Category: America

Boston Museum Returns Bust to Turkey

By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.

After two decades of negotiations, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has returned the broken-off bust of a famous statue of Herakles to Turkey, where it will be reunited with its lower half, the museum announced.

Turkey has long maintained that the top of this second-century A.D. statue, known as “Weary Herakles,” was stolen from an archaeological site in the Mediterranean and smuggled into the United States. The legs and lower body of the work are on display at the Antalya Museum in southwestern Turkey.

“The ‘Weary Herakles’ is a great work of art and we believe it should be back in Turkey where it can be made whole once again,” the director of the museum, Malcolm Rogers, said.

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told reporters that he carried the bust of the statue back on his plane on Sunday night after the Boston museum agreed to release it as “a goodwill gesture.”

The bust was handed over to Turkish cultural authorities late on Thursday after the museum signed an agreement with the Turkish government. Under the agreement, the Turks dropped claims that the museum engaged in wrongdoing when it obtained the statue from a German dealer in 1981.

It was not until 1990, when the bust was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that a scholar noticed that it seemed to be part of the same broken work on display in Turkey. The Turkish government claimed ownership and tests done in 1992 showed that the two pieces fit together.

Subsequent negotiations dragged on for years without a resolution, in part because the museum only owned a half-interest in the piece. In 2004, the museum acquired full ownership from the collectors Leon Levy and Shelby White, and restarted talks with the Turks.

The piece is a Roman statue in marble from the Hadrianic or Antonine period, and appears to be a copy of a famous bronze made in the third century B.C. by the Greek master Lysippos of Sikyon. It depicts Herakles leaning on his club in a fatigued pose.

via Boston Museum Returns Bust to Turkey – NYTimes.com.

September 28, 2011
AMERICAN TRAGEDY

GILAD ATZMON

Ynet’s Washington reporter, Yitzhak Ben – Horin, produced last night a clear and succinct reading of Obama’s recent UN General Assembly address:

“Likudnic in the White House.”

“Netanyahu could not have written it better.”

“Obama at this point, is in line with the Likud party.”

“Obama is a pro-Israel president …Since January 2009, he provided Israel with all its needs both in diplomacy and in terms of security”

Obama is not performing too well in the polls. He clearly needs the Jewish Lobby on his side. The American president ‘provided’ yesterday and the lobby was quick to react- “Israel has no better friend in the world today,” wrote the president of the National Council of Jewish Democrats, David Harris.

According to Ynet, hours before his UN General Assembly Address Obama sought to ensure that prospective Jewish voters pay close attention to his speech.

“Three of Obama’s aides held a conference call with the president’s Jewish supporters and community leaders. The advisers, all Jewish themselves, asked the supporters to “spread the word” that Obama will give a pro-Israel speech which reflects his own genuine positions and implored them to pay close attention to the president’s UN address.”

The three Jewish advisers “stressed that the Republicans intentionally distort Obama’s statements to portray him as an anti-Israel president, when in fact their arguments are baseless.”

If anyone was foolish enough to believe that America could ever be a broker for peace in the Middle East, the truth is now unavoidable. American political world is clearly hijacked by a foreign lobby that represents foreign interests. America cannot rescue itself. What we see in front of our eyes is basically a tragedy.

Greek tragedy depicts the downfall of a noble hero, usually through some combination of hubris, fate, and the will of the gods. The American tragedy contains the same elements. America has regarded itself as a ‘noble hero’ since its creation, ‘hubris’ is also far from being foreign to American culture. Americas’ fate has been written on the wall for more than a while. And what about the Gods, can you guess who the Gods are? I think that Obama and his party knew very well whom they were trying to appease last night. They know very well who their Gods are because they shamelessly mix with them at least once a year at AIPAC annual gathering.

However, Obama and his ‘advisers’ maybe mistaken here. Their ‘Gods’ are not stupid at all, they grasp what Obama is up to, Ben Horin wrote last night, they understand what ‘2nd term’ means in terms of Israeli politics. They remember, for instance, that during the election campaign in 2000, George Bush promised to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but once re-elected he was the man who pushed Sharon to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. They remember that the same George Bush was also the president who sided with Abu Mazen, and declared that negotiations with the Palestinians should be based on 49 armistice lines.

