Nope, it's not China, Iran or Israel: The U.S. is the country viewed most negatively, according to a global survey
Alternet - January 10, 2014
US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize four years ago. Today, the country he leads is seen — according to a new poll — as the biggest threat to world peace. The global survey , conducted by WIN/Gallup International, polled residents in 68 countries on everything from the global economy to politics and living conditions.
According to the poll, 24 percent of the surveyed countries ranked the United States as the greatest threat to
world peace today, followed by Pakistan at 8 percent, China at 6
percent and four countries (Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and North Korea)
tied at 5 percent.
Read more.....
Another news on this subject: US the biggest threat to world peace in 2013 – poll
Sunday, January 12, 2014
The Political Economy of Predatory Capitalism
By CJ Polychroniou
Truthout | Op-Ed Sunday, 12 January 2014
The world is returning to the predatory laissez-faire capitalism that immiserated millions in the early 20th century and in spite of the fact it is predicated on neoliberal "voodoo economics," void of empirical reference.
Since the late 1970s, most capitalist economies have been marching to the tunes of neoliberalism - a term originally coined in the 1930s as a moderate alternative to classical liberalism but used in our own times to signify preference for a set of economic policies favoring privatization, deregulation and a "minimal" state. This is the version of neoliberalism developed by Milton Friedman and the so-called Chicago School and is usually associated with the Pinochet regime in Chile and later on with the so-called "free-market" policies of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. In more popular usage, it can simply be referred to as predatory capitalism.
Read more....
Truthout | Op-Ed Sunday, 12 January 2014
The world is returning to the predatory laissez-faire capitalism that immiserated millions in the early 20th century and in spite of the fact it is predicated on neoliberal "voodoo economics," void of empirical reference.
Since the late 1970s, most capitalist economies have been marching to the tunes of neoliberalism - a term originally coined in the 1930s as a moderate alternative to classical liberalism but used in our own times to signify preference for a set of economic policies favoring privatization, deregulation and a "minimal" state. This is the version of neoliberalism developed by Milton Friedman and the so-called Chicago School and is usually associated with the Pinochet regime in Chile and later on with the so-called "free-market" policies of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. In more popular usage, it can simply be referred to as predatory capitalism.
Read more....
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Big money behind war: the military-industrial complex
More than 50 years after President Eisenhower's warning, Americans find themselves in perpetual war.
By Jonathan Turley
Al-Jazeera - 11 Jan 2014
In January 1961, US President Dwight D Eisenhower used his farewell address to warn the nation of what he viewed as one of its greatest threats: the military-industrial complex composed of military contractors and lobbyists perpetuating war.
Eisenhower warned that "an immense military establishment and a large arms industry" had emerged as a hidden force in US politics and that Americans "must not fail to comprehend its grave implications". The speech may have been Eisenhower's most courageous and prophetic moment. Fifty years and some later, Americans find themselves in what seems like perpetual war. No sooner do we draw down on operations in Iraq than leaders demand an intervention in Libya or Syria or Iran. While perpetual war constitutes perpetual losses for families, and ever expanding budgets, it also represents perpetual profits for a new and larger complex of business and government interests.
The new military-industrial complex is fuelled by a conveniently ambiguous and unseen enemy: the terrorist. Former President George W Bush and his aides insisted on calling counter-terrorism efforts a "war". This concerted effort by leaders like former Vice President Dick Cheney (himself the former CEO of defence-contractor Halliburton) was not some empty rhetorical exercise. Not only would a war maximise the inherent powers of the president, but it would maximise the budgets for military and homeland agencies.
Read more....
By Jonathan Turley
Al-Jazeera - 11 Jan 2014
In January 1961, US President Dwight D Eisenhower used his farewell address to warn the nation of what he viewed as one of its greatest threats: the military-industrial complex composed of military contractors and lobbyists perpetuating war.
Eisenhower warned that "an immense military establishment and a large arms industry" had emerged as a hidden force in US politics and that Americans "must not fail to comprehend its grave implications". The speech may have been Eisenhower's most courageous and prophetic moment. Fifty years and some later, Americans find themselves in what seems like perpetual war. No sooner do we draw down on operations in Iraq than leaders demand an intervention in Libya or Syria or Iran. While perpetual war constitutes perpetual losses for families, and ever expanding budgets, it also represents perpetual profits for a new and larger complex of business and government interests.
The new military-industrial complex is fuelled by a conveniently ambiguous and unseen enemy: the terrorist. Former President George W Bush and his aides insisted on calling counter-terrorism efforts a "war". This concerted effort by leaders like former Vice President Dick Cheney (himself the former CEO of defence-contractor Halliburton) was not some empty rhetorical exercise. Not only would a war maximise the inherent powers of the president, but it would maximise the budgets for military and homeland agencies.
Read more....
Writing to Win
By Tim Parks
The New York Review of Books - January 11, 2014
One of the great mysteries of the writer’s life is the transformation that occurs when he or she passes from being an unpublished to a published novelist. If you are looking for a textbook case, check out the career of Salman Rushdie. Here he is interviewed in the Paris Review in 2005:
Read more....
The New York Review of Books - January 11, 2014
One of the great mysteries of the writer’s life is the transformation that occurs when he or she passes from being an unpublished to a published novelist. If you are looking for a textbook case, check out the career of Salman Rushdie. Here he is interviewed in the Paris Review in 2005:
Many people in that very gifted generation I was a part of had found their ways as writers at a much younger age. It was as if they were zooming past me. Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes, William Boyd, Kazuo Ishiguro, Timothy Mo, Angela Carter, Bruce Chatwin—to name only a few. It was an extraordinary moment in English literature, and I was the one left in the starting gate, not knowing which way to run. That didn’t make it any easier.It’s a competition. Pick up a copy of Rushdie’s memoir Joseph Anton (the pseudonym that aligns Rushdie with two of the greatest writers of modern times) and you find that almost every relationship, whether it be with friends and rivals at school, with his wives and partners, with fellow writers, and finally with the world of Islam is seen in terms of winning and losing. And at the painful core of these struggles, at least early on, is “his repeated failures to be, or become, a decent publishable writer of fiction.” This is the competition of competitions. Publication. Eventually, Rushdie decides that this failure is tied up with an identity question and “slowly, from his ignominious place at the bottom of the literary barrel, he began to understand…”
Read more....
A Trip to the Farne Islands
The Atlantic - Jan 8, 2014
Off the coast of northeast England lies an archipelago of 16-28 islands (depending on the tide). Owned and protected by the British National Trust, the Farne Islands host 100,000 pairs of breeding seabirds, including more than 23 species. It is also home to one of Europe's largest grey seal colonies: About 4,000 adults give birth to 1,500 pups every autumn. Every five years, the National Trust carries out a census of the islands' population of puffins, and last year's survey showed there were almost 40,000 nesting pairs on the islands--an 8 percent rise from 2008.
To read more and see the photos....
Off the coast of northeast England lies an archipelago of 16-28 islands (depending on the tide). Owned and protected by the British National Trust, the Farne Islands host 100,000 pairs of breeding seabirds, including more than 23 species. It is also home to one of Europe's largest grey seal colonies: About 4,000 adults give birth to 1,500 pups every autumn. Every five years, the National Trust carries out a census of the islands' population of puffins, and last year's survey showed there were almost 40,000 nesting pairs on the islands--an 8 percent rise from 2008.
To read more and see the photos....
Tunisia’s Premier Resigns, Formally Ending His Party’s Rule
By CARLOTTA GALL
The New York Times - JAN. 9, 2014
Read more....
The New York Times - JAN. 9, 2014
TUNIS
— Tunisia’s Islamist prime minister resigned Thursday, ending the
two-year-old rule of his party, which has dominated the political scene
since the popular uprising here that initiated the Arab Spring.
The
departing prime minister, Ali Larayedh of the Ennahda Party, handed
power to a caretaker government that will oversee elections later in the
year.
The
resignation of the Ennahda government is a setback for the Islamists
who wanted to lead the country into elections, but is part of a
carefully calibrated political agreement with opposition parties to
break months of deadlock. Members of the National Constituent Assembly
had been stalling proceedings and demanding the resignation of the
government since the assassination of a secular politician, Mohammad
Brahmi, last July. It was the second assassination in six months, and
opposition groups blamed Mr. Larayedh for what they called his laxity
toward Islamist extremist threats.
Read more....
Friday, January 10, 2014
China's foreign trade up 7.6 pct in 2013
English.news.cn 2014-01-10
BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's total exports and imports surpassed 4 trillion U.S. dollars for the first time to reach 4.16 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013, up 7.6 percent year on year, customs data have shown.
The growth rate, however, is slightly lower than the government's full-year target of 8 percent, published in the beginning of 2013.
China's exports rose 7.9 percent year on year to 2.21 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013, while imports increased 7.3 percent to 1.95 trillion U.S. dollars, customs data revealed on Friday.
The foreign trade surplus widened to 259.75 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, an increase of 12.8 percent from a year earlier, said Zheng Yuesheng, spokesman for the General Administration of Customs.
In December, China's foreign trade value hit a new high of 389.8 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 6.2 percent from a year earlier.
Read more.....
BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's total exports and imports surpassed 4 trillion U.S. dollars for the first time to reach 4.16 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013, up 7.6 percent year on year, customs data have shown.
The growth rate, however, is slightly lower than the government's full-year target of 8 percent, published in the beginning of 2013.
China's exports rose 7.9 percent year on year to 2.21 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013, while imports increased 7.3 percent to 1.95 trillion U.S. dollars, customs data revealed on Friday.
The foreign trade surplus widened to 259.75 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, an increase of 12.8 percent from a year earlier, said Zheng Yuesheng, spokesman for the General Administration of Customs.
In December, China's foreign trade value hit a new high of 389.8 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 6.2 percent from a year earlier.
Read more.....
Study: Reading a Novel Changes Your Brain
College students experienced heightened connectivity in their left temporal cortexes after reading fiction.
By Julia Ryan
The Atlantic - Jan 9 2014
By Julia Ryan
The Atlantic - Jan 9 2014
Scientists have proven in the past that reading
stimulates many different parts of the brain. In a 2006 study, for
example, research subjects read the words “perfume” and “coffee,” and
the part of their brains devoted to the sense of smell lit up. While
these studies have focused
on brain activity while a person is reading, a new study suggests that
reading doesn’t just make a fleeting impression. It may make long-term
changes to to the brain.
The new study
out of Emory University looks at how the brain changes function and
structure over the course of reading a novel. Researchers asked 21 Emory
undergraduates to come in for fMRIs over 19 days. For the first five
days, researchers took baseline fMRIs of the students’ brains. Over the
following nine days, participants read 30 pages of the Robert Harris’s
novel Pompeii at night and then
completed a quiz to ensure they had completed the reading. They
underwent fMRIs the next morning. After finishing the novel,
participants continued to come in for fMRIs for five more days.
Past studies of the intersection between reading and brain
structure have focused on brain activity while reading: Participants
would read short stories while researchers took fMRIs of their brains.
This study, however, evaluated the possibility of a longer-lasting
impact from reading.
Wirelessly charged electric buses set for Milton Keynes
By Neil Bowdler
Science and technology reporter, BBC News - Jan. 8, 2014
The buses can run for longer by virtue of a wireless booster charge they receive at the start and end of the route from plates in the road.
The buses are the first of their kind to operate in the UK.
Inductive charging The fleet will run on the Number 7 route, which covers 25km (15 miles) between the Milton Keynes suburbs of Wolverton and Bletchley and carries an estimated 800,000 passengers a year.
After a night charging at the depot, the buses will receive booster charges throughout the day at the start and end of the route.
Read more...
Science and technology reporter, BBC News - Jan. 8, 2014
Electric buses which their developers say can run all day are set to begin service.
