My review of Vermeer's Masterpiece: The Milkmaid, the Metropolitan Museum's fall budget blockbuster, appears in this month's GC Advocate.
Blog Roll
- Atrios
- Balloon Juice
- Catherine Skelly
- Crooks and Liars
- Daily Kos: State of the Nation
- David Corn: Capital Games
- David Neiwert
- Eric Alterman
- Harlan Goldberg
- Hossein Derakhshan: Editor: Myself
- Jason Harle
- Jason Kropsky
- Jennifer Mincin
- Juan Cole
- Lee Wilson
- Marc Cooper
- Micah Sifry
- Scott Richmond
- Tabsir
- Talking Points Memo
- The Doc Searls Weblog
- The Huffington Post
- Travis Proulx
- Vanessa Habermann
- Zeeshan Suhail
- Zelda Elcin
Friends
Nut Jobs
Photos
Iranian Blogs
Dreaming of Zim
If you get a moment, take a peak at my buddy Osato Dixon's recent portrait gallery of Hope Masike, a ZImbabwean singer who I had the pleasure of meeting last summer in Harare. With her incredible voice, it's only a matter of time before she blows up beyond the borders of Mugabeland. I'll post links to mp3 files of her music just as soon as I get my hands on them...
Salvaging El Salvador
I've been receiving updates from my friends at the SHARE Foundation on the excellent work they've been doing on the ground in storm-ravaged El Salvador, information that I hope moves readers to donate funds -- however small -- to support their necessary work. From the organization's executive officer, this report:
Looking at the photos and reading the stories that reach us via our office in San Salvador, we find ourselves "con el corazón partido" - which, literally translated, means with our hearts broken open.
Floods Devastate El Salvador
Devastating flood rains from Hurricane Ida pounded El Salvador this past weekend, taking the lives of over a hundred Salvadorans, causing the disappearance of scores more, and the dislocation of nearly 14,000 people nationwide. On top of the sickening human toll exacted by the storms, over 60 percent of the country suffered significant property and infrastructure damage as well.
Winners and Losers in Honduran Crisis
First, my thanks to Alyson Zureick for sending along Francisco Toro and Juan Nagel's op-ed, first published on their Caracas Chronicles blog, then later reposted on The New Republic's website. In sum, the chroniclers from Caracas argue that the deal brokered by the United States -- and which has since seemingly unraveled -- made losers of just about every actor involved save Hillary Clinton's State Department. My preliminary reactions follow below. Feel free to tell me where I'm wrong!
The Academic Devolution
Jeffrey Williams has produced a thoughtful and timely review of two recent books on academic labor (one by Graduate Center alum Mark Bousquet) in the most recent Dissent. The review surveys Bousquet’s How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation and Frank Donoghue’s The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities.
Williams’ piece reminds readers of the dismal reality facing grad students and scholars seeking tenure track positions in academia. Only roughly 10 percent of PhDs receive permanent positions in colleges and universities, while at the same moment attrition rates in grad programs nationwide are skyrocketing. “This” Williams writes, “is compounded by those who finish but are stuck in a purgatory of ‘post-docs’ or part-time adjunct positions.’” Far from being populated by “tenured radicals”—as conservative accounts attempt to mythologize American higher education might have it—universities in the United States are filled with “overworked and underpaid adjuncts or graduate students. Instead of being exemplary figures of the postwar meritocracy, the current generation of faculty more likely represents the job-traumatized.”
Williams applauds Bousquet’s focus on labor as the thread that “stitches together the experience of students, faculty, and administration in the university.” But he warns that labor-based arguments for fair treatment only go so far in the American imagination, appealing to those on the “shop floor” but not far beyond. The remedy? “The ground of appeal,” Williams argues, “is what professors provide and what needs they serve. Faculty is not really used to thinking this way; we are accustomed to thinking of ourselves as independent researchers who teach, whereas the public understanding of faculty is that we are primarily teachers.”
Bousquet himself indirectly endorses this view, noting that “Cheap teaching is not a victimless crime.” If this axiom were more strongly embraced by tenured faculty and adjuncts alike, Williams asserts, chances that part-time laborers might find sympathetic audiences to their protests beyond the walls of their union silos would likely increase. After all, “to embrace the recognition that we are labor likely means that we also would have to recognize ourselves more forthrightly as teachers.”
Thoughts?
Last Moves in Honduran Endgame
About six weeks ago, I argued that resolution of the Honduran crisis would depend in large part on the actions of leading candidates in the country's presidential election slated for later this month. At the time, international super-negotiator Oscar Arias began strong-arming the candidates to back his peace proposal which they largely did. It seemed to me then as it continues to now that the presidential hopefuls would find it in their best interest to bring Zelaya back sp to avoid inheriting international bad will and pariah status that accompanied the coup.
Where Is Haiti Headed?
Michelle Pierre-Louis: Being Pushed Out of Power?
