Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

No longer put much stock in Communism (June 22th 2012)

Steve Chapman the 58 year old American columnist on National affairs published an article on Reason Magazine titled ‘Chinese Communists No Longer Put Much Stock in Communism – China has gone from Mao to ‘money worship.’ In the article Chapman states “Mao was dedicated to class struggle and the elimination of property. He created a totalitarian society in which everyone wore the same clothes, chanted the same slogans and—as far as anyone knew—thought the same revolutionary thoughts. Mao’s “new man” was barely recognizable as human. Purported to be selfless, tireless, austere and indifferent to pleasure, he lived for the revolution alone. Skeptics mocked these subjects as “blue ants,” for their drab, uniform dress and unquestioning obedience. But that way of life is extinct and apparently un-mourned… Not that communism is entirely dead. The party remains in firm control of the government, and many enterprises are partly state-owned. Party committees operate in corporate workplaces, where they play the odd role of celebrating those who diligently serve the interests of shareholders. …Even Communists no longer put much stock in communism. Today, it’s the consumer who rules, and it’s buying and selling that dominates economic life. Mao’s visage still dominates Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, but his people seem to have more in common with Calvin Coolidge. …it’s clear that the business of China is business.”

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Where have all the Jeffersonians gone? (June 20th 2012)

Andrew Paolo Napolitano the 62 year old American former Superior Court Judge and current political and senior judicial analyst, has published an article on Reason Magazine titled “Where Is The Outrage Over the Domestic Use of Drones? And where have all the Jeffersonians gone?” In the article Napolitano states “…what Jeffersonians are among us today? When drones take pictures of us on our private property and in our homes, and the government uses the photos as it wishes, what will we do about it? Jefferson understood that when the government assaults our privacy and dignity, it is the moral equivalent of violence against us. The folks who hear about this, who either laugh or groan, cannot find it humorous or boring that their every move will be monitored and photographed by the government. Don’t believe me that this is coming? The photos that the drones will take may be retained and used or even distributed to others in the government so long as the “recipient is reasonably perceived to have a specific, lawful governmental function” in requiring them. And for the first time since the Civil War, the federal government will deploy military personnel inside the United States and publicly acknowledge that it is deploying them “to collect information about U.S. persons.””

Inspired by Reason ow.ly/bzArK image source Gage Skidmore ow.ly/bzB0k

Biggest climate victory you never heard of (June 17th 2012)

Mark Hertsgaard the American journalist reports on ‘the biggest climate victory you never heard of’ in an article he published on Aljazeera about ‘the fight against coal in the US [that] has achieved great success due to activists’ passion and commitment’. Hertsgaard in the article states “Coal is going down in the United States, and that’s good news for the Earth’s climate. …the dirtiest and most carbon-intensive conventional fossil fuel, generated only 36 per cent of US electricity in the first quarter of 2012. That amounts to a staggering 20 per cent decline from one year earlier. …a persistent grassroots citizens’ rebellion that has blocked the construction of 166 (and counting) proposed coal-fired power plants… At the very time when President Obama’s “cap-and-trade” climate legislation was going down in flames in Washington, local activists across the United States were helping to impose “a de facto moratorium on new coal”… Like the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Beyond Coal [activist] campaign has shown that the status quo is not all-powerful. When large numbers of people unite around a compelling critique of the existing order and build political power at the local level, they can change the world. And perhaps even the planet.”

