Atlantic Free Press was launched in September 2006 by Dutch-Canadian R.G.
Kastelein of V.O.F. Expathos, in the Netherlands and American Expatriate Chris Floyd of
Oxford, UK.
Brick Ogden, an American Expatriate in Amsterdam has been a key supporter of this project.
Assistant Editor Canadian Chris Cook hails from Victoria, British Columbia and Senior Writer Paul William Roberts is based in Toronto - but often on the road.
The mission of AF Press is simple: to dig out nuggets of truth from
the slag-heap of lies, ignorance and witless diversion that has buried
public discourse today. AF Press provides a new venue for
disseminating hard news and insightful, fact-based analysis of the
harsh realities too often ignored or distorted by the mainstream press.
Michael O’McCarthy has been many things during his eventful and occasionally tumultuous life. Not only has he been a journalist, poet, novelist, film producer and artist, he has also been what you might call a political prisoner. He walks, in other words, the walk. On his good days, he says, he is “a revolutionary humanist” and on his bad ones, he “simply hates the ruling class.”
Well, yes, judging from his new novel, Rebels in Hell (iUniverse), O’McCarthy hates the ruling class with a sort of white-hot intensity. He proves himself to be a polemical fictionalist in the mold of Orwell and Huxley. Take his protagonist, Healy, an idealistic writer whose ire was “focused on the politicians who had stolen the country for the rich.” Hmmmm. Sounds familiar. Healy’s foil is Miguel, the assassin for hire who learned his craft (extremely well!) in the U.S. Marines.
The Grand Jury indictment was hand delivered in a plain brown envelope. Because it arrived late, I decided to have dinner before unsealing the package. I had enough clues about the contents to know it was going to be a long night.
By dawn - I was still up desperately fighting off the temptation to sleep. Every page of the indictment revived buried memories from the scene of the crime. Long forgotten details were resurrected in vivid color. To my surprise, there was also a lot of evidence that I wasn't aware of - the kind of details only a professional investigator knows how to dig up.
After a few hours of sleep - I got up and instinctively reached for the indictment. The charges were conspiracy to defraud the United States of America. An ex-district attorney from California had taken it upon herself to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell and Rice for systematically lying to the American people to make a fraudulent case for launching a war in Iraq.
By noon, I was done. I had read the indictment, seen the compelling evidence, waded through an instructive lecture explaining the exact legal definition of conspiracy and fraud and accepted an implicit invitation to sit on the Grand Jury.
It was a closed and shut case. There was no beating the rap. The former district attorney had obviously done her homework and she was going to cakewalk her case from the Grand Jury to a full-blown trial.
Carolyn Baker Reviews Danny Schechter's e-book SQUEEZED (Click on link to Download)
Vulture restructuring is a purging cure for a malignant debt cancer. The reckoning of systemic debt presents regulators with a choice of facing the cancer frontally and honestly by excising the invasive malignancy immediately or let it metastasize through the entire financial system over the painful course of several quarters or even years and decades by feeding it with more dilapidating debt.
Henry Liu,
For more years than I can count I've heard Danny Schechter's name bandied about in progressive circles, but for all his tireless activism, he did not fully capture my attention until I saw his stunning documentary "In Debt We Trust." By that time I had forsaken my myopic focus on imperialism, the Iraq War, the Democratic Party, and of course, Bush-bashing. It was becoming painfully and increasingly clear to me that history was repeating itself, and being an historian, I was well aware that it never does so in exactly the same manner but often with enough mirroring of earlier eras that it behooves human beings to sit up and pay attention.
Change is avalanching upon our heads, and most people are grotesquely unprepared to cope with it.
- Alvin Toffler
With a doctorate in Sports Administration from Temple University, unhappy in his job, and struggling to support a family, Steve Alten wanted to write, but his rigorous schedule left no discretionary time for doing so. Nevertheless, he began writing every night from 10PM to 3 AM and on weekends, delivering in eight months a novel which would evolve into a novel/movie series about a pre-historic great white shark. After a long chain of science fiction thrillers, Alten has taken a decidedly political turn, and tomorrow, January 22, 2008, will release his new futuristic page-turner, The Shell Game (Sweetwater Books), subtitled: The End of Oil, The Next 9/11, and The End Of Civilization.
When Steve sent me a review copy of Shell Game, despite glowing reviews of it from people I know and respect, I sighed and squirmed in my chair. Anyone who knows me well knows that I don't DO fiction-or to be more specific, I resist it because of the difficulty I usually experience with trying to organize the characters of a novel in my mind. Nevertheless, I emailed Steve and assured him that I would review the book and began skimming it with dread. Peeking into the pages with immense caution and aloofness, something completely astounding happened: I found myself inexplicably riveted. That someone like me could not put the book down speaks volumes, and no one was more surprised than I was.
As reviewer Bill Douglas points out, Shell Game opens from the perspective of the neocons "THEN, the novel proceeds to dis-assemble that ‘reality' taking the reader on a journey that shows the ugly underbelly of false flag terrorism, diminishing civil and human rights, and the lies that led into past wars, and portend to lead us all into future wars."
My intention in reviewing this stunning book is to share how it has illumined my understanding that collapse and vision are not separate, but that in fact, they travel together and need each other. That is to say that collapse makes vision possible, and vision makes collapse the most desirable option of all as we confront the earth community's current dilemma.
Disaster is not approaching,
It has arrived.
It is happening now.
Blessings and Grace are not approaching
They have arrived.
They are here now
I say I believe in Grace
But I think, feel and move as though
Only Damnation is real.
Or if Grace does exist,
It is for someone else.
I close my heart to pain
But it doesn't help,
I cannot circumvent disaster.
But in closing my heart to disaster
perhaps I can circumvent Grace.
Can I bear the burden
Of knowing disaster and Grace,
Each in its own awful fullness?
James Hillman says our problem
Comes down to a failure of imagination.
I need an image, a picture...
Who would I be
If I were willing to risk believing
That Grace is real?
