Synchronicity, the Stoa and the Rail Splitter

Reading emails to this blog I came across an email telling me the Virtual Stoa has moved to here. So I went to look at the new site. And very good it is too. And yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Pablo Neruda. My take on Neruda ia that he was an important Twentieth Century poet of the oppressed who was a believer in the Socialist paradise that was Stalin's USSR. Octavio Paz described

"think[ing] of … Neruda and other famous Stalinist writers I feel the gooseflesh that I get from reading certain passages of Dante’s Inferno. No doubt they began in good faith, but insensibly, commitment by commitment, they saw themselves becoming entangled in a mesh of lies, falsehoods, deceits and perjuries, until they lost their souls."

That's what happens when you start seeking answers to important questions like why are so many of the world's people poor and oppressed, and discover an all-encompassing meta-narrative that replaces the need for thinking with obedience to an ideology and the personnification of that ideology.

Don't think. Just believe.

That's not to deny that Neruda wrote some great poetry that sings of, and to, the oppressed and the workers of the world. But he also wrote some hagiographic crud to Joseph Stalin that just drags down his oeuvre.

Here's the beginning of "Let the Rail Splitter Awake".

West of the Colorado river is a place I love.
I turn towards it, with everything that lives in me,
with all that I was, and am, and believe.
There are tall red rocks, made structures
by the savage air with its thousand hands,
and the scarlet sky arose from the abyss
into them to become copper, fire and strength.
America, stretched like a buffalo hide,
aerial, clear night of gallop,
there towards the starred summits
I drink your cup of green dew.

And then I thought of Il Postino, the 1995 film about Neruda in exile. And then I thought of the letter I'm waiting for from my parents in exile. Only connect.

Bibliopoles and Pugilism

There's a fight going on in the world of publishing and bookselling. This week's Weekly Worker carries a letter that complains about Bookmarks.

The people who run the Socialist Workers Party bookshop called Bookmarks in central London are into censorship and it stinks.

We publish a magazine that any socialist would be interested in reading ... Bookmarks refuse to stock our magazine. This is strange, considering we don’t allow fascists or racists to write for us, but do encourage debate about some old leftwing shibboleths, especially those to do with ‘class struggle’.

The draconian management at Bookmarks are letting down anyone engaged in an attempt to make sense of our world today. ... It’s a shame, because Bookmarks in the old days used to be a thriving socialist bookshop in the heart of north London - a real hub of debate and discussion, with a vast and exciting range of literature, always full up with people. With such a po-faced management team these days, it’s hardly surprising no-one goes there and is only kept alive by the party faithful digging deep week after week.

Sean Delaney
Principia Dialectica

Following up on the magazine's own site you get this amusing response:

Mike writes: maybe they thoughtyour mag was a load of pretentious bollocks and not worth stocking - but its easier to shout “stalinist” than look at yourself critically…

Looking at the other places that do stock the magazine Bookmarks' refusal may be down to ideological differences and that the magazine is a load of Judith Butleresque nonsense. Alternatively, Bookmarks may be under Stalinist management.

Gotham City and the Sky Mirror

Anish Kapoor's wonderful Sky Mirror has just been installed at the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

It was previously displayed outside the Playhouse Theatre in Nottingham. According to the BBC

[i]t has previously been placed in Nottingham, where it caused concern over whether it could set people or birds alight.

Now I know Nottingham has a bad reputation but are there really that many incomers from Gotham?

Day For Darfur

Tomorrow is an official Day For Darfur.

Get your blue hat and wear it.

And go and do something.

Modern Times is a super anagram of Timrod

Bob Dylan's acclaimed new album Modern Times has been noted for Dylan's appropriation of some lines from Henry Timrod.

As far as I can see it's a fair cop, badge out, laid off.

To [Scott] Warmuth [a disc jockey in Albuquerque and a former music director for WUSB, a public radio station in Stony Brook, on Long Island], who found 10 phrases echoing Timrod’s poetry on “Modern Times,” Mr. Dylan’s work is still original. “You could give the collected works of Henry Timrod to a bunch of people, but none of them are going to come up with Bob Dylan songs,” he said.

Thomas Truax

Last night went to see Thomas Truax.

What a show. A small appreciative audience saw an excellent performance. Imagine Lake Wobegon on something mind-enhancing and you have the world of Thomas Truax.

Brilliant.

And speaking of Lake Wobegon, here's a saying for today, "Ketchup contains natural mellowing agents that let people know they are having a good time, even if they themselves are not sure."

If Thomas Truax comes to a town near you, go and marvel.

World Trade WTF

A 9/11 documentary has been pulled from US tv by some CBS affiliate stations because TV companies fear the Federal Communications Commission may object to firefighters swearing.

The film was scheduled to go out at 8pm yesterday. However, any station airing it before 10pm could be fined for breaching "broadcast decency standards". CBS confirmed that affiliates representing about 10 per cent of the US had elected "not broadcast the program or would show it late at night".

Such is the sway of the prissy over what the United States watches. Prissy, prudish euphemistic talk kills. Blunt talking saves lives.

When public awareness campaigns about medical conditions talk about parts of the body, and bodily functions using language that no-one but no-one outside a Victorian literary meeting of belle-lettristes uses they get ignored. No-one pays attention. Get down and talk dirty. And don't be afraid to offend the prissy, prudish and uptight. It'll save more lives than being inoffensive and polite ever will.

Part of the Union

Eric Lee, of the excellent Labour Start site, has issued a request for help for Australian Construction workers:

This week's message is brief and very much to the point -- and needs your attention today.

The Howard government in Australia is one of the most anti-union in the world, breaking new ground in its efforts to smash the trade union movement in that country.

Among its first victims are 107 construction workers, who are being prosecuted for alleged "illegal" industrial action following the sacking of a union delegate.

According to Kevin Reynolds, Secretary of the West Australian Branch of the CFMEU union, "Under the Howard Government, the basic right to vote to take strike action in support of better conditions and a safe workplace has now been criminalised."

The workers made their first appearance in court yesterday (Monday).

They are asking workers around the world to mobilize and send messages of protest to government officials today:

www.labourstart.org/.../solidarityforever

The families of the 107 are facing fines of A$28,600, meaning massive financial hardship and destitution because of these punitive laws. Please give generously:

here

Spread the word - pass this message on!

Thank you.

Eric Lee

Darfur

Amnesty International has a Darfur Campaign. It's not been the most high profile campaign but they have had one. Details are here. Further details on Amnesty's site are here.

For more up to date information see the excellent Sudan Watch.

There's an interview with Eric Reeves, an academic expert on the Darfur conflict, at Democracy Now that has been picked up by Mick Hartley. You can read Mick Hartley for a good summary and extract from the interview.

Here's my take on the latest situation. The Sudanese government has rejected a draft U.N. resolution calling for a 17,000 person force to be deployed to Darfur. Reeves says

Khartoum is right now planning a massive military offensive in North Darfur, which has been the most violent of the three Darfur states.

If this offensive takes place, there will be massive, massive civilian destruction. I think we're also likely to see a withdrawal of virtually all humanitarian workers. This will leave some 1.2 million people completely dependent on humanitarian aid, without any assistance whatsoever. By my own calculation, some 500,000 people have already died. As many more could die in the coming year if current trends continue.

The U.S.A's Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer got a frosty reception and a "No" from the Sudanese President, to accepting the U.N peacekeeping force. Not being a Permanent Member of the U.N. Security Council you'd think that Sudan would not have that much say in what the U.N. does or does not do. And you'd be wrong.

New global political realities are forming. Sudan is the major offshore oil supplier
to China and China dominates oil production in southern Sudan. Any U.N. force will only be deployed if there is a concensual resolution. Khartoum consistently says that any state supporting the U.N. resolution is an enemy of the state of Sudan, and that is something China does not want to be. Thus any resolution will be vetoed by China. To quote Eric Reeves

[China] will veto any resolution, and we come up against a very, very difficult problem. What will we do if the United Nations proves incapable of acting in the face of ongoing massive genocide?

Faced by such a question what is the response of campaigning NGOs such as Amnesty? It's the Global Day for Darfur where you can wear a blue hat on September 17th. Is it an adequate response? No. Have I signed up for it? Yes. Do I feel annoyed and angered by the inadequacy of the response? For the love of Hegel, yes.

