NEWS DISSECTOR September 16, 2007
OJ ACCUSED OF ROBBERY; WALL ST TO GET RATE CUT
"In his classic work The Great Crash: 1929, J K Galbraith put the decline down to the bad distribution of income; the bad corporate structure; the bad banking structure; the dubious state of the foreign balance; and the poor state of economic intelligence. He might have been writing about George W Bush's world rather than that of Herbert Hoover." THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
'The credit-market storm is a far more dangerous thing that anything we've seen in memory.' — Jim Glassman, J.P. Morgan
"The Time to Panic is When Those in Charge Say "Don't Panic" Financial Armageddon website
WILL THE NEW OJ CASE SEIZE THE NEWS AGENDA?
WILL FED CUT INTEREST RATES AND WILL IT MATTER
THE SEPTEMBER ll TERROR ATTACK BEFORE OURS
You could just sense the excitement in the cable news rooms when police in Las Vegas arrested OJ Simpson for armed Robbey, Within an hour, Fox blew out all the other news and had wall to wall coverage with the original cast of OJ commentators. Geraldo had yet to weigh in—but just wait. They can't believe their luck. They can now bury the anti-Bush and war news all together with a celebrity news ratings getter and a juicy crime story. Wow.
I never did find out how much the property OJ allegedly had a hand in stealing was worth but it couldn't come close in value to the TRILLIONS lost in the subprime scandal. Anyone want to bet which story will get more coverge: OJ "Crime" or white collar crime? You know the answer.
Of course the subcrime story is back in the news because on Tuesday, the Federal Reserve Bank—not a government body by the way—is expected to bail out more bankers in the name of saving the economy with an interest rate cut,
WASHINGTON - For the first time in more than four years, the Federal Reserve appears ready to lower interest rates to prevent a housing meltdown and a painful credit crunch from driving the economy into a recession A rate cut would affect millions of borrowers, with the intention of getting them to spend and invest more, which would revitalize the economy.
Most of the stories I saw had this upbeat spin as if this is going to fix everything. Just last week, the Times was quoting experts who explained why it wouldn't. But as the big event grows nearer, the media seems to be lining up behind the wisdom of a cut—something the Fed Chairman was initially loathe to do.
Another story. This one from Market Watch: "An ounce of prevention expected from the Fed Economists look for cuts in both federal funds and discount rate"
WASHNGTON (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve is set next week to take out an ounce of prevention, in the form of a cut in its target federal funds rate, to try to avoid having to rush in with a pound of cure.
"The only argument left for not easing is the moral hazard argument (IE, that it rewards wrong doers, DS) , but that ship has sailed," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.
Fascinating. Translation: forget morality—"that ship has sailed."
James Surowiecki of the New Yorker wrote about the effects of such a bailout weeks ago. He said it would not solve the problem:
The fall in housing prices, the drying up of new construction, and the sharp rise in foreclosures in many areas are having a serious impact on employment and economic growth. But these are not problems that the Fed's action will solve. Cutting the discount rate is not going to help subprime borrowers get new loans, nor will it get the housing market moving again. What it will do is reassure investors and save some money managers from well-deserved oblivion. It may be that the risk of a full-fledged credit crunch was high enough to make this worth doing. But there is something unseemly about watching the avatars of free-market capitalism rely on the government to pay for their bad bets. And there is something scary about contemplating the even bigger bets they'll make in the future if they know that the Fed is there to bail them out.
CREDIT CARDS COME TO CHINA
Jamil Anderlini writes from Beijing
THE number of credit cards in circulation in China has more than doubled over the past year to more than 40 million as a credit culture begins to take shape in the country, according to a report released yesterday.
Penetration rates remain well below those in comparable societies such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, leaving huge potential for an industry that should provide 13 billion yuan ( $2.06 billion) in profits by 2013, according to the report from McKinsey, the consultancy.
But international banks remain barred from issuing credit cards in China and the card business is still unprofitable for domestic banks.
The sector's growing potential increases pressure on Beijing to implement long-awaited rules allowing foreign banks to issue cards, in keeping with its World Trade Organisation accession commitment to provide "national treatment" by the end of 2006.
ARE PEOPLE WHO TOOK SUBPRIME LOANS SUPRIME THEMSELVES? (NOT)
For those who believe that the victims are responsible for the crime—including a letter writer who wrote me to say: "My point was that the people who default, by and large, deserve to," I give you this:
Hispanics often victims of predatory lending practices, report finds
WASHINGTON — Hispanic home buyers are often steered into mortgages with high interest rates even if they qualify for more affordable loans, a report released Wednesday found.
"Too many Latinos have been ignored by some lenders and shuffled into expensive loans by others, even when they have good credit," said Janis Bowdler, senior housing policy analyst with the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights organization that released the report with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.