- by Paul Tierney
It has repeatedly been my experience that when a book is supposed to enter my life, it does. Often it falls off the shelf into my lap, and at other times a friend suggests it, or the author him/herself sends me a copy for review. William Kotke has written articles for this website, and his Final Empire has been reviewed elsewhere, most notably by Dan Armstrong. However, the timing of my requesting a review copy of the book from him could not have been more momentous. As a result, I am not only reviewing the book, but using the review as an opportunity for sharing a recent shift in my perspective that may make this the most important article I've ever written in my life. It is written in two parts: The first contains Kotke's extraordinary analysis of why civilization is collapsing and must collapse, and the second offers his vision of what is possible when empire has been eliminated.
As part of my commitment to holding the tension of current reality alongside my vision, I will continue to spotlight those who are in Kotke's words "gathering seeds of Natural cultures and the truly beneficial things created by civilization" and carrying them through the apocalypse.
We are proposing to create no less than a completely new human culture that relates to the earth in a completely different way....those who choose to respond in a positive way need gather the seeds of Natural cultures and the truly beneficial things created by civilization and carry them through the apocalypse.
~William Kotke~
Tending The Vision
In Part One of this review, I focused on the author's stunning explanation of collapse as a kind of time bomb imbedded in civilization. What I failed to mention is that Kotke wrote this book in 1993 which makes its contents all the more momentous. Likewise, his vision of alternative communities based on the principles of natural culture was ahead of its time in terms of defining how humans need to live in relationship with the more-than-human world.
At this point, I'd like to share how The Final Empire and the timing of its appearance in my life, in synchronicity with other concepts and events, informed my vision of possibilities.
The old normal is that life will go on just like before. The new normal is that nothing will ever be the same Rather than attempting to undertake the Herculean task of mitigating the unmitigatable-attempting to stop the world and point it in a different direction-it seems far better to turn inward and work to transform yourself into someone who might stand a chance, given the world's assumed trajectory. Much of this transformation is psychological and involves letting go of many notions that we have been conditioned to accept unquestioningly. Some if it involves acquiring new skills and a different set of habits. Some of it is even physiological, changing one's body to prepare it for a life that has far fewer creature comforts and conveniences, while requiring far more physical labor.
These words from Pages 125 and 126 of Dmitry Orlov's Re-Inventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects leapt out at me as perhaps the most definitive in his marvelous new book in which Dmitry illumines the collapse of the American empire, now well underway, with his insights from living through the collapse of the Soviet Union.
By way of background, I will be using his first name throughout this review because although I've only met him once, he feels like an old friend. I first heard of Dmitry several years ago when I became a subscriber to From The Wilderness where I was captivated by his article series "Post-Soviet Lessons For A Post-American Century." Later in 2007, Dmitry wrote an exclusive article for my website entitled "Collapse And Its Discontent." I was then honored and humbled by his request for an endorsement of Re-Inventing Collapse and immediately requested a review copy from his publisher, New Society.
Examining the causes, consequences, and interrelationships of the current crises with actionable advice for individuals and governments
We must leave the old left/right, liberal conservative paradigm behind us. Smaller government under local control-as will be the case in the Renewal communities-could actually be considered a "conservative" idea....We are creating a new tomorrow from what will soon become antiquity; we are not rehashing petty divisions or reaffirming old prejudices.
- Mike Byron
I can't remember exactly how I met Mike Byron, but we encountered each other online a few years ago and immediately sensed that we were intellectual and political allies. Mike generously wrote an endorsement for the back of my book U.S. History Uncensored: What Your High School Textbook Didn't Tell You, and shortly thereafter, he sent me a copy of his first book, Infinity's Rainbow. After finishing it, as I recommended it and attempted to describe it, I found that I could best do so by calling it a catalog of the planetary emergency in which the earth community finds itself. Then Mike requested an endorsement from me for his next book, The Path Through Infinity's Rainbow which I was delighted to provide because it takes Infinity's Rainbow many steps further and offers options for individuals and communities in the wake of civilization's collapse.
Lest the reader erroneously infer from the words "infinity's rainbow" that either of these books are pieces of abstract, airy-fairy fluff, I hasten to assure you that they are not. Mike Byron is a professor of political science and history and in my opinion, has critically analyzed the complex relationships between the monumental issues of our time: Peak Oil, climate chaos, and the economic sea changes that "a world gone mad" is forcing us to address. In his words, The Path Through Infinity's Rainbow offers a guide to: "Navigating the coming years of crisis; surviving and transforming our world; and participating in the creation of a new, sustainable economy."
Last winter, I flew across the ocean back to Tennessee, after my oldest brother died. During this visit, I had with me a book I'd long meant to read but had never gotten around to. It was Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, by T.J. Stiles.
To call this work a "biography" risks misrepresenting the depth and scope of the illumination it provides. It is a masterpiece of historical reconstruction. By the time I had finished reading it, during long, empty nights after days filled with the business and busyness of death, I felt I had come to a new understanding of American reality: of the nation's history, of many of the deep-running currents in American society, and of our politics, past and present. I also felt – although this was incidental – that I had gained new insights into Iraq as well, into some of the dynamics at work in the sectarian conflicts there, which we like to pretend have largely to do with strange and primitive elements in Muslim and Arabic culture, with no connection to us.
The new book Murdered by Mumia, by Maureen Faulkner and right-wing Philadelphia radio talkshow shock jock and Bill O'Reilly wannabe Michael Smerconish, due out this Thursday, got top billing in the feature section of the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday with an excerpt headlined “A Widow Speaks,” which implied that the wife of slain Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner was finally breaking her silence. In fact, Faulkner has been quite vocal for a quarter of a century in her tireless campaign, backed by the Fraternal Order of Police, to have Abu-Jamal, who was found guilty of murdering her husband, executed.
She has persisted in this campaign, of which this book written with the help of equally avid death penalty booster Smerconish is a kind of culmination, despite reams of evidence that Abu-Jamal never got a fair trial, despite the fact that the prosecution hid evidence of possible innocence and that the police or the prosecutor coerced false testimony from key witnesses. They have persisted in that campaign despite a 2003 study by a state supreme court-appointed committee confirming that the entire Philadelphia legal system and the Pennsylvania appellate courts that review that system are rife with racism, and that death penalty prosecutions, especially in Philadelphia, are poisoned by prejudice.