On Books and Book Buying

On Eric Lee's recommendation I bought "The Mind at Work - Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker" by Mike Rose. And a fine, informative read it is, setting out to demolish the myth that there are workers by hand and workers by brain. Most workers by hand also use intelligence in all aspects of their job. (And, I would like to add, some workers by brain show an alarming lack of intelligence). As Rose says, on page xxvii,

I think we need to be cautious in assuming extensive and necessary effects of particular kinds of work on the thinking ability of the people who do them. Such analysis can obscure the nuance and variation in individual people's experence of work, as well as real differences in the physical and social environment of individual workplaces. The complexity of working life is therefore reduced. We can pinpoint the harmful effects of modern working conditions ... without positing an automatic diminishment of a worker's awareness and capacity to reason.

That assumption that so many people make, that John Doe has a manual job therefore John Doe must be not very intelligent is just wrong and ill-founded. And the corresponding assumption that John Fotheringey has a professional job therefore John Fotheringey must be intelligent is just wrong and ill-founded. And that assumption plays into public policy on education and training and is just wrong and ill-founded.

And if you are going to get it, get it from Union Communication Services. The book is available here.

On Names and Things

In my previous post, on failing to read, I referenced a book by Sven Birkerts, The Gutenberg Elegies.

There's a splendid review of that work here by a splendidly named chap, George Cowmeadow Bauman. He describes himself as "a career bibliopole and a lifetime bibliophile, if not an outright bibliomaniac".

And what is wrong with that?

On Failing to Read

Norm cites Nick Hornby as saying 'if you're reading a book that's killing you, put it down and read something else'.

That may be so for some people and some books. However, most people have picked up a book in a bookshop or a library and started to read and taken the book home. And there it sits. By a favourite chair or on a table by the bed. And it is picked up. And the first pages are read. Something happens. The telephone rings. The television gets interesting. What's that music playing? Worst of all, you fall asleep.

Distractions prevent you from being enveloped by the book. You want to read it. You really do want to read it. It's just that you haven't got the time. It's just that you haven't got the energy. So many books to read. So little time.

Last year I bought David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. It's a big, multi-stranded narrative of a world. I carried it in my bag for weeks. I'd pick it up while waiting for Rullsenberg. In coffee shops I'd drink my filter coffee and try and read. I just couldn't concentrate for any length of time. Too much noise. Too many distractions. Just too much everything stopping me.

I was about to give up and blame the book. But then I started reading in a quiet coffee bar in the Djanogly Art Gallery. And I finally got into it. And a damn fine book it is too.

But there are just too many books to read. In "So Many Books", page 22, Gabriel Zaid wrote

"In the first century of printing (1450 - 1550), 35,000 titles were published; in the last half-century (1950 - 2000), there were a thousand times more - 36 million. ... Books are published at such a rapid rate that they make us exponentially more ignorant. If a person read a book a day, he would be neglecting to read four thousand others, published the same day. In other words, the books he didn't read would pile up four thousand times faster than the books he did read, and his ignorance would grow four thousand times faster than his knowledge."

To read voraciously is to gaze into the abyss of the finite when infinity is needed to even approach completion.

Zaid, ibid page 24, goes on to say

"And maybe the measure of our reading should therefore be, not the number of books we've read, but the state in which they leave us.

What does it matter how cultivated and up-to-date we are, or how many thousands of books we've read? What matters is how we feel, how we see, what we do after reading; whether the street and the clouds and the existence of others mean anything to us; whether reading makes us, physically, more alive."

If you're interested in reading and want to read about reading I would recommend "Gabriel Zaid's "So Many Books", Albert Manguel's "A History of Reading", Sven Birkert's "The Gutenberg Elegies", Anne Fadiman's "Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader". There are many more good books on reading, and readers, but that's a good list with which to start. If that doesn't float your reading boat just go and read.

Education

Here's a good comment on the annual gripe-fest that is the A-level results season.

Ministers are hesitant about accepting the case for A* grades, and rightly so. They know that, given the stubborn links between family background and exam achievement, the grade is most likely to be achieved by children from better-off homes. An A* would, to put it crudely, stop the masses from getting ideas above their station.

Those who favour the new grade argue, in effect, that A-levels have ceased to be effective rationing devices because they no longer allow the elite universities, particularly Oxford and Cambridge, to cherry-pick the best candidates. But Oxford and Cambridge have no obvious right to the brightest students. Some of the cleverest might benefit from other universities, including those with a more vocational bent. Why do we think it necessary to organise our entire exam system around the selection of a tiny proportion of the population for a highly academic education and privileged lifestyle at Oxford or Cambridge?

There are many things wrong with A-levels - too narrow, too specialist, too academic - but the lack of an A* grade isn't one of them.

Shouldn't exam results show what people have learned and not be part of a bigger rationing process for entry to prestigious (prestigious as in "held in high esteem" and as in "knavish") professions and institutions? Personally I failed most of my A-levels because I was bored and wanted to read stuff totally unrelated to my courses (I was doing Economics, Geography and Pure Mathematics and Statistics but spent months reading philosophy books and Bertrand Russell's autobiography). Thankfully I scraped through in Maths which led onto an HND in Computer Studies. But that is just me, I just wanted to read books, think and write an occasional essay. And didn't want any of the formal assessment that went with an A-level course. Some might say it's intellectual laziness. Others might say it's just laziness. Yup. Guilty.

Clamo, clamatis, omnes clamamus pro glace lactis sundae

What a fantastic weekend. Summer Sundae was a damn fine festival. With the Blockheads in the Musician Tent, on Friday, being as excellent as you'd expect. As someone once said, they are Britain's answer to the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section or to the MGs. Why isn't there a queue of people wanting to record with the Blockheads?

Saturday saw a brilliant performance from Tunng. Then a splendid singalong-a performance from Leith's finest, The Proclaimers.

There were many more highlights. I'll remember more tomorrow.

It's late. I'm tired and I'm off to bed.

For more highlights see Rullsenberg's record of the weekend. And here. And here.

Starbucks and the Wobblies

Counago and Spaves cross post from the Wobblies on the current dispute between Starbucks and IWW members in the U.S.A. Here's an extract

The Wobblies at Starbucks have proven that by taking direct action against the company over issues of concern to workers and by avoiding the skewed certification process of NLRB elections, baristas can improve their lives on and off the job. This strategy only works however, if the company incurs significant economic, political, and social costs when it violates the right to organize by terminating workers for union activity.

Take action with us sisters and brothers. Together we will win:

1) Do not spend your hard earned money at Starbucks until the company respects the right of workers to organize and reinstates Daniel Gross and the rest of the IWW baristas. Let the company know you are taking a stand by participating in the email action:

starbucksunion.org

2) Obtain a resolution or pledge from your community group, labor union, or house of worship agreeing to stay way from Starbucks products until justice is done. Please send copies to starbucksunion@yahoo.com.

3) Hold a rally or leafleting action at Starbucks in support of the right to organize and in defense of the fired union baristas if you feel that's appropriate in your local community. Please check in with the baristas at the store beforehand to involve them in the action.

And here's a link to the Wobblies.

Cricket Lovely Cricket

Last Sunday had a grand day out at Derbyshire County Cricket Club watching Derbyshire play West Indies A.

When we arived the weather was warm. The picnic bags were full. The West Indies were fielding.

When we left, after an excellent day's fun, the weather was still warm, the picnic bags were empty and Derbyshire won by 30 runs. Here's the scorecard.

Here's a report from the Gleaner.

The International Cricket Council is investing heavily in promoting cricket in its current Associate and Affiliate member counties. And that's a good thing. The more countries playing cricket the better.

However it needs to look at the decline of cricket in the Caribbean. Those of us of a certain generation grew up watching Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Alvin Kallicharan and Clive Lloyd conquer the world. We are now saddened by the decline in West Indian cricket. Indeed a simple search on google for "west indian cricket" decline gets 565 responses.

Here's a serious piece, by Jeffery Mordecai, that blames the West Indies Cricket Board's imposition of "a ridiculous eligibility rule" as, a major, reason for the decline. In 1994 the Board made eligibility for the West Indian team depend on playing in domestic inter-island competitions. As Mordecai argues

Our administrators chose instead to put all their efforts into developing and improving our domestic regional and national competitions. This was and is an admirable policy initiative, for the long run, but cannot fully replace foreign professional competition in the short to medium term.

The Eligibility Rule has destroyed the very ingredient that led to our dominance of world cricket by providing that you cannot represent the West Indies unless you represent your territory in all the rounds of the domestic regional competition. In other words, if you secure a professional contract you cannot play for the West Indies.

What is the equivalent rule in the other international sports? There is none!

