[Pen-l] Swans Release: July 27, 2009

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(Don't miss the review of "Bruno" in this issue)

Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ July 27, 2009

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Note from the Editors:  Have we finally turned the corner on the Bush 
era,  now that French president Nicolas Sarkozy is reportedly reading 
philosophy  books and sporting a new classic watch in order to appear as 
the cultured  intellectual he is not, in preparation for a 2012 
reelection bid? Perhaps  Barack Obama is indeed inspiring change -- 
though poor Sarko is now *à  l'hôpital,* having suffered the same sort 
of vasovagal reaction while running  that his former friend W. 
experienced while inhaling a pretzel. Plus ça  change... We begin with a 
topic in the truly classic French tradition, the  Tour de France, to 
which Graham Lea turns his keen wit, enlightening us on  the history, 
culture, and controversy of cycling's grueling, 3-week *tour de  force.*

Having survived the Tour for another year, we turn our sights on a less 
 sporting but equally challenging sociopolitical excursion. Before the 
 competition begins, we are given a course by Michael Barker in social 
 engineering management so that we can learn the skills to keep up with 
the  ruling class and leave the masses behind in the dust. Barker then 
returns to  his recent analysis of the counter-discourses on Female 
Genital Mutilation in  response to a critical letter by Keith Harmon 
Snow. Next we join Raju Peddada  in the remote villages of India, where 
he considers religious intolerance,  Christian missionaries, post 9/11 
hysteria, and exclusion dogma, followed by  a stop in Florence with 
Martin Murie, who considers his World War II  experiences, the end of 
Empire, the war on terror, and a Letter Against the  War by Tiziano 
Terzani. Femi Akomolafe guides our final political venture,  taking us 
to Ghana as he contemplates whether President Obama's recent trip  will 
have done Africa any good; and then on to the corrupted land of 
contradictions that is Nigeria.

Our tour concludes on the cultural stage, as we stop in the 
Mediterranean for  Peter Byrne's review of Paul Kenyon's "I Am Justice, 
A Journey Out Of  Africa." Charles Marowitz invites us to the movies for 
Sacha Baron Cohen's  satirical porn Bruno. And in l'esprit du Tour, we 
return to France, this time  in French, for a reflection on democracy by 
Simone Alié-Daram, a judicial  examination of the latest debate on the 
Burqua and the Niqab (integral veils)  in the context of French 
secularism by Marie-Laetitia Gambié, a short story  by Marie Rennard, 
and one of the best known French poems by Joachim Du  Bellay. Finally, 
Guido Monte invites us to travel through his memory of old  and new 
poets; Michael Eddins takes us on an age-old journey of redemption;  and 
we close with your letters from all sides of the spectrum with 
controversy aplenty.

Enjoy the tour, and as always, please form your OWN opinion, and let 
your  friends (and foes) know about Swans. It's your voice that makes 
ours grow.

                                        # # # # #

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/glea05.html  Le Tour De France -- 
Part One: The Avant-Tour - Graham Lea

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker27.html  Subverting Civil 
Society 101: Managing The Masses - Michael Barker

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker26.html  Counter-Discourses And 
Female Circumcision - Michael Barker

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/rajup18.html The Conversion To 
Intolerance - Raju Peddada

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/murie75.html  Letter From Florence - 
Martin Murie

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/femia13.html Welcome Emperor Obama - 
Femi Akomolafe

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/femia14.html  The Fountain Of 
Knowledge: Nigerian Election Fraud, Charms, and Amulets  - Femi Akomolafe

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/pbyrne104.html Justice At Sea - Book 
Review by Peter Byrne

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/cmarow143.html Sacha Baron Cohen's 
"Bruno" - Film Review by Charles Marowitz

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/salie05.html Réflexions sur la 
démocracie - Simone Alié-Daram (FR)

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/gambie02.html  Droit et Laïcité - 
Marie-Laetitia Gambié (FR)

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/marier35.html  Alice - Nouvelle par 
Marie Rennard (FR)

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/xxx135.html  Heureux qui comme 
Ulysse... - Poème par Joachim Du Bellay (FR)

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/gmonte72.html  Haiku n.3 - 
Multilingual Poetry by Guido Monte

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/eddins05.html  Redemption - Poetry by 
Michael Eddins

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/letter170.html  Letters to the Editor

                                       # # # # #

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