What a Little War in Iraq Could Do
The way to avoid a big war is to intensify the little war that the United States is already fighting. It is using force against Iraq every day — to protect the no-flight zones and to stop and search ships heading for Iraqi ports. Only the American threat to use force makes the inspections possible — and possibly effective.
...But Mr. Bush could stop the American march toward the big war if he challenged the French (and the Germans and the Russians) to join the little war. The result would not be a victory for Mr. Hussein or Mr. Chirac, and it would ensure that the Iraqi regime would get weaker over time.
(NYT OpEd)
Domingo Soto's Personal Blog https://domsoto.blogspot.com/
Friday, March 07, 2003
Let Them Hate as Long as They Fear
Mexico's seat on the U.N. Security Council gives it a vote on the question of Iraq — and the threats the Bush administration has made to get that vote are quickly destroying any semblance of good will.
(NYT OpEd))
Mexico's seat on the U.N. Security Council gives it a vote on the question of Iraq — and the threats the Bush administration has made to get that vote are quickly destroying any semblance of good will.
(NYT OpEd))
Thursday, March 06, 2003
Cuban Serigraphs On Display Locally
Eleven Cuban serigraphs, are presently on display at Cathedral Square Gallery, 260 Dauphin Street as part of Mobile’s Cuban Week. The works,which many of my friends will recognize as normally residing on the walls of my apartment, will be on display until April 6. Hours are from 10 am to 4 pm, Monday to Friday. This is a tiny display and centers on the modern art that I like, but it's a chance to see some notable Cuban artists such as Alfredo Sosabravo and Raul Martinez and other samples of the vaunted style that has come to symbolize Cuban graphics.
The corpus of Alfredo Sosabravo's work, one of Cuba’s most highly decorated artists, spans the range of artistic endeavor - oil paintings, engraving, ceramics, and glass. He is presently quite in vogue with his oil painting fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars worldwide. On display will be five Sosabravo works: "Peces de Feria", "Arbol de Juguetes", "Naturaleza con Velador", "Composicion de Botellas Azules", and "Torre de Babel".
In 1959, Raul Martinez began working with a camera and became a photographer for Castro's newspaper, La Revolucion. During the 1960s, Martinez, who had been part of a noted abstract expressionist group during the Batista regime of the 1950s, used historical propaganda photographs of Castro and Ché Guevara in Pop Art style. He encouraged young photographers as Cuba began to nurture the arts within the context of politics and that by living in agreement with socialist tenets art was transformed into a "political act." Martinez’ noted poster of "El Che" will be on display.
Call 694-0278 for more information.
Eleven Cuban serigraphs, are presently on display at Cathedral Square Gallery, 260 Dauphin Street as part of Mobile’s Cuban Week. The works,which many of my friends will recognize as normally residing on the walls of my apartment, will be on display until April 6. Hours are from 10 am to 4 pm, Monday to Friday. This is a tiny display and centers on the modern art that I like, but it's a chance to see some notable Cuban artists such as Alfredo Sosabravo and Raul Martinez and other samples of the vaunted style that has come to symbolize Cuban graphics. The corpus of Alfredo Sosabravo's work, one of Cuba’s most highly decorated artists, spans the range of artistic endeavor - oil paintings, engraving, ceramics, and glass. He is presently quite in vogue with his oil painting fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars worldwide. On display will be five Sosabravo works: "Peces de Feria", "Arbol de Juguetes", "Naturaleza con Velador", "Composicion de Botellas Azules", and "Torre de Babel".
In 1959, Raul Martinez began working with a camera and became a photographer for Castro's newspaper, La Revolucion. During the 1960s, Martinez, who had been part of a noted abstract expressionist group during the Batista regime of the 1950s, used historical propaganda photographs of Castro and Ché Guevara in Pop Art style. He encouraged young photographers as Cuba began to nurture the arts within the context of politics and that by living in agreement with socialist tenets art was transformed into a "political act." Martinez’ noted poster of "El Che" will be on display.
Call 694-0278 for more information.
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
Noel Luis Rios
My cousin just sent me this email:
"Mark Lauer is Noel's son and has been looking for his father's side of his family for years. Thanks to your website, he found it. Unbelieveable!!!, Sixto."
Attached to the email was the original email sent by Mark:
Sixto and Narda:
"Praise the Lord!! The glory goes to God our Father. I have been searching for years and came across this web address http://www.domsoto.com/sixto/ and saw Noel's name and e-mailed you. I have seen this before but never e-mailed. I am glad I did yesterday.
