WhirledView

The demise of Amerika Haus Berlin: who needs cultural centers and libraries anyway?

By PHK

Shortly after I returned from a three week trip to Greece and Turkey a couple of days ago, I learned that the U.S. government had closed its next to last Amerika Haus in Germany – the flagship Amerika Haus Berlin. The fate and location of a smaller one in the west that still remains is, I'm told, up in the air.

I guess this is par for the course: I mean why should this administration want to support such a relic from the past? Why should it keep a dinosaur open in which free discussion, exchanges of ideas, performances, concerts, student advising, a library of books and periodicals about the U.S. formed the institution’s core values and primary services accessible by everyone throughout the Cold War and beyond? After all, U.S. security concerns, police and an iron fence had kept most people out of the building at least since 9/11 – just as the Berlin Wall had kept East Germans from tasting the freedom and opulence of the capitalist West until a decade earlier. Who needs foreign cultural centers and libraries anyway particularly if they are turned into user unfriendly white elephants.

Keeping the lid on the free exchange of ideas

It then occurred to me that the last thing the Bush administration wants is an honest exchange of ideas whether between Germans and Americans or among Americans themselves. It’s far safer to keep the lid on political debate – to anesthetize Americans through the steady diet of cheerful pronouncements about the future of democracy in Iraq and cheap partisan scare tactics about the wrath of Al Qaeda all brought to us courtesy of Fox, CNN and other U.S. media outlets that foremost regurgitate the “war on terror” party-line in order to retain access to the White House’s daily spin.

What far too many Americans don’t understand is the degree to which the administration has been able to insulate us from the rest of the world. Conversely, they also don’t realize the degree to which the American media machine plays little - if any role in shaping international opinion. You might not see this as important, but without seeing the world through the eyes of W's daily spin that reverberates through Fox and CNN echo chambers, the rest of the world perceives a very different America and U.S. foreign policies. Foreign journalists from a variety of political stripes look at international events differently from what we are subjected to 24/7 in the good old US of A.

Uncle Sam's voice gone missing?

I was on vacation in Greece and Turkey for the past three weeks – and yes, I did take lots of photos – I will post a few as appropriate in the future. But what else did I come away with? First, cell phones and satellite television are ubiquitous in both countries. Although I was out of television reach for good parts of the trip, I discovered that the strong television signals along Turkey’s south coast came from Russia, France, Iran, Israel and the Arab world - especially Al Jazeera - as well as a new fast-paced English language channel from Beijing.

Near the southern Turkish port city of Antalya, Uncle Sam’s signal was not just weak, it had gone missing, although perhaps a couple more satellite dishes aimed in other directions might have brought it in loud and clear. At our hotel in Istanbul in the Sultanamet district close to Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque, CNN International was far more - well international - than its weak sister here in the U.S. BBC Europe, however, didn’t appear to differ substantially from the BBC news we get in Albuquerque through our local PBS affiliate.

I’m not at all sure, however, that even if the US media or the W administration had chosen to broadcast via television to the peoples of either of these two countries in which anti-American sentiment worsened last year, Greek and Turkish public attitudes towards the US would have turned more positive. Why? Because 1) US policies and their execution do not reflect Greek or Turkish national interests or their views of their near neighbors in the Middle East; and 2) television broadcasts – particularly in Turkey, but it wouldn't hurt in Greece either - should be carried in the national language to reach the largest number of people and go beyond the well educated, multilingual elite. The administration tried to cancel VOA radio broadcasts in Greek and Turkish this summer, but Congress came to their rescue. But from what I saw, even southern Turkey's poor have satellite television dishes in their yards, on their roofs or protruding from balcony railings - a phenomenon that suggests to me that radio is no longer enough.

What I learned – or actually had substantiated once again – was that anti-Americanism abroad directly relates to dislike for our president and his controversial policies particularly those tied to Iraq and Israel. Even Karen Hughes would be unlikely to dispute this observation – although she would add sex and violence in American movies and television and, of course, refrain from placing the blame on W - where it squarely belongs - for implimenting some of America's stupidist foreign policies ever.

