American Studies

Gaza

2009-01-13T00:47:00.000-08:00

GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) -- The rumble of artillery fire and the roar of ensuing explosions continued to roll through Gaza early Tuesday despite pronouncements by an Israeli official earlier that the military operation may be in its final days.

Either in its final days or not this catastrophe has created a collective memory of pain and sorrow in the minds of many kids including that little boy sitting beside his mother's death bed. what would that kid think of the person who killed his mother and us, who are watching the pictures and perhaps shedding a few tears. what would generations after us think about this genocide. LUSTY Arab leaders should be ashamed of themselves. pity on the title Muslim which has to bear the disgusting names of these monsters.

2008-12-29T09:42:00.000-08:00

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

W.E.B. Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. At that time Great Barrington had a very small population of blacks, something around 50 out of a population of about 5,000. Therefore he was not faced with severe racism there. Nevertheless anger and cruelty was implicitly seen in his society and that made him turn into an angry and silent person. This withdrawn behavior followed him throughout his life.
His time saw a lot of “reconstructions” to itself. The Civil Rights Acts of 1866, the fourteenth amendment, the Military Reconstruction acts, fifteenth amendment, and the Civil Rights acts of 1875. He was born in the same year as the passage of the fourteenth amendment which made all native born or naturalized persons American citizens and prohibited states specially the south to deprive them off their rights including life, liberty and property without due process of law. But as history shows amendments where passed and supported by the Republicans in the north and the southerners, who were still bitter at their northern neighbors on the civil war, started to make the black codes and other cruel laws like the Jim Crow segregation.
When he went to high school he became very interested in the development of his race. He believed it was his duty to politicize his people. Therefore even when he was at school he managed to do some newspaper reporting. Du Bois was a very talented student and like many others he desired to go to Harvard University but going to Harvard needed a strong financial support. So with the aid of his family and friends he was able to attend Fisk College, for which he had to move to Nashville, Tennessee.
There was a great difference between the north and the south at that time. This was Du Bois' first trip south. During his years at Fisk he realized the discrimination blacks had to bear and it was during these years that he had to do something to emancipate his people. Consequently, he became an American civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, scholar, writer, editor, and an impassioned orator. He tried to learn more about the south by teaching in a school; it was then that he learned that the black people lived in poverty, prejudice and segregation.

