CIA cash funded drugs trade

[Michael Pugliese]

http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/world.cfm?id=CIA08071&feed=N

CIA cash funded drugs trade

By Nick Peters in Washington


WHILE Peru's disgraced former spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos awaits trial in
a maximum security jail in Lima, it has emerged that millions of dollars
donated by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency not only helped
him amass a small personal fortune, but was also responsible for one of the
most embarrassing espionage debacles of recent years.

Skimming off money that the CIA intended for use in Peru's anti-drug
trafficking efforts, Montesinos set up a major arms deal in the Middle East
that funnelled 10,000 AK47 rifles to left-wing FARC guerrillas in Colombia,
thereby fomenting the very uprising that America has pledged $1.3bn to stamp
out.

FARC has transformed itself from a Marxist insurgency group trying to seize
power in Colombia into a quasi-drug cartel, making millions from the drug
smugglers who operate under their protection.

Bill Clinton's administration decided it was worth investing spectacular
amounts of cash to help the Colombian government stamp out the guerrillas
and thus leave the smugglers unprotected.

At first Vladimiro Montesinos looked as if he could be a significant asset
in the US fight against both Communism and the drugs trade. In the
mid-1970s, while an officer in the Peruvian army, he came to the US to show
the CIA evidence of Soviet arms deals with Peru. It was enough to get him on
the agency's payroll.

Montesinos rose to become spymaster for the controversial former president
of Peru, Albert Fujimori, himself now being sought on suspicion of human
rights violations.

Throughout the 1990s the flow of money became a torrent, the stated
intention being to help Peru fight the trans-Andean drug trade.

But after years of little or no oversight over how the cash was spent,
Montesinos started turning the money to his own ends. He was, according to
prosecutors, also guilty of flagrant human rights violations against
political opponents, including murder.

The CIA was well aware of his actions but did little to rein Montesinos in.
But the CIA had not banked on Montesinos' double-dealing. According to
Peruvian prosecutors he was also taking protection money from drug
traffickers, which joined a stream of corrupt cash that amassed him a
fortune close to $264m.

The CIA decided to call a halt when the FARC arms deal demonstrated
conclusively that he had gone too far.

Montesinos became a fugitive in October 2000 and was captured at the end of
last month by Venezuelan agents in Caracas.

Today Montesinos is on hunger strike in protest against being held in the
same jail, one he actually designed, as many of his former enemies.

If found guilty, the ex-spymaster faces the rest of his life in prison.

That at least would ease the CIA's embarrassment.

But in the US, the CIA's involvement in the Montesinos case has raised
barely a ripple of comment.

The curse of the vigilantes

[Michael Pugliese]

 http://www.economist.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=576250

   Another source that says FARC has the support of 3%...
Michael Pugliese

US needs another "locomotive"

[Chris Burford]

International Herald Tribune Saturday 

 U.S. to Urge Economic Push by G-7 
 Europeans and Japanese Will Be Asked to Do
More
 

The United States, Mr. O'Neill said at a news
conference Thursday, has done its part to spur an economic rebound by
reducing interest rates and cutting taxes. He suggested that the United
States would like to see Europe and Japan do more to live up to their
roles as "locomotives" for world growth. 

Mr. O'Neill said the U.S. economy was in the middle of a correction set
off by a "rate of expansion and acceleration in consumer spending in
the early part of the last year" that could not be
sustained.

But on Monday! 

 Europeans at G-7 Talks See No
Quick Recovery

ROME Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said over
the weekend that the United States was poised for a significant economic
upturn later this year that should help revive the world economy,
provided that Europe and Japan do their share to stave off
recession.

At a meeting here of finance ministers from the world's Group of Seven
leading industrial democracies, Mr. O'Neill said the United States,
Europe and Japan must better coordinate policies to restore economic
momentum at a time when all three regions have been suffering a
downturn.

"We all agreed that growth in each of our economies is crucial to
prosperity around the world," Mr. O'Neill said Saturday after five
hours of discussion with his peers.

"We in the United States have taken strong measures in both fiscal
and monetary policy to return our economy to a higher growth path,"
he said. "And I continue to believe that the prospects for long-term
global prosperity are better now than at any time in our
history."


Several European finance ministers, however, said they did not share
O'Neill's optimism. The chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, said
the global downturn had proved "more severe than expected" and
that hopes for an early recovery might be premature, given the bleak
forecasts for much of Europe and Japan.

Afterward, analysts remained skeptical about the prospects for any
concerted, fresh policy action by Europe to contribute to a turnaround in
global economic prospects.