Yes, I am Noel's son. I live in Fremont, CA near San Francisco and Helene lives in Denton, TX near Dallas. I have forwarded your e-mails to Helene after I called and spoke to her. I have had a very emotional morning to this point. Please call me ... if you feel so lead. There is so much I want to say, but not enough time to write it all out today.
God Bless, I hope to hear from you soon.
Mark."
This was followed by Narda's email:
"Junior,I just wanted to let you know that, through your website, Noel's son was able to locate us. We've searched, to no avail, for these two children up until several months before mom passed away.
Thanks and God Bless you!"
Noel's name is on the wall. He died in Viet Nam. I can't truthfuly say that I think about him often but he surfaces every now and then. These emails trip me off because, for the second time this month, I am participating in an intriquing coincidence, this time involving him.
When we were young we all lived in Newark and we looked up to him because he, Richard and Mario - who lived in New York - were the oldest of the male cousins. They were our role models. He hung out with the older wing of the cousin posse and was one of the toughs. Pretty guy, white Mendez skin, dark and intense eyes, slicked back hair, waterfall. At any rate, that's how I remember him. I also remember that he went off to war proudly. He was missing in action and we all waited for years, hoping it was just a terrible mistake.
I was in a bar recently with a friend. She has two sons who are also proudly and unhesitatingly serving their country and they are doing it in advance and special ops units. We are all worried for them. Somehow we got into a conversation about war stuff: "Support Bush.""We shouldn't be running off to do it much less not challenging the decisional process." We had fallen into the quicksand of the war debate.
I flashed on Noel and how he had gone off so gung ho and to my aunt and uncle's years of grief. I became at once angry at his hubris and sorry for our loss. I had tapped into a Sixties/Seventies angst like a contact bummer and it made me sad and worried for all of the Noels who are yet to come. And even though my cousin would probably still gladly go off with the two brothers in search of Osama - I invoked his name as a statement of my personal investment in the war and to give my protestations legitimacy. "I have a cousin on the wall."
I take no great pride in knowing that I have diminished his memory by invoking it for nothing better than to make a point or that in the process I had also unintentionally hurt a dear friend's feelings by bringing up the prospect of a new wall.
As we lumber towards the war and its necessary debate we must keep in mind that we are all family.
My cousin just sent me this email:
"Mark Lauer is Noel's son and has been looking for his father's side of his family for years. Thanks to your website, he found it. Unbelieveable!!!, Sixto."
Attached to the email was the original email sent by Mark:
Sixto and Narda:
"Praise the Lord!! The glory goes to God our Father. I have been searching for years and came across this web address http://www.domsoto.com/sixto/ and saw Noel's name and e-mailed you. I have seen this before but never e-mailed. I am glad I did yesterday.
Yes, I am Noel's son. I live in Fremont, CA near San Francisco and Helene lives in Denton, TX near Dallas. I have forwarded your e-mails to Helene after I called and spoke to her. I have had a very emotional morning to this point. Please call me ... if you feel so lead. There is so much I want to say, but not enough time to write it all out today.
God Bless, I hope to hear from you soon.
Mark."
This was followed by Narda's email:
"Junior,I just wanted to let you know that, through your website, Noel's son was able to locate us. We've searched, to no avail, for these two children up until several months before mom passed away.
Thanks and God Bless you!"
Noel's name is on the wall. He died in Viet Nam. I can't truthfuly say that I think about him often but he surfaces every now and then. These emails trip me off because, for the second time this month, I am participating in an intriquing coincidence, this time involving him.
When we were young we all lived in Newark and we looked up to him because he, Richard and Mario - who lived in New York - were the oldest of the male cousins. They were our role models. He hung out with the older wing of the cousin posse and was one of the toughs. Pretty guy, white Mendez skin, dark and intense eyes, slicked back hair, waterfall. At any rate, that's how I remember him. I also remember that he went off to war proudly. He was missing in action and we all waited for years, hoping it was just a terrible mistake.
I was in a bar recently with a friend. She has two sons who are also proudly and unhesitatingly serving their country and they are doing it in advance and special ops units. We are all worried for them. Somehow we got into a conversation about war stuff: "Support Bush.""We shouldn't be running off to do it much less not challenging the decisional process." We had fallen into the quicksand of the war debate.
