Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide

I met James Bowman yesterday at a talk by George Mason University economics professor Tyler Cowen at the American Enterprise Institute about his new book Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing World Cultures. But it seemed that many in the audience were more interested in Cowen's views on local restaurants than world affairs (he talked about New Zealand mussels and BBQ in his lecture; as well as Mexican food, including his personal recipe for mole sauce, in the Q & A). I wondered why so much talk about food, until Cowen mentioned that his online dining guide is the most popular page on his personal website (it was written up in the Washington Post).

In the contest between local and global, even at a globalization talk by a libertarian economist in Washington DC, it seems that local interests win out.

Elinor Burkett: Today's Marco Polo

Just finished Elinor Burkett's So Many Enemies, So Little Time.

I liked it a lot. It's really a Marco Polo travel diary for today. Burkett provides needed background to world events, in a lively personal style. Fun to read, and you can think about it afterwards, too.

The book recounts Burkett's adventures in Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, Burma (officially Myanmar), China, Vietnam, and Cambodia during the 2001-2002 events, when she was a Fulbright Scholar. I agree with her view that the Fulbright program is one US government initiative that really works as it was intended. She explains how her view of the world changed after her experience teaching abroad in the wake of 9/11--just the kind of growth experience Senator Fulbright wanted.

Burkett has a real gift for noticing the interesting detail. Her description of the little things at her university in Bishkek--such as wandering around the hall trying to find a classroom after being kicked out for some sort of seminar--tracked pretty exactly to my experience at UWED in Tashkent (which I was pleased to see she called the Harvard of Central Asia). Burkett's observations are generally acute, the most telling ones based on her personal confrontations with age-old traditions.

Most of all, I enjoyed Burkett's Kyrgyz anecdotes, which I think reflect a certain mentality--and reality--in the region:

While walking in the countryside, two Uzbeks and two Kyrgyz fell in a hole. "I'll give you a hand up," the younger Uzbek said to the older. "Then, when you're on solid ground, you can pull me up." The older man agreed, the Uzbeks freed themselves and then went on their way.

The two Kyrgyz men looked at each other grimly, and one began climbing out of the hole on his own. "Hey, you can't do that," yelled the other man, pulling on his companion's legs. "If you get out, I'll be alone and stranded."

This Just In...

After many years I ran into James Bowman today, and he told me he had his own website ("not a blog"). So I took a look. It's got some interesting tidbits, especially movie reviews. For example, a piece on "A Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy." His URL is http://www.JamesBowman.net.

PBS Back in the News

Today's New York Times headline: Republican Chairman Exerts Pressure on PBS, Alleging Biases.

The scare story ("the Republicans are coming!") is actually more like business-as-usual Washington "jobs for the boys" cronyism than anything political, ideological, or educational on the part of Ken Tomlinson (Full disclosure: my only program recommendation to CPB--Agustin Blazquez's documentary on Elian Gonzalez featured on this blog and in a Wall Street Journal editorial--was sidelined by Tomlinson's CPB staff and PBS executives).

When I see Ann Coulter with her own nightly PBS talk show, instead of Charlie Rose, then I'll agree that CPB is affecting PBS programming -- and maybe helping increase PBS's lousy ratings.

Until then, who cares about PBS and NPR ? We have the blogosphere, after all...

The Russian Dilettante on Putin's Speech

There's some interesting analysis on The Russian Dilettante's Weblog. A sample:

Putin's State of the Nation address:

A good speech overall, but it must be about some other country in a parallel world. I'm going to pick one bit that I know all Russia-watchers in Blogistan will get exercised about.

Also certain is that Russia should continue its civilising mission on the Eurasian continent. This mission consists in ensuring that democratic values, combined with national interests, enrich and strengthen our historic community.

Judging by the context, Putin is talking about Central Asia. Russia shooting itself in the foot again... Here's why. First, 'civilizing mission' gab is hopelessly pass?. Nobody cares about the mission; instead, you'll get branded a racist, imperialist, neo-Kiplingian and whatnot. Even Americans, out on a mission in Iraq, don't dare to call it by its proper name.

