If I had to select a new coach for the Washington Redskins it would be Jon Gruden. You have to love this guy...
However with the team being in such a mess I see someone passing to Lovie Smith. It's like electing Obama with an economy that's about to collapse. If you're successful in keeping things in order - no one will give you credit. Black man for hire? Play calling by the butler? We should know before the Super Bowl.
E-NOTES: WHEN THE NEWS IS NOT ENOUGH. THE BLOG OF E. ETHELBERT MILLER
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Poets
December 19, 2013
Library of Congress
E. Ethelbert Miller in conversation with U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey.
EVERYDAY WILL BE A DAY OF FUKUSHIMA FOR ALL OF US
5.1 magnitude quake hits Japan 80km from Fukushima nuclear plant 31 Dec 2013 A shallow 5.1-magnitude earthquake has hit eastern Japan, the US Geological Survey says, but there are no local reports of any damage. The quake hit at 10.03am (1203 AEDT) in Ibaraki prefecture, 146 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, the agency said. The tremor was 9.9 kilometres deep, USGS said. Located roughly 80 kilometres southwest of the Fukushima nuclear plant, the quake was strong enough to gently rock high-rise buildings in the capital.
Japan's homeless recruited for Fukushima radiation clean-up 29 Dec 2013 Seiji Sasa hits the train station in this northern Japanese city before dawn most mornings to prowl for homeless men. The men in Sendai Station are potential laborers that Sasa can dispatch to contractors in Japan's nuclear disaster zone for a bounty of $100 a head. This is how Japan finds people willing to accept minimum wage for one of the most undesirable jobs in the industrialized world: working on the *35 billion, taxpayer-funded effort to clean up radioactive fallout across an area of northern Japan larger than Hong Kong.
THE CLOCK KEEPS TICKING...
Is it the last day of the year or are we just living on the edge? Today I had to check the map to locate Dagestan. Time to start vocabulary building in 2014. Is it my imagination or is Chechnya now the center of the universe? Africa continues to make me weep. Mandela's spirit looks down on us and maybe we should all stay in small cells until the apartheid in our blood no longer keeps us separated from love. The 21st Century is quickly becoming known for religious conflicts around the world. God help us. We keep comparing and talking about God the way young boys discover their sexuality in school bathrooms. When did prayer become nothing but masturbation? How can we be holy yet so destructive? What type of God would permit such violence in his name? After so much sin what is left to confess?
The 29th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Program will feature Nicole Lee as the keynote speaker.
Lee is the President of Trans Africa
Tuesday, January 14th, 2014
7:00-9:00 PM
Baird Auditorium
National Museum of National History
10th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW
Lee's topic is: "Lifting the Torch: The Legacy of Nelson Mandela.
Lee is the President of Trans Africa
Tuesday, January 14th, 2014
7:00-9:00 PM
Baird Auditorium
National Museum of National History
10th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW
Lee's topic is: "Lifting the Torch: The Legacy of Nelson Mandela.
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| Nicole Lee |
The E Box
The next E-box is almost ready for shipment. This one will be going to Lorrie Wilson in Milwaukee. I will try and give out 4 E-boxes in 2014.
The E-box consists of books taken from my personal library and given to a writer or reader who is a lover of books.
Below the next E-box sitting by the door getting ready to fly to Lady Wilson.
The E-box consists of books taken from my personal library and given to a writer or reader who is a lover of books.
Below the next E-box sitting by the door getting ready to fly to Lady Wilson.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Artists for Andy - 2014
Artists interested in attending a fundraiser on January 13th for Andy Shallal (for mayor of DC) should write to me at:
emiller698@aol.com
emiller698@aol.com
 |
| Andy Shallal photo by Ethelbert |
PUNT, KICK AND PASS
The curse of Albert Haynesworth? If you want to know when things went downhill for Shanahan just go back to the Haynesworth "problem" and how it was handled. After Haynesworth came the stab of McNabb.
The media quickly turned against Haynesworth and ate the cookies that were given to them. It was difficult to do the same with McNabb because it was like having a problem with Sidney Poitier. At the end of the day people who have control problems won't like jazz.
Don't expect the Washington Redskins to go anywhere until they have a few players who are going to the Hall of Fame. The entire defense needs to go. The other problem is that some of the more articulate players on the team are not making key plays when they need to. Don't say "we" after the game when it was "you."
