Subjects Archives: Media

  In the Beginning I am a child of the cold war.  I was born in 1940, was an adolescent in the 1950s, and devoid of political consciousness when President Eisenhower warned of the “unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex” in 1960.   I was modestly inspired by the young President Kennedy’s […]

  The Media, the Left, and Power Tanner Mirrlees: Why do you think it is important for progressives to understand the media and participate in media democracy struggles? Robert McChesney: The media is one of the key areas in society where power is exercised, reinforced, and contested.  It is hard to imagine a successful left […]

  Slide Presentation and Discussion: MOHAMMAD JAVAD JAHANGIR, THE INVISIBLE CROWD Presented by Mohammad Salemy Friday, August 14, 2009, 8:30 pm Little Mountain Studios 195 E. 26th Ave (at Main St.), Vancouver, B.C. Canada From Mohammad Javad Jahangir, The Invisible Crowd “Do not write the history of Iran in a foreign hand” DADABASE is pleased […]

  Despite its criticism of Tehran’s handling of protesters, the EU shies away from a serious diplomatic conflict with Iran.  Both the Swedish EU Council Presidency and individual EU member states will participate in the inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that, “given the circumstances surrounding the controversial reelection” of […]

  Andrew Hartman.  Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.  x + 251 pp.  $74.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-230-60010-2. Although world affairs are inherently distant from the local activity of running a school, international events can often heighten a sense of threat from abroad and a related […]

  En Clave Roja / No Pasarán Pan y Rosas Brought online by TV PTS (Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas) of Argentina on 27 July 2009, for the march today against the coup in Honduras.  En Clave Roja, <www.enclaveroja.org.ar>; No Pasarán <www.np.org.ar>; and Pan y Rosas <www.pyr.org.ar>.

  “What do you have to say to the Iranian people?” “The Iranians are fucking assholes.  I hate them all.  They can go fuck themselves.” “What do you have to say to the Iranian people?” “I hate them.  I don’t like them.” “What do you think about Obama?” “Obama is a cooshi.” “What?” “He’s a […]

  A controversial facility at Ft. Benning, Ga. — formerly known as the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas — is still training Honduran officers despite claims by the Obama administration that it cut military ties to Honduras after its president was overthrown June 28, NCR has learned. A day after an SOA-trained army general […]

  ایران ای سرای امید On 17 June 2009, Mehr News reported that Mohammad Reza Shajarian wrote a letter to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Managing Director Ezzatollah Zarghami, objecting to the airing of his works on Iranian state TV and radio: “As you know, IRIB repeatedly airs my epic songs particularly ‘O Iran, O […]

  David Jan Sorkin.  The Religious Enlightenment: Protestants, Jews, and Catholics from London to Vienna.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.  xv + 339 pp.  $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-13502-1. On January 14, 1791, the Comte de Mirabeau delivered a speech to the National Assembly in defense of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the controversial project […]

  Saturday, July 11, 2009; 2 to 5 pm Bowery Poetry Club in New York – 308 Bowery (between Houston and Bleecker) F train to 2nd Ave, 6 to Bleecker. Join us as these and other artists of conscience bear witness, in poetry and music, to the struggle for democracy in Iran. Readings and performances […]

  Arthur Hyman, Alfred Ivry, ed.  Maimonidean Studies.  Volume 5. Jersey City: KTAV Publishing House, 2008.  442 pp. $49.50 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-88125-941-4. The fifth volume of Maimonidean Studies is an eclectic amalgam of studies, the majority of which are based on papers delivered at a conference in New York City commemorating the 800th anniversary of […]

  Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 3 July 2009 Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 4 July 2009 Sandra Cuffe an independent journalist from Canada, currently reporting from the streets of Tegucigalpa.  Visit her blog Solidarity with the People(s) of Honduras! at <hondurassolidarity.wordpress.com>.

  Iranian Documentary Filmmakers’ Declaration Déclaration des documentaristes du cinéma iranien بیانیه جمعی از مستندسازان سینمای ایران درباره ایران امروز We say this as a warning: depriving citizens of peaceful and respectful communication in the midst of the tense circumstances of the present time can lead to a violent reaction on the part of society, […]

  “The Desert Is Covered with Fog,” based on Ahmad Shamlou’s poem “Fog,” performed by Mohsen Namjoo: vimeo.com/5429764. This video clip is a work of Mostafa Heravi in collaboration with Radio Zamaneh.  It is dedicated by Mohsen Namjoo, Mostafa Heravi, Kaveh Modiri, Sina Karim Khani, Sohrab Bayat, and Aboozar Amini to all the Iranians who […]

Here comes the hysteria and bold-faced lies.  In the wake of the Iranian election, various commentators and so-called reporters in the United States are reacting as if the end of the world was at hand.  Although nobody knows for certain and everyone only has the words of Western press pundits and an angry candidate to […]

With high-volume class strife heard in the rumbling of wage demands and the friction of township “service delivery protests,” rhetorical and real conflicts are bursting open in every nook and cranny of South Africa. The big splits in the society are clearer now.  Distracting internecine rivalries within the main left bloc — which saw off […]

  Rakhshan Bani-Etemad is an Iranian filmmaker.  This film was brought online on 7 June 2009.  The structure of this documentary film is based on questions about women’s rights activities raised from a wide range of viewpoints about women’s issues and, in the last part, on the 2009 presidential candidates’ viewpoints and programs concerning the […]

“A modern city, warts and all.” — Dennis Brutus Dawnlight seeps slowly into Sao Paulo skies as if reluctant to rediscover old betrayals or disclose new ones in Lula’s disappointed lands (IMF/World Bank scoundrels have tenacious as well as rapacious ravening claws) but trees silhouetted against pale skies against malodorous ditches assert irrepressible growth, undeterrable […]

Philosophy only exists insofar as there are paradoxical relations, relations which fail to connect, or should not connect. When every connection is naturally legitimate, philosophy is impossible or in vain.

Philosophy is the violence done by thought to impossible relations.

Today, which is to say “after Deleuze,” there is a clear requisitioning of philosophy by cinema — or of cinema by philosophy. It is therefore certain that cinema offers us paradoxical relations, entirely improbable connections.