tagged w/ Salon.com
-
“Multiculturalism” has become a loaded term over the last several years. Across the Western world, politicians have recently begun to attack the once widely admired concept, as mainstream conservative figures — ranging from French President Nicolas Sarkozy to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Australian ex-Prime Minister John Howard and British Prime Minister David Cameron have all argued that the project of multiculturalism is a failure. It is, of course, difficult to bring people together while respecting their differences. In many countries, the tension between a national identity and individual cultures and beliefs can dangerously invite assimilation on the one hand, constant conflict on the other. But as the new book “Pax Ethnica: Where and How Diversity Succeeds” points out, it is, indeed, possible to make multiculturalism work.
Over two years and across four continents, historian-journalists Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac have traveled the world in search of harmony – for areas in which different religions, ethnicities and races lived together without violence. Their quest for ethnic peace brought them to Flensburg, Germany (the once tumultuous site of the “Schlesing-Holstein Question”), Kerala, India (a state that leads the country in literacy and healthcare, where Muslims, Hindus and Christians cohabit peacefully), the Russian Republic of Tatarstan (which is both Muslim and Orthodox and is rich in faith and culture), Marseilles, France (a diverse port city with the largest Muslim population in Europe) and finally, Queens, N.Y., which is home to 2.3 million people and 138 languages. Along the way, they tried to answer the question: What is essential for peaceful diversity?
Salon spoke with Meyer and Brysac about American exceptionalism, the geography of peaceful coexistence and why some cities are simply more peaceful than others.
Historically a country of immigrants, how is our conception of diversity, and the cultural conversation surrounding it, different in the U.S. than in other parts of the world?
Shareen Blair Brysac: We are an immigrant society. Other than the Native Americans, that’s the only way we’ve populated the country. Everyone’s an immigrant one generation back or further. There’s been a real debate in Europe. They’re not immigrant societies. They have the idea of “guest workers,” that [foreigners] come to work but didn’t become a citizen. And there’s been a real debate in France over assimilation. They want you to be French. They don’t have French-African or Martinique-French, they don’t have hyphens. You’re either French, or you’re not.
When people came to America, it was a long ways away and you didn’t think of going back. That’s changed now, but people that came from Poland or Russia in 1906 after pogroms never wanted to go back or even hear of the old country. Now with Skype and the Internet in general, cheap airfare, cheap international phone calls, people have a lot more contact with their relatives in, you know, Mexico, South America. There’s much more connection, and the hyphens are much stronger. People say, I’m Greek-American, this-American or that-American. Most of us do have some sort of hyphenated identity. In some cases you’re so mixed up it’s hard to say what you [identify with], if you’re Irish American, with a Jewish husband, and you have four different grandparents of four different backgrounds.
Karl E. Meyer: I think the U.S. is the best example of the importance of immigration in the economic and social success of a country. Peak years of immigration coincided with peak years of our economic growth and job creation. A cliché that happens to be true is that diversity has been part of the strength of the society. I think you have a symbolic expression of the whole thing with the president of the United States. If you go abroad and ask, could you have a Barack Obama in England, France, Germany and so on, people look at you and just shake their heads and wonder that you would even ask the question.
How has Obama’s presidency affected our national discussion of diversity?
KM: I think if you look at Time magazine last week, they point out that very likely, in the coming election a crucial if not decisive vote is how the Hispanic-Americans will vote. And demographically if you look at it, you see that in 20 years or so, people of a non-European background will be in a majority in the U.S.
Do you think this affects the discussion of immigration in the GOP primary?
SBB: Absolutely. I think they’re going to have to backtrack from a lot of the comments they’re making, and they’re realizing that. Among the candidates, that’s one place where they’re split – on the topic of immigration. Because they realize that they need that vote.
KM: When you talk about diversity and immigration, the downside tends to be micro and the upside is macro – that the benefits of immigration are cumulative, aggregate and long-term. Whereas the deficits tend to be flashpoint things. One thing I think political leaders need to do is to remind people of the upside of immigration as well as trying to discourage and diffuse the micro aspects.
How did you decide where to travel in your search for ethnic peace?
