This morning, I was listening to KTLK AM 1150, as I always do. I heard the super cool Elayne Boosler and Merrill Markoe (sitting in for Stephanie Miller) interviewing Antonia Juhasz, author of The Bu$h Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time.
The Bu$h Agenda exposes the Bush Administration's use of corporate globalization policy as a weapon of war. Juhasz uncovers the history and key role of U.S. corporations in the creation of the Bush agenda, focusing on Bechtel, Lockheed Martin, Chevron, and Halliburton. Presenting the Iraq War as the most brutal application of the Bush agenda, Juhasz reveals the "oil time-line" driving the war, and how the administration has fundamentally transformed Iraq's economy, locking in sweeping advantages to its corporate allies – including increased access to Iraq's oil. The administration has expanded its target to the whole Middle East through the U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Area. Juhasz brings to sharp focus the dangerous fallacy that the United States can combat terrorism and spread democracy through its so-called "free trade" policies. Extensively researched and highly engaging, The Bu$h Agenda provides informative analysis revealing the hard truths about where the Bush administration and its corporate allies are leading the modern world—AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.
Ms. Juhasz's tales were enlightening yet depressing. Just like most of the stuff on Air America.
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Onto happier topics. I was perusing Sepia Mutiny today, since I hadn't visited the site in so long, and I found this post by anna: This is what a Feminist looks like.
Exactly 32.5 years ago, a short man with a fearsome moustache stood at a nursery window, tears in his eyes, pride bordering on arrogance spilling forth via his words.
“See her? The one with the huge eyes? That’s my daughter...She was alert, when she was born. She didn’t cry. She…uh…she takes after me. Strong...Look at the other babies…they are oblivious. They’re nothing compared to her.” He had never been so smug...
...When [my father] heard that another young couple had given birth to their own first child a few days before, he elatedly rushed to their home, which was strangely dark and quiet. He had books in his hand, his books, which he was confident he didn’t need any more, since he had studied them so thoroughly (and made his charts and notes). Perhaps this new Father might appreciate them.
Daddy looked at the doorbell and then thought against ringing it.
“Probably, they are sleeping.”
That would explain the lack of light and absence of joyful if not ear-piercing noise. He knocked, carefully.
The door swung open, revealing a man I won’t call “Uncle”, because I have never met him. He looked haggard. My father would later tell me that the house seemed eerie and that he knew something wasn’t right.
“Hello.”
“I heard you and your wife had a baby. Congratulations!”
The man shook his head.
“Babu called and told me, I was very excited for you—“
“For what?” the man responded.
“For…your child? I just had one as well, it’s wonderful!”
The man looked startled.
“Oh, I am so sorry! We would have come to see—we thought you had a daughter, Babychayan didn’t tell us you and Mollykutty had a SON!”
“What are you talking about? I don’t have a son. I have a daughter. Anna. 8 lbs, 22 inches long and already very intelligent,” he boasted.
“So we were both unlucky, then. I am sorry.” He shook his head at my father sadly. “Can I get you a drink?”
“What do you mean…unlucky?” Daddy was sputtering.
“To have daughters! I told my wife over and over, I only wanted one child and it must be a son. We prayed constantly…and this is what our prayers brought.”
“You are UNHAPPY because you have a girl? Is the child healthy?”
“I don’t know…I assume so…”
“You ASSUME?”
“Well, once they told me it was a girl, I left. I was so upset at our misfortune. All I could think of is, how will I tell my parents this?”
“What the hell is wrong with you? You haven’t even seen your own child? Are you sick?”
“I didn’t even go in to the room, I couldn’t. I don’t want to see it. I left them both there, until I decide what to do. Maybe we will send it home.”
“You are a low, ignorant asshole. If your wife and child are healthy, you should be on your knees thanking God.”
“Who are you to call me such a thing?”
“I’d break your bones, but it’s not worth my effort. You fucking asshole.”
The man shoved my father and Daddy roared. After administering one stinging backhand, he angrily made his way back to our home.
I started crying because I was so touched. If only more girls had fathers like this. And like Manny, too:
[My daughter] is in fact becoming a young woman, and ignoring that fact would only make things worse. Accepting her development into a young woman and all that comes with it is the only way to promote a healthy father daughter relationship.
Sorry, ladies (and gentlemen); he's taken. We'll have to find our own progressive guys to father our children.
