i'm feeling better. i'm not sure if it's because of my health or just the excitement of getting to see gloria steinem on democracy now today. i'm sure she's been on the show before. but, confession here, i really didn't know about democracy now until the common ills. elaine and c.i. would talk it up and i'd here what was on it and i'm pretty sure c.i. sent me the headlines a couple of times (and i read them if they were sent!) but i never really sat down to watch.
then c.i. starts the common ills (which as every reader here knows i didn't start reading until elaine, who'd been on my ass to read it, tells me at thanksgiving, 'you do know c.i. is doing this site, right?' no, i didn't. but i did get on that day and read it.) and as any common ills community member knows, monday through friday you're going to hear what democracy now is offering. that's five entries a week. and you can add in links to democracy now in other stories. so you hear a lot about democracy now at the common ills and start to realize how much it has to offer. and i was 1 of those people who hated what passed for news so i was prime for some real news anyway. then elaine tells me i can watch it on my tv since i have a dish.
now i'm hooked and never miss it.
i got out of bed this morning and tip-toed over to the kitchen slowly. i started the coffee, caught my reflection in the toaster and said, 'good god, take a shower!' which i did and that made me feel a lot better. then i came back in, grabbed a cup of coffee, walked out to the porch to grab the paper, came back in to the living room and sat down to watch democracy now.
i couldn't believe it when i heard gloria steinem. she's been a hero of mine my entire life. i don't think i can remember a time when i didn't know of gloria steinem. my mother subscribed to ms. so that was always around the house. there are women who can cite betty friedan as a turning point for them and i'm sure she was 1 but for me it was gloria steinem. my mother would comment on her and i'd read stuff by her and she always seemed to be willing to stick her neck out for a cause that was just and needed a voice.
today she was on democracy now discussing the late feminist andrea dworkin and speaking out for the san bushmen. from the last one, here's an excerpt:
JUAN GONZALEZ: We're joined also by Gloria Steinem, who has a long history of involvement in progressive causes. What drew you to this issue, and why did you get involved?
GLORIA STEINEM: It was a long journey, actually, of about 12 years that ended up with me in my neighborhood picketing because it took my belated understanding that the -- that our own indigenous cultures were in many ways the source of the suffragist movement, the vision of a egalitarian, communitarian society. The understanding of what we are robbed of worldwide when these cultures are exterminated began here, took me on a journey to Botswana, into the Kalahari with Rebecca Adamson, a Cherokee leader in this country, who was asked to consult on indigenous land rights.
These are cultures of enormous sophistication and importance to everyone in the world. And they are being exterminated. This is, in fact, cultural genocide, as these scholars of cultural genocide have documented in a case that's being brought before the International Criminal Court.
If Botswana -- if De Beers is a good citizen of Botswana, they would certainly call for the enforcement of the law. Not only do they have the right of 50,000 years of continuous inhabitants, but also in the Botswana constitution, it makes very clear that this is their land. Now, on top of that, what makes this especially surrealistic, is that if they got their land back, they do not object to De Beers having access to the mineral rights. They're not claiming the mineral rights. So, this, you know, is not just about diamonds, it is about a profound, deep racism, a leftover colonial way of thinking, a drastic undervaluing of one of the most valuable cultures in this world. But it's very, very clear, that this is their land, and they must be returned to their land.
and this:
AMY GOODMAN: Gloria Steinem, are you calling for people not to buy De Beers diamonds in this country. I mean, we started with Lindsay Lohan, who went down the red carpet last night, and she said Marilyn Monroe was always her idol, and diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
GLORIA STEINEM: It's wonderful that you started with that song actually, because I think that the diamond industry may have been responsible for the movie. They were the pioneers of product placement, since colored stones were coveted in this country, not diamonds at all. And they created a false market by putting them free into movies. There's a wonderful book by Ed Epstein about exactly the creation of this market.
AMY GOODMAN: And you wrote a book about Marilyn Monroe.
