Saving Sunday

How Papers are Trying to Save Sunday

More people read newspapers on Sundays than any other day of the week. That's the good news.
The bad news is that each year an increasing smaller percentage of the population thinks the big Sunday bundle is worth the bother.
Here are some highlights from the E&P story, an overview that doesn't address why readers are giving up on Sunday and what, if anything, is working to retain them.
· Readership editors are shaking up content; the right mix for the modern, time-challenged reader -- eliminating some features, and tweaking or dramatically revising others[Editor & Publisher via TimPorter]

Sunday Watching
I love reading, as I was born and bred to absorb signs and symbols, so my Saturday is consumed by indulging for hours and hours inside pages of great reporting; especially the The Sydney Morning Herald which I suspect had been created to throw light on darkish subjects. The Herald is an amazing maze salted and peppered with easily digesteded first drafts dealing with many truths of our fragile life on earth. Toss in book reviews, impressions of new released movies and all those incomprehensible cutural and political trends and world is my tropical oyster. However, on Sunday within an hour I seem to complete badly composed newspapers; I generally add to the Saturday Herald and Saturday Australian (a.k.a. Sunday Telegraph) another newspaper Sunday Mail (in order to read shortish, but amusing Jim Soorley's column).
Generally, but especially when my family is enjoying a weekend in Sydney, my Sunday read takes place between sipping coffee, admiring the panoramic views of Moroton Island and those ad breaks of the Channel 9 Sunday Program. (See link under Nota Bene left and click on Jana Wendt)
· The Asylum Game [Jana; The Great Sunday]

Q: Who is your favourite author or has influenced your writing?
My Answer: A former Australian Ambassador in Vienna, James William Cumes, has written a book Haverleigh. One day soon this story about WWII and Kokoda Trail will become an epic like ‘A Fortunate Life’ by Facey. I am still amazed that it was an Australian writer, Thomas Kennealy, rather than some European writers who weaved a testing tale about the Czechoslovak, part saint and part sinner, Schindler.

Sunday Rereading
As far back as I can remember I have felt James Cumes' Haverleigh had the soul and guts and truth of a classic of Australian Literature. Haverleigh is a lot of things. It's a love story, a war story, the story of an improbable and impossible era peopled with all too probable, all too possible, all too real human beings. It's fraught with pain and love and irony and affection and disaffection. You will be different for having immersed yourself in it. Czech out this review:
Haverleigh is a great read for a weekend at home. It could easily
be the script for a mini series and who knows, maybe one day it will be just that!
Review by Bronwyn Mitterecker
From Bookworm, in The Australian Connection September 2003
· To Have or Not to Have [James Cumes, born and bred @ Beenleigh ]
· Revisiting Haverleigh [Dual Loyalty]

Sins of omission

D Day Gilligan barred from reporting duties:

History, it is said, is written by the victor, but journalists should have some respect for the truth.
Naughty, naughty: Are you from the BBC?
BBC executives denied that Gilligan's departure from day-to-day reporting on the Radio 4 Today programme was linked to revelations last week that he sent emails to two MPs on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee suggesting questions they could ask Kelly that would be 'devastating' for the Government.
Donald Anderson, the Labour chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said it was unprecedented for a witness to an inquiry to try to guide MPs' questions.
Mr. Gilligan is about to learn something himself about the sins of omission
· Dorothy Dixie [Guardian (UK)]
· Meister Spinners [BritishSpin]

Lease in stolen goods

Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction in stolen goods.
H.L. Menchken

Can any rational soul blame Supermen like Packer and Murdoch for attempting to sink Fairfax flagship which seems to be peppered with independent journalists?
The practice of socialising losses and privatising gains is hardly an Australian invention. As Alan Ramsey, of Fairfax Fame, once dangerously observed: Almost always, in politics, money is at the root of the greatest grovelling.

Dangers that Come with Freedom of Information Naked Leases: Shock Horror! Isolated Private Perks Exposed to Prying Public

Big businesses and some of the world's wealthiest people are renting taxpayer-owned land in NSW for peppercorn rates under a system that is riddled with inconsistencies and loopholes.
Office buildings, factories, marinas, petrol stations, restaurants, prestigious golf courses, five-star resorts and homes have been built on the land.
The total rent collected by the Department of Lands for 37.5 million hectares - nearly half the State - is just $60 million a year. That is less than $2 per hectare in the public purse.
· Identifying the Commonwealth Buck [SMH with a link to related article]
· Their Post Political Honor [SMH]

Lucky

The ability to use irony and to criticize (without being monitored by media units of the Secret Service) is one of the great strengths of our democracy. In Australia no one monitors my ironic views, what a Lucky Country this is, indeed...(ironic grin intended)