KM: Except for Flensburg (which has a very special role in the book because it addresses the notion that there are some [divisions] that are so profound that nobody can solve them), we tried to find examples that would offer different points and ways of looking at the same thing. One of the places that we dealt with is the republic of Tatarstan in Russia, which is about 43 percent Tatar Muslim, 40 percent Orthodox Russian. After the Soviet Union broke up they had a very effective and clever president of Tatarstan who wanted to guarantee the rights of the Islamic group and called for sovereignty, but he never used the word independence. He stressed sovereignty is a way that Tatarstan and its capital Kazan could have their own cultural identity but remain part of the federation.
READ MORE:
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/17/multiculturalism_can_be_saved/singleton/“Multiculturalism” has become a loaded term over the last several years.... more
-
-
David Talbot has seen Salon go through several iterations since founding the site in 1995. He was Salon’s editor-in-chief for a decade and served a couple of stints as CEO. In July, Talbot returned as interim CEO -- a position he’s now decided to keep indefinitely as Salon relaunches with a populist mission.
“Salon is initiating a call for an American spring,” Talbot said, “a national conversation to profoundly renew this country in the same spirit as people in Europe in the streets and throughout the Arab World.”
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Talbot said he wants Salon to be a populist voice that can "help initiate a conversation about what the country needs to do.” He said he plans on putting more resources into reporting around the country, likening Salon's mission in covering the Great Recession to writers and photographers during the Great Depression. He said Salon will also increase original video and plans to have “a series of public events around the country to engage a broad selection of Americans in this conversation.”
That all sounds good. But given that Salon is operating at about a $1.5 million annual loss, has laid off staffers in recent years, and was being shopped around in early 2011 due to long-term financial struggles, it's surprising the company can beef up its editorial presence right now.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/27/salon-ceo-site-relaunch_n_981992.htmlDavid Talbot has seen Salon go through several iterations since founding the site in... more
-
-
mab001
-
added this
-
8 months ago
- |
-
By Glenn Greenwald
The Los Angeles Times examines the staggering sums of money expended on patently absurd domestic "homeland security" projects: $75 billion per year for things such as a Zodiac boat with side-scan sonar to respond to a potential attack on a lake in tiny Keith County, Nebraska, and hundreds of "9-ton BearCat armored vehicles, complete with turret" to guard against things like an attack on DreamWorks in Los Angeles. All of that -- which is independent of the exponentially greater sums spent on foreign wars, occupations, bombings, and the vast array of weaponry and private contractors to support it all -- is in response to this mammoth, existential, the-single-greatest-challenge-of-our-generation threat:
"The number of people worldwide who are killed by Muslim-type terrorists, Al Qaeda wannabes, is maybe a few hundred outside of war zones. It's basically the same number of people who die drowning in the bathtub each year," said John Mueller, an Ohio State University professor who has written extensively about the balance between threat and expenditures in fighting terrorism.
Last year, McClatchy characterized this threat in similar terms: "undoubtedly more American citizens died overseas from traffic accidents or intestinal illnesses than from terrorism." The March, 2011, Harper's Index expressed the point this way: "Number of American civilians who died worldwide in terrorist attacks last year: 8 -- Minimum number who died after being struck by lightning: 29." That's the threat in the name of which a vast domestic Security State is constructed, wars and other attacks are and continue to be launched, and trillions of dollars are transferred to the private security and defense contracting industry at exactly the time that Americans -- even as they face massive wealth inequality -- are told that they must sacrifice basic economic security because of budgetary constraints.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.htmlBy Glenn Greenwald
The Los Angeles Times examines the staggering sums of money... more
-
-
-
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) -- U.S. officials have issued a subpoena to demand details about WikiLeaks' Twitter account, the group announced Saturday, adding that it suspected other American Internet companies were also being ordered to hand over information about its activities.
In a statement, WikiLeaks said U.S. investigators had gone to the San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. to demand the private messages, contact information and other personal details of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other supporters, including the U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of handing classified information to the site and a high-profile Icelandic parliamentarian.
WikiLeaks blasted the court order, saying it amounted to harassment.
"If the Iranian government was to attempt to coercively obtain this information from journalists and activists of foreign nations, human rights groups around the world would speak out," Assange said in the statement.
A copy of the court order, dated Dec. 14 and posted to Salon.com, said the information sought was "relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation" and ordered Twitter not to disclose its existence to Assange or any of the others targeted.
The order was unsealed "thanks to legal action by Twitter," WikiLeaks said.
Twitter has declined comment on the claim, saying only that its policy is to notify its users, where possible, of government requests for information.