The U.S. and European ministers openly disagreed before the meeting over
who should be responsible for acting as the "locomotive" for
the rebound. Frustration at the inability to directly influence
persistently high energy prices was also evident.

As a result, little in what was said is likely to calm the nerves of
increasingly volatile international financial markets - always mindful of
the history of G-7 disharmony and investor angst. A public U.S.-Europe
dispute about interest rate policy in 1987 has frequently been cited as a
trigger for the stock market crash that year.

Further substantial evidence of squabbling follows, beside an article
expressing anxiety that the strong dollar limits the possibilities of a
US rebound.

Clearly the US is no longer confident that it can be the sole locomotive
and sole beneficiary of global reflation. It and its "allies"
are arguing about how to distribute global deficit financing in the form
of lower credit rates, among themselves.

The idea that they should stimulate the world economy by facilitating
easier credit for impoverished developing countries would not be
conceivable. That would presuppose that in relative terms the burden of
destroying old capital would fall disproportionately on themselves. 


So they will struggle on in stagnation, and and disunity, risking another
global financial crash.

Chris Burford

London 

Re: Hacking actors

[Doyle Saylor]

Greetings Economists,
The NYTs article cited by Ian Murray is bizarre reaction to computer
animation.  What it exploits is an appearance of a fear of job loss by
actors to computer images, but is that what is going on?

The term, Photo Realist, is something arising historically in the U.S.
culture out of U.S. "realist" painting around 1970 in regard to a slavish
technical reproduction of photographic sources of images (which Engels would
have laughed at as Zola-like or slavishly tied to empirical knowledge at the
expense of social thinking).  In movies computing power to paint enough
detail to match human facial images is very demanding of the computer system
overall power.  That is "the" problem frame by frame reproduction of human
faces for movies creates for the industry.  The issue raised by Tom Hanks
about his felt loss of rights to images that might be used without his
control with some artifically generated image of Tom Hanks is not about how
much computer animation looks like a human face.  Photo Realist animation is
really about the common communal need to communicate in a conversational way
where we no longer are face to face.   The animation can only succeed to the
degree it fulfills that conversational role.

"Movie Stars Fear Inroads by Upstart digital Actors", NYT July 8, 2001 page
one,
"The eyes are one of the single biggest things that make people alive," said
Andy Jones, the animation director.

The issue photo realism of movie animation explores is how to communicate
through 'avatars' or 'conversational agents' that artificially generate
emotional and gestural information in human communication.

A movie succeeds (through directly showing body labor) where writing can not
carry visual facial information related to emotional content of human
communication.  A movie does not share attention with the audience (is not a
real dialogue with another person about the content of the movie).  Being
able to artificially convey that information in information technology
attacks the issue (of reproducing communication specific to a persons face)
in how two human beings share attention in common work projects when not
face to face.  Such Photo Realist animation merely demonstrates that
communicating such information is not exclusive to direct face to face
contact with human bodies.

In Hollywood they know that making a movie is,

NYT July 8, 2001 page 16
""Filmmaking is always going to be a collaborative art," the director Ron
Howard said"

What is ignored in the above term, 'collaborative', and that the NYT staff
does not make clear is that human beings share 'work' processes through
communication and that knowing facial expression and where attention is
focused is necessary to get work done.  That communication is about the
labor process of sharing attention so that people can work together
socially. 

That is why it is necessary to have human beings work along side these
animation processes in movie making "photo realist animation" since the
attention to common labor processes is the very core of how works gets done.

We cannot work together without conversational information, nor can the
dialectic be independent of conversational structures.  Collaboration is
about the working together that we can do through shared attention.  The
NYTs article elides the necessity to understand animation of faces as deeply
related to shared attention in communication processes and the need to
converse to get work done.
thanks,
Doyle Saylor

Re: Losing the American dream

[Chris Burford]

At 08/07/01 17:14 -1000, you wrote:


>http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/01701322.htm


>IT IS ONE of the bitterest ironies of globalization: immigrant workers, 
>having come to this country in search of a better life, left unemployed as 
>their coveted American jobs are relocated to the countries from which they 
>fled.
>
>At the Power-One International electronics factory in Allston, hundreds of 
>assembly-line workers — most of them Chinese immigrants earning between $7 
>and $10 per hour — face this very reality. Last May, Power-One — a 
>California-based conglomerate that ranks as the world’s sixth-largest 
>manufacturer of power-conversion equipment — announced plans to close the 
>Allston shop in September and send its 265 manufacturing jobs overseas. 
>Some positions will go to the company’s factory in San Luis, Mexico; most 
>will move to China.


This illustrates how the reserve army of labour is now a global phenomenon. 
Migrants who come to work in super-exploited industries for marginal wages, 
are exchangeable for any of the over one billion workers in the developing 
world whose wages may be one thirtieth that of workers in the metropolitan 
capitalist countries.