A fleet of eight new electric vehicles will operate along a busy route in Milton Keynes from late January. The buses can run for longer by virtue of a wireless booster charge they receive at the start and end of the route from plates in the road.
The buses are the first of their kind to operate in the UK.
Inductive charging The fleet will run on the Number 7 route, which covers 25km (15 miles) between the Milton Keynes suburbs of Wolverton and Bletchley and carries an estimated 800,000 passengers a year.
After a night charging at the depot, the buses will receive booster charges throughout the day at the start and end of the route.
Read more...
A Race for More Than the Mayor of Istanbul
By TIM ARANGO
The New York Times - JAN. 9, 2014
Read more....
The New York Times - JAN. 9, 2014
ISTANBUL
— Engin Bayrak owns a hardware store near the shores of the Golden Horn
waterway, where ferries connect the European and Asian sides of this
vast city. He has witnessed for himself the vast improvements in
services over the last decade as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party reshaped this city in
their image.
“Clean water, reliable electricity — things we take for granted now — we didn’t have this before,” Mr. Bayrak said.
Even so, he says, now that a corruption scandal has exposed the dark side of the city’s steady growth, he will no longer support Mr. Erdogan or his party, known by the initials of its name in Turkish, A.K.P., in coming elections.
Read more....
Thursday, January 9, 2014
How People in Muslim Countries Think Women Should Dress
One of the region's most liberal societies prefers one of the more conservative head coverings
By Olga Khazan
The Atlantic - Jan 9 2014, 10:14
Wearing some form of head covering in public is an important sign of
Islamic identity in many Muslim-majority countries, but there is
considerable variation in the extent to which women are expected (and
sometimes mandated) to cover up.
A recent Pew report, based on a survey conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research from 2011 to 2013 in seven majority-Muslim nations, reveals just how widely opinions about female attire differ in the region.
The researchers asked the respondents in each country, “Which one of these women is dressed most appropriately for public places?” while showing them this panel:
Read more...
By Olga Khazan
The Atlantic - Jan 9 2014, 10:14
A recent Pew report, based on a survey conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research from 2011 to 2013 in seven majority-Muslim nations, reveals just how widely opinions about female attire differ in the region.
The researchers asked the respondents in each country, “Which one of these women is dressed most appropriately for public places?” while showing them this panel:
Read more...
What is Wrong with the Social Sciences Today?
Roberto Mangabeira Unger –
By Social Science Bites | January 9, 2014
Roberto Unger has spent his academic life at Harvard writing about abstract areas of law, politics, philosophy, and teaching – among others – one Barack Obama. But he’s also had a life outside the ivory towers in politics. He wrote a political manifesto and was a minister in Brazil. His theoretical ideas are difficult to pigeonhole, but this one is clear: he’s a vociferous critic of the entire discipline of social science – at least as it is currently practiced.
In the latest edition to Social Science Bites, Roberto Unger discusses what is wrong with the social sciences today, arguing that they have degenerated into a pseudo-‐science.
To listen his talk....
By Social Science Bites | January 9, 2014
Roberto Unger has spent his academic life at Harvard writing about abstract areas of law, politics, philosophy, and teaching – among others – one Barack Obama. But he’s also had a life outside the ivory towers in politics. He wrote a political manifesto and was a minister in Brazil. His theoretical ideas are difficult to pigeonhole, but this one is clear: he’s a vociferous critic of the entire discipline of social science – at least as it is currently practiced.
In the latest edition to Social Science Bites, Roberto Unger discusses what is wrong with the social sciences today, arguing that they have degenerated into a pseudo-‐science.
To listen his talk....
From Beijing to Jerusalem
The creation of a mega-zone of conflict.
By ROBERT D. KAPLAN
Politico.com - January 08, 2014
As the events of the past week demonstrate, the Middle East has still not found a solution to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Melting away before our eyes is the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, in which the British and French carved out spheres of influence in the Levant, leading to the creation of Syria and Iraq. A terrorist Sunnistan has now emerged between the Lebanese city of Tripoli and the Iraqi cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, while a messy child’s finger-painting of different tribalized sovereignties defines Sunni and Shia areas of control between the eastern edge of the Mediterranean and the Iranian plateau. This happens even as a sprawling and fractious Kurdistan sinks tenuous roots atop the corpses of Baathist regimes. But Middle Eastern chaos is but prologue to the drama sweeping much of the temperate zone of Afro-Asia all the way to China. Indeed, so much else is going on beyond the Levant that the media overlooks: not necessarily violent, but increasingly and intensely interrelated. Understanding it all requires not a knowledge of Washington policy alternatives, but of classical geography.
Read more....
By ROBERT D. KAPLAN
Politico.com - January 08, 2014
As the events of the past week demonstrate, the Middle East has still not found a solution to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Melting away before our eyes is the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, in which the British and French carved out spheres of influence in the Levant, leading to the creation of Syria and Iraq. A terrorist Sunnistan has now emerged between the Lebanese city of Tripoli and the Iraqi cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, while a messy child’s finger-painting of different tribalized sovereignties defines Sunni and Shia areas of control between the eastern edge of the Mediterranean and the Iranian plateau. This happens even as a sprawling and fractious Kurdistan sinks tenuous roots atop the corpses of Baathist regimes. But Middle Eastern chaos is but prologue to the drama sweeping much of the temperate zone of Afro-Asia all the way to China. Indeed, so much else is going on beyond the Levant that the media overlooks: not necessarily violent, but increasingly and intensely interrelated. Understanding it all requires not a knowledge of Washington policy alternatives, but of classical geography.
Read more....
Jewish Surnames Explained
By Bennett Muraskin
The Slate - January 8, 2014
The Slate - January 8, 2014
Ashkenazic Jews were among the last Europeans to take family names. Some German-speaking Jews took last names as early as the 17th century, but the overwhelming majority of Jews lived in Eastern Europe and did not take last names until compelled to do so. The process began in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1787 and ended in Czarist Russia in 1844.
In attempting to build modern nation-states, the authorities insisted
that Jews take last names so that they could be taxed, drafted, and
educated (in that order of importance). For centuries, Jewish communal
leaders were responsible for collecting taxes from the Jewish population
on behalf of the government, and in some cases were responsible for
filling draft quotas. Education was traditionally an internal Jewish
affair.
Until this period, Jewish names generally changed with every
generation. For example, if Moses son of Mendel (Moyshe ben Mendel)
married Sarah daughter of Rebecca (Sora bas Rifke), and they had a boy
and named it Samuel (Shmuel), the child would be called Shmuel ben
Moyshe. If they had a girl and named her Feygele, she would be called
Feygele bas Sora.
The iParadox: how our smartphones are blocking our path to wisdom
Our generation is one addicted to technology, bloated with information and starved of wisdom, writes Arianna Huffington
Guardian Professional, Wednesday 8 January 2014
What leading executives need more than anything today is wisdom. And one of the things that makes it harder and harder to connect with our wisdom is our increasing dependence on technology. Our hyper-connectedness is the snake lurking in our digital Garden of Eden.
"People have a pathological relationship with their devices," said Kelly McGonigal, a psychologist who studies the science of self-control at Stanford's School of Medicine. "People feel not just addicted, but trapped." We are finding it harder and harder to unplug and renew ourselves.
Professor Mark Williams summed up the damage we're doing to ourselves: "What we know from the neuroscience - from looking at the brain scans of people that are always rushing around, who never taste their food, who are always going from one task to another without actually realising what they're doing - is that the emotional part of the brain that drives people is on high alert all the time…
To read more...
Guardian Professional, Wednesday 8 January 2014
What leading executives need more than anything today is wisdom. And one of the things that makes it harder and harder to connect with our wisdom is our increasing dependence on technology. Our hyper-connectedness is the snake lurking in our digital Garden of Eden.
"People have a pathological relationship with their devices," said Kelly McGonigal, a psychologist who studies the science of self-control at Stanford's School of Medicine. "People feel not just addicted, but trapped." We are finding it harder and harder to unplug and renew ourselves.
Professor Mark Williams summed up the damage we're doing to ourselves: "What we know from the neuroscience - from looking at the brain scans of people that are always rushing around, who never taste their food, who are always going from one task to another without actually realising what they're doing - is that the emotional part of the brain that drives people is on high alert all the time…
To read more...
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
How the NSA Almost Killed the Internet
By Steven Levy
Wired - 01.07.14
Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and the other tech titans have had to fight for their lives against their own government. An exclusive look inside their year from hell—and why the Internet will never be the same.
On June 6, 2013, Washington Post reporters called the communications departments of Apple, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and other Internet companies. The day before, a report in the British newspaper The Guardian had shocked Americans with evidence that the telecommunications giant Verizon had voluntarily handed a database of every call made on its network to the National Security Agency. The piece was by reporter Glenn Greenwald, and the information came from Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old IT consultant who had left the US with hundreds of thousands of documents detailing the NSA’s secret procedures.
Greenwald was the first but not the only journalist that Snowden reached out to. The Post’s Barton Gellman had also connected with him. Now, collaborating with documentary filmmaker and Snowden confidante Laura Poitras, he was going to extend the story to Silicon Valley. Gellman wanted to be the first to expose a top-secret NSA program called Prism. Snowden’s files indicated that some of the biggest companies on the web had granted the NSA and FBI direct access to their servers, giving the agencies the ability to grab a person’s audio, video, photos, emails, and documents. The government urged Gellman not to identify the firms involved, but Gellman thought it was important. “Naming those companies is what would make it real to Americans,” he says. Now a team of Post reporters was reaching out to those companies for comment.
To read more...
Wired - 01.07.14
Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and the other tech titans have had to fight for their lives against their own government. An exclusive look inside their year from hell—and why the Internet will never be the same.
On June 6, 2013, Washington Post reporters called the communications departments of Apple, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and other Internet companies. The day before, a report in the British newspaper The Guardian had shocked Americans with evidence that the telecommunications giant Verizon had voluntarily handed a database of every call made on its network to the National Security Agency. The piece was by reporter Glenn Greenwald, and the information came from Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old IT consultant who had left the US with hundreds of thousands of documents detailing the NSA’s secret procedures.
Greenwald was the first but not the only journalist that Snowden reached out to. The Post’s Barton Gellman had also connected with him. Now, collaborating with documentary filmmaker and Snowden confidante Laura Poitras, he was going to extend the story to Silicon Valley. Gellman wanted to be the first to expose a top-secret NSA program called Prism. Snowden’s files indicated that some of the biggest companies on the web had granted the NSA and FBI direct access to their servers, giving the agencies the ability to grab a person’s audio, video, photos, emails, and documents. The government urged Gellman not to identify the firms involved, but Gellman thought it was important. “Naming those companies is what would make it real to Americans,” he says. Now a team of Post reporters was reaching out to those companies for comment.
To read more...
The Last Gasp of American Democracy
By Chris Hedges
Truthdig - Monday, 06 January 2014
This is our last gasp as a democracy. The state’s wholesale intrusion into our lives and obliteration of privacy are now facts. And the challenge to us—one of the final ones, I suspect—is to rise up in outrage and halt this seizure of our rights to liberty and free expression. If we do not do so we will see ourselves become a nation of captives.
The public debates about the government’s measures to prevent terrorism, the character assassination of Edward Snowden and his supporters, the assurances by the powerful that no one is abusing the massive collection and storage of our electronic communications miss the point. Any state that has the capacity to monitor all its citizenry, any state that has the ability to snuff out factual public debate through control of information, any state that has the tools to instantly shut down all dissent is totalitarian. Our corporate state may not use this power today. But it will use it if it feels threatened by a population made restive by its corruption, ineptitude and mounting repression. The moment a popular movement arises—and one will arise—that truly confronts our corporate masters, our venal system of total surveillance will be thrust into overdrive.
To read more....
