text:
Jason Churchill of Prospect Insider and ESPN tweeted the news on New Year's Eve.
"Hearing Mariners have progressed in trade talks for a hitter. Indications it's Ethier. Multiple players involved."That sent Dodger and Mariner fans into a tizzy on Twitter. Mike Petriello confirmed Churchill's tweet shortly after. He also added some of his thoughts via Twitter. He also did a post this morning about it that is must-read material.
"Here's the thing about Ethier talks, though: it's not going to be for Seager. If it happens, it'll be for SP prospects & maybe BRyan...If it was Jason Bourne, I'd like the potential move a little more. Alas, the Bourn the Dodgers have their eye on is Michael Bourn.
...and then Dodgers would fill OF hole with Bourne. But this isn't really new, has been the case for a while. And not tonight. (Hopefully).
Just because it's hitting Twitter now doesn't necessarily mean it's 'breaking,' is all I mean."
Churchill said there could be as many as seven players involved and that the Dodgers would be looking at pitching prospects, an outfielder and another player.
When I wrote about a trade with the Mariners nearly a couple weeks ago, I came up with this proposal:
To Seattle: Ethier, Dee Gordon, cash (to offset some of Ethier's money)I obviously blew it on this one. Most folks were up in arms about the inclusion of Seager, who is apparently a lot more valuable than I thought.
To L.A.: Kyle Seager, Nick Franklin, Franklin Gutierrez, Brandon Maurer
The Dodgers and Mariners have the potential to make quite a significant deal here. The Mariners are known to have interest in Gordon and one of the Dodger starters on the market -- Chris Capuano or Aaron Harang. The Dodgers would also have to throw in a significant amount of cash to get quality players in return.
I'm not going to do another proposal, but I'm going to throw out some players the Dodgers would be interested in. You'll notice this list doesn't include Felix Hernandez, Taijuan Walker and Mike Zunino. It isn't because the Dodgers don't have interest in him, it's because the M's aren't going to include those guys (especially Hernandez and Zunino) in a deal for Ethier.
Dustin Ackley
Carter Capps
Nick Franklin
Charlie Furbush
Franklin Gutierrez
Danny Hultzen
Brandon Maurer
James Paxton
Stefen Romero
Brendan Ryan
Casper Wells
I'm only including Ackley because the deal could be more than just Ethier going to Seattle. I don't think Mariners are going to move him, but he'd be the No. 1 prize of any trade.
If the Dodgers can't get Ackley (and they probably can't), getting guys like Hultzen and Franklin to headline a deal would be amazing.
The Mariners would have a glut of outfielders if they acquired Ethier, so moving Gutierrez or Wells in a deal like this would make sense.
A guy who could be a target is Romero, 24, who had a fantastic season between High-A and Double-A. His on-base skills need work (27 walks in 516 plate appearances in 2012), but he can put the bat on the ball (.352 average).
While Luis Cruz is a fine backup shortstop, he can't be counted on to backup Hanley Ramirez while he's manning third base. Perhaps that's the reason for Ryan's name being bandied about. The guy is a great defender, but he can't hit a lick (.194/.277/.278 in '12).
Silverwidow, a True Blue L.A. commenter, made an excellent point that I haven't seen made anywhere else yet.
"One thing that just dawned on me – the Dodgers hired a shitload of scouts from Seattle this winter. It's fair to conclude that some or all of them will have knowledge of that system. Makes sense. Now, get Paxton!"That is accurate and makes a potential deal a little more plausible.
There are a lot of potential moving parts in a possible deal -- which isn't especially close (having said that, it'll happen on Wednesday or Thursday).
Oh yeah, there's the matter of who would replace Ethier if he were traded. Apparently, the Dodgers see Bourn as that guy.
Bourn, 30, is coming off a nice campaign with the Braves. He hit .274/.348/.391 with a career-high nine home runs, 42 stolen bases and a 10 percent walk rate.
The Dodgers lack a "true" leadoff hitter. We all know Don Mattingly loves having speed atop the lineup. Carl Crawford is going to hit second (as long as he's productive) and having Bourn hit ahead of him would make Donnie Baseball the happiest cat around.
Bourn's value lies more in his defense than anything. He is the definition of an elite defender in center field -- so much so that he'd move Matt Kemp off the position. Kemp is a below-average defender in center, but his arm is great. However, moving Kemp to right field would improve the outfield defense a lot.
He had a career-high 6.4 WAR in 2012 and has been no worse than a 4-WAR player since 2009.
Eno Sarris of FanGraphs wrote a piece about Bourn and his unsigned status.
"Why isn't there more interest in Michael Bourn? A six-win center fielder is on the market, and our most recent article on the subject is whether or not his agent has waited too long to get him a deal. We don't know what his asking price is, but the idea that a player coming off a career year and four straight seasons with more than four wins now needs a pillow contract seems to suggest that either there's a reason to doubt Bourn's work, or there's a lack of demand for his services in the market place.Bourn will likely command a multi-year deal worth many millions. His agent is Scott Boras, who's no stranger to getting his clients great deals late in the winter. The Dodgers could be on the hook for a 3 to 5-year deal worth in the neighborhood of $12-$15 million annually.
There really aren't many indications that Bourn's 2012 was a luck-driven affair. His batting average on balls in play was .349. His career BABIP is .343. His batting average was .274. His career batting average is .272. He put up the best UZR/150 of his career at +22.5. His career UZR/150 is +10.5, and he had a +20.6 season as recently as 2010. He walked (10%, career 8.8%) and struck out (22%, career 20.2%) at about his career rates, too. Doesn't seem like a fluke."
Signing Bourn would also mean losing the No. 19 pick in the MLB Draft. At first, this was a huge turnoff to me. While I still wouldn't be 100 percent on board with it, getting some legitimate prospects back from the Mariners would help to offset the loss of the pick.
The 2013 draft class isn't expected to be strong, making the pick more valuable in my eyes. The Dodgers wouldn't pick until the second round, which would hamper their ability to land a future major leaguer. That's something to consider.
Something that also concerns me about Bourn is his strikeouts. For being a guy who's a speedy, slappy leadoff guy, he strikes out an awful lot.
- 2008: 21.6 percent
- 2009: 20.6 percent
- 2010: 18 percent
- 2011: 19.4 percent
- 2012: 22 percent
Here's a look at the potential starting lineups with and without Ethier.
With Ethier
Mark Ellis 2B
Carl Crawford LF
Matt Kemp CF
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
Hanley Ramirez SS
Andre Ethier RF
A.J. Ellis C
Luis Cruz 3B
With Bourn
Bourn CF
Crawford LF
Kemp RF
Gonzalez 1B
Ramirez SS
Ellis C
Ellis 2B
Cruz 3B
The biggest differences between are the leadoff spots and No. 6 spots. With the Ethier lineup, there's more thump down in the lineup. With the Bourn lineup, there's more potential for havoc at the top.biggest differences between are the leadoff spots and No. 6 spots. With the Ethier lineup, there's more thump down in the lineup. With the Bourn lineup, there's more potential for havoc at the top, plus better overall defense.
I've really never been opposed to the Dodgers trading Ethier. I've written about it a number of times. However, replacing him with Bourn doesn't interest me as much as it does others, I'm sure.
My thought was if the Dodgers move Ethier, they gain flexibility for guys like Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson going forward. While they're unknown commodities, the Dodgers did invest a nice chunk of change in Puig. And Pederson had a breakout 2012 season. Signing Bourn immediately gives up that flexibility.
It's hard to field a competitive Major League team while keeping a strong farm system. Not many teams can do it for extended periods of time. General Manager Ned Colletti is in a tough spot here. The Dodgers are built to win now and for the next few years. They're also well on their way to rebuilding their farm system. Part of being competitive is flexibility. Having so many players locked up long-term limits flexibility via the minor leagues, but it does open up more trade possibilities.
Management is trying to get this team to the World Series. If they think this is the best route, sobeit. I'm genuinely torn on the subject. Trade Ethier? Fine. Replace him with Bourn? That's where I waffle.
I do like the improved outfield defense and having another stolen base threat in the lineup with Bourn. I'm not a fan of losing Ethier's pop out of the No. 6 spot. If the team had a legitimate third baseman, I'd feel a lot better about moving Ethier and replacing him with Bourn.
This is going to be an interesting situation to follow. Something could happen as soon as this week or nothing at all could happen. The fact that there's this much smoke definitely means there's fire. I'm just hoping the Dodgers can get a couple of B/B+ prospects in any deal of this magnitude.


text:
In the beginning, the world was dark. The people wondered and argued about something they had heard of, but had never seen - daylight.
Some said that the river chief kept daylight in a special box.
Raven lived in the dark world.1 He was sly, wise, greedy, and meddlesome. And he could change his form to suit his own needs. Raven
decided to find out about daylight, so he turned into a hemlock needle and dropped into a freshwater spring. When the river chief's
daughter came to the spring to drink, Raven floated into her cup, and she swallowed him. In due time, Raven was born as the grandson
of the river chief.
Raven grew very fast and his grandfather adored him, even though he threw tantrums and his eyes looked a little like a raven's. When he
screamed, his doting grandfather let him play with the Moon Box. He opened the box and the moon escaped into the sky. When Raven
wailed again, his grandfather let him play with the Box of Daylight. As soon as the box was in his possession, Raven changed back
into a bird and flew through the smoke hole and disappeared into the darkness.