Chris Burford

Losing the American dream

[Stephen E Philion]

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/01701322.htm

Marx and Keynes would go

[Ian Murray]

C H A O SA N D C O M P L E X I T YF A N S ! !

Interested in the state-of-the-art applications of chaos and
complexity
theory to human systems?  How about coming to the 11th Annual
Conference of
the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and Life Sciences, to be
held in
Madison, Wisconsin on Aug 3-6, 2001?

Our key note speakers will be:
J. BARKLEY ROSSER, Professor of Economics and the Kirby L. Kramer Jr.
Professor at James Madison University, discussing "The Complexities of
Complex Economic Systems"
STEPHEN GUASTELLO, Professor at Marquette University and one of the
earliest
members of the Society, Editor of our journal Nonlinear Dynamics,
Psychology, & Life Sciences,and a leading expert on catastrophe
theory.  He
will be discussing "20 years of Nonlinear Dynamics in Organizations"
CLINT SPROTT, Physics Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison,
author
of the "Chaos Data Analyzer" software, and an expert at visualization
of
complex systems.  He will be discussing "Can a Monkey with a Computer
Create
Art?"

General information about the conference can be found at:
http://www.societyforchaostheory.org/conferences.html

The complete conference program can be found at:
http://www.societyforchaostheory.org/SCTPLSprogram2001.pdf

Registration forms are at:
http://www.societyforchaostheory.org/reg2001.html

And information about lodging at:
http://www.societyforchaostheory.org/hojo.html


August 2 (Thursday) Early arrival day.
August 3 (Friday)   Registration, Dynamics for Dummies Workshop
(Fred
Abraham), and
Opening Ceremonies with Guest Speaker
J.
Barkley Rosser
August 4 (Saturday) Conference Day 1, Banquet with Guest Speaker
Stephen
Guastello
August 5 (Sunday)   Conference Day 2
August 6 (Monday)   Business Meeting (morning), An Introduction to
Complexity Science for Organizational Researchers Workshop (Kevin
Dooley),
Nonlinear Perspectives on Rhythm, Chaos, and Control in Human
Biology:A
Discussion of Theories and Methods Workshop (Robert Porter, Franco
Orsucci,
Dick Bird, Susan Mirow)
August 7 (Tuesday)  Departure day



..
Kevin Dooley
Arizona State University
Dept. of Industrial Engineering
Dept. of Management
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

..
President, 
..

(no subject)

[LeoCasey]

<< Leo, what on earth are you trying to say? >>

I has thought that the parallels between the oil/energy crises of your novels 
and the imminent energy crisis you have been predicting here were pretty 
obvious. Seems like fiction and social analysis seem to seamlessly fade into 
each other...
 
Leo Casey
United Federation of Teachers
260 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never has, and it never will.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who 
want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and 
lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --

Re: Re: UN HDR out

[Michael Pugliese]

   July 16th issue of The Nation has several pgs. of letters on GMO.
Michael Pugliese
P.S. Cover story, Bill Greider on Sec. of Treasury, Paul O'Neill.

- Original Message - 
From: "michael perelman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2001 1:48 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:14821] Re: UN HDR out


> The New York Times also reported that this year's edition comes out in
> favor of biotech as a great hope for the poor.
> -- 
> 
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
>  
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 

(no subject)

[LeoCasey]

<< so if Zhirinovsky says it's bad, it must be good? >>

I can think of worse rules of thumb.

But what I find so interesting here is how the Mark of fiction and the Mark 
of social analysis so closely follow each there. Why it is almost down right 
lit-crit pomo, to invoke a much overused stereotype. It makes you wonder: is 
the Mark of fiction really the Mark of social analysis, or is the Mark of 
social analysis really the Mark of fiction?

Leo Casey
United Federation of Teachers
260 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never has, and it never will.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who 
want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and 
lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --

Re: UN HDR out

[michael perelman]

The New York Times also reported that this year's edition comes out in
favor of biotech as a great hope for the poor.
-- 

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
 
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: Re: Summer Reading?

[Michael Perelman]

Mark do you use the blub from Zhironovsky the way Doug used his "scum"
quote from the Wall Street Journal?