WHY THE BANKERS DON'T KNOW HOW THE EXTENT OF THEIR FUNNY MONEY
The distinguished anthropologist and Dissector neighbor, Lionel Tiger writes in the Wall Street Journal:
. The task is bewilderingly difficult because many of the transactions were actually managed by computers with whirring models assessing countless points of yesterday's data. So there's nothing for the anxious investor looking for his money to do but trudge trudge trudge through the financial thickets. Even James Bond would have to shoot his way through the bonds upon bonds. Then triumphantly he finds where his stash is actually located! It's perched in New York in an entity called (don't try this at home) the High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leveraged Fund. A very reassuring name! What intrepid literature! But then he notices a sign on the door saying "Closed. Oops. No Money Here."
WATCH: HERE IS A QUESTION FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES ON THIS ISSUE
THE VULTURES ARE WAITING: FROM AN AD IN MY INBOX:
With a 50 year high in the amount of foreclosed homes - now is the best time in HISTORY to find and own a beautiful 3-4-5 bedroom house in the area of your choice. Little to nothing down required for many of these homes - home seekers and investors alike will agree the savings are just plain and simple - MASSIVE -"….
One person's pain is another's gain. What a country.
THE WAR:
Meet the Press makes me sick. The same faces, week after week, the same tepid questions, with the pols all regurgitating well rehearsed message points, and dancing around issues. John McCain may just as well move in to Tim's studio because he's been on so often. This week, John Kerry tried to outdo him in his support for the troops. Meanwhile, their "distinguished" panel debated the MoveOn ad on the subject (see below) but of course no one from MoveOn or the anti-war movement was allowed on to speak for themselves.
BUSH NOMINATES RUDY ADVISOR TO REPLACE ALBERTO
AP: President Bush has settled on Michael B. Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, to replace Alberto Gonzales as attorney general and will announce his selection Monday, a person familiar with the president's decision said Sunday evening.
Mukasey, who has handled terrorist cases in the U.S. legal system for more than a decade, would become the nation's top law enforcement officer if confirmed by the Senate. Mukasey has the support of some key Democrats, and it appeared Bush was trying to avoid a bruising confirmation battle.
The 66-year-old New York native, who is a judicial adviser to GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, would take charge of a Justice Department where morale is low following months of investigations into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and Gonzales' sworn testimony on the Bush.
,
IN THE LONDON TIMES, NOT THE NY TIMES
America's elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.
In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush's economic policies.
However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil," he says.
This issue was NOT treated in Leslie Stahl's interview on 60 Minutes.
HOW NOT TO DEAL WITH IED'S
Robert Bryce writes in the The Washington Spectator:
Despite the lack of progress, the Pentagon has launched yet another anti-lED [improvised explosive device] effort, which will dwarf all prior spending programs. Over the next four years, Congress, the White House, and the Pentagon plan to spend about $20 billion on a fleet of 23,000 heavily armored vehicles that go by the acronym of MRAPs, short for mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles. The first big order for 1,520 MRAPs at a cost of $5.3 billion, or $3.5 million per vehicle, was placed in August.
But like all of the previous anti-lED programs, the MRAP effort will only add more expense to the losing effort in Iraq. While the MRAPs will provide additional protection to American soldiers on the ground, they will not solve the lED problem
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THE 9/11 BEFORE 9/11: Remembering Salvador Allende
It was September llth when I spoke to a conference in Warsaw, and since it was an international gathering, I felt compelled to remind the audience that we were not the only country that felt pain on that day. If you do what I did and look up "this Day in History" on the Wikipedia, you will find a whole historical cavalcade of events that took place on 9/11. There was an American invasion of Honduras on September ll, l916, The Nazis were bombarding Poland on that day in l939, and, ironically, ground was broken for the Pentagon on that day in the 1940's; the Pentagon would later be broken on that same day in 200l.
But in most of Latin America, that black day is referred to simply as "Once," the day on which the US backed coup toppled the democratically elected government of Salvadore Allende in l973. It was a bloody crime against Chile and the world supported by Kissinger and Nixon and multinational companies like IT &T. (I am told that Kissinger is one of Bush's secret advisors on iraq, a relationship that rarely gets media attention. His ex employee Jerry Bremer was the pro-consul there who made a bad situation worse.)
There is an amazing film out that tells that story through the life of Allende himself who is remembered more for his heroic death—finally taking his own life in Santiago's Mondeda Palace rather than give Pinochet and his goons the satisfaction of killing him. The movie is by the brilliant Patricio Guzman who has made several films on Chile including the mind-blowing Battle of Chile back in the 70's. A cameraman is actually killed on film in the making of it by the Chilean military. You see them do it and his camera falls to the ground,
The movie, seen and supported by a host of European TV channels is important not only for the untold story of Allende—who was a revolutionary Socialist maligned in the movie by former US Ambassador to Chile Ed Korry who has tried to make himself into a hero as a US government official who opposed Nixon but he attacks Allende charging he was a Marxist Leninist which he certainly wasn't. Is amazing that a sometimes thoughtful former diplomat and journalist like him can still perpetuate that myth. He did blow the whistle on Nixon but remains a pompous hack.