Raven brought the box to the people and opened it slightly, allowing a few streaks of daylight to escape. But they did not believe he
actually had daylight. Angered by the people's skepticism, he threw open the box and flooded the world with the bright light of day.
1 Some believe that Raven was actually a human being, or even a great chief, who slipped into the
skin of a raven when he wanted to be tricky. Return to Text
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
CRF covering the PMNCH 2014 Partners' Forum
Children's Radio Foundation
Inscrit le 3 décembre 2013
- 51 Articles
Today kicked off the first day of the Children's Radio
Foundation's preparation for the upcoming PMNCH / 2014 Partners
Forum which we'll be covering! We had the opportunity to unpack
the layered issue of maternal, newborn and child health with
expert advise from Dr Andres de Francisco (Deputy Executive
Director of the PMNCH and Coordinator of Technical Work),
Marriette (UNICEF) and Marta (WHO). We also has the opportunity
to exchange experiences, ideas and thoughts with senior youth
journalists from India, Ethopia, China, Uganda and
From CRF, we're a team of youth journalists from Tanzania and Alexander in South Africa, 12- 18 years of age. Keep looking out for our posts re. the conference.


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NS: Oil and gold prices rise following US airstrikes in Syria
The US attacks on a Syrian airbase are clearly very dramatic developments in the diplomatic arena â but markets have taken the attack relatively calmly so far.
The main reaction was initially seen in the price of oil, which jumped to a one-month high in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, climbing by just over $1 a barrel to $56.08.
The price of Brent crude has since given up some of those early gains as the attack will not change the demand and supply dynamics of the oil price.
:: Trump launches missile strikes in Syria in response to chemical attack
Syria produces very little oil of its own and so any increase in the price is largely being regarded as speculative.
It is certainly possible that conflict in the country might now have increased potential to escalate elsewhere in the region given that Iran, a major oil producer, is a key strategic ally of Syria.
However, of itself, the overnight attack will have no impact at all on the overall demand and supply picture - which is one of growing demand around the world, as a result of reviving economic growth being more or less matched by increases in supply from US shale producers in spite of attempts by the Opec cartel of oil-producing nations to dampen down any supply glut.
Other market reaction to the overnight attack has seen an expected move by some investors into traditional safe havens.
The price of gold, for example, rose by 1% to hit $1,263.53 an ounce early this morning, a level last seen in November, shortly after the election of Donald Trump.
:: Syria strikes: Five things you need to know
Gold looks set to complete a run of four consecutive weekly gains this week. Other safe havens in demand include US Treasuries and German bunds.
The yield on both instruments, which falls as the price rises, dropped - in the case of 10-year US government IOUs to their lowest level in four months.
Similarly, on the currency markets, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc have been sought after.
On the downside, the Russian rouble fell by around 1% against the US dollar, while the Turkish lira, which has frequently reacted to tensions in its southern neighbour, was down by 0.3% against the greenback.
On stock markets in the major economies, the reaction has also been muted. In the UK, the FTSE-100 has drifted very slightly lower, putting it in line for a third straight week of losses.
That would be its worst performance since the three weeks leading to last year's EU referendum but, again, is being seen in some quarters not as a reaction to the overnight attacks but to a bit of profit-taking after the Footsie's strong start to 2017.
Among notable gainers, unsurprisingly, is the gold producer Randgold Resources.
:: Sky Data poll: Just over half of Britons would back UK military action in Syria
Among other stock markets, the Nikkei in Toyko briefly hit its lowest level since December, before finishing up 0.4%.
In Europe, the CAC in France and the DAX in Germany are both trading moderately lower, although in both cases the focus for investors continues to be the elections later this year.
However, the Russian stock market has fallen by just under 3%, although - as with the fall in the rouble - this is being attributed to comments made on Thursday from Russia's finance minister, Maxim Oreshkin, about the outlook for the rouble this year, as much as on any geopolitical factors.
The Russian currency has been trading at a 21-month high against the US dollar this week and the Kremlin is anxious that it does not become too strong.
In general, stock markets have reacted relatively calmly, with most investors seemingly reassured by suggestions that the overnight strikes are a 'one-off' attack rather than signalling a prolonged assault on Syria.
The focus later in the day is expected to shift towards the overall US economic outlook, with the publication of the US non-farm payrolls, the single most important piece of economic data globally to appear monthly.


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... continued from the previous page.
Start with a new layer
First you have to make sure that your "layers" window is visible. If it is not, find it in the "window" drop down menu and click on it. A layers window will appear. You will see a thumbnail of your image along with several tools at the bottom.
Create a new layer by clicking on the 'create a new layer' icon at the bottom of the "layers" window. A new layer, "above" the layer with your image, will appear (customarily, photoshop will label it "Layer 1", if you prefer, you can change the name of this layer by double-clicking on it in the "layers" window). This is the layer that we are going to fill with our preferred choice of color (think of the color of the mat when framing a picture) and then cut out an opening to show our image.
Fill the new layer with a color of your choice - this will be the color of your frame
Find the "bucket" tool in the "tools" window and select it. The bucket tool will fill the area that you point it to with the color that is set as the foreground color in the "tools" window (find two squares at the bottom of the "tools window", the top one represents the color of the foreground).
To set the color, double click on it, a palette that allows you to make a color selection will appear, select the color that you would like to use as the color of your frame. I would like to add a white border, so I select white as the foreground color and click "enter" to okay the selection. Then I use the "bucket" tool anywhere on the my image (while making sure that the new layer, "layer 1" remains active - highlighted in blue in the "layers" window) . One click will fill the new layer with the color of your choice. This will be reflected in the "layers" window as you will see that "layer 1" is now all white and that your image remains intact - under it.
Create a cut-out
The next step is to create a cut-out, an opening in your "mat" to reveal the image underneath.Using the rectangular marquee tool found in the upper left corner of the "tools" window, make a rectangular selection on the "new layer". Just start at a corner and drag across the image while holding the left mouse button down. you have made a selection when you see it as an outline of "marching ants" on your layer.
Almost done. When you are satisfied with your selection, hit the "delete" key (or CTRL+X). Now, you should see your image with a border around it. For an interesting effect, you can experiment with lowering opacity of the border so that it is a little bit "see through".
After you are satisfied with results, there is just one more step left. Remember, you have two layers - the layer with your image, and the layer with the mat (your frame). You have to merge them together before saving the image. This can be achieved by going to the "layers" dropdown menu and choosing the "flatten the image" option. Alternatively, you can "merge" your mat down onto your image by hitting CTRL+E with your "layer 1" layer active. Now you should have your final image, with the frame. Save it as a different file, remember not to over-write the original file by merely "saving" the file as the effects will be irreversible.
Pros: the pros of this method are that it is easy, simple, fast, you can use solid colors for your frame as well as gradients (instead of using the "bucket" tool, use the "gradient" tool for this), or you can even create a border by over-laying an entirely different image and using it as a frame.
Cons: if you do not have enough "cropping area", say you have taken a tightly framed portrait and it leaves no space for a frame, you will end up cutting off important parts of the portrait. Of course, photoshop has a solution for that, and I will show you how to deal with this situation in my next tutorial.
Next: try option #2
... continues on the next page!


text:
Enjoy a selection of quilts from the 2007 Journal Quilt Project which were displayed at the 2007 International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX. The Journal Quilt Project was originated by Karey Bresenhan as an ongoing, free-form exercise in creativity, specifically planned to encourage quilt artists to stretch and grow. Participation has grown to such proportions that the artists were requested to select their best quilt pages for exhibition. The exhibit consists of five small monthly quilt pages done over time and a journal entry from each participating artist. These examples are but a fraction of the many entries in this extremely popular challenge. More examples of Journal Quilts can be found in Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project by Karey Bresenhan.
Many thanks to Karey for giving Quiltart the opportunity to participate in this project and for displaying it for all to see in Houston at IQF.
Click on each image for a closer view.
Carolyn Abbott Deirdre Abbotts Barbara Adams Christine Adams Naomi Adams Sharon Ahmed Natalya Aikens Frances Alford
Pamela Allen Julia Altshuler Ann Anastasio Jennifer Anderson Judith Anderson Sandy Anderson Sue Andrus Deanna Apfel
Madeleine Appell Susan Armstrong Deborah Baldwin Julie Balzer Phyllis Barnett Debbie Bates Diane Becka Deborah Bein
Christine Bell Liz Berg Karen Bettencourt Sandra Betts Drew Betts Kris Bishop Else Boesewinkle Sherry Bohres
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Return to the Quiltart Home Page


text:
The ART of the FUGUE ñ BWV 1080
The Thuringian Chamber Orchestra,
Johannes Ernst Köhler, Hildebrandt organ, Naumburg, 1747
The Thuringian Chamber Orchestra,
Johannes Ernst Köhler, Hildebrandt organ, Naumburg, 1747
Johannes Ernst Köhler, Hildebrandt organ, Naumburg, 1747
1. Contrapunctus I and IV ñ Contrapunctus I - Simple fugue on the main subject
10. Contrapunctus II - Main subject with dotted rhythm in last bar
Total time 74:28
The cover of our CD booklet features the roofscape of the Grand Colonnade at the Czech Spa of Marienbad (Marianske Lazne). Its structure combines complexity and structural integrity with beauty ñ indeed the two are inter-dependent, and each may be considered the result of the other. Thus with the Art of the Fugue; this is some of the most structured, and structurally complex music ever composed, yet in its complexity and structural integrity lies the secret of its beauty, a beauty which can indeed be experienced and enjoyed without any knowledge or awareness of the underlying structure whatsoever.