What a Week in Politics Down Under Good morning, I'd like to have an argument, please, please

Equating Hanson, a convicted fraudster, with Nelson Mandela is simplistic claptrap. While the human rights group Amnesty International tirelessly argued for Nelson Mandela's release from prison, we do not anticipate that it will campaign for the release of Hanson.
Webdiarists' Hanson reaction pattern is like the Tampa one - first a flood of emails outraged at the sentence, then defenders; start to trickle in and gradually build in numbers. Gianna under my Nota Bene link refers serious readers to full monty bloghorn!
· Political prisoner status earned, not stolen [SMH ]
· Comedy of slush funds [ABC ]
· Comedy of I know Nossink [SMH ]

Central European Heroism

Central European Heroism The rescue of Jews in German occupied Western Europe

There is no doubt that stories of sacrifice and heroism should have a prominent place in Holocaust historiography, and in the social histories of the countries concerned. However, the author argues the history of rescue in Western Europe needs to be further contextualised, and that scholarship should provide a more analytical approach to the subject of rescue, both in relation to individual occupied countries and also in comparative terms.
· Rescues [National Europe Centre, Australian National University/PDF]

Antipodean Hero

Antipodean Heros Nugget Coombs and his place in the postwar order

The publication of Tim Rowse’s biography of H.C. Coombs provides an appropriate context to further explore the life of Coombs. In particular, the relationship between Coombs and his environment is an important consideration, given Coombs’ iconic status in ‘progressive’ circles in Australia. Inquiry into the factors that both facilitated and constrained Coombs’ influence suggests that his influence has been overstated. But Coombs’ experience is relevant for a better understanding of the origins of the current economic policy regime in Australia.
· Coombs [The Drawing Board, University of Sydney]

God chose me to write this book

God chose me to write this book, writes satirist Al Franken in Lies and the Lying Liars. This isn't hubris. I just happened to be the right vessel at the right time.

Many, Many, Rejections are the Right Vessels

There are more rejection letters now than at any time in literary history. There are more manuscripts than ever - most publishers receive at least 100 a week - and more people to reject them. These days authors can expect rejections not only from publishers but also from the agents who themselves must wait for the work they're representing to be rejected.
Today, it is hard to imagine literature without the work of Primo Levi; but immediately after the war If This Is a Man was an extraordinary challenge to publishers. Nobody wanted to read about the Holocaust, perhaps because of horror mixed with a lingering anti-Semitism, and publishers knew it. One took the risk - a small house called De Silva - and printed 2,500 copies, of which they sold half. De Silva folded shortly afterwards, and only in 1958, after a handful of further rejections, did Einaudi take the book on. The plight of Anne Frank's diary was similar: it was turned down some 11 times before going into print.
· I have been constantly reminded that omnipotent God is a large publisher [Telegraph(UK) ]

Economic Powerhouse

Heart of Europe: World's Next small Economic Powerhouse

The Slovak Republic is set to become the world's next Hong Kong or Ireland, that is, a small place that's an economic powerhouse. Foreign investors are already taking note: Foreign direct investment in this country of 5.4 million people has grown from $2 billion (56 billion Kc) to $10 billion since 1999. The ingredients are there for takeoff.
· Soros' Generosity Behind the Paradise [Prague Post ]
· Hearty Country [Blog City]

Lord of the Golden City

Lord of the city

Pavel Bem was elected lord mayor of Prague in November 2002. He has made sprucing up the city's image a priority and he intends to regulate prostitution, reduce homelessness and prosecute taxi drivers who overcharge their customers. In a recent interview, he addressed some of the challenges the city faces as he focuses on its occasional scruffy reputation.
· Stag parties, prostitution and crooked taxi drivers [Prague Post]

A List of Men

Under Influence: A List of Men and (Women?)

Blogorrhoea's Blog Hero Tim Dunlop (en listed left under Nota Bene) once opined that a blogger not prepared to get personal or sexy would be well advised to produce lists if they wanted to be read and have their comments boxes filled. As I can't do personal and sexy at the same time, I've downed half a bottle of Jamesons and opted for a list.
· Model Influences [Blogorrhoea ]

Heart of Europe

I was born 14 years after my 16 years old auntie Zofka was declared a missing person, and 10 years after my auntie Ota escaped to West Germany once the Communist dictators confiscated all my grandfather's properties. However, as a child I was not only scared of German Nazis and Soviet communists, but also Spis raftsmen.

Number one, they are raftsmen and have learned to fake sincerity from the time they began smuggling illegal goods across the Poprad river.