I learned in the movie about the real Allende who was influenced by libertarians, was a doctor, was totally committed to a legal and non-violent approach to change, and a leader who was inclusive, tolerated other opinions, had a great sense of humor and tried to make change. In the end he could not because they had the tanks and the guns, and were ready to use them in defense of their interests and power. All he had was a coalition of disparate forces that couldn't and wouldn't work together. (Happily, the wheel of history has turned in Latin America with many defeats for imperialismo Yanqui in Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil and Chile itself. The film shows a complex and nuanced reality that was never really told in the US media. It is tragic, poetic, personal and terribly moving—distributed in the US by First Run Icarus Films. See it when you can. (Another related film to look out for is a full scale feature. "the Black Pimpernel" about the Swedish Ambassador who saved many people from the vengeanance and murder ordered by the junta led by Pinochet with Kissinger stage managing from Washington.) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Pimpernel
But beyond reminding us of this story which unfolded while the Vietnam War still raged and before Nixon himself was forced from office, it is an example of the kind of filmmaking that you rarely if ever see on PBS. Ken Burns paean to World War 2 will be on PBS this month He has become the official filmmaker—backed by corporations and officaldom with an air of self congratulation. He does the Civil War and Second World War—a ground beaten over by all those Greatest Generation books—but avoids the Iraq War of course.
I only wish that Salvador Allende would be shown just after so you can contrast the PBS spectacular with a much more textured and moving historical film. When Pablo Neruda , the great Chilean poet died, people shouted "Neruda, Presente." Neruda lives, Neruda is here. This film could be called "Allende, Presente"-the back story of the September llth that proceeded our own—and must be remembered, condemned and never forgotten
Just like the Nazis practiced genocide and aggressive war in Poland —a major crime against humanity, we have seen the face of fascism in other lands and the contempt it shows for democracy. And as one reads about the armada of new laws and detention camps and no-fly lists that the Busheviks have put in place in the event of an "emergency" it could happen here. Did you see the applause from the syncophants at the "Farewell" for Alberto Gonzalez and Tony Snow? They had a better sendoff from their apparatchiks than Breshnev.
And did you see that counter demonstration of the patriots who challenged the anti-war protest on Saturday—bikers and wannabe terrorist killers who may be the next wave of the pro-war movement, much like Nixon had violent hard hats and gusanos doing his bidding in New York and Washington. Their message: "Terrorists, we will find you and kill you…And to our troops, we're here for you, and we support you." Some of those troops were marching across the mall. 190 were arrested, many while staging a "die-in."
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Dissector Daily Forum: Footnotes and Much More
POLAND FOOTNOTE
Lech Walesa, the former President of Poland and Nobel Prize Laureate spoke at Seton Hall University in New Jersry reminding us that the world looked away in Poland's hour of need:
"We, The Polish people, had tried to warn the world before the outbreak of the Second World War, actually suggesting we should anticipate the German attack. And how did the world reply to us? Well, we heard it is merely a local conflict—w are not going to die for that."….(Journalofdiplomacy.org)
ANITA FOOTNOTE
Rory O'Connor and I paid tribute to our friend, the late Anita Roddick who died last week as did the Financial Times and others. I wouldn't want our love for her to cloud the serious questions and disturbing allegations reported by John Entine and others about some of the contradictions and shortcomings of the Body Shop company. The controversy was reprised on NPR Saturday morning in a one sided putdownish way-=-charging hypocrisy and corruption. Was Anita perfect? Hardly. But a fair appraisal is preferable to a sneering and polemical condemnation. Scott? And how about reading others comments. Were all the people who knew her or were inspired by her fooled?
ALSO SEE RALPH NADER'S COMMENT
DID ISRAEL BOMB SYRIA—IS IT A DRY RUN FOR IRAN?
JUST IN TIME FOR YOM KIPPUR
The insightful writer and Time editor Tony Karon has a blog called Rootless Cosmopolitan, using a phrase was used by Stalin to putdown Jews. His most recent article reporting on growing dissent about Israel among Jews was recently widely published, but his definition of Rootless Cosmopolitan wasn't. It's a view I identify with:
Rootless cosmopolitanism may describe my experience of Jewishness, but its hardly exclusive to Jews: It applies equally to most of the people I love and respect from every corner of the p***t who see themselves as citizens of the world, their identities defined by multiple affinities formed in their movement through the spaces between cultures, their instincts including a disdain for racism and cultural (and geopolitical) arrogance, and a tendency to understand and respond to events through a global prism, rather than via the ties of blood and soil. Whether they were raised Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or atheist; whether their origins are Jewish, Indian, English, Scottish, Irish, German, Chilean, Persian, Basque, Israeli, Palestinian, Australian, Serb, Libyan, Midwestern or what have you, they are always most at home among people of similar heart and spirit.
All of the great Jewish intellectual, philosophical, moral and cultural exemplars I can think of were products not of a separate Jewish existence, but of the Diaspora, our dispersal among the cultures of the world. Whether it's Maimonides or Spinoza, Marx, Freud, Einstein or Derrida; Kafka or Primo Levi; Serge Gainsbourg or Daniel Barenboim; Lenny Bruce or Bob Dylan; Mike Leigh or Ali G; kneidlach or rugelach or so many of the brooding operatic tunes I heard in synagogue as a kid; all are products not of Jews living only among themselves, but of our interaction with diverse influences in the Diaspora….