The relationship between structure and emotion was expressed indirectly by Bach during the artistic dispute between himself and Scheibe during the years 1737-1739:
The true amenity of music consists in the connection and alternation of consonances and dissonances without hurt to the harmony. The nature of music demands this. The various passions, especially the dark ones, cannot be expressed with fidelity to Nature without this alternation.
In Bach's view of nature and harmony, the connection and alternation of consonances and dissonances was governed by counterpoint. And it is the timeless value of counterpoint, way beyond the scope of old and new techniques, styles, or manners of composing, that he thought needed to be upheld. Thus he devised a plan that would center systematically on fugal composition, and The Art of the Fugue was born.
The order of fugues and canons in the Schmieder Catalog (BWV) simply reflects the random order in which the printing plates had been bundled together after Bach's death. Though this order is normally used in performances and recordings, it does not provide a coherent program for ideal listening. Bach's own rule was: begin with simplicity, move towards complexity. We have respected this natural order; however since the complete work is far too demanding to be heard in one sitting, we offer the work as two programs each complete in itself, each offering all the major structural forms, each starting with simplicity then continuing into increasing complexity, and each ending with a powerful Triple Fugue.
Our performance is given by a chamber orchestra; we feel that this instrumentation offers the listener the two most important factors: clarity of structure, and enjoyability. The Canons are distinguished tonally by performance on the historic Hildebrandt organ at Naumburg, completed in 1747 and certificated by Bach himself in company with his old friend Gottfried Silbermann, the Saxon master organ builder.
Though it is clearly academic or tutorial in its nature and purpose, the Art should in no way be considered a dry academic work; it is possible to present it as such, and indeed some performances do just that. But not ours. Our performance and recording, from the choice of instrumentation and performance style to recording ambience and balance, has but two objectives: clarity and enjoyability. When listening to the different fugues one can follow clearly the contrapuntal patterns; yet at the same time one is moved by the sheer beauty of the music itself. Anyone who passes over this work as a dry academic exercise is missing some of the most powerful music of the baroque era.
How, as we listen to this late work, may we visualize the Master in his latter years? One popular portrait of Bach is by Elias Gottlieb Haussmann, Court Painter at Dresden. Bach is seen holding a fragment of a Canon. Though widely used in musical literature today, the somewhat distorted expression was surely not an accurate image of the Master. Haussmann painted the portraits of several of Leipzig's Mayors, and on close inspection one is struck by the fineness of the brushwork and accuracy of detail - in complete contrast to the hurried brushwork, rough strokes and lack of detail in Haussmann's Bach portrait. There is in fact an old Leipzig tradition, that Bach was always in a hurry, would never sit for long, and that Haussmann complained he was never able to finish the work properly.
Be that as it may, an alternative is the wonderful Altersbild, the Portrait of Bach in Old Age shown at right and on the back cover of our CD booklet, published in 1904 as Volume IV part 2 of the New Bachgesellschaft. Here, surely, is the strict yet compassionate face of the Bach whose latter years gave us the B-Minor Mass, the Goldberg Variations, the Musical Offering and the Art of the Fugue.


text:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has reopened a Warren store in the same location it pulled out of more than a decade ago.
The newly expanded, 24-hour Walmart Supercenter now features a full-line grocery department with fresh produce, a bakery and a deli.
The national retailer closed the store at 12 Mile and Van Dyke Avenue, across from General Motors Co.'s Tech Center, in 2003 after opening a supercenter two miles north on Van Dyke in Sterling Heights.
That spurred the departure of all but two other retailers in the Tech Plaza shopping center over the past decade.
In the interim, Walmart reportedly continued to hold the lease on the vacant store, which sparked lawsuit threats from Warren Mayor James Fouts, who said that was preventing other development from taking place there.
Last fall, Walmart announced its acquisition of the entire shopping center and plans to expand and reopen the store, creating about 300 full- and part-time jobs.
At its grand opening Wednesday morning, the retailer and Walmart Foundation made $62,500 in grants to organizations including: Macomb Hope Center, Winning Futures, Oakland County Community College Foundation Endowment Scholarship, Warren Police Department and Warren Fire Department.


text:
A Special Report on the Fertility Industry:
What Price Pregnancy?
Since the birth of the first "test tube baby," assisted reproductive technologies have been hailed as medical miracles. Ms. goes behind the hype. >by Ann Pappert
- Both Sides Now:
She married at 18 and instead of finding bliss, she became a shrinking woman. Now, at 54, marriage is on her mind again.
- Marriage Vegas Style
In this desert empire 295 couples marry every day.
-Who Wants to Marry a Feminist?
But the real question is why do feminists want marriage?
-Otherwise Engaged
The issue of same-sex marriage has sparked an impassioned debate. Asked if she would marry if she could, this author takes a long hard look at the institution and herself.
-What, Me Marry?
-What Price Pregnancy?
Ms. goes behind the hype of assisted reproductive technologies.
When it comes to fertility treatments, gender makes all the difference.
- What?
- Women to Watch
- Word: Fuck
- Just the Facts
-The Struggle to Preserve Reproductive Rights
- Laws of Entrapment
- Taxing Menstruation
- High Anxiety
- Austria Ditches Women's Ministry
- Opinion: Partial-Truth Abortion
- $5 and a Dream
- Czech Mate
- Newsmaker: Lisa Oberg
- Women Organizing Worldwide: Reports from Philippines, Mexico, Zimbabwe, and the Internet
As the final pages of this issue were being sent off to the printer, the saga of the little boy found floating in the sea took a very dramatic and very traumatic turn. Just before dawn on the day before Easter, U.S. immigration agents with guns drawn raided the house where Elian Gonzalez had been living in Miami's Little Havana, and in less than five minutes, whisked him away. Within hours he had been reunited with his father. But so many questions linger, as do lawsuits, political postures, pontifications, recriminations, and accusations.
How easily, it seems, we can become puppets. One minute yours is an ordinary life. You have a circle of family, friends, schoolmates/coworkers, neighbors, and acquaintances--to varying degrees, they know who you are. Your daily activities have a familiar rhythm. And then something happens and you find yourself in the center of the spotlight. Everyone knows your name and your face. People you know and folks you've never met are suddenly discussing you. The media pokes its nose into every nook and cranny of your life. Politicians look to use your name and your story to gain public attention, to advance their agendas. One minute you are a face in the crowd, the next you're the flavor of the month.
Maybe you enjoy the ride or manage to reverse the strings and make the puppeteers dance to your tune. Perhaps you use the opportunity to pursue some deep-seated dreams of your own or to achieve a particular goal. You are Kadiatou Diallo mourning your son's murder, leaving Guinea, coming to America, and seeking justice. You are Carolyn McCarthy, transformed by one man's murderous rampage on a commuter train from nurse of 30 years, suburban wife, and mother to successful representative in the United States Congress. Or you may be overwhelmed by the heat, the attention may not be just unexpected and unwanted, it may also be hostile. You go into a hotel room or the back seat of a limousine or out on a date, and get raped by a man who is a celebrity. You are the wife or mother of someone known to the public as a depraved killer or . . .
Or you are the father of a little boy named Elian, who was found floating in the sea.
But at least you are an adult, you have a voice, you can gather people you trust around you, you can pack a bag and leave town or lock your door and simply refuse to talk to the politicians and the media. You may not be able to stop the noise, but you don't have to participate. But what happens when the person caught in the glare is a child? In this country, we routinely profess to love children, yet do too little as a society to ensure that our children are safe, healthy, well housed, well fed, well educated, or cared for. In this country, using children as political footballs has become routine. What's in a child's best interest varies according to the interests of those who profess to champion that child's rights. That's been Elian's story. Hopefully, he will be allowed to go back to being just a little boy.
P.S. As you turn the pages you'll discover that "Ms." has a new look. This redesign is in response to your comments and suggestions and our desire to make this magazine shine for you. Everyone at "Ms." has been engaged in the process--sharing ideas and opinions--and excited by Chalkley Calderwood Pratt's creative vision. We hope you enjoy the way "Ms." looks, as much as you enjoy the content. And I look forward to hearing from you.


text:
Can anyone help me with a few very quick and basic Latin phrases. Where there are synonyms or similar expressions, it'd be nice to know as much as possible.
Hello - Salve, salvete?
Thank you - gratias multas/multas gratias - any others?
You're welcome
Thank you for... - I assume the word for "for" will need a case other than the nominative... which case does it need?
How are you? - formal and informal
Thank you for your help. I'll learn far faster when Lingva Latina arrives.


text:
Verschijning van de architect-bemiddelaar
Een verkenning van een architecturale productie gericht op bemiddeling
Architectuur in naam van de vader
Column #3 over de oorsprongsmythen van de architectuur
Uplace of Shopping K? Nee, bedankt
Artikel over de architectuur van een vals dilemma rond winkelcentra
Dood van een dienstverlener
Column over het bouwen als olifant in de kamer van de architectuurcultuur.
