27.10.2006) :

What are you working on these days?

My new book, which is under contract to Pantheon, is about visual images. It's a companion book to "Break, Blow, Burn" and is addressed to the general audience. As a longtime fan of talk radio, I'm very worried about the low opinion that conservative hosts and callers have of the American artist. Art is portrayed as a scam, a rip-off and snow job pushed by snobbish elites.

I was warning about this for years in my Salon column. I was virtually alone on the pro-art side in criticizing the Brooklyn Museum's 1999 "Sensation" exhibit for its needless provocations, which I foresaw would damage support for arts funding at the local level nationwide. Now the cold reality seems to be sinking in.

L’ange de Beslan

Par Elisabeth Poulet à La Revue des Ressources (26.10.2006) :

La neige est entrée dans le gymnase aussi mal refermé qu’une plaie. Elle a recouvert les hurlements des enfants. Une femme s’approche en titubant. Si elle est ivre, c’est de son malheur. Elle arrive sous le panneau de basket où la bombe la plus meurtrière avait été placée. Elle s’agenouille devant le mur, désormais décoré d’une petite fleur de sang, le caresse et lui parle. Elle balance légèrement la tête et fredonne une comptine, d’une voix qui hésite entre le rauque et l’aigu. Elle lève les yeux vers cette marque sur le mur. Sous certains éclairages, cette marque devient pourpre. Elle n’est pas complètement ronde. Des morceaux semblent vouloir se détacher, comme les pétales d’une marguerite. C’est ici que sa fille de neuf ans est morte. Et cette petite fleur de sang, là, c’est tout ce qui lui reste d’elle. A ce moment, elle se souvient.

Hannah Arendt, totalitarianism and the revolutions in central Europe: 1956, 1968, 1989

By Stefan Auer at Eurozine (25.10.2006) :

Hannah Arendt's writings on the 1956 Hungary uprising might give the impression that it was the first velvet revolution in central and eastern Europe. In other words, Arendt wrote about a revolution that had not yet taken place. Despite this misjudgement, Arendt's theoretical insights into the relationship between power and violence are more than ever relevant to an understanding of both the uprising itself and the role of the public memory of it after 1989.

America's Middle Class Has Become Globalization's Loser

By Gabor Steingert at Spiegel International (24.10.2006) :

At the beginning of the 21st century, the United States is still a superpower. But it's a superpower facing competition from beyond its borders as well as internal difficulties. Its lower and middle classes are turning out to be the losers of globalization.

9/11 Widows Want Rice/Tenet Documents Released

By Jason Leopold at TruthOut (25.10.2006) :

A handful of 9/11 widows have started an online petition in hopes of gathering the public's support to force the White House to declassify documents related to a July 10, 2001, meeting between Condoleezza Rice and former CIA director George Tenet in which the two discussed a pending attack on US soil by al-Qaeda. Details of the meeting were first disclosed a month ago in the book State of Denial by Washington Post assistant managing editor and author Bob Woodward.

In a letter posted on petitononline.com, Patty Casazza, Monica Gabrielle, Mindy Kleinberg, and Lorie Van Auken said that details of the meeting have been confirmed by the State Department and the White House warrants declassification of documents related to the meeting. The widows take issue with Woodward's exclusive access to officials' knowledgeable about the Rice/Tenet meeting and the possibility that he may have been privy to classified documents and transcripts in order to craft a narrative for his book.

Cold Comfort: The Japan Lobby Blocks Congressional Resolution on World War II Sex Slaves

By Ken Silverstein at Japan Focus (21.10.2006) :

Beginning in the 1930s, Japan rounded up as many as 200,000 women and girls, mostly from Korea, China, and the Philippines, and forced them to serve as prostitutes for its soldiers in order to increase troop “morale.” The Japanese called these sex slaves “comfort women”; many were raped and beaten, and some were killed after they acquired sexually transmitted diseases or became “overworked.” Some of the women were so humiliated that they never returned to their homes after the war, and many of those who did kept quiet about their experiences.

Japan long insisted that the comfort women were willing prostitutes and only acknowledged the sex slavery system in 1993 after documents discovered in the Japanese Army archives proved its true nature. The Japanese government backed the establishment of the quasi-governmental Asian Comfort Woman Fund in the mid-1990s but it has refused to offer direct compensation. Many of the women and their families have refused to accept money from the fund because they say Japan has never taken responsibility for its actions.

First published by Harper's Magazine (05.10.2006).

What Is "Uyoku"?

Eric Prideaux contributes five essays on Japanese right wingers ("uyoku") to The Japan Times : "Riding with the Rightists", "'God of Death' Seethes with Rage", "Yasukuni Is a 'Duty'", "Anti-American in Name of 'Respect'", "Building 'Crisis' Mood". 