Ahhh, Civilization--the love that dare not speak its name...

May Day Still a Russian Holiday: Orthodox Easter

And Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin officially wishes everyone a Happy Easter this Sunday...

A Conspiracy of Kindness

PBS is actually showing what looks like an interesting film,Sugihara: A Conspiracy of Kindness. Here's an email from Eric Saul, who put together the touring "Visas for Life" photo exhibit about diplomats who saved Jews during WWII. (Full disclosure: My mother's family was saved by another diplomat, Portugal's Aristides de Souza Mendes) Sugihara's story is interesting because Japan was allied with Germany:

We are happy to announce the public airing of an important new documentary telling the story of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara.  The documentary is called "Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness."  The Visas for Life Project has been working with film producers Rob Kirk and Dianne Estelle for the last several years.  We congratulate Dianne and Rob for their years of hard work.

As you may know, Chiune Sugihara was the first diplomat depicted by the Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats Project.  The Visas for Life Project was happy to introduce Sugihara's rescue story to the United States in January 1995. 

The documentary has had some wonderful reviews, including the Wall Street Journal and an upcoming article in US News and World Report.

We believe this is one of the best documentaries ever produced on diplomatic rescue during the war.  Several Sugihara family members, including his widow Yukiko Sugihara, are interviewed in this moving documentary.  Many Sugihara survivors are also interviewed.  One is Ben Fischoff, of New York, who helped finance the film.

A particularly moving segment of the Sugihara documentary was taken at Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel, during the April 1998 Visas for Life Project tour of Israel.  As you may know, Sugihara issued more than 300 visas and saved an entire Jewish religious academy from destruction by the Nazis.  Many of the former students and teacher pay tribute to Mrs. Sugihara.

The documentary will be shown as part of the 60th anniversary commemoration of the end of World War II, and as a part of Yom Hashoah at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

Please mark your calendars and watch this remarkable documentary honoring one of our courageous diplomats.  Also, please pass this information along to your family and friends.

Aljazeera: Worldwide protests mark May Day

Aljazeera.Net reports on global protests on this former national holiday of the USSR. Meanwhile, The Nation recounts May Day's American origins:

On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day protest in history. Within a few years, the fight was won. But, in the early part of the 20th century, the US government, recognizing May Day's galvanizing potency, tried to curb May 1 celebrations and their radical resonance by establishing an alternative: Labor Day, a holiday devoid of historical significance--but one offering a paid day off!

Rice Calls for More Democracy

Now in Chile, the Secretary of State has redoubled democracy-builidng efforts, according to Yahoo! News: "In her seven-minute speech here, Rice said it is the historic duty of democrats 'to tell the world that tyranny is a crime of man, not a fact of nature.' 'Our goal must always be the elimination of tyranny in our world,' she said. Rice also called for the creation of a 'legitimate' U.N. rights body to replace the widely scorned U.N. Human Rights Commission, based in Geneva."

Mark Steyn Does it Again

This is pretty funny fromThe Spectator.co.uk:

Did you see that picture in the paper this week? It was the same day as the announcement that Sir Elton John was to wed Mr David Furnish, and just above it was a touching portrait of an obviously smitten younger man gazing soulfully into the eyes of a portly bespectacled older man as they strolled hand in hand through a field of blooming bluebonnets. Unfortunately for my blood pressure, the spooning couple were not Sir Elton and his betrothed but Crown Prince Abdullah and George W. Bush. The Saudi strongman was yet again visiting the Bush ranch at Crawford, which is bad enough, but this time the President couldn't keep his hands off him. The guy had barely touched down and Bush was purring, 'Hey, what say we step into the yard and shoot the big love scene for Michael Moore's next crockumentary'

At such moments, it's like September 12 over again. It's at least three years since I first argued that ranch breaks should be reserved for America's real friends -- Tony Blair, John Howard-- and not for a regime which has very successfully exported its civil war to the rest of the world. The Saudis are under a lot more pressure than they were back then -- hence Abdullah's feints towards faux 'reform'. Nonetheless, only the other day the chief justice and big Abdullah sidekick was captured on video urging Saudi men to go to Iraq and fight the Americans -- and still the Crown Prince gets ranch privileges from Bush. Someday his prince won't come, I hope. When I called for the President to give the Saudi royals the finger, this isn't exactly what I had in mind.