GLORIA STEINEM: Yes, yes, and it’s one tragedy layered upon another tragedy, I fear. And it's time to end it and to realize that the San Ncoakhoe, the so-called Bush people, are in fact the real diamonds here. They are the precious culture. They are what we need in this world. They have such knowledge of pharmacology, of healing, of conflict resolution techniques, of how to live, of how to raise children, of how to -- these are the things that are now being painfully reconstructed in this country after the annihilation of our own first peoples and trying to rebuild this. This is present there. It is continuous still. It is now in its most fragile state. And De Beers and all of us have a enlightened self-interest, a long term self-interest in standing up and saying these cultures must not be annihilated. We need them.
now let me note betty who's not only a great blogger but also a friend and posted yesterday this hilarious piece where she's responding to thomas friedman's latest column:
If Thomas Friedman had even one original thought, he might be dangerous and inspire heirs who would wish to carry on his "legacy" but instead he repeatedly mines the cannon of pop culture to dress up failed policies that have resulted in strife and despair in the third world.
One thing for sure, there's some severly sad about a man his age working the likes of Britney Spears into his columns and if he can't grasp that he just needs to picture the joke Bob Dole has turned himself into.
But instead of grasping reality, Thomas Friedman seems to think he has all the creativity of Ava and C.I. penning one of their hilarious TV reviews. Somebody break it to him, his e-train ticket got punched long, long ago.
Thomas Friedman seems to be "musing" as if his past columns were a monument not of failed predictions and philosophies, which they are, but instead of the visionary work one expects from great thinkers or even Joey Heatherton.
It's been so beyond, "I'm playing the lobby and might make the main room" in Vegas for so long now that even Tina Turner's fabled comeback in the eighties offers no hope that Thomas Friedman can latch on to to carry him through this "If he sings 'Midnight at the Oasis' one more time, I'm asking the management to comp my drinks!" period.
With newspaper circulation dropping like a bad can of Raviolios, and the biggest beneficiaries being the Greenspan Wrecking Crew Thomas Friedman hitched his jet ski to decades ago,it is blindingly obvious that Thomas Friedman can't even phone it in these days.
As a columnist, he has utterly failed.
i love betty!
and i love my mikey! mike is a voice you're going to want to follow. yesterday he shared stories people e-mailed him about military recruiters and also found time to answer a question for a reader about why guys are always 'adjusting' their packages. plenty of information in that post!
keep keeping it real, mike.
and if i didn't mention this yesterday, c.i.'s highlighting dahr jamail's latest report and you should read the report. from c.i.'s entry yesterday:
Dahr Jamail's "Iraqi Hospitals Ailing Under Occupation" is a report you should be aware of.
There are nine sections, it's 37 pages (pdf format) and page five tells you what you probably already feared. Surveying thirteen hospitals "in order to research how the healthcare system was faring under the US-led occupation:"
This report documents the desperate supply shortages facing hospitals, the disastorous effect that the lack of basic services like water and electricity have on hospitals and the disruption of medical services in Iraqi hospitals by US military forces.
This report further provides an overview of the situation afflicting the hospitals in Iraq in order to highlight the desperate need for the promised "rehabilitation" of the medical system. Case studies highlight several of the findings and demonstrate that Iraqis need to reconstruct and rehabilitate the healthcare system. Reconstruction efforts by US firms have patently failed, while Iraqi contractors are not allowed to do the work.
The current model in Iraq of a "free trade globalized system," limited in fact to American and a few other western contractors, has plainly not worked. Continuing to impose this flawed and failing system on Iraq will only worsen the current healthcare crisis.
Before the next Operation Happy Talk gets started (I realize that in one form or another, Operation Happy Talk is always ongoing), you should familarize yourself with Jamail's report. It notes what is needed from program changes to basic equipment. Though you won't be surprised to learn of our "broken promises" (can the Bully Boy make any other kind?), you may not be aware of how bad things are and how many promises we've broken (or how much tax payer money has been wasted) until you read the report.
