Idi Amin

In a movie opening today, The Last King of Scotland, portrays one of the towering and largely despised figures of the second half of the 20th-century, Uganda's dictator Idi Amin. Here is Bob Mondello's review (9/27/2006 - 3:53), with links to an interview with actor Forest Whitaker and with two scenes from the film.

Amin seized power in 1971, and ruled Uganda with an iron fist, in the process killing some 300,000 people before he was deposed and forced to flee to Saudi Arabia in 1979, where he died in 2003.

Musings

• What makes a dictatorial leader a hated figure instead of a strong leader? Consider, for instance, what we know about the President of Sudan, Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, the man largely responsible for the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of his country?
  
  
• What is your sense of the status of Saddam Hussein, and just why and when he earned his current reputation?
  
  
• In the theater and films, one sure-fire way to define a strong hero is by creating a strong villain. Does this seem process apply to politics?
  

1906 Atlanta Race Riot

Kathy Lohr presents this overview of four days of race riots (9/22/2006 - 7:44) in the city of Atlanta. The exact number of deaths is in dispute, although the official count was 12 blacks and two whites. The match that seemed to light the fuse was the incendiary claim of black men raping white women, a claim flamed by competing politicians and special editions of competing newspapers.

"There was a great deal of concern about the city itself, and the decaying morals associated with an urban environment," says Cliff Kuhn, history professor at Georgia State University, a concern centered on the question of the danger to white women posed by black men. Then there was a series of allegations of new rapes of white women, all unsubstantiated. Kuhn continues the story:

Newsboys are hawking these editions: 'Extra! Extra! Read all about it!' And at the corner of Pryor and Decatur Street, a man gets up on a soapbox and waves one of these newspaper headlines and says, 'Are we going to let them do this to our white women? Come on, boys!' And the mob surges down Decatur Street.

Musings

• Current heated debate over illegal Hispanic immigration in the U.S. seems to lack the hot-button issue of race. Is that because we have changed or because we feel differently about Hispanics?
  
• Check out this lengthy list of U.S. race riots at Wikipedia.

We welcome your comments on this topic,
including annotated links to related Web materials.

Politics and the English Language

George Orwell's 1946 essay, "Politics and the English Language," has rightly become, not just a modern literary milestone, but a touchstone text of a liberal education, one found in practically every textbook used in freshman English classes in colleges across the country. In this piece from All Things Considered, Clarity Is the Remedy (9/22/06 - 4:05), writer Lawrence Wright discusses his own admiration for the piece, "which I first read as a freshman at Tulane University and immediately adopted as my guide":

Orwell's proposition is that modern English, especially written English, is so corrupted by bad habits that it has become impossible to think clearly. The main enemy, he believed, was insincerity, which hides behind the long words and empty phrases that stand between what is said and what is really meant.

The NPR site provides a link to the original essay, which is also available, along with a host of other Orwell material, at Charles' Orwell site. Note that the site claims that Orwell's works are in the public domain in Canada, where this site is hosted.

Musings

• One explanation of the enduring popularity of this piece is that it appeals to both the political left and right, to both conservatives and progressives.
  
  
• Orwell's point is that how we describe the world is of crucial importance; furthermore, that some language hides the truth from us (and is thus used to manipulate us) while other language (that which is clear, for instance) helps us to see the world as it really is. How does such an analysis apply to what has become the dominant decriptive metaphor of our age--that we are engaged in a "war on terror"? Does this phrase help or hinder our seeing the struggle we are engaged in?
  

Maurice Sendak

"Childhood is a tricky business," says noted children's author and illustrator, Maurice Sendak (9/26/2006). "Usually, something goes wrong." In this piece from Morning Edition, NPR's Steve Inskeep looks at the latest work from the beloved, but sometimes disturbing, children's author and illustrator, Maurice Sendak (9/26/2006 - ). The interview is about Sendak's latest book, Mommy?, although discussion with or about Sendak never goes far without mention of his classic story, Where the Wild Things Are. Sendak is most noted for placing his children in great dangers; in Mommy the child hero wanders among such famous monsters as Frankenstein and the Mummy.

