Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo

Jim e and I got up reasonably early and after a quick breakfast we headed to the Cafe de las Madres near the Plaza de Mayo.

After a drink and a look at the pictures and the list of disappeared persons at the cafe, we walked over to the Plaza de Mayo and watched the mothers and grandmothers as the walked around the plaza. I even walked a bit with them.

I felt moved by their courage in standing up against the abusive Argentinian dictatorship in support of their family members who were “disappeared.”

We met Frank, a French-speaker from Montreal there after earlier meeting him at the hotel.

After searching unsuccessfully for a vegetarian restaurant, we ended up eating at a mediocre restaurant with mate (the ubiquitous tea-like beverage served warm in cured pumpkin gourds), bruschetta, and empanadas (which weren’t as delicious as the one I had near the plastic surgery clinic).

That evening, we went to a vegetarian restaurant called Bio in Palermo Viejo, which was hands down my favorite restaurant in all of Buenos Aires.

Slave Culture

Sterling Stuckey’s Notes on Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America is an impressive survey of the roots of African-American nationalism from the earliest slave period until the mid-twentieth century. The book weaves accounts of African rituals, customs, and spirituality into historical accounts of events in the United States. By drawing on the lives of Simon Brown, Denmark Vesey, David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, Alexander Crummell, William Hamilton, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Paul Robeson, the book provides access and perspective on the ongoing debate within African-American communities about integration versus nationalism. The author masterfully documents and explains the connections between African and African-American culture, both slave and free, and how they drive the political awareness and action of African-Americans and, to some extent, Africans everywhere.

“Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated” by Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal’s “Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated” makes for quite eye-opening reading. He traces the recent history of “terrorism” and indicts the U.S. government heavily for its role in inciting domestic and international terrorism. He explains how Waco–the largest massacre of Americans by the feds since Wounded Knee, where 82 Branch Davidians died at the hands of federal agents, including thirty women and twenty-five children–led to the Oklahoma City bombing and details some of his fascinating correspondence with Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted of the bombing. He explains how the U.S. funded Osama bin Laden’s activities for many years. He includes an impressive list of U.S. “operations” in various parts of the globe spanning several decades. He explains how anti-drug laws have failed miserably at stopping drug traffic while diminishing considerably the civil liberties of U.S. citizens, including arbitrary seizures of property without substantial justification. He points out that Clinton passed an Anti-Terrorism Act on April 20, 1996, restricting civil liberties, such as the ? law permitting posse comitatus, the domestic use of U.S. armies, which is prohibited by the U.S. constitution. At points, he seems to espouse conspiracy theories about McVeigh’s helpers, coverups of the Waco and Oklahoma City incidents, and right-wing religious affiliations. He ends with an essay that points out, among other facts, that the “1950 tax on corporate profits accounted for 25 percent of federal revenue; in 1999 only 10.1 percent.” Yet Shrub is still asking for more corporate tax cuts! The burden of humungous military spending in the absence of any real major enemies of consequence is an albatross the U.S. bears at great peril, both domestically and internationally… who can show the leadership to turns this mess around?

Cultcha

Vivek brought home an interesting film called “The Blue Kite” the other evening. It was banned in China because it shows the damaging effects of the various stages of the cultural revolution on an apparently typical Chinese community.

I am reading Polyani’s “The Great Transformation” about the negative societal effects of market-based economies and how social and political controls on markets are necessary to retain human values.

I’m also reading “The Free Speech Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s,” which is a series of essays from activists, administrators, and others who lived through the events as well as historians providing interpretations. It looks like quite an impressive volume.