Just over a week ago our Network Attached Storage failed. We had to hire a computer pro and replace the device. Thankfully, we had a back-up copy of Swans, but much time and cost was expended. We have not received any financial contributions in the past one and a half months. Good people, please help us financially. Thank you.
Barack Obama handed rival Mitt Romney a campaign ad on a platter today, admitting that "Washington feels as broken as it did four years ago," essentially conceding that the kind of change he believed in is not welcome in the corridors of power. Yet he still longs to "build an economy where the middle-class is strong and growing," something the elite have fought for decades as they siphoned-off the middle-class gains and marginalized labor unions. Glenn Reed reminds us of the myriad protections unions fought for and won on behalf of workers, and how unions must change if they are to regain power. Meanwhile, according to Harvey Whitney, Jr., whether Obama or Romney will preside over the next quadrennial, the two Harvard men are more aligned with Wall Street than with the middle class. Both would be equally opposed to potlatch, an anti-capitalist practice -- a fascinating form of primitive communism -- that Edmund Berger would like to see defended in the digital universe. Also campaigning on the "change" thing was François Hollande, who like Obama is facing an uphill battle when it comes to rebuilding the economy. Gilles d'Aymery looks at one slice of France's spoiled pie -- the automobile industry -- at which the government is whining and pointing its finger without understanding its own relentless failings.
Anyway, it's time to take a vacation from the economy and join Fabio De Propris and Peter Byrne in Italy, where the events of the May 2012 Coppa Italia football match helped explain Italian culture and her big heart. Next we join Bo Keeley in Iquitos, Peru, from where he researches statistics and the sex ratio. Raju Peddada takes us time-traveling to find poetry in things such as letters from a foregone era, and we rejoin Peter Byrne on the Dark Continent, with his review of Binyavanga Wainaina's memoir and the stereotypes and realities of books about Africa. Next we turn to le coin français, beginning with the profound and heartbreaking poems Simone Alié-Daram wrote as her dear husband Léonce was quickly taken from her by cancer. Marie Rennard writes about women in literature, and Francesca Saieva shares an excerpt of her interview with Italian scholar and writer Claudio Magris. We close with the poetry of Guido Monte, who tells how unfit he is in the face of the world's horrors, and a letter from France on unemployment, endless taxes and the idiocy of "social justice" taxes, the flailing auto industry, the idiots in charge, California's war on foie gras, and more -- mon dieu!
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Glenn Reed: Without Unions We Are Screwed, So Change Is Needed
Unions are an essential institution under assault in the U.S. and we need to respond better to save them. More...
Harvey E. Whitney, Jr.: For A More Banal Presidency
US presidential elections are completely awash in corporate money, and there are little differences between Harvard alumni Barack Obama and Mitt Romney when it comes to their financial influences. More...
Edmund Berger: The Digital Potlatch That Needs Defending
A look at multicultural music blogging, its radical potentials and moves to stifle its growth. More...
Gilles d'Aymery: Blips #127
A few selected issues that landed on the Editor's desk, from the "change" claim to the blame game of Obama, Hollande, and Co., to the fishy dealings of the French auto industry and what's at stake for the government, and more. More...
Fabio De Propris and Peter Byrne: The Muscle Of The Heart
The events of the May 2012 Coppa Italia football match between Naples and Juventus helped explain Italian culture and her big heart. More...
Bo Keeley: Stats And The Iquitos Girls
Statistics and the sex ratio in Iquitos, Peru. More...
Raju Peddada: The Alluring Time Capsule
Enjoying the inscrutable, the serendipitous, yet indispensable poetry in things such as letters from a foregone era. More...
Peter Byrne: The Undark Continent
On Binyavanga Wainaina and the stereotypes and realities of books about Africa. More...
Simone Alié-Daram: Léonce
ed. Léonce Daram, le mari et compagnon de l'auteur, s'est éteint le 25 juin 2012 à la suite d'un cancer fulgurant qui a pris sa vie en un mois. Il avait 85 ans. Tous les jours Simone était au chevet de son époux mourant. Là, à l'hôpital, elle a écrit cette suite de poèmes que nous publions en mémoire de Léonce, un gentilhomme par excellence, dans tous les sens du terme. More...
Marie Rennard: Propos interrompus
Des femmes à lire... More...
Claudio Magris Interviewé par Francesca Saieva: Pour un monde sans frontières
Claudio Magris Interviewé par Francesca Saieva - Extrait. More...
Guido Monte: non accettazione
Guido Monte tells how unfit he is in face of the horror of the world. More...
Observations from France on unemployment, endless taxes and the idiocy of "social justice" taxes, the flailing auto industry, the idiots in charge, California's war on foie gras, and more -- mon dieu! More...
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