I am proudly Jewish, my own sense of the meaning of that term captured in that famous comment by the great rabbi Hillel, who when challenged to define Judaism while standing on one foot, said: "That which is hateful unto yourself, do not do unto others. All the rest is commentary."
AND SPEAKING OF COMMENTARY POSING AS NEWS
The NY Times on Saturday featured an article about the controversy around Move On.org's "General Betray US" ad which treated treated this Bush flunkie in the manner he deserves raising the very critical questions about his act (enhanced by all his medals and media trained manner) that most of the media didn't have the smarts to raise or many Democrats the guts to challenge because of all the deference supposed War heroes are given. No one mentioned his role in training Iraqi soldiers-an "achievement" that has been widely criticized.
Anyway Rudy Giuliani seized on the ad with a demogogic guilt by association attack on Hillary Clinton. Don't get me started on that BUT his denigration of MoveOn as the left wing conspiracy -liberal-baiting has long ago replaced red-baiting or perhaps is just code word for its continuity—was too much. Move On's Eli X had his picture in the NY Times Saturday in suit and tie, As it turns out I was at a party Friday night honoring this threat to the Republic.
It was actually an engagement party for him and his bride to be. And it was filled with speeches about love and friendship -ideas that a Giuliani—who dumped his own wife at a press conference—could ever understand. Someone should tell him and MoveOn's other critics that their demands for bringing the troops home are shared by a majority of the American people.
Rudy's ad omitted one name as he genuflected to Petraeus- a very political military man and political operative who has hinted that he wants to be President himself. That name was George Bush, the General's boss and the Commander in Chief whose orders he follows, and whose war he serves.
VIDEO OF THE DAY
BROOKLINE AT RISK
I spent my weekend with my Dad in Boston. We watched an interminable Red Sox Yankee game with 36 minute innings and a rout by the Red Sox Nation. We had to suffer through endless non-stop FOX style commentary laced with every imaginable statistic—the very background data on players that is missing when the game of politics is covered.
My dad and I discussed the credit crisis and he assured me that "they" will never allow another l929 and will do whatever if takes to save capitalism even if it is the capitalists—not some revolutionaries—who are bringing it down. "Wait and see Daniel, "They will not let it go," he said.
He gave me a clipping from the local paper about what local authorities consider a more imminent risk: wild turkeys. Traffic came to a stop on his block recently when a parade of wild turkeys marched down the street. The Police issued a caution: "Don't let Turkeys intimidate you," "Keep Wild Things Wild" and watch out for their "bold aggressive behavior." The Massachusetts Wildlife Website has an alert at
THANK YOUS
From turkeys in Washington and Wall Street to Turkeys in Brookline—what a week. I had some unexpected feedback this week. I got a call from Rufus, now a Minister in North Carolina who read a piece I wrote on my days in the Northern Student Movement. He tracked me down to tell me that the folks I worked with in Harlem, including Stokely Carmichael, Andrea Cousins and Bob Knight had transformed his life, and that he would never forget. That happened back in the early 60's and he remembered and reached out across the decades.
There was also this letter from someone in faraway Australia:
"I'm Lock (as in "Lachlan") and I live in Sydney. I just bought my own personal copy of WMD because I had to take back the damn rental and didn't want to. Just wanted to email you and say thanks for making this flick. It's easily the best Iraq-themed doco I've ever seen. In particular, I like your style of delivery - "warm yet cool" I guess I'd call it. No hysterics or Mike Moore-type flippancy, just straight up and down without being emotionally detached. Keep up the good work, mate.
LETTER: BETH DOWDY ON THE SUBCRIME SCANDAL:
Lets put the blame where it belongs. When politicians and big business are in bed with each other, the people have NO protection! All of this is no accident. Some dots:
1. Taking our jobs out of the Country so that the big corporations can profit even more by paying low wages, no taxes, workers compensation, health care, etc.
2. While they profit from cheap labor, the people do not see any cost savings, but higher and higher prices.
3. Illegal aliens coming in by the thousands (importing more poverty into our Country (straining our hospitals and schools not to mention more loses in jobs).
4. Communications and computer programmer jobs being outsourced and more demand by the big corporations for H1B visas to import MORE people to take our jobs.
5. Changing the bankruptcy laws to make it is harder for people to file for protection (all the while their jobs are being stolen from them).
6. Banks then allowed to raise interest rates
7. After this you keep hearing mortgage lenders telling people to refinance and take out their equity and pay off those credit cards (all the while taking full advantage of the misery of the people brought on by big business and politicians destroying our job base)
8. Now everything is blowing up and it is ultimately going to be the people that suffer. Those that are responsible for this mess will get away scot free!