On Sun, Jul 08, 2001 at 11:01:43AM -0700, Jim Devine wrote:
> also by Mark Jones Black Lightning Gollancz Vista Paperback £4.99.
> A post-Cold War political thriller set in the new Russia where the threat 
> to the West is greater than it ever was before.
> "Russia can emerge - strange as it may seem - as the true victor of the 
> twentieth century. If ever they do use Molniya we will have to hope that 
> they allow the White House to keep one functioning telephone so that we can 
> at least listen to their surrender terms." Extract from US Summary of 
> Intelligence Reports.
> 
> Now the Cold War is over, political and social instability and the rise of 
> ultra-right-wing nationalism have made the new Russia a volatile and 
> threatening country. Molniya, or Lightening, a weapon on the Arctic seabed 
> with the ability to paralyse the world's electronics, is in the hands of 
> the nationalists. Action of the most direct and violent sort on the part of 
> the West is called for.
> American agent Renard must penetrate the upper echelons of Russia's 
> political/military machine before the West is plunged into perpetual 
> darkness. And time is running out...
> 
> Mark Jones, although British born, lived and worked in Moscow for many 
> years and has travelled all over the Russian continent. He has had 
> first-hand experience of the corruption that is at present endemic in 
> Russian society. He is acquainted with the nationalist politician 
> Zhirinovsky. He lives in Shropshire with his Russian wife Natalya.
> 
> Zhirinovsky, on being shown an early copy of this book, had this so say
> "We have seen a number of trashy books by so-called experts on the subject 
> of the changes going on in Rusia, and this is one of the worst. The author, 
> Mark Jones, is known to me. His book is full of scandal and lie, the 
> author's views about Great Russia hidden coward-fashion behind the pretence 
> of writing a novel."
> 
> ---
> so if Zhirinovsky says it's bad, it must be good?
> 
> Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine
> 

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: pen-l etiquette

[Chris Burford]

At 07/07/01 09:12 -0700, you wrote:
>Chris, you have "refuted" Lou P. twice this morning.  Please, he is no
>longer here, so this does no good now.


Well Lou no doubt browses and also considers how best to use his time. He 
has promoted his list as a internet feature and wishes to be influential.

There is nothing improper in this comment he made on 21st June about this 
list on the World Systems Network:

>I have been in a
>battle on my own mailing list and on PEN-L defending a world systems
>approach to the origins of capitalism in opposition to Brenner and Wood.

One could argue about definitions here, but there is no doubt that LP 
considers this list and his own as in the public realm.

  Besides, with respect, I am doing something more complicated than merely 
to refute some of what he says. I am laying a marker for reference in case 
some may think I accept I was baiting him. If he returns in a week's time, 
it might then seem unduly challenging to greet him immediately with the 
posts I made today. He can now read them in the archives if he wishes or 
skim over them as he may also well wish.

Besides too, lines of demarcation are important to serious debate whatever 
individuals are involved. To LP's credit his recent drawing of swords with 
Hardt, brings his perceived line of demarcation up to the present era. It 
involves political responses to how we characterise globalisation, rather 
than fighting "Kautskyism" by proxy over historical interpretations of 
almost prehistoric labour systems.

What is not clear is whether LP wants to draw line of demarcation to 
facilitate theoretical unity, or to split. This will become clear over the 
weeks and months.

But if he sees that issues of substance are being discussed on this list, 
which interest him, he might feel the pressure to contribute again, and 
learn more effective ways to deal in debate with people he sees as liberals 
or social democrats.

Perhaps Michael you could post a definition of the aims and conventions of 
PEN-L. I see for example that  the World System's Network states:

>WSN is an electronic conferencing network and information source for 
>scholars and researchers who are studying world-systems. The purpose of 
>WSN is to facilitate the sharing of information about research, data, 
>publications, announcements, meetings, syllabi, commentary, book reviews, 
>scuttlebut and etc.


Chris Burford

Hacking actors

[Ian Murray]

[NYT]
July 8, 2001
Movie Stars Fear Inroads by Upstart Digital Actors
By RICK LYMAN

[snip]
The specter of the digital actor - a kind of cyberslave who does the
producer's bidding without a whimper or salary - has been a figure of
terror for the last few years in Hollywood, as early technical
experiments proved that it was at least possible to create a computer
image that could plausibly replace a human being. But as "Final
Fantasy" makes its way into theaters - the first of what promises to
be a string of movies trying to put this challenge to the test - many
wonder if the threat is as real as it once seemed, or if it simply
takes computer animation down a fruitless cul-de-sac.