RAFTSMAN Mato Oberta pushes the wooden raft (plt) filled with tourists away from the bank of the Vah river, jumps in and grabs an oar. Then he turns to the passengers and says: If you fall in the river, nothing's gonna save you. The lower currents will pull you down, no matter what you do. I cannot swim, but what good is swimming [in such dangerous water]?

Symbol of national history Girl of Dowina

Devín Castle is one of the oldest castles in Slovakia, Devín, sits on a huge rock overlooking where the Morava river meets the Danube river . The name Devín probably derives from Dowina, which in Old Slavic meant girl.
No blogging of Slovakia would be complete without posts about castles. The countryside is bursting with them - from the squat block of Bratislava Castle, to the fairytale towers of Bojnice Castle and the sheer scale of Spis Castle.
It is no surprise that Slovakia has such a wealth of castles, considering its position in the centre of Europe. The armies of Rome (Rim), Hungary (Madarsko), Poland (Polsko), Turkey (Turecko), Austria (Rakusko), Napoleon, Germany (Nemecko), and Russia (Rusko) have taken turns invading the country for thousands of years, with varying degrees of success. The fact that Slovakia exists at all is in part testament to its castle-building tradition.
· Kezmarok, Town of my birth to Maria and Jozef described as a miracle (smile) [CityBlog ]
· Roman Empire: Great Moravia [Sloval Spectator]
· Great Human Power [Sloval Spectator]
· Castlelated Country: 300
· Slovakia is riddled with almost 4,500 caves
· Nitra: Mount Zobor The Mount of my Czechoslovak army years
· The fort of pride and beauty
· Cerveny Kamen (Red Rock); Unnot in Schauffhausen, Switzerland
· Tam okolo Strecna, cesta nebezpecna
· Lubovna Castle: Memories: of: my: Grandmother: Katarina
· Spis Castle lords over the village of Spisske Podhradie
· Orava Castle
· The City of Fashion, as Trencín
· Liptovsky Hradok
· Lietava Castle
· Ghosts and Spirits at Bojnice Castle
· Orava Castle
· Strazky Chateau: the place of my tertiary studies
· Tatra wanderers: Childhood playground
· High Tatra Activities of my childhood
There are few swimming pools in the High Tatras mountain area, best know is the one in Vysné Ruzbachy. The complex at Vrbov in the Presov district has seven thermal pools and there are plans to add two more pools and another thermal water spring.
· Thermal Pools built on my grandfathers land
If Nagyvazsony was a happy surprise, Kezmarok was a miracle. This town, at the gateway to the High Tatras, a branch of the Carpathian Mountains bridging the Slovakian-Polish border, was settled by Germans from Saxony in the 13th century, brought there by Hungarian rulers to augment the local rural Slovak population against numerous and diverse invaders. The Hungarian king, Stephen V, gave the town and others in the region, called Spis, unusual privileges of self-government and autonomy. These boons lasted almost 600 years.
· Town of my Birth is a miracle

Habitually ignorant

Some are either habitually ignorant or they are habitually heartless.

A bad case of superiority Children freed after years behind the wire

The Family Court has freed five young siblings detained for 32 months in immigration centres, saying they had been exposed to violence and other inappropriate behaviour.
· Victory for commonsense [SMH ]

Bohemian Antipodean Demons

Adding Czechloggers Not Much Nazory/Opinions: Sacrifices

Through great sacrifice and hard work, Czechs consumed a whopping 326 pints of beer for every man, woman and child in the country.
· Nazory: Czech/English [Bloguje ]
· Not Much [NicMoc ]
· Czech and Slovak Literature Resources [compiled by Professor James Naughton, of Oxford University]

American Discover Land of Oz Another Aussie drunk driver sues

Francine Parrington lost her arm when she crashed into a tree while driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.118 but says it wasn't her fault and is suing the hotel for serving her too many drinks. ... She crashed into exactly the same tree a year before and claims her drinking habits were caused by her marital difficulties with a straying husband.
· Facing Oz Demons [Overlawyer ]
· Deliver us from guilt [Australian ]

Success Story: Become The Quiet Bohemian!