Something 'beautiful' that leaders may not see from on high

By Roger Pulvers at The Japan Times (22.10.2006) :

On Oct. 11, the Chiba Prefectural Assembly passed a wide-ranging law prohibiting discrimination against disabled people. The law, which goes into effect on July 1, 2007, is Japan's first piece of legislation banning such discrimination and enabling disabled people to seek legal redress when they feel they have been wronged. In a country where the rights of minorities have traditionally been neglected -- if not blatantly trampled on -- this is a great step forward.

However, it's not just the passage of this legislation that ranks as a major event; the way it was formulated and promulgated also sheds considerable light on the democratic process at work in a way that truly suits the Japanese community. That process itself has national significance.

The Surveilling Society

By Tjm Holden at Peripatetic Postcards (20.10.2006). On Michel Foucault.

Umberto Eco apporte son soutien à un écrivain menacé par la mafia

Par AFP à Cyberpresse (16.10.2006) :

Roberto Saviano (28 ans) est l'auteur de Gomorra, un livre-enquête sur la Camorra, la mafia napolitaine, qui figure depuis cinq mois sur la liste des best-sellers en Italie.

L'hebdomadaire italien L'Espresso, auquel Saviano collabore, a révélé la semaine dernière qu'il avait reçu des lettres de menaces et des coups de fil anonymes en pleine nuit à la suite de la publication de son livre qui invite la population à se rebeller contre les clans de la camorra.

Daily Show : Crisis In Our Nation's Pants

YouTube. Via Tennessee Guerilla Women.

Mystery : How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World

By Michael Parenti at ZNet (28.09.2006).

Why Africans look askance at Western meddling

"Tragedy looms in Sudan, but its government is blocking United Nations intervention. Why? " by Martyn Drakard at Mercator Net (30.09.2006).

Unwritten history

By Rashid Khalidi at The Boston Globe (01.10.2006). — The challenges of writing Palestinian history reflect the larger challenges facing the Palestinians' quest for statehood.

Crusader with a pen

Nobuko Tanaka interviews Hisashi Inoue at The Japan Times (01.10.2006). A must read.

On his play "The Face of Jizo", see Roger Pulvers' beautiful article, "The World of Inoue Hisashi" (ZNet). And watch Kazuo Kuroki's movie Chichi to kuraseba if you like. You can refer to The Black Moon (26.04.2005).

How an Accused Child Sex Predator Covered Up Racism, Sexual Harassment at the Washington Times

By Max Blumenthal at The Huffington Post (28.09.2006). A very good entry.

Interview with Nasrallah

Talal Salman entretient avec Hassan Nasrallah à Voltaire Net (29.09.2006).

Satsuki Ina's From a Silk Cocoon, Japanese-American Incarceration Resistance Narratives, and the Post 9/11 Era

By Jean Miyake Downey at Japan Focus (28.09.2006) :

The haunting sounds of shakuhachi music and poet Lawson Inada’s resonant narration underscore the powerful emotional and moral reverberations of the Ina family’s American disaporan story, told in Dr. Satsuki Ina’s evocative documentary, From a Silk Cocoon. The film describes her father’s upbringing as a kibei, a Japanese-American educated in Japan; his hastened return to the United States because of parental fear that he would be drafted into the Imperial Japanese military; his marriage to a beautiful kibei, born in Seattle and educated in Nagano; and the profound damage perpetrated by the U.S. government on the young couple during their devastating four years of incarceration during the Second World War because of their ethnic heritage. The Inas spent two years at Topaz Internment Camp, in

Utah

. Then they were separated and Satsuki Ina’s father was sent to Department of Justice internment camp in Bismarck, North Dakota with other so-called “enemy aliens” while Ina, her mother, and brother were sent to Tule Lake Segregation Center, a maximum-security prison for those who either refused or said “no” to a loyalty questionnaire.

Most Iraqis Want US Troops Out Within a Year

World Public Opinion (27.09.2006). Via Sabbah's blog.

Le partage du savoir est un multiplicateur de croissance

Par Koïchirô Matsuura au Figaro (27.09.2006).

Continue reading "Le partage du savoir est un multiplicateur de croissance"

The United States of America vs. Bill Keller

By Joe Hagan at New York Magazine (18.09.2006 Issue).

Bouny sur Davis

Angela Davis joins CIS. André Bouny introduces her life and work. at Bellaciao (26.09.2006). I remember John and Yoko sing "Angela" (in Some Time in New York City). Now she is 62 years old.

How to Suppress Discussions of Racism

By Mely at Coffee and Ink (17.07.2006). Via Lindsay Beyerstein (Alter Net).