Just over three weeks ago, the internet was set abuzz by cautiously optimistic chatter that Haiti had finally achieved a level of stability that would pay dividends to its most vulnerable citizens. Hopes were sparked as former US president Bill Clinton hosted an international trade mission in Port-Au-Prince. The get-together served as a platform for Clinton to plug the country's investment potential, highlight its continuing needs (such as a beefed-up program to combat HIV/AIDS), and tout its bumpy-yet-successful ascent out of chaos following the violent overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide nearly six years ago.
Nicaragua: Between Revolution and Kleptocracy
Daniel Ortega's no dummy. Having witnessed what's recently transpired in neighboring Honduras-where President Manuel Zelaya was forced from power after trying to override constitutional limits preventing him from seeking reelection-the Nicaraguan leader has acted more shrewdly in the hunt to extend his own power indefinitely. According to the Nicaraguan constitution, presidents are prohibited from seeking consecutive terms, and are allowed a maximum of two terms no consecutively.
Brazil: Dancing with the Devil
Micheletti's Mercenaries
As negotiators labored over the weekend to hammer out further compromise between Honduran president-in-exile Manuel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti's party of putschists, reports raising new concerns about the country's stability took center stage. On Friday, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR) issued a statement expressing concern over the appearance of mercenaries in Honduras since Zelaya's ouster over the summer.
Obama's Nobel: That's Great, but What Now?
This morning's news that US president Barack Obama will be the recipient of this year's Nobel Prize for Peace came as pleasant surprise for some, and provoked puzzlement and even outrage on the part of others. According to the New York Times, "Mohamed Elbaradei, the director-general of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, who received the prize in 2005, said in a statement that he was 'absolutely delighted...I cannot think of anyone today more deserving of this honor.'" Others weren't so sure. Lech Walesa, himself a Nobel winner, when told of the news reportedly said "Who, Obama? So fast? Too fast -- he hasn't had the time to do anything yet." And then there was the far right, with its predictably apoplectic response, summed up by the British Telegraph, which noted that "The other candidates on the shortlist were Robert Mugabe; Osama Bin Laden; Ahmed Jibril; and the late Pol Pot."
What Hondurans Really Want
Well, this is interesting!
For all the talk recently from every side about who best represents what increasingly seems to be a defunct Honduran democracy, very little has been heard from ordinary Hondurans themselves.
DeMinted Logic
Hondurans haven't been the only ones hijacked by their country's recent coup. Politics on Capitol Hill have also been held hostage, as Republican lawmakers are using the situation as an excuse to block President Barack Obama's nominations for key State Department posts.
The South-South Summit: Cutting off the Nose to Spite the Face?
While the richest nations of the world were meeting this past week at the Group of 20 gathering in Pittsburgh, a handful of African and South American countries convened their own gathering this weekend in Venezuela to discuss a broad agenda of items specific to the Global South. The meeting was the second of its kind under the banner of the Africa-South America Summit (ASA); the first convened three years earlier in Nigeria.
Honduran Homecoming
And so here we have it. The likely denouement for both Roberto Micheletti and Manuel Zelaya's political careers began to take shape on Monday as Honduras' ousted president surprised the world with a secret return to Tegucigalpa. What ensued revealed both the ejected leader's taste for macho adventure and high drama, and the de facto regime's incompetence, poor judgment and impatience.
Venezuela: Carter's Concerns
Look out y'all: Jimmy Carter's on a roll! The former president, who has never been shy about voicing his opinions on matters ranging from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, to the criminal negligence of the George W. Bush administration at home and abroad, has resurfaced following a relatively quiet period since the election of Barack Obama with some choice words about American politics and Hugo Chavez.
Change of Heart at the Heart of Change?
It appears at least preliminarily that Costa Rican president Oscar Arias' most recent gambit to facilitate resolution in Honduras has paid off, albeit imperfectly. As I commented on previously, Arias met yesterday with four of the six candidates in Honduras' upcoming presidential election, making plain the international community's intention to reject any results as illegitimate if ousted president Manual Zelaya is not returned to office beforehand. Apparently the quartet is awakening to the reality of power politics. The candidates each entered the meeting standing firm in their rejection of Zelaya, and thereby Arias' proposed peace accord, but exited singing a slightly different tune. According to Reuters, the candidates now back Arias' plan, but did not go so far as to expressly support the idea of Zelaya's return.
In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb
The meeting of South American leaders this past weekend revealed quite a bit about the evolving nature of Latin American politics since the economic crisis late last year. The gathering, officially convened under the umbrella of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), showcased the emerging fault lines in the continent's international relations, and indicated that the pendulum of power may be swinging from left to right more forcefully than previously thought.
Recent Posts
- A Dutch Treasure Comes to the Metropolitan
- Dreaming of Zim
- Salvaging El Salvador
- Floods Devastate El Salvador
- Winners and Losers in Honduran Crisis
- The Academic Devolution
- The Fourth Part of the World
- Last Moves in Honduran Endgame
- Where Is Haiti Headed?
- Nicaragua: Between Revolution and Kleptocracy