Re: Re: Re: culture to the masses

[Michael Pugliese]

   Maybe Justin or someone else has read the E.P. Thompson bio of William
Morris?
Michael Pugliese

- Original Message -
From: "Ann Li" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2001 9:31 AM
Subject: [PEN-L:14809] Re: Re: culture to the masses


> The point relevant to the earlier question of a consumer culture in this
> case is the broad application of improvements (and scale economies with
the
> 19 C. background often used to explain 20 C. post-fordist flexible
> production) in printing technology to produce patterns that could be
applied
> in a wide variety of consumer goods areas ranging from the use of decals
in
> ceramic pottery production to mass printing including wallpaper and
> serialized fiction and of course the production of cheap cloth goods
> (printed chintz to cover furniture and printed yardage being less costly
> than woven fabric etc). This predated Morris as Eric points out, and is
> notable relative to Morris because of his socialistic view not unlike
others
> during the period that improved designs might also have moral implications
> for all involved in the process, whether producers, distributors or
> consumers. Forty argues for the class divisions created by differentiated
> lower-class designs imitating upper-class ones. However, it might be said
> that Morris and his buddies ( However beautiful the products of the
> Pre-Raphaelites and Morris' own political writings etc) were what we might
> now call Bohos, bringing us back to where the thread started with the
> japanese version of "baby boys".
>
> Ann
>
> - Original Message -
> From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2001 5:47 PM
> Subject: [PEN-L:14801] Re: culture to the masses
>
>
> > Jim D wrote,
> > > I'm told that William Morris . . .invented wallpaper
> > >as part of his wider effort to bring art to the proletariat.
> >
> > >From Encyl Britannica:
> >
> > "Wallpaper developed soon after the introduction of papermaking to
Europe
> > during the latter part of the 15th century. . ."
> >
> > "Machine-printed wallpaper first appeared in 1840 at a firm of printers
in
> > Lancashire and, with the work of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts
> > Movement, created a revolution in wallpaper design. Morris' designs for
> the
> > medium, which first appeared in 1862, were characterized by flat,
> stylized,
> > naturalistic patterns and rich, subdued colours. His work and the
> progressive
> > designs of Walter Crane coexisted, however, with the more traditional
> taste
> > expressed in the work of A.W.N. Pugin, Owen Jones, and James Huntington,
> who
> > designed wallpaper in the Gothic and Rococo styles as late as the
1860s."
> >
> > Eric
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

Re: Re: Summer Reading?

[Michael Pugliese]

"Zhirinovsky Absolut, " Penguin Books compilation oh his greatest rants.
Harpers a few yrs. ago had some great stills from a Moscow TV show of Z.
wrestling with some woman and him drenching her with his water.
Michael Pugliese

- Original Message -
From: "Jim Devine" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2001 11:01 AM
Subject: [PEN-L:14813] Re: Summer Reading?


> also by Mark Jones Black Lightning Gollancz Vista Paperback £4.99.
> A post-Cold War political thriller set in the new Russia where the threat
> to the West is greater than it ever was before.
> "Russia can emerge - strange as it may seem - as the true victor of the
> twentieth century. If ever they do use Molniya we will have to hope that
> they allow the White House to keep one functioning telephone so that we
can
> at least listen to their surrender terms." Extract from US Summary of
> Intelligence Reports.
>
> Now the Cold War is over, political and social instability and the rise of
> ultra-right-wing nationalism have made the new Russia a volatile and
> threatening country. Molniya, or Lightening, a weapon on the Arctic seabed
> with the ability to paralyse the world's electronics, is in the hands of
> the nationalists. Action of the most direct and violent sort on the part
of
> the West is called for.
> American agent Renard must penetrate the upper echelons of Russia's
> political/military machine before the West is plunged into perpetual
> darkness. And time is running out...
>
> Mark Jones, although British born, lived and worked in Moscow for many
> years and has travelled all over the Russian continent. He has had
> first-hand experience of the corruption that is at present endemic in
> Russian society. He is acquainted with the nationalist politician
> Zhirinovsky. He lives in Shropshire with his Russian wife Natalya.
>
> Zhirinovsky, on being shown an early copy of this book, had this so say
> "We have seen a number of trashy books by so-called experts on the subject
> of the changes going on in Rusia, and this is one of the worst. The
author,
> Mark Jones, is known to me. His book is full of scandal and lie, the
> author's views about Great Russia hidden coward-fashion behind the
pretence
> of writing a novel."
>
> ---
> so if Zhirinovsky says it's bad, it must be good?
>
> Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine
>

Mommy, what's an intellectual?

[Ian Murray]

What are we thinking of?

Gardening and cooking, mostly. True, we British were never that keen
on fine minds and big ideas, but is the intellectual in mortal danger?