Het belachelijk sublieme in de Vlaamse architectuur
Artikel over humor als het teken van kritische afstand in de architectuur
Verslaafd aan architectuur
Een artikel over de betekenis van de Biertempel discussie voor de architectuurcultuur in België
Wafels, bier en architectuur
Een artikel naar aanleiding van de herbestemming van de Beurs in Brussel tot biertempel naar ontwerp van Robbrecht & Daem Architecten.
Creatio ex nihilo
Column #1 over de oorsprongsmythen van de architectuur
Zorg dragen voor architectuur
Artikel over gebruik en postproductie in de architectuur naar aanleiding van het Jozef Plein in PC Cartias (Melle).
Do Good architectuur
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Pic Nic Architectuur
Een retroactief manifest voor Pic Nic the Streets als bijdrage aan de architectuurcultuur in België. > Version Française > English Version
Wraak op de commons
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Architectuur van de schaamteplek
Wie grip wil krijgen op de problemen van in psychiatrische ziekenhuizen, begint bij het ontwerp van de isolatiekamer.
Van Utopia naar Wuustwezel
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Relational Architecture
Read about the production proces of the Kanunnik Petrus Jozef Triest Square in the Psychiatric Centre Caritas, Melle. Article in Dutch / English / French
Hoeveel samenwerking kan architectuur verdragen?
Artikel over de tentoonstelling 'Ensembles. Architectuur en Ambachtschap' in deSingel en Vlaams Architectuurinstituut.
Bouwstenen voor het psychiatrisch centrum van de toekomst
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Eco-politiek in Brussel: Bas Smets en de Brussels Urban Landscape Biennial
Artikel over het nut en nadeel van landschapsarchitectuur als instrument voor regionale ontwikkeling in Brussel.
Architectuur vol van verlangen
Artikel naar aanleiding van de opening van het Kanunnik Petrus Jozef Triest Plein in Melle.
Proud to present the A+261 issue on architecture and politics - Dutch and French edition.
Architectuur met schaduw
De 20ste eeuw baarde vele duivelspacten tussen architectuur en politiek. Opvallend genoeg wordt de architectuur van het Italiaanse fascisme tot op vandaag geprezen omwille van haar abstracte vormentaal. Dergelijke rehabilitatie is de architectuur van het Derde Rijk nooit te beurt gevallen. België heeft zo zijn eigen kleine trauma in de relatie met de politiek.
Ingebedde architecten
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Vakmannen aan het front
Een recensie over de bijdrage van Bravoure in de Architectuurbiennale van Venetie.
Toiletemmers in Werelderfgoed
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FPC Gent: geen markt, geen gevangenis
De opening van het Forensisch Psychiatrisch Centrum in Gent zorgt na één jaar werking voor een grote opluchting - zelfs bij voormalige critici. De juiste vraag is niet of aanvankelijke bezorgheid terecht was, maar wel of de opluchting niet een beetje voorbarig is?
Het penitentiair verdriet van België
In de bouw van het gevangenisdorp Haren vormen de lokale en regionale overheid samen front met de actiegroepen tegen de federale overheid - of toch niet? Hoe kunnen we de knoop tussen activisme en politiek ontwarren?
Een psychiatrisch centrum bouwen we samen
Ook architectuur heeft zijn plaats op de Vlaamse Hersteldagen. Doe mee op 18 november in de Vooruit.
Eindelijk een kennisplatform voor humane gevangenisarchitectuur
De website www.prisongear.be presenteert het onderzoek naar een humane gevangenisarchitectuur.
Ontmanteling van de psychiatrische kliniek
Lees de gevalstudies over zorgarchitectuur in Vlaanderen gepubliceerd in Psyche
Een sterke leefomgeving begint met ruimteregie
Wie is er bang van het Bouwmeestercollege?
Iedereen lijkt het roerend eens dat de Vlaamse architectuur zonder de Bouwmeester overgeleverd is aan de wetten van de markt en de willekeur van het politieke bedrijf. Lees de opinie 'De Bouwmeester en de onheilsprofeten'.
A humane prison is coming to your neighbourhood
As part of the Conflict & Design Triennial the knowledge platform Prison Gear presents design studies that pave the way for a humane prison in Leopoldsburg, Belgium.
Een humane gevangenis komt naar je toe
Als onderdeel van de Conflict & Design Triënnale presenteert Prison Gear twee visieontwerpen voor de toekomstige gevangenis op het militaire domein Reigersvliet in Leopoldsburg.
Limburg City / Stad Limburg
Read the memorandum of the Limburg Europa Workshop / Lees de projectnota van Atelier Limburg Europa
The dismantling of the psychiatric clinic
Read the case studies on care architecture in Flanders
Wat is ontwerpend onderzoek?
Drie vragen over ontwerpend onderzoek, drie antwoorden vanuit de Noorderkempen.
Heeft een gemeenplaats ook een gemene waarde ?
Commentaarstuk bij het Architectuurboek n° 10: Radicale Gemeenplaatsen - Europese architectuur uit Vlaanderen
Is onzichtbare psychiatrische zorg mogelijk?
Review van de opstart Pilootprojecten Zorg door de Vlaams Bouwmeester
Limburg heeft ambitie / Limburg has ambition
Presentatie van de Startnota Provinciaal Bouwmeester Limburg / Presentation Initial Memo Limburg Government Architect
Hoeveel vernieuwing kan de gevangenis verdragen ?
Lees hoe de modernisatie van de gevangenisarchitectuur in handen van Stéphane Beel begon en eindige bij het Ducpétiaux-model.
San Gimignano aan de Zenne
Lees de column naar aanleiding van de Keukentoren van XDGA
Sociaal-realisme of zelfcensuur
Met Jonas Staal schreef BAVO een pleidooi voor een nieuw sociaal-realisme in de kunst. Sociaal-realisme is broodnodig in het tijdperk van de hysterische reproductie.
Nu ook een schreeuw om architectuur!
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Gesloten architectuur is ook humaan
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Waarom kunstenaars niet fascistisch genoeg zijn
Lees het artikel in het decembernummer van Rekto:Verso.
De Culturele Elite
Lees de bijdrage.
Recensies van boek Too Active to Act
Artist Participation in South Africa
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Denkverbod op liberale kunst
Column over de stellingenoorlog naar aanleiding van de aangekondigde bezuinigingen in de cultuursector.
Maak liberaal kunstbeleid liberaal
Lees BAVO's advies aan staatssecretaris Zijlstra met betrekking tot de noodgedwongen keuzen die de cultuursector in Nederland te wachten staat.
Vrijheidscampagne met inhoud
Edinburgh prepares for artist participation
Kunstenaars vormen een nieuwe alliantie met Geert Wilders / Artists form a new alliance with Geert Wilders
International promotion campaign of the Office for Artist Participation kicks off
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Culture and Contestation
The essay 'Neo-Liberalism with Dutch Characteristics: The Big Fix-Up of the Netherlands and the Practice of Embedded Cultural Activism' is published in the book volume 'Culture and Contestation in the New Century'.
Art and Activism
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Boek verschenen: Too Active To Act
Het boek biedt een kritische analyse van de maatschappelijke betrokkenheid van culturele actoren in Nederland in de afgelopen tien jaar.
Commoning the Clinic
Read more about the Kanunnik Triest Square (designed by architects De Vylder Vinck Taillieu) in the Caritas psychiatric centre (Melle) and how it results from a participative process with psychiatrists, managers, staff, and patients.
The Freedom Not To Have a Wal-Mart: Contemporary Anti-Capitalist Documentary and Its Enlightened Critics
project: URBAN POLITICS
date: 24/11/2008
author: BAVO
source: administrator
status: article
In this essay BAVO sketches the dominant political mood that makes the Left react cynically to the latest wave of anti-capitalist documentaries. The documentaries are seen as expositions of the all too familiar laws of capitalism and deemed to contribute little to nothing to finding a way out of the current predicaments. BAVO subsequently re-tracks the truths of capitalism exposed by Robert Greenwald's documentary Wal-Mart. The High Cost of Low Price. They argue that because these truths are considered 'obsolete' and not representative of the 'new' capitalism, they should be emphasized time and again. BAVO then analyses how Wal-Mart, and neo-liberalism in general, try to hide these truths by cleverly combining a progressive, politically correct discourse with blunt, quasi-scientific assertions of capital's laws. They deal with the criticism that considers recent documentaries simplistic, naïve and outmoded in their rendering of the truth. BAVO oppose such a reading and argue that it dogmatically applies a deconstructive aesthetics to the documentary genre, which has a conservative effect on political mobilization. Instead, they identify the truth procedure in the activist documentary in terms of Lacan's concept of the quilting point. In conclusion, they consider the criticism levelled against the mobilization of patriotic or religious referents and sentiments in documentaries such as Greenwald's or Moore's and argue in favour of an anti-capitalism that dares betray its 'purity' in order to realize its goals. (Benda Hofmeyr, editor of 'The Wal-mart Phenomenon')
1. Anti-Capitalist Critique Beyond Capitalism
Over the past years we have witnessed an upsurge of documentaries that criticize multinational capitalism, such as Robert Greenwald's Wal-Mart. The High Cost of Low Price and Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott's The Corporation. It would be a mistake, however, to think that after the notoriously apolitical eighties and nineties the Left would welcome this revival of 'good old' anti-capitalist critique. Rather, the enlightened Left's standard reception of the critical documentaries is one of resistance. They are said to bring old news, to expose the excesses of capitalism that have been common currency and common sense for ages. This supposed lack of novelty is then cause to dismiss them as being no longer relevant or topical. The radical activist tone of these documentaries triggers intense reactions. The documentaries are regarded as part of an old Leftist culture and are believed to uncannily resurrect a long superseded, dubious subject position – the conspiracy personality. This type of personality is always on the lookout for a supreme external force that can be blamed for all the world's evils. If it cannot readily find a force, it will invent one. In short, documentaries critical of capitalism seem to take a stance that is often rebuffed with the rejoinder that turning back the clock to the pre-industrial age is hardly an option.