After graduation from Fisk, Du Bois entered Harvard (via scholarships) his education focused on philosophy, centered in history. It then gradually began to turn toward economics and social problems. He received his bachelor's degree in 1890 and immediately began working toward his master's and doctor's degree.
Du Bois completed his master's degree in the spring of 1891. He received a grant from President Hayes to study at the University of Berlin in Germany which was considered to be one of the world's finest institutions of higher learning. But he wasn’t able to get his degree from Berlin and was urged to get it from Harvard due to the interest of his supporters. During the two years Du Bois spent in Berlin, he began to see the race problems in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and the political development of Europe as one. This was the period of his life that united his studies of history, economics, and politics into a scientific approach of social research. At the age of twenty-six, he began his life's work. He accepted a teaching job at Wilberforce in Ohio.
The year 1896 was a totally new start for Du Bois. He accepted a special fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania to conduct a research project in Philadelphia's seventh ward slums. This responsibility provided him with the opportunity to study Blacks as a social system. Du Bois eagerly devoted himself to his research. He wanted to find the cure to the black problem which was color prejudice. The outcome of this exhaustive endeavor was published as The Philadelphia Negro. "It revealed the Negro group as a symptom, not a cause; as a striving, palpitating group, and not an inert, sick body of crime; as a long historic development and not a transient occurrence." Du Bois is acknowledged as the father of Social Science because he was the first person to take a scientific approach to studying a social phenomenon.
After the completion of his study, Du Bois accepted a position at Atlanta University to expand his teachings in sociology. For thirteen years there he wrote and studied Negro morality, urbanization, Negroes in business, college-bred Negroes, the Negro church, and Negro crime. His studies really helped all social reforms. It is said that because of his outpouring of information "there was no study made of the race problem in America which did not depend in some degree upon the investigations made at Atlanta University."
In January of 1906 the "Niagara Movement" called after the site of the meeting was formed. Its objectives were to advocate civil justice and abolish caste discrimination; but it failed. In 1909 most members of the Niagara Movement merged with some white liberals and thus the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was born. Du Bois was not completely satisfied with the group but agreed to stay on as Director of Publications and Research.
The main source of spreading NAACP policy and news concerning Blacks was the Crisis magazine, which was directed by Du Bois. Du Bois was an outspoken opponent of the scientific racism of his day. Du Bois argued extensively against the then prevalent notion that African-Americans were biologically inferior to whites and issued his critiques in the same magazine.
The NAACP was, at that time, under the leadership of whites, to which Du Bois objected. He always felt that Blacks should lead. This gave Du Bois the ability to continue his assault on the injustices done to Blacks.
World War I had dramatic affects on the lives of Black folks. Firstly, the Armed Forces refused to call up Blacks, but finally gave up and put the "colored folks" in roles which they could be pushed over by whites. Secondly, this war caused a great immigration, since the north was looking for laborers and southern blacks moved north in flocks. It was then that the northern whites became angry at them for stealing their jobs. As a result lynching became very popular and after the war black veterans went back home only to be torn off their army cloths as welcome from those whom they had fought for.
Using the Crisis as his vehicle he attacked all the injustice he saw. His strong attacks and the reaction of his followers caused some congressional actions such as bringing forth legal actions against lynches and setting up a federal work plan for returning veterans. This period was the pinnacle of his success.
Shortly after the Armistice was signed, Du Bois headed to France in 1919 to represent the NAACP as an observer at the Peace Conference. It was there that he decided to organize a Pan-African conference to bring attention to the problems of Africans around the world. But the concept didn’t work due to the lack of interest by the more influential black organizations. He decided to hold another Pan-African meeting in 1921 which failed even more severely.
Other movements like the Garvey movement, which Du Bois tried to ignore first but then started criticizing, received much more mass attention than did Du Bois intellectual movement.
Du bois tried for the third time to hold the Pan-African meeting but as expected the turnout of this one was small too. After the conference he headed for Africa, during the trip through "the eternal world of Black folk" he made a characteristic observation–"The world brightens as it darkens." This trip changed his point of view towards the African American people and what he had been preaching all those years. Du Bois noted how America avoided dealing with the issues of color, and how his approach of "educate and agitate" appeared to have no impact upon people. He felt that his ideological approach to the "problem of the twentieth century" had to be revised. Du Bois' trip to Russia in 1927, after the Russian revolution, his learning about Marx and Engels, his seeing the beginning of a new nation form with regard to class, became a pretext for the revision he had in mind. He wasn’t able to trust white capitalists and white workers anymore so he went on to do everything in a segregated socialized economy.
By 1930 he had become thoroughly convinced that the basic policies and ideals of the NAACP must be modified or discarded. There were two alternatives: Change the board of directors of the NAACP (who were mostly white) which meant substituting a group which agreed with his programs, or leaving the organization.
He resumed his duties at Atlanta University and completed two major works. His book Black Reconstruction dealt with the socio-economic development of the nation after the Civil War. This masterpiece portrayed the contributions of the Black people to this period, whereas before, the Blacks were always portrayed as disorganized. His second book of this period, Dusk of Dawn, was completed in 1940 and expounded its view to Africans and African Americans struggle for freedom.
During the last phase of his political and social activities he committed himself to something beyond protecting only a single social group to a "to a world conception of proletarian liberation." As the chairman of the Peace Information Center, he demanded the outlawing of atomic weapons. After which he was indicted under the foreign Agents Registration Act. Even though he was acquitted but this made him say –"In my own country for nearly a century I have been nothing but a NIGGER." By the time the U.S. press published this statement, he was residing in Ghana; an expatriate from the United States. Du Bois became a Ghanaian citizen and an official member of the Communist party.
On August 27, 1963, on the eve of the March on Washington, Du Bois died in Accra, Ghana at age 95.
He was honored by a few because of his Pan-Africanist activities but he was neglected by those who never saw his efforts in uniting the mentally and physically enslaved people all around the world.
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References
Dusk of Dawn (W.E.B. DuBois)
W.E.B. DuBois: Propagandist of the Negro Protest (Elliott M. Rudwick)