Others named in the order include Pfc. Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private suspected of being the source of some of WikiLeaks' material, as well as Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic lawmaker and one-time WikiLeaks collaborator known for her role in pioneering Iceland's media initiative - which aims to make the North Atlantic island nation a haven for free speech.
The U.S. is also seeking details about Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp and U.S. programmer Jacob Appelbaum, both of whom have previously worked with WikiLeaks.
Assange has promised to fight the order, as has Jonsdottir, who said in a Twitter message that she had "no intention to hand my information over willingly." Appelbaum, whose Twitter feed suggested he was traveling in Iceland, said he was apprehensive about returning to the U.S.
"Time to try to enjoy the last of my vacation, I suppose," he tweeted.
more at LINK - - -
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WIKILEAKS?SITE=NVREN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
graphic-
http://hosted.ap.org/photos/5/5c409645-58e0-4d3a-a794-fa07f470e992-small.jpgBy RAPHAEL G. SATTER
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) -- U.S. officials have issued a... more
-
-
Tyrants and Plutocrats and Their Hubris,...What is It Good For?
-------------------sometimes,....absolutely EVERYTHING.
Republicans introduce an amendment that would compel the president and the cabinet to enroll in the government plan
By Alex Koppelman
Senate Republicans had what seemed like a pretty good idea when it comes to the fight over healthcare reform: Propose an amendment that would force all members of Congress to enroll in whatever form of public option is included in the final bill. That plan backfired, though, when their Democratic counterparts decided to actually support the amendment. So now the GOP's going further.
The latest version of the amendment is broader; beyond members of Congress, it also includes staff members, something that had been a sticking point for Democrats before. More than that, though, it would force President Obama and his cabinet into the public option.
"The White House and cabinet secretaries are working very hard for this massive overhaul of America's health care system," Grassley said in a statement reported by the Huffington Post's Ryan Grim. "It's only fair that if this bill becomes law, these individuals should themselves be subject to the reforms. The same is true for congressional staff. Quietly carving out leadership staff and committee staff behind closed doors is unacceptable. If the reforms are as good as their supporters say, the reforms should be good enough for everybody."
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/12/07/gop_amendment/index.htmlTyrants and Plutocrats and Their Hubris,...What is It Good For?... more
-
-
-
As dawn was breaking in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sunday morning, three very sleepy friends and I crammed ourselves into a small, banged-up Honda, cranked on the acoustic lesbian folk music and began the lengthy drive to Washington, D.C., to be gay. The National Equality March, meant to draw attention to marriage equality and "don't ask, don't tell" -- and demand changes from the Obama administration -- was going to be the first gay march on the Capitol since 2000. While none of my trip companions (or I) are particularly energized by the gay marriage cause -- given our long-standing, uh, skepticism of the institution -- we still wanted to seize what might be our last chance ever to attend a large-scale gay rally in D.As dawn was breaking in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sunday morning, three very sleepy friends... more
-
-
Maybe the undead creatures surfacing everywhere in pop culture have something to do with Washington and Wall Street
That could be a question about one of the hippest retro fads that pop culture has going these days. Inspired by horror genres of past, zombies have lurched back to preeminence in books like "World War Z," video games like "Left 4 Dead" and blockbuster films like "Zombieland." Even the highbrow producers at National Public Radio recently devoted a segment to a University of Ottawa study titled "Mathematical Modeling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection." Indeed, the undead have become so popular, they've spurred "zombie walks" in cities and spawned Weird Al-ish parodies through Jane Austen knockoffs like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and bands such as the Zombeatles (with their hit "Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead").
Frighteningly enough, though, that question about zombies could also be asked of America's political culture.Maybe the undead creatures surfacing everywhere in pop culture have something to do... more
-
-
The 18th century's patron saint of free markets shares his surprising views about Barack Obama and the U.S. economy
Editor's note: The remarks of Adam Smith are all quotations from his book "The Wealth of Nations," first published in 1776.The 18th century's patron saint of free markets shares his surprising views about... more
-
-
Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater and Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald on the decline of journalism in America.Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater and Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald on the... more
-
-
GRITtv
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
-
Here in London, people are amused at the wild paranoid fantasies of the right. I don't care about that, I hold weak-kneed Democrats responsible, and if they get spooked by a few hecklers, then it's time to find replacements.Here in London, people are amused at the wild paranoid fantasies of the right. I... more
-
-
Catholic leaders lobby against abortion and euthanasia, but where's their activism on that other "life" issue?
