CALIBAN

Vastly eloquent. Hat tip to Juan Cole.


How U.S.-Iranian Standoff Looks From Iran: Hossein Mousavian:

Both the U.S. and Iran have become prisoners of the past. They need to have a realistic assessment of potential areas where they could have common interests, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, security in the Persian Gulf, curbing drug trafficking, opposing al-Qaeda, and limiting the role of the Taliban. Unfortunately, the pursuit of these potential common interests has so far been hampered by a preoccupation with the nuclear file and the domestic political climate in both countries.

Labels: politics, world affairs

According to US law (at the time) I should have never been born.

The nation has certainly come a long way since then (and I am glad to have lived long enough to witness it). It rekindles my faith in the Human Race.

(WASHINGTON) — Interracial marriages in the U.S. have climbed to 4.8 million — a record 1 in 12 — as a steady flow of new Asian and Hispanic immigrants expands the pool of prospective spouses. Blacks are now substantially more likely than before to marry whites.

Labels: politics, racism

As a lifelong academic, I am greatly saddened by this. It adds immensely to the shame Americans need to feel for the blunder that was the illegal invasion of Iraq:

An Education in Occupation, by Hugh Gusterson:

Until the 1990s, Iraq had perhaps the best university system in the Middle East. Saddam Hussein's regime used oil revenues to underwrite free tuition for Iraqi university students -- churning out doctors, scientists, and engineers who joined the country's burgeoning middle class and anchored development. Although political dissent was strictly off-limits, Iraqi universities were professional, secular institutions that were open to the West, and spaces where male and female, Sunni and Shia mingled. Also the schools pushed hard to educate women PDF, who constituted 30 percent of Iraqi university faculties by 1991.
(...)
According to The Washington Times, 280 Iraqi professors were killed and another 3,250 fled the country by the end of 2006.
(...)
Those faculty fortunate enough to move abroad became part of the great middle-class exodus from Iraq under US occupation. It is estimated that 10 percent of Iraq's population, and 30 percent of its professors, doctors, and engineers, left for neighboring countries between 2003 and 2007 -- the largest Arab refugee displacement since the Palestinian flight from the holy lands decades earlier.

Add this to America's legacy of destruction in the Middle East.

Labels: Anti-War, politics, world affairs

Actually, the day I am marking as "important" is yesterday, and for two reasons: The first reason is that I managed to upload Uncle Neal's trio concert onto Ustream. The second reason remains unmentioned...

Streaming Live by Ustream

Labels: Music

On this Three Kings Day, a time when we step back, take stock of things and try to gain insights into the future, I'm afraid Chris Hedges summarizes the status quo succinctly, as well as points to where the US is headed.

Labels: politics

I can't think of a better way to commemorate my birthday.

"Nothing has been more moving to me than this desire, realized imperfectly but repeatedly, to connect across differences, to be a community, to make a better world, to embrace each other. This desire is what lies behind those messy camps, those raucous demonstrations, those cardboard signs and long conversations. Young activists have spoken to me about the extraordinary richness of their experiences at Occupy, and they call it love." Rebecca Solnit

Labels: Poets and Poetry, politics

Congratulations to Leila Lopes! There is more to her story, however, which you will likely not find in the pages of the western press. It needs to be told: The source is in SPANISH, and I have translated it:

Of parents from Cienfuegos, Cuba, and born in Angola, the new Miss Universe, Leila Lopes, has been the victim of vicious racist verbal attacks.

The messages, written in Portuguese and English, were reported by the Stormfront webpage, whose authors define themselves as a "white nationalist community", that is under investigation by the Brazilian Federal Police on suspicion of links with neo-Nazi groups.

Even before learning of the abuse, Leila Lopes had said in a press conference at dawn on Tuesday, to not feel affected by racism.

"Racism does not affect me. The racists are the ones that need help, because it is not normal for a person to [harbor such ideas]... in the XXI century. There is no basis for any kind of prejudice," said the beautiful young 25 year old.

The organizers of the competition held Monday evening in Sao Paulo gave no immediate comment on the racist attacks by members of Stormfront, who also questioned the "racial purity" of European candidates for the title.

Beautifully said, Leila. Short, sweet and to the point! Bravo!

Labels: Caribbean, Cuba, politics