Friday Hope Blogging

by CKR

I’ll first note that the title is Phila’s trademark, and I’m stealing it for today only.

But this morning, as I perused the newspapers, it seemed to me that some tiny realization may be emerging that those lovely clothes of the War President are looking a bit skimpy. I can only hope that we’re approaching a point where we can do something about it.

The House Government Reform Committee issued a report that Jack Abramoff, the now-jailed lobbyist, billed his clients for more than 400 contacts with White House officials. There is some wiggle room: Abramoff was not the most honest of people, and he may have overbilled. But I remind you that this is a committee of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

It looks like Bob Woodward has tired of the warm laps of power and is baring his teeth at his former masters. The New York Times and CBS News scooped the Washington Post on Woodward’s new book, State of Denial. The Washington Post has scurried to catch up by publishing what appear to be excerpts of the excerpts they planned to begin running this weekend.

Those articles say what we’ve all suspected: that things are terrible in Iraq, and that intelligent people have to have had reservations and maybe even conniptions about how things have been handled in Iraq. It’s just that this administration has managed to keep that more secret than others have. Could this be the real reason they needed that legislation absolving them of war crimes in using torture? What kinds of “exercise machines” will the next president find in the basement of the White House?

And, naughty, naughty, Bobby Woodward and publisher! Planning to release such an October surprise! Maybe Rove and company can find a way to spin that to get some sympathy.

Kazakhstan Comes to America

by CKR

The president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is in the United States to talk with President Bush. Or at least I think so. Our US-centric media are reporting the visit via, for example, Vice President Cheney’s visit to Kazakhstan last spring.

I must declare some mixed feelings about this visitor from Kazakhstan and another one. I have felt that if I had visited Kazakhstan before I visited Estonia, I might have fallen love the other way around. Kazakhstan is a beautiful country, and I have had the privilege of working with some wonderful people there, generous and kind, capable and ingenious.

Kazakhstan was settled by the Russians much as western America was settled by Europeans. The people who lived there were nomads, moving with their herds. They were not so badly treated as the North American aborigines, but their way of life was severely modified by the invading Europeans. The population today is a bit more than half Kazakh, and a bit less than half European. Some Kazakhs remain in touch with their past, spending part of the summer in encampments. Political organization within Kazakhstan also reflects the three main hordes (that’s where that word comes from). While there, I learned that it is possible to think of Genghis Khan as one of the fathers of one’s nation.

Bait and Switch May Only Bring Us Torture “Lite”

By PLS

What are government prosecutors saying about “lite” cigarettes? They’re as deadly—and sometimes deadlier—than regular cigarettes. And the cigarette companies knew it. But the companies hung tough, lied through their teeth and continued to make huge profits. The Bush II administration operates a little like this.

Bush II (like Bush I) is widely considered to be rather too cozy with business. What’s been less noted is that the White House employs a gamut of shady business practices to push and defend its equivocal policies in the national security arena. Mostly this White House prefers to operate in the dark, but here are some of the tricks called into action when the Bushies were forced to debate the use of torture in public: bait and switch; fine print, weasel words and crazy syntax; eligibility dodges; insulating wrongdoers from liability. This is bad news for any one caught in the terrorist net—and for all of us, if we don’t avert the legal precedents this administration is attempting to set.

And the funny thing is: the State Department is still issuing Human Rights Reports in which it holds to public shame governments that abuse their citizens. So let’s see some of the bad business practices that a Human Rights Report on America might have to contain.

The Old Bait and Switcheroo

Here’s how it works: you advertise something terrific, but you find some absurd excuse for actually providing something inferior and probably more expensive, at that. The bait and switch tactic is considered a consumer crime in many states, a form of deception, a scam practiced by scum.