Andrew Anthony
Sunday July 8, 2001
The Observer

The British, famously, do not trust intellectuals. We are much more at
home cultivating plants than ideas. George Orwell called England 'a
nation of flower-lovers', and even the Bloomsbury Group, the last and
most celebrated members of a visible intelligentsia, have been
transformed over the years into horticulturalists and interior
designers. Mention the name now and it's more likely to provoke
thoughts of the landscaped grounds and vivid paint schemes of
Sissinghurst and Charleston than economic theory or literary
experimentation. In an era when gardeners, decorators and chefs are
household names, ask the average person in the street to identify a
bona fide intellectual and it's a safe bet that they would need to
phone a friend (and the friend wouldn't know either).

And who could blame them? For if intellectuals have never enjoyed an
exalted position in British culture, then seldom has their standing
been so marginal and diminished. Indeed so lowly valued are
intellectuals that the word itself is losing currency. For a start, no
one seems prepared to use it to describe themselves.

It's a global phenomenon, to be sure, but one that's far more
pronounced in Anglo-American culture. A book entitled What Good Are
Intellectuals? (edited by Bernard-Henri Lévy) recently canvassed
intellectuals (although they were referred to by the less problematic
term 'writers') from around the world (among them Salman Rushdie,
Susan Sontag, Nadine Gordimer and Mario Vargas Llosa) on what it means
to be an intellectual.

No one was able to give a clear answer, which in itself points to an
intellectual identity crisis. If there was a consistent theme, it was
of commitment and persecution, as if intellectualism was somehow a
function of fighting oppression.

The most revealing response was supplied by the American writer Joyce
Carol Oates. 'The term "intellectual" is a very self-conscious one in
the United States,' she said. 'To speak of oneself as an
"intellectual" is equivalent to arrogance and egotism, for it suggests
that there is a category of persons who are "not-intellectual".'

And in our egalitarian age that would not do. Americans have an
abhorrence of people who, as William Styron put it, 'live in irony
towers', in much the same way that the British recoil from what Orwell
called the highbrow's 'mechanical sneer'. Rightly or wrongly, the idea
of the intellectual is inextricably bound to a sense of class or
privilege which nowadays is somehow unacceptable. It suggests a kind
of effete separateness that sits uncomfortably in the mass gathering
of democratic culture. Orwell wrote of the English intellectual's
'emotional shallowness, estrangement from physical reality' and 'their
severance from the common culture of the country'.

'The English,' he observed, 'are not intellectual. They have a horror
of abstract thought, they feel no need for any philosophy or
systematic "world view".' He was writing at a time - the Second World
War - when the stock of intellectuals had bombed. Yet Orwell was
himself in many ways the very best kind of British intellectual:
transparent, precise, unmoved by fashion, a dedicated bibliophile,
with a driving moral and political conviction that informed all of his
writing. He was, in short, the paradigm of the public intellectual.

The 'public intellectual' has become the Abominable Snowman of
contemporary discourse: there are endless discussions about what one
might look like, but no one has actually seen one. What does the
phrase actually mean? Almost by definition it must include those rare
geniuses whose achievements are so profound - Darwin comes to mind -
that they both transform and transcend their fields of work. But more
commonly the tradition of the public intellectual - which in this
country includes figures like R.H. Tawney and Bertrand Russell - links
those thinkers who disseminate ideas beyond the confines of academia
or professional circles. And it is this tradition that now looks
endangered.

Orwell's great fear was that totalitarianism would destroy
intellectual liberty. Instead, as it turned out, mass democracy has
afforded us the liberty to reject the intellectual. George Steiner,
arguably the country's last unapologetic intellectual, speaks of a
political culture that has developed an 'almost conscious extreme
philistinism'.

All of this is not necessarily to say that we are less intellectual
than in Orwell's day, only that we are even less interested in
intellectuals.

'An intellectual,' wrote Albert Camus, 'is someone whose mind watches
itself.' Too often, though, intellectuals' minds have been caught not
watching the world. The legacy of the twentieth century - with its
modernists, revolutionaries, avant gardists, ideologists, apologists,
fellow travellers, 

UN HDR out

[Ian Murray]

[contact info for challenging claims is at bottom of article]

Third World boom raises hopes of end to poverty

Anthony Browne, environment editor
Sunday July 8, 2001
The Observer

They are usually seen as lands of poverty and repression where the
drinking water is poisonous, stomachs are empty and most adults
illiterate. But this week a United Nations report will claim that,
while conditions in many places are still bad, the developing world
has shown such progress in the last 30 years that it now officially
classifies more of the world as developed than undeveloped.

There have been vast improvements in life expectancy, nutrition, adult
literacy, poverty and human rights. A child born today in the
developing world can expect to live eight years longer than one born
in 1970. Adult literacy has risen from 47 per cent to 73 per cent.

The proportion of rural families with access to safe water has grown
fivefold, so that eight in 10 now have clean water. Average incomes
have nearly doubled, from $1,300 to $2,500 (£1,770).

