Less than a minute in, Nawal El Saadawi, the ideological godmother of Muslim feminists, flouts author interview protocol rather fabulously, by pretending she’s not really doing one. I’m at a sunny breakfast table in Edinburgh on the last day of her UK book tour, to discuss the republication of her seminal 1970s books, but […]
Subjects Archives: Media
Media, Communications, and Literature
The Politics of Malaria Eradication in the Holy Land
Sandra M. Sufian. Healing the Land and the Nation: Malaria and the Zionist Project in Palestine, 1920-1947. Chicago University of Chicago Press, 2007. xviii + 385 pp. $40.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-226-77935-5. In this meticulously researched book, Sandra M. Sufian, an assistant professor of medical humanities and history at the University of Illinois […]
To Our Arab and Muslim Friends, We Say: We Stand with You
We are witnessing an insidious new wave of demonization of Arabs and Muslims. The presidential race has surfaced deep prejudices that will be here long after we have elected a new leader. Look closely, and you’ll find many right-wing Christian and Jewish groups that deny the fundamental rights of Palestinians, deliberately fueling fear of […]
Intermediaries, Interpreters, and Clerks
Intermediaries, Interpreters, and Clerks: African Employees in the Making of Colonial Africa. Madison University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. 342 pp. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-299-21950-5. In the 1970s and 1980s, an edited volume focused entirely on African colonial intermediaries such as interpreters, translators, clerks, and secretaries would not have aroused much interest from historians of […]
The Life and Times of Genora Dollinger
Child of the Sit-Downs: The Revolutionary Life of Genora Dollinger, by Carlton Jackson, WKU Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 2008. 256 pages, $39.00 (cloth). This wonderful book is a most welcome biography of Genora Dollinger, labor reformer and feminist. Genora (her husband told Dr. Jackson that she […]
India’s Combative Anti-Displacement Movement
I recently spent three weeks gathering information about the anti-displacement movement in India. As a guest of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (People’s Movement against Displacement and for Development), I traveled across central and eastern India visiting the sites of proposed industrial and mining projects, Special Economic Zones, and real estate developments. I spoke […]
Dealing with Iran’s Not-So-Irrational Leadership
Nothing expresses the widening gap between the mind frames of the Iranian ruling elite and their Western counterparts more than the headlines in their respective newspapers. The American media, above all, have unilaterally resolved the intelligence questions over Iran’s nuclear program. The New York Times leads the pack with articles and even editorials that […]
Osama’s a Joker:The Lights Are Out in the Cinema
You’ll be familiar with the story. An evil or crazy (the two are interchangeable) maniac is trying to destroy the American way of life, sowing destruction in an American city, blowing up American buildings, killing American citizens. We stand amidst the rubble, watching the firemen, wondering what happened. This man is demented, unreasonable; he […]
Would Jesus Ride a Donkey or Elephant to the Conventions?
As the election draws closer, we will hear more and more about the politics of Jesus, as liberals and conservatives jockey to place the shining halo of Christianity over their own heads. Without saying it, they will imply, “Jesus would have voted for me!” Putting aside for a moment the rudeness of regularly forcing […]
Revitalizing the Memory of Sacco and Vanzetti
I wanted a roof for every family, bread for every mouth, education for every heart, light for every intellect. I am convinced that the human history has not yet begun — that we find ourselves in the last period of the prehistoric. I see with the eyes of my soul how the sky is diffused […]
Beyond Voting: Guerrilla Gardeners, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Pirate Programmers
This US election year, an unprecedented number of voters will likely head to the polls to cast their ballots in an exercise that should take just a few minutes to complete. But what about the rest of the minutes left in the year? Author and activist Chris Carlsson has some suggestions for social change beyond […]
Manley and McKay: Reform and Revolution in the Politics of the African Diaspora
Lloyd D. McCarthy, “In-Dependence” from Bondage: Claude McKay and Michael Manley Defying the Ideological Clash and Policy Gaps in African Diaspora Relations (Africa World Press, 2007). Claude McKay and Michael Manley may seem like strange bedfellows for a study in 20th-century politics. Though both born in Jamaica, a generation apart, they could hardly have pursued […]
Iron Man
Hailed as a subversive action flick for its portrayal of weapons industry corruption, Iron Man is a disappointing techno-imperialist fantasy, but its special effects will keep die-hard gadget fetishists on the edge of their seats. Based on Marvel’s successful Cold War-era comic book, Iron Man tells the story of American überman Tony Stark (Robert […]
Mahmoud Darwish
Celebrated Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish died on 9 August 2008, at the age of 67, after open-heart surgery. Here is a video of his most famous poem “Identity Card” (published in 1964): A poet of exile par excellence, Darwish died in exile. The village of his birth in western Galilee, al-Birwa (whose Arabic […]
From Black Power to Ethnic Politics: Class Contradictions of Black Nationalism
Cedric Johnson. Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics. University of Minnesota Press, 2007. Cedric Johnson‘s Revolutionaries to Race Leaders traces the ideological cooptation of one of the twentieth century’s most vibrant social movements. The Black Nationalist resurgence of the 1960s and 1970s demanded nothing short of self-determination, […]
The Distribution of Bolivia’s Most Important Natural Resources and the Autonomy Conflicts
Over the last year, there has been an escalation in the political battles between the government of President Evo Morales and a conservative opposition, based primarily in the prefectures, or provinces. The opposition groups have rallied around various issues but have recently begun to focus on “autonomy.” Some of the details of this autonomy […]
No Revolution Ever Disappears
Penelope Rosemont, Dreams & Everyday Life: André Breton, Surrealism, Rebel Worker, sds & the Seven Cities of Cibola, Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, Chicago, 2008, ISBN 978-0-88286-234-2 Despite an era made for modern-day state and corporate Metternichs there are stirrings, movement, growing discontent. In the words of Buffalo Springfield’s song, “There’s something happening here. […]
The Red Dance: Memory of the Silenced
The Red Dance (with English subtitles) Memoria de los silenciados: el baile rojo Colombia: Film Documents ‘Red Dance’ of Annihilation by Constanza Vieira BOGOTA, Jan 24 (IPS) — The Colombian documentary film “El baile rojo” (The Red Dance), competing this week at an international film festival, marks an effort to restore collective memory […]
In Memorian
Hollmann Morris is a Colombian television journalist. A recipient of many awards, he was awarded the Human Rights Defender Award by Human Rights Watch in 2007. “In Memorian,” like The Red Dance (Dir. Yezid Campos Zornosa, 2003), documents the Colombian government’s campaign of assassinations to destroy La Unión Patriótica (Patriotic Union), a political party […]
País. . . País. . .
Songs of My Country I’m dying from cold and my voice is angry because at this gate of the river they stabbed the sun because at this gate of the river, my country, they stabbed the sun oh, my country, my country, my country This land has a name from the sea to the […]
