Il nous rest deux jour en Oktobre, donc j'ecrit un dernier text, dedier a ce mois manifique. Really, It has been a fantastic month, fantastique comme on dit, and I am always sad to see October go. While the changing of the leaves hasn't been spectacular in Belgrade, it has been in the rest of Serbia. I think the fact that we have had warm weather and little rain this month, has really made the colors pop. Stara Planina was stunning. The most untouched nature I have ever seen. But more on that another time...
Well, I have about four or five journal entries to post when I have time (they are all hand written) and hopefully that will be soon. A very generous friend is lending me her laptop for November and December. I'll be connected again! I mean, she is also doing it because I am doing grant research for her, but still, it is most kind.
Just a quick note on the film Body of Lies. Very disappointing as it relies on some awful ideological crap to justify some really nasty deaths. Only Russle Crowe was worth watching, doing a sort of 'G W Bush runs the CIA' routine. But the plot was weak - a strange sort of coming of age film for a CIA agent who has to murder a bunch of Arabs before he sees the 'light'. The one good line comes at the beginning of the film when the Jordanian head of Intelligence tells the Americans, torture doesn't work. After that, if your just looking for brutal action and violence, this is your film, but you won't find anything resembling a decent, honest debate about the state of American - Mid East relations.
R. Scott tried, I got the feeling, but fell short. There are those moments when the CIA is portrait as a big incapable organization, and the Arab intelligence service as sleek and effective, using 'homegrown' methods. But it's all overshadowed by this rather thick covering of patriotic treacle, and I guess most people will miss these finer points.
So tonight I'll be off to see Bangkok Dangerous, a hard boiled Nic Cage thriller. At least I am not hoping this one will tackle serious geopolitical themes... ;-)
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
R.I.P Macbook Jun '07 - October '08
Yeah, no more lap top...rotten. Means that if I want to write in the blog, I have to stay late at the office... a rather uninspiring atmosphere... So, it's going to be quiet in this space for a while, but my paper notebook will be filling up, and one day I'm start posting again...
Until then...
A few notes from Meeting with Prof. Duhašek:
Read Arendt "life of the mind"
On my question of whether those with knowledge also have political responsibility, her answer was emphatically yes!
~Even for fringe elements there is responsibility. If there is no sense of political responsibility in all elements of society, then there should be...
~If this sense of responsibility is not created, then there is always a chance that evil can return;
~The responsibility needs to be integrated into the very fundamentals of citizenship.
~Serbian Media never listed Karađič's crimes after his arrest;
~Responsibility can be easily displaced unless it is imposed;
~Women in black - take idea of "Not in my Name" to all corners of society;
~Victim mentality never allows for a dealing with the past. You have to think also about the ways in which your own political community has hurt others and your responsibility for that hurt;
~It's my responsibility to see how I have hurt others, not how others have hurt me; that is their responsibility...
...Interesting stuff.
Until then...
A few notes from Meeting with Prof. Duhašek:
Read Arendt "life of the mind"
On my question of whether those with knowledge also have political responsibility, her answer was emphatically yes!
~Even for fringe elements there is responsibility. If there is no sense of political responsibility in all elements of society, then there should be...
~If this sense of responsibility is not created, then there is always a chance that evil can return;
~The responsibility needs to be integrated into the very fundamentals of citizenship.
~Serbian Media never listed Karađič's crimes after his arrest;
~Responsibility can be easily displaced unless it is imposed;
~Women in black - take idea of "Not in my Name" to all corners of society;
~Victim mentality never allows for a dealing with the past. You have to think also about the ways in which your own political community has hurt others and your responsibility for that hurt;
~It's my responsibility to see how I have hurt others, not how others have hurt me; that is their responsibility...
...Interesting stuff.