Become The Quiet Bohemian! An Arts Town Success Story

Not so long ago, the city of Somerville, Mass. was dilapidated, a place where artists got harassed; they certainly didn’t hold court at major intersections or thrash about in the street like dying fish. Over the past 20 years or so, the stigma of living in Somerville has been reduced, if not completely removed. Whatever the general explanation, most folks credit local artists — and, on a larger scale, the visible integration of art into the community by the Somerville Arts Council (SAC) — for helping to revitalize the city and improve its residents’ quality of life.
· The SAC is much more than a funnel for state grants [Boston Phoenix 08/21/03]

Bullies

Welcome To The Darkish Ages Fox As Hound

Conservatives once were the media underdogs. But Fox's suit against Al Franken shows that's no longer true. They're just bullies.
· Bullies Playing Victims!!! [Tom Paine]
· Judge Rejects Fox Request on Franken Book [Yahoo]

Robota

Robot attends Czech state dinner

Robot comes from the Czech word robota, which means drudgery.
· If you are not rich like mmmwwaaa your future as a robot in my Castle looks bright [BBC:; Positions Vacant; Apply@Monster.com]

A Dyslexic Alpha Male walks into a Bra

Only The Lonely Know The Way I Feel Tonight A dyslexic Alpha Male walks into a bra

How To Become An Alpha Male in 18 Easy Lessons" series, so here are all the links so far. I figure no book exists that will ever explain the wonderful, crazy, sexy, charming, powerful, mysterious thing known as "a man."
· What Men Want!!! (Scary Stuff) [HalleysComment ]
· Imrich and Fantastic in bed!!! (As Seen on Ka!! Video Network) [HalleysComment]

The Unexamined Life Is Like Totally Not Worth Living: Up Close and Personal
MD's Note: The following is the text of screenwriter/director Frank Pierson's commencement address to the 2003 USC film school graduating class.
We have to remind ourselves that this viewer is only another aspect of ourselves, that we have also in us-as he does-a better part, that needs to be cultivated and to express itself. There is no single audience with a single personality. There is the larger audience-currently under-served-that has vast variety of appetites that we can, we must, satisfy.
Liberal critics have raised the alarm over corporate censorship, the exclusion from theaters and TV of anything except what seems marketable and the eliminations of anything that might offend somebody anywhere. But the danger of censorship in America is less from business or the religious right or the self righteous left, than to self-censorship by artists themselves, who simply give up. If we can't see a way to get our story told, what is the point of trying? I wonder how many fine, inspiring ideas in every walk of life are strangled in the womb of the imagination because there's no way past the gates of commerce?
You are now our future, and this is the challenge you face. It is a bigger challenge than it seems because you cannot recapture something you never knew. It is your gargantuan task to create this spirit out of thin air, in the face of resistance and lack of interest, in your own style and out of your own imagination. Something new and as yet unknown.
· To reach and touch the angel in the beast [Alternet ]

Amerika

I believe in America. America has made my fortune

The place where Americans do have something to teach us is on immigration and asylum. They aren't perfect, but I would happily exchange our miserable and mean-spirited attitude to migrants for their energetic pursuit of talents and energy from everywhere in the world. Instead of being dazzled by the few bright sparks in America's racial nightmare, Europe should be working out how we can copy the real success at the heart of the American dream.
· More Than Skin Deep - Don't be Fooled by the Success of a Few Minority Americans - Racism is Still Rife [ CommonDreams]

The námêsti,

The námêsti,
the square that bears your name,
bore the names of soldiers
of the young Red Army—until nineteen
eighty-nine, the year no one had to die,
not God nor Kafka, for whom the fire
to warm the icy world was words.

Soviet invasion of Prague Be Not Afraid: As the Universal Solidarity of Freedom Always Prevails

Tomorrow will mark the 35th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Prague, a vile act which put an iron blanket over freedom in Central Europe for the next 21 years.

The solidarity of the Czechoslovak underground was deeper than the fear of secret police my countrymen shared. Freedom transcends geography, culture and generations. It especially the solidarity of young (naive) romantics, like Jan Palach, who at the age of 22 dreamt of and sacrificed for liberty.
As my folkloric teacher, Marta Chamillova, used to sayIf you want to set something afire, you must burn yourself.
In history there are times when action has to be taken, Jan Palach said from his deathbed.
As B Webb of the Guardian observes: 'Exchanging brutalism for another is not what Havel and his kind have in mind nor do such prescriptions fit the democratic habit of the Czechoslovak temperament, formed long before communism's arrival to power.
· Prague's Second Spring [Current Affairs Bulletin March 1990]
· The Tyranny of Fraternal Normalisation [MediaDragon]
· An Invasion Remembered [NCA]
· Tanks Rolling into Prague [BBC ]
· Communism and freedom cannot coexist [Boston ]
· Pucks v Tanks [Eurosavant ]

If one is to remain human

The character in the Quiet American said, Sooner or later, one has to take sides. If one is to remain human.