Truthdig - Monday, 06 January 2014
This is our last gasp as a democracy. The state’s wholesale intrusion into our lives and obliteration of privacy are now facts. And the challenge to us—one of the final ones, I suspect—is to rise up in outrage and halt this seizure of our rights to liberty and free expression. If we do not do so we will see ourselves become a nation of captives.
The public debates about the government’s measures to prevent terrorism, the character assassination of Edward Snowden and his supporters, the assurances by the powerful that no one is abusing the massive collection and storage of our electronic communications miss the point. Any state that has the capacity to monitor all its citizenry, any state that has the ability to snuff out factual public debate through control of information, any state that has the tools to instantly shut down all dissent is totalitarian. Our corporate state may not use this power today. But it will use it if it feels threatened by a population made restive by its corruption, ineptitude and mounting repression. The moment a popular movement arises—and one will arise—that truly confronts our corporate masters, our venal system of total surveillance will be thrust into overdrive.
To read more....
What Is the Common Good?
By Noam Chomsky
Truthout - Tuesday, 07 January 2014
This article is adapted from a Dewey Lecture by Noam Chomsky at Columbia University in New York on Dec. 6, 2013.
Humans are social beings, and the kind of creature that a person
becomes depends crucially on the social, cultural and institutional
circumstances of his life.
We are therefore led to inquire into the social arrangements that are conducive to people's rights and welfare, and to fulfilling their just aspirations - in brief, the common good.
For perspective I'd like to invoke what seem to me virtual truisms. They relate to an interesting category of ethical principles: those that are not only universal, in that they are virtually always professed, but also doubly universal, in that at the same time they are almost universally rejected in practice.
These range from very general principles, such as the truism that we should apply to ourselves the same standards we do to others (if not harsher ones), to more specific doctrines, such as a dedication to promoting democracy and human rights, which is proclaimed almost universally, even by the worst monsters - though the actual record is grim, across the spectrum.
To read more...
Truthout - Tuesday, 07 January 2014
This article is adapted from a Dewey Lecture by Noam Chomsky at Columbia University in New York on Dec. 6, 2013.
We are therefore led to inquire into the social arrangements that are conducive to people's rights and welfare, and to fulfilling their just aspirations - in brief, the common good.
For perspective I'd like to invoke what seem to me virtual truisms. They relate to an interesting category of ethical principles: those that are not only universal, in that they are virtually always professed, but also doubly universal, in that at the same time they are almost universally rejected in practice.
These range from very general principles, such as the truism that we should apply to ourselves the same standards we do to others (if not harsher ones), to more specific doctrines, such as a dedication to promoting democracy and human rights, which is proclaimed almost universally, even by the worst monsters - though the actual record is grim, across the spectrum.
To read more...
Nothing quite like a McAli’s burger...
Iran’s foodies opt for taste of America with a glut of high-end grill restaurants in Tehran
By Jason Rezaian
Tehran
The Independent - Monday 06 January 2014
At the Garage Grill in an upmarket Tehran neighbourhood, classic rock plays from the speakers, and photos of Paul Newman, James Dean and hot rods line the walls. It could be an old-time American diner, except that its hamburger prices reflect a wealthier target market here.
Next door, Dukkan Burger serves its fare on butcher paper, with Heinz ketchup and French’s mustard supplied on request. The clientele includes young women clutching designer handbags, arriving with their dates in European luxury cars.
Greasy burger joints have been part of Tehran’s fast-food landscape for decades, even in the years just after the 1979 Islamic revolution, when any symbol of US culture was denounced as an example of “Westoxification”. They were mostly in downtown working-class neighbourhoods, serving labourers or students watching their budgets.
To read more...
By Jason Rezaian
Tehran
The Independent - Monday 06 January 2014
At the Garage Grill in an upmarket Tehran neighbourhood, classic rock plays from the speakers, and photos of Paul Newman, James Dean and hot rods line the walls. It could be an old-time American diner, except that its hamburger prices reflect a wealthier target market here.
Next door, Dukkan Burger serves its fare on butcher paper, with Heinz ketchup and French’s mustard supplied on request. The clientele includes young women clutching designer handbags, arriving with their dates in European luxury cars.
Greasy burger joints have been part of Tehran’s fast-food landscape for decades, even in the years just after the 1979 Islamic revolution, when any symbol of US culture was denounced as an example of “Westoxification”. They were mostly in downtown working-class neighbourhoods, serving labourers or students watching their budgets.
To read more...
Pentagon looks to the next 25 years of robot warriors
By David Szondy
Gizmag.com - January 6, 2014
Last month, the US Pentagon pulled out its crystal ball and released a
report that presents a blueprint of what it sees as the future of
military robots over the next quarter of a century. It projects likely
developments in new unmanned technologies against a background of
shrinking budgets and shifting strategic policies, and how the dramatic
development and expansion of military unmanned systems requires
large-scale consolidation and development to exploit the technology’s
full potential.
To read more....
Gizmag.com - January 6, 2014
To read more....
Poverty vs. Democracy in America
50 years after Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty, tens of millions of second-class Americans are still legally or effectively disenfranchised.
By Daniel Weeks
The Atlantic - Jan 6 2014
Richard says he is done being a criminal—but the law isn't done with him. Ever since he completed his four-year prison sentence for armed robbery, the 28-year-old from Montgomery, Alabama, has been struggling to get back on his feet. He admits to making mistakes—"I dropped out of school, fell into the street life … did things I shouldn't do"—but now that he has served his time, he's asking for a second chance.
He says he can't understand why Alabama has a lifetime ban on people with felony convictions getting food stamps or public assistance, or why people like him don't have rights when it comes to housing or getting hired. Although his skills as an electrician are in high demand, he has so far been unable to find a job or a home on account of his record. But the biggest insult of all, he says, is his lack of civil rights in the land of Martin Luther King. Together with around four million other former felons nationwide—most of them impoverished—Richard is legally barred from going to the polls. "Some people don't believe in second chances," he says. "No way my voice can be heard."
To read more....
By Daniel Weeks
The Atlantic - Jan 6 2014
Richard says he is done being a criminal—but the law isn't done with him. Ever since he completed his four-year prison sentence for armed robbery, the 28-year-old from Montgomery, Alabama, has been struggling to get back on his feet. He admits to making mistakes—"I dropped out of school, fell into the street life … did things I shouldn't do"—but now that he has served his time, he's asking for a second chance.
He says he can't understand why Alabama has a lifetime ban on people with felony convictions getting food stamps or public assistance, or why people like him don't have rights when it comes to housing or getting hired. Although his skills as an electrician are in high demand, he has so far been unable to find a job or a home on account of his record. But the biggest insult of all, he says, is his lack of civil rights in the land of Martin Luther King. Together with around four million other former felons nationwide—most of them impoverished—Richard is legally barred from going to the polls. "Some people don't believe in second chances," he says. "No way my voice can be heard."
To read more....
Monday, January 6, 2014
Marketing to China’s Middle Class
By Li Hong
China Business Council - January, 2014
China’s rapidly rising middle class is too important for any multinational company to ignore. In 2012, nearly a quarter of the population—or 300 million people—had “significant discretionary spending power,” according to the consulting firm Dragonomics. And to tap into the total financial assets of China’s middle class—roughly ¥1.3 million ($213,900) per capita, according to Forbes China—retailers are paying increasing attention to what China’s middle class wants.
Yet to succeed in China, marketers must keep in mind a few unique characteristics of the country’s middle class. First, they have a strong preference for novelty, which leads them to constantly seek out the newest products available. Second, they are early adapters of new technology and have embraced social and digital media. Finally, while they enjoy the status conferred by luxury brands, they usually lack the emotional ties that would lead to brand loyalty.
To read more....
China Business Council - January, 2014
China’s rapidly rising middle class is too important for any multinational company to ignore. In 2012, nearly a quarter of the population—or 300 million people—had “significant discretionary spending power,” according to the consulting firm Dragonomics. And to tap into the total financial assets of China’s middle class—roughly ¥1.3 million ($213,900) per capita, according to Forbes China—retailers are paying increasing attention to what China’s middle class wants.
Yet to succeed in China, marketers must keep in mind a few unique characteristics of the country’s middle class. First, they have a strong preference for novelty, which leads them to constantly seek out the newest products available. Second, they are early adapters of new technology and have embraced social and digital media. Finally, while they enjoy the status conferred by luxury brands, they usually lack the emotional ties that would lead to brand loyalty.
To read more....
Born Digital, Projects Need Attention to Survive
By Jennifer Howard
The Chronicle of Higher Education - January 06, 2014
Publish a scholarly book and, absent a flood or other disaster, chances are it will last as long as a library has space for it—long enough to become part of the conversation in its field if it's notable enough. But create a pioneering work of digital scholarship, and how to preserve it becomes more of a challenge—in fact, one of several. While online scholarship often has dazzle—dynamic maps, data visualizations, or other features that invite interaction and exploration—it can have a harder time catching the eye of scholars who are used to arguments packaged in articles and monographs. Build it, and the experts won't necessarily come—at least not yet in great numbers. The first challenge is making sure people can get to the work when they do want to come. Analog or digital, no work will have much influence if it doesn't stick around to be cited or argued with. The technological advances that make digital-humanities work possible also put it at risk of obsolescence, as software and hardware decay or become outmoded. Somebody—or a team of somebodies, often based in academic libraries or digital-scholarship centers—has to conduct regular inspections and make sure that today's digital scholarship doesn't become tomorrow's digital junk.
To read more...
The Chronicle of Higher Education - January 06, 2014
Publish a scholarly book and, absent a flood or other disaster, chances are it will last as long as a library has space for it—long enough to become part of the conversation in its field if it's notable enough. But create a pioneering work of digital scholarship, and how to preserve it becomes more of a challenge—in fact, one of several. While online scholarship often has dazzle—dynamic maps, data visualizations, or other features that invite interaction and exploration—it can have a harder time catching the eye of scholars who are used to arguments packaged in articles and monographs. Build it, and the experts won't necessarily come—at least not yet in great numbers. The first challenge is making sure people can get to the work when they do want to come. Analog or digital, no work will have much influence if it doesn't stick around to be cited or argued with. The technological advances that make digital-humanities work possible also put it at risk of obsolescence, as software and hardware decay or become outmoded. Somebody—or a team of somebodies, often based in academic libraries or digital-scholarship centers—has to conduct regular inspections and make sure that today's digital scholarship doesn't become tomorrow's digital junk.
To read more...
Print Starts to Settle Into Its Niches
By DAVID CARR
The New York Times - January 5, 2014
Kevin Kelly is not a dumb guy — far from it actually. As the founding executive editor of Wired and one of the people who helped build The Well, among the earliest online communities, he has done a good job of seeing what is coming next for decades.
But last year, he had what sounded to me like a dumb idea. Mr. Kelly edits and owns Cool Tools, a website that writes about neat stuff and makes small money off referral revenue from Amazon when people proceed to buy some of those things. He decided to edit the thousands of reviews that had accrued over the last 10 years into a self-published print catalog — also called “Cool Tools” — which he would then sell for $39.99.
To read more....
The New York Times - January 5, 2014
Kevin Kelly is not a dumb guy — far from it actually. As the founding executive editor of Wired and one of the people who helped build The Well, among the earliest online communities, he has done a good job of seeing what is coming next for decades.
But last year, he had what sounded to me like a dumb idea. Mr. Kelly edits and owns Cool Tools, a website that writes about neat stuff and makes small money off referral revenue from Amazon when people proceed to buy some of those things. He decided to edit the thousands of reviews that had accrued over the last 10 years into a self-published print catalog — also called “Cool Tools” — which he would then sell for $39.99.
To read more....
