- Editorial: Obama needs to raise game on world stage
It seems more than a mere two years since the United States elected its first black President in a wave of euphoria and hope. Barack Obama's soaring rhetoric and modest charm had promised to break the mould of American politics and... これは、わずか2年以上、米国は幸福と希望の波の中では、初の黒人大統領に選出された以来だ
- Not the President of blacks
AFTER turning out in record numbers to help elect the United States' first black president, some blacks have begun to criticise President Barack Obama for failing to develop economic and social policies targeting the black community, which has suffered disproportionately from the recession. 記録的な数では米国初の黒人大統領を選出するために電源を入れた後、いくつかの黒人の経済政策と社会政策は、過度には、不況に苦しんでいる、黒社会、ターゲットの開発に失敗するためのバラクオバマ大統領を批判し始めている
- Barack Obama's White House bows to the conservatives again
Inflamed by Fox News, a politically-edited video cost Shirley Sherrod her government job, Even when it was exposed as a blatant lie, the White House did not defend herIt is a tried and tested technique. A story surfaces on an obscure, journalistically dubious, conservative website. It spreads to Fox News who churn out their standard-issue anti-liberal outrage. Then, in an effort to catch up, the rest of the mainstream media piles in.So it was last week with a video of a black department of agriculture official, Shirley Sherrod, apparently speaking about not giving a white farmer as much help as she could because of his race. Responding to Fox-inspired howls, Sherrod was rapidly forced to resign by agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack. White House officials clucked approval, apparently relieved they could show that having a black president did not mean being anti-white. Even the venerable civil rights group the NAACP lambasted Sherrod's anti-white racism.But the then a fuller video emerged, revealing the full context of what Sherrod had said, rather than the much shorter, edited version that conservative misfit blogger Andrew Breitbart had posted. It showed beyond doubt that Sherrod had not been describing recent events, but had been talking about her experiences 24 years ago. More damningly, neither had she been racist. Her full speech was in fact a moving story of her discovery that race did not matter and that the real divide in America was between haves and have-nots. Far from abandoning the white farmer, she had helped to save his farm. That version was confirmed by the farmer, who heaped praise on Sherrod on CNN.The behaviour of the conservative media was revealed in all its grim dirty tricks. But what was truly shocking was the reaction, not of Fox News, who can be e 炎症は、フォックスニュース、政治的に編集されたビデオコストシャーリーシェロッド彼女の政府の仕事でさえもがそれは真っ赤なうそとして公開され、ホワイトハウスはherItを守ることはなかったとした、テクニックをテストした
- Shirley Sherrod maintained her dignity despite media attacks | Katha Pollitt
Sacked after her attitude towards a white farmer was misreported, Sherrod kept her cool while others lost theirsFor courage and grace under truly nonsensical fire, Shirley Sherrod, former Georgia state director of rural development for the US Department of Agriculture, is my hero of the year.On 19 July, rightwing blogger Andrew Breitbart released video excerpts of a speech Sherrod, who is black, had given atan NAACP event in March, in which she supposedly boasted that she had dragged her feet in helping a white farmer. Within moments the story went viral – and vicious – throughout the conservative media; Ben Jealous, head of the organisation, tweeted his disapproval of Sherrod; by the end of the day, agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack had fired her.In fact, the excerpts completely misrepresented the speech in which Sherrod movingly described feelings she had had to overcome (and did overcome) when in 1986 a white farmer, Roger Spooner, had come to her for help saving his farm. Given that Sherrod's father had been murdered when she was 17 years old by a white person who was never prosecuted and that a cross had soon after been burned in front of the family home, perhaps she had a lot to get over. The next day, the now very elderly Roger and Eloise Spooner stepped forward to defend Sherrod for having saved their land. Obama called and Vilsack offered to give her back her job. Sherrod declined.The real Shirley Sherrod has been a well-known civil rights activist in Georgia since the late 60s. What does it say about the US that a hack like Breitbart can destroy a decades-long career in one day? That the head of the nation's premier civil rights organisation is so ignorant of the history of his own movement? That the administration of the first black president is so fearful of 白人農民に向かって彼女の態度はmisreportedした略奪の後、Sherrodは、彼女の他は、本当に無意味な攻撃を受けてtheirsForの勇気と優雅さを失っている間冷却さ、シャーリーシェロッドは、米国農務省の農村開発の元ジョージア州の監督、今年の私のヒーローです
- Is Hollywood finally over 9/11?
From the angry Fahrenheit 9/11 to the depressing Hamburg Cell, films about September 11 have journeyed through the five stages of grief. Now with weepies Dear John and Remember Me, the movies have come to terms with the defining event of our ageEverything is peachy at the beginning of Dear John, Lasse Hallstrom's new weepie about a soldier's star-crossed romance with a college student. That's because it's spring 2001, a time when the idea of hijacked planes slamming into the twin towers was as far-fetched as a black president or airport body scans. Midway through the film, of course, the planes finally hit, forcing Channing Tatum to leave Amanda Seyfried and do his bit for God and country. That's right, people. In just nine years, the defining event of our age has become the reason why the guy from Step Up can't be with the girl from Mamma Mia!According to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's book On Death and Dying, the five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. By and large Hollywood seems to have gone through something similar with regards to 9/11. In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy nobody dared address the event itself; it was too raw, too seismic, too hard to grasp in its entirety. The best the movies could do was to acknowledge its impact, in films like The Guys (in which journalist Sigourney Weaver helped fire captain Anthony LaPaglia pen eulogies for his fallen comrades) or The 25th Hour (which opened with shots of the towers of light that marked the half-year anniversary in 2002).If that was Tinseltown in denial, it took Michael Moore to provide the anger in his 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which saw the portly film-maker accusing Bush and his cronies of turning the tragedy to their own advantage. In time, however, thoughts tu 怒っている飛輪海9 / 11は、気のめいるようハンブルクセル、9月11日についての映画に悲しみの5段階を経て旅をしている
- Haiti: Waiting for Washington
Almost everything that could have gone wrong in Haiti over the past week has gone wrong. The airport is jammed – there is just one runway and one ramp for over 100 aircraft a day. The port is broken. The dead have overwhelmed the cemeteries – and even mass graves – and the living began quitting the devastated capital of Port-au-Prince in their thousands in an uncertain hunt for shelter, water and stability. There was better co-ordination yesterday between the US, which runs the airport, the UN, which distributes food and provides security, and what remains of the Haitian government, but valuable time has been lost sorting out who does what. Eight days on, a huge international aid operation has yet to deliver to the people who need it most.But a few things have gone right. Law and order has not broken down after a rash of looting and robberies on Monday, although the risk of a breakdown is real enough. The UN security council yesterday unanimously endorsed a proposal from its secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to send 3,500 peacekeeping troops to assist the humanitarian effort. Nor are there any political obstacles to aid deliveries, as there were in Burma and Sudan. Foreign troops are welcomed, if only because so many people in shock have had to fend for themselves for the past week. But whereas US military spokesmen, mindful of a long history of interventions, fell over themselves to say they were acting for the Haitian government, there was little such political sensitivity on the ground. Quite the contrary. Haitians are looking to the first black president of the United States as their saviour, and he should have no qualms about putting as many US boots on the ground as he is able.So far, the US administration has had the right reactions to a major humanitarian disaster それは間違いハイチでは、過去1週間以上行っている可能性がほぼすべてがうまくいっている
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