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May 17, 2005

05.17.05 Edition | Store Wars; David Graeber Fired; It Ain't All About the Down Low
May 17, 2005 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: Journalist Seymour Hersh reports on the Iraqi resistance; anarchist anthropologist David Graeber given the boot from Yale; why all the fuss about African-American men living "on the down low" doesn't really explain rising HIV rates among women of color; Max Uhlenbeck exchanges words with anti-racist activists; Venezuela launches a South American Al Jazeera; the tragic legacy of Dole, Del Monte, and Chiquita in Nicaragua; Cuke Skywalker and Chewbroccoli fight in the organic rebellion against pesticides; lawmakers launch a new assault on 'ecoterrorism'; an interview with John Francis, who lived car-free and silent for 17 years to protest the oil industry; and much more, of course.

This Week's Picks

  1. AUDIO | Seymour Hersh: Iraq "Moving Towards Open Civil War"
    Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh broke the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal last year, and is the author of the book Chain of Command: From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib. Hersh speaks on the resistance in Iraq, Ahmad Chalabi, and media consolidation.

    Amy Goodman | Democracy Now!
    mp3: http://audio43.archive.org/1/audio/dn2005-0511/dn2005-0511-1_64kb.mp3


  2. INTERVIEW | Without Cause: Yale Fires Acclaimed Anarchist Scholar David Graeber
    David Graeber, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Yale University, and the author of Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams and Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, among many other scholarly publications. Last week Prof. Graeber was informed that his teaching contract at Yale would not be extended. However, it was not Graeber's scholarship that was ever in question; rather it was his political philosophies that may have played a heavy hand in the administration's unwarranted decision. Graeber, a renowned anarchist scholar, recently spoke with Joshua Frank about the fiasco. As anthropologist David Price put it, this "is a ghastly look under the hood at how academic knowledge is manufactured at America's 'finest' institutions."

    Joshua Frank | Counterpunch
    http://www.counterpunch.org/frank05132005.html


  3. It Ain't All About the Down Low
    Youth health educators and activists go beyond the juicy headlines of closeted lives in black communities and look at the many factors behind the rising HIV epidemic among women of color.

    Celina R. De Leon | WireTap
    http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/21962


  4. Anti-Racism for Global Justice: An Activist Forum
    In the aftermath of the 1999 Seattle protests, long time Chicana activist Elizabeth 'Betita' Martinez wrote an important essay titled 'Where Was the Color in Seattle: Looking for Reasons Why the Great Battle Was so White,' which was widely circulated throughout various activist communities and its wide-ranging impacts continue to be felt to this day. In the wake of the 5th year anniversary of the Seattle protests, a new generation of activists and organizers have continued to struggle with the questions raised by Betita and others working for racial justice throughout history. The following forum—in which Max Uhlenbeck asked several activists and organizers to share their views—is an attempt to contribute to, and help further the ongoing, dialogue within the global justice movement around issues of race and racism.

    Max Uhlenbeck | Colours of Resistance / Left Turn
    http://www.colours.mahost.org/articles/forum.html


  5. 'El' Jazeera
    To balance the anti-Chavez local press and pro-American CNN, Venezuela is launching a South American Al Jazeera. With journalistic heavyweights and an non-corporate vibe, the channel arrives on the scene as a number of Latin American nations are leaning politically left.

    Kelly Hearn | AlterNet
    http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21988


  6. Chiquita's Children
    In the '70s and '80s, the banana companies Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita used a carcinogenic pesticide, Nemagon, to protect their crops in Nicaragua. Today, the men and women who worked on those plantations suffer from incurable illnesses. Their children are deformed. The companies feign innocence. What ethical principles guided those involved in the product's development? The answers may never be clear, but a comment by Clyde McBeth, one of the chemists behind Nemagon, is telling. In response to a question about the sterility caused by the pesticide in certain Central American workers, he told a Mother Jones reporter: "From what I hear, they could use a little birth control down there."

    Nicolas Berube and Benoit Aquin | In These Times
    http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2096


  7. VIDEO | Grocery Store Wars
    Watch Chewbroccoli, C3Peanuts, Tofu D2, and Cuke Skywalker as they fight in an organic rebellion against Lord Tader and pesticide heavy farming methods in this new spoof of Star Wars.

    Organic Trade Association and Free Range Graphics
    http://www.storewars.org


  8. Conservatives Push Ecoterror Laws
    Though arson, vandalism, assault, break-ins and other tactics by radical animal rights activists and environmentalists are already illegal, some officials want to take punishments a step further. A national group of conservative state lawmakers has been promoting laws creating a separate offense of ecoterrorism since 2003, when California passed such a law. Similar bills have died in Texas and Arizona, and others are pending in Pennsylvania, New York and Missouri.

    AP | Truthout.org
    http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/051105EA.shtml


  9. The $4.7 Trillion Pyramid
    Why Social Security won't be enough to save Wall Street.

    Michael Hudson | Harpers
    http://www.harpers.org/The4.7TrillionPyramid.html


  10. India and Antacids-Warning: Side Effects May Be Severe
    What if the pharma industry was forced to put fully truthful labels on their products?

    Stan Cox | The Providence Journal/Common Dreams
    http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0512-26.htm


  11. Smoking Gun Memo?
    Journalists typically condemn attempts to force their colleagues to disclose anonymous sources, saying that subpoenaing reporters will discourage efforts to expose government wrongdoing. But such warnings seem like mere self-congratulation when clear evidence of wrongdoing emerges, with no anonymous sources required—and major news outlets virtually ignore it. A leaked document that appeared in a British newspaper offered clear new evidence that U.S. intelligence was shaped to support the drive for war. Though the information rocked British Prime Minister Tony Blair's re-election campaign when it was revealed, it has received little attention in the U.S. press.

    Staff | FAIR
    http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2511


  12. Ped Dispenser
    A conversation with John Francis, a 'planetwalker' who lived car-free and silent for 17 years.

    Mark Hertsgaard | Grist
    http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/05/10/hertsgaard-francis/index.html

- Media Picks Contributing Editors: Rebecca Onion and Erica Wetter
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin Wiegand and Brian Awehali

Posted by erin at May 17, 2005 05:07 PM

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