"A very few serve the state with their consciences, and so necessarily resist it." -Henry David Thoreau
"We should never forget that everything Adolph Hitler did in Germany was legal and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was illegal."
-Martin Luther King Jr.
"A real cynic isn't going to blow the whistle. And a real radical probably won't be in a position to do it. It takes someone who believes in the system far more than the system ever believes in itself."
- C. Fred Alford
Actually Thoreau is wrong. More than a few serve the state and resist its abuses, at significant risk to themselves. But very few of us know all of their stories. Resisters of the occupation of Iraq in the U.S., British, and Australian governments and militaries are plentiful enough to fill a book, and they've filled a good one.
"Dissent: Voices of Conscience: Government Insiders Speak Out Against the War in Iraq" is the forthcoming work of U.S. Army Colonel (Ret.) Ann Wright and Susan Dixon (forthcoming after a long delay imposed by the State Department). Wright is herself one of the many heroes whose stories are told in the book. Many of us who follow the war and the peace movement know Ann and know that she resigned from the U.S. diplomatic corps in protest of the invasion of Iraq. But can you name the other two U.S. diplomats who had already done the same thing? Do you know their stories?
Most of the books I've read about the awfulness of the Bush presidency remind me of the old story about the blind men trying to figure out what an elephant looks like. Each one feels the part in front of him and describes the elephant within that singular context. The blind men's descriptions are correct but they don't really capture "elephant-ness," the totality of what such an animal might be.
"The Shock Doctrine" by The Nation/Guardian writer Naomi Klein gets the pieces of the elephant right, but, more importantly, the book displays the author's deep understanding of the dangerous political/economic philosophies that undergird U.S. domestic and foreign policy.
In this, "The Shock Doctrine" is the most compelling, intelligent, meticulously researched and wholistic book I've yet read about how the U.S., over the past fifty years, got itself into the unholy mess it's in today.
A large part of Klein's book, as you might guess, involves the catastrophe that is Iraq and the "war on terror" in general. But those military misadventures, she says, are but symptoms of the more all-encompassing ideological mindset that breeds the reckless policies being pursued today both domestically and internationally.
Some books still matter — even greatly — although generally they’re not the ones you’ll have heard about. In our grim day, if a book is visible enough for it to be on your radar, the chances are high that it’s a product of the enemy — of the culture of fraud and prefab lies, of the “official” and “acceptable” culture, the never-quite-the-real-thing culture of the New York Times, just say, and of the entirety of mainstream publishing. Yes, yes, I know: There are exceptions and some good stuff gets known. But to dwell on the exceptions is like taking time to express joy and wonder at the success of the one well-educated flea that manages against all odds to survive on the hide of a rogue elephant — as the latter trammels your vegetable garden, destroys your home, and curves its tusks through the bodies of your children and neighbors.
2
And so my own measure of what makes a book a good one — or makes an object in any of the arts a good one — is short and simple: It’s the truth-measure. The definition of this measure, that is, is short and simple. Explaining why or how something fits it may be another matter altogether, as complicated as the piece under consideration.
In the case of Lawrence Velvel, however, clarity and simplicity (that’s a good word, by the way) are the rule from opening words to final paragraph, and with good reason: The author’s subject through all four volumes of this memoir is the simple and consistent truth that honesty in America is a big disadvantage, in fact a crippling disadvantage, to a person’s profession, career, success, stature, income, and life achievement. At least this is so if the person’s profession happens to be the law. And if that person’s career had its beginning somewhere around mid-century, right after World War II had been won by the forces of freedom, a time when, as Velvel puts it in his preface to Volume One, “the American Dream was in full flower.”
It’s worth lingering for a minute over that preface, and over Velvel’s simple — again, good word — descriptive definition of “the American Dream” as having had one of its central origins in the life and thought of — yes — Abraham Lincoln. “It is Abraham Lincoln’s life and views,” writes Velvel,
which most strikingly illustrate the idea that in America you can rise as high as talent plus hard work can carry you. It is Lincoln’s life and views which most strikingly show that, in the process of rising, it is not enough to do well for yourself. Rather, you must also help your fellow man. And thought one an argue about it because Lincoln was so political an animal it is probably Lincoln’s life and views which best illustrate the belief that in the long run the race belongs to the man who does what is right. [vol. 1, p-i]
14. CPR For Dummies: Mouth-to-Mouth Fiction - An interview with Mickey Z (Book Reviews/Book Reviews)
Author : Gregory Elich
by Gregory Elich [Q] I've just finished reading your latest book, CPR for Dummies, and what a wild ride it was. Although you've written much fiction, you’re generally known almost solely for your political works. What avenues does fiction allow you to express that aren't so easily done in political analysis?
[A] When readers approach a book labeled “novel,” they are usually expecting some sense of entertainment...not overt education. So that allows me to tell a story, to screw around with format, to depict events without factoring in a non-fiction reader’s skepticism and desire for documentation. If I have something to say, I can put those words into the mouth of any character I choose and expect that these words will be received and perceived within the context of the story. A parable can often be more influential than a dissertation.
[Q] Your approach to format is playful. There is a story that runs through the book as a main thread, but it is often interrupted by another story, which is in turn interrupted by another. In that regard, it is somewhat reminiscent of The Saragossa Manuscript. Interspersed are true stories from your past and quizzes for the reader. In part, I think the structure is an attempt to portray the simultaneity of events. Why did you choose this format for your book?
[A] Yeah, the non-linear approach appeals to me - as you say - due to the simultaneity of events and also because it's playful, maybe even “disrespectful” of the form. I used flashbacks, diary entries, first person interludes, and related vignettes to deconstruct the classic novel format in the way Jackson Pollock shattered painterly illusions. Still, the specific way CPR for Dummies came about is pretty funny. A few years ago, when some of the regulars on my blog - a.k.a the Expendables - decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month, I joined in and devotedly banged out 50,000 words in 30 days. For me, this required some serious cutting and pasting from several of my unpublished novels and non-fiction books, unproduced screenplays, and even some of my published work. These odds and ends were combined with brand new material and, with a few edits, additions, and redecoration, I had my novel...although calling it a “novel” is like using the word film to describe something Andy Warhol shot.