Ronald Reagan and the occultist
The amazing story of the thinker behind his sunny optimism The Gipper's warm "morning in America" worldview was directly shaped by his reading of occult thinker Manly P. Hall
By Mitch Horowitz
Salon.com - Sunday, Jan 5, 2014
Ronald Reagan often spoke of America’s divine purpose and of a mysterious plan behind the nation’s founding. “You can call it mysticism if you want to,” he told the Conservative Political Action Conference in 1974, “but I have always believed that there was some divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage.” These were remarks to which Reagan often returned. He repeated them almost verbatim as president before a television audience of millions for the Statue of Liberty centenary on July 4, 1986.
When touching on such themes, Reagan echoed the work, and sometimes the phrasing, of occult scholar Manly P. Hall.
From the dawn of Hall’s career in the early 1920s until his death in 1990, the Los Angeles teacher wrote about America’s “secret destiny.” The United States, in Hall’s view, was a society that had been planned and founded by secret esoteric orders to spread enlightenment and liberty to the world.
To read more....
By Mitch Horowitz
Salon.com - Sunday, Jan 5, 2014
Ronald Reagan often spoke of America’s divine purpose and of a mysterious plan behind the nation’s founding. “You can call it mysticism if you want to,” he told the Conservative Political Action Conference in 1974, “but I have always believed that there was some divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage.” These were remarks to which Reagan often returned. He repeated them almost verbatim as president before a television audience of millions for the Statue of Liberty centenary on July 4, 1986.
When touching on such themes, Reagan echoed the work, and sometimes the phrasing, of occult scholar Manly P. Hall.
From the dawn of Hall’s career in the early 1920s until his death in 1990, the Los Angeles teacher wrote about America’s “secret destiny.” The United States, in Hall’s view, was a society that had been planned and founded by secret esoteric orders to spread enlightenment and liberty to the world.
To read more....
The Dark Side of Globalization
Why Seattle's 1999 Protesters Were Right The WTO demonstrators were the "Occupy" movement of the late-20th century—mocked, maligned, and mostly right.
By Noah Smith
The Atlantic - Jan 6 2014
In 1999, my friend moved to Seattle, where he was hit with rubber bullets, tear-gassed in the face, and nearly arrested by police. He had joined the famous protests of the WTO Ministerial Conference, widely known as the Seattle Protests. The Occupy Wall Street of their time, they focused on globalization rather than the excesses of finance. And, quite like the Occupy Wall Street of their time, they were often mocked by critics as silly, aimless, and overly hand-wringy about the future.
The organizers were a hodgepodge of groups—unions worried about competition from cheap foreign labor, environmentalists worried about the outsourcing of polluting activities, consumer protection groups worried about unsafe imports, labor rights groups worried about bad working conditions in other countries, and leftists of various stripes simply venting their anger at capitalism.
To read more....
By Noah Smith
The Atlantic - Jan 6 2014
In 1999, my friend moved to Seattle, where he was hit with rubber bullets, tear-gassed in the face, and nearly arrested by police. He had joined the famous protests of the WTO Ministerial Conference, widely known as the Seattle Protests. The Occupy Wall Street of their time, they focused on globalization rather than the excesses of finance. And, quite like the Occupy Wall Street of their time, they were often mocked by critics as silly, aimless, and overly hand-wringy about the future.
The organizers were a hodgepodge of groups—unions worried about competition from cheap foreign labor, environmentalists worried about the outsourcing of polluting activities, consumer protection groups worried about unsafe imports, labor rights groups worried about bad working conditions in other countries, and leftists of various stripes simply venting their anger at capitalism.
To read more....
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Post-Colonialism: Why the U.S. Should Help Govern South Sudan
We can't fully address the young country's failures with more peacekeepers or a power-sharing deal. Here's why Washington should launch a joint venture with Juba. G. Pascal Zachary
The Atlantic - Jan 3 2014
Ahead of peace talks to resolve horrific violence in South Sudan, which has claimed more than 1,000 lives in under three weeks, Gadet Koang Deng proposed an unconventional solution to the young country’s chronic instability. “We should be under United Nations supervision for at least 10 years to teach our police to be proportionate, our army to behave,” Deng, one of 200,000 South Sudanese displaced by the fighting, told a New York Times reporter.
It’s a recommendation international mediators calling for “national reconciliation” would do well to heed. As negotiations get underway in Ethiopia, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment for Sub-Saharan Africa. The painstaking formation of South Sudan in 2011 ended one of the longest civil wars in history, which raged for decades within Khartoum-led greater Sudan. The Bush and Obama administrations, which played a leading role in that effort, long feared that tensions over oil resources would drive Sudan to strangle the infant state to its south. Now, instead, strife within South Sudan threatens to wipe out the diplomatic and political achievement of creating the new nation in the first place.
To read more...
The Atlantic - Jan 3 2014
Ahead of peace talks to resolve horrific violence in South Sudan, which has claimed more than 1,000 lives in under three weeks, Gadet Koang Deng proposed an unconventional solution to the young country’s chronic instability. “We should be under United Nations supervision for at least 10 years to teach our police to be proportionate, our army to behave,” Deng, one of 200,000 South Sudanese displaced by the fighting, told a New York Times reporter.
It’s a recommendation international mediators calling for “national reconciliation” would do well to heed. As negotiations get underway in Ethiopia, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment for Sub-Saharan Africa. The painstaking formation of South Sudan in 2011 ended one of the longest civil wars in history, which raged for decades within Khartoum-led greater Sudan. The Bush and Obama administrations, which played a leading role in that effort, long feared that tensions over oil resources would drive Sudan to strangle the infant state to its south. Now, instead, strife within South Sudan threatens to wipe out the diplomatic and political achievement of creating the new nation in the first place.
To read more...
Hyping Artificial Intelligence, Yet Again
By Gary Marcus
The New Yorker - January 1, 2014
According to the Times, true artificial intelligence is just around the corner. A year ago, the paper ran a front-page story about the wonders of new technologies, including deep learning, a neurally-inspired A.I. technique for statistical analysis. Then, among others, came an article about how I.B.M.’s Watson had been repurposed into a chef, followed by an upbeat post about quantum computation. On Sunday, the paper ran a front-page story about “biologically inspired processors,” “brainlike computers” that learn from experience.
This past Sunday’s story, by John Markoff, announced that “computers have entered the age when they are able to learn from their own mistakes, a development that is about to turn the digital world on its head.” The deep-learning story, from a year ago, also by Markoff, told us of “advances in an artificial intelligence technology that can recognize patterns offer the possibility of machines that perform human activities like seeing, listening and thinking.” For fans of “Battlestar Galactica,” it sounds like exciting stuff.
To read more....
The New Yorker - January 1, 2014
According to the Times, true artificial intelligence is just around the corner. A year ago, the paper ran a front-page story about the wonders of new technologies, including deep learning, a neurally-inspired A.I. technique for statistical analysis. Then, among others, came an article about how I.B.M.’s Watson had been repurposed into a chef, followed by an upbeat post about quantum computation. On Sunday, the paper ran a front-page story about “biologically inspired processors,” “brainlike computers” that learn from experience.
This past Sunday’s story, by John Markoff, announced that “computers have entered the age when they are able to learn from their own mistakes, a development that is about to turn the digital world on its head.” The deep-learning story, from a year ago, also by Markoff, told us of “advances in an artificial intelligence technology that can recognize patterns offer the possibility of machines that perform human activities like seeing, listening and thinking.” For fans of “Battlestar Galactica,” it sounds like exciting stuff.
To read more....
The Jewish State in Question
By Bernard Avishai
The New Yorker - January 2, 2014
Jodi Rudoren writes in today’s Times that the great sticking point for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations is Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state,” or as “the nation-state of the Jewish people”—something along these lines. Rudoren asks, “Can Israel preserve its identity as a Jewish democratic state while also providing equal rights and opportunities to citizens of other faiths and backgrounds? With a largely secular population, who interprets Jewish law and custom for public institutions and public spaces? Is Judaism a religion, an ethnicity or both?”
Netanyahu’s demand has at least three layers to it. The first is symbolic, without practical significance—understandable, but superfluous. The second is partly symbolic, but is meant to have future practical significance; it is contentious but resolvable. The third, however, is legal: it has great practical significance, and is, for any Palestinian or, for that matter, Israeli democrat, deplorable. We are no longer debating resolutions at fin-de-siècle Zionist congresses. Making laws requires settled definitions, and what’s being settled in Israel is increasingly dangerous. Netanyahu’s demand is a symptom of the disease that presents itself as the cure.
To read more....
The New Yorker - January 2, 2014
Jodi Rudoren writes in today’s Times that the great sticking point for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations is Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state,” or as “the nation-state of the Jewish people”—something along these lines. Rudoren asks, “Can Israel preserve its identity as a Jewish democratic state while also providing equal rights and opportunities to citizens of other faiths and backgrounds? With a largely secular population, who interprets Jewish law and custom for public institutions and public spaces? Is Judaism a religion, an ethnicity or both?”
Netanyahu’s demand has at least three layers to it. The first is symbolic, without practical significance—understandable, but superfluous. The second is partly symbolic, but is meant to have future practical significance; it is contentious but resolvable. The third, however, is legal: it has great practical significance, and is, for any Palestinian or, for that matter, Israeli democrat, deplorable. We are no longer debating resolutions at fin-de-siècle Zionist congresses. Making laws requires settled definitions, and what’s being settled in Israel is increasingly dangerous. Netanyahu’s demand is a symptom of the disease that presents itself as the cure.
To read more....
What's Ahead in Politics in 2014
The midterm election year is shaping up around a few broad themes, including ongoing Republican civil war and the pitched partisan battle over Obamacare.
By Molly Ball
The Atlantic - Jan 3 2014
To read more...
By Molly Ball
The Atlantic - Jan 3 2014
And lo, another year dawns on the barren
landscape of the American polity, that vast, frigid tundra full of
people yelling at each other. The year begins on an interesting note:
Congress will soon return to Washington for the first time since passing
a bipartisan budget agreement last month; the new mayor of New York
spent his recent inauguration forcefully reiterating his commitment to a
progressive crusade against inequality; and Americans finally began getting health insurance under the reform law passed in contentious circumstances in 2010.
The themes thus appear staked for the
midterm-election year ahead. A Congress perhaps slightly thawed (though
it would be wise to keep expectations low); a left newly invigorated;
and a continuing partisan battle over the domestic reform that will be
central to President Obama’s legacy, for better or for worse. So what
should we expect from politics in 2014? Here’s an impressionistic
breakdown of the areas where we’ll likely see these broader themes play
out.
To read more...
State-Wrecked: The Corruption of Capitalism in America
By DAVID A. STOCKMAN
The New York Times -March 30, 2013
The Dow Jones and Standard & Poor’s 500 indexes reached record highs on Thursday, having completely erased the losses since the stock market’s last peak, in 2007. But instead of cheering, we should be very afraid.
To read more....
The New York Times -March 30, 2013
The Dow Jones and Standard & Poor’s 500 indexes reached record highs on Thursday, having completely erased the losses since the stock market’s last peak, in 2007. But instead of cheering, we should be very afraid.
Over the last 13 years, the stock market has twice crashed and touched
off a recession: American households lost $5 trillion in the 2000
dot-com bust and more than $7 trillion in the 2007 housing crash. Sooner
or later — within a few years, I predict — this latest Wall Street
bubble, inflated by an egregious flood of phony money from the Federal
Reserve rather than real economic gains, will explode, too.
Since the S.&P. 500 first reached its current level, in March 2000,
the mad money printers at the Federal Reserve have expanded their
balance sheet sixfold (to $3.2 trillion from $500 billion). Yet during
that stretch, economic output has grown by an average of 1.7 percent a
year (the slowest since the Civil War); real business investment has
crawled forward at only 0.8 percent per year; and the payroll job count
has crept up at a negligible 0.1 percent annually. Real median family
income growth has dropped 8 percent, and the number of full-time middle
class jobs, 6 percent. The real net worth of the “bottom” 90 percent has
dropped by one-fourth. The number of food stamp and disability aid
recipients has more than doubled, to 59 million, about one in five
Americans.
