Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ May 18, 2009
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Note from the Editors: "Now is not the time..." -- an oft-repeated
phrase that George W. Bush employed to avoid any action that did not
suit his agenda. We're hearing touches of it still, whether it's the
Democrats dodging a Truth Commission (since the truth of their
complicity would be revealed) or the conservatives attempting to
prevent health care reform in the context of the current economic
crisis. The time to act, they all say, is...later. Will we heed their
cautious advice, or make demands in the People's best interest? Charles
Marowitz tells the story of the Bonus Army of the Great Depression,
which demonstrates that when hopes are frustrated and poverty,
injustice, and hunger combine, there is a collective combustion that
explodes. Yet, in light of the new tent cities mushrooming around the
good old USA, Michael Doliner wonders whether a new crop of guys
reminiscent of Genet's hoodlums will grow up from this misery.
Similarly, Gilles d'Aymery demonstrates the banality of Twitter; a
painful experiment in the Web's latest dumbing-down craze that even
journalists and politicians are embracing. In these difficult times, the
likes of Senator Claire McCaskill would rather tweet about her Taco
Bell order than, say, her stance on US war crimes, single-payer health
care, climate change -- issues that are simply too complicated to
discuss in 140 characters.
As for climate change, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recently channeled
his predecessor Dirk "the dodo" Kempthorne in skirting the Endangered
Species Act's requirement to protect the polar bear habitat. Jan
Baughman continues to cartoon on behalf of the threatened bear that's
clinging to the audacity of hope that our government will respond
seriously to its plight. Martin Murie's take on climate-change
greenwashing, market-based ecology, and the gutting of the ESA would
likely dash the polar bear's hope; so too would Michael Barker's
analysis on the bedfellows on the board of General Electric, where the
military-industrial complex, the World Wildlife Fund, and so-called
liberal philanthropists work in cahoots. Both Murie and Barker remind us
that activists must challenge liberal foundations if real change is to
happen. We're also well advised to consider the French pioneers of
animal traction, which according to Graham Lea could bring the greater
efficiency of new- technology machines drawn by animals to the slow food
movement.
>From Ghana, Femi Akomolafe updates us on the antics of his country's
politicians, who continue their audacity of looting, pilfering, and
corruption despite public uproar; while Peter Byrne takes us to Turkey
as seen through two books that explore its efforts to join the European
Union and its women's rights reforms of the honor-killing tradition. In
poetry, Guido Monte travels the deep forests of Dante and Rimbaud, and
Marie Rennard invokes a hundred crows and her whimsical imagination to
build paradise. From the culture corner, Raju Peddada explores societal
differences in the definition of sexy, and we close with your letters,
challenging Charles Marowitz's take on journalism and journalists;
praise for our George Bernard Shaw retrospective and Louis Proyect's
recent book review; Art Shay's and Martin Murie's opposing positions on
pilotless drones; and an unsolicited touch of xenophobia rarely
(thankfully) seen in these pages.
# # # # #
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/cmarow138.html The History Lesson -
Charles Marowitz
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/mdolin43.html Guys Tried On For Size
- Michael Doliner
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/ga269.html What Are You Doing? -
Gilles d'Aymery
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/jeb207.html Polarizing Global Warming
Politics - Cartoon by Jan Baughman
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/murie70.html Greenwashing - Martin Murie
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker20.html General Electric: War
Corporation, Liberal Hangout, Or Both? - Michael Barker
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/glea02.html La Vie d'autrefois -
Graham Lea
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/femia11.html Ghana: The Audacity Of
Looting - Update - Femi Akomolafe
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/pbyrne99.html Turkey On Trial - Book
Review by Peter Byrne
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/gmonte68.html Selva Oscura -
Multilingual Poetry by Guido Monte
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/marier30.html How To Build Up A
Paradise - Poem by Marie Rennard
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/rajup14.html What Does It Mean To Be
Sexy? - Raju Peddada
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/letter165.html Letters to the Editor
# # # # #
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