It is symptomatic of today's Left – whether it is characterized as third way, postmodern or enlightened – that it receives the current revival of anti-capitalist critique with scepticism. Joseph Stiglitz, for instance, is quite critical of global capitalist institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In formulating his critique, however, he always makes a point of emphasizing that he does not attack global, neo-liberal capitalism per se, but merely its too rigid, ideological application.[1] Consequently, Stiglitz's alternative does not propose to destroy the capitalist world order as such, but to better manage economic globalization. This management is presented as the surest way to cause a trickle-down of the benefits of capitalist development to the poorest of the earth's population, and thus secure the prosperity and happiness of the global community in the long run.
It should be clear from Stiglitz's position that at the heart of the new Leftist imaginary is the fantasy that one can have it both ways. That is to say, one can be straightforwardly capitalist and a convinced socialist, one can ruthlessly pursue accumulation for accumulation's sake and serve the interests of the largest group possible, help the environment and stimulate democracy and freedom worldwide. Critics and economists, activists and business leaders increasingly share this fantasy, which causes a remarkable and often hilarious reversal of their traditional positions. On the one hand, activists adopt business models as the ultimate panacea – micro-loans for third world entrepreneurs, a stock exchange in CO2 emission quota to solve global warming. On the other hand, economists like Hernando De Soto or C.K Prahalad passionately argue how the poor South will save multinational capital since investing in 'poverty markets' is the only way for corporations to remain competitive and in business.[2] The ideological effect of this mutual courting is the same, however: it reinforces not only the belief that capitalism is here to stay, but also feeds the deep conviction that a real revolution of our way of life can only come from the inside, that is, in close co-operation with multinational corporations and sometimes even spear-headed by them. In short, capitalism is affirmed more than ever as the inevitable partner in addressing the challenges that civilization will meet with.
Is this Leftist optimism yet another manifestation of the cynicism of our age? The cynical activist knows very well what goes on in the world – that the wealth and prosperity of one half of the planet is based on the misery and destitution of the other – yet acts as if unaware and maintains that it suffices to manage this disparity in a more inclusive fashion. The current series of critical documentaries is met with the same cynical attitude. In an age in which reports and testimonies of the worst excesses of global capitalism are readily available through different media – a time, in short, in which we are ever so well-informed about economic, political, social and ecological malpractices around the globe – the Left, strikingly, has never been so passive about effecting a deep, fundamental change. Indeed, the abundance of anti-capitalist documentaries does not seem to generate radical action. On the contrary, it seems to produce ever more sophisticated ways of legitimizing passivity. Consider the common argument against consumer boycotts. Even persons critical of capitalism dismiss the refusal to buy a cheap T-shirt made in Nicaraguan sweat shops by children or exploited women as too simple, as failing to grasp the true complexity of the situation, since, they argue, this refusal deprives the workers of the only income they have, which might seem a trifle to a Westerner, yet is a matter of life or death in Nicaragua. This argument is exactly the one that the corporations that ruthlessly exploit these people avail themselves of.
Such cynical resistance prevents people from conducting a collective thought experiment that goes beyond the existing co-ordinates of capitalism and beyond the utterly conservative consensus that a market-style organization is the tried and tested way to organize all aspects and dimensions of society. Today's cynical Leftist reasoning – however well disguised as an optimistic reformism – is the main obstacle to beat the current deadlock and create a mental break that will give room to invent and test out other scenarios and models. Against the current, one should assert the radical position that capitalism is such a perverse force that even with a better management, with the incorporation of democratic, ethical or ecological concerns, it will time and again pervert those values. In other words, one should assert that the key mover of capitalism, profit for profit's sake, will always put a damper on finding a really satisfying, sustainable and emancipatory solution for today's problems.
In his book After Liberalism Immanuel Wallerstein pleads for precisely such a radical denouncement of the supposed merits of capitalism. He frontally attacks the consensus that capitalism undeniably has brought welfare to larger parts of the world. It concerns the common idea that capitalism – although far from perfect – at least delivers the goods and has secured the quality of life for a huge number of people.[3] Wallerstein urges us to radically oppose capitalism's sense of superiority that presents itself as the final stage of history. He reminds us that these so-called achievements show black edges since billions of people have been taken advantage of and forms of cultural life eradicated. Wallerstein even coined the term "democratic fascism" to describe the current global capitalist order, in which the populations of a small number of pre-dominantly Western nation-states can sustain the utopia of high consumption levels and democratic liberties by plundering and exploiting the rest of the world, by maintaining a gigantic global disparity in wealth, opportunities and rights.[4]
Marx's insistence on the non-essential relation between capitalism and human progress has not lost any of its topicality. For sure, Marx admired capitalism because it subverted the feudal, hierarchical social order, it made productivity levels increase through co-operation and internationalization, it 'melted everything that was solid into air'. The new Left never tires of dishing up this argument to legitimize its endorsement of capitalism as part of the solution. Nevertheless, Marx fiercely resisted the identification of the utopian, emancipatory forces unlocked by the industrial revolution with the capitalist mode of production. According to him, the revolutionary potential of industrialization was 'hacked' by the capitalist class that abused it to gain self-enrichment and legitimize its privileges. Even today it is the crucial task of the Left to disconnect the advances made by revolutions in the means of production from the capitalist class model of society. It is precisely such an act of disconnection that Antonio Negri and Michael Hard perform in Empire.[5] They argue that the post-industrial, network-style of co-operation and production should be divorced from its current state of monopolization by multinational capitalism. Stiglitz, for instance, holds the idea – shared both by capitalism's advocates and critics – that capitalism is a constantly revolutionizing, 'deterritorializing' force that needs to be checked and carefully managed so as to distribute the advances and benefits evenly. Conversely, Hardt and Negri hold that it is capitalism itself that constantly puts its foot on the break and shuns away from the emancipatory potential unleashed by the new network mode of production. By revealing this inherently conservative tendency in capitalism, Hardt and Negri open up a space where it is necessary, at least for progressive forces, to imagine a global network society without capitalism – which goes against the dominant viewpoint in Leftist circles of capitalism as an 'inevitable partner'.
2. The Wal-Mart Phenomenon, or, the Eternal Return of the Laws of Capital
Global capitalism's bad taste is dished up unreservedly in Robert Greenwald's documentary Wal-Mart. The High Cost of Low Price. In thrilling sequences the documentary bombards the audience with all the evils and excesses of multinational corporations, confronting it with the flipside of today's neo-capitalist utopia. The documentary's strong point is that it does not merely show how global firms like Wal-Mart wreak havoc in the third world, but also how it touches the United States, the heart of the 'first' world. It shows how it makes American communities proletarian, plunders their public assets, pollutes their environment. This rearing of capitalism's ugly head in its own backyard, in places where the pangs of capitalism were supposed to have faded away for good, is no doubt part of the process that Slavoj Zizek calls "auto-colonization": the moment when a multinational firm "cuts the umbilical cord with its mother-nation and treats its country of origin as simply another territory to be colonized".[6] This process of self-colonization is clearly shown in Greenwald's documentary. We come to understand how America's Main Street, the icon of American social and economic virtues, is destroyed by the ruthless profit-seeking of an 'all-American' firm like Wal-Mart. In this sense, the documentary strikes a painful blow at the neo-capitalist myth and hits capitalism's heartland where people are bred and fed by its articles of faith.
Some critics will undoubtedly argue that these processes are hardly new, that there is little merit in dishing up the same well-known and well-documented truths of capitalism yet again. This is not a reason to dismiss Greenwald's documentary, however. Its main strength is precisely that it confronts the audience with the fact that, despite the rhetoric, the 'new' capitalism, with its concern about social, ethical and ecological issues, is but old wine in new barrels. By doing so, Wal-Mart. The High Cost of Low Price goes against the claim of today's third way ideologues that present-day capitalism – enlightened capitalism, increasingly conscious of its own limitations and internalizing more and more of its conditions of possibility – is qualitatively different from what came before and can thus no longer simply be dismissed by outdated critiques. The merit of the documentary is that it, on the contrary, documents the eternal return of the laws of capitalism as formulated by Marx and generations of Marxists since. It shows that if there is anything different at all about today's capitalism, this difference concerns its ever more clever and creative ways of exploiting society for its own reproduction. For this reason, it is precisely because everybody knows capitalism's malpractices all too well and is weary of hearing them – just like the critics are tired of imputing them – that they should be repeated again and again. Greenwald's documentary achieves precisely this. It immerses the viewer in the excesses of multinational capitalism, bringing him/her to the point of vomiting. It is an effective, albeit extreme, way to cure today's subject's addiction, its passionate attachment even – to borrow Judith Butler's notion – to capitalism and its claim that it and it alone offers the only real alternative to the many problems we are presented with.