To read more....
Can We Have Capitalism Without Racism?
The Invisible Chains of Debt and the Catastrophic Loss of African American Wealth Can we finally turn the corner on colorblind racism in 2014?
By Pamela Brown
PamBrown15.wordpress.com / January 4, 2014
Years after Thomas Jefferson’s famous words “all men are created equal” began to ring as a call to conscience, he himself must have felt every bit of their hollowness. Polish Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko bequeathed Jefferson enough money to free his slaves, as well as to set them off with land and farming equipment of their own, but Jefferson refused this gift. Instead, he died with a debt hanging over Monticello – a kind of debt that he was the first to incur through monetizing his slaves for use as collateral for the loan to build his estate (Weincek 2012: 96). The slave families, who resided on Jefferson’s estate as intact families, were separated and sold to pay the outstanding debt such that the estate could be passed down to its rightful heir. In spite of words we have no reason not to believe were heartfelt, and in spite of fathering six black children, Jefferson was not able to rise to the call of his words in the end, leaving as mixed a legacy as the American history that has followed. And in spite of generations of black descendants, no reparation has ever been paid to them; they remain a forgotten part of this legacy. As the story is most commonly told, there is only mention made to a legitimate debt paid with the bodies, blood and breath of Jefferson slaves, but no mention of any owing to them. Unfortunately, this telling of Jefferson’s story not only exposes the power dynamics of the past, but also discloses a fundamental understanding of the world that continues to rear its ugly head today.
To read more...
By Pamela Brown
PamBrown15.wordpress.com / January 4, 2014
Years after Thomas Jefferson’s famous words “all men are created equal” began to ring as a call to conscience, he himself must have felt every bit of their hollowness. Polish Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko bequeathed Jefferson enough money to free his slaves, as well as to set them off with land and farming equipment of their own, but Jefferson refused this gift. Instead, he died with a debt hanging over Monticello – a kind of debt that he was the first to incur through monetizing his slaves for use as collateral for the loan to build his estate (Weincek 2012: 96). The slave families, who resided on Jefferson’s estate as intact families, were separated and sold to pay the outstanding debt such that the estate could be passed down to its rightful heir. In spite of words we have no reason not to believe were heartfelt, and in spite of fathering six black children, Jefferson was not able to rise to the call of his words in the end, leaving as mixed a legacy as the American history that has followed. And in spite of generations of black descendants, no reparation has ever been paid to them; they remain a forgotten part of this legacy. As the story is most commonly told, there is only mention made to a legitimate debt paid with the bodies, blood and breath of Jefferson slaves, but no mention of any owing to them. Unfortunately, this telling of Jefferson’s story not only exposes the power dynamics of the past, but also discloses a fundamental understanding of the world that continues to rear its ugly head today.
To read more...
Reeducation through Marxism
By Lin Meilian
Global Times | 2014-1-1
Perhaps the best way to get a better understanding of the Marxist view of journalism is to think of Marx himself as a journalist, and not as a political thinker, Zhu Songmei, a journalism student of Tsinghua University said while expressing her view on the controversial Marxist ideology class now being made compulsory for all journalists in China.
"It is necessary to understand Marxism as that's what we promote, but I doubt if it is that useful in real life," Zhu told the Global Times, adding that she wants to join a mainstream media outlet such as the People's Daily or Xinhua News Agency after graduation.
In future, students of China's top 10 journalism schools including Fudan University and Renmin University of China will have the chance to reach a closer understanding of Marx's principle that "Party publications are weapons of the Party."
It is part of reform measures for journalism schools that aim to boost education on the Marxist view of journalism and cultivate outstanding journalists for the Party, according to a meeting held by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Ministry of Education on December 20. The move follows an earlier announcement that some 250,000 working journalists will, for the first time, have to take a Marxism test to obtain or renew their press cards.
Some Chinese observers speculate that the probable reason behind these moves is that authorities believe that Western ideology prevails in journalism education, and the Internet has weakened their control of information.
To read more...
Global Times | 2014-1-1
Perhaps the best way to get a better understanding of the Marxist view of journalism is to think of Marx himself as a journalist, and not as a political thinker, Zhu Songmei, a journalism student of Tsinghua University said while expressing her view on the controversial Marxist ideology class now being made compulsory for all journalists in China.
"It is necessary to understand Marxism as that's what we promote, but I doubt if it is that useful in real life," Zhu told the Global Times, adding that she wants to join a mainstream media outlet such as the People's Daily or Xinhua News Agency after graduation.
In future, students of China's top 10 journalism schools including Fudan University and Renmin University of China will have the chance to reach a closer understanding of Marx's principle that "Party publications are weapons of the Party."
It is part of reform measures for journalism schools that aim to boost education on the Marxist view of journalism and cultivate outstanding journalists for the Party, according to a meeting held by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Ministry of Education on December 20. The move follows an earlier announcement that some 250,000 working journalists will, for the first time, have to take a Marxism test to obtain or renew their press cards.
Some Chinese observers speculate that the probable reason behind these moves is that authorities believe that Western ideology prevails in journalism education, and the Internet has weakened their control of information.
To read more...
The Fragmentary, Mystical Thought of Walter Benjamin Presented by Two Experimental Films
Presented by Two Experimental Films in Film, Philosophy
The Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence
In some jobs, being in touch with emotions is essential. In others, it seems to be a detriment. And like any skill, being able to read people can be used for good or evil.
By Adam Grant
The Atlantic - Jan 2 2014
Some of the greatest moments in human history were fueled by emotional intelligence. When Martin Luther King, Jr. presented his dream, he chose language that would stir the hearts of his audience. “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation” to liberty, King thundered, “American has given the Negro people a bad check.” He promised that a land “sweltering with the heat of oppression” could be “transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice,” and envisioned a future in which “on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
Delivering this electrifying message required emotional intelligence—the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions. Dr. King demonstrated remarkable skill in managing his own emotions and in sparking emotions that moved his audience to action. As his speechwriter Clarence Jones reflected, King delivered “a perfectly balanced outcry of reason and emotion, of anger and hope. His tone of pained indignation matched that note for note.”
To read more....
By Adam Grant
The Atlantic - Jan 2 2014
Some of the greatest moments in human history were fueled by emotional intelligence. When Martin Luther King, Jr. presented his dream, he chose language that would stir the hearts of his audience. “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation” to liberty, King thundered, “American has given the Negro people a bad check.” He promised that a land “sweltering with the heat of oppression” could be “transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice,” and envisioned a future in which “on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
Delivering this electrifying message required emotional intelligence—the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions. Dr. King demonstrated remarkable skill in managing his own emotions and in sparking emotions that moved his audience to action. As his speechwriter Clarence Jones reflected, King delivered “a perfectly balanced outcry of reason and emotion, of anger and hope. His tone of pained indignation matched that note for note.”
To read more....
Four of China's military regions will be merged into two
Staff Reporter
Want China Times - 2014-01-02
Instant messaging app WeChat has helped Chinese internet giant Tencent become the first company to secure a position in the mobile internet market, but it is expected to face greater competition from rivals, the Shanghai-based First Financial Daily reports.
One of the chief rivals is the Alibaba Group. An employee of the e-commerce business leader told the newspaper that the company was planning to target WeChat in four areas — telecom services, its own IM app Laiwang, vendors on its online platforms, and through the celebrities using the Sina Weibo microblogging service.
Alibaba officials declined to comment on such a plan, but the company has invested heavily in its Laiwang app, which is aimed at rivaling WeChat, the newspaper said.
To read more...
Want China Times - 2014-01-02
Instant messaging app WeChat has helped Chinese internet giant Tencent become the first company to secure a position in the mobile internet market, but it is expected to face greater competition from rivals, the Shanghai-based First Financial Daily reports.
One of the chief rivals is the Alibaba Group. An employee of the e-commerce business leader told the newspaper that the company was planning to target WeChat in four areas — telecom services, its own IM app Laiwang, vendors on its online platforms, and through the celebrities using the Sina Weibo microblogging service.
Alibaba officials declined to comment on such a plan, but the company has invested heavily in its Laiwang app, which is aimed at rivaling WeChat, the newspaper said.
To read more...
How Language Seems To Shape One's View Of The World
By Alan Yu
National Public Radio - January 02, 2014
Lera Boroditsky once did a simple experiment: She asked people to close their eyes and point southeast. A room of distinguished professors in the U.S. pointed in almost every possible direction, whereas 5-year-old Australian aboriginal girls always got it right.
She says . Boroditsky, an associate professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego, says the Australian aboriginal language doesn't use words like left or right. It uses compass points, so they say things like "that girl to the east of you is my sister."
If you want to learn another language and become fluent, you may have to change the way you behave in small but sometimes significant ways, specifically how you sort things into categories and what you notice.
Researchers are starting to study how those changes happen, says Aneta Pavlenko, a . She studies bilingualism and is the author of .
To read more....
National Public Radio - January 02, 2014
Lera Boroditsky once did a simple experiment: She asked people to close their eyes and point southeast. A room of distinguished professors in the U.S. pointed in almost every possible direction, whereas 5-year-old Australian aboriginal girls always got it right.
She says . Boroditsky, an associate professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego, says the Australian aboriginal language doesn't use words like left or right. It uses compass points, so they say things like "that girl to the east of you is my sister."
If you want to learn another language and become fluent, you may have to change the way you behave in small but sometimes significant ways, specifically how you sort things into categories and what you notice.
Researchers are starting to study how those changes happen, says Aneta Pavlenko, a . She studies bilingualism and is the author of .
To read more....
China: Can Xi Jinping’s ‘Chinese Dream’ Vision Be Realized?
Xi Jinping China's Xi Jinping
By D. S. Rajan
Eurasiareview - January 4, 2014
Essentially, the “Chinese Dream” vision reflects the aspiration of the supreme leader Xi Jinping to transform the People’s Republic of China (PRC) into a strong and fully modernized nation by 2050, with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) playing a leading role.
The paper finds that the situation in which reforms, a sure means to realize the vision, are progressing without a matching political liberalization programme in the country. This may prove to be a major handicap to realization of the dream. It also traces the implications of the dream for the Chinese society, military modernization and the PRC’s foreign policy. –
“Realizing the Chinese dream of the great national rejuvenation would mean China’s becoming a prosperous country, a revitalized nation, and having happy people”
– Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party- CCP, 19 August 2013
To read more....
By D. S. Rajan
Eurasiareview - January 4, 2014
Essentially, the “Chinese Dream” vision reflects the aspiration of the supreme leader Xi Jinping to transform the People’s Republic of China (PRC) into a strong and fully modernized nation by 2050, with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) playing a leading role.
The paper finds that the situation in which reforms, a sure means to realize the vision, are progressing without a matching political liberalization programme in the country. This may prove to be a major handicap to realization of the dream. It also traces the implications of the dream for the Chinese society, military modernization and the PRC’s foreign policy. –
“Realizing the Chinese dream of the great national rejuvenation would mean China’s becoming a prosperous country, a revitalized nation, and having happy people”
– Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party- CCP, 19 August 2013
To read more....
A Ramshackle Modernity
‘The Time Regulation Institute,’ by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
By MARTIN RIKER
The New York Times - January 3, 2014
We’re having a particularly good season for literary discoveries from the past, with recent publications of Volumes 1 and 2 of Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq’s “Leg Over Leg” (1855), the marathon translation of Giacomo Leopardi’s 2,600-page “Zibaldone” (1898) and now “The Time Regulation Institute” (1962), the second great novel from Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar. They arrive, such books, in a category all their own, in one sense new, in another sense old, as if to remind us that this thing called literature is much larger than our own little moment.