Agustin Blazquez on Estela Bravo

Blazquez calls this article about the showing of Bravo's 1992 'documentary' at the Havana Film Festival on April 18, 2004,'Miami-Havana' a Misguided Trip:

Estela had the right to make her documentary, and taxpayer-funded PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts had the right in 1993 to sponsor the POV broadcast and now this New York Times pro-Castro film festival in New York City to show it. But being free in the U.S., I also have the right to criticize this dishonest piece of pro-Castro political propaganda.

There is nothing like freedom. One day, not far in the future, I hope, Cubans will enjoy freedom in Cuba in spite of the efforts of collaborators like Estela Bravo.

Read the whole thing.

Putin: Trading Ukraine & Georgia for Israel & Palestine

That's the gist of this analysis on the not always reliable DEBKAfile, Putin's Mid East Visits Signpost Unfolding Russian Penetration. As Debka points out, Putin conversed freely with Palestinian leader Mohammed Abbas in Russian, since Abbas was educated in Moscow (and the PLO was set up by Moscow in the first place). What values do Moscow-educated Arab communists, Ba'athists, and former communists share with Israelis? A strong antipathy to Islamist fundamentialism, for one thing. Remember, the US, through the CIA and USAID is still trying to "make nice" with Islamist terrorist sympathizers in Chechnya, Central Asia, and elsewhere, continuing the pro-Taliban strategy employed in Afghanistan pre-9/11. This makes American enemies out of modernizers, socialists, communists, and the rest. The Russians can move to take back this traditionally pro-Moscow constitutency.

So stay tuned. If Putin's strategy works, the US may have gained Eastern Europe only to lose the entire Middle East, including Israel. Debka's conclusion is that Russia is being very cunning:

Put together, these connections add up to a quiet political and military Russian penetration of Middle East forces close to the fringes of power in a way that will not arouse too much attention in Washington, but will at the same time provide Moscow with an inside track to regional developments and jumping-off points for broader penetrations.

This careful balancing act was aptly illustrated just before the Putin trip in an announcement by foreign minister Sergei Lavrov that Russia would begin withdrawing its troops from Georgia by the end of the year. This step came after a long period in which the Kremlin ignored demands from Washington and Tbilisi to eliminate the Russian military base in the former Soviet republic. But, when combined with a Russian initiative to gain a stronger foothold in the Middle East, this step signaled a tit-for-tat deal whereby Moscow would pull back from a key Caucasian region in Washington's favor while pressing forward in the Middle East. This deal will most certainly figure high on the agenda of the Bush-Putin summit next month.

In the war on terror, cooperation between Moscow and Jerusalem is more sparing than Israel would like. The Russians command a rich fund of intelligence on the Arab world, the Palestinians and al Qaeda's activities in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Iraq. Moscow has cut Israel out of its counter-terror loop for a reason. Gone are the days of late 2001 and early 2002 when, in the aftershock of the 9/11 attacks, Putin collaborated fully with Bush on data that helped the American-led coalition successfully invade Afghanistan and defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda. These days, the Kremlin plays its cards very close to its chest. Jerusalem's bid for intelligence-sharing with Moscow was rebuffed in early 2004 when the Russians indicated they were open only to one-way traffic from Israel, but offered nothing of value in exchange.

Another important dimension of Putin's Israel visit comes from his attitude to the ex-Russian community. While most Israeli institutions and media treat Russian citizens as new immigrants to be absorbed in the overall fabric of society like all previous waves of newcomers, for the Russian president they are not ex-Russians but expatriates, exemplars of Russian culture, art, sport, language and education. Putin does not see a million Russian-speaking Israelis, but the largest Russian minority in the Middle East, which must be fostered, protected and sponsored. He is personally in regular contact with several Israel-Russian business figures and he rates these connections as highly as any political ties.