Hernando Calvo Ospina’s recent book, Colombia, Laboratorio de Embrujos: Democracia y Terrorismo del Estado is the most important study of Colombian politics in recent decades and essential reading in light of the Western media’s and politicians’ celebration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Calvo Ospina’s study provides a wealth of historical and empirical data that highlights Colombia’s peculiar combination of electoral politics characteristic of a Western capitalist democracy and the permanent purge of civil and political society characteristic of totalitarian dictatorships.
Unlike most Latin American countries, Colombia has never experienced the modernization of its political system. Since the 19th century Liberal and Conservative parties run by urban and rural oligarchies have controlled the political process through violence and patronage.
A different and realistic view of Palestinian life is presented in What Did We Do to Deserve This?, an original concept by Mark Howell. The Palestinian people present themselves as a compassionate and caring people, for themselves, their land, and were it possible, for their neighbours. The photography of violence and destruction, of maimed bodies and twisted wreckage, could have been shown, but instead what comes through in the portraits and landscapes, which constitute an important segment of the book, is a "quiet dignity of suffering", perhaps not the best words to match the situation, but the phrase that first comes to mind from the photos. Other words could be attributed to the visual images – resignation, friendliness, fear, happiness, and resilience. In essence, the people of Palestine are presented as a very representative group of humanity, with the added complexity of existing under a severely controlling occupation.
The photographs are a major part of the book, accompanying anecdotes and quotations from civilians leading the harsh daily realities of life in the occupied Westbank. The text beginning each section combines the author’s anecdotal experiences along with an essentials summary of the various themes and topics presented. Along with various websites, Howell has used many of the standard ‘revisionist’ histories of the Palestine/Israeli conflict in support of his own impressions concerning the subjugation of a people by a military force operating in the Westbank acting as an authority unto itself. The three formats combined – photography, anecdotes and stories, current research – make the work an excellent entry source for people wishing to understand more fully the situation in the Middle East in general and in Palestine/Israel in particular.
As has become more common in recent works critical of the Israeli-American liaison, the media receives much criticism. With his initial visit to Palestine, Howell expressed shock “by the great difference between media reporting and the reality on the ground,” leading him “to address the void between mainstream media coverage of the conflict,” and that newly perceived reality. He posits three main causes of the strength of this bias: first that the “Israeli government has developed a formidable PR machine;” secondly, knowing what its actions are going to be (in most cases) it “can also plan in advance” to get its own message out; and finally, the news sources “recruit Jewish spokespeople” as the target audience has “more affinity with a white Israeli with a British accent than with a Palestinian Arab.” As always, the media carries its own corporate interests foremost, which should limit the “trust…often given to journalistic reports.”
The media story is that of inverse victimization, of Palestinian terrorists attacking the vulnerable and peacefully democratic peoples of Israel. The testimony attested to here shows the reality, “the substance of Palestinian society whose voice is rarely heard,” the day to day subjugation of an occupied people by a variety of methods - a people that nevertheless remain resilient and determined.
Alongside the photographs are a series of maps, clearly and neatly presented showing the decline of Palestinian territory since 1948. One not so clear map, probably purposefully so, is one used to delineate the various areas of Jewish settlements and the designation of Palestinian (PLO and Fatah) control to varying degrees according to Israeli definitions. Later, another map shows how the ‘wall’ winds and twists around the Jewish and Palestinian settlements in and near East Jerusalem, isolating Palestinian populations from each other and enabling communication and further settlement of Jewish communities on confiscated land.
In consideration of current events with Hamas’ military takeover of Gaza, this book on the Palestinian Hamas is very timely. It would have been more timely in its original version in 2000 at the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada. With precise foresight into the possible problems of armed conflict between Hamas and Fatah, aided and abetted by Israel, it is almost prescient in nature. It is not prescient however, but a thorough accounting of the structure and movement (political, social, and military) of Hamas, the apparent prescience deriving from the always present fear by Hamas that their less powerful position vis a vis Fatah and the PLO could one day lead to an armed struggle that their perceptions said Fatah could easily win.
It can be argued with a high degree of accuracy that Hamas’ victory in Gaza is technically not a coup, as being caught between two rocks and two hard places (PLO/Fatah and Israel/America) necessitated the move for their very survival as a democratically elected government of Palestine. All of which seems absurd, all of which is absurd, the absurdity pointing directly at the American petard of democracy. It can also be argued, after reading this thoroughly documented and well presented work, that neither the winning of the democratic elections (even if Hamas themselves expected only about thirty per cent of the vote) nor the recent resort to civic violence should have been any kind of surprise. That these two surprises caught western media, pundits, and politicians completely off-guard underlines that they quite simply did not understand Hamas and believed only their own rhetoric about its singular violent, terrorist nature.
The current PLO leader Abbas himself is caught up in this rhetoric, saying, "What happened in Gaza is a bloody and ferocious coup d'etat against Palestinian legitimacy." Unfortunately for him, the elections were very legitimate. As for the coup, what type of reaction could one expect when one’s coalition partner in a unity government is being salaried and armed by both the Israelis and the Americans and making threats to take over all Hamas’ functions? Abbas is trying to create a political solution “on the basis of international legitimacy, the Arab initiative, and [US] President [George] Bush's vision.”[1] Scary thought when that political legitimacy devolves from an international view now presented by arch-warmonger Tony Blair, from a weak coalition of Arab states that are fearful of the same type of democracy that put Hamas into power in the first place, and from, of all things, George Bush’s “vision”. Middle East politics is operating in the theatre of the absurd with all the insanities that corrupt politicians foment; unfortunately, the Palestinians suffer all the consequences.
This work is a powerful compilation of articles relating the story of the al-Aqsa Intifada, tying it into a broader world vision of the Middle East and American Empire. That serves as the main theme for the book, “the continuation of the Zionist colonial project, which has aspired to…control all of historic Palestine with the full backing of U.S. imperialism.” Expressed similarly from another angle, “Israel plays a key role in enforcing U.S. imperial strategy regionally and internationally, particularly…subsumed beneath the “war on terror.” It is essentially a partnership, not Israel controlling Congress, or the U.S. manipulating Israel, but a more cooperative partnership, perhaps not of equals of power in a military-economic sense, but certainly equals of ideology.