Tanpinar (1901-62) was a formative figure in modern Turkish letters, although 50 years after his death, his career in English is just getting off the ground. His monumental “A Mind at Peace” (1949), which Orhan Pamuk has called “the greatest novel ever written about Istanbul,” found its way into English in 2008. Set just before World War II, it conjures on a vast scale the world of Istanbul during the early Turkish Republic, a time when modern Western values were abruptly imposed upon a people and a culture unprepared for them. The ramshackle modernity that resulted, in which Ottoman history and tradition were largely written over, became Tanpinar’s lasting subject: the “void,” as he once described it, of a people “suspended between two lives.”
To read more.....
By MARTIN RIKER
The New York Times - January 3, 2014
We’re having a particularly good season for literary discoveries from the past, with recent publications of Volumes 1 and 2 of Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq’s “Leg Over Leg” (1855), the marathon translation of Giacomo Leopardi’s 2,600-page “Zibaldone” (1898) and now “The Time Regulation Institute” (1962), the second great novel from Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar. They arrive, such books, in a category all their own, in one sense new, in another sense old, as if to remind us that this thing called literature is much larger than our own little moment.
Tanpinar (1901-62) was a formative figure in modern Turkish letters, although 50 years after his death, his career in English is just getting off the ground. His monumental “A Mind at Peace” (1949), which Orhan Pamuk has called “the greatest novel ever written about Istanbul,” found its way into English in 2008. Set just before World War II, it conjures on a vast scale the world of Istanbul during the early Turkish Republic, a time when modern Western values were abruptly imposed upon a people and a culture unprepared for them. The ramshackle modernity that resulted, in which Ottoman history and tradition were largely written over, became Tanpinar’s lasting subject: the “void,” as he once described it, of a people “suspended between two lives.”
To read more.....
Drones Will Be Tested in 10 US States - Is Yours One?
By Kristina Chew
Truthout - Sunday, 05 January 2014
At least ten states will be sites for testing drones — unmanned aircraft — in the next couple of years, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) announced on Monday. Six institutions have been authorized to operate test locations for the use of drones and for studying how they will interact with air traffic systems.
The drones are not the Predators, Global Hawks or other government-operated long-range planes but aircraft with potentially commercial and other uses. For instance, a Styrofoam helicopter powered by lighter fluid could be sent over fields to detect agricultural pests. An electric helicopter could be dispatched to the roof of a building to check on a water tower.
To read more....
Truthout - Sunday, 05 January 2014
At least ten states will be sites for testing drones — unmanned aircraft — in the next couple of years, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) announced on Monday. Six institutions have been authorized to operate test locations for the use of drones and for studying how they will interact with air traffic systems.
The drones are not the Predators, Global Hawks or other government-operated long-range planes but aircraft with potentially commercial and other uses. For instance, a Styrofoam helicopter powered by lighter fluid could be sent over fields to detect agricultural pests. An electric helicopter could be dispatched to the roof of a building to check on a water tower.
To read more....
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Emergent Public Discourse and the Constitutional Debate in Tunisia: A Critical Narrative Analysis
By Nathaniel Greenberg
Telos Press - Monday, December 30, 2013
The appointment of the Minister of Industry, the so-called “technocrat” Mehdi Jomaa, to form a caretaker government in Tunisia on the eve of the revolution’s third anniversary, threw into stark relief the country’s complex struggle for democracy following the January 14 revolution. The announcement came in the wake of the Islamist party Ennahdha’s sudden renunciation of the Prime Minister’s office in September, ostensibly a sign of cooperation in the face of mounting criticism surrounding the government’s failure to investigate the assassinations of two political opposition figures. A number of Western media outlets, including the New York Times, quickly absorbed the narrative advanced by Ennahdha’s leader and spiritual guide Rachid al-Ghannouchi referring to the appointment of Jomaa as a “yielding of power.” This narrative of concession, however, elides the fact that neither of the Parliament’s largest secular opposition parties supported the vote to appoint Jomaa, or, for that matter, that the vote failed to achieve a majority.
To read more...
Telos Press - Monday, December 30, 2013
The appointment of the Minister of Industry, the so-called “technocrat” Mehdi Jomaa, to form a caretaker government in Tunisia on the eve of the revolution’s third anniversary, threw into stark relief the country’s complex struggle for democracy following the January 14 revolution. The announcement came in the wake of the Islamist party Ennahdha’s sudden renunciation of the Prime Minister’s office in September, ostensibly a sign of cooperation in the face of mounting criticism surrounding the government’s failure to investigate the assassinations of two political opposition figures. A number of Western media outlets, including the New York Times, quickly absorbed the narrative advanced by Ennahdha’s leader and spiritual guide Rachid al-Ghannouchi referring to the appointment of Jomaa as a “yielding of power.” This narrative of concession, however, elides the fact that neither of the Parliament’s largest secular opposition parties supported the vote to appoint Jomaa, or, for that matter, that the vote failed to achieve a majority.
To read more...
Goodbye, Cameras
By Craig Mod
The New Yorker - December 31, 2013
This past October, just before the leaves changed, I went on a six-day hike through the mountains of Wakayama, in central Japan, tracing the path of an ancient imperial pilgrimage called the Kumano Kodo. I took along a powerful camera, believing, as I always have, that it would be an indispensable creative tool. But I returned with the unshakeable feeling that I’m done with cameras, and that most of us are, if we weren’t already.
My passion for cameras began when I was a teen-ager, but I took to them in earnest in 2000, when I arrived in Tokyo as a college student. Back then, the city was rife with used-camera shops overflowing with rows of dusty, greasy, and dented bodies and lenses. I spent several lazy weekday afternoons wandering through the stores, precociously bugging the grouchy owners about the benefits of one camera over another. Deep down, I wanted a classic Leica M3, which cost fifteen hundred dollars at the time, though a choice lens could easily double the price. Constrained by a student’s budget, I chose a used Nikon 8008 body, which the Times had named “the camera of the future” in 1988. I paired it with a cheap 50-mm. lens, then set off for a month hitchhiking the entire breadth of Japan, from Tokyo to Fukuoka, filling my backpack with delicately exposed rolls of film.
To read more...
The New Yorker - December 31, 2013
This past October, just before the leaves changed, I went on a six-day hike through the mountains of Wakayama, in central Japan, tracing the path of an ancient imperial pilgrimage called the Kumano Kodo. I took along a powerful camera, believing, as I always have, that it would be an indispensable creative tool. But I returned with the unshakeable feeling that I’m done with cameras, and that most of us are, if we weren’t already.
My passion for cameras began when I was a teen-ager, but I took to them in earnest in 2000, when I arrived in Tokyo as a college student. Back then, the city was rife with used-camera shops overflowing with rows of dusty, greasy, and dented bodies and lenses. I spent several lazy weekday afternoons wandering through the stores, precociously bugging the grouchy owners about the benefits of one camera over another. Deep down, I wanted a classic Leica M3, which cost fifteen hundred dollars at the time, though a choice lens could easily double the price. Constrained by a student’s budget, I chose a used Nikon 8008 body, which the Times had named “the camera of the future” in 1988. I paired it with a cheap 50-mm. lens, then set off for a month hitchhiking the entire breadth of Japan, from Tokyo to Fukuoka, filling my backpack with delicately exposed rolls of film.
To read more...
A Glimpse Inside Xi Jinping’s Office
China Real Time - January 2, 2014
China’s president, Xi Jinping, may not have a computer on his desk, but touchtone telephones and pencils are in ample supply for the Communist Party chief.
In delivering a nationally broadcast New Year’s greeting, party leaders provided the Chinese public a carefully scripted first glimpse into what state media said was Mr. Xi’s office.
The four-minute address from Mr. Xi was far from a fireside chat. He made use of favored party slogans like “common development” and “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Mr. Xi reiterated a promise to undertake sensitive and long-awaited economic reforms.
Chinese leaders have delivered New Year’s addresses before; Hu Jintao stood stiffly at a lectern. So putting Mr. Xi behind a desk with books and photos on the wall marks a new type of image-crafting. Casting Mr. Xi as a patriot and a family man seemed foremost. Video of the address shows a painting of the Great Wall and a Chinese flag directly behind the large wooden desk. Six photographs can be seen in the bookcases behind and next to it.
To read more...
China’s president, Xi Jinping, may not have a computer on his desk, but touchtone telephones and pencils are in ample supply for the Communist Party chief.
In delivering a nationally broadcast New Year’s greeting, party leaders provided the Chinese public a carefully scripted first glimpse into what state media said was Mr. Xi’s office.
The four-minute address from Mr. Xi was far from a fireside chat. He made use of favored party slogans like “common development” and “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Mr. Xi reiterated a promise to undertake sensitive and long-awaited economic reforms.
Chinese leaders have delivered New Year’s addresses before; Hu Jintao stood stiffly at a lectern. So putting Mr. Xi behind a desk with books and photos on the wall marks a new type of image-crafting. Casting Mr. Xi as a patriot and a family man seemed foremost. Video of the address shows a painting of the Great Wall and a Chinese flag directly behind the large wooden desk. Six photographs can be seen in the bookcases behind and next to it.
To read more...
How Ideas Matter Author
By Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson
Why Nations Fail - December 30, 2013
In the last several posts (here, here, here and here), we have discussed the role of leadership in political economy and organizations. What about ideas?
For example, Dani Rodrik has recently argued that ideas are much more important than the political economy literature admits.
Is this true? If so, how could this role of ideas be incorporated into political economy and more broadly economics?
There are two senses in which ideas could be important in political economy. The first is that important political dynamics can be explained mainly by certain ideologies or ignorance. This is a view we have argued against in Why Nations Fail, for example in our discussion of the “ignorance hypothesis”.
To read more...
Why Nations Fail - December 30, 2013
In the last several posts (here, here, here and here), we have discussed the role of leadership in political economy and organizations. What about ideas?
For example, Dani Rodrik has recently argued that ideas are much more important than the political economy literature admits.
Is this true? If so, how could this role of ideas be incorporated into political economy and more broadly economics?
There are two senses in which ideas could be important in political economy. The first is that important political dynamics can be explained mainly by certain ideologies or ignorance. This is a view we have argued against in Why Nations Fail, for example in our discussion of the “ignorance hypothesis”.
To read more...
China Moves In Beijing Filling U.S. Power Vacuum in Mideast
By Jeffrey R. Ambrose
Real Truth - January 1, 2014
China has been pushing into the region in order to continue its economic growth, secure resources, and expand its global political clout.
In the decades since the fall of communist dictator Mao Zedong, global opinion of China has grown gradually more welcoming. While there were setbacks, notably after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the trend was bolstered by the country’s impressive economic growth and supercharged by the dazzling display of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
For some years, the 1.3-billion-strong nation has been seen by Americans, Chinese and outside observers as a global competitor with the United States.
Where does China stand now in the court of public opinion? A July 2013 Pew Research Forum international survey provides insight: “Since the 2008 financial crisis, perceptions about the economic balance of power in the world have been shifting. Looking at the 20 nations surveyed in both 2008 and 2013, the median percentage naming the U.S. as the world’s leading economic power has declined from 47% to 41%, while the median percentage placing China in the top spot has risen from 20% to 34%.”
“…even in many countries where America is still seen as the top economic power, most believe China will someday become the leading overall superpower…This view is more common now than it was in 2008, when Pew Research first asked this question. Today, majorities or pluralities in only six countries believe China will never replace the U.S.”
To read more...
Real Truth - January 1, 2014
China has been pushing into the region in order to continue its economic growth, secure resources, and expand its global political clout.
In the decades since the fall of communist dictator Mao Zedong, global opinion of China has grown gradually more welcoming. While there were setbacks, notably after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the trend was bolstered by the country’s impressive economic growth and supercharged by the dazzling display of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
For some years, the 1.3-billion-strong nation has been seen by Americans, Chinese and outside observers as a global competitor with the United States.