If Obama thinks that the ‘Gods’ are now beside him, he is deluded.

Obama made a grave personal mistake yesterday. But it is Americans, Israelis and Palestinians that will pay the price. What we see here is a classic tragedy, for America doesn’t posses the political power to save itself from itself.

The only question you may want to ask yourself at this stage is how long will it take for America to emancipate itself from its ‘Gods’.

www.gilad.co.uk, SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

September 26, 2011
Somali militants in key port ‘attacked by US drones’

US has been launching unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, in an escalating campaign against Islamist militants

The United States has launched a series of attacks by unmanned drones on the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab, local residents say.

At least three targets were hit around Kismayo, the southern port which is under the control of the militants.

One reconnaissance drone is reported to have crashed.

Meanwhile, there have been clashes between Somali government troops and the militants in the Gedo region, further north.

Residents of Kismayo say there were explosions around the city, with at least three targets being hit.

It is reported that al-Shabab are patrolling the streets, preventing locals from using the hospital, which is treating their wounded.

Kismayo is a key asset for the militants, allowing supplies to reach areas under their control and providing taxes for their operations.

In the Gedo region, there has been fighting around the town of Garbahare between al-Shabaab and government troops backed by local militia.

A local MP, Mahmood Sayid, told the BBC that 120,000 people had fled to the town to escape the famine, but that there was nothing to give them.

Deaths are being recorded every day, he said.

www.bbc.co.uk, 25 September 2011

September 26, 2011
Police crack down on ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests

Matt Wells

New York police accused of heavy-handed tactics as 80 anti-capitalist protesters on ‘Occupy Wall Street’ march are arrested

The Occupy Wall Street protests. Photograph: Tina Fineberg/AP

The anti-capitalist protests that have become something of a fixture in Lower Manhattan over the past week or so have taken on a distinctly ugly turn.

Police have been accused of heavy-handed tactics after making 80 arrests on Saturday when protesters marched uptown from their makeshift camp in a private park in the financial district.

Footage has emerged on YouTube showing stocky police officers coralling a group of young female protesters and then spraying them with mace, despite being surrounded and apparently posing threats of only the verbal kind.

YouTube footage of protesters being pepper-sprayed

NYPD officers strung orange netting across the streets to trap groups of protesters, a tactic described by some of them as “kettling” – a term more commonly used by critics of a similar tactic deployed by police in London to contain potentially violent demonstrations there.

The media here in New York has been accused of being slow off the mark to cover the demonstrations, which have been going on for more than a week.

Here are some links to our coverage over the past week.

• This is a gallery of photographs taken by John Stuttle last weekend.
• Karen McVeigh visited the camp in Zuccotti Park on Monday
• Later in the week, Paul Harris recorded video interviews with some of the protesters.

Now, however, the local media has paid more attention – almost certainly because Saturday’s protest became disruptive, bringing chaos to the busy Union Square area and forcing the closure of streets.

The New York Times quoted one protester, Kelly Brannon, 27, of Ridgewood, Queens:

They put up orange nets and tried to kettle us and we started running and they started tackling random people and handcuffing them. They were herding us like cattle.

The scenes are showing signs of attracting high-profile criticism. Anne-Marie Slaughter, who was director of policy planning, at the State Department from 2009 to 2011, said on Twitter: “Not the image or reality the US wants, at home or abroad,” linking to a picture of a police officer kneeling on a protester pinned to the ground.

Here’s an extract from a Reuters report, which said the demonstrators were protesting against “bank bailouts, the mortgage crisis and the US state of Georgia’s execution of Troy Davis”.

At Manhattan’s Union Square, police tried to corral the demonstrators using orange plastic netting. Some of the arrests were filmed and activists posted the videos online.

Police say the arrests were mostly for blocking traffic. Charges include disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. But one demonstrator was charged with assaulting a police officer. Police say the officer involved suffered a shoulder injury.

Protest spokesman Patrick Bruner criticized the police response as “exceedingly violent” and said the protesters sought to remain peaceful

And this is a fuller take from Associated Press.

