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American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
By Fausta
By Fausta
Erik’s the author of three books, La Bannière Étalée, and two General Leonardo graphic novels. Don’t miss also Erik‘s essay on patriotism.
Erik is in his annual pilgrimage to the Cannes Film Festival and we’ll be talking about that and about the French. If we decide to get on serious topics, we’ll also talk about the al-Dura decision.
Chat’s open at 10:45AM and the call-in number is 646 652-2639. Join us!
By Fausta
Joe Noory has posted The Missing France 2 Rushes on YouTube.
Dr. Richard Landes and Nidra Poller have reported on the al Dura case.
For now, here are the rushes
By Fausta
Yesterday Siggy and I had the pleasure of talking to Erik Svane of No Pasaran.
(Yes, every time I post Erik’s photo a couple of people email saying that he’s easy on the eyes, so I’m happy to oblige.)
You can listen to the podcast here.
We started by mentioning Eugene Schlanger’s excellent book of poems Wall Street Sonnets, which I highly recommend (and which you can buy at the Underbahn link if you live in the EU. American readers should buy it here). Underbahn is also the publisher of Houdna
Erik’s written three books, La Bannière Étalée, and two General Leonardo graphic novels, all of which I hope will be available in English soon. Don’t miss also Erik‘s essay on patriotism.
Erick recommends James W. Ceaser‘s book Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought
But as the conversation turned to Gaddafi’s current trip to the EU, Siggy mentioned Gaddafi’s big water project. Mind you, this is not new – but it carries huge implications to the region.
Here are some links:
Libya’s Vast Pipe Dream Taps Into Desert’s Ice Age Water
From a 2004 article in the NYT: Libya’s Vast Pipe Dream Taps Into Desert’s Ice Age Water
In one of the largest construction projects in the world, engineers are trying to “mine” ice age rainfall, now locked in the sandstone beneath the Sahara, and convey it to Libyan cities and farms along a vast waterworks.
The project is almost invisible, except when something goes wrong.
…
But the option that Colonel Qaddafi chose — the extensive pipeline and pumping system that bores into the earth to draw down nonrenewable reserves of fossil water — is now about half completed on a landscape twice the size of Texas and has been delivering water for more than a decade, with occasional interruptions for repairs.
And 2006 at the BBC: Libya’s thirst for ‘fossil water’
Libya had oil money to pay for the project, but it did not have the technical or engineering expertise for such a massive undertaking.
Foreign companies from South Korea, Turkey, Germany, Japan, the Philippines and the UK were invited to help.
It is impossible not to be impressed with the scale of the project
In September 1993, Phase I water from eastern well-fields at Sarir and Tazerbo reached Benghazi. Three years later, Phase II, bringing water to Tripoli from western well-fields at Jebel Hassouna, was completed.Phase III which links the first two Phases is still under construction.
When it’s finished, the Grand Omar Mukhtar will be Libya’s largest man-made reservoir.
Siggy will be posting on this later on, I hope.
For now, go listen to the podcast. I’m sure you will enjoy it!
By Fausta
No Pasaran has the video:
Via Lawyn, Don Suber has the week’s round-up, which saved me the work. Also, please visit Pajamas Media daily and check out the Scroll.
By Fausta
When Hitchens is bad, he’s awful, but when he’s good, he’s really good. And he’s really good writing about The French Correction
The principled new foreign minister shows how much France has changed of late (h/t The Anchoress):
The single best symbol of the change in France is the appointment of Bernard Kouchner to the post of foreign minister. Had the Socialist Party won the election, it is highly unlikely that such a distinguished socialist would ever have been allowed through the doors of the Quai d’Orsay. (Yes, comrades, history actually is dialectical and paradoxical.) In the present climate of the United States, a man like Kouchner would be regarded as a neoconservative. He was a prominent figure in the leftist rebellion of 1968, before breaking with some of his earlier illusions and opposing the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan—the true and original source of many of our woes in the Islamic world. The group he co-founded—Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières—was a pioneer in the highly necessary proclamation that left politics should always be anti-totalitarian. (His former counterpart, Joschka Fischer of Germany, also took a version of this view before Schröder’s smirking Realpolitik became too much, and too popular in Germany, for him to withstand.)
His principles led Kouchner to defend two oppressed Muslim peoples—those of Yugoslavia and Iraqi Kurdistan—who were faced with extermination at the hands of two parties daring to call themselves socialist. The Serbian Socialist Party of Slobodan Milosevic and the Arab Baath Socialist Party of Saddam Hussein are at last receding into history, leaving behind them a legacy of utter stagnation, hysterical aggression, and mass graves. I personally find it satisfying that a French socialist was identified with both these victories. Kouchner was instrumental in altering French policy in Bosnia-Herzegovina and later in filling the position—between 1999 and 2001—of U.N. representative in liberated Kosovo. Prior even to that, he had been extremely active in calling attention to the genocidal policy of Saddam in Kurdistan and in helping to introduce Danielle Mitterrand, wife of the then-president of France, to the exemplary role that she played in opposing it. A few years ago, he wrote the introduction to the French edition of The Black Book of Saddam Hussein, a vitally important volume that educates readers in the pornographic nature of that regime: a nightmare government that is now widely considered by liberals to have been framed up by the Bush administration.
Erik Svane and I discussed Kurchner in last week’s podcast. Erik stated,
“The world did really well in getting Sarkozy as President and Kouchner as Foreign Minister.”
Speaking of Erik, he’s back from Cannes and he’s blogging, but not before getting General Leonardo in the right hands.
In a lighter mode,
Here’s the picture of Erik again, for all of you who wrote saying you like it,
Compare and contrast:
By Fausta
Erik Svane, No Pasaran blogger and man-about-town in Cannes, and his co-blogger U*2, are following Michael Moore‘s Sicko at the Festival, so don’t miss their posts.
Erik has two books in French that are soon to be translated into English: La Banniere Etalee (sorry about the punctuation marks – they don’t show well on my server), and General Leonardo, which you can purchase at the above links.
Erik’s publisher, Editions Underbahn, also publishes September 11 Wall Street Sonnets by Eugene Schlanger.
In yesterday’s podcast Erik and I discussed Nicolas Sarkozy’s new cabinet. (It was approximately 14 minutes into the podcast. We had phone connection problems prior to that). My question was, in appointing socialists like Bernard Kouchner to his cabinet, would Sarko be setting himself up into a situation similar to Chirac’s when Jospin was Prime Minister, where Chirac and Jospin spent all their time bickering?
Erik stated that appointing Kouchner as Foreign Minister, is part of Sarkozy’s stratey to win the legislative elections. Sarko has to be open in order to win, and is doing a great job. Kouchner’s the Socialist Party’s most popular member.
Kouchner was not the front-runner because he appeared too pro-American. As Erik puts it,
“The world did really well in getting Sarkozy as President and Kouchner as Foreign Minister.”
…
“Bernard Kouchner has been to Biafra, to Bangladesh, to Saddam’s Iraq; he wrote the foreword to The Big Black Book of Saddam Hussein, a 600-page opus on Saddam Hussein’s crimes.”
Doing this podcast was a lot of fun, as Erik was talking from his cell phone en route to downtown Cannes. I could only wish we could have enjoyed the scenery, too.
You can listen to the podcast here.
By Fausta
Today at 10:30 AM EDT, my guest will be Erik Svane of No Pasaran, live from the Cannes Film Festival.
We talked about the Cannes Film Festival, French politics, and his books.
Updated The link goes directly to this morning’s podcast. We had a small audio problem in the middle of the podcast but hold on and you’ll hear Erik’s comments on Sarko’s new cabinet.