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/bs9Gm image source Twitter ow.ly/bs9wO

Citizens challenge corporate ties (June 14th 2012)

Matthew Cardinale the American founder and News Editor of Atlanta Progressive News has published an article on IPS News titled ‘Targeting Right-Wing Extremism, Citizens Challenge Corporate Ties’. In the article Cardinale states “A coalition of advocacy groups is targeting corporate support for the right-wing Heartland Institute after the organisation took out a controversial billboard in Chicago comparing people who believe in global warming to a serial killer and mass murderer. …The coalition includes such organisations as 350.org, Forecast the Facts, Greenpeace, the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, and Sum of Us. …Over the last two months, the coalition has been successful in convincing some eleven companies to withdraw their support for Heartland Institute, including Allied World Assurance, the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers, BB&T, Diageo, Eli Lilly, General Motors, PepsiCo, RenaissanceRe, State Farm, USAA and XL Group. …[Brad Johnson, campaign manager for Forecast the Facts, states] “The main thing we’re upset by is the corporate sponsorship of the Heartland Institute’s extreme climate denial. The billboards are just the latest example of the Heartland Institute’s attacks on science and the science of climate change and people who believe in reality, that’s why…corporations like Pfizer and Comcast need to cut their ties with the group”.

Inspired by IPS News ow.ly/brZzT image source Facebook ow.ly/brZvY

European Economists Say "Price Carbon!" (June 3rd 2012)

Tim McDonnell the American senior fellow on the Mother Jones Climate Desk has published an article titled ‘As Austerity Falters, European Economists Say “Price Carbon!”’ In the article McDonnell states “Turmoil over budget cuts roils Greek streets. France elects an anti-austerity president. Even Germany’s Austerity Queen Angela Merkel faces electoral backlash. It appears Europeans are getting sick of tightening their belts. But when you can’t cut any more, there’s little else to do but hustle up more cash. For governments allergic to raising income taxes, a European Climate Foundation analysis shows there’s a less painful way to slash deficits—one that could save the planet as it saves the economy: a carbon tax. The report argues that reforming how Europe taxes energy could, by 2020, cut some countries’ 2011 deficits in half. … As a bonus, the report found that carbon taxes improve energy security and can reduce climate-changing emissions by up to 2.5 percent. …But the tradeoff is that revenue could be looped back to Granny in the form of increased social services; under a similar scheme about to commence in Australia, over half the money raised from taxing carbon will be sent back to households via tax cuts and other assistance.”

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Morphing into a dangerous real-estate bubble (May 30th 2012)

Mike Davis the 65 year old American Creative writer, social commentator and political activist has published an article on Toms Dispatch questioning if China now props up the world, the question is: For how much longer? Davis states, ”Officially, the People’s Republic of China is in the midst of an epochal transition from an export-based to a consumer-based economy. …Unfortunately for the Chinese, and possibly the world, that country’s planned consumer boom is quickly morphing into a dangerous real-estate bubble. …now every city with more than one million inhabitants (at least 160 at last count) aspires to brand itself with a Rem Koolhaas skyscraper or a destination mega-mall.  The result has been an orgy of over-construction. …In effect, a shadow banking system has arisen with big banks moving loans off their balance sheets into phony trust companies and thus evading official caps on total lending. …If China has a hard landing, it will also break the bones of leading suppliers like Brazil, Indonesia, and Australia.  Japan, already mired in recession after triple mega-disasters, is acutely sensitive to further shocks from its principal markets.  And the Arab Spring may turn to winter if new governments cannot grow employment or contain the inflation of food prices.”

Inspired by Toms Dispatch ow.ly/b7tb0 image source michaelmoore.com ow.ly/b7tOg

Anonymous' effacement of the self (May 25th 2012)

Enid Gabriella ‘Biella’ Coleman the American anthropologist, academic and author whose work focuses on hacker culture and online activism has published an article on Aljazeera about the Anonymous Hactivitst group. In the article Coleman states “… as a masked entity bearing the name Anonymous – it relays an urgent message about anonymity to contemplate. Given the contemporary reality of a corporate and state controlled surveillance apparatus, Anonymous stands out, compels, and enchants for a very particular reason: it has provided a small but potent oasis of anonymity in the current expansive desert of surveillance, much like the one quite literally being built in the Utah desert right now by the NSA. In an era when most of our personal data is archived online – in a time when states and corporations collect, market, and monetise our plans and preferences – there is indeed something hopeful, one might even say necessary, in Anonymous’ effacement of the self, in the cloaking of their identities, in striking at legislation seen to threaten privacy, and seeking to expose the depth and extent of privatised government contractors that have rapidly emerged as a security apparatus parallel to that of the national government.”