Public/Private partnerships, sustainable development, multiculturalism, these are all catch phrases that people need to wake up to!!!!!!! The global elite are bleeding all of us dry. They do not want honest hard working people that do not want to live off the system and they are making damn sure that this is exactly what is happening. Honest, hard working people are a threat to them as they do not have the control over them that they want! Therefore, destroy the middle class!
SCREENINGS
I will be doing several screenings of my latest film IN DEBT WE TRUST this week., one in Queens, one in Brooklyn. Please keep your support coming in. Thanks to those who are giving, and about to give. I am not sure how much longer we have.
Share your comments and suggestions.
Write: dissector@mediachannel.org
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FRIDAY'S BLOG:
BLOG POSTED THURSDAY NIGHT FOR FRIDAY. A LACK OF CONNECTIVITY MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO POST FROM POLAND. YES, THERE ARE STILL COUNTRIES THAT ARE NOT MAC-FRIENDLY.
ONE MAN ARMY
BACK IN POLAND
HAPPY NEW YEAR
In his new book Communication Revolution, chronicling his own impressive intellectual evolution from a an activist and music writer to a leading media academic historian and reformer, Robert W McChesney kindly calls me a pioneer in the media change business labeling me a "one man media army." I like the military image but, to be honest, my work in this area has been about trying to build a broad based movement, not a personal platform.
Mediachannel was my weapon of choice. The idea was a Channel to watch the other channels, to argue the centrality of media change as key to transforming our democracy. Perhaps because we were are and were media people, and had been on the insider of the vast corporate media machine that we believed that without an informed electorate, our democracy would wither and be more open to manipulation. We weren't wrong. Everyone now acknowledges that the big media is tilted to the right—and I just don't mean Fox News, the left's favorite whipping boy—and made the War in Iraq possible and, by its lack of critical coverage is an accomplice in keeping it going.
In the years since I started my own little media war, the public has in many ways joined me with growing expressions of dismay with the dumbed-down media they consume. Every survey registers dissatisfaction, and other indices show a fall off in newspaper circulation and lower rating for TV news. The popularity of the Daily Show and many online outlets offers more evidence of this trend. So many are estranged from the mainstream media, but so few are willing to support and help sustain independent media -oriented projects.
Activists seem locked in a ritualistic protest mode yielding fewer and fewer results with semi-annual protests every Fall and Spring. Funding and benefactors are harder and harder to find. Many foundations flit away from institutions without "big names" to embrace the new and trendy. Hundreds of millions of dollars are raised by Democratic politicians who we all know are more tethered to compromise and opportunism than principle.
So that leaves us struggling for survival, unable to market to the large audience we know is out there. We are hell raisers who have forced to become fundraisers, and we are always very good at it. At the same time, a steady set of invitations from around the world suggests that there are many people value what we do.
Why is that?
For one thing, most media and political websites are partisan appendages of political parties. They don't raise structural critiques or offer global perspectives. In an age of globalization, they remain parochial or only focused on conflicts that the US is a main player like Iraq and Afghanistan. There's very little offered on other parts of the world, and even less about the economy and what we might learn from others.
Rory O'Connor and I have been upwardly global even as we have become downwardly mobile. His tribute to Dame Antita Roddick, once a close patron, speaks to our own global aspirations and commitment to socially responsible principles.
In the last few years we have been to nearly 4o countries speaking at events, making films, and trying to show the face of Americans as people who care about fostering deeper changes in our world. We have encouraged global exchanges. (We currently have interns from China and Holland and work with colleagues worldwide.) Shouldn't this effort be valued?
If you read Mediachannel regularly, you will find reporting and opinions from many countries and cultures. We feel this promotes understanding and makes our work distinctive and worth supporting. We are honored when organizations, forums and festivals think we are worthy or inviting to enrich their global conversations. Very few of our online colleagues have this global reach.
They think we matter.
We hope you do too. We hope you will help us keep keeping on by supporting Mediahchannel in our hour of need.
I am just back from a second visit to Poland, I hope you find my report of interest.
Friday: I am on my way to Poland, suffering through the usual weekend night delay at JFK with take-offs always an hour or more ordeal. I'm trying to read up on what's happening in that country I am visiting. It looks like the government is about to fall. Newspapers speak of "a circus of upheaval, accusation and recrimination." Sound familiar?
The only difference is that here Ministers accused of corruption are jailed first and tried later. And because there is a parliament, the government can fall.
A Foreign Minister in Europe recently called Poland "a p***t on its own." The Prime Minister Jarslaw Kaczynski whose twin brother is the President, wouldn't go along with EU rules unless Poland was credited with a larger population than it has by the simple act of getting credit for its world War 2 dead. The EU agreed to compromise. What a precedent! Politics got so crazy that just before I got here, that the government has had to step down and new elections have been called.
The government had been run by these two brothers who position themselves as rightists but pursue far more progressive economic policies. They pander to the conservative very Catholic vote in the South. They have been playing footsie with, and rendition helper, for the Bushevik war on terror. I had even seen a report that the CIA was running one of its secret interrogation centers just down the road from one of the old German Concentration camps…The more things change….