Does Dwight Yorke have to play every match in the domestic season for Joe Public to represent Trinidad and Tobago in football? Do Brazil and Argentina prohibit their best players from playing abroad?

Such a rule would be impossible to conceive in any other international sport but in our case, the national association (WICB) unbelievably imposed it on themselves, without any input from the ICC

Put like that, will anyone be surprised when the West Indies will soon struggle to beat Bangladesh.

Doppelgangers

Prescedence. Shmescedence.

There is a man. A man with a blog. A blog called "A Cloud In Trousers". Like this one.

Then along comes a man. A man with a blog. A blog called "A Cloud In Trousers". Like this one.

The leftmarch guy has rather cool tastes (haha - found a link to Deep-bloody-Purple - not so cool now). He even opens with an excellent post on graveyards. What's a man to do?

A spectre, or a frightful hobgoblin, is haunting me.

Hello FraVernero.

And thanks to Will Rubbish for pointing this out.

MP3 players and the privatization of public spaces

Yes. I know. In the past I have argued for mp3 players being

1. a B-A-D thing
2. a privatization of public spaces
3. used by pedestrians (pedo's as we used to call us/them/us in my Wolverhampton school days) with a deathwish
4. used by people with a premature deafwish

Well. Hold on there a minute. Friday afternoon I was offered a used, one careful owner, iPod Nano 1GB. Being in a happy mood, as I was off on a big weekend, I agreed to buy it. Thus it was that I acquired an iPod. When I bought it, and because of my big weekend still, it contains an appalling miasmic melange of musical mishaps - "power ballads".

That was Friday. I've had a four day break from computers. Now I am trying to download iTunes and load some decent stuff on to it. I was thinking some Miles Davis, some Einsturzende Neubauten, some Pere Ubu (and associated projects), some Regina Spektor, and some (and this will annoy loads of people) Gilad Atzmon.

A friend sent me a copy of "musiK - Re-Arranging the 20th Century" by Gilad Atzmon & the Orient House Ensemble with Robert Wyatt and Guillermo Rozenthuler" which is, on a totally unbiased viewpoint, a damn fine eclectic album. Yes, Atzmon has some opinions that suggest that for a politician he's a damn fine jazz musician and for a jazz musician he's a bloody awful politician. I think it comes down to can you like the art of someone whose politics you disdain?

In the case of Atzmon I think you can because his music is good. It's second division good (obviously before the inflationary innovation of the Premier League) but it's listenable with a certain amount of challenging content. Carrying on with the football analogy, Atzmon is a Millwall, "everybody hates us and we don't care", rather than an Arsenal. Much of Atzmon's writing is ill-thought out, ill-argued pseudo-intellectual (drop a Lacan, a Freud, a Heidegger and you have a specious academic style) and fundamentally not very good as either argument or polemic. But as a musician he's good. And that surely is what it's all about.

Drawing up the Cloud in Trouser Model for the relationship between your aesthetic appreciation of art and the stated political beliefs of the artist we have:

• Like Politics - Like Art
• Like Politics - Ah Um Art
• Like Politics - Detest Art


• Ah Um Politics - Like Art
• Ah Um Politics - Ah Um Art
• Ah Um Politics - Detest Art


• Detest Politics - Like Art
• Detest Politics - Ah Um Art
• Detest Politics - Detest Art

Too many Ah Ums suggests why bother. When you like the politics but not the art of an artist I find there is a tendency to go "I should like it and I don't but if other's like it that's good". In that lacuna of "Detest Politics - Like Art" lies real difficulty.

But, anyway, I really like some of Atzmon's music. So there.

And back to mp3 players. As I have written before¹ they are a

1. a G-O-O-D thing
2. a privatization of public spaces
3. used by pedestrians (pedo's as we used to call us/them/us in my Wolverhampton school days) with a deathwish
4. used by people with a premature deafwish.

When I'll actually listen to it is another matter.


¹ Anyone finding any reference to any such writing probably has a painting of Nat Tate's at home, above the mantel.

Qana

As the man said, now ain't the time for ill-informed scribbling. This is more of a discussion about discussion.

When you get people supporting sides in a dispute there are always differences in the level of support given.

There are those who generally advocate support for one side but are able to see when one side is behaving unethically and beyond any sense of human decency.

Israel's action at Qana is inexcusable. I say this as someone who supports Israel's right to defend itself against those who attack it, those who send missiles against its civilians and who intend its destruction as a state.

That's an example of good advocacy that supports one side of an issue but is never too biased to see ethical failings on that side.

Then you get those who know which side of the issue they are on and anything which threatens their blinkered little world view - "I am always right" - gets theorised away as some conspiracy. There's a link at those oh, so nice guys at LGF which constructs a conspiracy theory abut the timing of the collapse of the building at Qana, pointing to Hezbollah as the source of the demolition and a morgue at Tyre as the source of the bodies. Such are the excuses put up to argue "my side is always on the side of the angels". (You'll notice there are no links to this conspiratorial claptrap but if you are interested there's enough clues to google.) And, for those who aren't paying attention, I consider that an example of morally bad advocacy.

I'm sure you could find equally unbiased and biased postings by those who support Hezbollah but I don't want to spend all my time looking at the ravings of those who support, at the level of "national liberation army" or "resistance movement" (it's part of the government so what is it resisting in Lebanon?) or at the level of anti-Semitic rantings like "smash the Jewish state".

For the record, my own position is that Israel has a right to defend itself but when it kills innocents (non-combatants, or call them what you like I don't think the terminology is important) it loses much of the ethical and moral and sheer rightful backing it needs, and deserves.

For discussion on media portrayals of the events at Qana see this news roundup from the Washington Post.

Decline and Fall of a Book Store

This is so so last, last month but I've just found it so here's the sad tale of the end of an independent bookstore. Here's the thing that made the shop good: enthusiastic and informed staff and a hands off owner.

The owner came by once a month to pick up the money and to sign the checks. Angela handled the finances, wrote the checks, and made sure the (financial) books were in order. Angela wasn't as big of a book person as Aaron and me, but she knew what books sold, what the neighborhood kids would be interested in, and she was a hell of a saleswoman. Aaron completely knew zines and the alternative press, and had a firm command of history texts and non-canonical literature (specifically, revolutionary writers and non-Western writers from the islands, Africa and India). Aaron also brought the store 'street cred' because of his writings and punk recordings. I knew books; I knew how to sell; and I knew what sold. We added shelves; reorganized the store, and turned it into a quirky place for political writings, zines, expensive graffiti books, and all things fringe (before us, the owner's boyfriend turned the store around; he started it on the path we followed). It worked.

And here's why it failed: the owner didn't didn't pay any bills. Owed money to small presses run by friends. Owed money to the Zapatistas. Finally lawyers and bailiffs caught up.

Here's the final web page of the shop. (Probably not safe for work but that depends where you work!)

Good independent bookshops are important to the intellectual and cultural life of any city. Good independent bookshops are going out of business at an ever increasing rate. What's that say about the cultural and intellectual life of cities?

Pish

Ever have one of those days when you get all set up to do things and it all goes pear shaped?

I wanted to check my emails.

• my personal emails via yahoo are inaccessible: a delightful sight of "page cannot be displayed/cannot find server". Pish.


• my work email (super duper user friendly inotes) keeps asking me to click ok as I am "about to view data over a secure connection". I know. So I click ok. The window is a persistent little fellow and refuses to disappear. So I am unable to access my work emails. Does it make me a sad anorak accessing work emails on a sunday afternoon? Yes.

So I am totally unable to read any incoming messages. Pish.

Munro Blog

Here's an excellent new blog with loads of pictures of Munros, and their shorter neighbours.

These Munros are not to be confused with the Monroe Doctrine.

Rethinking Marxism 2006

I was always intrigued how the RCP always had their week of fun filled intellectual revolutionary frolics adjacent in the calendar to the equally fun filled revolutionary frolics of the SWP.

"Get down all those posters".

"Put up our posters".

Anyway, I've found this conference in October 2006. The plenary session is headed "Imperialism and the Fantasies of Democracy". Because it's such a spiffing read here's the abstract.