Where does China stand now in the court of public opinion? A July 2013 Pew Research Forum international survey provides insight: “Since the 2008 financial crisis, perceptions about the economic balance of power in the world have been shifting. Looking at the 20 nations surveyed in both 2008 and 2013, the median percentage naming the U.S. as the world’s leading economic power has declined from 47% to 41%, while the median percentage placing China in the top spot has risen from 20% to 34%.”
“…even in many countries where America is still seen as the top economic power, most believe China will someday become the leading overall superpower…This view is more common now than it was in 2008, when Pew Research first asked this question. Today, majorities or pluralities in only six countries believe China will never replace the U.S.”
To read more...
Why the Central African Republic Crisis Is a Security Problem for the U.S.
By Madeleine Albright
Defenseone.com - January 2, 2014
Americans can take a measure of pride this holiday season in the recent trip undertaken by their United Nations representative, Ambassador Samantha Power, to the strife-torn Central African Republic, a country wracked by violence directed against civilians by Muslim and Christian mobs.
During her time on the ground in the CAR, Ambassador Power conveyed three core messages. To the country’s transitional authorities, she insisted that they do everything possible to heal the wounds that have opened and to protect their citizens from attack. The responsibility for peace and stability, she argued, begins with them.
To read more...
Defenseone.com - January 2, 2014
Americans can take a measure of pride this holiday season in the recent trip undertaken by their United Nations representative, Ambassador Samantha Power, to the strife-torn Central African Republic, a country wracked by violence directed against civilians by Muslim and Christian mobs.
During her time on the ground in the CAR, Ambassador Power conveyed three core messages. To the country’s transitional authorities, she insisted that they do everything possible to heal the wounds that have opened and to protect their citizens from attack. The responsibility for peace and stability, she argued, begins with them.
To read more...
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Does journalism have a future?
By NICHOLAS LEMANN
The Times literary Supplement - December 18, 2013
People tend to have little sympathy with accounts of crisis in a trade or profession. It comes across as evidence of excessive self-preoccupation, or as a prelude to special pleading before government. Journalism’s difficulties seem to be drawing this kind of reaction from many people who aren’t journalists. Isn’t the press still a swaggering, even power-abusing actor in politics and society? Doesn’t it command vast attention and resources? Isn’t more news being read by more people than ever before?
Out of Print: Newspapers, journalism and the business of news in the digital age shows that something really has changed quite suddenly and dramatically in the press industry. George Brock is a veteran newspaperman, and his main concern in this clear-headed, synoptic and never whiny book is with the institutions where he has spent most of his career. In the United States, newspaper advertising revenue – the main source of economic support by far – was $63.5 billion in 2000. By 2012 it had fallen to $19 billion. (During the same period, advertising revenue at Google went from zero to $46.5 billion.) Employment in the American newspaper industry fell by 44 per cent between 2001 and 2011. In the European Union, newspaper revenue is falling by more than 10 per cent a year. In the UK, newspaper circulation has dropped by more than 25 per cent during the twenty-first century. It would be hard to think of another industry that is going through such a sudden collapse.
To read more....
The Times literary Supplement - December 18, 2013
People tend to have little sympathy with accounts of crisis in a trade or profession. It comes across as evidence of excessive self-preoccupation, or as a prelude to special pleading before government. Journalism’s difficulties seem to be drawing this kind of reaction from many people who aren’t journalists. Isn’t the press still a swaggering, even power-abusing actor in politics and society? Doesn’t it command vast attention and resources? Isn’t more news being read by more people than ever before?
Out of Print: Newspapers, journalism and the business of news in the digital age shows that something really has changed quite suddenly and dramatically in the press industry. George Brock is a veteran newspaperman, and his main concern in this clear-headed, synoptic and never whiny book is with the institutions where he has spent most of his career. In the United States, newspaper advertising revenue – the main source of economic support by far – was $63.5 billion in 2000. By 2012 it had fallen to $19 billion. (During the same period, advertising revenue at Google went from zero to $46.5 billion.) Employment in the American newspaper industry fell by 44 per cent between 2001 and 2011. In the European Union, newspaper revenue is falling by more than 10 per cent a year. In the UK, newspaper circulation has dropped by more than 25 per cent during the twenty-first century. It would be hard to think of another industry that is going through such a sudden collapse.
To read more....
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Iran, Turkey's New Ally?
By VALI R. NASR
The New York Times - December 29, 2013
WASHINGTON — A bribery and corruption scandal has plunged Turkey into crisis, seriously undermining Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authority. Mr. Erdogan now faces serious challenges from both secularists suspicious of his Islamist agenda and his erstwhile ally turned rival, the cleric Fethullah Gulen, who leads a powerful Islamic movement from his perch in Pennsylvania. Sluggish economic growth and setbacks in foreign policy have only spurred the critics.
The political bickering is unlikely to let up before next year’s crucial presidential election, in which Mr. Erdogan is expected to run. He will have a difficult time repairing the tarnished image of his Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P. The economy will not give him a boost, but foreign policy might — if he can show that Turkey will once again play a central role in the Middle East.
To read more.....
The New York Times - December 29, 2013
WASHINGTON — A bribery and corruption scandal has plunged Turkey into crisis, seriously undermining Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authority. Mr. Erdogan now faces serious challenges from both secularists suspicious of his Islamist agenda and his erstwhile ally turned rival, the cleric Fethullah Gulen, who leads a powerful Islamic movement from his perch in Pennsylvania. Sluggish economic growth and setbacks in foreign policy have only spurred the critics.
The political bickering is unlikely to let up before next year’s crucial presidential election, in which Mr. Erdogan is expected to run. He will have a difficult time repairing the tarnished image of his Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P. The economy will not give him a boost, but foreign policy might — if he can show that Turkey will once again play a central role in the Middle East.
To read more.....
Capitalism, Ecology and the Official Invisibility of Women
By Chris Williams
Truthout | News - Sunday, 29 December 2013
When it comes to the world economy, what you "see" is not usually what you get - especially when it comes to gender. Capitalism has fueled a world in which women are rendered invisible and saddled with the majority of labor. They are responsible for two-thirds of all working hours, produce 50 percent to 90 percent of the world's food and 100 percent of the world's children. Yet, for all this, they receive only 10 percent of the world's income and own less than 1 percent of the world's property. As a result, women make up 70 percent of the world's poor.
Moreover, gender violence is more of a threat to women's health than the sum of traffic accidents and malaria. Often, when women are "seen," they are seen as simply bodies, to be manipulated in ways that lead to profit. In a very real sense, as people, women are invisible.
To read more....
Truthout | News - Sunday, 29 December 2013
When it comes to the world economy, what you "see" is not usually what you get - especially when it comes to gender. Capitalism has fueled a world in which women are rendered invisible and saddled with the majority of labor. They are responsible for two-thirds of all working hours, produce 50 percent to 90 percent of the world's food and 100 percent of the world's children. Yet, for all this, they receive only 10 percent of the world's income and own less than 1 percent of the world's property. As a result, women make up 70 percent of the world's poor.
Moreover, gender violence is more of a threat to women's health than the sum of traffic accidents and malaria. Often, when women are "seen," they are seen as simply bodies, to be manipulated in ways that lead to profit. In a very real sense, as people, women are invisible.
To read more....
Saturday, December 28, 2013
A More Machiavellian World than Ever
By Gianni Riotta
Originally published in La Stampa
Real Clear World - December 19, 2013
Half a millennium after the publication of Niccolò Machiavelli's "The Prince," one of the most brilliant books ever written on political theory, the world has become more Machiavellian than ever.
The United States, which has been democratic for more than two centuries and invented the Internet as a place of transparency, has now ended up in trouble for its National Security Agency (NSA) spying on allies. The former KGB agent, Vladimir Putin, in his semi-free country where independent journalists are murdered, welcomed NSA mole Edward Snowden as a political refugee, as he put on his laticlave and preached to the world about human rights and privacy.
Meanwhile, in Syria, just because President Bashar al-Assad is massacring his subjects doesn't mean that he'll meet the same fate as Hosni Mubarak or Muammar Gaddafi. He's still in power in Damascus, a merciless and bloodthirsty character lifted right from the pages of Machiavelli, who pays no attention to his conscience, just to power and its cruel nature.
The clash between China, Japan and the U.S. over the minuscule Senkaku-Diaoyu islands oozes pure Machiavelli. Beijing implemented an "Air Defense Identification Zone" around the islands, Tokyo challenged it and Washington still sent B52s into the zone, declaring they would continue to carry out unregistered flights in the region.
To read more...
Originally published in La Stampa
Real Clear World - December 19, 2013
Half a millennium after the publication of Niccolò Machiavelli's "The Prince," one of the most brilliant books ever written on political theory, the world has become more Machiavellian than ever.
The United States, which has been democratic for more than two centuries and invented the Internet as a place of transparency, has now ended up in trouble for its National Security Agency (NSA) spying on allies. The former KGB agent, Vladimir Putin, in his semi-free country where independent journalists are murdered, welcomed NSA mole Edward Snowden as a political refugee, as he put on his laticlave and preached to the world about human rights and privacy.
Meanwhile, in Syria, just because President Bashar al-Assad is massacring his subjects doesn't mean that he'll meet the same fate as Hosni Mubarak or Muammar Gaddafi. He's still in power in Damascus, a merciless and bloodthirsty character lifted right from the pages of Machiavelli, who pays no attention to his conscience, just to power and its cruel nature.
The clash between China, Japan and the U.S. over the minuscule Senkaku-Diaoyu islands oozes pure Machiavelli. Beijing implemented an "Air Defense Identification Zone" around the islands, Tokyo challenged it and Washington still sent B52s into the zone, declaring they would continue to carry out unregistered flights in the region.
To read more...
Friday, December 27, 2013
Between/Beyond Derrida and Mandela: Reading our fractured societies
The ‘meeting’ of Derrida and Mandela is intersection of two events, two sides of our political reflection; this ‘meeting’ is a meeting of experience and reflection in all possible sense….
By Musab Iqbal
World Bulletin - 27 December 2013
In just less then ten year’s time Nelson Mandela left this world, after Jacques Derrida. Derrida met Mandela in 1998, eight years after his release from the prison but Derrida’s interest in him was from his prison days. Derrida edited a volume with Mustapha Tlili entitled ‘For Nelson Mandela’, and he pays tribute in the chapter “The laws of reflection: Nelson Mandela, in admiration” raising some important question and reflecting on the nature of Mandela’s politics and it’s importance in our time, in 1986.
In this very moment when we see the world with grief paying homage to great leader of liberation; from America to Syria, from Ukraine to Bangladesh we see societies struggling within for their liberation and freedom. In times of extreme crisis we see our societies divided like never before, violent towards their other, lacking sheer sense of hospitality, devoid of forgiveness. This is in this very time Mandela’s death remind us of our lost cause, his ‘meeting’ (meeting of two streams) with Derrida forces us to think on some fundamental question of otherness, violence, law, forgiveness, hospitality.
Derrida was impossibly obscure, complex in his arguments, a philosopher of other side of reason and a laborious thinker while Nelson Mandela was a lawyer, political activist, man of action, social visionary. The ‘meeting’ of Derrida and Mandela is intersection of two events, two sides of our political reflection; this ‘meeting’ is a meeting of experience and reflection in all possible sense.
To read more....
By Musab Iqbal
World Bulletin - 27 December 2013
In just less then ten year’s time Nelson Mandela left this world, after Jacques Derrida. Derrida met Mandela in 1998, eight years after his release from the prison but Derrida’s interest in him was from his prison days. Derrida edited a volume with Mustapha Tlili entitled ‘For Nelson Mandela’, and he pays tribute in the chapter “The laws of reflection: Nelson Mandela, in admiration” raising some important question and reflecting on the nature of Mandela’s politics and it’s importance in our time, in 1986.