Ooooole ole ole ole. Ole. Ole Ole too human

What do we do in these crazy times?
I became so disillusioned with politicians and what was going on around me that I decided to write an autobiographical album and reaffirm my own sense of identity," he says. "And reaffirm some fundamentals such as the value of humanity over politicised definitions of what people are supposed to be.
If everyone was to think of themselves first of all as just simply human beings and think of other people then, as human beings, we'd have a very different world.
· feed more lies [SMH ]

The falling digital drops at last will wear the stone

The falling digital drops at last will wear the stone along the ancient Cold River.
--Lucretius misquoted

Paging Double Dragons Hello Kind Reader,

Somewhere in the near future, you will read a book that hasn't been produced in the way books are normally produced - i.e. printed on paper and bound. Digital books or ebooks exist in cyberspace as bits and bytes, but they're no less "books" for being represented by small electric currents. Many literary masterpieces can be read online and are accessible from myriad sources, some free and some for a fee.
Sexed up, extensive Australian site, Project Gutenberg of Australia, offers 250 free ebooks, including works by Australian authors and titles which are associated with Australia (although not necessarily written by an Australian).
· Godfather of the book: Guten (Betterberg) read [SMH]
· Welcome ArmadilloCon and Double Dragon Publishing Visitors! [eWise]
· Three men with courage to escape make a majority [eEscape]

Wild Rivers of Readers::Crosscurrents

For those who may not have seen it yet, BookCrossing is featured on page 22 of the August issue of the Reader's Digest

Releasing Books Into The Wild River of Readers The problem With Publishing Today – Is Me

Bookcrossing has hit Manchester. On Saturday, hundreds of books will be released on to the streets of the city. Being a virtual writer makes as much sense as escaping communism across the Cold War River. There’s something wonderful, something perversely subversive about being disconnected from the world of goods and services and Kerry Packer, if only for an hour or two every now and again. It’s freedom. Blogging is an uncharted wilderness like the tropical pub by the Brisbane River or hotel of Quest On Story Bridge Kangaroo Point stature.
· Rivercrossing Scores @ Bookcrossing,com- But Can It Keep Its Soul? [The Guardian (UK) 08/14/03]
· It took over 50 years to finish his book [TRFTimes ]

Kerrr? bel

My Virgin Exposure to Faking Sculptures Farmer Lev Kerbel

One of the premier sculptors of Socialist realist works whose statues of Lenin once graced city squares across the Eastern bloc, has died, NTV television reported Thursday. He was 85.
· 85 [Moscow Times 08/15/03]

Can the arts spur bush revival?

Rural Australia needs an influx of investment in culture. Cultural policy can easily smack of Big Brother (the political concept, not the TV show), but there are valid reasons why we need to keep culture high on the national agenda. It has nothing to do with opening nights, and everything to do with what Australia needs for a sustainable future. In 2000, the economic value of arts and related industries was about $8 billion. For indigenous Australians, the arts are their single biggest source of non-government income. The arts can provide jobs through flow-on effects such as tourism, but like any other investment, the money tends to gather where the people are.
· Creative Farms [The Australian 08/14/03]

Melting Pot

More Of Our Own...

We all pay lip service to the idea of diversity - of ideas, of people. But David Brooks writes that most people want to stick to their own. "Maybe somewhere in this country there is a truly diverse neighborhood in which a black Pentecostal minister lives next to a white anti-globalization activist, who lives next to an Asian short-order cook, who lives next to a professional golfer, who lives next to a postmodern-literature professor and a cardiovascular surgeon. But I have never been to or heard of that neighborhood. Instead, what I have seen all around the country is people making strenuous efforts to group themselves with people who are basically like themselves.
· We all pay lip service to the melting pot, but we really prefer the congealing pot [The Atlantic 09/03]

Can the arts spur bush revival?

Rural Australia needs an influx of investment in culture. Cultural policy can easily smack of Big Brother (the political concept, not the TV show), but there are valid reasons why we need to keep culture high on the national agenda. It has nothing to do with opening nights, and everything to do with what Australia needs for a sustainable future. In 2000, the economic value of arts and related industries was about $8 billion. For indigenous Australians, the arts are their single biggest source of non-government income. The arts can provide jobs through flow-on effects such as tourism, but like any other investment, the money tends to gather where the people are.
· Creative Farms [The Australian 08/14/03]

Bohemian Playwrights

Writers' block

Playwrights are all but invisible in London's West End. Now it takes celebrities to sell anything.
· The author is dead in the West End. Particularly, as it were, the living author [The Guardian (UK) 08/14/03 ]

Bortherly Hand

A Czech is asked, Do you consider Russians your brothers or your friends?
My brothers, of course, the Czech replies.
Why 'of course'?
I get to choose my friends.