Many of today's left analyses of imperialism make note of the neoconservative turn to democracy. At the same time, such analyses are often too quick to discard this reference to democracy as empty rhetoric, as a mere cover for the real imperial economic interests (generally centered on oil). Parting ways with such simple critiques of imperialism, this plenary recognizes the constitutive role democratic discourse plays in structuring today's imperial vision and poses the following questions: How does taking the rhetoric of democracy seriously (and conceiving of it as fantasy) aid us to understand what is new and different in contemporary imperialism as well as to grasp the ways in which neoconservative hegemony elicits popular consent? The reason we use the term "fantasies" is to introduce a deliberately ironic and also a disputed term in making the connection between imperialism and democracy. That is, we think that "fantasies" could be read, alternatively, as connoting a source of desire/pleasure, an ideological formation, a possible "illusion," and much else. What kinds of economic, political, legal orders are formed and imposed through imperial fantasies of democracy? What kind of new and unique contradictions are spawned by them that disrupt their smooth functioning? What are the material practices by and through which determinate democratic movements have been able to articulate their projects in the midst of, in spite of, or in conjunction with the forms of imperialism that are currently in play? Does the contemporary turn toward religious and ethnic ideals and movements attest to the failure of these particular democratic fantasies? Or are they conditioned by the inherent limits to the democratic promise?

Alternatively, to the extent that democracy exceeds its articulation to imperialism, it also becomes a potential to mobilize the growing reactions to imperialism in the form of diverse anti-globalization and peace movements. The question then becomes: How can the left critiques of imperialism rethink the promise of democracy that animates the desires of many who wish for economic and political justice, drawing, partly, from rich traditions and current new thinking stemming from Marxism?

At least it doesn't take the, all too common, approach of rejecting democracy as it is used for purposes we do not agree with. If there are "inherent limits to the democratic promise" what do Laclau, Shohat and Callari, propose to do about them? What is the alternative to democracy? Are "religious and ethnic ideals and movements" considered a valid progressive alternative to democratic movements?

Or is it just

"a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing"?

Economists and Immigration

Like most right thinking people I've always thought that immigrants to a country increase the labour supply but in needing goods and services they also create an increased demand for labour.

Today I have discovered the technical term for this is that the "demand curve also shifts out" [registration required after first read], or so says labour economist David Card. Back in 2005 Card produced this research to ask "Is the New Immigration Really So Bad? In his abstract he says

This paper reviews the recent evidence on U.S. immigration, focusing on two key questions:

1. Does immigration reduce the labor market opportunities of less-skilled natives?
2. Have immigrants who arrived after the 1965 Immigration Reform Act successfully assimilated?

In his conclusion he finds that the relationship between the wages of American born high school dropouts and American born high school graduates has remained fairly constant since 1980. This suggests there is no negative impact of immigration on wages.

He also concludes that while the 40% of U.S.A. immigrants having no High School diploma will find it difficult to catch up with the average wage of native-born Americans, their children find it increasingly easier to earn similar sums to the children of those same native-born Americans.

Card's final sentence is worth quoting: "The relatively strong educational progress of second generation immigrants, together with the limited evidence of adverse effects on less skilled natives, suggest that the new immigration may not be so bad after all."

There's an interesting article, by Roger Lowenstein The Immigration Equation, [registration required after first read] discussing these issues, the work of David Card and the conflicting work of George Borjas. Borjas asserts, contrary to Card, that President Bush's proposed guestworker programme will lead to more foreign born workers.

The typical rationale provided for the guestworker program is that the country "needs" immigrants to keep many of its industries running. After all, many immigrants "do jobs that natives do not want to do."

These assertions are among the most persistent and hard-to-shake myths regarding the labor market impact of immigration. Supporters of the guestworker program argue that entire industries would vanish if American employers did not have access to cheap foreign labor. The vast majority of cab drivers in New York City are foreign-born (82 percent in the 2000 Census). Would all those yellow cars be piled up in some junkyard if those immigrants had not been admitted? Of course not. Fewer than 10 percent of the cab drivers in Cincinnati and Detroit are foreign-born. Nevertheless, the cab industry in those cities manages to survive and provide services to the local communities. It may cost a little more to ride those cabs, but the jobs get done.

What past immigration has done — and what the temporary worker program will continue to do on a potentially larger scale — is to depress wages and increase the profits of the firms that employ the immigrants. The labor market effects documented in this paper suggest that the proposed temporary worker program will expose many more Americans to competition from foreign workers, will generate higher earnings losses for workers, and will lead to an even greater redistribution of wealth from labor to those who buy and use immigrant services.

Even though Borjas's work is well researched and sourced, his examples of cabbies in Cincinnatti and Detroit may not serve his purpose. If people previously employed as cabbies can get better paid, less stressful employment with other benefits elsewhere they may well take it. It is sometimes the lack of decent other options that keep people in a type of work. Are there better opportunities for people with the typical background of an American born cabbie in cities such as Detroit and Cincinnatti? If those other opportunities existed would the jobs still be taken by American born workers? I think the answer is probably not, which would lead to a readjustment in the local cabbie industry.

I think Borjas's work falls down on his belief in labour mobility. Is, as Borjas argues, a building company in Michigan really going to relocate to California because of the availability of cheaper, immigrant labour? Some may do. But the majority won't. And that's because many companies are run by people who have ties to an area. People who don't want to move. People who would only move for substantial advantages and a substantially better life. If you owned a reasonably profitable construction company in Michigan would you move, for slightly more profit, to California? Who would do the construction in Michigan?

If Borjas is right, and immigration adversely affects the wages and employment prospects of the already low waged should immigration be reduced? Is it just my own liberal prejudice saying that immigration is a G-O-O-D thing and should continue? Is my support for immigration screwing over the already low paid?

Fundamentally I believe that mobility of labour is a good thing. Diversity of communities is a good thing. Any change disproportionately affects the low paid. Isn't it better to campaign for the better treatment of immigrants ***and*** an end to seeing labour as just another cost to be lowered as much as possible?

Lake Tekapo

A picture of Lake Tekapo taken a couple of days ago.

Practical Action

There's a small charity (NGO) called Practical Action who do a lot of good work in providing appropriate technology for developing nations.

Practical Action – with the strapline, Technology Challenging Poverty – sums up what we do, making a practical difference in the lives of poor people. We recognise the importance of technology and hands on work. We share knowledge and work together with communities. In policy debate, our work focuses on delivering practical changes that positively impact on the lives of poor people.

They're well worth supporting.

... Practical Action takes on the following challenges:

• To work with women and men living in poverty on the management of technical change for sustainable livelihoods, while the economic and technological forces around them are affecting those livelihoods with bewildering speed;
• To research, test and analyze the impacts of new technologies on the lives of people in developing countries, suggesting ways to use them ‘appropriately’, or proposing alternatives
• To demonstrate to others the potential of appropriate technology as a key element in an alternative, sustainable model of development
• To demonstrate the continuing role of direct, practical answers to poverty in local partnerships with women and men living in poverty
• To link the lives of its local partners to the remote policy frameworks which condition their livelihoods and environment, and to change those frameworks in their favour.

Practical Action's Vision

A world free of poverty and injustice in which technology is used to the benefit of all.

Practical Action's Mission

Practical Action aims to eradicate poverty in developing countries through the development and use of technology, by demonstrating results, sharing knowledge and influencing others.

Go on. Make a donation. You'll sleep better.

Death to Van Gogh's Ear!

Via Scribbles I have found this quiz. Very simple. Very cool. Well, it's definitely cool in my case. Some people chase cool while others just have it.

Neil -- [noun]: A beat poet working the streets 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Beat poet working the streets says to me Ferlinghetti, Corso, Ginsberg but to you it may say ranting person with mental health issues. Whatever.

Amnesty International on Gilad Shalit

Amnesty has issued a statement on the abduction of Gilad Shalit:

Corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted in the early morning of 25 June by Palestinian gunmen in an attack on an army base on the Israeli side of the fence which separates the Gaza Strip from Israel. Two other Israeli soldiers were killed and a third wounded in the attack.

Hostage taking, that is threatening to harm or continue to detain a detained person in order to compel a third party to do or abstain from doing something as a condition for their release, is expressly prohibited under international law. Such practice threatens the fundamental right to life, personal integrity and liberty, and is expressly prohibited by international humanitarian law. Under no circumstances is the taking of hostages justifiable.

Armed groups have an international legal obligation to respect the principles of international humanitarian law, including Article 3 common to the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, which reflects customary international law, and which prohibits the taking of hostages, murder and cruel treatment and torture. Amnesty International calls on the armed groups holding Corporal Gilad Shalit to comply with these principles.

Indeed. All governments and extra-governmental bodies should respect the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949. That would be a G-O-O-D thing.