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/aYePW image source Karora ow.ly/aYeN1

Greater acceptance of same-sex marriage (May 23rd 2012)

F. Christopher Arterton the American Professor of Political Management and active in Democratic party politics has been interviewed by Sophie Sportiche in regard to President Obama’s shift on same-sex marriage. During the course of the interview Arterton states “I think having the president of the United States come out for that among a limited group of people may in fact cause them to pause and rethink this issue. …I would say that it’s important to bear in mind that over time, the drift has essentially been toward a greater acceptance of same-sex marriage. …There is a group in the middle that really wants a kind of civil discourse and wants US politicians to not be at each other’s throat. …I think that for the middle segment, which is where the battleground is going to be, they prefer that kind of statement rather than a virulent okay, it’s now time to go for same-sex marriage vehemently, to propose a constitutional amendment or to introduce legislation to totally gut the Defence of Marriage Act. And so to really make a fight out of this on either side, I think, is not in the interests of the group that they’re fighting over.”

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/aYbs1 image source Politico ow.ly/aYbo0

They want to withdraw from the world (May 22nd 2012)

Anne Applebaum the 47 year old American journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author has published an article on Slate titled ‘Europe’s Extremists on the March – Many of the parties winning across the continent have one thing in common: They want to withdraw from the world’. Applebaum states “…as I look across Europe I don’t know what to call the wave of discontent, as most of the parties on the outlying right or left have more in common with one another right now than they do with anyone in the center. Generally speaking they are anti-European, anti-globalization, and anti-immigration. Their leaders, in the words of a French friend, want to “withdraw from the world.” They don’t like their multiethnic capital cities or their open borders, and they don’t care for multinational companies or multilateral institutions. Above all, they are anti-austerity: They hate the budget cuts that they believe were imposed on their national governments by outsiders in the international bond market and by their own membership in the euro currency zone. Never mind that those same national governments had created the need for austerity by overspending and overborrowing, or in some cases—most notably Greece—by funding vast, unaffordable and corrupt state bureaucracies over many decades. And never mind that many of them had begged to be part of the euro zone—nobody was forced to join—or that they benefited for many years from being members.”

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Face it the US economy is socialist (May 21st 2012)

John Stoehr the American journalist, editor and lecturer in political science has put forward an argument in an article published on Aljazeera titled ‘Face it, the US economy is socialist – The real debate is not whether the US economy has socialist attributes, but choosing which form of socialism to employ’. Stoehr states “They [Republicans] talk about socialists and communists with the intent of scaring people away from the debate, but the fact is that state and federal governments spend billions on corporate welfare. No matter what they say about closeted communists in Congress or in the White House, Republicans – even the libertarians – heartily approve of socialism. The question in their view is about which way the money is flowing, up or down. If it’s agribusiness or oil corporations getting bucks from federal subsidies, then money is going to the top. Hoorah for socialism. If it’s single working mothers getting food stamps and housing credits, then money is going to the bottom. That’s a damn government handout – we can’t have that. On the state level, corporate welfare is often wrapped in the rhetoric of job creation. Let’s make the state attractive to businesses, because businesses create jobs, workers spend money and the economy gets better. Voila. Except that taxpayers end up giving more to corporations than they end up receiving.