Another strong sub-theme accompanies this over-riding viewpoint - that of the weakening power of Fatah and the PA and the rise of Hamas. The authors are quite harsh on their treatment of Fatah as it became more and more elitist, riven with internal dissent and corruption, and more and more seen as a tool of the Israeli occupiers. Accompanying this is the rising power of Hamas, partly as a result of their own strong organizational skills and ideology, but also because the Palestinians see them as a more reliable alternative to Fatah, not compromised in their association with the IDF and Israeli politics.
Other ongoing minor themes accompany these two main texts. Foremost of these would be the transition of the Israeli Left (Labour Party) into a partner for the Zionist Right (Likud) project of redeeming Eretz Israel and its longer-term goal of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Along with this transition is a similar transition of Israel adapting neo-liberal economic policies, including IMF restructuring ideas that leads inevitably to a larger income gap, lower wages, the use of import labour (rather than the rebellious Palestinians or the poorer Mizrahi Jews from the African diaspora), and a general deterioration of social services for the poor (the Mizrahi and ‘Arab Israelis’) and the increase in wealth of the Israeli elites, generally the Ashkenazi (European Jews). This economic restructuring in turn transferred into the occupied territories, further diminishing the economic abilities and possibilities of a militarized occupied territory.
A third minor theme (none are truly ‘minor’, but play a smaller role in this narrative) is that of the Allon Plan, the “Field of Thorns” which includes all actions combined to assist with the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and how it is really the subtext to all the political manipulations through the Peace Process, Camp David, the “disengagement”, “convergence”, and on into the “war on terror.” Ethnic cleansing brings forth the idea of the “demographic danger” used politically as a rallying point, especially within 1967 Israel.
Along with these themes is the ever-present one of media manipulations. The freedom of “Between the Lines” to publish and the quotes derived from Israeli sources are often quite condemning of Israeli actions, political, economic, or military, yet little of that ever reaches the western press. With the recent emphasis on the “war on terror”, the rise of Hamas, and the strong political turn to the far right, this openness is not nearly as apparent.
This is one of those books that comes so close to getting it right all the way along, and in truth actually does get it right, but not always for the expressed reasons. The reader has to consider the author and the probable intended audience. The author, William Easterly, is a former World Bank research economist; his target should be people similar to himself and those currently in academia. Why else write a book criticizing the global top-down foreign aid/anti-poverty groups (governmental, corporate, or otherwise) if not to target that audience?
Two author comparisons come to mind: Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Friedman.
Stiglitz is also an ex-World Bank functionary, in a higher position but not there for the same duration. His writing Globalization and its Discontents (W.W. Norton, 2003) is a much more aggressive and hard –hitting work calling for a full reform of the World Bank and the IMF as they are root causes of many of the world’s economic, social, and political problem (they are obviously all inter-related). He arrives at the same conclusion as Easterly, saying “The result [of globalization of the Washington Consensus] for many people has been poverty and for many countries social and political chaos. The IMF has made mistakes in all the areas it has been involved in.”
The comparison to Friedman is more stylistic. Easterly uses personal anecdotes from his many travels around the world and uses analogies to emphasize certain points, but the analogies tend to be “too cute” and are readily overcome with faults if the reader tries to extend them much further than the initial application. Fortunately for Easterly, he does not fit into Friedman’s grand rhetoric of exceptionalism that supports the American empire in all its endeavours. However, there is a continual battle within Easterly himself of not quite wanting to give up on his long years as an avowed “democrat” and “free marketeer”.
The last two points, free markets and democracy are not something I am against - democracy is great, fair markets are, well more fair - but Easterly does not quite get around to defining them directly, but only indirectly through his examples, and his examples do not always fit into the World Bank apron strings that he cannot quite relinquish. The text assumes the reader knows what democracy is. The text also assumes the reader understands free markets and its global complexities in comparison to local free markets. That of course might be appropriate for his audience, but also might presume more awareness than actually exists. Throughout, there is an implicit understanding that democracy equals free markets equals capitalism.
Fair Trade For All – How Trade Can Promote Development. Joseph Stiglitz and Andre Charlton. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., 2005.
In 2003 Joseph Stiglitz published his much acclaimed and critically popular book Globalization and it Discontents. Its overall thesis, arguable particularly to those hidebound within the ‘Washington Consensus’, simply stated that following International Monetary Fund (IMF) rules and regulations – the combination of trade rules, loans, and ‘structural adjustments’ required to receive financial assistance – “the result for many people has been poverty and for many countries social and political chaos. The IMF has made mistakes in all the areas it has been involved in.”
These allegations have become more apparent as truths as time has passed since the publication of Stiglitz’ first book. It is a book that is readily accessible to the public. Stiglitz’ writing is clear and well argued. He does not slip into a frenzy of economic jargon and presents concise historical examples of the different situations that unfolded globally due in part to IMF ministrations (along with other non-governmental organizations and other governmental interference, especially with the EU and the US.). At the end of his arguments he presents what he sees as reasonable ways and means to help correct the faults of the IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
For the WTO he argues that “Reforming the WTO will require thinking further about a more balanced trade agenda – more balanced in treating the interests of the developing countries, more balanced in treating concerns, like environment, that go beyond trade.” He follows by saying that “so long as globalization is presented in the way that it has been, it represents a disenfranchisement…” and “…of equal concern is what globalization does to democracy.”
With those positive concerns in mind, it was with positive anticipation that I read his subsequent work, Fair Trade For All. Unfortunately I was fully dismayed by the faults of the book, both of its writing style, and its lack of insightful arguments.
To be fair, Stiglitz is writing in companionship with Andrew Charlton, who has wonderfully impressive credentials as professor at the London School of Economics, but with equally unimpressive results. Also to be fair, the book was written on “behalf of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), a network of some two hundred economists and development researchers throughout the developed and developing world” and was then presented to various high level economic meetings (World Bank, IMF, WTO, UN Commonwealth Finance Ministers). That perhaps explains it first major flaw: the lay reader will become lost in the economic jargon, research papers, and suggestions of “empirical evidence” that overwhelm the book.
