Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Life of Poetry

Muriel Rukeyser keeps popping up, so I'm going to suggest anyone unfamiliar with her work to check it out.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Shun and Censure

While it comes as no surprise that Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States continue to obstruct democratic participation by indigenous peoples in climate change talks at the United Nations, it is still disheartening to watch the UN perpetuate the bankrupt global carbon market schemes through the World Bank and other UN agencies. Even more distressing, is the hypocrisy of the international institution, especially given its much-touted declaration in support of indigenous human rights one year ago.

For those grown accustomed to fraud and other criminal enterprises by UN member states like the US, it is saddening to see the UN take the same route to perdition. With ecosystems and economies in collapse worldwide, the perfidy shown toward the Indigenous Caucus in Poznan was both foolish and unkind.

The generosity of the indigenous delegates and the First Nations that sent them to help the UN in this crisis should be rewarded, not rebuffed. People of conscience worldwide should both shun and censure their governments for behaving so rudely.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Bona Fide Blogging

Blogs are now an accepted genre of human communication. Indeed, when it comes to the written form, it is the most popular participatory mode.

I mean, every literary society in and out of academia and publishing has blogs, and often the best are those not written by professional authors or journalists. So why are bloggers not considered bona fide writers?

Maybe it's because blogging is relatively new and difficult to establish standards for. But then, what is the standard for a short story, a memoir or a novel? That it be interesting? Popular? Profitable?

Blogging can be all that. So why no recognition of the venue? Is it because bloggers came by their skills without formal education? That would hardly seem fair.

No, I think blogging is less favored because it is perceived to be less engaged--a sometimes accurate and thus forgivable prejudice. But then, do not the famous and fortunate also sometimes produce pulp for profit in between magnificent works of art?

Friday, December 05, 2008

Casablanca

Asserting that Portugal would never intentionally violate international law, Portugal's foreign minister today announced that no documents exist proving Portugal's complicity in smuggling kidnapped prisoners to the Guantanamo, Cuba torture camp. The assertion follows on the heels of a damning report in the Spanish media, that 95% of the prisoners bound for abuse by the CIA arrived on flights from the Portuguese Azores. Ever the wit, the Portuguese attorney general promised to get to the bottom of the allegations.