Zone/911 - 19 October 2001

[Doug Millison]

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Zone/911 - Pynchonian Echoes in the Current Situation - 19 October 2001
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...Surrender to Washington...Stone Age South Africa... Those Komical
Kamikazes... Pushing the envelope of that last delta-t... War means work
for all... What to read after GR?... An alternative solution...


* * *

On this day...

1781 The American War of Independence came to an end when Lord
Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_427604.html


* * *

Stone Age South Africa and the limits of historical understanding

"[...] But can the study of the past--any study of the past--be based on a
Baconian concept of experimental science? Good science can of course be
invoked to deepen and strengthen historical interpretations--and Human
Beginnings is full of excellent examples of such archaeological science.
But is this history writing? [...] But there is another history, the
history of an archaeology that was molded by colonialism and shackled by
apartheid [...] "

from a review by Martin Hall, Centre for African Studies, University of
Cape Town, of:
H. J. Deacon and Janette Deacon. Human Beginnings in South Africa:
Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Westport, Connecticut: AltaMira
Press, 2001. viii + 214 pp. Illustrations, maps, ports, bibliographical
references and index. $24.95 (cloth, ISBN 0-7619-9086-0.

http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=209541003511326



* * *

Those Komical Kamikazes

"[... ] Examining the drama and film, Kimino na wa, the film Gojira
(Godzilla), and the professional wrestler Rikidozan, Igarashi identifies
liminal spaces and figures reflected on the popular culture. [...] Nosaka
attempted to repeat the memories of the war, hunger, humiliation, and
trauma through writing, whereas Mishima attempted to repeat and represent
the past in its original intensity by committing a dramatic suicide.  Both
of them failed to raise discussion in the society.[...]"

from review by Akiko Fukumoto, Department of Communication and Journalism,
University of New Mexico, of:
Igarashi Yoshikuni. _Bodies of Memory: Narratives of War in Postwar
Japanese Culture, 1945-1970_. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2000.  x + 284 pp. Notes, bibliography, and index. $49.50 (cloth),
ISBN 0-691-04911-4; $19.95 (paper), ISBN 0-691-04912-2.

http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=267691003516498


* * *

Pushing the envelope of that last delta-t

U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer says that [...] small, specialized nuclear weapons --
not as powerful as the atom bombs that were used in World War II -- could
be used on the caves where members of bin Laden's network have taken
shelter. [...] "We'd be very naïve to believe that biotoxins and chemical
agents were not in these caves. Put a tactical nuclear device in, and close
these caves for a thousand years." [...] Buyer stresses that he doesn't
advocate the use of full-power nuclear bombs, but he acknowledged that much
of the world wouldn't see the difference. [...]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/wrtv/20011018/lo/929540_1.html


* * *

War means work for all

"[...] In the middle of a public health panic over anthrax, a political
fight has broken out between Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bush
administration officials. Schumer has called for the government to begin
purchasing generic forms of Cipro -- the antibiotic most commonly used to
treat anthrax -- against the wishes of Health and Human Services Secretary
Tommy Thompson and Cipro manufacturer Bayer AG.  The fight has reignited a
pre-Sept. 11 battle between Democrats and the Bush administration, which
advocates say is too cozy with the pharmaceutical industry. "[...] buying
Cipro only from Bayer -- who charges a lot more than generic manufacturers
would -- means we spend a lot more and receive a lot less. "  [...]

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/10/18/cipro_patent/index.html


* * *

What to read after GR?

John G. Heidenrich. _How to Prevent Genocide: A Guide for
Policymakers, Scholars, and the Concerned Citizen_. Westport,
Connecticut: Praeger, 2001. 275 pp. Notes and Index. $39.95 (cloth),
ISBN 0-275-96987-8.

http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=200631003510470


* * *

An alternative solution

"[...] First, we must support the call made by UN-affiliated and private
aid agencies for an immediate bombing halt to allow a resumption of the
serious food distribution efforts needed to avoid a catastrophe.

There will need to be a transitional government, which should be -- as has
been suggested for the past decade -- ethnically broad-based with a
commitment to allowing international aid and basic human rights. It must,
however, be under UN auspices, with the United States playing a minimal
role because of its history of "covert" action in the region. It should
also be one that does not sell off Afghanistan's natural resources and
desirable location for pipelines on the cheap to multinational
corporations.

While all that goes forward, the United States should do what is most
obviously within its power to do to lower the risk of further terrorist
attacks: Begin to change U.S. foreign policy in a way that could win over
the people of the Islamic world by acknowledging that many of their
grievances -- such as the sanctions on Iraq, the presence of U.S. troops in
Saudi Arabia, Israel's occupation of and aggression against Palestine --
are legitimate and must be addressed.

This shouldn't be confused with "giving in to the terrorists" or
"negotiating with bin Laden." It is neither. It is a practical strategy
that demonstrates that a powerful nation can choose to correct policies
that were rooted in a desire to extend its dominance over a region and its
resources and are now not only unjust but untenable. It is a sign of
strength, and it is the right thing to do. [...]

The choice we face as a nation is similar to that faced at the end of World
War II. The capitalist West, the Communist world, and many of the colonies
had united to defeat fascism. That could have been the basis of building an
equitable world order, with the United States helping to equalize levels of
wealth and consumption around the world. Had that path been taken, the
world would be a far safer place today, for Americans and others.

Instead, U.S. leaders chose the path of the Cold War, which was not so much
an attempt to contain Soviet-style communism as it was to destroy any
example of independent development in the Third World, to extend and
entrench our economic superiority. That effort harmed democracy in our
country and in others, killed millions, and has led in the end to the
creation new and terrifying threats to all our safety.

Government officials are already speaking as if we are fighting a new Cold
War, with President Bush calling the war on Afghanistan "the first battle
of the war of the 21st century."

We cannot let history repeat itself. "

from:
Hearts and Minds: Avoiding a New Cold War
Rahul Mahajan and Robert Jensen
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11755


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Zone/911 is an occasional enewsletter published by
www.Online-Journalist.com. It seeks shards of  the shattered geopolitical
crystal palace loosely linked by tangential threads that lead, eventually
and sometimes in very roundabout ways to the works of Thomas Ruggles
Pynchon. Article excerpts appear without prior authorization of their
originating publications under established "fair use" principles. The
Editor encourages readers to click on the enclosed urls and read excerpted
articles in their entirety, monitor a broad spectrum of information
sources, and use their brains to integrate their own understanding of the
post-911 Situation. Feedback:  bozo at online-journalist.com.
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