The only English speaking Polish newspaper I could really read read was The Warsaw Business Review. I figured they might have a story about the issue I am most focused on these days: debt. I wasn't disappointed. The headline was: "DEEPER IN DEBT." The report "A Million Poles Are Having Trouble Paying Back." A million translates into 10 percent of the population. One out of ten! And then the number 10 pops up again, as in when the unemployment rate falls to 10 percent, there won't be enough workers to fill them because young people are leaving the country in droves. According to one survey, one in every four young people don't want to work in their country. Another puts the number at 50%
Maybe that's was the story of the young man I saw being escorted to the p*** at JFK when I left by two armed Homeland Security bruisers. One had the initials ICE on his badge. ICE stands for Michael Chertoff's anti-immigration goon squad. They were probably deporting the kid. Polish cops picked him when we landed.
I noticed that the Carlyle Group has opened a private equity HQ in Warsaw to mount of one of their 'strip the best assets operations' in Eastern Europe. At the same time, because of EU anti-competition rules, the famous Gdansk shipyard which gave birth to the Solidarity movement that helped topple the Soviets may be forced to close when their subsidies are cut. Then, the workers who fought against Communism with support from the Italian Pope and our own Pope, Ronald Reagan, will get a not so pleasant taste of unemployment under capitalism. They marched at the EU in Brussels to challenge the decision.
Poland has had lots of experience with police and police states. It was in a September like this one in 1939 that the country was bombarded and then invaded by the Nazis. The Poles fought back but by the 28th of September had to surrender. It was the opening shot of WW2. 84% of the city was destroyed in that war. You can still see the hulks of some buildings.
They do have a new statue honoring those Poles shipped to Siberia by the Russians who decimated the Master Race here at a great cost. The Russian memorial here is not a local favorite, however, because the Soviet troops took a break in the fighting while the Germans continued to kill Poles in another part of the city. It's a frequent target for graffiti.
It's been 60 years but countries don't get over wars that easily. Parts of our country are still fighting the civil war. There is now an uprising museum here commemorating the local fight against the Nazis in '44. As a child I learned about the events of a year earlier in the Warsaw Ghetto where Jewish partisans fought back heroically. Part of that story was told in movies like Schindler's List but it was a lot bloodier and more heroic than that. For every Schindler, there were more Jewish collaborators. They were shot in the end by the Nazis who created Jewish Councils and police forces to pacify the population. There were also many Poles who provided Jews with refuge including in the local Zoo. Over 300,000 Jews lived here then. Today there are only 2000.
In some parts of the city like Old Town where almost every home was devastated by bombing, there was a massive rebuilding effort to make it look like it did back then.
On Saturday September 8, there was festival of sorts in Old Town with many marriages and signs identifying the area as UNESCO World Heritage site. (It was on that date, I learned, that Poland was also invaded by Sweden which looted and killed half the Polesvthey encountered three centuries earlier.)
The famous Warsaw Ghetto was totally destroyed and mostly disappeared with Jewish cemeteries and the few older buildings that survived neglected. I walked around to see a few minor plaques and monuments including one on the wall of a building on Stawkie Street that housed the dreaded Umschlagplatz, the way station for transports that took ghetto residents to Treblinka and other extermination camps. The plaque there was dedicated to our "fallen comrades" of a fighting organization who shot their way into the building and rescued 22 Jews. It was an eerie feeling reading later that most of the people in the ghetto did not know their fate. We of course know that many in the West did and did little to save those targeted for the ovens.
I think it was my own awareness of the Warsaw Ghetto and its heroic uprising that made me especially sensitive to other ghettoes, especially those our country, and the ways some of us ghettoize ourselves.
The ghosts of the past still linger including the stain of anti-Semitism that led to collaborations with Nazis and benefited some Poles when the homes and property of Jews were stolen after families were forcibly transferred to ghettos. Some Poles are upset that the Jews who condemn the holocaust rarely express concern for the many Poles who were also killed. The Business newspaper ran an editorial during the summer saying, "Poland is not Shoaland" ("Shoa" is a Jewish term for the holocaust) arguing that all Poles should not be treated as if they were Nazis.
Two writers in Kansas City responded by partly agreeing: "Jews should not come to Poland just to learn of Nazi imposed Jewish death but also of Jewish civilization that thrived in Poland for 500 years before World War 11 and of Jewish life that is seeking to reestablish itself in Poland today." (I did find an excellent Jewish restaurant in Old Town, and there have been Jewish festivals.) See shalom.org.pl.
The big Polish uprising came in 1944, a year after the one in the Ghetto. It was led by the "home army" directed by the government in exile in London. The Red Army which later "liberated" Poland (or at least drove the Nazis out) sneered at its efforts and even arrested some of its leaders. I went to a new multimedia museum in Warsaw dedicated to telling the story of the Rising in Warsaw. It celebrated the heroism of the Poles who fought against the Germans and who for many years were unable to tell their own story when the Communist Party ran the country.