Canaan land A Religious History of African American

2008-12-20T12:47:00.001-08:00

This book divides the whole history of the black American religious interests in different parts according to the situation dominating that time.
At the time of slavery and the peak of the emancipation talks religion was all about the Promised Land, not the Promised Land after death but the one concerning freedom and emancipation. After the emancipation and during the reconstruction the black churches who had by then become independent tried to provide their attendants with material assistance, and especially education. They considered education as a religious exercise because they desired to read the bible themselves. At that time the essence of religion was mostly experiencing the power of God’s grace within their hearts rather than observing rules and regulations. There were other groups who were after industrial education because they believed that they could only reach true emancipation through economic growth. During these times Christianity was the most popular religion among blacks they even went on to preach it in Africa. They also established their own independent churches. Among outstanding people of that time we can refer to Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois who had very different interpretations of progress in the black society which itself showed that blacks were never unanimous on this subject.
In the second phase of the black life we encounter blacks moving from their rural life to an urban one. Two main factors cause this movement; depressed rural economy and racial discrimination. But even when they moved north they faced a lot of conflicts with their white neighbors over competition for jobs and availability of housing and many other facts. Migration also increased the number of black religions and that was due to the fact that now they encountered many different religions in the city. Jewish congregations prevailed among them and believed that it had discovered the authentic identity of black people that had been taken from them by the experience of slavery. Islam also found lots of advocates among blacks. There were groups named after Islam which were totally different from the worldwide accepted Islam like the Moorish Science. There were other people like Wallace D. Ford, Elijah Mohammad, and Malcolm X who preached Islam as well but each in a very different language. Other religious movements such as the Holiness or Pentecostalism were among the most significant trends among African Americans.
At the time of the civil rights movement there were lots of oppositions from the government to religious preachers who attached civil rights to the black freedom issue. They feared these people because they had the ability to guide people in their desired ways especially by the growth of mass communication devices such as the radio or newspapers. They were the ones who mobilized the bus boycott and announced that the struggle for freedom in blacks was a moral and religious cause. Some of these people advocated nonviolence trying to translate the Christian love into social action, some others believed that Christianity was something very personal and had nothing to do with social issues. Malcolm X was a person who after going to Mecca saw the problems of the black in the United States as a part of the international struggle of Third World peoples for human rights. This period of black movements and religious beliefs was an important period in the meaning of democracy in the history of the U.S.
Over the years black churches have continued to play their role in social issues but they have adapted themselves to the needs of the people of their time. Also with the arrival of blacks from Cuba and Haiti new religions with strong African roots have been introduced to the African American society.

As observed religion plays a very important role in the black community. But their interest in different religion at different times during the course of the history should confirm the fact that religion has always been an asylum for people. At one time there was a need for people to believe in the grace of god who could and would free them from slavery therefore Christianity would become of great popularity at that time. At other times they felt a necessity to attach themselves to a great history and stand up strongly against others and at those times Judaism would serve as the solution. At other times they felt that they needed to regulate themselves and put aside all the racial issues and become more universal and then they would convert to Islam. But in the case of blacks there has always been the case of oppression by either the slaveholder, whites or the government, therefore they were to a large extend limited to what was presented to them unless they were people of great curiosity like Malcolm X and experienced new things.
The reaction of the government to these religious interests is of great significance. We see that as long as blacks look up to a leader whose greatest scope of concern is the black community the government has mere or no intervention. But as soon as the case turns into a civil rights case or gains a more universal perspective the government intervenes.