I flashed on Noel and how he had gone off so gung ho and to my aunt and uncle's years of grief. I became at once angry at his hubris and sorry for our loss. I had tapped into a Sixties/Seventies angst like a contact bummer and it made me sad and worried for all of the Noels who are yet to come. And even though my cousin would probably still gladly go off with the two brothers in search of Osama - I invoked his name as a statement of my personal investment in the war and to give my protestations legitimacy. "I have a cousin on the wall."
I take no great pride in knowing that I have diminished his memory by invoking it for nothing better than to make a point or that in the process I had also unintentionally hurt a dear friend's feelings by bringing up the prospect of a new wall.
As we lumber towards the war and its necessary debate we must keep in mind that we are all family.
Clear Channel "Redeploys"
The Mobile Register's story this morning is an interesting sidelight to a national debate about the loss of identity in radio.Clear Channel always figures prominently in the many recent discussions lately about the pablumization of radio. The standardization issue is seen by many as a form of corporate cultural imperialism, except that no one claims that it's driven by anything other than efficiency and greed.
The Register reports that listeners of a local Mississippi radio station were surprised Monday when they heard rhythm and blues instead of their classic country fare. Alabamans fared worse, they couldn't hear it at all since the company moved their transmitters westward to better serve Biloxi. WBUB (Bubba?) now is WBUV (?).
"It is really a Gulfport-Biloxi station now." general manager of Clear Channel Radio's Mobile operations David Coppock told the Register citing FCC regulations that limit the ownership of stations by one group and the temporary waiver that had allowed them to have the station thus far. Plans also call for divesting the company of a Pensacola station in order to keep the company withing the "constraints" of the FCC.
The Mobile Register's story this morning is an interesting sidelight to a national debate about the loss of identity in radio.Clear Channel always figures prominently in the many recent discussions lately about the pablumization of radio. The standardization issue is seen by many as a form of corporate cultural imperialism, except that no one claims that it's driven by anything other than efficiency and greed.
The Register reports that listeners of a local Mississippi radio station were surprised Monday when they heard rhythm and blues instead of their classic country fare. Alabamans fared worse, they couldn't hear it at all since the company moved their transmitters westward to better serve Biloxi. WBUB (Bubba?) now is WBUV (?).
"It is really a Gulfport-Biloxi station now." general manager of Clear Channel Radio's Mobile operations David Coppock told the Register citing FCC regulations that limit the ownership of stations by one group and the temporary waiver that had allowed them to have the station thus far. Plans also call for divesting the company of a Pensacola station in order to keep the company withing the "constraints" of the FCC.
Hugo Chavez and the Limits of Democracy
Venezuela is a powerful reminder that elections are necessary but not sufficient for democracy, and that even longstanding democracies can unravel overnight. A government's legitimacy flows not only from the ballot box but also from the way it conducts itself.
(MOISES NAIM Op-Ed for NYT)
Venezuela is a powerful reminder that elections are necessary but not sufficient for democracy, and that even longstanding democracies can unravel overnight. A government's legitimacy flows not only from the ballot box but also from the way it conducts itself.
(MOISES NAIM Op-Ed for NYT)
Tuesday, March 04, 2003
US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war
Secret document details American plan to bug phones and emails of key Security Council members. Click Here To Read The Memo.
(Observer, posted in Samizdat)
Secret document details American plan to bug phones and emails of key Security Council members. Click Here To Read The Memo.
(Observer, posted in Samizdat)
US DIPLOMAT'S LETTER OF RESIGNATION
John Brady Kiesling to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell"
quite possibly the most eloquent statement of dissent thus far put forth regarding the issue of Iraq" appeared in the New York Times
(from Truthout and kc pat's Forty Two at Autre Blog, Suggested by Donna Soto)
John Brady Kiesling to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell"
quite possibly the most eloquent statement of dissent thus far put forth regarding the issue of Iraq" appeared in the New York Times
(from Truthout and kc pat's Forty Two at Autre Blog, Suggested by Donna Soto)
Monday, March 03, 2003
Thai Drug War takes Huge Casualties
Thai PM admits drug war 'mistakes'
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has admitted that police might have made some "mistakes" in waging a bloody month-long war on drugs which has left more than 1,100 people dead.
(BBC, posted in Unlearned Hand and suggested by Paul Whitehurst)
Thai PM admits drug war 'mistakes'
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has admitted that police might have made some "mistakes" in waging a bloody month-long war on drugs which has left more than 1,100 people dead.
(BBC, posted in Unlearned Hand and suggested by Paul Whitehurst)
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