I was struck by the way the exhibits spoke of and saluted their resistance as the work of "Insurgents," a term with a far different meaning today in Iraq. Here the insurgents refer to the good guys. I wonder when a "Rising" Museum will open in Baghdad recounting the story of the fight by their insurgents there against American and, yes, Polish ("coalition of the pandering ') forces. The ironies are everywhere. (And, yes, the museum does devote some space to the murdered martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto.)
Another irony for me is that the Yiddish culture that thrived here, and contributed so much to the world, was not later welcomed or nourished in Israel to which many survivors fled. There, Hebrew, not Yiddish, is the lingua franca. In fact, the language of the Eastern European Jews was looked down upon and has been largely wiped out. (Today, Israeli companies are active in real estate in Poland.)
What a tragedy—millions were slaughtered in ovens and then their rich culture—a culture I grew up with too— is was allowed to largely disappear in a Jewish State. When I was in Poland the last time, I visited Auschwitz and felt they way most visitors feel—never again! But then along came Rwanda, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, and today in Iraq and Darfur.
At the same time, some in Poland are trying to open up to new cultural influences. There is an international cross cultural concert in town featuring a great singer from the Sámi people of Norway and Zulu musicians doing their version of Mozart. The idea for the event was inspired by the late great Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski who wrote in his book Travels with Herodtus, "…other worlds and other cultures are mirrors that reflect our world and our culture."
The TV here however blares MTV and the brilliant thought of Flavor Flav, while a Made in the USA consumer culture is pervasive. The local stations have just bought Dancing with The Stars shows for next season. The radio stations, now as tightly controlled by commercial companies as they once were by the government, all feature homogenous play lists. Few even play Polish music. There are actual rules prohibiting social or political commentary in music.
I spent much of my time absorbed in the US Open out of New York on Euro Sports. That was global with a Swiss player beating a Serb. Why do we mostly only get to know people from other countries in sports competitions, rarely in the news.
My own speech here denounced growing media consolidation globally, but I was pleased to find an exception in Poland, perhaps even a model. It's a newspaper—actually a multi-media company that grew out of the Solidarity period. Their lead newspaper is a quality well-written and lively title, Gazeta Wyborcza, or Gazette for Elections. It is a force for in-depth coverage, investigative reporting and critical coverage.
Its inspiring editor is Adam Mitnick, one of the activists and leaders who led Solidarity. (He once revealed to me that his mother's family name was Schechter—although we are only related through some shared values.) The newspaper has built an impressive 400,000 plus daily circulation. Its handsomely designed with lots of photos and aspires to be a New York Times for Poland although it strikes me as less pretentious.
Although Adam was out of town, he arranged for an editor to give me a tour of its comfortable headquarters built around an open design and no closed offices to insure transparency. Employees are shareholders. There is a spirit of pride and professionalism.
Many of the editors and reporters are in their thirties. The paper represents the democratic spirit of the Solidarity movement and sems to be an example of how home-grown journalism can be committed to promoting real democracy and do well.
I raised the issue of why the newspaper supported the Iraq War. The editor explained it as political necessity because friendship with the US is critical for a country with two powerful and not always friendly neighbors, Germany and Russia. "those are our realities which we can't ignore." I was told. But then the editor distanced himself from the war's rationales—ie WMD's and Al Qaeda. "We never believed that. We did thing that Saddam Hussein was a bad guy who had to go." Recall that human rights and democracy were only added on as rationales for the war here after the fact. Fear drove our policies, not hope.
So for them, it was a human rights rationale. I guess I can understand it in a country that has had a long fight for human rights itself. The paper did report on and challenge the government for going along with US terror war abuses.
Visiting their cool offices with a coffee bar, newsstand, cafeteria and team of dedicated younger people gave me a hope for the future of journalism. Why can't we learn from their experience?
I was pleased to see the Financial Times of London paying tribute to the late Body Shop founder and Globalvision supporter Anita Roddick. One of the former Body Shop franchees and an old friend. Helen H. Mills wrote in on a discussion board.
Anita Roddick, along with Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's, drew a global spotlight creating the momentum which spawned the Corporate Social Responsibility movement in the US. As her first American franchisees, we were witnesses to Dame Anita's sheer will, determination, resilience, vision, and extraordinary magnetism, as she tapped the vein of corporate and consumer consciousness and generated a payload of market value. Companies like Stoneyfield Farms, Patagonia, Interface, Odwalla, Eileen Fischer, Tom's of Maine, Hanna Andersson, and others formed the critical mass needed to validate the trend and provided the "proof of concept" for the analysts..something the consumer didn't require.
As an extraordinary leader and orator,Dame Anita brought huge audiences to their feet as well as their senses as she implored individuals, businesses, and governments, to be more judicious in the stewardship of the p***t. Her concept of making profits while being principled was novel and inspirational. Companies all over the US have been compelled to reconsider their stakeholder interests and respect, if not embrace,the power of the passionate and values-oriented consumer.