The 2001 Human Development Report, published by the UN Development
Programme, will say that, far from being a cause for pessimism, the
developing world is a source of optimism: 'Too few people recognise
that the impressive gains in the developing world in the past 30 years
demonstrate the possibility of eradicating poverty.'

Kevin Watkins, head of policy at Oxfam, said: 'There has been
unprecedented progress in a whole range of areas, but there is still
plenty of doom and gloom out there. The gains have been very unevenly
distributed.'

Progress has been most rapid in East Asia, with countries such as
Thailand and Malaysia closing the gap on industrialised nations, and
there have been impressive advances in Latin America and the Middle
East. However, progress has been slow in South Asia. In sub-Saharan
Africa, with large parts ravaged by Aids, dictatorships and debt, the
quality of life has often been falling.

Across the world, life expectancy has risen from 59.9 years in 1970 to
66.4. It has risen far more rapidly in poor countries than in rich
ones as medical advances and the principles of public hygiene have
spread. Life expectancy has risen by 12 years in South Asia and by 14
years in the Arab states. The only region where life expectancy has
fallen is Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, suffering an
economic collapse after the fall of communism.

Improved nutrition, poverty reduction, maternal education and better
medical services have combined to halve infant mortality. In Latin
America, the Caribbean and East Asia, the number of babies dying
before their first birthday has fallen by two-thirds to roughly the
level it was in rich countries in 1970. Even in sub-Saharan Africa it
has fallen by a third. Many of the health advances have been the
result of extraordinary economic progress. Industrialisation has seen
incomes in East Asia quadruple, with the Chinese economy growing four
times as fast as Europe's. Even the Indian economy has outpaced that
of rich nations.

Although inequality has increased, the economic gains have not
generally been by the rich at the expense of the poor. In the past 10
years the proportion of people in developing countries living on less
than $1 a day has fallen from 29 per cent to 24. However, in
sub-Saharan Africa the figure is 46 per cent.

Progress in education has been startling. Nearly all children now
attend primary school, and the majority in developing countries go to
secondary school. Girls are no longer routinely excluded. Thirty years
ago they were half as likely as boys to get an education, now there
are on average only 10 per cent fewer girls than boys in school.

Development has changed the balance of the world. According to the
report, the world in 1975 was mostly 'low and medium human
development'. Now it is predominantly 'medium and high human
development'.

The report puts much of the progress down to the spread of democracy
and human rights. 'The basic conditions for achieving human freedoms
were transformed in the past 10 years as more than 100 developing and
transition countries ended military or one-party rule. Formal
commitment to international standards in human rights has spread
dramatically since 1990,' it says.

Kevin Watkins said: 'Democratisation has definitely pushed things in
the right direction. The more accountable governments are, the more
pressure there is to reduce poverty. Development aid plays an
important part in some countries, particularly those in southern
Africa. But ultimately it is down to national efforts, and governments
being committed to reducing poverty.'

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: Summer Reading?

[Jim Devine]

also by Mark Jones Black Lightning Gollancz Vista Paperback £4.99.
A post-Cold War political thriller set in the new Russia where the threat 
to the West is greater than it ever was before.
"Russia can emerge - strange as it may seem - as the true victor of the 
twentieth century. If ever they do use Molniya we will have to hope that 
they allow the White House to keep one functioning telephone so that we can 
at least listen to their surrender terms." Extract from US Summary of 
Intelligence Reports.

Now the Cold War is over, political and social instability and the rise of 
ultra-right-wing nationalism have made the new Russia a volatile and 
threatening country. Molniya, or Lightening, a weapon on the Arctic seabed 
with the ability to paralyse the world's electronics, is in the hands of 
the nationalists. Action of the most direct and violent sort on the part of 
the West is called for.
American agent Renard must penetrate the upper echelons of Russia's 
political/military machine before the West is plunged into perpetual 
darkness. And time is running out...

Mark Jones, although British born, lived and worked in Moscow for many 
years and has travelled all over the Russian continent. He has had 
first-hand experience of the corruption that is at present endemic in 
Russian society. He is acquainted with the nationalist politician 
Zhirinovsky. He lives in Shropshire with his Russian wife Natalya.

Zhirinovsky, on being shown an early copy of this book, had this so say
"We have seen a number of trashy books by so-called experts on the subject 
of the changes going on in Rusia, and this is one of the worst. The author, 
Mark Jones, is known to me. His book is full of scandal and lie, the 
author's views about Great Russia hidden coward-fashion behind the pretence 
of writing a novel."

---
so if Zhirinovsky says it's bad, it must be good?

Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine

Summer Reading?