Fair Trade For All certainly is not accessible for all, quite ironic in that Stiglitz and Charlton along with the major groups involved are continually asking for more “transparency” – this book delivers opacity instead. If this work is typical of the trade papers that travel throughout the world of economics, it is no wonder that we are in significant trouble – lots of jargon and rhetoric, very narrow perspective, (although there are some superficial attempts to be more broadminded with a paragraph or two on the environment and labour), and not much real wisdom and intelligence.
There are a few gems contained within, short summary comments, almost like diamonds in a slag pile of kimberlite. The forward indicates, “The world trading system has protected the interests of the rich countries, at the expense of the poor, and entrenched inequalities.” Describing the situation six years after the Doha talks with the WTO, those promises “…lie discarded at the base of a trading system whose credibility is crumbling.” The first chapter, “Trade Can Be Good For Development” says that the few successes over the “…last fifty years have pursued inventive and idiosyncratic policies. To date, not one successful developing country has pursued a purely free market approach to development.” Another gem is their argument that “None of today’s rich countries developed by simply opening themselves to foreign trade,” a relatively well-known position that is historically supported.
Most of the world knows the superficial history of Hamas as presented by western media, the stories of the suicide bombers, the election results that were argued to be a vote against the PLO/Fatah but not for Hamas, the resulting denial of that democratic vote by all western governments, and most recently, the Hamas takeover of the dysfunctional governance of the Gaza Strip. Azzam Tamimi’s book, Hamas – A History From Within, presents a much broader and much more accurate perspective on a group that has had much more significance for the Palestinian people than simply being a militant suicidal terrorist group.
Consistent with the title, Tamimi presents a history that shows Hamas’ development from its roots within the Muslim Brotherhood, from its aspects of international cooperation and denial, and from ‘within’ – the development of the ideas, policies, and implementation of ideas that is rarely seen in western media sources. It is not a fawning sycophantic review, as it also reveals the internal struggles within Hamas between the various people and political institutions involved in its history and development, and further reveals the precarious hold it had on survival, a survival that became ensured only with the advent of more serious Israeli atrocities during the first Intifada.
Arguments have been made that Hamas was assisted in its set-up by Israel in order to counter the power of the PLO/Fatah organization. Tamimi is much more nuanced in his discussion of this, arguing more that Israeli ignorance of what Hamas embodied and what it meant to the mostly poorer and refugee Palestinians allowed it to survive without direct complicity. Beginning with Sheikh Yassin in Gaza, and as a reaction to the defeat of pan-Arabic Nasirism after the 1967 war, the Islamic Brotherhood centred their concerns not on militancy, but “primarily on instilling Islamic values and ethics in the hearts and minds of the young.” At that time, Israel did not support the Islamic Brotherhood (Ikhwan) but the “occupation authorities did not object to this seemingly benign religious activity.”
22. Making Globalization Work. Joseph Stiglitz - Jim Miles Book Review (Book Reviews/Book Reviews)
Author : Jim Miles
by Jim Miles
Having read Stiglitz' first work, "Globalization and its Discontents", having thought at the time that it was a strong work, then having read his second book "Fair Trade For All", which is not even mentioned in this current work — indicating perhaps that he is not that proud of it, as he should not be, it was terrible — and now having read his latest book "Making Globalization Work", I am now thoroughly disenchanted with his ideas and thought development.
"Making Globalization Work" is much like his first book in that it is a reasonably clear read, and while there is by necessity the use of the economic and political lexicon (that's jargon for 'jargon'), it is not so obtuse (that's jargon for difficult) that it is not unreadable. It is simply not well argued, and retains the major faults that were obvious in the middle work, "Fair Trade For All". [1]
From that previous work, I criticized his development — or lack thereof — on such issues as social development, the environment, democracy, and the military. These remain his weaknesses in the current book, weaknesses that are built into his pattern of thinking, and even though there are chapters or sections of chapters on these, they are simply longer dissertations in the same manner of thinking. Longer does not mean better.
There remains a complete lack of discussion on several important aspects of 'globalization' that are ignored almost entirely. The military, other than for a few passing comments that lead nowhere, receives no recognition at all, although "trade in arms" is mentioned a few times then passed by. The United Nations receives equally short shrift, and is not really brought into the discussion until the final chapter on democratizing globalization (in Stiglitz' arguments this becomes pretty much an oxymoron) and even then only receives passing recognition for very small sections of its overall functioning.
With George Bush having General Petraeus tell him that success is possible in Iraq “although doing so will be neither quick nor easy,” and with his own speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars that rewrote the history book on the Vietnamese war with some strange twists of conjecture, it would appear that the U.S. is settling in for the long haul in Iraq. In a similar vein, Ambassador Ryan Crocker called Iraq “a traumatized society,” adding to the old tired excuse that the U.S. cannot quit the war as the Iraqis themselves are not capable of managing their own affairs. The essential message becomes the same as in Vietnam: the Iraqis are not capable of working things out themselves and in order to give them freedom and democracy, we need to continue fighting the insurgency that mysteriously continues to battle on. Nowhere does the message go out that, yes, “we” are the problem, “we” started it (leaving aside for the moment all the arguments about illegality, lies and deception, and oil), and “we” should get out and go home and let the Iraqis work out their problems on their own or with the assistance of their neighbours and perhaps the sidelined UN.
It is at this point the Anthony Arnove’s book (second edition) Iraq – The Logic of Withdrawal, becomes very timely. It is a clear, well written work, a short read that presents arguments in a concise and well-referenced manner. In order to get to the ‘logic of withdrawal’ Arnove presents strong summary chapters on the overall picture of what has and is happening in Iraq. From that it could be considered a ‘primer’ on what has occurred in Iraq, historically from the fall of the Ottoman Empire, through to the period of U.S. involvement since the Second World War, continuing on into current events with the protracted ‘sanction’ phase against Iraq followed by the deceit of the current war.
In the introduction Arnove recognizes that Iraq matters to the U.S., that a defeat will be “far more significant” than that in Vietnam, as it would be a reversal of a long applied geostrategy to control the Middle East. Further, it signifies that the U.S. has “run up against the limits of empire,” and that “popular forces” within the civilian, military and international world need to “force the U.S. government to this conclusion.” He looks even further and sees a larger challenge, “the need to transform the irrational economic and political system that led to the wars…and that is today directly threatening the survival of the human species.”