What, then, are these eternal laws of capitalism that are brought to the fore in Greenwald's Wal-Mart. The High Cost of Low Price? First, the documentary reaffirms that capitalism can only reproduce itself by betraying its own ideology of free competition. In other words, it reveals that global capitalism is more than ever a monopoly capitalism, that it rests on the increasingly clever ways of capitalist firms to use their sheer size in order to outgrow and outdo all competition and secure an increasingly larger part of the market. It thus proves, once again, that the myth of the free market is in reality but a farce, a pleasant-looking front that hides a ruthless struggle ruled by underhand tactics and abuse. Perhaps the ultimate evocation of the way super-size companies like Wal-Mart use their power to out-market smaller enterprises is the infamous shot of an abandoned Wal-Mart superstore behind which another one is being constructed. In a condensed way, this image visualizes Wal-Mart's tactics to physically block other shops from taking up position in the market by occupying strategic locations in American cities with its shops and parking lots, even if this implies building an entire new shop a mere stone throw away from the old one and leaving the 'old' shop vacant.
Secondly, Greenwald's documentary reveals that capitalism depends on other non-capitalist social formations to survive, thereby proving the myth of capitalism as an autonomous, self-solvent force wrong. The documentary shows, through a myriad of cases, that multinational companies such as Wal-Mart secure their growth by externalizing as much basic operating costs from its budget sheets as possible or, as Wallerstein puts it, by "socializing the costs, and privatizing the profits". The documentary shows that Wal-Mart blackmails local governments into offering them all kinds of benefits and tax benefits – the 'welcoming package' – by threatening to build their shop in the adjacent town, which they do anyway when they are asked to keep their end of the bargain by moving their shop across the municipalities' borders. Perhaps the most perverse instance of this process of externalization is the way Wal-Mart makes the State pay for basic expenditures of their employees such as health care or pensions. The perversity is that social welfare – traditionally a redistribution of taxes to those who are negatively affected by the cyclical movements of capital – is now used by multinational firms as a way to keep wages low for competitive purposes. This clearly exposes the hypocrisy of corporate capital's aversion to a strong welfare state, arguing that the hidden arm of the market will level all disparities in wealth. Against this, one should argue that global capital cleverly abuses the very social security measures it ideologically denounces to survive materially. In short, contrary to what corporate adepts make us believe, it are not the unemployed but big capitalist firms like Wal-Mart that are free-riding the system. Neo-liberalism is thus not simply a pro-business, anti-state constellation. It is a new, hybrid, perverse condition in which state and market complement each other. In this regard, we should not see the state as only or simply a victim of the current neo-liberal ideology offensive. The state also increasingly functions as the latter's 'willing executioner' by making welfare provisions insufficient, which forces people to do low-paid jobs without any perspective, by making a job a precondition to get welfare. The state is thus gradually becoming a partner in crime of neo-capitalism, a provider of a cheap and docile army of labourers for corporate capital.
Wal-Mart does not only feed on the state. It also parasitizes on the social networks of their employees – their families, for instance – by counting on the latter to provide them with a good meal every now and then when they can't make ends meet with their scanty salaries. Greenwald's documentary reveals that a big corporation like Wal-Mart lives off the ruthless exploitation of its employees, squeezing every last bit of energy from them without paying the price for it. It manipulates people into working over-time without pay, by chronically under-staffing its shops to make their employees work harder, by using part-time labourers who are forced to do more. To make the employees exploit themselves, Wal-Mart uses all the textbook capitalist tricks: abusing their taking pride in their work – the Protestant work ethic –, playing on the feelings of patriotism, arguing that loads of people would like do the job in their place or, inversely, complaining that it is difficult to find the right personnel, that business is slacking off. This vampire attitude towards its employees proves Zizek's thesis of self-colonization as the dominant mode of multinational capitalism: "The new multinationals have exactly the same attitude towards the French or American local population as towards the populations of Mexico, Brazil or Taiwan."[7]
3. A Crook with a Politically Correct Face
How can Wal-Mart get away with such straightforward social violations? How does Wal-Mart manage to hide these inconvenient truths since, as the saying goes, one can fool some people all the time, all people for some time, but not all people all the time? In Greenwald's documentary an employee states that when you work for Wal-Mart, "you put the blindness on, you don't want to see". How does Wal-Mart produce such blindness in its employees?
Wal-Mart uses all the familiar 'hard' techniques to neutralize criticism. It applies such practices as union busting, uses illegal labour and enforces sexist and racist hierarchies, which again proves that very little is new in contemporary multinational capitalism. Also, significant material interests are at stake, which distort or even censor critical awareness of the inconvenient truths behind Wal-Mart. In one scene, for instance, a woman with a full shopping cart claims she is not aware of the poor working conditions in which the goods are made. By ruthlessly exploiting the phantasm of the bargain – 'get more for less money' – nursed by marginalized classes that for too long have been exempted from consumption, Wal-Mart establishes an intricate relation of complicity with its victims. The sad thing is that precisely those people who are most likely to bare the brunt of Wal-Mart's exploitation techniques are the ones who, for obvious reasons, uncritically shop at Wal-Mart.
Most fascinating with regards to Wal-Mart's capacity to neutralize any criticism is the personality and discourse of Wal-Mart's Chief Executive Officer Lee Scott, who is shown on several occasions in Greenwald's documentary. The type of guy he is, or pretends to be, is telling. At an annual meeting of employees, that announces the results of the company, Scott seems embarrassed and uneasy when he receives a standing ovation. He begs the audience to stop applauding, seemingly unwilling to take credit. This act of feigned modesty continues when he stresses that Wal-Mart's hard-working employees, and not himself, cause the business' success. Scott assumes the role of the vehicle, the messenger boy of the good team performance. Consequently, Scott constantly uses the first person plural: we made big profits, we beat the competitors.
Apart from being strategically modest, Scott shows himself master of euphemism. He consistently refers to his employees as 'associates' or even 'friends', thus creating an atmosphere of amicability, equality and profit-sharing. Also, employees are named and classified according to an elaborate hierarchy of management functions such as receiving manager, operation manager, merchandise manager, etc. This ultimately creates the illusion that a job is more than just a mind-less, bottom-end job without any perspective. By using managerial terms it is suggested that the job requires invention, thinking and taking responsibility. It also simulates job mobility and professional specialization.
Apart from using euphemisms – typical of neo-liberalism in general – Scott is a skilled spin doctor who constantly manipulates the facts to his own benefit. In the annual meeting mentioned earlier Scott urges his employees "to be ready to do better". Considering the already excessive workload of its employees, such prompting could cause offence. He cleverly argues that "for whatever reason, whether it's our success or size, Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated has generated fear if not envy in some circles". It is obvious that Scott, by using terms such as fear or envy, downplays every criticism levelled against Wal-Mart as the result of some pathological, irrational reaction to the firm's success. Similarly, he dismisses the local activist groups that campaign against the coming of a Wal-Mart in their neighbourhood as a "small minority". He makes the activists' protest seem undemocratic, a matter of a few people taking the many pro-Wal-Mart citizens hostage who are eager to benefit from the bargain prices.
Perhaps the ultimate cunning of Wal-Mart's CEO concerns his cleverly alternating between an enlightened, politically correct position and a blunt neo-liberal stance. Scott constantly talks about 'doing the right thing' and, as if he anticipated Greenwald's critical documentary, asserts the very values Wal-Mart is accused of transgressing. He focuses on family values, small communities, jobs with profit sharing and opportunities for personal development, sustainability, even the poor. In short, the CEO is the proponent of global capitalism that has incorporated all the values of its critics and promotes them with missionary zeal. Scott even encourages his employees and customers to "tell the Wal-Mart story", which uncannily repeats Greenwald's own characterization of the aim of his documentary as "a tool to pass the story on", the story of the excesses of Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart's hacking of the values of its opponents is, however, more than simply a way to neutralize the latter by robbing them of their ammunition, or to hypocritically paint a brighter picture of itself. It is crucial to understand that references to family are structurally necessary to make Wal-Mart function. As we argued earlier, Wal-Mart has to think highly of family or community networks of solidarity – or rather pretend that it does – because it feeds on them; it is a way to reduce the costs and keep wages low. In this sense, one can say that Wal-Mart's CEO is also sincere when he talks about the family or local community – although this sincerity is as perverse as it is hypocritical. The Wal-Mart story is thus not 'merely' ideology, a way to hide the 'real' laws of capital – it reflects a 'hard' law of Capital itself, the dependence of capitalism on non-capitalist social formations for its reproduction. Highly revealing for capitalism's dependence on the Other is the appendix in Margaret Thatcher's famous motto that "there is no such thing as society, only individual men and women… and their families". The neo-liberal universe of individual, atomized beings that strive to maximize their inner potential always depends on its opposite: the non-reciprocated and unselfish solidarity between human beings. We agree with Immanuel Wallerstein when he says that capitalism's ultimate doom scenario is, paradoxically, that of a fully commodified society, since it would have to pay the full price for services it now 'farms out' to families and other local solidarity networks.[8]
Scott enthusiastically defends the same progressive arguments his opponents use and refers to economic mechanisms as if they were laws of nature. Scott dryly states that raising the average wages of the employees would have a negative effect on profitability and disappoint stockholders "disproportionately". At this point, the Wal-Mart CEO's progressive mask drops and he turns into what Slavoj Zizek calls a crook, "a conformist who takes the mere existence of the given order as an argument for it".[9] Scott's assertion of the laws of capital is not simply a slip of the tongue, a last resort when the mobilization of progressive values fails and he is no longer able to put up a front. It is crucial to see that the secret of the CEO's discourse success lies in his use of both tactics at the same time. Or, in other words, the constant mix of progressive and cynical arguments creates a structurally instable position. Is Scott a progressive, enlightened entrepreneur or a corporate crook? This ambiguity makes it very difficult for critics to oppose Wal-Mart. They cannot simply go up against Wal-Mart for violating the values that are dear to them and that are already fully incorporated in the 'Wal-Mart story'. Inversely, every attempt to prove that Wal-Mart in fact merely dishes up an eroded version of these values or makes a travesty of them, is met with the rejoinder that, with all due respect, one has to consider basic and natural economic laws such as profit-seeking. It is clear that, faced with such a 'capitalist crook with a politically correct face', anti-capitalist critics will have to come up with special tactics if they want to checkmate corporate capitalism.