Chine : les blogs de la colère

Par Brice Pedroletti au Monde (19.09.2006) :

La campagne pour "ne plus acheter de logement", lancée en mai par Zou Tao, un jeune blogueur installé à Shenzhen, a fait mouche. Les internautes s'échangent à tout-va les logos simples et percutants du mouvement : un panneau d'interdiction avec le dessin d'une maison, le mot "HOUSE" en lettres géantes, barré d'une croix rouge. Ils disséminent l'information sur les forums de discussion et se rallient en ligne par des cris de guerre éloquents.

Zou Tao propose de boycotter pendant trois ans l'achat d'un logement - le temps que les prix baissent. Il fustige les promoteurs qui manipulent le marché. Le coup de gueule de ce "Ralph Nader chinois", qui n'en est pas à ses premiers faits d'armes, n'a rien d'anecdotique : il touche une corde très sensible en Chine, où la toute nouvelle classe moyenne urbaine est en train de s'apercevoir qu'au jeu de la redistribution discrétionnaire des terrains publics elle s'est fait berner.

Insurance Horror Stories

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Donkey O.D. (22.09.2006).

Deux semaines pour sauver le Darfour

"Lettre ouverte au Président de la République, Jacques Chirac" par Le collectif Urgence Darfour, à Libération (19.09.2006).

Continue reading "Deux semaines pour sauver le Darfour"

Names, Bones and Unpaid Wages : Reparations for Korean Forced Labor in Japan

By William Underwood at Japan Focus : Part 1 (10.09.2006) & Part 2 (17.09.2006).

Muslim girl flees London to wed her internet Hindu

By Shekhar Bhatia & Lucy Bannerman at The Times (16.09.2006) :

IT IS a tale of forbidden love that has delighted the Indian press. But a Muslim schoolgirl’s decision to flee from London to India to marry a Hindu man she met on the internet has not exactly pleased her parents.

Subia Gaur, 18, from Plaistow, East London, and Ashwani Gupta, 21, began chatting online three years ago. Such was her parents’ opposition to the romance that the teenager secretly caught a flight to Delhi and abandoned her strict religious upbringing to become a wife in Ghaziabad.

I love this story.

American Intelligence -- Still Stupid

By Amy Zegart at The LA Times (17.09.2006) :

FIVE YEARS AFTER the most devastating terrorist attack in U.S. history, all our worst intelligence deficiencies remain. Intelligence is spread across 16 agencies that operate as warring tribes more than a team. The CIA is in disarray. And the FBI's information technology is stuck in the dark ages.

Roman Abramovich's Chukotka project

By Zygmunt Dzieciolowski at OpenDemocracy (14.09.2006) :

Russia's far east is the site of an experiment in government and social development led by Roman Abramovich, billionaire businessman and owner of Chelsea football club. Zygmunt Dzieciolowski, who has tracked the Chukotka story for six years, uses his unique access to the region to send this progress report.

Israël membre de la Francophonie ? Non merci !

Par Gilles Munier à Voltaire Net (15.09.2006) :

Contrairement aux usages diplomatiques, la France a invité le premier ministre libanais Fouad Siniora et non le président de la République du Liban Émile Lahoud au prochain sommet de la Francophonie. En effet, les décisions qui s’y prendront devront être approuvées à l’unanimité et l’adhésion d’Israël sera soumise au vote.

Attentat contre Rafic Hariri : Une enquête biaisée ?

Silvia Cattori entretiens avec Jürgen Cain Külbel à Voltaire Net (15.09.2006) :

Ancien enquêteur criminel de RDA, devenu journaliste après la réunification allemande, Jürgen Cain Külbel est l’auteur d’une contre-enquête décapante sur l’assassinat de l’ancien Premier ministre libanais Rafic Hariri que le Réseau Voltaire a présenté au public arabe lors d’une conférence trés médiatisée, le 7 mai dernier, à Damas. Dans cet entretien, il revient sur le rôle politique de la Commission de l’ONU et sur la piste inexploitée de la responsabilité israélienne.

Condemned to desolation

By Eric Silverman at Al-Ahram (14-20.09.2006) :

Hundreds of desperate parents swarmed lists of coupon numbers tacked to the walls of the UNRWA relief centre in the Beach Refugee Camp of Gaza City Sunday, nervously trying to locate their assigned lot to collect emergency food packages only being offered to families with at least 11 members.

"There is not enough food in Gaza; even we at UNRWA are struggling to get the food in," warned John Ging, director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, as he toured the relief centre. UN workers urgently tossed bags of flour from supply trucks and stacked bottles of oil in efforts to alleviate what Ging described as a "desperate and unprecedented" crisis.

Abe, LDP sued over history text approval

From The Japan Timse (15.09.2006) :

A group of people Thursday filed a lawsuit against Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party with the Tokyo District Court, claiming they broke the law by intervening in the ap