On first perusal my perceptions told me this was my kind of book: lots of graphs, charts, and maps for my visual learning strengths, more akin to the National Geographic where I can glean most of the significant information from the photos and captions as much as I can from the text. But then as I delved into the text that introduces and accompanies the visuals, I realized that this was a bit more than just an atlas – it also made political statements through choice of words and topics.
The State of the American Empire: How the USA Shapes the World by Stephen Burman
Unfortunately, that position wavered in front of me, at one time apparently saying this, at another time apparently saying that. The State of the American Empire has a slippery and elusive perspective, but one that finally settles down into a relatively clear theme, perhaps the slippery metaphor being appropriate for American ‘idealism’ as it stands today. Ultimately, the underlying theme to the book, even though it brings forth some very strong criticisms of American actions, is that we, the royal ‘we’, the global ‘we’, need the empire for stability that will bring about the security we need for our energy demands, for our currency markets, for our trade relations.
In the fifth chapter, “Military,” another related theme, much more clearly stated, not nearly as slippery, more like a grasping hawk, much more clearly defined, arises, giving the truth to the type of empire the world is dealing with, and the type of security and stability America is quite literally gunning for. Burman states, “…the USA has its own agenda and national interests to pursue, and it is its capacity to mobilize its armed forces, rather than economic strength, that is the bedrock of its imperial power.” Initially arguing for security through the idealistic goodness of empire and its economic idealism of free trade and global mobility of capital and labour and resources – mainly oil - that has been lost during the Bush ‘regime’ (I’ll come back to that word), the concept of stability falls upon the stability of a military ‘regime’ not unlike that promoted by the likes of Friedman, Ferguson, Ledeen and other hot war promoters: we are morally superior, might is right, and we are going to use it to protect our interests.
Domestically, Burman also recognizes the nature of this militaristic view, as the “…military expenditures make it difficult to cut spending, and this is one of the drivers behind the US creation and exaggeration of threats to its security.” It is not further defined as such, but following the artificially inflated fear of communism to the artificially inflated fear of ‘terror’, the US military keeps corporate as well as domestic America rolling along financially.
Based solely on the title, this book appeared to be something that could have some strong revelations on the nature of the American Empire and its relationship with religion. Having read several books from the religious right, including the first volume of the “Left Behind” series (summed up as a compilation of Star Wars, Harlequin Romance, and end of times theology), I thought this volume might have a more rational approach than the fear mongering and devilish rhetoric that saturates the right wing material.
Surprisingly, The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God is quite full of what for many are very common sense observations concerning the nature of the empire. It is not until three-quarters of the way through the volume that religious issues are addressed, and it is definitely not supportive of the evangelical end of times demonizing rants against the evil arising in Iraq and Iran. The four authors (three of whom are professors of theology) have, as would be expected, very similar viewpoints and understanding of the empire, and more surprisingly, have a strong similarity stylistically with their writing such that the reader can hardly tell which author is writing what without referring to the table of contents. That makes for a very clear and coherent read overall, with the work divided into three broad sections: The Nature of the American Empire, Alternatives to the American Empire, and finally, Religious Reflections.
The book starts with a religious conviction, that “We oppose the American empire on the basis of what we believe to be the sacred divinely rooted moral law of the universe” a statement that needs to be juxtaposed against the “universal values” so broadly declared by the empire’s leaders. Given that the “dominant image of the Divine Reality has been easily used to support empire, this image is profoundly wrong, even idolatrous.” From that strongly worded contradiction of the evangelical right, its end of times prophecies, and complicity in the Israeli Zionist project, the authors settle into a fully secular argument.
Quite straightforwardly the authors state “the United States has long been working toward the goal of exercising unchallenged and exploitative control of the planet,” based on the apologists argument that it is an empire “dedicated to the spread of democracy.” In counter-argument, the authors “find nothing in the history of U.S. foreign policy in general or that of the Bush-Cheney administration in particular to lend credibility to this conceit.” The replacement of the present global order, “which is based on violence and other modes of coercion, with a world based on democratic principles will be a shift of enormous magnitude,” but that for this shift, “a threefold vision already exists.”
Ilan Pappe’s highly revised second edition of The Israel/Palestine Question offers the reader a very instructive read on changing historical perspectives about Israel/Palestine within one over-riding theme — land tenure and population control.
Apart from two chapters dealing with women’s issues within Palestinian culture, this main theme — as with most recent revisionist histories of the region — explores the various permutations on the methods and ideas on how to control the land and the indigenous population, its settlement patterns, the control of resources and people, and the expulsion or marginalization of the Palestinian population within Israel. In consideration of the upcoming ‘conference’ or ‘peace talks’ to be arranged by the Americans, and Condaleeza Rice’s ignorant warnings to the Israelis about not seizing land in East Jerusalem, this volume should be considered “required reading” for all American participants. One must ask Ms Rice, “What about the other millions of dunums of land already seized?” The past continues on.
As presented by Pappe, the purpose of the book is “to introduce an interdisciplinary methodology into the research as well as to inject a more sceptical view of the historical narratives written under the powerful influences of nationalist elites and ideologies.” History, sociology, and political science are interwoven into this perspective. For those not familiar with the histories of the Palestine/Israeli conflict, Pappe’s previous works, A History of Modern Palestine and The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine [1] would be a good place to start, as the first section of this collection of essays is a difficult read without some background knowledge of the situation.
One of the first questions addressed is that of Palestinian national identity as located within the geography of the Ottoman Empire. The first essay analyzes the writings about ‘Palestine’ concentrating on a need to examine previously ignored basic issues at the people’s level (as Howard Zinn does with U.S. history) rather than through the official Ottoman records during the 1700s and 1800s. That of course obviates the “Orientalist” view (modernity versus decay/empty land rescued by Jews) and the Israeli apologetics of their own cultural history in the region. A more specific look is then taken at the Ottoman ‘sanjaks’ or district provinces, with the Jerusalem sanjak “as a separate entity from the other regions of Syria [being] of tremendous importance for the emergence of Palestine about fifty years later.” It helped “determine the character and future of Palestinian politics” as well as contributing “to the emergence of Palestinian nationalism as distinct from Syrian-Arab nationalism.” The essay is a political summary of events in the 19th Century that helped shape the ideas of a nation of Palestinians as compared to Palestine being just a political response to later Jewish immigration.