You dropped a key pass - you didn't cover the receiver who made the touchdown.
So who will be the new coach of the Redskins? When things are a mess look for a black man to be selected for the job. Ethelbert - are you reading race into this?
Alessandra Gelmi
Interview: Alessandra Gelmi
http://www.theworcesterreview.org/2013/12/poet-interview-alessandra-gelmi.html
http://www.theworcesterreview.org/2013/12/poet-interview-alessandra-gelmi.html
Sunday, December 29, 2013
LOVE NEAR THE END OF THE YEAR
A friend sent me this link yesterday. It captures the essence of what my work has been about all these years. How do we live in a world and continue to seek love and intimacy? How do we live each day with or without desire? Why do so many of us die alone? Why is a broken heart a first grave? What is the mystery behind love that it can resurrect us to believe again and again. I would like to believe loving is easy and only living is difficult.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8Zf0IhQ1zc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8Zf0IhQ1zc
BIG DATA
 |
| Wissal Al Allaq and E. Ethelbert Miller |
I came across this picture that was taken (2009?) upon the release of a collection of my poems translated into Arabic. Here I am with translator and friend Wissal Al Allaq. We first met years ago when I was visiting Yemen. At that time Wissal was a young college student. Who knew we would stay in touch and make a presentation at the Abu Dhabi Book Festival so many years later.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
BIG DATA
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| E. Ethelbert Miller and Greg Orfalea |
The above photograph finds me talking with my friend and fellow writer Greg Orfalea. I have no idea when or where it was taken.
More about Orfalea:
http://www.eethelbertmiller.com/Orfalea.html
E-WATCH
Hey - wasn't that Grace and Ethelbert having lunch at Busboys and Poets yesterday? Two people laughing and looking forward to another year of friendship. Sitting in the same place where they met many years ago.
Grace Ali: Part 1.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebgTy9XwkBk&feature=c4-overview&list=UUO0TLew_eanCz5XjAG78RdA
Grace Ali: Part 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1NF-mE6vQw
Grace Ali: Part 1.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebgTy9XwkBk&feature=c4-overview&list=UUO0TLew_eanCz5XjAG78RdA
Grace Ali: Part 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1NF-mE6vQw
Naming Names...
Reading the article below is just another reason why DC residents should vote for Andy Shallal for Mayor.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/colbert-king-ron-machen-dcs-person-of-the-year/2013/12/27/43a2a8b4-6e5f-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html
Too many D.C. politicians seem to be flying on the same plane. Maybe it's time for voters to put their masks on and turn to their neighbors. Tell people to vote for Shallal: www.andy4dc.com
Change is in the Air. Fly Shallal!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/colbert-king-ron-machen-dcs-person-of-the-year/2013/12/27/43a2a8b4-6e5f-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html
Too many D.C. politicians seem to be flying on the same plane. Maybe it's time for voters to put their masks on and turn to their neighbors. Tell people to vote for Shallal: www.andy4dc.com
Change is in the Air. Fly Shallal!
Tricycle Daily Dharma December 28, 2013 | |||
Traveling the Path
- Pico Iyer, “The Long Road to Sitting Still”
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Friday, December 27, 2013
THE BATHING OF MADIBA
One could easily overlook the ad for the Mandela movie in The New York Times today. But something made me chuckle about how things are packaged and consumed. The Mandela ad was simply Idris Elba holding Naomie Harris. Just another love story. Winnie and Nelson. Imagine showing some aspects of South African apartheid in the movie ad. Around Washington the promotion of the Mandela movie simply has Elba and the word "Troublemaker" behind his head. Nothing heroic about that title. Imagine releasing a film about George Washington and calling it "Rebel."
It's almost Oscar time. If the movie Mandela wins no mention will be made to the cruelty of apartheid. We've already reduced Madiba to a few quotes. What will we remember 27 years from now?