Musings

• What can you learn about the connection between Sendak's art and his childhood, from this slide show and this conversation, as well as the video at this American Masters site?
  
• How would one answer a concerned parent who might find Sendak's work inappropriate for kids?
  
• At one point, Sendak discusses how the Lindberg kidnapping played such a key role in his childhood fears. How do world events affect children?

Bela Fleck

"I believe in figuring out my own way to do things. This approach can yield great results, but it's got its negative sides." So begins folk-jazz guitarist Bela Fleck in his essay, Doing Things My Way (9/25/06 - 4:00), part of the ongoing NPR series "This I Believe."

Recently, Fleck discussed his early experiences with music, and played variations on "Oh! Susanna" on the NPR's From the Top (9/20/2006 - 7:04).

Musings

• There's a peculiarly American strain in both Fleck's music and his attitude about it, especially as revealed in this short essay.
  

• The "This I Believe" series entails what turns out to be a rather difficult format, not that people lack opinions about what they think but precisely because everyone has them and after a while they all tend to blend together. Thus producing a good NPR piece in this series is akin to writing a good college essay. Here are two key suggestions from the "This I Believe" tips-page for doing just that:
  
  
  • Be specific. Take your belief out of the ether and ground it in the events of your life. Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed. Think of your own experience, work and family, and tell of the things you know that no one else does. Your story need not be heart-warming or gut-wrenching -- it can even be funny -- but it should be real. Make sure your story ties to the essence of your daily life philosophy and the shaping of your beliefs.
    
    
  • Be personal: This is radio. Write in words and phrases that are comfortable for you to speak. We recommend you read your essay aloud to yourself several times, and each time edit it and simplify it until you find the words, tone and story that truly echo your belief and the way you speak.

Clinton on Detainees

In this piece from Morning Edition, former President Bill Clinton (9/21/06-6:19) gives his opinions about what has become a major policy debate in the U.S. Senate: how to handle terrorism suspects. On the same show, NPR Washington editor Ron Elving (2:35) places Clinton's remarks in context.

Musings

• Of interesting here is Clinton's folksy language, referring to the supposed need to whack a detainee, whereas President Bush has been referring to "alternative means of interrogation." Bush also claimed that he could not discuss this means since doing so would help the terrorists prepare for such intense questioning. Sounds nice, but it's a little hard to see the difference between "whacking" and "alternative" as a matter of national security.
  
  
• Clinton also talks about waterboarding (discussed here at Wikipedia). Here's a link to Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Convention, which prohibits "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment"--language that President Bush claims is too vague.
  

Pope and Islam

This past Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI said that he was "deeply sorry" and regretted the reaction to his comments about the prophet Muhammad that he made during an academic speech the week before at a German university. The pontiff had quoted a 14th-century Christian description of Islam as "evil and inhuman," causing Islamist leaders from around the world to demand an apology.

In this piece from All Things Considered, commentator Joe Loconte (9/19/06 - 3:45) makes the point that it's possible "to make the right point in the wrong way." Loconte argues that Christianity has its own rich history of violence and irrationality from which the Pope might have selected his illustration.

Musings

• This NPR page conveniently cites world opinion on the Pope's comment and "apology." It is sometimes hard to get U.S. students interested in what the rest of the world thinks about anything, but these diverse opinions might arouse some interest.
  
  
• Political correctness is an often maligned term, since it entails a certain softening from what others might see as "straight-shooting" or the "unvarnished truth." (See more at Wikipedia.) The problem is that there are lots of situations when all of us are trained (rightly?) to say what's expected, what's polite--think of interviews with ball players, who are trained never to criticize a teammate in public.
  

Castro

Tom Gjelten provides this overview of the 50-year career of Cuban premier and revolutionary, Fidel Castro (9/15/06 8:50).

There were left-leaning politicians all across Latin America in the 1950s, but none of them was anything like Fidel Castro -- the bearded firebrand revolutionary who fought his way down from the mountains of central Cuba, vowing to build a nation based on social justice.