Soviet-era joke. The Tyranny of Fraternal Assistance

Next Thursday will be the 35th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Prague, a vile act which put an iron blanket over freedom in Central Europe for the next 21 years. The University of Michigan has an interesting website full of documents and posters from the first few days after the tanks rolled in.
· Most people probably could not point to Czechoslovak High Tatra Moutains on a map [Reason via The Volokh Conspiracy]
· Cold River is microcosm of the Cold War. Big Brother's cold hand drowned two young men in the Morava River. [Saloon: Mr Michael Orthofer, Managing Editor, at The Complete Review ]

East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon Pivo U Fleku
· Deep Dark Delights [Prague Post]

eBook

This is the kind of exposure all publishers and writers dream of ... A great stroke of luck.
--eBook born out of 22 year old silence

arts & cultures: Crossing the same river twice: Run river. Run river. Run. Run. Run... Run Ondrej. Run Jozef. Run Milan. Run! Run! Run!

As writers (and likely as perfectionists of our own work), how do we decide when a piece is finally finished and ready for publication? Having my first daughter born exactly 9 months after the Velvet Revolution was, perhaps, one of the most remarkable illustrations of how hope can spring from the most appalling of tragedies. Authors are also aware of another birth. The birth of their story. A story which is much more important than their own survival.
Under communism Iron Curtain was a sacred and mysterious space, a boundary not to be crossed. Transgression of this boundary was the act of a criminal and a heroic nature. Iron Curtain was the ultimate line between fragile me and the rest of the wonderful world because like nothing else the curtain embodied liberating ideas of a particular time and place.
· Welcome ArmadilloCon and Double Dragon Publishing Visitors! [eRun]
· Three men with courage to run make a majority [eWisdom]
· I particularly relish the opportunity to share this review [WomenOnWriting]]
· As a taut wire cuts through cheese [Rushdie: YaleReview]
· Embargo This Book [Potty Harry]
· Ask and ye shall receive! Steal This eBook [Cold River]
David Makinson

Truth is ugly

Truth is ugly

Nietzsche said it: 'We possess art lest we perish of the truth.' The only virtue left in this day and age is courage before the hopeless. The only art is one whose symbols will catch the fundamental truth of life, its tragedy. Primitive art is magical because it is shaped by terror.'
· Ironically, Seek My Beauty [SMH ]

Cold War's Forgotten People

Cold War's Forgotten People

The end of the cold war made a unified Germany the favoured destination for large numbers of migrants from farther east – including ethnic Germans from Romania and the former Soviet Union. How has the country managed these huge inflows, and what lessons does German experience offer to a possible Europe-wide migration model?
· East is West [OpenDemocracy ]
· Roma, Europe's forgotten people

Make a new life in Amerika... or Australia

Beginning with the premise that everyone looking to make a new life migrates to Amerika... or Australia

Are you a Worthy Oriental Gentlemen? (WOG) Then Hop on Board for Immigrant Justice

Buses filled with immigrant workers and their allies next month will begin a historic journey from 10 cities, including Seattle, to Washington, D.C., and culminating at the Statue of Liberty and New York City, to demand respect for all people regardless of immigration status.
The Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride, starting Sept. 23, is designed after the freedom rides of the early 1960s that exposed the brutality of legal segregation in America.
· Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride [Common Dreams]
· The Slovaks in America [Loc ]
· The Documents of Freedom series [Salon: Freedom Series]

Crossing the Same River Twice: Liberating eBooks

This is the kind of exposure all publishers and writers dream of ...
--eBook born out of 22 year old silence

Paperless Power Crossing the Same River Twice: Liberating eBooks

As writers (and likely as perfectionists of our own work), how do we decide when a piece is finally finished and ready for publication? Having my first daughter born exactly 9 months after the Velvet Revolution was, perhaps, one of the most remarkable illustrations of how hope can spring from the most appalling of tragedies. Authors are also aware of another birth. The birth of their story. A story which is much more important than their own survival.
Under communism Iron Curtain was a sacred and mysterious space, a boundary not to be crossed. Transgression of this boundary was the act of a criminal and a heroic nature. Iron Curtain was the ultimate line between fragile me and the rest of the wonderful world because like nothing else the curtain embodied liberating ideas of a particular time and place.
· Welcome ArmadilloCon and Double Dragon Publishing Visitors! [eWisdom ]
· Three men with courage make a majority [eWisdom]
· I particularly relish the opportunity to share this review [WomenOnWriting]]
· As a taut wire cuts through cheese [Rushdie: YaleReview]

MovingOn

Anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis knows I'm a big fan of the Bohemian philosopher king, Vaclav Havel. I know, as anyone who has crossed the Iron Curtain should realize, that Carmen Lawrence is shaping out to be the Antipodean Havel in a skirt. Czech out this thoughtful essay worthy of wide distribution, along the lines of The Power of the Powerless, which served as the most extensive theoretical underpinning for Charter 77 and democratic revival. Withering democracy could yet become the polis of our dreams describes how political bullies have dumped voters for a sleazy mix of opinion polls and donor largesse...

