Djimon Hounsou performs Binyavanga Wainaina’s ‘How to write about Africa‘. It is ironic that this video is produced by Bono’s (Red) campaign, which indulges in just the kind of White Messiah crap that Wainaina satirizes. Also see this and this.
Author: alannahpriestley
Roger Waters joins the Russell Tribunal
Roger Waters, the legend, joins the Russell Tribunal on Palestine as a juror.
Roger Waters, founding member of the British rock band Pink Floyd, has announced that he will join Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, civil rights icon Angela Davis, and others, on the jury of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, taking place in New York City, October 6–7, 2012.
The Think Tank Clown
by William A. Cook
Clowns befuddle a crowd. They appear a pretense of the normal but caricatured to evoke laughter, surprise, at times derision, but always in context where they absorb self-deprecation, become the butt of jokes, become the audiences’ self, a make believe self, receiving the jibes, jests and buffoonery never allowed when alone. Thus do they become vessels of deep seated self- ridicule, inhibited expression, personal inadequacy, a self-conscious parody of the normal. They are used images, commodities to be bought and sold for the purchaser’s benefit, set amidst their fellows as manikins to be pinched and probed, facsimiles of all, but receivers of ridicule to protect their brethren.
Such is the figure of Patrick Clawson, Director of Research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, as he appeared before his fellows, his scholarly brethren seated silently in respectful adulation at WINEP’s self-proclaimed international conference on near East policy. He appeared as all clowns appear from the side curtains, an Ichabod figure from Irving’s legend’s, lanky, thin, staccato stepping toward the podium, a believer in mystical gods, historical covenants, justifications of actions found encrypted in the yellow stained pages of ancient scrolls, called upon to deliver his sacred yet startling message to his colleagues.
Drones: the west’s new terror campaign
by Clive Stafford Smith
Living Under Drones, a new report from Stanford and New York universities, was a difficult piece of fieldwork – I was with the law students in Peshawar as they tried to interview victims of the CIA’s drone war. But it has made an important contribution to the drone debate by identifying the innocent victims of the CIA’s reign of terror: the entire civilian population of Waziristan (roughly 800,000 people).
Until now, the most heated dispute has revolved around how many drone victims in the Pakistan border region are dangerous extremists, and how many children, women or men with no connection to any terrorist group. I have been to the region, and have a strong opinion on this point – but until the area is opened up to media inspection, or the CIA releases the tapes of each hellfire missile strike, the controversy will rage on.
Does the whistleblower reward threaten banking secrecy?
In this month’s TaxCast: A whistleblower reward threatens banking secrecy – where will the money go next? Bangladesh considers expanding a regressive VAT tax and Professor Prem Sikka on the neglected role of the Big Four accountancy firms aka the ‘pin-stripe mafia.’
Produced by the Tax Justice Network, the show is hosted by Naomi Fowler. Each 15 minute podcast follows the latest news relating to tax evasion, tax avoidance and the shadow banking system. The show features discussions with experts in the field to help analyse the top stories each month.
The Spanish Earth
The classic 1937 film, written and narrated by Ernest Hemingway.
This documentary film uses footage of war and glimpses of rural Spanish life in its portrayal of the struggle of the Spanish Republican government against a rebellion by right-wing forces led by General Francisco Franco and backed by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. The film was written by Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos (among others) and was narrated by Hemingway.
Orson Welles on McCarthyism, Hemingway, Bullfighting and much else
Michael Parkinson of the BBC interviews the great Orswon Welles (1974). (He speaks about Hemingway around 15:00)
Continue reading “Orson Welles on McCarthyism, Hemingway, Bullfighting and much else”
How Foreign Aid Sustains Israeli Occupation
A highly informative interview with Nadia Hijab, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies as well as Co-Founder and Director of Al-Shabaka: the Palestinian Policy Network.
In this episode of Palestine Studies TV we sit down with Nadia Hijab, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies as well as Co-Founder and Director of Al-Shabaka: the Palestinian Policy Network, to discuss international aid to the Palestinians and it’s effects on Palestinian society, politics, and Israel’s occupation.
Palestine Studies TV is a project of the Institute for Palestine Studies.
Which side are you on?
Ken Loach’s documentary about the 1984 UK Miners Strike and the Tory government’s vicious campaign of violence which finally subdued it. The film features the miners and their families experiences told through songs, poems and other art.
The Sorrows of Syria
Michael Provence, director of the Middle East Studies Programs at the University of California, San Diego, explains the origins and evolution of the Syrian conflict in an excellent new production by Alternate Focus.
http://blip.tv/alternate-focus/the-sorrows-of-syria-6349973
The Syrian government has has tried with great determination and dexterity to fragment the society and to exploit sectarian differences and class differences to prevent the emergence of a secular nonsectarian nationalist opposition. Michael Provence is the director of the Middle East Studies Programs at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on the colonial and post-colonial Arab world, particularly popular insurgency and nationalism, and he has travelled and lived in many countries in the region including Lebanon and Syria.
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