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Archives 
The Grand Jury indictment was hand delivered in a plain brown envelope. Because it arrived late, I decided to have dinner before unsealing the package. I had enough clues about the contents to know it was going to be a long night. 
Vulture restructuring is a purging cure for a malignant debt cancer. The reckoning of systemic debt presents regulators with a choice of facing the cancer frontally and honestly by excising the invasive malignancy immediately or let it metastasize through the entire financial system over the painful course of several quarters or even years and decades by feeding it with more dilapidating debt.
Henry Liu, 
Change is avalanching upon our heads, and most people are grotesquely unprepared to cope with it.
Part I can be read 
The old normal is that life will go on just like before. The new normal is that nothing will ever be the same Rather than attempting to undertake the Herculean task of mitigating the unmitigatable-attempting to stop the world and point it in a different direction-it seems far better to turn inward and work to transform yourself into someone who might stand a chance, given the world's assumed trajectory. Much of this transformation is psychological and involves letting go of many notions that we have been conditioned to accept unquestioningly. Some if it involves acquiring new skills and a different set of habits. Some of it is even physiological, changing one's body to prepare it for a life that has far fewer creature comforts and conveniences, while requiring far more physical labor.
Last winter, I flew across the ocean back to Tennessee, after my oldest brother died. During this visit, I had with me a book I'd long meant to read but had never gotten around to. It was 
The new book 
Actually Thoreau is wrong. More than a few serve the state and resist its abuses, at significant risk to themselves. But very few of us know all of their stories. Resisters of the occupation of Iraq in the U.S., British, and Australian governments and militaries are plentiful enough to fill a book, and they've filled a good one.
Most of the books I've read about the awfulness of the Bush presidency remind me of the old story about the blind men trying to figure out what an elephant looks like. Each one feels the part in front of him and describes the elephant within that singular context. The blind men's descriptions are correct but they don't really capture "elephant-ness," the totality of what such an animal might be.
Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam “A Slightly Fictionalized Memoir of a Career in the Last Half of The Twentieth Century”
[Q] I've just finished reading your latest book, 
Hernando Calvo Ospina’s recent book, 
A different and realistic view of Palestinian life is presented in 
In consideration of current events with Hamas’ military takeover of Gaza, this book on the Palestinian Hamas is very timely. It would have been more timely in its original version in 2000 at the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada. With precise foresight into the possible problems of armed conflict between Hamas and Fatah, aided and abetted by Israel, it is almost prescient in nature. It is not prescient however, but a thorough accounting of the structure and movement (political, social, and military) of Hamas, the apparent prescience deriving from the always present fear by Hamas that their less powerful position vis a vis Fatah and the PLO could one day lead to an armed struggle that their perceptions said Fatah could easily win.
This work is a powerful compilation of articles relating the story of the al-Aqsa Intifada, tying it into a broader world vision of the Middle East and American Empire. That serves as the main theme for the book, “the continuation of the Zionist colonial project, which has aspired to…control all of historic Palestine with the full backing of U.S. imperialism.” Expressed similarly from another angle, “Israel plays a key role in enforcing U.S. imperial strategy regionally and internationally, particularly…subsumed beneath the “war on terror.” It is essentially a partnership, not Israel controlling Congress, or the U.S. manipulating Israel, but a more cooperative partnership, perhaps not of equals of power in a military-economic sense, but certainly equals of ideology. 
and in truth actually does get it right, but not always for the expressed reasons. The reader has to consider the author and the probable intended audience. The author, William Easterly, is a former World Bank research economist; his target should be people similar to himself and those currently in academia. Why else write a book criticizing the global top-down foreign aid/anti-poverty groups (governmental, corporate, or otherwise) if not to target that audience? 
In 2003 Joseph Stiglitz published his much acclaimed and critically popular book Globalization and it Discontents. Its overall thesis, arguable particularly to those hidebound within the ‘Washington Consensus’, simply stated that following International Monetary Fund (IMF) rules and regulations – the combination of trade rules, loans, and ‘structural adjustments’ required to receive financial assistance – “the result for many people has been poverty and for many countries social and political chaos. The IMF has made mistakes in all the areas it has been involved in.”
Hamas – A History From Within.
Having read Stiglitz' first work, "Globalization and its Discontents", having thought at the time that it was a strong work, then having read his second book "Fair Trade For All", which is not even mentioned in this current work — indicating perhaps that he is not that proud of it, as he should not be, it was terrible — and now having read his latest book "
With George Bush having General Petraeus tell him that success is possible in Iraq “although doing so will be neither quick nor easy,” and with his own speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars that rewrote the history book on the Vietnamese war with some strange twists of conjecture, it would appear that the U.S. is settling in for the long haul in Iraq. In a similar vein, Ambassador Ryan Crocker called Iraq “a traumatized society,” adding to the old tired excuse that the U.S. cannot quit the war as the Iraqis themselves are not capable of managing their own affairs. The essential message becomes the same as in Vietnam: the Iraqis are not capable of working things out themselves and in order to give them freedom and democracy, we need to continue fighting the insurgency that mysteriously continues to battle on. Nowhere does the message go out that, yes, “we” are the problem, “we” started it (leaving aside for the moment all the arguments about illegality, lies and deception, and oil), and “we” should get out and go home and let the Iraqis work out their problems on their own or with the assistance of their neighbours and perhaps the sidelined UN. 
Based solely on the title, this book appeared to be something that could have some strong revelations on the nature of the American Empire and its relationship with religion. Having read several books from the religious right, including the first volume of the “Left Behind” series (summed up as a compilation of Star Wars, Harlequin Romance, and end of times theology), I thought this volume might have a more rational approach than the fear mongering and devilish rhetoric that saturates the right wing material.
Ilan Pappe’s highly revised second edition of The Israel/Palestine Question offers the reader a very instructive read on changing historical perspectives about Israel/Palestine within one over-riding theme — land tenure and population control.