2008-12-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

Book Review
The War for America’s Natural Resources
BY: William R. Nester

This is a fine book by William R. Nester, first published in 1997 by Macmillan Press LTD. It consists of 256pages and includes four case-study chapters on “Farming, Grazing, and Hunting”, “ Forests, Parks, and Wilderness”, “Mines, Drills, and Energy”, and “ Dams, Irrigation, and Faucets” plus one additional chapter on “Natural Resources Policy into the Twenty-first Century” . The War for America’s Natural Resources analyzes the conflict between natural resources politics, policies, and philosophies. Each chapter and its consequent parts deeply discusses the development of policies towards America’s soil, air, forests, water and many other natural resources.
William R. Nester is a Professor in the Department of Government and Politics at St. John's University in New York. He received his PhD in political science at the University of California in 1987. He’s the author of many critically reviewed books and numerous articles mostly dealing with international relations, and American foreign industrial policies.
Considering the book chapter by chapter would lead to repetitious conclusions since the whole book as an entity tries to demonstrate the challenge between “cornucopians”, “environmentalists”, and “conservationists”. He believes that in the eyes of the first group who exploited the earth and its resources saw the natural resources of the earth as endless, unlike the other two groups they believed that the government was responsible for protecting them and their benefits. But the second group emerged as a consequence of the impact of transcendentalist philosophers of New England in the 1800’s who believed that god manifested in nature and for that reason it should be kept safe. This second group is the environmentalists who are not unanimous on whether nature has a spiritual aspect or not. They believed that an ideal society must satisfy its needs without destroying the future generation’s life. The third group emerged in the 1900’s. Other than being called conservationists they could simply be called materialists who love the forest for its lumber, the river for its water and …. Conservationists and environmentalist both believe that the government should intervene in preserving natural resources and prevent culprits from playing their own game and gaining their interests; failing to comply with sustained development.
He believes that these three group’s main purpose is to influence politics and policies concerning environmental policy wars. Therefore special interests overcome national interests. As evidence he brings up the four case-study chapters named above. He realizes that the ruling congressional committee, or subcommittees, the jurisdiction sect and the administrative part of the government all play a major role in adopting policies in favor of either group which of course would be the group in power.
Even though he himself nearly admits that other than this triangle there are other factors at work but he insists on making the role of these three groups and the interest groups adhered to them very bold. For example he refers to the fact that cornucopians failed to adopt their major agenda in the 104th congress when they were at maximum power, therefore there must have been other influential hidden aspects. Therefore this relationship is more complex than Nester puts. Other than this major shortcoming the author seems very subjective on some matters. In addition the book fails to offer further study to complete itself.
He brings up natural resource disputes in a way that political scientists can attribute to, and make use of. Therefore this book would mostly be suitable for a person trying to analyze the policies concerning environmental issues due to its great effort to provide legal details. It would also be suitable for students who are in a way involved in environmental policies because it thoroughly explains laws and policies revolving around environmental issues step by step and provides tangible examples in each case. But anyone reading this book should pay great attention to not get stuck in the three angle prison which Nester has sketched. In other words this book should not be considered the gospel of environmental issues and conflicts; it should only be looked upon as an alternative perspective.
In the first chapter where he talks about farming he refers to major problems facing depressed prices, soil erosion, and water shortages. Among the most harmful obstacles facing farmers in his view was President Reagan, by signing laws and acts like the grain embargo against the Soviet Union, the technology embargo, and his high dollar policy. But on the other hand he refers to President Clinton who revolutionized the farm policy by “signing into the law the Freedom to Farm Act, which replaced government subsidies with steadily declining transition payments over seven years”. (Pg 43)
He believes that the government policies concerning grazing faulted for setting fees well below market rates and allowing the ranchers to overgraze and thus destroy the grassland.
Unlike what is presumed the United States has a small number of regional fisheries; but even these few regions have caused the fish species to drop dramatically. Therefore he believes the government must intervene and save fishes in order to save the industry.
In the case of forests he brings up an example in which influential group’s severe attempt for veto. President Clinton signed the budget bill with a rider attached that allowed logging firms to clear-cut in fire or disease-ravished areas despite receiving 50,000 calls, letters and names on petitions. Therefore the fears of environmentalists were realized when logging corporations clear-cut little touched regions.
In the third chapter he discusses the 1872 law and Mining industry, energy policy, coal policy, petroleum policy, natural gas policy, nuclear policy, electricity policy, and alternative energy policies like fossil fuels and sun.
Since water is one of the most vital elements and Americans use it so severely as though it would never end. The government started to take part in water policies by the 1902 Reclamation Act, in which the influence of interest groups was observable in government resources. In this case it is very hard for national environmentalists and conservationists to overcome the special cornucopian interests.
The last paragraph of the book is the most outstanding one in the book which is bale to summarize the whole idea of Nester’s book; therefore it will be quoted directly: “What will the future bring? Conservationists and environmentalists alike were heartened by Bill Clinton’s re-election. Yet while most battles may tilt against cornucopians, a final victory will prove to be elusive. The war for America’s natural resources is never-ending.”
Hajar Amidian

Garry Sick’s interview

2008-11-28T23:29:00.000-08:00

Hajar Amidian

The dilemma which Iran and the United states have always been in has even widened after what president elect Obama announced as the precondition for Iran as the basis to talk. Iran’s halting of its uranium enrichment program would mean giving up on the side of Iran and victory on the side of the United States which would also mean all the resistance towards the “super power “had been a futile act. Gary Sick who served as the Iran officer in the National Security Councils for many administrations was interviewed on July 1, 2008 about issues on Iran. The following is an analysis of his interview.
Gary Sick takes a very conservative position in the interview in which he tries to look down upon Iran’s position as a negotiator and the fact that the Unites States is obliged to have an unwilling talk with Iran. He believes that Iran will not reject the plan out of hand mostly due to 1) domestic pressure and 2) argument against leadership for being too soft and not taking advantage of their position. What is implied in this categorization is that the people of Iran who according to him are mostly against the government will force it to negotiate with the U.S in order to open doors of relations. But the hardliners who are supportive of the government ask for even more toughness.
The only reason he mentions as a benefit on the side of the United States is the fact that this long thirteen year sanction has done them no good and was actually in favor of Iran who was able to progress slowly.
The interview than goes on to analyzing Benny Morris’s claim on attacking Iran in the near future. The confession made at his part of the interview and which can be seen between the lines of Garry Sick is an old cliché one: The United states the mere supporter of Israel. According to him Israel will not do anything against the will of the U.S. and he U.S has clearly clarified on its position in attacking Iran after Adm. Mike Muller chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s red light. In addition Israel will not be able to act on its own since Iran’s nuclear facilities are not centered in one area and there are even underground procedures going on. The consequences of a war against Iran would be tragic to the United States and Israel, because due to such a war
1) Iran would reveal its enrichment program
2) It would simply deny inspection over its facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency
3) People would become more affiliated with the government
4) Worldwide views towards the U.S would worsen
5) U.S would be recognized as conspiring with Israel
6) The world would retaliate against the U.S and Israel
The report goes on to discuss the rumors of a U.S interest section opening in Iran. Garry Sick believes it is not just a rumor since the State Department has not denied it and also since if there was to be a kind of relation started it had to be from the U.S side according to international law. The United States broke relations in 1980 with the takeover of the U.S embassy and the 444 day holding of American hostages therefore it would the responsibility of the United Sates to begin with an interest section which would be a step towards formal diplomatic relationships.
He believes that both sides are trying to look tough but none will walk away with no benefit and “each side wants to portray itself as being in a position of strength so it can get the maximum amount of bargaining leverage.” The interview ends with mentioning a very outstanding theory: Freeze for Freeze. This theory connotes the fact that there is no upper hand and lower hand in this relation and both sides are dependent on each other. But if the whole structure of the interview and the sequence in which the questions were being asked is looked upon one will realize that the United States is still utilizing the carrot and stick approach towards Iran. It starts with the “halt” of Iranian uranium enrichment than it goes on to the threat Israel could have then it calms down and starts talking about the interest section and by the end of the interview there’s no desire for a “halt” and it actually talks about a mutual beneficial relationship.
In my view the United States has never been able to start a totally new policy and it has always repeated the same policy over and over again, which to some point is inevitable in foreign relations for any country. As a result I believe both sides can benefit from each other despite the black memories they have made for each other over years of conflict.