Rising Democracies An Interested, Involved Citizenry is Vital to Democracy

Sen. Ernest Hollings of South Carolina said this week he won't run again for the Senate, as he's discouraged by the excessively partisan and counterproductive direction of the nation's politics.
· Partisanship [Madison ]
· Total Information Awareness program that's right out of George Orwell's 1984 [Former Vice President Al Gore: MoveOn ]
· The Running Man: Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor [SanFrancisco: Ms Universe wants to be Mr California]

Stealing The Internet

Blogging Stealing The Internet

Forget media mergers. A bigger threat may loom on the media landscape.
As commercial interests have increasingly dominated the Internet, Web logs have come to represent a bastion of individual expression and pure democracy for millions of bloggers.
· Dispute exposes bitter power struggle behind Web logs [News ]
· Stealing Edge [ TomPaine]
· Future [eMediaTidbits ]
· Adultery Means to confess sins [USAToday ]

Czex

Born to Party Czex: Karl Brabenec

An aide to Orange County Executive Edward Diana is under fire after he and his friends invited some of the nation's brightest Young Republicans to what was advertised as a booze-soaked sex bash in Boston.
The controversy surrounding Diana's 24-year-old staff assistant, Karl Brabenec, started at the Young Republicans national convention July 11, when his friends distributed fliers "for lots of beer, liquor and sex" at a party dubbed, "Karlpalooza '03."
· Party Poopers: Young Bohemian's party plan crashes [ RecordOnLine]

The Creativity Factor

A new study by Ann Markusen and David King argues that the arts are a core piece of a local economy. Good schools, parks, recreation and housing are important, but also lively streets and ample opportunities for entertainment and artistic enrichment. It's not surprising, then, that cities with high concentrations of artists - San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis-St. Paul - tend to be better economic performers than cities with lower concentrations - Dallas, Cleveland, Pittsburgh.
· Nurturing clusters of artists is a sound investment for governments [The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 08/03/03]

Czex

World's 10th-friendliest city The kindness of strangers: the Golden City

It's not surprising that people who have lived under authoritarian rule -- still the case in many Third World countries -- share the trait of being willing to help, no matter how different their cultures. The desire to cast off oppression and create a better society seems to bring people everywhere closer together.
· Totalitarian systems can unite people [The Prague Post]

Capek mixes politics and prose with the perennials

Miniature bellflowers, saxifrages, campions, speedwells, sandworts, drabas and iberises and madworts and phloxes (and dryases and erysimums and house leeks and stone crops) and lavender and cinquefoil and anemone and corn camomile and rockcress ..." And that's only the alpine rockery.
· Czex [The Prague Post]

Testimony

Interrogator known as 'The Thresher' dies before trial at age 81

Death of StB agent frustrates survivors
Victims of the former communist regime say the death of former Czechoslovak secret police (StB) investigator Alois Grebenicek has frustrated their quest for justice.
We regret most of all that Grebenicek cannot appear in the court anymore. I was ready to give my testimony about how inhumanely he and his colleagues treated us, said Pavel Hubacka who served 15 years as a political prisoner. He said he had given testimony three times about Grebenicek, who was dubbed "The Thresher" by his victims because of his alleged cruelty.
· "The Thresher" [The Prague Post]
· Zhivago row in Russian schools [Guardian ]

The Courage to face Crucifixion

Don't let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world and not from (morality)
[(Colossians 2:8) =\ :: Daniel 13:01]

Common Sense Pope John Paul II, The Courage to be Crucified

Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behavior ... but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity
· Erosion of Common Sense

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
--Aesop

The big thieves hang the little ones.
-- Czech Proverb

Three virtues: humility, docility and responsibility Ethics is everybody's business: The sad decline of ethics in business, politics and the media

Humility is in reality, a strength and involves acknowledging both our abilities and our limitations.
Docility, usually perceived negatively, literally means easy to teach. Learning should be a lifetime experience.
Responsibility, to those less fortunate than you, to your community, to your country, to the world. And he cited Penn's motto, "Leges sine moribus vanae" (laws without morals are meaningless). There is elegance in simplicity.
The importance of ethics to the maintenance of a free and democratic society, and the need for leadership in setting the tone for ethical behavior.
· A lack of ethics erodes confidence in our primary societal institutions: government, business and the press [Daily Pennsylvanian]

Irony

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts...
-- Will Rogers

Hope to government officials: Remember, you guys, your salaries are paid by the tax payers, and I may be one some day.
— from "My Favorite Spy" (1953) Quote courtesy of Allan R M Jones

Irony Curtain Velvet Laughter

Hope was famous for making fun of politicians. In the 1950s this was considered proof that our democracy worked. No small accomplishment considering what was going on elsewhere in the world: we could laugh at our leaders! But Hope’s political commentary, like his social observations, never cut deep, never dealt with real issues, were meant to tickle the funny-bone, not excite the brain. Politicians liked being “insulted” by Hope. It gave them the aura of Everyman, and they trusted that Hope’s barbs would not be pointed.