Catholics believe in two kinds of sin -- sins of commission and sins of omission. On healthcare, church leadership is committing the sin of omission. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is just not working hard enough on behalf of the most important and desperately needed healthcare reform -- the public option.
For decades the bishops have advocated for universal healthcare -- in fact, for a single-payer system with a strong emphasis on covering the uninsured, the poor and immigrants. The best shot at reform is now. But the bishops are squandering every ounce of moral capital they have, not on the public option, but on ensuring that in any reform bill not one penny of federal funds is used for abortion.
This strategy has put them in the extremist camp among those opposed to abortion. Moderate evangelicals and antiabortion Catholics bit the bullet on abortion four years ago and decided that other issues like ending wars, reducing global warming, and fighting poverty meant it was time to move on from attempting to outlaw abortion. While one can quibble with their strategy, working to prevent the need for abortion was a step forward from working to make it illegal.
On healthcare reform, religious groups opposed to and supportive of legal abortion have adopted an awkward but workable frame for containing the abortion issue. All agree to support the "status quo" and to not use healthcare to advance their abortion agendas; and they agree to disagree about what the status quo is and move on. Not the bishops; they are the only religious group that is holding support for healthcare reform hostage to a complete ban on any form of federal funds being spent on abortion coverage.Catholic leaders lobby against abortion and euthanasia, but where's their... more
-
-
Back in the early 1990's, Betsy McCaughey wrote "No Exit," an article for The New Republic on the Clinton administration's healthcare reform plan. The piece was filled with falsehoods -- so many, in fact, that the magazine later disowned it. But by then, it was too late; McCaughey and her article had played an instrumental role in killing the Clinton proposal.
Now, she's back, and is again the chief propagator of some of the most pernicious myths about the Obama administration's plan.
McCaughey's latest falsehoods have taken hold with a disturbingly large portion of the American public. But she couldn't get them past "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, who had her on his show Thursday night and subjected her to one of his better interviews, meticulously picking her points apart and demonstrating their inaccuracy, leaving her stumbling and stammering in an attempt to defend her position. By the end of it, he told her, "I like you -- but I don't understand how your brain works."
Two videos of the interview are below; both are extended beyond what was actually aired on television.Back in the early 1990's, Betsy McCaughey wrote "No Exit," an article... more
-
-
Long before many of today’s frothing right-wing demagogues were born, American conservatives came to idolize Winston Churchill, the late Tory prime minister whose wartime leadership of the British people transformed into the living symbol of democracy armed. That reputation was cemented by his legendary Missouri speech in 1946 warning of the “Iron Curtain” drawn by the Soviet Communists across Eastern Europe. Indeed, journalists and bloggers on the right admire the old warhorse so much that he has even outpolled Ronald Reagan as their “Man of the Century.”
Yet by the standards of the present moment, as these same conservatives mobilize against health care reform to “stop socialism,” that same great man was actually a raving Bolshevik. For among his most enduring legacies was the founding and sustenance of the system that became the National Health Service. Arguably as much as any other British politician, it was Churchill who established “socialized medicine.”Long before many of today’s frothing right-wing demagogues were born, American... more
-
-
Glenn Greenwald is on vacation this week. Pam Spaulding is guest-blogging today.
This guest has taken on the subject of the politics of black hair (or to be precise, kinky hair) several times, commenting on the travails of black women who are culturally addicted to "creamy crack" -- the horrid, toxic relaxers used to chemically straighten hair. It's all in order to avoid any natural naps showing at the root, and the billion-dollar industry that caters to this beauty choice based on loathing the natural texture of one's hair that has roots back to the days of slavery and the definition of what is "good hair."
ots of people were interested in these posts, others pooh-poohed the notion that the politics of hair had any significance in "post-racial America" or reflected any socio-pathologies that needed to be addressed. In the black community, it's almost taboo to discuss the issue, and, quite frankly, I am greatful that the brilliant Chris Rock has written and stars in the documentary "Good Hair" directed by Jeff Stilson (co-writers are Jeff Stilson, Lance Crouther and Chuck Sklar). If there's any way to break down the walls of silence to discuss this topic with candor, Rock can do it.