Dead Man-Film Review

2008-11-25T03:50:00.000-08:00

Dead man
Dead man is a 1995 black and white western directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Johnny Depp as William Blake a young disciplined man seeking a job, and Garry Farmer as Nobody, a well educated Indian, Billy Bob Thornton, Robert Michum and many others. The outstanding soundtrack which plays a great role in conveying the whole essence of the movie is improvised by Neil Young.
The film is shown in black and white which makes one able to understand the dichotomy of life and death which prevails the whole movie. The monotonous three note music sounds so amazingly matched with the plot that one would miss half the story if there was no such sound track.
19th century west America has a lot to reveal in this movie. The movie starts with William Blake sitting in a neat suit in a train wagon, nodding off every now and then. Every time he wakes up he sees people retrogress in terms of their appearance and behavior. It seems as though there is a direct relationship between the people inside the train and the scenes outside. As they get closer to the end, the number of women decreases and men who mostly carry guns with them appear to dominate the wagon. Blake looks afraid and sees himself in a situation where there’s no hope to what’s going to happen outside and to the fellow travelers who throw unfriendly looks at him and his bizarre outfit. Almost to the end of the trip the fireman comes and warns him about where his going. William explains that he’s got a letter from Mr. Dickinson which offered him to be the accountant of the Dickinson Metal Works. Along their conversation the viewer gets to know that Blake has lost his parents and his girlfriend in Cleveland. They finally arrive at Machine which is the end of the line and according to the fire man: the hell.
The town seems very awkward and uncivilized; Blake is eyed by every one of the residents of the town. He manages to get to the Metal Works, where he finds out that his job has been given to another person two months ago. Desperate and tired he goes to a bar where he meets Thel, a flower maker. Thel is a young prostitute and offers to take Blake home; in the morning Thel’s fiancé, Charlie, who happens to be Mr. Dickinson’s son as well finds them together. He tries to shoot William but Thel throws herself in front of him and is killed, the bullet passes through her chest and plants in William’s. William angered and nervous shoots at Charlie three times and finally his third bullet hits he target. He dresses up and hurriedly jumps out of the window and runs away with a horse stamping on all the paper flowers made by Thel.
He fells unconscious and when he wakes up he sees an Indian delving into his chest and trying to get the bullet out. The Indian is named Nobody and from this point of the movie he accompanies William who he thinks is “William Blake” the poet. On the other hand Mr. Dickinson hires three professional murderers to find William and his horse which seems to be of greater importance to him.
On their way William is obliged to kill many others and gets severely wounded. Nobody takes him to a village and promises to get him a canoe which would take him to the spiritual world where all spirits come from and should go back to. In the final scene William is put into a decorated canoe and sent into the vast ocean. Noboby waves to him and is shot by the last murderer who killed the other two; he shoots back and they both fall dead.
The train of life takes William Blake to the purgatory where he could either stay amongst the sinners and go to hell or promote himself to a position where he can be sent to a better place. He seems to have passed everything including his parents, his girl friend and his fortune in his life and started this trip. The letter seems like a weak explanation for his trip; if it had been the true reason to his trip he should have head for Machine two months before. In the wagon he keeps looking at the squeaking light above his head; it seems as though he’s trying to find a source of light in that dark sinister world. The city is filled with the atmosphere of death with skeletons all over it; even the factory itself seems futile and dead. The only person in the city who was not to stay in that purgatory and by losing her life to save Blake’s proceeded to the next level was Thel. She made flowers from paper which were something not even seen once in that wilderness. When she dies a shooting star fades into the dark sky. She’s portrayed once again in the movie when William encounters a deerlet shot on the same place as Thel. William feels so attached to it that he mingles his blood with hers and makes a mark on his forehead.
The presence of ancient Greek elements in the movie are seen by the appearance of the fireman in the train as the muses. He forecasts what is going to happen to Blake and even portrays his death scene where he looks at the sky and it seems as though it’s the sky which is moving not him. The repetition of the word tobacco must have a connotation; in my view the film illustrated two usages of tobacco. First was by the white men who used it as an addiction, and second by Nobody and Thel. Thel wanted it to get ready for her trip but Nobody wanted it to prepare William for his trip.
In addition Nobody’s intentional misrecognition of “William Blake” and the fact that he takes away Blake’s eyeglasses and sells them all remind us of the attributions related to “William Blake “ the poet. William Blake was known as a visionary and a mystic; the same which happens to Blake, he sees trees as eyes watching him. It is also said that “William Blake” was not known until his death, in a scene towards the end of the film Nobody cries out a sentence which brings to mind the same concept. He says now everyone will know William Blake, and William Blake is going to be a legend.
The film successfully manages to portrait Indians and their rituals, and the diverse ways of life they tend to choose. And it was one of the rare movies in which a white director was so successful in looking at the reality and violence of the west at that time.
There are lots of other elements especially ritual and religious ones in the film. But in my view point which is similar to a group of other film reviewers Jim Jamusch did not intend to have a meaning behind all of these symbols.
I recommend this film to anyone who’s ready to watch a film not merely as an entertainment but as a portion of reality and philosophy.