Bombing of civilian facilities

The Israeli Humna Rights group B'Tselem has raised concerns over Israeli attacks on civilian facilities in Gaza.

B'Tselem today [28th June 2006] sent an urgent request to Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz to instruct Israeli forces to refrain from bombing or deliberately damaging in any way facilities that supply indispensable services to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

B'Tselem added that Israel has the right to all legal measures to free the abducted soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit. However, Israel must refrain from using measures which contravene International Humanitarian Law, which categorically prohibits all sides to a conflict from attacking "objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population".

The article specifically mentioned the bombing of the central electricity relay station to the south of Gaza City. When the Israeli government engages in such actvities against the civilian population of Gaza it is in danger of being accused of war crimes. It is also in danger of losing support from supporters outside Israel. And it is danger of pissing off any possible support it may have in Gaza or the West Bank.

Amnesty International USA says:

Israel must now take urgent measures to remedy the long-term damage it has caused and immediately restore the supply -- at its own cost -- of electricity and water to the Palestinian population in the affected areas," urged the organization. "As the occupying power, Israel is bound under international law to protect and safeguard the basic human rights of the Palestinian population."

The deliberate destruction of the Gaza Strip’s only electricity power station, water networks, bridges, roads and other infrastructure is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and has major and long-term humanitarian consequences for the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.

Almost half of Gaza’s inhabitants are now without electricity and water supplies have also been cut in several areas both by the lack of electricity, necessary to operate the water pumps used to extract and deliver water, and by the destruction of water mains as a result of the bombings of bridges and roads.

The extensive damage caused by Israeli artillery and air strikes against these facilities in recent days is estimated at several millions of US dollars and will require months of work to repair. Unless alternative emergency measures are promptly put in place to restore electricity and water supply the consequences could be dire for the health of the Palestinian population.

In a statement the Israeli army said that it had: “…carried out an aerial attack on an electricity transformer station south of Gaza city….” and that “ The IDF will continue to employ all means at its disposal against Palestinian terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip in order to ensure the quick and safe return home of Corporal Gilad Shalit.”

Amnesty go on to argue that "destructon .. of .. bridges and roads is slowing down, but not preventing movement" across the Gaza Strip but it does not stop armed groups moving across the region. Stopping armed groups was a stated ojective of the Israeli military, an objective that is not being met.

Amnesty continue

As the tension between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and armed groups continues to mount, there is growing concern for the safety of the civilian population. High numbers of Palestinian bystanders, including women and children, have been killed and injured by Israeli artillery shelling and air strikes in recent weeks and months. This situation looks set to worsen in light of the end of the unilateral cease-fire which the armed wing of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups had been observing since last year.

"The hostage-taking of Corporal Gilad Shalit, and the killing of Eliyahu Asheri, the 18 year old settler, by Palestinian armed groups violate fundamental principles of international law. Corporal Gilad Shalit should be released immediately and unharmed."

"Both sides to this current stand-off should refrain from taking actions which violate international law and should take steps to provide redress for the abuses they have committed. The international community, also has an obligation under the Geneva Conventions, to act," said Amnesty International

Such is international opinion.

Four more years of disappointment

The excellent Hak pointed me to this excellent post of George Szirtes.

So then
Farewell Sven
and the occasional ibroglio
with or without Nancy dell'Olio

Farewell the vast forehead
with acres of space for looking thoughtful yet worried.

Farewell the noble belief in Beckham
despite tabloid oiks bellowing, 'Sack'im!'

The tidy suit, the buddhist calm,
one showing faint cracks, the other minus an arm,

The caution, the mild words, the golden boys dumped
Gerrard exhausted, Beckham weeping and even Hargreaves slumped.

And as these lines grow ever longer and ever more barren
Hail the dead lions. Hail penalty shootouts. Hail dull old Steve McLaren

Pomes. Penyeach!

Mishegas

A sudden flush of blood to the wallet led me last night to a shed of a computer store. Three quarters of an hour later I walked out with a laptop and a wireless router.

Now, on possibly the hottest day of the year, I'm thinking through my next actions.

The intention is to allow Rullsenberg to work upstairs, on this machine, while I work elsewhere on my new laptop. Now setting up the network involves disconnecting cables and jiggery schmiggery pokery. I don't do that.

Regular expressions, Perl, SQL, database administration and *nixie administration is what I do. And I do it with no qualms. Just get on and do it. Unplugging physical stuff that works, changing its state, and plugging it back in puts the fear of figgy pudding into me. What if it stops working? Have a Plan B. What if that doesn't work? Go and have a damn fine cup of coffee.

Neologism alert: As an aside I've just googled "fear of figgy pudding" and got the message "Your search - "fear of figgy pudding" - did not match any documents." End of neologism alert. Let's hope that's not like you tube maury pickles.

So here I am putting off doing the deed. Drinking coffee. Eating figs. Listening to Orishas "A Lo Cubana".

Once it's done I've promised myself a cool glass of Ricard.

Now all I've got to do is do it.

*** I think this post has been dreadfully self indulgent. But that's just the kind of self indulgent crap people like Simon Hoggart get paid shedloads of money to produce. ***

Private reasons great or small

Mark Thomas hits the nail on the head.

"Is it tolerable that we have this many weapons out there? Is it tolerable that there are people who live on a dollar a day? Is it tolerable that we have this society where people at the bottom, the working class - in fact, the people below the working class - that class of people who were just written off at school and stayed written off and stuck there, who are now fucking Asbo fodder, and are treated like scum by comics like Jimmy Carr, who fuckin'...?" He stops to catch his breath. "Is it tolerable that that exists? No. Those facts have never changed. And my belief that we should change them has never changed. It's the approach to how we change it that has changed it. Sometimes, I think you have to be on the outside of all of it, and sometimes you need to be on the inside, and sometimes I just haven't got a clue. There's a lot more ambiguity in my life, and I like that."

Bingo.

Good interview by Simon Hattenstone.

Catching Up II

And those things that happen, shish, it takes time to catch up with.

Friday night went to see Simon Callow give a splendid actorly talk on the second volume, "Hello Americans", of his three part Orson Welles biography. This review gives a flavour of the book and Callow's talk:

Hello Americans picks up the 26-year-old Welles in 1941. Covering six extraordinary years, it addresses 'the most persistent question asked about Orson Welles: what went wrong after Citizen Kane?' There is no simple answer. From the start, Callow dismisses as glib and untrue two frequently advanced explanations. The first is that Welles was self-destructive, the second that he was the victim of a conspiracy on the part of unimaginative, envious and vindictive studio heads and their contacts in the press.

The question everyone asks, "how did Orson Welles get so fat", got the answer "volume three".

Catching Up

When you're busy things really start to happen, don't they?

A week ago went to hear Mike Marqusee talk on his excellent updated book Wicked Messenger. It's a very enjoyable performance and you'll leave knowing more about His Bobness than when you arrived.

About the Dylan whose songs covered politics, protest, civil rights and just being alive.

About the Dylan who rejected the title of "protest singer" and the title "voice of a generation".

About the Dylan whose lyrics say so much about globalisation (before the term was conceived).

About the Dylan who treated people like Wooody Guthrie and Joan Baez so shoddily.

About the Dylan who sells his image, time and music to Victoria's Secrets and Starbucks.

About the Dylan who likes pissing people off.

About the Dylan who dislikes anyone claiming to know "the real Dylan".

It's about Dylan.

And the book's good too.

Jerry Springer the Raffle

On Friday I discovered I had won a raffle for two tickets to Jerry Springer the Opera.

So last night Rullsenberg and I went along. Outside the venue were a group of protesting Christians singing hymns and generally praying for the souls of those who entered the theatre. From inside we saw the protesting Christians joined by a counter demo protesting the right to free speech. This was a cue for an argument between a senior woman and the teenage free speech protestors. But hold that thought a minute. Surely the free speech protestors were also about protesting the senior woman's right to protest, because that's what free speech means, so why argue?

Anyway, on with the show. It's bawdy, irreverent, scurrilous, filthy, scatalogical and a morality tale echoing a long history of religious themed morality tales dating back to the York Mystery plays.

In summary, it's very enjoyable. Go see.

Wiki and Wicked Thoughts

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is interviewed in the latest print issue of The Chronicle.

He claims to receive about ten emails a week from students complaining about Wikipedia .

"They say, 'Please help me. I got an F on my paper because I cited Wikipedia'" and the information turned out to be wrong, he says. But he said he has no sympathy for their plight, noting that he thinks to himself: "For God sake, you're in college; don't cite the encyclopedia," the journal reports.