4. Critical Documentary as Quilting Point
Hitherto we have perhaps uncritically dealt with Greenwald's documentary, focusing more on the case against Wal-Mart presented by it, giving our own presentation and interpretation of the materials presented rather than focusing on the documentary itself, that is, its method, tactics, form and style. The documentary, for instance, does not tackle Wal-Mart's CEO's split discourse as such, only juxtaposes the CEO's progressive statements with the ugly truth behind them, revealing their sheer hypocrisy. Each chapter begins with a statement of the CEO, the obvious lie of which is revealed in what follows through an array of evidence. In this sense, Wal-Mart sticks to the standard truth procedure of unmasking and demystification, the revelation of the split between the appearances and the facts, between the official discourse and its obscene hidden message, between the rhetoric and murky reality. In this respect Greenwald's approach differs from that of Michael Moore. Moore's films, rather than directly showing the truth, portray the main character looking for the truth. The author is included in the picture and tries to get to the truth by confronting the enemy. In this sense, the documentary is not so much about the truth as such, but about the quest for the truth.
A postmodern audience will no doubt dismiss Greenwald's simple procedure of unmasking as an anachronism, a remnant of a modernist culture of suspicion that believed it was the subject's duty to expose false appearances. To basic truth procedures more complicated ones can be added. One can – as we did with the Wal-Mart CEO – direct the critique on the level of discourse and reveal how underlying mechanisms cause all kinds of twists, distortions and strange formulations in the official discourse – a return of the repressed as it were. Such a symptomatic reading reveals how the dirty facts are reflected – and can as such be found – in the Wal-Mart discourse. This critical strategy occurs once in the documentary, in a fragment of a television show in which the presenter reacts to an isolated statement of Scott who in an interview dryly states that "it is our policy that we pay everyone for every hour worked" – obviously in response to allegations of Wal-Mart's massive abuse of working over-time. Instead of simply denying the allegations, the official register of the response betrays bad faith. The CEO seems to use diplomatic discourse, carefully choosing his words, using stock expressions, saying the bare minimum to convince the other party or soothe public opinion lest things can be used against them. In Scott's case, the careful phrasing of his response to the accusations – carefully phrased in terms of Wal-Mart's official policy, which still leaves the door open to abuses of the official line in practice – is the sign of his lying. If the allegations were really unjustified, he would have denied them much more resolutely.
Another tactic common in critical documentaries is to refrain from unmasking the words of the opponent as false but, on the contrary, to take his/her words and promises dead seriously. The latter strategy is to use the ideals and values that Wal-Mart has to mobilize to legitimize its activities as a leverage to force it to implement them. Think of the famous scene in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 in which the latter, as a true freedom fighter, urges pro-war members of the U.S. congress to set a good example and send their sons and daughters to Iraq to defend freedom and democracy. The subversive effect of Moore applying the war discourse more rigidly than its advocates, is created by provoking the opponent to betray his own articles of faith by asking him/her to abide by them, by asking the opponent to put into practice what s/he preaches. The congress men who Moore harassed, all strong defenders of the war, came up with all kinds of lame excuses for not sending their sons or daughters to Iraq.
The lack of more subtle and complex critical procedures in Greenwald's documentary, its use of no-nonsense truth techniques, can be seen as a fatal shortcoming. By pretending to have direct access to the truth, to be omniscient about the dealing and wheeling of Wal-Mart, and by merely presenting his own right Greenwald makes the audience into passive, ignorant, apathetic beings, or 'stupid white men' – to refer to the book title of another documentary maker, Michael Moore, who often receives similar criticism. To a postmodern, enlightened public who hates to be lectured by some all-knowing authority figure, such truth procedure will be discarded as patronizing and moralizing but also as ineffective, since the audience is not incited to think for itself, but merely swallows a ready-made truth prepared by the documentary maker. True though this criticism might be, there is still something pathological about it. It is the typical response of the enlightened subject who argues that it is already all too familiar with the message. Still – and this is the crucial point – this very admission of knowledge on the part of the subject, of 'knowing all too well', of 'having heard it all before', feeds a feeling of superiority, of self-sufficiency that functions as an excuse for not changing its lifestyle.
The form of Greenwald's documentary is equally criticized. Its cheap, commercial aesthetics trigger derisive reactions, as does the high degree of authorship, the 'hidden hand' of the documentary maker who stages everything to palm the message off on to the audience. Think, for instance, of Hito Steyerl's critique in this volume of the recent upsurge in popular, anti-capitalist documentaries, which she calls a "Wal-Martization of documentary practices". She argues that Greenwald's documentary is highly critical on the level of content, yet "offers hardly any resistance on the level of form".[10] Also, Greenwald's characterization of his documentary as a "tool to help the story", as something which "in itself will not change things, but will do so through those who will use it as a tool", will be highly contested as an assault on the documentary genre's autonomy, as the instrumentalization and even insubordination of documentary making to a political agenda – and hence a regression to mere propaganda. Again, these arguments sound strangely out of tune, normative even, as it seems to subject the entire documentary genre to a deconstructive aesthetics in the manner of David Lynch. In cultural studies it is commonplace to endorse the method of the latter as much more critical due to the author's self-effacing, to the extreme degree of merely offering complex and contradictory fragments the audience can endlessly construct their own narratives or truths with. Needless to say, the contemporary subject is more at ease with an open, 'free' style. The subject is treated as the author's equal or even as the author him/herself.
Things, another argument goes, are much more complex than the documentary shows them to be. The documentary deliberately reduces and hides this complexity in order to sell its political agenda. Against this we should argue that within a socio-political struggle precisely this critical-deconstructivist attitude obstructs any politicization since it endlessly defers a final judgment by fetishizing the irreducibly complex state of the world. One reverend in the Wal-Mart documentary claims that everybody has mixed reactions rather than straightforward opinions vis-à-vis the scandalous practices of Wal-Mart. Is the constant ambivalence that is expected of the discourse in documentaries not similar to the hardly straightforward official Wal-Mart discourse itself – as is revealed in the discourse analysis of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott? It is the merit of recent critical documentaries such as Wal-Mart that they do away with endless suspension of judgment and action and force the audience to make up their mind and act, and overcome the cynical deadlock in which the Left finds itself today. For this reason, we should refrain from applying the dogma of deconstructive film to the activist documentary genre. We should rather conceptualize how truth is produced and functions as part of bigger political struggle. This is Jacques Lacan's quilting point, the magical point in which all the different, fragmented, contradictory experiences of a situation come together, are 'pinned down', and cause the subject to grasp this situation, to retroactively construct its hidden logic and meaning. With regards to the Wal-Mart documentary it should be clear that the video, by presenting in one sequence all the diverse, fragmented experiences and stories of those duped by the company, allows the deceived and the audience to experience the 'Wal-Mart phenomenon' as such and grasp the systematic character of its strategies of exploitation. In other words, by bracketing the complex, multi-faceted experience of Wal-Mart, Greenwald's documentary opens up the possibility of resistance.
5. Why Robert Greenwald is Not a Religious Fundamentalist Patriot
The function of the Wal-Mart documentary as truth procedure brings us to the use of reactionary – or what is so perceived – structures and feelings in Greenwald's documentary to reveal the ills of the Wal-Mart corporation. Especially among European audiences this is often seen as problematic. The documentary shamelessly uses very American themes such as the entrepreneurial citizen who took risks and single-handedly built up his business from scratch. The documentary shamelessly exploits the American dream, using pathetic songs by Bruce Springsteen – undoubtedly the voice of hard working, self-made America – and lyrics such as "this land is your land, this land is my land, this land was made by me". In this way, the documentary easily juxtaposes big, corporate, multinational capitalism and local, small-town capitalism having its base in hard working community at the heart of which are shops and enterprises on Main Street, where owner and buyer, employer and employee, know each other's names and share the same life-world, where bosses throw Christmas parties for their employees. The latter is, of course, a retrospective myth, the fantasy of a socially and locally embedded capitalism that conceals the fact that earlier family enterprises were equally based on exploitation, that the local shopkeepers also profited from cheap and docile family labour. The difference, at most, is that this form of exploitation was 'kept in check' by the community's values, by the fact that the exploitee had direct contact with the exploiter – which makes it transparent to the participants and seemingly more honest. Today, conversely, one feels ruled by abstract market relations and the obscure movements of shareholders 'out there'.