[Max Sawicky]

Mark Jones-- Caviar --- Gollancz (0 575 06043 3) £15.99 out August 25th
The game is international; the currency is oil; the penalty for defeat:
extinction - in Mark Jones' devastating new thriller of realpolitik in a
fragmented world.
Douglas and Zildra Reynard have gone to ground in a remote cottage on the
Welsh borders.
The summons, when it comes, seems innocuous at first. Then Zidra finds that
Douglas is already in too deep to retreat. And when he disappears, leaving
her alone in a hotel room with a mini-bar filled with the remains of a CIA
man, she realises that if she ever wants to see her husband again she must
go back to the world's most dangerous city: Moscow.
Mark Jones has spent many years in Russia dealing in export/import. He knows
the nationalist politician Zhirinovsky and dined with a top Moscow mafioso
who was killed in a bomb attack the following day. He lives with his Russian
wife Natalia in Shropshire. He is also the author of the thriller Black
Lightning.

http://www.twbooks.co.uk/crimedigests/aug96.html

Re: Re: culture to the masses

[Ann Li]

The point relevant to the earlier question of a consumer culture in this
case is the broad application of improvements (and scale economies with the
19 C. background often used to explain 20 C. post-fordist flexible
production) in printing technology to produce patterns that could be applied
in a wide variety of consumer goods areas ranging from the use of decals in
ceramic pottery production to mass printing including wallpaper and
serialized fiction and of course the production of cheap cloth goods
(printed chintz to cover furniture and printed yardage being less costly
than woven fabric etc). This predated Morris as Eric points out, and is
notable relative to Morris because of his socialistic view not unlike others
during the period that improved designs might also have moral implications
for all involved in the process, whether producers, distributors or
consumers. Forty argues for the class divisions created by differentiated
lower-class designs imitating upper-class ones. However, it might be said
that Morris and his buddies ( However beautiful the products of the
Pre-Raphaelites and Morris' own political writings etc) were what we might
now call Bohos, bringing us back to where the thread started with the
japanese version of "baby boys".

Ann

- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2001 5:47 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:14801] Re: culture to the masses


> Jim D wrote,
> > I'm told that William Morris . . .invented wallpaper
> >as part of his wider effort to bring art to the proletariat.
>
> >From Encyl Britannica:
>
> "Wallpaper developed soon after the introduction of papermaking to Europe
> during the latter part of the 15th century. . ."
>
> "Machine-printed wallpaper first appeared in 1840 at a firm of printers in
> Lancashire and, with the work of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts
> Movement, created a revolution in wallpaper design. Morris' designs for
the
> medium, which first appeared in 1862, were characterized by flat,
stylized,
> naturalistic patterns and rich, subdued colours. His work and the
progressive
> designs of Walter Crane coexisted, however, with the more traditional
taste
> expressed in the work of A.W.N. Pugin, Owen Jones, and James Huntington,
who
> designed wallpaper in the Gothic and Rococo styles as late as the 1860s."
>
> Eric
>
>
>
>

Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: Yet another take on Hubbert'speak

[Doug Henwood]

Ken Hanly wrote:

>But how do you know that your own references are so reliable. See for
>example the following on some of the problems involved:
> http://sepwww.stanford.edu/sep/jon/world-oil.dir/lynch/worldoil.html

Very helpful link.

>In 1996, I published a piece discussing the various methods which 
>were used to forecast oil supply, and argued that they, too, were 
>flawed by certain repetitive errors, namely: 1) bias, and especially 
>pessimism, since nearly every forecast has been too low since 1978, 
>despite relying on price assumptions that were much too high; 2) 
>similar forecasts for every region, despite different fiscal 
>systems, drilling levels and/or the maturity of the industry, 
>suggesting omitted variables; 3) misinterpretation of recoverable 
>resources as total resources by using a point estimate instead of a 
>dynamic variable, growing with technology change, infrastructure 
>improvements, etc.; so that 4) there is a tendency for all national, 
>regional or non-OPEC production forecasts to show a near-term peak 
>and decline, which was always moved outward and higher in later 
>forecasts (the opposite of price forecasts).


>Lynch (1996) argued that the Hubbert method fails because it takes 
>recoverable (not total) resources as fixed, and assumes that to be 
>the area under the curve of total production. When the estimate of 
>the area under the curve (resources) is increased, the entire 
>increase must be applied to future production. This is exactly what 
>is happening with Campbell, as Figure 15 shows.

Campbell is one of Mark's gurus. Apparently he's been saying this 
sort of thing for 15 years or more, producing forecasts that were 
consistently pessimistically wrong. Mark, has he ever explained why? 
Lynch says he hasn't - is this true?

Doug