Chomsky Watch

Monisha Rajesh: Salman Rushdie And The Jaipur Literature Festival

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:18:59 +0000

So now what? What’s the future of the literature festival?

“The festival goes on!” says William Dalrymple, author and co-founder of the festival. “Back same place, same time next year.”

And with authors like Umberto Eco, Ariel Dorfman, Michael Palin, Elizabeth Gilbert, Noam Chomsky, Philip Pullman, Bill Bryson, Monica Ali and Jhumpa Lahiri slated to attend, I’ll be bringing an empty

via Monisha Rajesh: Salman Rushdie And The Jaipur Literature Festival.

Going Out Guide for Prince George’s County and Southern Maryland, Jan. 26-Feb. 1 – The Washington Post

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:17:49 +0000

Noam Chomsky The linguistics professor and anarchist will deliver one of the University of Maryland’s Dean’s Lectures. 7 p.m. Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Gildenhorn Recital Hall, University of Maryland, Route 193 and Stadium Drive, College Park. 301-405-2787. www.claricesmithcenter.umd.edu. Free.

via Going Out Guide for Prince George’s County and Southern Maryland, Jan. 26-Feb. 1 – The Washington Post.

The Hindu : News / International : Environmentalist quits Olympics ethics panel over Dow’s Bhopal links

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:16:56 +0000

The deal has sparked protests. Noam Chomsky is among high-profile international figures, including British MPs and former Olympians, who have written to Lord Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog), urging him to scrap the deal. Barry Gardiner, senior Labour MP and chairman of the Labour Friends of India, demanded a parliamentary inquiry.

Dow, which bought the Bhopal plant from Union Carbide after the gas tragedy, denies any liability. The Games’ organisers have defended the decision to award the contract to Dow, saying it was taken after all the issues were “very carefully” considered.

via The Hindu : News / International : Environmentalist quits Olympics ethics panel over Dow's Bhopal links.

WikiLeaks founder to host Kremlin-funded TV show | Reuters

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:15:56 +0000

Media analyst Konstantin von Eggert said he expected to see Assange interview Russian allies and anti-establishment guests such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and left-leaning U.S. academic Noam Chomsky.

“Julian Assange is famous for his anti-American and anti-Western views, that is exactly why Russia Today is hiring him as a journalist,” said von Eggert, a commentator for Kommersant FM radio.

“So this partnership is logical…. It has nothing to do with freedom of speech or real journalism.”

Russia Today – whose YouTube channel has had a record half a billion viewers – made headlines a year ago when U.S. airports refused to put up one of its controversial advertisements.

via WikiLeaks founder to host Kremlin-funded TV show | Reuters.

Fredericksburg.com – Noam Chomsky Speaks at the University of Maryland at Gildenhorn Recital Hall, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:14:34 +0000

Thu, Jan 26,2012 (more dates)

Venue: Gildenhorn Recital Hall, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

Address: University of Maryland, College Park, 20740

Description:College of Arts and Humanities Dean’s Lecture Series NOAM CHOMSKY Please note Noam Chomsky will offer two lectures: Thursday, January 26th, 2012, 4:30 PM Colony Ballroom, Stamp Student Union Friday, January 27th, 2012, 7:00 PM Gildenhorn Recital Hall, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Noam Chomsky’s appearance is co-sponsored by University of Maryland’s College of Arts & Humanities and the Department of Linguistics. For more information, contact meve@umd.edu.

Time:4:30 p.m.

Cost:Free

Ages: (18 and up)

Phone #: 301-405-6714

Web site: www.arhu.umd.edu/events/deans-lecture-series-noam-chomsky

via Fredericksburg.com – Noam Chomsky Speaks at the University of Maryland at Gildenhorn Recital Hall, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

Media Lens Message Board: Chomsky on Intellectual Ownership

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:31:17 +0000

“…I just don’t think intellectual property has much to do with innovation or independence. It has to do with protecting major concentrations of power which mostly got their power as a public gift, and making sure that they can maintain and expand their power…”