When Dame Anita sourced ingredients,she was mindful of creating a supply chain from small villages and communities from Africa to India to Mexico. With a stance against convention,she thumbed her nose with conviction at the City as she grew the business to cover more than 2,000 stores in over 50 countries. She proved that you can base a business on principles and scale it to significant commercial proportion demonstrating that Corporate Social Responsibility is not an oxymoron but a bedrock foundation for profitable operations. Dame Anita will long be the subject of case studies in business schools. We will debate for decades whether it was her principles, her personality, her values, her marketing concepts or the niche she carved out creating the natural cosmetics business that generated a powerful consumer wave. My hope is that Anita Roddick's passing, will foster introspection and reflection among other corporate leaders.
Perhaps they will find within themselves a passion for the greater good and use their companies as levers for a better world. With a sales price for her business of $1.2 billion, Dame Anita proved that being socially responsible apparently isn't much of a sacrifice.
As Rory O' Connor describes in his wonderful tribute on Mediachannel, Anita knew how to make business meaningful and fun. All my love and sad condolences to her kids and husband Gordon who was her partner through the years, good times and bad. We spent great times together and she was there on so many issues- especially the plight of the Angola 3 in one of our despicable gulags in Louisiana.
Let us honor her contribution by emulating her attitude and energy, and work on the issues that kept her going. Let us remember her smile, and her laugh, and learn from her achievements and mistakes,
I am writing on the Jewish New Year and wish all who mark it, Happy New Year. And for the rest of us, a happy news year.
BUSH BLUSTER
I just don't have the energy to dissect the latest Bush Bamboozle on Iraq. It was an orchestrated message point laden enterprise from the start only convincing to those without the capacity for critical thinking. The fact that he—and his Generals including Petraeus who apparently wants to become President himself—can still get away with it is what is so stunning. There is another protest in Washington on Sarturday. Who is listening? If I could I guess I would be there,,,
Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org
ANNOUNCING OUR "FALL OFFENSIVE"
Danny is representing Mediachannel at a conference in Poland. He's asked that we share our appeal for support with News Dissector Readers. He says: "Yes, it's all that serious."
ANNOUNCING OUR "FALL OFFENSIVE"
MediaChannel's Survival is Now In Your Hands
Last Spring, MediaChannel faced a serious funding crisis. Our original funders had moved on to new projects, and an earlier than usual Presidential race was literally vacuuming donations into the coffers of a dozen political campaigns. Even as our circulation grew — with millions of hits monthly - our contributions were not keeping pace. We held our nose and opened our pages to advertising; some of it turned out to be objectionable, but we urgently needed revenue streams. With a shrinking staff and no fulltime development effort, we were unable to sustain our efforts. We were ready to call it quits… but tried something else instead.
We went to you, our readers, and were gratified by your response. Many of you opened your checkbooks or made donations online. We didn't achieve our goal but we kept going. You kept us alive!
Rory O'Connor and I long ago stopped drawing any compensation for our editorial or administrative work on MediaChannel. All money raised went directly into sustaining MediaChannel. We're now down to one paid part-time employee. And for those of you who noticed, this unique site was able to keep going all summer long with timely original content, diverse perspectives and global input. We were breaking stories, offering distinctive videos every day and building our subscriber lists.
We are proud of what we are doing, but like that old story about the bear, we were making tracks without getting anywhere. Our accounts are now totally depleted. A recent server problem has increased our expenses. We seem to be back on that plank, hoping once again not to fall over the edge.
Please click here to make a tax deductible donation.
And so, we are coming back to you as we explore some new and potentially exciting prospects: turning MediaChannel over to one of our leading affiliates, trying to hand over the site to another entity or find a media school to use it as a teaching platform. In the meantime, we need your help again. We didn't pester you this summer, but that season of giving has come around again.
Our needs are relatively modest: One salary, rent and utilities, technical assistance, hardware, software, servers… But without more funding, we will have to bid you all adieu, say goodbye, auf wiedersein, sayonara and move on.
That is not what we want to do as the fight against the war, violations of our constitution and economic inequality deepens. We are the only global media website of its kind out there in cyberspace, and the only one covering all of these issues in depth every day - with the help from blogs, the best of the world's reporting and informed analysis from hundreds of sources. We don't let partisanship get in the way of our journalism, and we open our pages to your comments and commentary.
As our media system devolves even further into show biz values and corporate interests, our mission is needed more than ever.
We would rather not solicit individual donations, but we are not too proud to beg. We would prefer to find foundations or wealthy donors willing and able to be more generous, but we may have worn out our welcome with too many appeals over too many years. Seven and half Internet years is quite an achievement — but as you know, we are not subsidized by big media companies, governments or special interests. We can only survive if you want us to, if you are willing to do your share in keeping this experiment in media accountability alive. We need your help more than ever, and do we ever!
Please make a tax deductible donation
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You have always been there when we called on you in the past. We are calling on you now. Save MediaChannel and help create a media that serves the values of democracy.
Please share this appeal with your friends and consider yourselves an insurgent fundraiser in our FALL OFFENSIVE.
If you have ideas or suggestions, please write to Dissector@mediachannel.org
REMEMBER:
THE SITE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN.
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