2008-11-18T02:12:00.000-08:00

The World Obama Inherits: Iran’s Nuclear Challenge

Among the many international challenges facing a young Obama administration, Iran's defiant pursuit of nuclear capabilities will be one of the most difficult to resolve. Ahmadinejad sent Obama a congratulatory letter—the first such communication to an incoming American leader in the nearly 30 years since the strongly anti-U.S. Islamic revolution. But since then, Iranian hard-liners seem to be regrouping. They have charged that Obama differs little from President Bush on Iran. Indeed, some appear to be of a mind to put up obstacles to full-on negotiations with Obama's incoming diplomats, perhaps including hard-to-accept preconditions.

To put aside all the foul optimism we have to realize the fact that this is the same old United Sates but in new season, and seasons come and go. Iran should bear in mind that we have been at odds with the Unites states over major issues since the revolution and due to their depth none of them seem to have softened over the years.
How can we come to terms with the U.S. when we are considered as a thread to their national security, to their foster child Israel and a supporter of radical Islamic groups.
Therefore it is very true that Obama faces a great challenge over Iran's nuclear issue, snce he could continue the same trend taken by his predecessors or perhaps “make history” and start a seemingly new policy. But it is even truer that what our next president does will be a whole new start for Iran in both foreign and internal affairs.

Seeing Past the Slave to study the Person by Patricia Cohen

2008-10-25T02:00:00.001-07:00

This article mostly talks about Ms. Gordon as a writer and how she came to write this book. As she puts it herself she wanted to tell the story of this family in a way which was never done before. She believes that when it comes to blacks in America social history becomes so dominant that no one merely pays any attention to the biography and personality of individuals. Therefore, she tries to examine the lives of these slaves as real people and tries to go beyond cliché generalizations made about them throughout history.
She believes that these people all had strange lives, which would not be so understandable for us nowadays. Their relationships were so complicated that it would be a wild guess to say what an individual must have been feeling or thinking when committing an act like mixing with whites. To provide some examples for this intermingled and sophisticated web she gives the example of James Hemings who was actually a half brother to Martha, Jefferson’s wife. James’s father was John Wayles a slave owner and Jefferson’s father in law, therefore it would be really hard to understand how he felt when he realized that only if he were white he could have inherited Wayles’s fortune and not be ruled over by his half sister and Jefferson who was actually his brother in law!
One would also think of Sally as being desperately in love with Jefferson or simply a naïve person after she followed him from Paris where she was legally free to Virginia where she would be a slave again. Ms. Gordon tries to depict how a pregnant black teenager would feel staying behind in a place where she had no relatives and no protection, that’s why she agrees to return under the circumstance that her children would be freed. That “treaty” was actually realized and four of her seven children were freed and the other three passed as white.
Ms. Gordon was interested in Jefferson since childhood. She remembers reading a biography of him to her class but she says in that version the black slave was not as smart as Jefferson was. She continued her studies on Jefferson until she became a famous writer just as she had wished for with her revealing book.
There are some parts about her personal life in this article, which persuade one about why she tries so hard to prove some facts like Sally’s free will in having a relation with Jefferson. She went to a white school before schools were legally integrated. And as says herself she did face some problems but finally she was able to stand up and be what she had dreamed to be; that’s maybe why she’s throwing light on some dark parts of black slave life.
I don’t know why but in these last two posts I finally come to the conclusion that what we see on the surface is not what really happens in the depth of America. Are there any more instances of Sally still belittled and put in a dark shadow?!
Hajar Amidian