Bait and switch is what’s happened with the debate over how to deal with detainees in the so-called war on terror. Remember how the three Republican senators I mistakenly (my face is red) called the Terrific Trio were depicted in the press as law-loving heroes going forth to challenge (at last) a truculent president? They were praised as staunch defenders of what many of us had believed to be irreversible achievements of Western civilization: the rule of law, fair and open trials, no-exceptions human rights enforcement, etc.

Tuesday Wildflower Blogging

by CKR

Some more flowers from last week's expedition to Frenchy's Field.

Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa)

Orange Globemallow (Sphaeralcea coccinea?)

And a couple of mystery flowers:

News (Sort of) of the FBI Anthrax Investigation

by CKR

The Washington Post is running this story at the top of its electronic page today. I guess it's news.

The anthrax attacks took place just after 9/11, it's almost hard to recall now, with the great differential in coverage.

What was initially described as a near-military-grade biological weapon was ultimately found to have had a more ordinary pedigree, containing no additives and no signs of special processing to make the anthrax bacteria more deadly, law enforcement officials confirmed. In addition, the strain of anthrax used in the attacks has turned out to be more common than was initially believed, the officials said.

I thought that the newspapers were getting away from anonymous sources, but the words I've italicized are the first mention in this story (third paragraph) of a source.

Let's, just for the fun of it, list the rest of the sources quoted in the story.

What We Can't Afford - Part 2

by CKR

A few months back, I wrote a post called "What We Can't Afford." I collected links over a few weeks.

We're getting close to tax-cut-promise time again, and this last week the can't-afford stories seem to be jumping out at me again, so here's part 2, although I haven't done as much preparatory work as for that last post.

We can't afford to pay for college for our kids, so we're making them pay for it. An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education says that some graduate with as much as $60,000 debt. There was a cluster of articles on college affordability, and one noted that some students are being priced out of the market. I'm not linking to The Chronicle, because too much of it is subscription only, and I've forgotten my password. Here's a story on Ohio's problems, but they are accompanied by 49 other states. Here's a broader article from Minnesota.

Of course, we can't afford reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq, but we don't do nation-building anyway. But it looks like Turkey is supporting a UN role for reconstructing Iraq. Of course, we can take care of that if our lame-duck UN rep John Bolton gets some sort of magical reinstatement in his position. And there's the private sector, now looking to Arab investment. China says it will help in Afghanistan.

Oh, and in case you're still eating spinach, you might want to check out the Institute of Medicine's report on FDA drug oversight. That probably extends to food oversight as well. Seems that the FDA doesn't have enough money to do either very well.

But the icing on the cake, the pièce de résistance, is here.

Sunday Morning Reading for George Bush

by CKR

Two good articles in the Washington Post this morning:

Edwige Danticat

When seemingly noble ideals -- after all, what can be nobler than wanting to save lives? -- lead us to torture, the path to the torture chamber can find its way to our front door...

Ariel Dorfman

It is a story that our species has listened to with mounting revulsion, a horror that has led almost every nation to sign treaties over the past decades declaring these abominations as crimes against humanity, transgressions interdicted all across the earth. That is the wisdom, national and international, that has taken us thousands of years of tribulation and shame to achieve. That is the wisdom we are being asked to throw away when we formulate the question -- Does torture work? -- when we allow ourselves to ask whether we can afford to outlaw torture if we want to defeat terrorism.

And a couple more for later in your day:

Vladimir Bukovsky

So, why would democratically elected leaders of the United States ever want to legalize what a succession of Russian monarchs strove to abolish? Why run the risk of unleashing a fury that even Stalin had problems controlling? Why would anyone try to "improve intelligence-gathering capability" by destroying what was left of it? Frustration? Ineptitude? Ignorance?

Why Retired Military Brass Don't Want Torture

"None of us feels comfortable speaking out publicly," said retired Rear Adm. John D. Hutson, who served as the Navy's judge advocate general from 1997 to 2000 and presided over the JAG corps' 1,600 members. "That's not the nature of what military officers do…. [But we] care very, very much about the country and the military — and that's why [we] are speaking out."