If it's not good enough for students, according to Jimmy Wales, in a Ratner moment, what is it good for?

Beau Coupe de Monde

Kofi Annan writes

[The World Cup] is an event in which everybody knows where their team stands, and what it did to get there. They know who scored and how and in what minute of the game; they know who saved the penalty. I wish we had more of that sort of competition in the family of nations. Countries vying for the best standing in the table of respect for human rights, and trying to outdo one another in child survival rates or enrolment in secondary education. States parading their performance for all the world to see. Governments being held accountable.

And what's wrong with that?

Be Realistic. Demand the Impossible

Here's Gary Younge on political activism today.

The people involved in the demonstrations today are in general younger, poorer and darker than those of 40 years ago. Young women are more likely to take a leadership role; their parents are more likely to support them. These are not middle-class students seeking an alliance with the workers; they are working-class students seeking passage to the middle class. In Chile, 87% of the public supported them. "These are not crazy revolutionaries," wrote Patricio Fernandez, an influential columnist in the Clinic newspaper. "Their parents support them. Their cousins, their neighbours, their old aunts. They are bored that the wealthy schools educate those who will be boss while their school trains them to be workers. More than combating Chilean authorities, they are convincing them."

What do we want? Middle class jobs. When do we want them? Now!

On the Beach

Sometimes you just like that feeling of sand between your toes. That feeling of the waves coming to the shore. That feeling of being bombed. Can there be any excuse for the bombing on the beach at Gaza?

To open fire on an area where there are members of the public is inexcusable. Whether by negligence, carelessness or deliberate act this is just morally wrong. For further coverage see Norm and also Lisa Goldman. Ha'aretz's Bradley Burston has this to say:

For every Mohammed Dura, there have been hundreds and hundreds of Palestinians killed by the IDF in error, in conjunction with the killing of terrorists, or because overwhelming force and remote technology was applied in order to minimize the risk to Israeli troops.

There was no news crew to film them, so the world cares nothing for them. And neither do we. Their tragedies are no less unbearable, surely no less unbearable than the hundreds of our own the world cares nothing for.

We can live with it, as we live with the idea of sending thousands and thousands of artillery shells into one of the most crowded districts on the planet, in order to try to hit three-man mobile crews firing a rocket not much bigger than a broom - the equivalent of going after a fly with a pile-driver.

We live with it because we Can't Just Do Nothing, as if thousands of shells, many of them directed at open spaces calculated precisely to hit nothing, are the only possible alternative.

We can live with it, fundamentally, because we don't know what else to do, and because the only thing left for us to believe, is that it's wrong to negotiate.

Side A lobs bombs into the are controlled by Side B. Side B retaliates by lobbing bombs into the area controlled by Side A. Side A retaliates by lobbing bombs into the are controlled by Side B. No matter who started the damn thing everyone is now retaliating.

The tricky thing about negotiation is deciding who to negotiate with. Whether or not to negotiate is an easy question to answer. Except in the extremest of circumstances you find someone to negotiate with, (assuming there is someone with the authority to take a negotiated settlement and get it agreed by their people). If there isn't a candidate then find one.

Lowdham Book Festival

There's a splendid festival taking place in a week's time in Lowdham, Nottinghamshire.

We're off to see Mike Marqusee on Bob Dylan; and Simon Cowell on Orson Welles.

(No? Really? That can't be right. Let me check my notes. Oops. Simon Callow. Wrong bloody Simon.)

Anyway it looks a good festival so if you're in the neighbourhood, drop in.

Who do I support?

Should an accident of geography dictate who you support in international sporting contests?

Under late Capitalism support in the World Cup is just another commodity choice. You are fully justified in supporting who you damn please.

If that's England, well somebody has to. An accident of birth shouldn't dictate where you live your life (even if it so often does) so why should it dictate who you support in international sporting contests?

It's just so difficult to get hold of Paraguay and Serbia-Montenegro flags in Nottingham.

Serbia-Montenegro must be the first country which no longer existed at the time the tournament started to play in the World Cup Finals. If they win the tournament will there there be two victory parades?

And I still haven't said it. Several nights ago the media coverage of Shrek arriving in Germany was like the coverage you would expect for the First Coming (or Second Coming depending on your ideological and religious preference). In England's first game isn't any savvy defender going to tread on Mr Rooney's foot at the first corner? Wither England's chances?

England should really have chosen SWP (no, this one).

From Lip Balm to Felix Dzerzhinsky

Belarus has just unveiled a memorial statue to Felix Dzerzhinsky, of the Cheka and the Red Terror. Harry's Place compared the reputation of Dzerzhinsky with that of Che Guevara.

Now in the V&A there's an exhibition of photos of Che. In an act of turning the literary and historical into just the visual the V&A have removed "much of the text accompanying and explaining the images", and posted it on its website instead. That's helpful for visitors to the show.

The V&A website describes Che as "a symbol of fashion’s fascination with radical chic". It appears to be an exhibition devoid of context making Che yet another icon whose image can be bought and sold. There's an Argentine expression for this phenomenon:

“Tengo una remera del Che y no sé por qué,” or “I have a Che T-shirt and I don’t know why.”

In a futher show of the abandonment of politics for fashion Gerry Adams was refused an invite to the opening because "having Gerry Adams there may not be appropriate". Now opinions on Gerry Adams vary, but here he seems to have been "uninvited" because he is seen as "P-O-L-I-T-I-C-A-L" and we can't have that, can we, boys and girls.

Ms Ziff [, the curator,] remains dismayed. "It's extraordinary," she said. "The V&A have tried to turn it all [the Guevara exhibition] into just a design image and remove the resonance from it all.

"But you can't just turn Che Guevara into a commodity. The photo of Che by Alfredo Korda is the most reproduced image in history but it still has power. You can call it a storm in a teacup but it is really insidious. And on top of all that, the V&A shop is selling all these images of Che - there is even a Che lip balm.I'm amazed at the mindset."

Among items for sale during the exhibition will be a Che finger puppet, Che chocolate cigar, Che doll and Che cigar box as well as T-shirts, stickers, neon signs and badges.

I suppose that's an empty cigar box?

Clouds

Here's someone with something to say about clouds.

... there's an Arabic phrase for someone who is lucky or blessed - they say, 'His sky is always filled with clouds.' It's the complete opposite [of the Western attitude]. Clouds provide shade and rain. And rain is life; it's about abundance. Clouds bring beauty to the sunset. And they clear the atmosphere. They're purifiers: cloud droplets form around bits of pollution and bring it back to earth. But one of the main things for me is appreciating their beauty. Every day is like a new page."

And here's the Cloud Appreciation Society.

Diego Garcia

John Pilger is justifiably upset by forty odd years of British Government lies and obfuscation over the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and its people, the Chagossians (named for the Chagos Arhipelago). In return for expelling the Chagossians the British Government got a discount of five million pounds off the waste of time and money that were Polaris missiles. The campaign is, I believe, a valid campaign and compensation is in order for the mistreatment of the people.

Pilger's ire is raised by both the mistreatment of the Chagossians, and the fact the island became a U.S. military base used in the bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan.

I fully support the campaign of the islanders in seeking compensation for their removal, and the sneaky underhanded manner of the removal.

The question must be raised, is a small isolated population, 3000 miles from the nearest major hospital, really a viable long term community?

And another thing, here are some of the rules pertaining to Diego Garcia:

In accordance with current regulations, no type of attire with degrading or obscene comments may be worn on or brought to Diego Garcia. This includes pictures, phrases or slogans depicting drug paraphernalia, anti-war slogans, ethnic slurs or issues of a sexual nature. Biker, hippie-culture or mercenary magazines will be confiscated. All obscene or pornographic publications including pornographic videos will be confiscated. All videotapes brought to Diego Garcia will be retained by British Customs for screening. Tapes will be returned within 10 days. Prohibited material will be burned by British Customs

What is this hippie culture, of which you speak? Rullsenberg comments "I like the idea things are on video tapes still. So you can bring in dvds without inspection but not video tapes? What about a video playing iPod?"

Keep up with the programme Daddio. Hippie-ish culture indeed.

Cricket Lovely Cricket

Yesterday had a great day at Edgbaston.

Cricinfo Stat fact: England have once again come up winners at the Edgbaston - they now remain unbeaten at the Edgbaston for the last 5 test matches. It further substantiates the fact that the Edgbaston has been England's luckiest home venue - a fact that found a mention in S Rajesh's preview at the start of the test match. England have now won 22 of the 42 tests they have played at the Edgbaston - that's 52.38% of the games they have played here.