In this very moment when we see the world with grief paying homage to great leader of liberation; from America to Syria, from Ukraine to Bangladesh we see societies struggling within for their liberation and freedom. In times of extreme crisis we see our societies divided like never before, violent towards their other, lacking sheer sense of hospitality, devoid of forgiveness. This is in this very time Mandela’s death remind us of our lost cause, his ‘meeting’ (meeting of two streams) with Derrida forces us to think on some fundamental question of otherness, violence, law, forgiveness, hospitality.
Derrida was impossibly obscure, complex in his arguments, a philosopher of other side of reason and a laborious thinker while Nelson Mandela was a lawyer, political activist, man of action, social visionary. The ‘meeting’ of Derrida and Mandela is intersection of two events, two sides of our political reflection; this ‘meeting’ is a meeting of experience and reflection in all possible sense.
To read more....
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Mao Zedong remembered: China's multi-faceted deep-thinking leader
BBC - 24 December 2013
More, because Mao is the George Washington figure, the founder of the People's Republic of China, the great unifier of his ancient, far-flung and multifarious people.
Less, because Chinese youth today, including young Party members, typically know nothing about his writings, his doctrine, his great successes and monstrous errors.
To read more...
US citizen Sidney
Rittenberg spent 35 years in China at a time of momentous upheaval,
personally befriending Mao Zedong and other veteran Chinese
revolutionary leaders as they seized power from the Kuomintang from 1945
onwards. Here he reveals his unique perspective on the civil war, the
early days of Communism and Mao's philosophy.
Like everything else in China, Mao's role today is a study in
paradox. He is both more and less than the ginormous portrait that
dominates the centre of Beijing's Tiananmen Square - and which will not
be coming down anytime soon.More, because Mao is the George Washington figure, the founder of the People's Republic of China, the great unifier of his ancient, far-flung and multifarious people.
Less, because Chinese youth today, including young Party members, typically know nothing about his writings, his doctrine, his great successes and monstrous errors.
To read more...
11 slogans that changed China
By Joe Boyle
BBC News - 25 December 2013
China is marking 120
years since the birth of former leader Mao Zedong. During his tumultuous
three decades in power, Mao elevated political sloganeering to an art
form.
Although Mao's successors have shaken off many of his more
extreme doctrines, they continue to deploy slogans at a dizzying rate.
Here are 11 slogans that transformed China.
1. Let 100 flowers bloom (百花齐放) 1956
The use of slogans is solidly linked to patterns in everyday Chinese speech, where short rhythmic phrases are considered to be the clearest way of speaking.
These kinds of phrases are often represented by four characters in Chinese and have been deployed by leaders for more than 2,000 years.
To read more....
BBC News - 25 December 2013
1. Let 100 flowers bloom (百花齐放) 1956
The use of slogans is solidly linked to patterns in everyday Chinese speech, where short rhythmic phrases are considered to be the clearest way of speaking.
These kinds of phrases are often represented by four characters in Chinese and have been deployed by leaders for more than 2,000 years.
To read more....
China Estimates 2013 Growth at 7.6% as Challenges Seen Ahead
By Bloomberg News Dec 25, 2013
China estimates that growth slowed to 7.6 percent this year, with mounting challenges putting pressure on the nation’s traditional growth model of investment-led spending, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
The calculation for the gain in gross domestic product for 2013 was included in a report by the State Council, or cabinet, to the legislature, and compares with a government target of 7.5 percent, Xinhua reported yesterday. A 7.6 percent pace would mark a third straight annual drop in the expansion rate.
To read more....
China estimates that growth slowed to 7.6 percent this year, with mounting challenges putting pressure on the nation’s traditional growth model of investment-led spending, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
The calculation for the gain in gross domestic product for 2013 was included in a report by the State Council, or cabinet, to the legislature, and compares with a government target of 7.5 percent, Xinhua reported yesterday. A 7.6 percent pace would mark a third straight annual drop in the expansion rate.
To read more....
U.S. Sends Arms to Aid Iraq Fight With Extremists
By
MICHAEL R. GORDON and
ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON — The United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq
to help government forces combat an explosion of violence by a
Qaeda-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq
and neighboring Syria.
But some military experts question whether the patchwork response will be sufficient to reverse the sharp downturn in security that already led to the deaths of more than 8,000 Iraqis this year, 952 of them Iraqi security force members, according to the United Nations, the highest level of violence since 2008.
To read more...
The move follows an appeal for help in battling the extremist group by the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who met with President Obama in Washington last month.
But some military experts question whether the patchwork response will be sufficient to reverse the sharp downturn in security that already led to the deaths of more than 8,000 Iraqis this year, 952 of them Iraqi security force members, according to the United Nations, the highest level of violence since 2008.
To read more...
Ground the Air Force
Revising the Future of Flight
Foreign Affairs - December 18, 2013
The United States needs air power, but it does not need an air force.
In fact, it never really did. The U.S. Air Force, founded in 1947, was the product of a decades-long campaign by aviation enthusiasts inside the U.S. Army. These advocates argued that air power could not achieve its promise under the leadership of ground commanders. With memories of the great bombing campaigns of World War II still fresh and a possible confrontation with the Soviets looming, the nation’s would-be cold warriors determined that the age of air power was upon them. But it wasn’t. Advocates of an independent air force had misinterpreted the lessons of World War II to draw faulty conclusions about air power’s future.
Their mistake produced a myriad of problems. Modern warfare almost invariably demands close cooperation across air and surface units. In naval operations, all of these assets -- submarines, surface ships, and aircraft -- belong to the same service. In the case of the army and the air force, however, the component parts end up being divided -- or needlessly replicated -- by separate bureaucratic organizations, each with its own priorities. As a result, the services tend to plan operations and procure equipment based on their own needs rather than those of the military as a whole. When they ask lawmakers for funding, moreover, they tend to concentrate on missions that they believe they can accomplish on their own. Finally, during wars, the services often struggle to cooperate by scaling the bureaucratic walls they constructed in peacetime.
To read more...
Foreign Affairs - December 18, 2013
The United States needs air power, but it does not need an air force.
In fact, it never really did. The U.S. Air Force, founded in 1947, was the product of a decades-long campaign by aviation enthusiasts inside the U.S. Army. These advocates argued that air power could not achieve its promise under the leadership of ground commanders. With memories of the great bombing campaigns of World War II still fresh and a possible confrontation with the Soviets looming, the nation’s would-be cold warriors determined that the age of air power was upon them. But it wasn’t. Advocates of an independent air force had misinterpreted the lessons of World War II to draw faulty conclusions about air power’s future.
Their mistake produced a myriad of problems. Modern warfare almost invariably demands close cooperation across air and surface units. In naval operations, all of these assets -- submarines, surface ships, and aircraft -- belong to the same service. In the case of the army and the air force, however, the component parts end up being divided -- or needlessly replicated -- by separate bureaucratic organizations, each with its own priorities. As a result, the services tend to plan operations and procure equipment based on their own needs rather than those of the military as a whole. When they ask lawmakers for funding, moreover, they tend to concentrate on missions that they believe they can accomplish on their own. Finally, during wars, the services often struggle to cooperate by scaling the bureaucratic walls they constructed in peacetime.
To read more...
What Was Once the World's Largest Building Has Now Been Completely Demolished
It took five years, but the Manhattan Project's K-25 site is no more.
By Rebecca J. Rosen
The Atlantic - Dec 23 2013
In the mid-1940s, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, inside the walls of K-25, some 12,000 Manhattan Project workers separated uranium-235 from uranium-238 via a process of gaseous diffusion. On August 6, 1945, a bomb containing what they had made was dropped on a city in southern Japan—Hiroshima.
At about 44 acres of footprint, K-25 was once the largest building on Earth (by certain methods of measurement). Here, for scale, is how K-25 compares with Central Park.
To read more...
By Rebecca J. Rosen
The Atlantic - Dec 23 2013
In the mid-1940s, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, inside the walls of K-25, some 12,000 Manhattan Project workers separated uranium-235 from uranium-238 via a process of gaseous diffusion. On August 6, 1945, a bomb containing what they had made was dropped on a city in southern Japan—Hiroshima.
At about 44 acres of footprint, K-25 was once the largest building on Earth (by certain methods of measurement). Here, for scale, is how K-25 compares with Central Park.
To read more...
Chinese PR Group BlueFocus Buys London-Based We Are Social
This $30M U.K. Deal and a Team of Acquisition Specialists Signal Global Ambitions
By: Emma Hall
AdAge Global - December 17, 2013
Chinese PR group BlueFocus Communications is taking a big step toward becoming an international player with the $30 million acquisition of five-year-old social media agency We Are Social. The London-based agency also has offices in New York, Paris, Milan, Munich, Sydney, Sao Paulo and Singapore.
We Are Social, which claims to be the world's largest specialist social media agency network with revenue of $57 million this year, is selling an 82.8% interest in the business. The founders, Robin Grant and Nathan McDonald, will stay on and drive expansion into new territory, expected to begin with China.
To read more...
By: Emma Hall
AdAge Global - December 17, 2013
Chinese PR group BlueFocus Communications is taking a big step toward becoming an international player with the $30 million acquisition of five-year-old social media agency We Are Social. The London-based agency also has offices in New York, Paris, Milan, Munich, Sydney, Sao Paulo and Singapore.
We Are Social, which claims to be the world's largest specialist social media agency network with revenue of $57 million this year, is selling an 82.8% interest in the business. The founders, Robin Grant and Nathan McDonald, will stay on and drive expansion into new territory, expected to begin with China.
To read more...
I Got Myself Arrested So I Could Look Inside the Justice System
A former prosecutor fights the law and lets it win.
By Bobby Constantino
The Atlantic - Dec 17 2013
Ten years ago, when I started my career as an assistant district attorney in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, I viewed the American criminal justice system as a vital institution that protected society from dangerous people. I once prosecuted a man for brutally attacking his wife with a flashlight, and another for sexually assaulting a waitress at a nightclub. I believed in the system for good reason.
But in between the important cases, I found myself spending most of my time prosecuting people of color for things we white kids did with impunity growing up in the suburbs. As our office handed down arrest records and probation terms for riding dirt bikes in the street, cutting through a neighbor’s yard, hosting loud parties, fighting, or smoking weed – shenanigans that had rarely earned my own classmates anything more than raised eyebrows and scoldings – I often wondered if there was a side of the justice system that we never saw in the suburbs. Last year, I got myself arrested in New York City and found out.
To read more...
By Bobby Constantino
The Atlantic - Dec 17 2013
Ten years ago, when I started my career as an assistant district attorney in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, I viewed the American criminal justice system as a vital institution that protected society from dangerous people. I once prosecuted a man for brutally attacking his wife with a flashlight, and another for sexually assaulting a waitress at a nightclub. I believed in the system for good reason.
But in between the important cases, I found myself spending most of my time prosecuting people of color for things we white kids did with impunity growing up in the suburbs. As our office handed down arrest records and probation terms for riding dirt bikes in the street, cutting through a neighbor’s yard, hosting loud parties, fighting, or smoking weed – shenanigans that had rarely earned my own classmates anything more than raised eyebrows and scoldings – I often wondered if there was a side of the justice system that we never saw in the suburbs. Last year, I got myself arrested in New York City and found out.
To read more...
Thursday, December 19, 2013
6 Videos You Should Watch About Imperialism
Tariq Ali: What is imperialism?
British Imperialism – Documentary
Africa’s Slave Trade to Colonialism to Liberation
Brazil – An Inconvenient History
Noam Chomsky – History of US Imperialism
Noam Chomsky Lectures on Modern-Day American Imperialism: Middle East and Beyond
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