Good-Bye Sylvie: The End of Neo-Liberal Nationalism

On April 18, 2010, I received a request for information from a British researcher at Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK. She is "currently working on a project under the supervision of Professor James Curran on news practices and 'global civil society'." The request had questions about my journalism on GroundReport.com. I told her that I would send my responses by E-mail, she replied that she would prefer to speak to me by phone. I declined.
On April 20, the Deepwater Horizon began spewing up to 100,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico and on April 27, I received a request for my responses by E-mail from the same researcher. Later that day, with my head down again, I returned my responses. In one of my responses, I said that my French Canadian heritage was important to me.


In order to shore up a political coalition on global warming, on March 31, 2010, Washington has loosened the restrictions on drilling in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico. This, after an oil industry shake-up that revealed among other problems, sexual relationships between employees of oil companies and U.S. regulators.

"Shaking up years of energy policy and
his own environmental backers,President
Barack Obama threw open a huge swath of
East Coast waters and other protected
areas in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico
to drilling Wednesday, widening the
politically explosive hunt for more home-
grown oil and gas."

"Still off limits: the entire Pacific sea-
board. And in a nod to conservation, Obama
canceled oil exploration in Alaska's Bristol
Bay, deeming the area a national treasure."
Recharging debate, Obama expands offshore drilling.
By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer Ben Feller, Associated Press




In an age of $99 G.P.S. Systems, and can openers that don't work, a reassessment of resource use by multi-national corporations needs to be undertaken. This, not only for the health of our Gulf, but the health of others, like Chinese workers, as well. This process seems inevitable, and Andy Sterns resignation from the Service Employees International Union is one good first step. But the desires of a few to stand by this Player Piano may very well destroy our planet as we know it before real change happens. Act locally, think globally. Perhaps New York can help a little here too.


Art+Politics = Power
Max

Their mining days are waning and New York is now a "fun city". When the drug cartels are defeated in Juarez, will it be a pious city? I don't have the answers yet, but change is needed. Check out Piet Mondrian's work, Composition, also in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Peggy Guggenheim. A Celebration. Karole P.B. Vail. Guggenheim Museum. p38.

The Sun in Its Jewel Case (1937) displayed at the Guggenheim Jejune in London, U.K. In 1939.


Robert M. Pirsig's last work, Lila, centers on the New York region. Lila went insane.


For an interesting review of Gerard de Nerval's work, Sylvie, see The Mists of Valois, In On Literature by Umberto Eco. 2002. Translated from the Italian by Martin McLaughlin. Harcourt, Inc., New York, NY, pp 28-61.