The marchers carried signs spelling out their goals: “Tax the rich,” one placard said. “We Want Money for Healthcare not Corporate Welfare,” read another.

The demonstrators were mostly college-age people carrying American flags and signs with anti-corporate slogans. Some beat drums, blew horns and chanted slogans as uniformed officers surrounded and videotaped them.

“Occupy Wall Street,” they chanted, “all day, all week.”

Organizers fell short of that goal. With metal barricades and swarms of police officers in front of the New York Stock Exchange, the closest protesters could get was Liberty Street, about three blocks away.

The Vancouver-based activist media group Adbusters organized the weeklong event. Word spread via social media, yet the throngs of protesters some participants had hoped for failed to show up.

“I was kind of disappointed with the turnout,” said Itamar Lilienthal, 19, a New York University student and marcher.

Update: 11.30am ET Sunday

In the comments, there has been some debate about my description of the protesters as “anti-capitalist”. Some commenters say this description is inaccurate.

Here’s a typical comment, from kismequik:

The Occupy Wall Street protest isn’t anti-capitalist – it’s anti-unregulated capitalism.

And another, from NatalieNY:

I am disappointed to find you referring to this protest as anti-capitalist which has a negative and alienating connotation, and which is a dangerously false label.

This is about our broken system and taking our government back to a place of being about and for the people, not corporate interests.

Other commenters point out more media coverage today, including a front-page piece in the New York Daily News.

www.guardian.co.uk, 25 September 2011

September 26, 2011
Ry Cooder takes on the bankers

By Nicola Stanbridge

Today Programme

The guitarist Ry Cooder is most famous for his Buena Vista Social club recording, which he used to highlight his opposition to America’s trade embargo on Cuba.

In his new album he continues his political stance, claiming he will use his music to take on bankers and give voice to “ordinary working people”.

Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down completes the circle with the musician’s first albums, which covered songs by Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly that evoked the desperate times of The Great Depression.

The opening track on your album is a song about bankers. How do you see your role – venting spleen, recording events, or as a modern day protest singer?

All those things are good. I don’t look at it that way, though. I’m an older guy now and I’ve been making records for so darn long, I look upon it as the life that I have. As Albert Einstein used to say, you do the best you can with what you’ve got.

What have the bankers done to you?

This is déjà vu – what caused the great depression has caused it all over again. The banking laws that FDR put in place in the 1930s worked very well until it was all deregulated during Reagan’s time. So now, 40 years later, we have this problem that nobody can solve.

So what the Republicans were trying to do over this period, wasn’t just to deregulate banking so that you could have unlimited profits. What they wanted was a return to a period of “pristine capitalism” when there were no unions, and there was no labour movement and there were no protections for the working people and profits were maximised.

It was a wonderful time for the working elite. This is what they’re trying to recreate and, man, they’re succeeding.

So it’s not the bankers themselves – although, of course they’re driven mad by their greed for money. And I’m sorry for them because that’s a crappy kind of lifestyle to have. How many BMWs do you need? How many Rolex watches you gonna wear in your lifetime, for crying out loud? What is it about that kind of desire? I don’t understand it.

In another song you dream of sending in Jesse James to sort out Wall Street. And you say “my 44 will do the talking”. I didn’t think violence and inciting hatred were allowed in America…

Well, see, the point here is that Jesse James was a primitive white man from the 19th Century. And in those days the hero was a one-man, one-gun hero. It’s a very popular American myth.

But what Jesse doesn’t realise [in the song] is that while he’s been up in heaven, the forces massed against him… He can’t overcome the growth of the corporate, military-industrial equation. He can’t walk down Wall Street and shoot up the place. No-one would even pay attention to him. The hero is outnumbered and outgunned. The wagons are circling, but what’s he going to do? What’s anyone going to do?

Do you own a gun?

No! No guns please!

My neighbour does, though. He told me so. He says to me, “my guns are in a bomb-proof safe”. I said, “what are you preparing for?”. He said, “when the zombies come.” That was the end of that conversation.