An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, "Good Hair" visits beauty salons and hairstyling battles, scientific laboratories and Indian temples to explore the way hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of the black community. Director Jeff Stilson follows Chris Rock on this raucous adventure prompted by Rock's daughter approaching him and asking, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?" Haircare professionals, beautyshop and barbershop patrons, as well as celebrities including Ice-T, Nia Long, Paul Mooney, Raven Symone, Dr. Maya Angelou, Salt n Pepa, Eve and Reverend Al Sharpton all candidly offer their stories and observations to Rock while he struggles with the task of figuring out how to respond to his daughter's question.Glenn Greenwald is on vacation this week. Pam Spaulding is guest-blogging today.... more
-
-
Archaeologists are slowly unearthing the ghastly secrets of Cahokia, an ancient city under the American heartland
Ever since the first Europeans came to North America, only to discover the puzzling fact that other people were already living here, the question of how to understand the Native American past has been both difficult and politically charged. For many years, American Indian life was viewed through a scrim of interconnected bigotry and romance, which simultaneously served to idealize the pre-contact societies of the Americas and to justify their destruction. Pre-Columbian life might be understood as savage and brutal darkness or an eco-conscious Eden where man lived in perfect harmony with nature. But it seemed to exist outside history, as if the native people of this continent were for some reason exempt from greed, cruelty, warfare and other near-universal characteristics of human society.Archaeologists are slowly unearthing the ghastly secrets of Cahokia, an ancient city... more
-
-
Obama wants to kill your grandma
Turning America socialist apparently wasn't enough for him -- now President Obama is trying to make old people kill themselves, callously deny important medical procedures, funnel tax dollars to abortion clinics and wiggle the government's way into every doctor's office in America.
At least, that's the sense you might have about the healthcare reform proposals Congress is considering from listening to opponents describe them. Already, conservative activists have erupted against the plan, with protesters hanging Democratic lawmakers in effigy and disrupting town hall meetings.
As both the House and the Senate clear out of the Capitol for the month, expect the viral buzz -- and the TV battle -- about what's in the bills to grow louder and louder. The White House finally seems to have realized that the administration can't win the policy debate without addressing some of the attacks from the right. Aides recently released a video rebutting some of the claims about what healthcare reform would and wouldn't do. An administration official told Salon Wednesday that the White House will soon launch a Web site modeled on the "Fight the Smears" site Obama's campaign ran last fall, where voters can find -- and debunk -- some of the rumors about the reform proposals, and the White House is already collecting chain e-mails at "flag@whitehouse.gov," an address Obama aides set up to receive them.
But the administration might already be behind the curve. Over the last few weeks, opponents have managed to get out their spin on the bill through talk radio, blogs, chain e-mails and other channels. And their talking points depend on a notably elastic approach to the truth. Here's a fact check of some of the more alarming claims that the right is making about healthcare reform, claims that are already hardening into myth.Obama wants to kill your grandma
Turning America socialist apparently wasn't... more
-
-
This unintended side-effect is rather convenient since I do have an "other" but prefer to not blurt out "I have a boyfriend, get away!" any time a member of the male species talks to me. Committed or not, a well-placed ring can guard against unwanted attention: I know a woman who in her single days would wear her grandmother's wedding ring because it allowed her to read a book in a bar without being mobbed by guys on the prowl. (It was "feminism vs. pragmatism," as she saw it.)This unintended side-effect is rather convenient since I do have an "other"... more
-
-
The progressive anti-abortion movement still doesn't truly value the life and identity of the mother
By Frances Kissling
July 20, 2009
Each side in the abortion debate has its Achilles' heel. For advocates of choice it's the fetus; those opposed to abortion suffer from a cavalier attitude toward the woman who carries the fetus.
Amid proclamations that common ground has been reached on abortion, a new set of anti-abortion actors has claimed leadership of the movement. They are no longer ultra-fundamentalist Catholics and Evangelicals but anti-war, anti-capital punishment, pro-environment "pro-lifers." Single-issue anti-abortionists thought they diluted the message by claiming abortion and war were equal horrors and other progressives and Democrats thought they were, well, anti-abortionists. But some of them are also opposed to discrimination against women and call themselves feminists.
Before Obama they were voices crying in the wilderness. Now they have emerged as the face of a new and improved anti-abortion movement. And it is improved -- there are few in this crowd who rate abortion issue as the most important moral issue of our time, and they are not single-issue voters. If they were, they would not have supported Obama.
(more at link)
-------------------------------------------------The progressive anti-abortion movement still doesn't truly value the life and... more
-