Race in Presidential Campaigns

2008-10-17T21:39:00.000-07:00

Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio are great obstacles standing in the way of Senator Obama who is a Democrat candidate which has been the choice of these people since 1964. This region is home to strong labor unions and Democratic political machines. Throughout America there are still people who say that Obama’s race and uncommon background make them uneasy but in these regions even the Democrats think the same.

To overcome this problem Obama supporters found no other way than directly talking to these people about the issue of race.

On the other hand there are some people like the president of the coal miners union who try to persuade voter on the fact that Obama might be black but he’s a friend to them and McCain who’s white is an enemy.

This problem has changed the presidential campaign in most southwestern parts of Virginia to race discussions.

There are lots of doubters in this region who cannot let go of their old skepticism and somehow come to terms with themselves not to vote at all not even for a Democrat who they voted for, for many years.

Some others challenge the notion that a believing Christian could base his voting decision on ethnicity issues, like religion or race. Obama is even accused of being a Muslim which his supporters try very hard to disapprove.

A newspaper columnist tries to bold his black origins by saying that he would color the white house black or even change the stars on the U.S. flag to star and a crescent which resemble Islamic symbols. So it seems as though he believes that the color of one’s skin can determine his inner color and be a sign of his evilness, since one has to be very un-American to change the white house which the representative of America to black , or in other words to color their whole history and all his precedents black.

The McCain campaign refuses to explicitly tackle with racial issues on behalf of the Republican party but they try to convince miners that Obama’s policies would do them no good.

So one comes to think that the American dream has still a long way to go to reach that desired utopia. After about 150 years after the first talks on black emancipation, the system is so rigid that many people simply claim that the only problem with Obama is that “he just doesn’t seem that he’s from America”!

Hajar Amidian

OUR FUTURE???

2008-10-10T22:39:00.002-07:00

Washington post ‘s head topic in its Business section was about the seven rich nations of the world gathering to coordinate a rescue plan on the financial crises, a crises which has spread from Wall Street to Hong Kong. They agreed on a five-point plan, issued after finance ministers met at the Treasury Department and all countries broadly endorsed the idea of taking ownership positions in banks which was a strategy Britain took first but was found effective and is now taken up by many others. But the nations were vague on how or when that will happen.
Even as I write this post stock market might face another major decline just as it did collapse for three straight days in the last hour of trading. On Friday, it merely swooned.
Donyaye Eghtesad reports, as for Iran many analysts during the first months of the year anticipated that the increase in the oil price is not genuine and is not the true demand of the market and there surely is something wrong down there. Among their reasons one could see the decrease of Dollar compared to Euro. The months ahead and the changes in the oil price and its collapse to 80 dollars confirmed their stand. Even now they believe we have to enter other variables into the oil problem including the economic crises which will push the oil prices down a very down going slope.
For the first time supply has overrode demand and this could be a nightmare for oil exporting countries like Iran. Therefore it wouldn’t be far to see ourselves sitting and thinking for a solution, that is if we believe there exists any such thing as an ECOMIC CRISES!
Hajar Amidian

from NO to YES

2008-10-03T23:29:00.000-07:00

Bailout Plan Wins Approval; Democrats Vow Tighter Rules

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

After the House vote, President Bush was greeted by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. outside the Treasury Department.

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: October 3, 2008

WASHINGTON — After the House reversed course and gave final approval to the $700 billion economic bailout package, President Bush quickly signed it into law on Friday, authorizing the Treasury to undertake what could become the most expensive government intervention in history.

But even as Mr. Bush declared that the measure would “help prevent the crisis on Wall Street from becoming a crisis in communities across our country,” Congressional Democrats said that it was only a first step and pledged to carry out a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system.