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/aWEL7 image source Twitter ow.ly/aWEIw

A sort of one-man third culture (May 20th 2012)

Jonah Lehrer the 30 year old American author and journalist who writes on the topics of psychology, neuroscience, and the relationship between science and the humanities has been profiled by Paul Harris for The Guardian in an article titled ‘Jonah Lehrer: the prodigy who lights up the brain’. Harris states of Lehrer “He brings an artist’s skill to the latest research in neuroscience, making him a huge success at only 30. Now his latest book aims to demystify the workings of creativity… He strives to link art and neurology: how chemical reactions within three pounds of squidgy grey matter inside our skulls actually make us love, laugh and lead our lives. That sounds profound and much of Lehrer’s writing is full of wondrous examples of brain and art colliding and collaborating. He shows how writers and painters pre-empted the insights of neuroscience; how different parts of our brains battle with decisions; how creativity is not simply a God-given gift to a lucky few but can be understood, learned and nurtured. But his goal is not without its critics. Where some see Lehrer as a genius, others might see him repackaging plain old common sense in fine prose. It is something that is a risk of the field.”

Inspired by Paul Harris http://ow.ly/aS6Ul image source Twitter http://ow.ly/aS6Qd

A democracy where people not dollars matter (May 19th 2012)

Joseph Eugene Stiglitz the 69 year old American economist and professor has published an article on The Daily Beast titled “The 99 Percent Wakes Up” pointing out  that “Inequality isn’t only plaguing America—the Arab Spring flowered because international capitalism is broken.” In the article Stiglitz states “…I met with protesters in Madrid’s Retiro Park, at Zuccotti Park in New York, and in [Tahrir Square] Cairo… The protesters have been criticized for not having an agenda, but such criticism misses the point of protest movements. They are an expression of frustration with the electoral process. They are an alarm. …they are asking for a great deal: for a democracy where people, not dollars, matter; and for a market economy that delivers on what it is supposed to do. The two demands are related: unfettered markets do not work well, as we have seen. For markets to work the way markets are supposed to work, there has to be appropriate government regulation. But for that to occur, we have to have a democracy that reflects the general interests, not the special interests. We may have the best government that money can buy, but that won’t be good enough.

Inspired by The Daily Beast http://ow.ly/aS6rW image source http://ow.ly/aS6zP

Students engaged each other on the topic of war (April 12th 2012)

Michael Rakowitz the 38 year old Iraqi American Artist and Professor renowned for his conceptual art displayed in non-gallery contexts has a new installation work on the streets of Chicago, titled ‘Enemy Kitchen’. The work is a continuing project begun in 2004 as a collaboration with his Iraqi-Jewish mother. Rakowitz states on his web “…the first incarnation of the project  …with a group of middle school and high school students who live in Chelsea… Some had relatives in the US Army stationed in Iraq. …In preparing and then consuming the food [Baghdadi recipes], it opened up another topic through which the word ‘Iraq’ could be discussed… The project functioned as a social sculpture: while cooking and eating, the students engaged each other on the topic of the war and drew parallels with their own lives, at times making comparisons with bullies in relation to how they perceive the conflict.” This new phase of the project encompasses a mobile food truck in Chicago at the Smart Museum of Art. The food truck features a different Iraqi cook each day, serving cuisine from different regions of the country, and will be staffed by American veterans of the Iraq War who act as servers and sous-chefs.”

Inspired by Ruth Lopez http://ow.ly/a6YmI image source Vimeo http://ow.ly/a6Z5y

Téa Obreht the 25 year old Serbian American novelist described by the British press as a natural born storyteller with a compelling new voice, is the youngest person to have won the ‘Orange’ award for her first novel ‘The Tiger’s Wife’ a family saga of death in Balkans. Obreht took out the prestigious literary prize against an impressive shortlist of nominated novelists. Obreht’s work is steeped in Balkans’ mythology and superstition, learnt from her family’s oral histories and visits to the region. Despite Obreht’s youthfulness, brilliance and American upbringing, she lives a life constantly guarded by superstitious awareness, complying to the many macabre rituals that ensue. As a result Obreht is cautious in her excitement at winning the prestigious award, worried of potential downside that occurs in her world of opposites.

Inspired by Kira Cochrane ow.ly/5lFIm image source teaobreht.com ow.ly/5lFDY