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Thursday, December 26, 2013
FROM INDIA WITH LOVE
RE-MARKINGS
An International biannual Journal of
English Letters
ISSN 0972 – 611X
Chief Editor: Nibir K. Ghosh, Agra (India
Vol. 13, No.1 January 2014
Celebratory 25th
Issue
Imprints
Global Community & Cultural
Connections
Jonah Raskin
I
do not remember how long I have known Nibir Ghosh or how long I have written
for Re-Markings, though I do remember meeting the editor in California Seattle , Washington , or Orlando , Florida India
and printed in India California India
Re-Markings
is one of my major literary lifelines. Writing for the journal keeps me
connected to Nibir and it gives me the sense that I’m connected to readers,
teachers, and writers in India
·
Jonah Raskin serves on the advisory board of Re-Markings and is a regular
contributor. Chair of the Communication
Studies Department at Sonoma State University, California, U.S.A., he is the author and editor of books
about Jack London, Allen Ginsberg, and the literature of the British Empire.
v
Celebrating
Cross-cultural Conversations
Tijan M. Sallah
I
am a latecomer in my association with the journal, Re-Markings, but I
see much to admire in its intellectually vibrant pages and much to be hopeful
about in valuable efforts to foster global scholarly and intellectual
conversations on culture, politics and the new literatures in English. With its twenty-fifth issue, Re-Markings
can claim to be a confident establishment, comfortable in its roots and its
ambitions. I see great promise in Re-Markings – in the ideas of peace
and social justice through literary discourses that are flowing through its
pages—and in the wonderful platform it is providing for the world's literati
and thinkers to converse with one another about their literatures and cultures,
and the underlying connections. The world is one – this is even more obvious
when one considers the earth from a cosmic perspective. It has become closer
with cross-border technology and information flows. Distances are being
compressed by technology. Cultures, long separated by the hindrances of
geography, are now meeting and speaking with other, and in that conversation
are finding a common denominator – the amazing similarity and humanity between
them. The world has become closer because journals such as Re-Markings are
helping that happen. I wish Re-Markings another 25 years of
success. May it continue to be more vibrant as we age.
- Dr. Tijan M. Sallah is Gambian poet, writer and
biographer. An economist by training, he has taught economics at several
American universities before joining the World Bank, where he manages the
agriculture, irrigation and rural development program for East African
countries.
v
Creating A One-world Atmosphere
James R. Giles
I
have had the privilege of publishing criticism and fiction Re-Markings over the
years. The experience has been pleasant and rewarding in each case.
The submission process has been thoroughly professional, and the appearance of
my materials in the journal has been clean and attractive. I am grateful
for my association with such a diverse and important international
journal. I have profited from looking over the other materials in
the issues of the journal in which I have been fortunate enough to
appear. The critical essays have been consistently provocative and
informative and the creative pieces fascinating. Mr. Ghosh is a talented and
energetic editor devoted to making Re-Markings
a wide-ranging and challenging journal. I congratulate Re-Markings
on its anniversary issue and look forward to its future contributions to the
scholarly and creative communities. It is the kind of
publication that truly creates a one-world atmosphere.
- Dr. James R. Giles is Presidential Teaching Professor of English
at Northern Illinois University,
v
Beyond Canonical Boundaries
Walter S.H. Lim
With
the launch of Re-Markings'
25th celebratory issue, I wish to congratulate Dr. Nibir Ghosh for
his leadership and vision in anchoring an important journal in South Asia that
deals not only with local and Asian literary and sociocultural matters but
also with international cultural relations in a globalized world. While Re-Markings
identifies New Literatures in English as its special area of emphasis,
indicating the journal's instinct to move beyond the boundaries of the
canonical, its ecumenical spirit is evident in its coverage of subject
matter as diverse as American literature, comparative diasporic
literature, and the topicality of the Nobel prize for literature. I
recall well my involvement with Re-Markings
through Dr. Ghosh's invitation for me to contribute articles on Shirley
Geok-lin Lim and Li-Young Lee, two first-generation Chinese American authors
from Southeast Asia , and on the award of the
Nobel literature prize to Mo Yan. As we enter the second decade of the
twenty-first century and become part of an inescapably interconnected world, we
find ourselves also at a historical moment in which valorizations of
nation-centered literatures are questioned by writings that embrace hybridity,
internationalism, and the breakdown of compartmentalization. It strikes me
that Re-Markings'
openness to the implications of transnational literary production and cultural
interactions positions it as a journal of deep relevance for those of us who
embrace the idea of the importance of world literatures. Re-Markings will
continue to resonate in the twenty-first century.