Tell us the story of Quicksand

Well, in the Sonoran desert, right around the US-Mexican border, the temperatures get up around 140F (60C) . You can’t live in that kind of heat, but there’s a trail leading from the Mexican side through Arizona. It’s called the Devil’s Highway and it’s been a migrant trail for 200 years.

People go out there and try to do it on foot, but if you make one mistake and go five minutes out of your way, you become disorientated and dehydrated. And they find these mummified bodies out there. The heat has just baked them through. And the people who live through it often refer to having a vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe flying overhead. This is a very common vision when the dehydration sets in.

So in the song the person says, “I see in my mind my mother, at home. And now I’m seeing the Virgin – take a message back to my home.”

What’s your take on immigration to the US?

It’s been a political issue in California for hundreds of years. We’ve had migrant workers here for almost 300 years – Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Mexican, Italian… my own grandfather.

Would you say the economy is dependent on immigrants?

Oh, totally. But in political times, you will have the forces of repression wanting to say, “hey, they’re taking your jobs, send them back”. We had a Chinese expulsion, Japanese expulsion. Woody Guthrie wrote a great song about deportation.

They’re playing political games, but a terrible price is being paid by people.

It’s often the case, though, that immigrants are forced to take the tougher jobs…

Sure, immigrants will do work that no-one else will do. There was even a movie about it – A Day Without Mexicans. In Los Angeles everything would come to a screeching halt.

You seem to favour stories about unlikely heroes – Harry Dean Stanton was one in Paris, Texas. Can we see thematic links in your work through time?

I suppose you can. I always say I’ve got three ideas and I keep recycling them.

What are the three ideas?

I forget what the other two are – but the bottleneck guitar was a nice thing I was introduced to. Records were my first teachers, and then people showed me how. I asked [pioneering steel guitarist] John Fahey, “what is that sound?” and he said, “well, you get a bottle, you put it on your little finger and you play”.

I had a lot of luck in meeting great musicians who were kind enough to show me things. Otherwise, I don’t know what I’d be doing today. Probably sacking groceries. I wanted to be a car pinstriper but there was nobody to teach me how to do it. So I said, “music’s good too. I’ll do that maybe, since I can’t work out how to do this pinstriping”.

Do you ever find yourself trying to recapture the public acceptance you had for Buena Vista Social Club?

Well, those master musicians of Cuba were a revelation to many people. To the non-Latin people who bought that record in great numbers, this was a door opened. This music, the sound of Cuba coming through the voices and the artistry of these older masters.

They had a “pre-media mind”. Before radio, before television, minds were formed by other kinds of human association and music. That can never be recaptured. So that album is one of those “adios” experiences. Wave goodbye, it’s the last remnant of this sound. The record was successful for that reason.

www.bbc.co.uk, 24 September 2011

September 25, 2011
Tiny Nation of Monaco Asks for Help as U.S. Billionaires Pack Hotels, Seeking Refugee Status

By Gregory Luce

Monaco, known for its expensive hotels and high-stakes luxury casinos, has requested international help to stem the tide of U.S. billionaires fleeing class warfare in the United States, sources close to Monaco’s ruling monarchy confirmed late this afternoon.

According to a spokesperson for the government of Prince Albert II, approximately 100 wealthy Americans have sought refugee status in Monaco as a result of a proposed U.S. policy to tax the ultra-rich at a rate comparable to middle class Americans. The move has prompted some Republican candidates to declare class warfare, leading to billionaires fleeing the country in fear.

In Monaco, officials pleaded with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to do something about conditions in the tiny kingdom. “Conditions in the country are definitely worsening,” said one government official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. “Our hotels are nearly full, and we are receiving demands for in-room Baccarat and 56-inch plasma televisions that we simply cannot accommodate. It’s dire.”

In related news, New Mexico’s governor has asked federal officials for help in dealing with an influx of poor families from Texas who are said to be fleeing a decade-long “economic bombardment” by Texas officials, who are said to be intent on denying any signs of poverty other than fast food signs. New Mexico officials said they are not prepared to handle the influx other than to continue the same policies as other Republican governors in more populous neighboring states.

www.freewoodpost.com, September 20, 2011

September 24, 2011