Putin is saying that only Russia can guarantee peace in the Middle East. If the US continues to make trouble in the former USSR, supporting Islamist terrorists who want to break up the country, then Russia can make trouble for the US in Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Palestine. Is this Debka analysis correct? I think so.

Actions speak volumes. It appears Putin isn't afraid to visit Israel, while Bush is, since the US President hasn't been in the Holy Land since 9/11. Perhaps it's time for Bush to drop in to Sharon's ranch, for a change?

So Many Enemies, So Little time

Just started reading Elinor Burkett's So Many Enemies, So Little Time: An American Woman in All the Wrong Places, which I ordered from Amazon after reading the author's stimulating NY Times oped about Kyrgyzstan's "Tulip Revolution." About 80 pages into it, Burkett's observations about her time in Bishkek track pretty closely with what I saw in Tashkent. Coincidentally, we were both Fulbrighters. Burkett's also one of David Horowitz's "Second Thoughts" people, and I used to work for David. Anyhow, her perspective on the situation in Central Asia seems about right, at least so far as I've read... Here's a section about an Afghan refugee couple she met in Bishkek:

After a friend was beaten because she'd exposed an inch of her wrist while checking the size of underwear in the market, Munvara decided that she'd had enough and headed up to Mazar-i-Sharif, beyond Taliban control, to find a way out of the country. "I vowed that I would not go back so long as there was a Muslim government in Afghanistan," Munvara said, her body taught with fury.

Her husband, also a refugee, put his hand on her knee, then turned to me and cracked, "Islam, Islam, Islam. You can't imagine how tired we are of hearing about Islam."

Philip Morrison, RIP

A nice obituary forPhilip Morrison, 1915 – 2005, on Space.com.

I met Morrison while in high school. He was really an inspirational figure. Our physics teacher, Mr. Burkhardt, was a fan, and took us to see him speak, I seem to remember, at both UCLA and Cal Tech. He talked about making the first atomic bomb, and about the search for intelligent life in the universe. He was really a charismatic guy, and after seeing him talk, and shaking his hand, I wanted to be a physicist. But, sorry to say, I somehow lost my math ability in college, and ended up studying television. While it was sad to read that he had died, it was good to see that I wasn't the only person to find him impressive and charismatic...

Federal Arts Bureaucrats Destroying Arts Education (Part I)

The "dumbing down" of America, thanks to federally-funded arts bureaucrats, continues relentlessly in the Bush administration, according to this fascinating account by Jackie Trescott in the Washington Post. Probably because they can't make any administrative overhead from grants for "arts education", administrators at the National Gallery of Art are going to put the wonderful volunteer docent guided tours for schoolgroups on "hiatus" (meaning cancellation, in the language of cowardly bureaucrats). Trescott should win a Pulitzer for her coverage of Washington, DC arts institutions and their stupid decisions. Here's here lede:

The National Gallery of Art is suspending its school tours for the next academic year as part of a general reevaluation of its educational programs. The guided tours served 34,000 students last year.

BTW, IMHO "Rusty" Powell, currently head of the National Gallery of Art, practically destroyed the Los Angeles County Museum of Art during his tenure there. So this kind of destructive decision by his staff isn't surprising. The only surprising thing is that there hasn't been more of an outcry from Congress on this one.

But of course, who in the "arts community" or the "education community" actually cares about DC-area school children learning about Renaissance Art?

Vladimir Putin: This Year in Jerusalem

Putin Makes Historic Visit to Israel is the headline on today's AP story. It's Russian Orthodox Easter and Jewish Passover (not Western Easter, significantly). Putin is in Israel, reviving the Russian-Israeli relationship that began in 1948. As Frank Sinatra might have said, "this could be the start of something big." Stay tuned, I think Russia may end up with the warm-water Mediterranean port she's been looking for for a long time. Reason--linguistic and cultural ties, business relations, and a common enemy: Islamist fundamentalism and terror. Plus Russian oil companies are competing with Arab ones right now, and the enemy of my enemy is...