Friday, October 3, 2008
email exchange
There is so much to write these days, but I am finding myself fairly tired at the end of every day. Its the type of tired where inspiration is low and all you want to do is sit on the couch and watch TV. I remember feeling that way a lot in California. Well, I'll catch up with everything over time, for now, because I don't want to totally ignore the Wall Street crash, here is an email exchange with a former professor.
My email:
As for Wall street, I seem to agree most with Nader when he calls the whole financial system a global casino. I feel fairly conflicted, because somehow I don't want them to get the bail-out from the very pockets of the people they have been taking advantage of for so long. Yet, if there is no bail-out, what happens then? What happens to the US, and the Global economy? Total meltdown could have terrifying geo-political consequences.
I guess, in the end, I would say give them the bailout but with significant regulation. However, you cannot legislate in good behavior, and I guess the system will spend the next 50 years trying to undo these regulations, like it did after the 1930s. So, regulation alone is not an answer. There is a more fundamental issue of greed and a disconnection from responsibility which needs addressing; and how you do that...
I just read an article in the nation by Greider. In case you haven't already seen it:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/greider2
Professors response:
Check out Kucinich's web site and the article by Paul Craig Roberts (Oct.3-5) on the Counterpunch site. The only approach that has a chance to be successful is one that addresses the problem from the bottom up. If people are working, and if their house payments are lowered by re financing them at reasonable interest rates (or at values that can be sustained over the long run), then people will be able to pay most of their debts on time and the financial system, on the whole, will remain solvent.
The rub in the financial sector, however, is similar to what Greider discussed in the SE Asian crisis: When the financial sector is uncertain of profits they withdraw their funds and starve the real economy. The government can address this liquidity problem by injecting funds, not to the main finance center banks (who will hold on to it to cover their speculative losses), but instead to local banks and credit unions who will lend it to local customers.
None of this will stop some contraction of the real economy as we adjust to the difference between what the capitalists imagined they could squeeze out from folks around the world and what people were actually able to produce for them; and as borrowers (individual, corporate and government) adjust their consumption to come into balance with what they can actually pay for over the longer term. Count on a real decline (with price and currency rate adjustments) of between 10 and 20%. No fun at all.
My email:
As for Wall street, I seem to agree most with Nader when he calls the whole financial system a global casino. I feel fairly conflicted, because somehow I don't want them to get the bail-out from the very pockets of the people they have been taking advantage of for so long. Yet, if there is no bail-out, what happens then? What happens to the US, and the Global economy? Total meltdown could have terrifying geo-political consequences.
I guess, in the end, I would say give them the bailout but with significant regulation. However, you cannot legislate in good behavior, and I guess the system will spend the next 50 years trying to undo these regulations, like it did after the 1930s. So, regulation alone is not an answer. There is a more fundamental issue of greed and a disconnection from responsibility which needs addressing; and how you do that...
I just read an article in the nation by Greider. In case you haven't already seen it:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/greider2
Professors response:
Check out Kucinich's web site and the article by Paul Craig Roberts (Oct.3-5) on the Counterpunch site. The only approach that has a chance to be successful is one that addresses the problem from the bottom up. If people are working, and if their house payments are lowered by re financing them at reasonable interest rates (or at values that can be sustained over the long run), then people will be able to pay most of their debts on time and the financial system, on the whole, will remain solvent.
The rub in the financial sector, however, is similar to what Greider discussed in the SE Asian crisis: When the financial sector is uncertain of profits they withdraw their funds and starve the real economy. The government can address this liquidity problem by injecting funds, not to the main finance center banks (who will hold on to it to cover their speculative losses), but instead to local banks and credit unions who will lend it to local customers.
None of this will stop some contraction of the real economy as we adjust to the difference between what the capitalists imagined they could squeeze out from folks around the world and what people were actually able to produce for them; and as borrowers (individual, corporate and government) adjust their consumption to come into balance with what they can actually pay for over the longer term. Count on a real decline (with price and currency rate adjustments) of between 10 and 20%. No fun at all.
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