Abraham Maslow, one of the founders of humanist psychology, was soon to ask, what is a healthy reaction to racism, poverty, totalitarianism, and the husband who wants his wife to remain a child? Maslow’s answer, written in Toward A Psychology of Being, was, It seems quite clear that personality problems may sometimes be loud protests against one’s psychological bones, of one’s true inner nature. What is sick then is not to protest when this crime is being committed.
Like any Velvetish Theatre and Irony of the Absurd, Laughter has the power to rattle our bones, open our senses, stir out minds, move us personally, and shake the world.
· Sicknik humor [Common Dreams]

Messy::Myths

The ability to criticize is one of the great strengths of our democracy. ..

Messy Myths The Lunatic Fringe of Spinmeisters

Mike Seccombe offers a sobering assessment of political lunatic fringers in my favourite paper the Sydney Morning Herald this very morning.
Mike profiles John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, the PR Watchers who for months have been busy exposing the president's penchant for marketing - as opposed to truth-telling.
Stauber and Rampton, the Madison-based debunkers of corporate spin, have written up their compelling case against the White House's "case" for war in an exceptional new book, "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq" (Tarcher/Putnam). It is difficult to imagine a more timely text.
This is not a matter of ideology, but of ethics. The systemic corruption resulting from the new spin is just as serious in Britain or Australia as in the US. The tools of manipulation are as available to the Labor Government of NSW as to the Liberal Federal Government.
I met the authors in Sydney in late 1990s when Wendy Baker invited them to discuss their other books called "Toxic Sludge Is Good for You" and "Trust Us, We're Experts." John Stauber predicted the limited chances of my story ever being noticed by big publishers. Indeed, George Lucas of Simon & Schuster fame repeated Staubers sober observations along the lines of any story of escape dated 1980 would be considered too old by publishing houses. ... I have an email from Lucas to prove that it was not only old it was ancient (spinning smile)
By George [Thanks to the underground connections for this link as it is not available directly from SMH site]
· Unveiling Myth's of Mass Deceptions [Alternet]
· Take people seriously - seriously [SMH ]
(PS:: Seriously, later, much later after the UTS workshop, I found out that Wendy assumed I was some kind of a spy (grin))

Europe An Innovative News Blog

Eurosavant.com is a news blog written in English about news from the non-English European press. It's written by Michael Olson,
an American living in Amsterdam, who can read a dozen different languages.
He reads the press in the original language and blogs it for English speakers.
· European news site [E-Media Tidbits]
· NetNews Tracker: automatically tracks websites of interest [NetNews ]

Spirit of Kokoda

Charlie Lynn

Kokoda is a unique personal adventure with a powerful blend of historical, cultural and environmental experiences.
Anyone who has ever met NSW Upper House MP Charlie Lynn will know his passion for the Kokoda Track, it's history and the importance of it to Australia's history and security.
He has unashamedly campaigned for greater recognition of Australia's Alamo at all levels - all the way to the Prime Minister.
His campaign has a great number of high profile supporters, and after many years is beginning to bear fruit.
Adventure Kokoda has a new website, well worth having a look at:
· Spirit of Kokoda [viaCapitalR.org ]

Congressmen

Why Congressmen Want To Be Lobbyists

This past November, there was a nice little retirement party for Rep. Bob Borski, D-Pa., and a few other departing members of the House Transportation Committee. Borski had represented Philadelphia in Congress for 20 years. The going-away fete was held in the Transportation Committee room. In attendance were staff members for both the committee and the House representatives who sat on it; the members themselves; representatives of the transportation industry; and one U.S. senator, Arlen Specter, R-Pa. Warm memories were shared about Borski's years of public service. After awhile, the die-hards drifted back to Borski's office in the Rayburn building to savor the view of the Capitol and listen to a record of "My Way" sung by Frank Sinatra. "It was not a big, fancy, quartet-in-the-corner kind of thing," recalls Andrea Whiting, who was Borski's chief of staff.
· Tauzin and Bono were sort of kidding, and sort of not. [ Slate]