As the fighting drags on from one year to the next, the engagement of US forces in armed nation-building projects in distant lands will become the new normalcy. Americans of all ages will come to accept war as a perpetual condition, as young Americans already do. That “keeping Americans safe’’ obliges the United States to seek, maintain, and exploit unambiguous military supremacy will become utterly uncontroversial. Full article.
Legendary Native American Singer-Songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie
buffy sainte-marie – just beautiful.
In a Democracy Now! special, an hour of conversation and music with Cree Indian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. In the turbulent 1960s, she was just out of college but already famous for her beautiful voice and moving lyrics in songs like “Universal Soldier” and “Now that the Buffalo’s Gone.” Over the years, Buffy Sainte-Marie has worked with the American Indian Movement, but also with Sesame Street, and even Hollywood, winning an Academy Award for the song “Up Where We Belong” in 1982. She’s won international recognition for her music, has a PhD in fine arts, and began a foundation for American Indian Education that she remains closely involved with. We speak with the folk icon about her life, her music, censorship, and her singing and speaking out about the struggles of Native American peoples for the past four decades. She also performs live in the firehouse studio. Watch interview.
nina simone – black is the colour of my true love’s hair
something beautiful to balance out all the bad news.
Obama approves 13,000 more troops to Afghanistan
In an unannounced move, President Barack Obama is dispatching an additional 13,000 US troops to Afghanistan beyond the 21,000 he announced publicly in March, The Washington Post reported. Full article.
Jets pound militant hideouts in South Waziristan
The government says most attacks in the country — including four big ones over the past week that killed more than 100 people — are plotted in South Waziristan, the main bastion of al-Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban and their allies. Full article.
“US military is out there spreading death right now”
matthis chiroux is an american hero.
Reconsider Columbus Day
most excellent!
The Woman Who Should Have Won Obama’s Nobel
Dr. Sima Samar, the physician and activist who survived a fatwa in Afghanistan, is the woman doing the kinds of things Obama is talking about – which is why she deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Full article.
The National Equality March
The National Equality March – the birth of a new civil rights movement for LGBT people in the U.S.
Time Magazine: 200,000 Attend The Gay March: Will a New Generation’s Protests Be Heard? Full article.
Jay Sean’s “Down” tops the charts
jay sean is the first solo male artist of punjabi heritage to top the music charts. check out his video “down”.
The Power of Nightmares – Part1
something worth checking out.
Animation confronts Gaza breast cancer taboo
Fatenah, which tells the fictional story of a young seamstress from a Gaza refugee camp, is the first commercial Palestinian animation film ever made. The heart-wrenching tale follows Fatenah’s pain and humiliation as she struggles to leave Gaza for treatment after finding few Palestinian doctors willing to help. Full article.
“It Isn’t Nice” by Malvina Reynolds
It isn’t nice to block the doorway,
It isn’t nice to go to jail,
There are nicer ways to do it,
But the nice ways always fail.
It isn’t nice, it isn’t nice,
You told us once, you told us twice,
But if that is Freedom’s price,
We don’t mind.
It isn’t nice to carry banners
Or to sit in on the floor,
Or to shout our cry of Freedom
At the hotel and the store.
It isn’t nice, it isn’t nice,
You told us once, you told us twice,
But if that is Freedom’s price,
We don’t mind.
We have tried negotiations
And the three-man picket line
Mr. Charlie didn’t see us
And he might as well be blind.
Now our new ways aren’t nice
When we deal with men of ice,
But if that is Freedom’s price,
We don’t mind.
How about those years of lynchings
And the shot in Evers’ back?
Did you say it wasn’t proper,
Did you stand upon the track?
You were quiet just like mice,
Now you say we aren’t nice,
And if that is Freedom’s price,
We don’t mind.
It isn’t nice to block the doorway,
It isn’t nice to go to jail,
There are nicer ways to do it
But the nice ways always fail.
It isn’t nice, it isn’t nice,
But thanks for your advice,
Cause if that is Freedom’s price,
We don’t mind.
A darker side of Columbus emerges in US classrooms
Columbus’ stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years, and many districts will not observe his namesake holiday on Monday. Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations.”
The whole terminology has changed,” said James Kracht, executive associate dean for academic affairs in the Texas A&M College of Education and Human Development. “You don’t hear people using the world ‘discovery’ anymore like they used to. ‘Columbus discovers America.’ Because how could he discover America if there were already people living here?” Full article.
review: jane campion’s “bright star”
jane campion’s “bright star” recounts the love story of john keats and fanny brawne. keats is played by ben whishaw, a slight young man with an intelligent demeanor and sensitive eyes. abby cornish plays fanny brawne as a bold, youthful, captivating girl who knows more about fashion than poetry.
the film progresses quietly, almost humbly, with none of the sheen or melodrama we expect from hollywood. campion has an eye for sensuous textures and the successful coupling of light, landscape and human emotion and the film is rich with such gifts. scenes of intimacy are modest and unaffected – devoid of an operatic music score that tries to adorn or elevate. we all know what place keats will occupy in the annals of english poetry, yet that knowledge does not inform the tone of the film.
keats’ poetry is meshed beautifully with quotidian scenes and dialogue. “ode to a nightingale” which i learned by heart as a child seemed to tumble out of my memory. a delightful multi-sensory experience. keats sits distractedly on a simple wooden chair. he’s in an english garden plump with blossoms. he listens to the soft, mellow song of the nightingale. the words begin to pour forth from his imagination. we are mesmerized.
keats’ death at the incredibly young age of 25 is expected yet still heartrending, especially when we are confronted by fanny’s violent grief.
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain –
To thy high requiem become a sod.
Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam’d to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now ’tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music: – Do I wake or sleep?
(From “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats, May 1819)