Videoreportazh

Albanian socialist realism and propaganda, ca. 1965.

«Parti! O prijësja jonë! Ti e bëre atdheun të bukur, krenar! Ushtarë besnikë ty të qëndrojmë. Me ty marshojmë në të katërtin pesëvjeçar».

Gëzuar Pashkët...

...mollëkuqet, dua të them.... :)

Pamja: Balboa Park, San Diego, CA - 23 mars 2009

Brother, can you spare a dime?

Listening to the song below and looking at the slide show pictures from the Depression era that accompany it, I cannot help but be reminded of the bread/food/milk lines in 'communist' Eastern Europe. The only difference is that in those countries everybody was in line and when we got to the end of it, we had the money to pay for the scarce food. Shortage for you meant shortage for me and there was some comfort in the egalitarian nature of that misery. In the aftermath of capitalist greed, however, there is a part of the population—the guilty part, might I add—that never has the need to get near those lines, whereas the majority of the people are forced by their conditions to wait for hours for a pitiful pittance of food for mere sustenance.

7 prill 1939 - 7 prill 2009

Sot, më 7 prill 2009, mbushen plot 70 vjet nga dita kur Shqipëria u pushtua nga Italia fashiste. Ky përvjetor (ndonëse i zi) nuk është përmendur kurrkund në shtyp, por unë nuk mund të mos kujtoja ata që qëndruan në Shqipëri dhe ngritën qëndresë ndaj pushtuesit; si dhe ata që u ngritën e ikën, e lanë në mëshirë të fashizmit, e që sot kërkojnë tituj e pronat e mbrojtura me gjakun e atyre që luftuan me vetëmohim.

VF-LP

Names of the Dead

Names of the Dead

It is under this ominous title that The New York Times publishes its periodic rubric, tucked somewhere in its pages. I do not know what page; I cannot afford the NYT print edition. My RSS feed never seems to miss the title, though. I find no shame in saying I do skip it sometimes. I know what it will say: a few names of men and women I do not know, their ages and how they perished over there.

Every single time, the rubric does not fail to mention the onerous reminder of the cost of this war: the total numbers of those whose lives have met their end in the hands of those whom they oppose. What I think about more, however, are the dirty hands of those because of whom they died. We all know their names. We all know their deeds. And we all witness periodically how the numbers of those who lose their lives in two wars far removed from the public eye, rise with no end in sight.

Today's numbers:
Iraq: 4,257
Afghanistan: 666

The disparity is shocking. The fault of those who sent them there, ever greater. Their remorse, ever more remote.

I find few justifications for war. Of the two in question, Afghanistan was the more 'justified' (I use the term with a lot of reservations) and somehow for six years it has been the more forgotten war. I do not know what must be done, what will be done. I want us to get out of Iraq... badly... and not look back. But a big part of me (call it the masochistic part, call it the accountable part) wants us to feel the burden of responsibility for the destruction and chaos we wrought on it, and the culpability for the injustices we have committed with Iraq ever since the inception of the war. We have destroyed a country, countless lives—among which hundreds of our own people—and all I know for certain right now is that we all have blood on our hands... and this damnèd spot is not going to come off easily.

«Dhe sikur ti të mos ekzistoje»

Dhe sikur ti të mos ekzistoje,
Thuamë përse do të ekzistoja unë?
Për t'u zvarritur në një botë pa ty,
Pa shpresë e pa mall.

Dhe sikur ti të mos ekzistoje,
Do të përpiqesha të shpikja dashurinë,
Si një piktor që sheh si nën gishta
Lindin ngjyrat e jetës
Dhe më nuk del syresh.

Dhe sikur ti të mos ekzistoje,
Thuamë përse do të ekzistoja unë?
Për kalimtaret e përgjumura në krahët e mi
Që s'do të dashuroja kurrë.

Dhe sikur ti të mos ekzistoje,
Do të isha veç një pikë më tepër
Në këtë botë që vjen e shkon
Do të ndihesha i humbur,
Do të kisha nevojë për ty.

Dhe sikur ti të mos ekzistoje,
Thuamë si do të ekzistoja unë?
Mund të shtiresha si vetja
Por i vërtetë s'do të isha.

Dhe sikur ti të mos ekzistoje,
Besoj se do të kisha gjetur
Të fshehtën e jetës, pse-në,
Thjesht për të të krijuar
dhe për të të parë.

Joe DASSIN

Secularism Alive in the Heartland

The statute at issue in this case does not prescribe a definition of marriage for religious institutions. Instead, the statute, declares, 'Marriage is a civil contract' and then regulates that civil contract.... Thus, in pursuing our task in this case, we proceed as civil judges, far removed from the theological debate of religious clerics, and focus only on the concept of civil marriage and the state licensing system that identifies a limited class of persons entitled to secular rights and benefits associated with marriage.

Iowa Supreme Court in the unanimous opinion on protecting same-sex marriage rights.

3 April 2009