FUNDRAISING TIME: So close to meeting our goal and still not there yet... Come on, good people, make the effort. Open your heart and your wallet. Please help. Our heartfelt gratitude to David Schanoes, Marie Rennard, Lisa Gifford, and Ann & Isidor Saslav for their generous contributions.
Long-time readers of Swans are familiar with our Year-End Reviews. Every December we ask our regular contributors to focus on one topic -- to reflect upon the passing year. This latest special issue is the most comprehensive we've ever published with 16 entries covering a wide range of perspectives. They are as diverse as the members of our bevy whose origins are firmly rooted in many countries and cultures, from Ghana and Italy (Sicily included), from Canada to Australia, France and the United States. They take on politics and society, culture and counterculture, fact and fiction, with creativity and humor. And despite the diversity of voices, venues, and styles a theme emerges: Hope. A word that encapsulated the beginning of 2009, and the absence of which, as Barack Obama noted in his Nobel lecture, "can rot a society from within." So we hope you will enjoy the contributions of Graham Lea, Louis Proyect, Charles Marowitz, Gilles d'Aymery, Femi Akomolafe, Jan Baughman, Jeffery Klaehn, Steve Shay, Marie Rennard, Martin Murie, Michael Barker, Peter Byrne, Michael Doliner, Raju Peddada, as well as the beautifully poetic words of Guido Monte who highlights with the help of his students the words of Primo Levi, and the message of hope in French and English that Simone Alié-Daram wants us all to heed.
In the next issue will be back with yet another tradition, our Infamous PredictionsTM.
As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and foes) know about Swans. It's your voice that makes ours grow.
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Graham Lea: Some Lines In Favour Of A Troupe Of Buffalo Flying Over The White House Singing Pastoral Songs
2009 Retrospective: Graham Lea's hegemonic neologisms that defined the year in which the United States could have lurched towards improving both the condition of the American people and those it has oppressed throughout the world. More...
Louis Proyect: The Winter Of Liberal Discontent
2009 Retrospective: In less than one year since inauguration day, the bloom has faded from the Obama rose within liberal quarters. More...
Charles Marowitz: Angry Men - Beligerent Women
2009 Retrospective: The year when irrational tea baggers and demagogues destroyed rationality. More...
Gilles d'Aymery: The First Obama Year: Business as Usual, but with a Friendlier Face
2009 Retrospective: The more things change, the more they remain the same. Gilles d'Aymery examines in an historical context how insider Barack Obama, who ran as an outsider, continues the economic, military, and political agendas of his predecessors, whether Democrat or Republican, for the benefits of the elites. More...
Femi Akomolafe: Obama: Were We All Naïve?
2009 Retrospective: A long-term African perspective showing that African philosophy clings to hope, and though Brother Obama has not delivered on all his campaign promises, he has not wreaked the havoc of his predecessor, and there is always hope for a better tomorrow. More...
Jan Baughman: 2009: It Was What It Was
2009 Retrospective: A few political highlights, lowlights, and spotlights on a year that was what it was. More...
Jeffery Klaehn: Notes From The Edge
2009 Retrospective: Jeffry Klaehn revisits his 2000 year-end review and shares his 2009 notes from the edge in which he asks himself, what is really important? More...
Steve Shay: 2009 And "Mooving" Ahead
2009 Retrospective: Steve Shay considers some of the unlucky stars in the Year of the Cow. More...
Marie Rennard: French 2009 Vintage
2009 Retrospective: Musings on the Orwellian French national identity, the meaning of success, the omnipotent Sarkozy, and more. More...
Martin Murie: 2010, The Make-Or-Break Year
2009 Retrospective: Sarah Palin promotes Keeping the Faith, privatization of everything, and her book; while US occupation is rejected around the globe: what will our war president do? More...
Michael Barker: Failure Of Progressive Thought
2009 Retrospective: This essay sheds much needed light on the failure of progressive thought in 2009; that is, the progressive defence and legitimization of a controversial organization known as the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. It shows that progressive writers fail to respond to the challenge of subjecting our most influential theorists to ruthless criticism if we are to build workable alternatives to capitalism. More...
Peter Byrne: Year End Closet Sweep Out
2009 Retrospective: Peter Byrne's humorous concoction of the year's sensational tell-all confessionals written by various Swans contributors. More...
Michael Doliner: The Official Policies
2009 Retrospective: With civilization on the brink of calamity, Michael Doliner imagines what he would have done in 2009 if he were Barack Obama. More...
Raju Peddada: A 2009 Year-End Rant
2009 Retrospective: A Raju Peddada's year-end ideological rant against all, including the editor of the publication that publishes his very rant! More...
Guido Monte: Levi 1943 In Front Of Our 2009
2009 Retrospective: Guido Monte tells and translates the tragedy of Primo Levi's concentration camps in the face of our tragedy of today. More...
Simone Alié-Daram: Bilan Matin/Morning Appraisal
2009 Retrospective: A short poem that advocates that in spite of the mayhem, the sun will still rise tomorrow and hope is a part of human construct (in French and English). More...
From France to Boonville with thanks to la baguette, a new reader discovers Swans and the French corner; investigating the constitutionality of the US public debt and unfunded entitlements; Walter Trkla's long response to an anti-Swans/anti-Serbia letter; and a message for Ken Freeland, if he is out there. More...
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