Apart from this patriotic theme in Wal-Mart, the blatant religious edge given to the resistance to Wal-Mart will no doubt cause a postmodern audience to frown. In the documentary, the most passionate attacks on Wal-Mart are shown to come from the side of religious organizations. The latter are put forward as most antagonistic and radical in their opposition. We see reverends coining terms like 'plantation capitalism' and comparing the local communities' struggle against Wal-Mart as a case of David versus Goliath. This presentation of religion as the ultimate site or vehicle of protest is, of course, all but unproblematic. It should, for instance, be clear that religion is in the first place a moral discourse, essentially driving on moral outrage, as opposed to a political discourse, which is based on a systematic analysis and critique of the mode of production. For this reason, it seriously limits the resistance struggle, contenting itself, as it does, with ensuring that everybody has what s/he needs to lead a dignified human life. Or, as a reverend puts it in the documentary, "the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all Evil, not that it (money) is all evil". In short, a religiously driven resistance movement will seldom draw the radical conclusion that multinational capital does not merely produce immoral side effects that can be checked by a better management, but that there is something perverse in Capital as such, which will never go away and will always cause human misery and destitution. Such movements of moral indignation can therefore easily be recuperated by today's ideology of corporate responsibility that propounds that enterprises should not be 'all' about profit, but also that they should also take other factors into account such as 'people' or 'earth'.
All these patriotic or evangelist overtones will no doubt reinforce the conviction of Greenwald's critics that his, as well as other, recent critical documentaries, such as those of Michael Moore, somehow suffer from the same disease as the one they oppose, that they are somehow complicit to, and reinforce the same reactionary logics and mechanisms as those of the dominant culture they criticize, making them no different from the religious patriotism of G.W. Bush. We can see this conviction also as the basic thrust of the two criticism we dealt with earlier, that is, its direct access to the truth and its use of a populist, commercial, corporate aesthetic. Also here, one will argue that on the level of tactics or form, documentaries like Wal-Mart. The High Cost of Low Price corroborate with what they condemn and attack on the literal, narrative level. In other words, documentary makers like Greenwald are accused of not only of 'Wal-Martizing documentary practice', as Steyerl puts it, but also of Wal-Martizing anti-capitalist resistance as such.
How are we to assess Greenwald's use of such dubious references to small-town American capitalism or reverend outrage to support his case and mobilize his audience into resisting Wal-Mart? The crucial factor in deciding this concerns the question as to what audience the documentary mainly wants to address. The audience is obviously in the first place an American one. Thus, the mobilization of feelings of patriotism is no doubt done in order to address and convince the American audience that is notoriously apolitical and uncritical of capitalism. The same goes for the religious edge of Greenwald's documentary, which should be seen primarily as a strategic choice: religious sentiments and feelings of outrage are provoked to establish criticism against capitalism. Only to anti-capitalist purists will such strategic use of patriotism and religion be seen as a betrayal of the good cause – condemning religion as 'opium for the people' or the nation as the historical ally of capitalism. However, as Zizek puts it, sometimes one needs to be unfaithful to one's beliefs, in order to be faithful to them. In fact, sometimes the only way to be faithful to them is to betray them.[11] Or – as Fredric Jameson put it – when faced with a seemingly reactionary social formation, it is always a matter of isolating the utopian, subversive core of a certain ideological constellation, assuming that even the most reactionary ideology contains a progressive core.[12] Think for instance of the American woman at the end of Greenwald's documentary who raises the American flag at her house, singing a pathetic song of praise on the value of liberty. Although this scene can easily be attacked as yet another piece of evidence of the natural, pathological patriotism of the Americans, it is crucial to note that the scene ends with the woman's claim that free choice includes the right not to want a Wal-Mart in her neighbourhood. What we encounter here is the same 'short-cutting' of the progressive and regressive components of a social formation as in the Americans opposing the war in Iraq because of its betrayal of everything good and emancipatory that America stands for. Today, there is no resistance movement that can afford not to capitalize on the subversive core of the predominantly nationalist and religious ideologies in its context, in order to construct an alternative hegemony. Not to do this, would condemn capitalist resistance to a state of marginalization or abstraction.
[1] Stiglitz, J. (2002). Globalization and its Discontents. New York: Norton.
[2] Prahalad, C.K. (2005). The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Eradicating Poverty through Profits. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing. De Soto, H. (2000). The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. New York: Basic Books.
[3] Wallerstein, I (1995). After Liberalism. New York: The New Press.
[4] Wallerstein, I (1983). Historical Capitalism with Capitalist Civilization. London: Verso.
[5] Negri, A. and M. Hard (2000). Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[6] Slavoj Zizek, S., (1997). "Multiculturalism, or the Cultural Logic of Multinational Capitalism", in New Left Review, September/October, 225.
[7] Zizek, S., (1997). "Multiculturalism, or the Cultural Logic of Multinational Capitalism", in New Left Review, September/October, 225.
[8] Wallerstein, I., (1983). Historical Capitalism with Capitalist Civilization. London: Verso.
[9] Zizek, S., (1999). The Ticklish Subject. London: Verso.
[10] See Hito Steyerl's contribution to this volume: "Politics of Truth. The Wal-Martization of Documentary Practice". Steyerl, however, also points out that "[o]bviously, this resistance [i.e., on the level of the form] is not its [i.e. Greenwald's Wal-Mart. The High Cost of Low Price] purpose and we also need its attitude of enlightened reportage in a world which could not care less."
[11] Zizek, S., (1999). The Ticklish Subject. London: Verso.
[12] Jameson, F., (1981). The Political Unconscious. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Published in: Benda Hofmeyr (ed.), The Wal-Mart Phenomenon. Resisting neo-liberalism through art, design and theory, Maastricht: Jan van Eyck Publishers, 2008.


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Youth Defence has a few of its zealots posting actively this afternonn.
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'Get out of our lives': Call for abortion penalty to be reduced to €1 fine
A new bill aimed at decriminalising abortion in Ireland will be debated by the Dáil tomorrow.
The Marie Stopes trolls are everywhere.
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Poll: Will you be shopping this Black Friday?
THE AMERICAN RETAIL phenomenon Black Friday has gradually crept into the Irish marketplace, both in stores and online, in recent years.
The day of flash sales – when retailers slash prices – takes place this year on Friday 23 November, ahead of the festive season.
Considering Irish consumers spent over €1.3 billion on internet shopping last year, there will most likely be some bargain hunters on the lookout.
So, today we're asking: Will you be shopping this Black Friday?
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It's been a good week for getting real. After Tuesday's revelation that the majority of Americans link increased natural disasters with climate change, a new report yesterday indicates that they may be right.
In their newly-published report, reinsurance company Munich Re claimed that global climate change has been driving natural disasters and extreme weather events, and that this trend will increase as the climate continues to change.
The monetary cost of climate change is obviously a hot topic for an insurance provider:
-- The intensities of certain weather events in North America are among the highest in the world, and the risks associated with them are changing faster than anywhere else.
-- The second costliest year of the study period, 2011, was dominated by strong storms. Insured losses in the U.S. due to thunderstorms alone was the highest on record at an estimated $26 billion, more than double the previous thunderstorm record set in 2010.
-- Insured losses from disasters averaged $9 billion a year in the 1980s. By the 2000s, the average soared to $36 billion per year.
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"Report: Climate Change Linked to Costly Natural Disasters"


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Suffolk University serves to provide students with a living and learning environment that reflects the values of the Suffolk Community and supports the University's commitment to developing the intellectual, social and civic competencies of our students.
To achieve this goal, Suffolk University looks to students to be partners in this process with the hope of creating an environment that is respectful of the rights of all individuals within the community. Therefore, we expect that students become familiar with the expectations outlined in the Community Standards and Student Conduct Section of the Undergraduate Student Handbook and the Graduate Student Handbook, as they are the standards to which students will be held during their time here at the University.


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Kairali TV is an Malayalam language Indian television channel. Malayalam Communications Limited is the holding company which is chaired by Mammootty. Kairali TV by its very style and content en-capsules the quintessence of the culture, ethos and artistic aspirations of Malayalees.And not surprisingly, Kairali Channel has today emerged as an information-rich and viewer favorite channel that would entertain, engross and educate the Malayalee population all over the world.Kairalis vision is to create programmes that meet international standards of creativity and production excellence. And Kairalis mission is to rule the airwaves as the channel with the cutting edge viz the cutting edge of News breaking, programming and technical perfection. Today Kairali TV has emerged as the most preferred channel of Malayalees deeply entrenched in the minds of Keralites the world over.
Kairali TV is available in Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Europe, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Middle East and UAE


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The shock isn't that Jeff Kent is voted off "Survivor: Philippines" on Wednesday night, but that eight others go before him.
"I'll bet I was more entertaining than the crummy articles you write every week," Kent says by way of hello Thursday, and it's like old Dodgers times.
Just imagine being stuck on a deserted island with Kent.
He's joined by a bunch of bikinis, including a former Miss Utah teen and Miss Delaware USA. There's also a wimpish track coach with a mohawk, an African American cancer survivor with an earring in each ear and an openly lesbian competitor.
"A lot of people were laughing," Kent says when they saw the grouping. "But I don't have a problem with other people, black, white, gay or straight. I have a problem with idiots.


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