Putin Blinks on Khodorkovsky

News from Moscow that Khodorkovsky's verdict will come down after V-E Day celebrations means Putin was afraid to convict him before Bush shows up--which means Bush has to give that Reaganesque speech on May 9th, linking WWII victory to Khodorkovsky's fate (Reagan got Sharansky out of jail, after he was convicted of spying): "Mr. Putin, Let Mr. Khodorkovsky go!" (Putin can collect any outstanding liabilities in civil court, Bush can add, if he likes...). It will help Russia, help business, help civil rights, and help America, too. Is Bush up to this? Ask Secretary of State Rice.

Latest on the Khodorkovsky Case

Verdict is due Wednesday. Here's a link toKhodorkovskyTrial.com - Press Center for Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

I still think Putin should let him go, before Bush's visit on May 9th, even if he's found guilty...

Outing the Bolton Haters (Cont'd.)

First, Colin Powell, now fashion diva Diana Vreeland's son Frederick, according to Powerlineblog. Who will be outed next?

Interestingly, Vreeland is apparently an Israel-hater as well as a Bolton-hater, according to Powerline's analysis of an article Vreeland published in the International Herald Tribune in 2003 (thanks to LittleGreenFootballs for the link):

So Frederick Vreeland's opposition to Bolton, which is being promoted as a non-partisan critique by a "former colleague," throws the issue of Bolton's nomination into stark relief. John Bolton stands for a certain set of opinons and values, which mirror those of President Bush: he doesn't think America is to blame for terrorist attacks; he doesn't think the U.N. is morally superior to the U.S.; he thinks the job of an American diplomat is to advance the interests of the United States, not other countries; and he sees neither virtue nor advantage in treachery toward American allies, especially Israel. Bolton's enemies hate him because of these values and opinions, not because he lacks the suave manners of the State Department clique that, for decades, has gotten everything wrong about the Middle East.

"White Trash" Culture Oppresses African-Americans

Today's Wall Street Journal has a really fascinating column by Thomas Sowell. He analyzes racial myths, and comes to the conclusion that African-American progress has been hindered by the acceptance of "redneck" cultural values which discount the importance of education. Sowell argues that what is currently presented as "authentically" African-American culture is nothing of the kind, rather the remnants of a "redneck" environment in the American South. Sowell's thesis is sure to be controversial, but it seems to me that he is onto something significant. It makes me curious to read his new book, Black Rednecks and White Liberals.

Here is a sample:

The culture of the people who were called "rednecks" and "crackers" before they ever got on the boats to cross the Atlantic was a culture that produced far lower levels of intellectual and economic achievement, as well as far higher levels of violence and sexual promiscuity. That culture had its own way of talking, not only in the pronunciation of particular words but also in a loud, dramatic style of oratory with vivid imagery, repetitive phrases and repetitive cadences.

Although that style originated on the other side of the Atlantic in centuries past, it became for generations the style of both religious oratory and political oratory among Southern whites and among Southern blacks--not only in the South but in the Northern ghettos in which Southern blacks settled. It was a style used by Southern white politicians in the era of Jim Crow and later by black civil rights leaders fighting Jim Crow. Martin Luther King's famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 was a classic example of that style.

While a third of the white population of the U.S. lived within the redneck culture, more than 90% of the black population did. Although that culture eroded away over the generations, it did so at different rates in different places and among different people. It eroded away much faster in Britain than in the U.S. and somewhat faster among Southern whites than among Southern blacks, who had fewer opportunities for education or for the rewards that came with escape from that counterproductive culture.

Nevertheless the process took a long time. As late as the First World War, white soldiers from Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi scored lower on mental tests than black soldiers from Ohio, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania. Again, neither race nor racism can explain that--and neither can slavery.

The redneck culture proved to be a major handicap for both whites and blacks who absorbed it. Today, the last remnants of that culture can still be found in the worst of the black ghettos, whether in the North or the South, for the ghettos of the North were settled by blacks from the South. The counterproductive and self-destructive culture of black rednecks in today's ghettos is regarded by many as the only "authentic" black culture--and, for that reason, something not to be tampered with. Their talk, their attitudes, and their behavior are regarded as sacrosanct.

The people who take this view may think of themselves as friends of blacks. But they are the kinds of friends who can do more harm than enemies.