Ha-Joon Chang on the economic crisis in Europe

A great piece by the Cambridge University economist Ha-Joon Chang in _The Guardian_. If only all academics could write with such lucidity!

Ha-Joon Chang on the European economic crisis

Globe and Mail's columnist Margaret Wente accused of Plagiarism

Toronto Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente has never been short of smug, self-righteous indignation when taking on people, social movements or ideas that deviate from her ideologically world-view. Indeed, in all her columns she never betrayed any hint of self-doubt and never gave the impression that she was not perfect.  Now that she has been accused  of plagiarism by Carol Wainio, a University of Ottawa professor, she makes the surprising admission that she, of all the people is not only not perfect but sometimes she even make mistakes:

"I’m far from perfect. I make mistakes"

In her latest column, she begins with what appears to be an apology of sorts, but by adopting the best-defence-is-offence strategy:

But I’m not a serial plagiarist. What I often am is a target for people who don’t like what I write.

Plagiarism is of course nothing new, but it so happens that Wente herself had expressly railed indignantly against plagiarism in an earlier Globe and Mail column. Here is what she wrote sometime ago:

"When I was a kid…if you were caught plagiarizing, you got a zero”

She now claims that: "I haven’t always lived up to my own standards". Not sure what her own standards are, but most of her columns have always displayed fairly low standards - unless ideological bubbles, unintended humour and lack of irony count constitute the measures.

After the plagiarism accusations, an editor of the Globe and Mail announced that "appropriate action" will be taken but did not bother to elaborate on what that would be.

Link to Carol Wainio's blog:

Media Culpa Carol Wainio's blog

"Taking it Big" A New Book on C. Wright Mills by Stanley Aronowitz

Excited, indeed salivating at the prospect of getting a hold of and enjoying a new book on C. Wright Mills by Stanley Aronowitz. Among other things, the work on Mills demonstrates the importance of "big picture" sociology where already existing concepts and theories are deployed for making sense of the current social and political predicaments. The title of the book comes from the Mills's constant refrain "Take it Big" to his graduate students. Meanwhile, unsurprisingly, overwrought theoretical discussions of theory ("heavy-duty theoretical bullshit" as Mills labeled it) and methodological discussions of methodology that Mills so incisively analyzed, criticized and lampooned continues. In some ways, the narrow "professionalization" (in the bad sense of the term) of Sociology is inevitable and not all of it is necessarily totally useless nor always driven only by the compulsions of career capital accumulation. However, more often than not, the "professional" game ceases to be worth the candle. Witness the ceaseless proliferation of mostly pointless neologisms or the splitting of theoretical hair merely to claim novelty and distinction.

Many of Mills detractors assume that he was merely an ideological ranter unconcerned with the so-called facts of the issues he investigated and unwilling to honour the norms of professional research.  Of course, anyone who has actually read and engaged with his work would know that this is far from the truth - with the pragmatic small "t" of course! As Mills himself pointed out, "I claim to be objective. I do not claim to be detached" (paraphrasing the exact quote). As his collaborator and friend Hans Gerth as pointed out, the passion that fuelled his sociology was broadly informed by the title of one of Paul Gauguin's paintings - "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going"?

Aronowitz plies his sociological craft in the spirit of C. Wright Mills and his new book promises to be an engaging read.


Taking it Big by Stanley Aronowitz

"The Meltdown of Reason"

Neither time nor energy to write...enough time though to link a recent editorial in _The Hindu_ on the ongoing struggle against nuclear power in Tamil Nadu:

Meltdown of Reason

Ten years after "The Karma of the Brown Folk" - Vijay Prashad

Vijay Prashad interview with Brown Town Magazine

Vijay Prashad in Browntown interview

Anti-Nuclear Protesters at Kudankulam face Police Action

A few months ago, the anti-nuclear protesters at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, India were offered psychotherapy to "cure" them of their affliction. Yesterday they faced police action. Right on cue, the Union Home Minister Mr. Shinde detected a "foreign hand" behind the anti-nuclear protest as he re-cycled myths about unlimited "clean" energy allegedly indispensable for "development".  Predictably, the protesters were branded "anti-national" by some commentators in the media. Meanwhile, many prominent scholars and activists such as Yogendra Yadav, Shanti Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal came out in support of the anti-nuclear activists and condemned the police action.

The full report and an editorial in _The Hindu_

Anti-Nuclear Protest turns violent in India

Editorial in _The Hindu_

Yadav, Bhushan and Kejriwal condemn police action

Vijay Prashad on Occupy

Vijay Prashad on Occupy:

Vijay Prashad on Occupy

Tony Judt on "Bush's Useful Idiots"

Tony Judt on "Bush's Useful Idiots"


Bush's Useful Idiots