How to make or break a Depression

"An economy should be set up like a hybrid engine in a car. You have the big, private engine and the smaller public engine, and the private engine turns along and does most of the driving, and it works most of the time. But in certain times, you need that hybrid engine to kick in and take over as the private engine falters. That’s key. That’s bottom line economic understanding."

Comments from Jim Gregory, a history professor I studied with while an undergraduate at the University of Washington. Read the rest of the interview in Real Change News.

History vs. heritage

History seeks to convince by truth, and succumbs to falsehood. Heritage exaggerates and omits, candidly invents and frankly forgets ... Heritage everywhere not only tolerates but thrives on historical error. Falsified legacies are integral to group identity and uniqueness."

--David Lowenthal, as quoted by A. Katie Harris in From Muslim to Christian Granada. Inventing a City's Past in Early Modern Spain (2007), p. xv.

Jack Kerouac slept here

When I was 19 and 20, living in San Luis Obispo, I learned that Jack Kerouac worked a brief stint in the trainyards there in 1953, sleeping in a hotel a stone's throw from the railroad.

At the time I was attending community college, working in a bookstore, and cultivating a fascination for the Beats. I emulated my heroes every chance I got, hopping freight trains to Oakland, wandering high or just ecstatic through San Francisco’s streets, hitch-hiking to Big Sur to camp by the river and meet wide-eyed eccentrics along the highway. I imagined that the hotel Kerouac stayed in was an earlier incarnation of "the Establishment," the funky 19-bedroom shared house that I called home, in the railroad district.

These days, I ride trains with an Amtrak ticket in hand and my interest in Kerouac and Co. has waned. Even so, I have often daydreamed about researching his time in San Luis, hoping to prove that the place he stayed was none other than the big green home of dreamers and beautiful souls at the corner of Santa Barbara and Leff Streets.

Turns out, my hunch was right...

Off the road
Jack Kerouac slept here
BY KYLIE MENDONCA, New Times

"Recycle" ~ perhaps the best short film I've seen.

By Vasco Lucas Nunes, as seen in Media That Matters Film Festival: Short Films That Inspire Action

The rich as social disease

From John Carey's review (The Sunday Times, March 8, 2009) of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett:

"What they find is that, in states and countries where there is a big gap between the incomes of rich and poor, mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, obesity and teenage pregnancy are more common, the homicide rate is higher, life expectancy is shorter, and children’s educational performance and literacy scores are worse. The Scandinavian countries and Japan consistently come at the positive end of this spectrum. They have the smallest differences between higher and lower incomes, and the best record of psycho-social health. The countries with the widest gulf between rich and poor, and the highest incidence of most health and social problems, are Britain, America and Portugal ...

One illusion that, cheeringly, they hope to dispel is that the super-rich are some kind of asset we should all cherish, rather than, from the viewpoint of social health, the equivalent of the seven plagues of Egypt."

Waterlines

Check out the super cool Waterlines project, just launched by a group including my man Amir Sheikh. (This illustration is nice, but wait until you see the animation of the last ice age pushing a glacier over the region.)

Please take action today for neutrality in El Salvador's elections

If you are concerned about U.S. intervention in other countries' elections and/or are encouraged by the tide of center-left victories in Latin America in recent years, here's a chance to do something about it. See the CISPES website for a quick call to the State Department, asking Secretary of State Clinton to immediately counter Republican scare tactics supporting El Salvador's right-wing ARENA party...

CISPES - The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador - Republicans in U.S. Congress Intervene in Salvadoran Elections--Take Action NOW!

Memo From Istanbul

Memo From Istanbul - Nearly a Million Genocide Victims, Covered in a Cloak of Amnesia - NYTimes.com

the immigration "problem"

"To Benjamin Franklin the prospect that the Germans 'will soon ... out number us' was one full of alarm. Their children didn't seem to learn English; they read imported German books and a German newspaper; interpreters were now needed in some courts. The very "Signs in the our Streets have inscriptions in both languages,' he noted warily, 'and in some places only in German.'"

Sound familiar? No one seems to worry about German-speaking immigrants these days, because in time, of course, they learned English -- just as today's immigrants to the U.S. will do.



- from Peter Silver, Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America, (New York: W.W. Norton, 2008), p. 13.