That being my first Test I'm luckier than the Edgbaston.

Enchiladas

Sometimes you comes across a saying that just has to be dropped in a conversation.

Peace, love and freedom estas no son enchiladas.

A Grand Day Out

This Saturday I went with Rullsenberg and some friends to Levellers Day in Burford, Oxfordshire. As my friend described it, "Idealism in an English country garden".

The day started with Tony Benn. I've seen Tony Benn quite regularly for over twenty years and it's always the same speech. To paraphrase "Redistribute wealth, ... , if you go back enough generations each of us, individually, has more ancestors than there were people alive therefore we are all cousins, ... , and wouldn't the world be better if we all just got along, ... , there's seventy seven nationalities in my grandkid's school, ... , it's a United Nations, ... , my grandkids know more about the world than I did at their age".

Next came Karen Chouhan, from the National Assembly against Racism, talking about identity, integration and how her son regularly gets stopped and searched by the police. All solid traditional stuff. All solid traditional polemic that describes the world as it is and not as it ought to be.

Then a speech from Salma Yaquoob. I wasn't making notes and can't readily recall what she said but she comes over as very intelligent, and is probably going to replace GG as Respect's only MP.

Then we went in a procession around the town of Burford lead by Cry Havoc Morris, and followed by a Woodcraft Folk contingent.

Meeting back outside the churchyard we sang the Billy Bragg lyrics to the Internationale. Enough to bring a tear to the eye!

In the pub we were sat by Cry Havoc Morris who serenaded us with music. Must admit I have a confession to make, and this will please Bagrec, I enjoyed the experience.

The day ended with a show by Robb Johnson and Leon Rosselson, which sometimes irritated and sometimes entertained, according to my own prejudices. A song that particularly irked was Rosselson's "My Father's Jewish World", with its line "It's not a nation, not a religion, this Jewish spirit is still unbroken". The final clause, "this Jewish spirit is still unbroken", has merit and is beyond dispute, it's the first two sections that irked. That bit about "not a nation, not a religion". Is he appealing to the romantic ideal of the diasporic citizen of the world, which has a certain idealistic charm or is he denying any right to a Jewish nation? I think it's the latter. And that is wrong. In a world of nations everyone has a right to a home nation except the Jewish people. That is unforgiveable.

Nation states falling off the map

It's easy to draw a map and forgot which country's which. Well, it is for the geographically challenged Guardian.

A map of the states of former Yugoslavia showed Bosnia (minus Herzegovina), Montenegro, and Macedonia. The rest was wrongly labelled Yugoslavia. That area should have shown both Serbia and Croatia. In addition, Slovenia should have appeared to the north-west (Tiny nation with colourful past set to witness final break-up of the Balkans, page 29, yesterday).

That must be some geography department they have at Farringdon Road.

Intellectuals and Tyrants

Ian Buruma argues for a Left that does more than fly flags from cranes for visiting leaders.

Last year a number of journalists, writers and showbiz figures, including Harold Pinter, Nadine Gordimer, Harry Belafonte and Tariq Ali, signed a letter claiming that in Cuba “there has not been a single case of disappearance, torture or extra-judicial execution since 1959 . . .”

[Cuban novelist Reinaldo]Arenas was arrested in 1973 for “ideological deviation”. He was tortured and locked up in prison cells filled with floodwater and excrement, and threatened with death if he didn’t renounce his own writing. Imagine what it must be like to be treated like this and then read about your fellow writers in the West standing up for your oppressors.

Isn't it amazing that intelligent people like Ali, Pinter, Gordimer and Belafonte can even think that there "has not been a single case of disappearance, torture or extra-judicial execution". Wouldn't it make a better case to argue it is not a matter of policy but if it happens those responsible are treated with due legal process? That stops your argument being trashed by a single counter example.

Discussing the Venezuelan leader Buruma writes

Chavez is the Latin American version of a new type of authoritarianism (Thailand’s Thaksin Shinawatra is the Asian version), built on a mixture of showbusiness, intimidation, paranoia, huge wealth, and public handouts to the poor. The ideal is democracy by referendum, stripped of messy party politics or independent courts.

In a line that won't please some people, Buruma likens Chavez to Berlusconi, in their appeal to populism.

Here's Buruma's conclusion

The left has a proud tradition of defending political freedoms, at home and abroad. But this tradition is in danger of being lost when western intellectuals indulge in power worship. Applause for autocrats undermines the morale of people who insist on fighting for their freedoms....But when democracy is endangered, the left should be equally hard on rulers who oppose the US. Failure to do so encourages authoritarianism everywhere, including in the West itself, where the frivolous behaviour of a dogmatic left has already allowed neoconservatives to steal all the best lines.

"We oppose our country's foreign policy." "He opposes our country's foreign policy." "Therefore we are batting on the same side." Such is the argument that passes for politics on the flag-waving left.

[Thanks to Harry's Place]

Today's the day

On this day in 1979 the Federated States of Micronesia came into being with ratification of their constitution.

Three cheers for the Federated States of Micronesia.

Certe, toto, sentio nos in kansate non iam adesse

With this title I introduce the much awaited Normblog poll results. The top five states are

1. California
2. Wyoming
3. Louisiana
4. Tennessee
5. Mississippi

You'll have to wait for the songs.

And that title, I just thought it was so fitting. For those who think Latin is what they speak in Latin America "Certe, toto, sentio nos in kansate non iam adesse" translates as "You know, Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore". Or, at least that's what this brilliant website says it means.

Democratic Vistas

Raekha Prasad describes the contradiction of Indian democracy.

It granted political equality - the principle of one man, one vote - to a society without the principle of one man, one value.

This describes a necessary pre-condition for a thriving democracy. You can't have a successful democracy without some degree of social and legal equality (I'd also argue for a greater degree of economic equality).

Election by the Longest Pencil

A councillor in the UK has been elected by choosing a longer pencil than his opponent. After three recounts the returning officer gave the candidates a choice of two hidden pencils and the rest is electoral trivia.

Cloak of Invisibility

If you had a cloak of invisibility when would you use it?

Existence and Being There

I was looking for information on the java class fileloader and I saw the name Martin Heidegger.

What's the Chauncey of that happening?

Ashamed

Doesn't it make you ashamed that some people choose to vote for a neo-nazi party like the BNP?

Info on Info

This piece details how easy it is to get hold of someone's details given a snippet of information.

We logged on to the BA website, bought a ticket in Broer's name and then, using the frequent flyer number on his boarding pass stub, without typing in a password, were given full access to all his personal details - including his passport number, the date it expired, his nationality (he is Dutch, living in the UK) and his date of birth. The system even allowed us to change the information.

Using this information and surfing publicly available databases, we were able - within 15 minutes - to find out where Broer lived, who lived there with him, where he worked, which universities he had attended and even how much his house was worth when he bought it two years ago.

So, there's a booming market in paper shredders. Get one, or a gerbil. Or is this just another media inspired panic?

New anti-terrorist legislation and id cards mean an awful lot of personal information will be stored at various government agencies and often outsourced to private companies. New passports, and id cards, will store information and have a tiny antennae to transmit the information to an electronic reader at, for example, passport control. The official line is that this will only be read at short distances. However a more powerful reader could pick up the information. Experts agree that the encryption used is not as strong as it could be and will be cracked before long.

The Guardian makes the point that this all down to the U.S. Yet another problem blamed on the U.S.

States of Indecision

Yonks ago Norm asked for a list of favourite states tied by a song. Never one to turn down a pointless task I've whittled through the list and come down to:

• Alabama
• Ohio
• Nebraska
• Utah
• Wisconsin

The lyric comes from the Pere Ubu song Postcard. Here's the important bit:

I sent her two postcards
They came right back
I sent her two postcards
Big wheel from Detroit, Michigan
A lake freighter from Chicago
A cow wearing a stetson, Montana
A chicken farm ranch from Utah
Utah was a good state for that sort of thing
It's Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City is a very good thing for that sort of thing
In fact it's one of the best things
for that sort of thing
that I've ever run into

In case you haven't twigged it's the line about Utah was a good state for that sort of thing.

Fat Man and the Trolley

Why do some philosophical thought experiments just seem so unreal?

This piece asks:

[A] runaway trolley car is hurtling down a track where it will kill five people. You are standing on a bridge above the track and, aware of the imminent disaster, you decide to jump on the track to block the trolley car. Although you will die, the five people will be saved.