“…Chomsky is correct in his identification of today’s intellectual property system as a way of granting legal monopolies to corporations. And I applaud him for speaking out against the worst excesses of companies exploiting the patent system in the name of maximizing profits. But by focussing on and attacking only recent intellectual property law reforms, it is easy to fall into the trap of suggesting that the system could be fixed simply by repealing these reforms or otherwise tweaking the laws…No amount of legislation can ever change the fundamental relationship in production between the workers, who produce almost all of the world’s artistic and scientific wealth, and the rich minority who control the means of disseminating this wealth. Therefore workers have no stake in the intellectual property regime and should work only for the abolition of the entire system that supports it.”

via Media Lens Message Board: Chomsky on Intellectual Ownership.

Dr Cintli: Chomsky in Tucson & Forbidden Curricula

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:28:37 +0000

If I were on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board, I’d be quaking in my boots. The world’s leading intellectual, Noam Chomsky, will be in Tucson on Feb 7-8 and he has something to say about the recent banning of Mexican American Studies and also the banning of the MAS books.

Seem like its time for another national conference on Hate, Censorship and Forbidden Curricula.

Stay tuned.

via Dr Cintli: Chomsky in Tucson & Forbidden Curricula.

One-Eyed Media Kings: Seumas Milne, George Monbiot & ‘Media Analysis’ In The Guardian Wonderland

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:27:37 +0000

It may well be that you were able to do a better job of including voices of dissent than any other trusted pair of hands at the Guardian would have managed. But how many of these dissenting voices really ‘joined the dots’ in the way that Noam Chomsky does so well and so consistently? How many critical pieces in the Guardian portrayed the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq accurately as wars of aggression, as judged by the standards of the post-WW2 Nuremberg trials? How many pointed out that Bush, Blair, senior government politicians and military commanders should, by those agreed standards, be tried for ‘the supreme international crime’? How many analysed the invasions and wars as an integral part of the West’s longstanding attempts at global control and subjugation of peoples and natural resources, consistent with the demands of corporate-led capitalism? How many joined the dots by examining the role of the corporate news media, including the BBC and the Guardian, in enabling these wars of aggression? How many questioned the core assumption promoted by Western states that ‘we’ are the ‘good guys’?

via One-Eyed Media Kings: Seumas Milne, George Monbiot & ‘Media Analysis’ In The Guardian Wonderland.

The American Muslim (TAM)

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:26:28 +0000

After 9/11 Islam-bashing has become an almost social norm, and Islamophobia, once confined to xenophobes and bigots is now unashamedly exploited even by presidential wannabes who use anti-Muslim fear-baiting to garner votes. Noam Chomsky talks about the skilful manipulation of fear that was employed by the Nazis.

“The ‘ordinary folk’ were driven to fear a ‘Jewish-Bolshevik’ conspiracy to take over the world, placing the very survival of the German people at risk”.

Not dissimilar sentiments are expressed by both Rick Santorum, who is quoted as stating, “In our war against ‘radical’ Islam we must educate, engage, evangelize and eradicate Muslims”; and by Newt Gingrich who projects Islamic Shariah as ‘the pre-eminent totalitarian threat of our time’. We need to remind ourselves of what Caesar is purported to have stated ,

“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar”.

The silence of the media in challenging hate-filled anti-Islamic rhetoric is reminiscent of Dr King’s statement that ‘our lives begin to end when we become silent over things that matter.’

via The American Muslim (TAM).

Max Ajl, “One State, Two States: Who Is the Subject of Palestinian Liberation?”

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:25:01 +0000

The question is how to address this wrong: whether it can be remedied in steps, whether victories in struggles to end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza serve as stages for waging the next struggle. In this, he and his antagonists are at loggerheads. Finkelstein, following the line of his mentor, Noam Chomsky, argues that the route to one state goes through two states. The response from those arguing for one state is generally that, given the entrenchment of the occupation and the nil likelihood of Israel giving up on it, one might as well go all out for more justice — justice meaning full rights of both peoples to the land.

via Max Ajl, "One State, Two States: Who Is the Subject of Palestinian Liberation?".