Tim Wise, an invaluable political voice

I heard Tim Wise speak about racism and white privilege about 10 years ago. He impressed me with his insightful critique and depth of knowledge on these topics, but since then, my mind had always boxed him into the category of "antiracist" and nothing more. That just changed. I heard him interviewed on KCSB a few minutes ago, and was thoroughly impressed by the depth of his analysis of politics and social movements as well. Whether you are a liberal who is hopeful that Obama will change this country, or a radical who scoffs at the notion, or someone else who is just curious about U.S. politics and racism in 2009, I highly encourage you to CHECK THIS GUY OUT. His new book is Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama.

The importance of upcoming Salvadorean elections

The March 15 presidential elections could be a major step forward for progressive politics in El Salvador, strengthening the recent wave of left-leaning governments across Latin America. Check out this video to see what is at stake and see the CISPES webpage for how you can make a quick, easy call to your member of Congress, and ask her/him to support U.S. neutrality in the elections.

Homelessness and cluelessness

Santa Barbara has a serious problem, and her name is Gina Perry. She is a columnist for the Daily Sound, a diminutive local newspaper, and perhaps the least qualified opinion columnist I can recall. Anywhere. She's something like Rush Limbaugh with a laptop and an old Jennifer Aniston haircut. Her writing makes the UCSB Daily Nexus opinion section look like Pulitzer material.

Earlier this month she published a column called "If you think chronic homelessness isn’t a dire problem in Santa Barbara, think again," in which she calls homeless people "eyesores" and "hazards to public health." It only gets worse from there.

Here is my response, as printed in the Feb. 12 edition:


Dear Editor:

I am astounded by the insensitivity of Gina Perry’s Feb. 5 column on homelessness. Yes, this certainly is a serious issue, most of all for the people who have no homes. As Perry pointed out, many homeless people have mental illnesses and/or addictions. I would add that others are escaping domestic violence, cannot find work, have been evicted or financially ruined by medical bills, or are kids whose parents have kicked them out for being gay. Whatever the factors that put a person there, living on the street can be tremendously stressful and difficult to escape.

In many countries of the world, homelessness is not the problem that it is in the United States, a land of extreme individualism with a growing gap between rich and poor. Despite talk of “family values,” many people do not help their relatives or neighbors in tough times. We do not have enough mental health services, affordable housing, or job programs to realistically address the root causes of homelessness.

Instead of analyzing these larger issues and showing compassion for people on the street, Perry calls them “eyesores” and “health hazards,” saying she won’t go downtown anymore because of having to “dodge” them. Well Ms. Perry, do us a favor and stay home. To paraphrase your last paragraph, I would like to be able to stroll Santa Barbara’s beautiful streets without encountering such selfish, spoiled snobs. I enjoy reading the Daily Sound and appreciate differing opinions based on solid arguments. This kind of uninformed, self-absorbed writing, however, does not reflect well on the paper, and I ask the editors to show better sense than to publish it.

Portland craftiness

M. Ward: Pursuing his own Oregon trail | Pop & Hiss | Los Angeles Times

A charming article on M. Ward and a very talented circle of Portland musicians and artists who are friends of my sister, and I'm a fan.

But Ann Powers' assertion that gentrification in Portland has felt "less perilous or politically incorrect than in more diverse locales" is dangerously out of touch. Who did she interview on the subject? The super funky NE Portland neighborhood around Alberta street, to which many such bohemians have flocked in the last decade, is a classic case of rapid-fire gentrification. The largely working-class, African-American population that has lived there for generations is quickly being pushed out by rising rents and taxes, and the new culture of white hipness that no longer feels like home. I appreciate the glowing article on Northwest D.I.Y. culture and craftsmanship, but let's not ignore the other realities that come with them.

David Bonior: Schools Score Points by Standing Up for Workers

by David Bonior
Huffington Post
Feb. 13, 2009

"Responding to news that Russell Athletic, a leading U.S. apparel manufacturer, had shut down a factory in Honduras in retaliation for workers having organized a union, [Duke and Georgetown Universities], along with others such as Columbia, Miami, Rutgers and Wisconsin, announced that they are discontinuing the company's license to put their logos on its sweatshirts."


Click the headline for the full article.