- Dr. Walter S.H. Lim is an Associate Professor of
English Literature at the
v
Voice of Vibrant
Democratic Participation
Jane Schukoske
Congratulations to Chief
Editor Dr. Nibir K. Ghosh, Editor A. Karunaker, Executive Editor Sundeep Arora,
and the editorial staff, advisors, contributors, readers and other supporters
on the publication of the 25th issue of the journal Re-Markings, a forum for cross-cultural literary analysis, creative
writing, review and other features. As a refereed journal, Re-Markings sets a high standard for its authors and provides
consistently high quality to its readers. In India
Facing rapid changes in
how and with whom we communicate, we can appreciate and model the contribution
of writing to the making of meaning and to the understanding of others.
Literary analysis provides a vehicle for examining the meaning of stories in
their social and political context. Such analysis is of growing importance in
our plural societies in which we encounter so many stories and contexts.
Re-Markings
engenders cross-cultural dialogue that promotes mutual understanding. This
value of the Fulbright exchange program remains relevant since its inception in
India
There is something
delightfully fresh about Re-Markings.
After I read my issue, I always have the urge to write. I send my sincere hope
and best wishes for a long life of the journal!
·
Jane Schukoske, former faculty, University of
Baltimore School of Law, served as Executive Director of U.S. Educational
Foundation in India, New Delhi
v
Cultural Blueprints
and Better Architecture for Living
E. Ethelbert Miller
Many years ago I wrote about the importance of a common
language holding people together. The heart does not need to pursue translation
- it only needs to love. There are no borders or boundaries when a poem is
read. I think what Nibir Ghosh has done with the journal Re-Markings over
the years is the equivalent of providing us with cultural blueprints. Any
discussion of literature should remind us that we are human and have the capacity
to do good in the world. I was happy to contribute a few words about the
novelist Chinua Achebe in a recent issue of Re-Markings. It was Achebe
who taught us that "all the stories are true." The work Nibir has
been doing with Re-Markings over the years explores this idea. Literary
criticism serves as an overcoat protecting one from the rain of ignorance.
Magazines build community. India
- E. Ethelbert Miller is Board Chair of the Institute
for Policy Studies (a progressive think tank in
v
Creating Literary Camaraderie
Anisur
Rehman
The
act of bringing out a journal is not a random act if one knows what one
wishes to do and how. When Dr. Nibir K. Ghosh initiated his project he
knew as much. His editorial in the first issue of Re-Markings (Vol. 1,
No. 1, March 2002) spelt out his aim in unambiguous terms: “The avowed purpose
of the present endeavour is to create a climate of opinion congenial to
critical inquiry and intellectual debate.” I understand Dr. Ghosh made his
choice with good discretion and with better reason in order to achieve the best
that he could.
In
India
.
Re-Markings
is now a formidable mehfil of writers, critics, commentators, reviewers,
and readers—all brought together in the true spirit of companionship. During
all these years, I have seen the scholars growing with the growth of this
journal and I have seen them making way for the new ones to join. As I have
watched this, I have also wondered if there was something special that kept
them together. I did not have to strive hard for an answer; it lay in their
striving to grow with each other to create what I should like to call a
literary camaraderie deserving certain respect. While Re-Markings gave
them a platform, they found their mooring and all of them, together, made a
cumulative impact in the domains of literature, society, art, and culture that
every generation, and every age, strives to build in its own inimitable way.
My association with Re-Markings has two facets: academic and
personal. I made my tiny contributions now and then but when I look back while
writing these lines I realise how little have I really delivered between then
and now. I wish I could do more.
- Dr.
Anisur Rahman is Professor of
English at Jamia Millia Islamia,
v
Hope of Redemption
Jitendra Narayan Patnaik
Unlike
scores of Indian literary journals which are regularly irregular in terms of
the periodicity of publication or which die down after a few issues or turn
into business houses that facilitate smooth passage through the corridors of
Ph.D industry, Re-Markings comes out
without fail in March and September every year, is marching gloriously into its
silver jubilee number and is ruthlessly scrupulous about the quality of
articles selected for publication. Kudos to Nibir and his team for making all
this possible. Journals like Re-Markings
do offer some hope of redemption from the depressingly poor quality of research
and teaching in most of the institutions of higher education in India
- Dr.
Jitendra Narayan Patnaik is UGC Emeritus Fellow, Ravenshaw
University,
v
This celebratory 25th issue of Re-Markings is devoted to Langston
Hughes and is guest-edited by Amritjit Singh of Ohio
University , Athens .
