Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ May 4, 2009
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Note from the Editors: Americans have apparently become bored with
waterboarding, as the release of the Bush administration's torture memos
left its perpetrators at large (though sticking close to home), facing
neither public outrage nor presidential will to prosecute. There are
bigger fish to fry, or pigs to slaughter, with the fear of swine flu
immobilizing our already frozen-in-fear selves as we hold our
collective breath until the economy recovers. Time to look forward, we
are told, as the stock-market stats scroll endlessly under the
flu-outbreak maps on the 24 hours of television news. There's no place
for investigative reporting in this ever- changing environment, in which
All the News That's Fit to Print is obsolete by the time it is printed.
Charles Marowitz brings two related viewpoints on that matter -- one on
the abandonment of professional journalism for the amorphous
alternative of anything-goes twitterings from fatuous scribes whose
concept of the world is defined by FaceBook and YouTube, and another on
the depths of indulgent triviality that our culture has sunk to in this
new era of Internet free-for-all. Bad news sells, as Gilles d'Aymery
avers in his Martian Blips that cover all of the above and more
analyses, economic and otherwise, that you won't read in what remains
of the mainstream media. All of which leaves us even more appreciative
of photojournalist Art Shay, who shares his unmatched photographic and
linguistic talents and recounts some humorous brushes with royalty
during his career.
Not to be found in the US mainstream media is the analysis of Michael
Barker, who researches the links between the population control and
environmental movements and the liberal philanthropists behind both.
Nor is there much reporting on the economic crisis in the rest of the
world, which has Peter Byrne homesick for Bulgaria where he lived
during the country's mid-1990s meltdown and experienced life to its
fullest intensity. While the Times and the Post both reviewed "When
Skateboards Will Be Free," Louis Proyect covers the memoir of a boy's
life with his Socialist Workers Party parents from a non-mainstream
perspective. Reporting from Africa, Femi Akomolafe confronts Nigeria's
ironic attempt to rebrand the country with a winning slogan. And with
the escalating violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan, US forces are
employing imprecise predator drones as long-distance instruments of
death, leading Martin Murie to suggest there is much for humans to
learn from the hierarchy of the animal kingdom.
In the culture corner, unlike the twitterers and bloggers who broadcast
stream-of-consciousness trivia, Guido Monte painstakingly searches for
just one perfect word on which his very survival depends, and Raju
Peddada reflects poetically on his awe-inspiring children. In the
French Corner (en Français) Marie Rennard writes about the dangers of
infidelity mixed with a cravat; Simone Alié-Daram offers a short poem;
and we publish an 1825 letter from George Sand to her mother and the
1848 Communist Manifesto. Finally, we close with your letters on peak
oil, nonfiction comics, lemon cars, and prosecuting torture.
# # # # #
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/cmarow136.html Breaking News -
Charles Marowitz
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/cmarow137.html Trivia Triumphant -
Charles Marowitz
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/desk086.html Blips #86 - From the
Martian Desk - Gilles d'Aymery
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/ashay11.html My Camera Outpaces My
Books In Royalties - Art Shay
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker19.html Sustainable Population
- Michael Barker
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/pbyrne98.html Bulgaria Unter Alles -
Peter Byrne
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/lproy54.html Saïd Sayrafiezadeh's
"When Skateboards Will Be Free" - Book Review by Louis Proyect
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/femia10.html Rebranding Nigeria: An
Exercise In Futility - Femi Akomolafe
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/murie69.html Reaping Bodies And
Hatred - Martin Murie
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/gmonte67.html Melting Pot (Unending)
- Multilingual Poetry by Guido Monte
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/marier29.html Le noeud de l'intrigue
- Nouvelle par Marie Rennard (FR)
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/salie02.html Dodecasyllabe traffic -
Poème par Simone Alié-Daram (FR)
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/xxx131.html A madame Maurice Dupin -
George Sand (FR)
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/xxx130.html Manifeste du Parti
Communiste - Karl Marx et Friedrich Engels (FR)
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/rajup13.html Solace In Their
Innocence - Poem by Raju Peddada
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/letter164.html Letters to the Editor
# # # # #
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