Film at UCSB this Wednesday

MEET THE FILMMAKER
Jill Freidberg
Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad
Wednesday, February 11 • 6 pm
Film Screening and Discussion/MultiCultural Center Theater

Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad (A Little Bit of So Much Truth) captures the unprecedented media phenomenon that emerged when tens of thousands of school teachers, housewives, indigenous communities, health workers, farmers, and students took 14 radio stations and one TV station into their own hands, using them to organize, mobilize, and ultimately defend their grassroots struggle for social, cultural, and economic justice. Filmmaker Jill Freidberg will host a brief discussion and Q and A after the film. Directed by Jill Freidberg, 90 minutes, 2008, Oaxaca.

Support your local bookseller

I've been surprised by how many UCSB graduate students and faculty speak of Amazon as if it were the only place to buy books. How about supporting independent bookstores? You can find them (and other "indie" businesses) at indiebound.com.

When time is too short to visit one locally, there's always powells.com (where the workers have a union contract) and alibris.com, a database linking hundreds of independent booksellers. Come on, folks, let's support businesses that actually care about books, rather than selling them as just another commodity!

One man's views on war, from the 1700's

Our Lord, who has commanded us to love our enemies and to endure without complaint, certainly does not wish us to cross the sea and cut the throats of our brothers because some murderers dressed in red, and wearing hats two feet high, are enlisting citizens by making a noise with two little sticks on the tightly stretched skin of an ass. And when, after battles won, all London glitters with lights, when the sky blazes with fireworks, and the air resounds with the noise of thanksgiving, of bells, of organs, and of cannon, we mourn in silence over these murders, the cause of public gaiety.

~English Quaker Andrew Pitt, as quoted by Voltaire, in Philosophical Letters, published 1733.

A Farewell Salute

Too bad Blogger has awkwardly cropped this and other images, at least on my browser ... click on the cartoon to see the original.

Howard Zinn on Barack Obama

"Obama will not fulfill that potential for change unless he is enveloped by a social movement which is angry enough, powerful enough, insistent enough that he fill his abstract phrases about change, fill them with some real, solid content."


Click here to see the video and transcript of this commentary from The Real News Network.

Thanks, Prez, for closing Guantanamo ~ now shut down the School of the Americas!

A Turkish 'I apologize' campaign to Armenians

The fate of Armenians in 1915 remains taboo in Turkey, but some intellectuals are taking action.

By Esra Özyürek
January 5, 2009
Los Angeles Times

Two hundred Turkish intellectuals last month launched an Internet signature campaign for an apology to Armenians for the 1915 massacres. "My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Armenians were subjected to in 1915," the brief statement reads. "I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them."


Click here to see rest of article

Travel advice in Istanbul

A friend just wrote me to ask for advice about things to do and see in Turkey, which reminded me of a long list of ideas posted on a blog by Nassim Assefi, a friend of a friend who is a medical doctor and novelist, and currently lives in Istanbul. You can click here to see her suggestions (look for her March 21, 2008 post). Her tastes seem more refined (and expensive) than mine, but she has some great ideas. I especially like her reading list -- (Birds Without Wings is one of my favorite novels ever), and I liked Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul -- and the suggestion of finding a rooftop restaurant to admire the city's views. My favorite in this category is the one at Hotel Arcadia, which is expensive, but when I went just for a cup of tea they did not seem to mind. The photo here is from their website.

Other favorites of mine are strolling Istiklal Street, the Homer Kitab Evi (Bookstore) which has a fantastic selection in English, having a fish sandwich underneath the Galata bridge, taking the ferry to just about any location and going for a walk. I'll keep thinking about this and perhaps post more ideas later, and I encourage other readers to comment here to add their own.

Oakland 1946 - an exciting political theater project

http://www.oakland1946.blogspot.com/

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_11164601

on procrastination

I CAN DO ONLY ONE THING AT A TIME, BUT I CAN AVOID DOING MANY THINGS SIMULTANEOUSLY.


one of Ashleigh Brilliant's "Pot Shots," as seen on ashleighbrilliant.com


( which I am posting, of course, on the last day of the academic quarter, when I should be working on final papers ... )

quote from Anatole France

We thought we were dying for the fatherland. We realized quickly it was for the bank vaults.



--as quoted by Hardt & Negri, in Empire, p. 93