Fast-forward two generations: Castro is now an old man, still recovering from abdominal surgery and unable to make an appearance at a summit of non-aligned nations in his own capital of Havana. But a few of the gray-haired diplomats at the summit recall how Castro's triumph electrified the continent.

Musings

• Castro is a polarizing figure in American political discourse--officially labeld a dictator by U.S. government, and with few public defenders in the country. Yet as the Gjelten piece makes clear he still has heroic standing for some (or many) outside the country. How can you explain this discrepancy.
  
  
• Castro has lived to old age, and governing a country the whole time, while his compatriot Che Guevara died young. Hence whereas Castro is an elderly leader, his contemporary Che remains a youthful and, for many, beloved revolutionary.
  
  
• For decades, college dorm rooms were adorned with posters of Che. Who has replaced Che on posters; do young Americans have any political heroes today?
  

Two Muslim Sisters

NPR special correspondent Judy Woodruff (9/14/06 - 8:03) interviews the sisters Assia and Iman Boundaoui. The sisters are 20 and 18, in other words, college students. Part 2 (8:56) of the story, on the same page, focuses on wearing a hijab.

"I'm proud to be Algerian," Assia says, "but it makes me mad when people think just because you have a scarf on, you can't be American. You know, they have to ask you, 'Where are you really from? No, no where are you really from?'"

This interview is part of the series Muslims in America, as well as Woodruff's ongoing work of the Generation Next Project.

Musings

• The hijab, or headscarf, seems to play a central role in defining Muslim identity. Indeed, the NPR page has a lengthy discussion of Assia's decision. (See more on the hijab at Wikipedia .) How can one explain such importance being attached to a single piece, by Muslims and non-Muslims alike?
  
  
• Equally important are the broader social issues involved with the hijab, especially in "open," Western democracies, including a national controversy in France. The Boundaoui sisters are critical of the French law, but it does have its defenders; for more see the Wikipedia entry on the French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools

Exiting Iraq: A General's View

Weekend Edition Saturday has this straightforward interview with retired Lt. Gen. William E. Odom (9/16/06 - 7:17). Odom was the director of the National Security Agency under an earlier Republican President, Ronald Reagan. This is part of a series of interviews that includes interviews with Ambassador Peter Galbraith, University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami, historian Frederick Kagan, and former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Musings

• Odom is what might be called an old-fashioned Republican, a group that in foreign policy liked to pride itself on its sense of realism (sometimes referred to by the German term realpolitik), an approach that basically avoided ideological debates (about good and evil), and instead sought to manipulate others as a way to minimize one's own costs, risks, and exposure.
  
  
• One of the more interesting points Odom makes is that a country cannot have a strong army without a strong central government. We will will never be able to build an army in Iraq, in other words, if the warring parties do not trust each other, since the group that ended up controlling the army would then control the country, which is something that the other party (Odom suggests) would never allow.

Enemy Combatant

From Morning Edition comes this report (9/14/06 - 4:46) on British-born Moazzam Begg (@ Wikipedia), a man who spent two years incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay as an enemy combatant (@ Wikipedia) of the United States, before being released in 2005. There's a brief follow-up interview (1:03) with NPR's correspondent Jackie Northam.

Like most enemy combatants, Begg was never charged with a crime during his time in prison, and now in a new book Begg claims that he was "never ever was a threat to the security of the United States of America." The Pentagon, disagrees, claiming that Begg is still a dangerous man.

Musings

• Part of the problem is what to do with people (mostly soldier-aged males) who clearly do not like us and hence, given the right opportunity, might conceivably act violently against the U.S. or our interests. The old-fashioned solution was basically two-fold: (1) to make each country responsible for policing its own citizens, and (2), at least in the U.S. and most democracies, not to arrest or otherwise detain people until or unless they have actually committed a crime. In other words, we did not arrest people on the likelihood that they would commit a crime, that someone like Begg is potentially dangerous. What's different today?
  