I would like to attract your attention to what an ordinary citizen of the United States thinks of this bill:

This is the economic version of that bill that Congress authorized to let Bush/Cheney to invade Iraq with dire consequences, This bill will have worse consequences for the ordinary citizens (middle class and poor) and US in the long-run. This Bill shares another similarity with that Bill: rushing through the congress using the fear-mongering and lies. This Bill is ill-conceived without any comprehensive analysis of the economic situation, without inputs from most experts, and certainly without inputs from the majority of taxpayers who are against it. This Bill mocks the democracy of US.

— tao, piscataway, nj

As I surfed through the web and tried to understand the reply of overall citizens to the voters of this bill I came to the conclusion that this comment could represent the idea of a large number of people.
This bill seems very unconstitutional to me; furthermore a quick review of the American history would illuminate the fact it also seems very "Unamerican"!

But let's think about the reason which made 58 representatives-33 Democrats and 25 Republicans- change their votes from a no to a yes over a week.

Mr. McCain said that lawmakers had acted “in the best interests of the nation,” while Mr. Obama warned that “a long and difficult road to recovery” might still lie ahead.

According to Mr.McCain and Mr.Obama's reaction to the Bailout if Mr.McCain should be elected as president, then the people of the United States should wait for more similar bills to pass!!!

$13 Billion in Iraq Aid Wasted Or Stolen, Ex-Investigator Says

2008-09-23T22:02:00.000-07:00

Salam Adhoob, former investigator for Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, at the Democratic Policy Committee hearing on waste and fraud in Iraq. (By Susan Walsh -- Associated Press)

$13 Billion in Iraq Aid Wasted Or Stolen, Ex-Investigator Says

By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 23, 2008; A19

A former Iraqi official estimated yesterday that more than $13 billion meant for reconstruction projects in Iraq was wasted or stolen through elaborate fraud schemes.

Salam Adhoob, a former chief investigator for Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, an arm of the Democratic caucus, that an Iraqi auditing bureau "could not properly account for" the money.

While many of the projects audited "were not needed -- and many were never built," he said, "this very real fact remains: Billions of American dollars that paid for these projects are now gone."

He said a report that went to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top Iraqi officials was never published because "nobody cares" about investigating such cases. Many investigators, he said, feared for their safety because 32 of his co-workers have been murdered.

Adhoob said he reported the abuses to the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an agency charged by Congress with helping to root out cases of waste, fraud and abuse in the nearly $50 billion U.S. reconstruction effort. SIGIR spokeswoman Kristine Belisle said her agency continues to "actively follow up" on Adhoob's information, but she would not discuss ongoing investigations.

Adhoob was one of three Iraqi men who testified before the Democratic panel yesterday. Abbas S. Mehdi, a former Iraqi official who held a cabinet-level post, told of widespread corruption. And an Iraqi American who for five years has been a senior adviser to Defense and State department officials in Iraq testified in silhouette by video from an undisclosed location because, he said, he feared for his safety. In a modified voice, he said Iraqi government officials worked with al-Qaeda terrorists at the Baiji refinery to steal oil to sell on the black market.

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), who chairs the committee, said that "taxpayers have been bled dry with massive misuse of public dollars."

"It is all pretty sobering," he added later. "Our country cannot continue to be blind or oblivious to what is happening."

Adhoob, who worked for three years at the Iraqi agency and oversaw 200 investigators and other employees, said he had a "firsthand, up-close look at corruption" and eventually had to flee the country because of death threats. He said his agency -- the Commission on Public Integrity, which U.S. government officials say is the equivalent of the FBI -- estimates that an additional $9 billion in U.S. funds was lost because of corruption and waste. Because the $13 billion figure came from the Iraqi auditing bureau and the $9 billion figure came from Adhoob's agency, Dorgan's staff members said there could be some overlap.

Adhoob's agency has been accused of pursuing investigations against political rivals.

In one scheme described by Adhoob, Iraqi Defense Ministry officials helped set up two front companies that were to buy airplanes, armored vehicles, guns and other equipment with $1.7 billion in U.S. funds. The companies were paid, but in some cases they delivered only "a small percentage" of the equipment that had been ordered and, in one case, delivered bulletproof vests that were defective and could not be used.

The companies also overcharged for military helicopters and tried to deliver aircraft that were more than 25 years old, he said. Instead of demanding the money back, Adhoob said, the Defense Ministry renegotiated with the companies for "a series of mobile toilets and kitchens -- which have never been delivered."

Adhoob said some of the investigations conducted by his agency and others uncovered "ghost projects" that never existed or instances in which Iraqi and U.S. contractors did poor-quality work. In one case, $24.4 million was spent on an electricity project in Nineveh province but an oversight agency found that it "existed only on paper."

Investigations by Iraqi oversight agencies also found that some of the money sent to the Defense Ministry was diverted to al-Qaeda in Iraq, Adhoob said, and deposited into banks in Jordan and elsewhere.

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.