For details: contact: Nibir K. Ghosh at ghoshnk@hotmail.com
2014
Next year I want to walk on the Sunny Side of the Street.
http://www.jazzonthetube.com/page/25379.html
Don't you?
http://www.jazzonthetube.com/page/25379.html
Don't you?
FROM JOANNA CHEN
Below is an article written by my good friend Joanna Chen who resides in Israel. She will be visiting DC in March. I hope you have a chance to talk with her. Joanna will be reading her poetry at the Writer's Center (Bethesda) in April 2014.
 |
| JOANNA CHEN |
With 40 percent of Israel's teenagers living under the poverty line, at-risk teens need more attention than ever.
By Joanna Chen | Dec. 24, 2013 | 5:01 PM | 
1
1
During the recent wave of biting cold that swept through Israel, I sat in my warm home and wondered how Israel’s youth in distress were coping.
While I was volunteering with Elem, a non-profit organization that helps youth at risk in forty Israeli cities, I came face to face with their plight - the scale of which unfortunately remains generally unknown outside Israel: Out of 2.5 million children in the country, an alarming 350,000 children are now at risk.
One of the prime reasons for this is that 40 percent of Israeli children live under the poverty line, roughly double that of most European countries, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. The social protest that flared up two years ago has long since dissipated; talk of funneling more funds into the weaker sections of the population has all but stopped. There have been cuts in allocations of money for welfare, rather than increases. As a result, Israel's government continues to rely heavily on the goodwill of several non-profit organizations to do the job in its place.
Just as in the United States, many Israeli teenagers are at risk in terms of drug and alcohol abuse, prostitution, and violence. According to the most recent Lancet Report (published last year), around 30 percent of American teenagers aged 15 admit to binge drinking. These figures, among others, suggest that an unprecedented number of children in the U.S. are at risk, despite a variety of welfare programs that target teenagers and that also take into account the 'silent' population of teenagers from illegal immigrant families.
In Israel, the largest demographic groups of teenagers most at risk are also from its recent immigrant populations, those whose parents emigrated from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union. 20 percent of Israel's population is immigrants; but a much higher percentage of all youth in distress in Israel are those from first-generation immigrant families. Their parents may have come the Jewish state seeking a safe-haven, but ask any of the Ethiopian kids on the street how they feel about living here and the answer will probably be the same: We are outsiders, we are discriminated against, we were born in this country but will never belong.
Elem's own statistics cite a 10 percent increase in the use of drugs by youngsters, suggesting that 30 percent of teenagers aged between 12 - 18 have experimented at least once with legal or recreational drugs, often synthetic 'copies' of illegal drugs, that can be readily purchased at kiosks and corner stores. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call to forbid the sale of synthetic marijuana and cheap methamphetamines has received much attention in the media but no real measures have been taken to date.
Another sector of the teenage population of Israel at risk relates to those living in security-sensitive areas along the border with Gaza or in the far north of Israel, bordering Lebanon. There are various state-run and private organizations that attempt to deal with the burgeoning sense of insecurity and ensuing side-effects that teenagers living in these vulnerable geographical areas experience. But these do little to stave the overall sense of insecurity that these particular teenagers experience, such as post-traumatic stress and a heightened sense of social isolation.
I volunteered for a year and a half with Elem's outreach street work program, venturing out every Thursday night to meet up with kids from the largely Ethiopian neighborhoods of Beit Shemesh. Another group of volunteers centers its street work on the Haredi sector of the city, locating kids from ultra-religious families who have dropped out of school and are facing difficulties finding their place within the strict dictates of this society.
Volunteering, in my experience, is a two-way street: The person who volunteers also gets something out of it, namely the somber awareness that local authorities are not doing enough for the troubled teenagers that have no one else to turn to. Outreach organizations, working hand in hand with local welfare authorities, answer some of these needs, but it is a drop in an ocean of problems that Israel's teenagers face.
Unless more drastic measures are taken, and unless Israel – the state and those Israelis in a position to give without receiving - faces up to this glaring disparity, the situation will only get worse. As a particularly cold 2013 draws to a close, it is high time that Israel takes notice of the youth on its streets.
Joanna Chen is a poet and literary translator whose work has been published in literary journals in Israel and abroad. She blogs at www.joannachen.com.