Just before your leap, you realise that you are too light to stop the trolley. Next to you, a fat man is standing on the very edge of the bridge. He would certainly block the trolley, although he would undoubtedly die from the impact. A small nudge and he would fall right onto the track below. No one would ever know. Should you push him?

So just before you leap you get a flashback of all the stodgy meals left uneaten and you either cease to exist or become an amnesiac or repress it so much that you fail to know, in any meaningful sense, what you did. How else to understand "No one would ever know". Oh, possibly that should be "No one [else] would ever know"?

Does turning philosophical thought experiments into opinion polls make them more relevant? It probably cuts through the crap often cited that "everyone, without hesitation, would do option A (whatever option A is)" where option A is often just a rationalisation of the prejudices of the writer.

One major flaw with thought experiments, especially in ethics, is that they are rarely tested on people. The sample size is minuscule. The philosopher will simply assume that most people think that one option is right (or wrong).

Quantifying a non random sample of a population will tell you little more than the split of opinions across a society at a particular moment. It will do litle to prove the universal applicability of any moral imperative.

Mortality

It comes as a shock when you find school mates dying. It's that first intimation of mortality. That first chance to stand up to reality. And it's disturbing. Obviously sadder for the person's parents and loved ones but even though I haven't spoken to them in years it's still a sad day.

Today I discovered that Martin Gilks, drummer in the original Wonder Stuff, died in a tragic motorcycle accident in Tooting on the 3rd of April. He was definitely one of the best drummers in 80s/90s indie and even if you disagree, he was one of the good guys.

This site contains memories and condolences. Pay a visit.

Books

A quote for today.

Books can only change the world if the world is capable of digesting them.

From Q by Luther Blissett, p409.

Darfur Campaign

A campaigning blog, Bloggers for Darfur, has been set up calling for action to stop genocide in Darfur, in Sudan.

I recommend you visit, read and sign up.

If you want more information on what's happening in Sudan there's an excellent blog, Sudan Watch that assiduously rounds up news from various sources.

Fascists and Iran

Last week, I know it was along time ago but I've been away, YaBass blogged on this story of German neoNazis planning to link themselves to Iran during the World Cup so they can spread anti-Semitic hatred.

A neo-Nazi group in Germany has announced plans to attach themselves to Iran during the World Cup to further its dissemination of anti-semitic propaganda. The NPD party, a right-wing extremist group, intends to march around the east German city of Leipzig on June 21, when Iran take on Angola in group D.

The Guardian goes on to report

The NPD [, a fascist group] admires the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has referred to the Holocaust as "a myth" and called for Israel to be "wiped of the map". Germany's interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble has however confirmed that German and Iranian diplomats are discussing the possibility of Ahmadinejad - who showed his support for the national team last month by turning up at a training camp in a tracksuit before their friendly against Costa Rica - coming to the World Cup.

Germany's Jewish Council pointed out that Ahmadinejad could be arrested under German law. "There is no doubt that the Iranian president's public utterances denying the Holocaust and calling for the destruction of Israel infringes paragraph 130 of Germany's statute book," said Stephan Kramer, the council's secretary general.

That would be good, having Ahmadinejad arrested in Germany. Perhaps he could start a prison penpal relationship with David Irving over in Austria.

Serendipity

What a splendid thing is serendipity. I met Rullsenberg serendipitiously by a jukebox.

And tonight I came home and chanced on this brilliant video about a dweeb called George in a galaxy far, far away.

Stay for the end when there's a great gag about the movie Michael Medved accused of promoting inter-species sex.

[ From Radley Balko, the Agitator, via Tim Worstall ]

That chap Will

There I was, sat comfortably down with a cup of coffee, reading this fortnight's complimentary copy of the LRB thinking "here I am sat comfortably with a damn fine cup of coffee" when what do I see but a review of two books on coffee and coffee houses (unfortunately, to read on you will either need the paper copy or a subscription).



What are the odds of that?, I thought. Serendipidity, I thought. Rubbish I thought. Don't most people sup coffee as they read?

I read on,

if you wanted literary wit, John Dryden and his mates would be at Will's

What are the odds of that?, I thought. Serendipidity, I thought. Rubbish I thought.
Dryden, often considered the writer of the finest political satire in English, Absalom and Achitopel, at Will's? You jest?

Class

Neal Lawson comments on the role of class in modern Britain. The concensus goes that international competitiveness needs bankers and consultants who will go where "they are paid most and taxed least". The desire to appease this new elite means discussions about inequality, conspicuous wealth and spiralling execitive pay are off the agenda.

Lawson concludes

Ultimately the challenge is political. Class is socially constructed. People have to want class to matter. Recognising the role of class opens up new possibilities for the left. The cash-rich but time-poor can only find "the good life" through a redistribution of resources with their cash-poor but time-rich alter egos. But forging this alliance requires brave political leadership.

New Labour was conceived just at the moment the new right was proclaiming "the end of history". The judgment of both looks premature. As Marx and Engels wrote at the start of the 1848 Communist Manifesto: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle." In its own way that struggle must continue today.

He makes many valid points. But is Lawson really using Marx to argue for a cross-class united front against "the rich"? Using Marx as a shield to allow the middle-classes to benefit from employing the working-classes? Using Marx to prop up a master servant relationship where the middle-classes are the master?
He opens well but spoils it by talk of the "cash-rich time-poor" and the "time-rich cash-poor" which is a lazy use of lifestyle journalism bollix.

His conclusion is good in its call for a renewal of class struggle.

Next time, Neal, drop the lifestyle journalism. We expect better from the chair of Compass, a "democratic left pressure group".

Euston

Intriguing as it may be to find out what happened to the Arch, this post isn't about that.

It's also not about how "trains were hauled to Euston from Chalk Farm by ropes, the locomotives not being brought nearer town lest they should frighten the horses".

No.

It's saying I have gone and signed the Manifesto.

Here's why. I have signed because it's about supporting

the values of democracy, human rights, the continuing battle against unjustified privilege and power, solidarity with peoples fighting against tyranny and oppression — are what most enduringly define the shape of any Left worth belonging to.

Amen.

Mingus and Freud

Skimming the LRB letters online I came across this letter on the connection between Charles Mingus and Sigmund Freud.

Some readers might like to be reminded of an earlier contribution to Mrs Freud studies. In 1960, Charlie Mingus, with Eric Dolphy on alto sax and others, recorded ‘All the Things You Could Be by Now if Sigmund Freud’s Wife Was Your Mother’.

Madeleine St John
London W11

Now you know.

Fascists are Barking

Margaret Hodge is reported as saying white, working class voters in her constituency of Barking are considering voting BNP. She says the drive for this is fear of change, including large numbers of ethnic minority asylum seekers moving into the area and has nothing to with racism.

Um. Fear of ethnic minority asylum seekers has nothing to do with racism? So what does Margaret Hodge think racism is? The original piece was an interview with the Telegraph that Margaret Hodge later accused of "selective quoting". Her rebuttal statement goes on to say

Many families were, she said, angry at the lack of housing since immigrants began arriving in the area and also because asylum seekers had been housed there by inner London councils.

"They can't get a home for their children, they see black and ethnic minority communities moving in and they are angry. It is a fear of change," she said.

Isn't that just a textbook definition of racism or am I missing something?

Back

I used to think that jet lag was, like lunch, "for wimps". Well, hello Mr Wimpy.

Emails to catch up on.

News to catch up on.

Reading the Euston Manifesto and asking is it a good thing.

Remembering to blog on this masterclass on how to write a newspaper column about absolutely nothing, and be paid. I thought the opening could be used about much comment in the blogosphere, but obviously not about stuff I write or link to.

As a dog returns to its vomit, so I return to my sock.

Except that in this house no dog returns to its vomit, for the excellent reason that it never leaves its vomit. Neglect your vomit for one second round here and the other dog snaffles the big bits. So let me change the simile.

Remembering reading, in a piece by Seymour Hersh that

All of the [I.A.E.A.] inspectors are angry at being misled by the Iranians, and some think the Iranian leadership are nutcases—one hundred per cent totally certified nuts,” the diplomat said. He added that ElBaradei’s overriding concern is that the Iranian leaders “want confrontation, just like the neocons on the other side”—in Washington. “At the end of the day, it will work only if the United States agrees to talk to the Iranians.”

Surely it will only work if the Iranians agree to talk to the United States as well?

And catch up on sleep .....gnhihihnl\knbldnbb