Page 687 – Toward Freedom

The Politics of Hungary’s Folk Music: Beyond Nationalism and Xenophobia

Sammy Loren April 8, 2010 Sammy Loren

Photo by Daniel Spitzberg

You hear them in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Berlin: Punk bands, "world musicians" and cabarets filch Roma, or Gypsy, Jewish and Balkan melodies, and casually weave them into other musical traditions. In these metropolises, Eastern European folk music roosts on the margins, threading together broader Balkan, Jewish and Roma themes to survive. Yet on the edge of this musical map beats Budapest, a folk boomtown with thriving Magyar, Roma and the seedlings of the neo-klezmer scene. In a town where established folk communities are the norm, do they ever cross-pollinate?

Obama Gives Key Agriculture Post to Monsanto Man

Gary Ruskin April 7, 2010 Gary Ruskin

Source: Global Research

Today, President Obama announced that he will recess appoint Islam A. Siddiqui to the position of Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Siddiqui is a pesticide lobbyist and Vice President for Science and Regulatory Affairs at CropLife America, an agribusiness lobbying group that represents Monsanto.

Following is a letter sent by 98 organizations to U.S. Senators in opposition to Siddiqui’s appointment, and a fact sheet about him.

Dear Senator: read more

Political History Looms Large in Spanish Soccer War

Pete Redington April 7, 2010 Pete Redington

Source: In These Times

Last year, the soccer team FC Barcelona achieved one of the greatest seasons in the history of sports by winning both the Spanish League title, the European Champions League and four other trophies, becoming the first team ever to win the sextuple.

But Barca (as it is popularly known) is more than just a formidable soccer team. By fighting humanitarian battles off the field, it is a rare example of a successful franchise that manages to keep sports in proper perspective.

For more than 100 years, Barca has conducted itself as a “defender of freedom and democratic rights,” as team president Joan Laporta puts it, “facing up to others in a time of governments without tolerance.” The team’s immense stadium is adorned with paintings by Joan Miro and Salvador Dali, and the club is owned by its fans-more than 150,000 of them. read more

Social Fault Lines: The Disaster of Poverty in Haiti

Beverly Bell April 7, 2010 Beverly Bell

Post-quake tent city

Laura Wagner, a U.S. anthropologist who survived - barely -

Haiti

's earthquake in January, writes, "Social scientists who study catastrophes say there are no natural disasters. In every calamity, it is inevitably the poor who suffer more, die more, and will continue to suffer and die after the cameras turn their gaze elsewhere. Do not be deceived by claims that everyone was affected equally -- fault lines are social as well as geological."

Wikileaks Releases Video of US Military Massacre in Iraq

Wikileaks April 6, 2010 Wikileaks

WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying [in April 2010] of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. For further information please visit the special project website www.collateralmurder.com. read more

Bad Aid: Throw Your Arms Around the World

Vijay Prashad April 6, 2010 Vijay Prashad

In December 1984, I walked into the HMV store on London's Oxford Street to spend a little discretionary money on an LP. Other albums drew me, but one had an advantage. It combined the talents of all the major "Top of the Pops" singers onto one song. Given the standards of British pop at the time (leaving aside Scritti Politti's "Jacques Derrida" and perhaps the Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy"), the diminishing marginal returns at the cash register were held in check with only one purchase. It had to be Bob Geldof's Do They Know It's Christmas?