  
• A related issue is our use of the language of war. Again, the old-fashioned notion of war was between states. When one state was defeated, a new government was put in place that then had the task of policing its citizens. We now seem to be at war, not with governments, but with individuals and groups, and do not seem to have solved the problem of what to do with the people we fight against and do not kill. What do you think of what has been our short-term solution of our creating a global prison system?
  

Living Wage in L.A.

What to do about the minimum wage continues to be a contentious policy issue across the country Wikipedia has this historical overview of the minimum wage in the U.S. The same article surveys global policies on the issue. In this piece from last April (4/10/06 - 8:57), Renée Montagne reviews the impact of the living wage ordinance in Los Angeles.

This report is part of a larger series, Fighting Poverty in America, all of which deal with how general policy issues impact specific
people, helping us to see, or hear, how real people deal with tough circumstances.

Classroom thoughts

• This NPR piece fcuses on the policy concept of living wage. What are your thoughts about the movement in cities and municipalities to create their own, higher minimum wage?
  
  
• What do you think of the tactic of focusing on specific individuals, as Renée Montagne does in her piece?
  

HBO's The Wire

Michelle Norris reports on HBO's highly praised police drama, The Wire (9/7/06 - 8:09), called by critics "the most demanding, intelligent hour on television." The show is set in Baltimore, and after focusing on corruption in the police force, drug wars, and the port, the new, fourth season offers a realistic look at the Baltimore city schools. Perhaps what is most surprising is that chief writer and producer Ed Burns has decided to look, not at high school, but middle school students and their lives in and out of school. Burns says he wanted to "go back to when choices are made" and thus that for this group of students high school was too late.

"This is the tragedy of their school experience," Burns adds. "They spend time in class warring with the teacher. They're suspended. They go to time-out rooms, and then they hit the streets, and within five years, a lot of them are victims of murders or are committing murders." Too often, he feels, better options are closed off to these kids: "It's not from personal choice, but from other doors shutting around them." Learn more about The Wire at Wikipedia.

Classroom thoughts

• Middle school gets much less play in stories, in print, film or television, than high school. Any thoughts as to why?
  
  
• Some studies show that of all age groups the college-age population watches the least amount of television. Indeed, while we often think of TV as popular entertainment, it is much more likely that professors rather than their students will be watching almost any television drama. Find out who is watching The Wire or any other dramatic series in your class.
  

The Weepies

Music is not an easy topic to deal with in an academic setting, as all music listeners have lots of strong feelings about what they listen to, young listeners especially. In this piece from Weekend Edition Saturday (9/8/06 - 10:49), we get to hear the music of the Weepies and, perhaps just as importantly get to meet two interesting young people, Deb Talan and Steve Tannen.

Their latest album, Say I Am You, was recorded at their house in Pasadena, Calif. "World Spins Madly On," a track from that album, appears on the soundtrack of the recent film Friends with Money. More on the group at Wikipedia.

Classroom thoughts

• We are used to thinking about music in terms of big hits, big stars, lots of marketing; here we get a different picture of the music business as a cottage industry. As a career choice, what's the appeal of each approach?
  
  
• A key element in music listening is genre, distinct, readily recognizable qualities that must be present to make a work of art appropriate--that is, appropriate to it genre. If these elements are not present, the work is immediately deemed as outside the genre, hence, inappropriate and, more to the point, often unlistenable, regardless of any other feature. See what Wikipedia has to say about genre, and discuss the role of genre in your own music listening.
  

Images of Sept. 11

This NPR report by Karen Grigsby Bates (9/8/06 - 5:23) features an interview with David Friend, the editor of a new book of 9/11 images, Watching the World Change. The interview with Bates focuses not on the famous, often-reproduced Thomas Franklin image shown here (although Friend does discuss this image at the NPR Web site) but the much more disturbing image of one the jumpers, a man plummeting to his death, taken by Richard Drew.

We learn in the piece that not many American newspapers elected to publish this. "Pictures of that sort of power tend to be foreign images," Friend says. "[Americans] don't tend to want to see our own dying before our eyes."

Classroom thoughts

There is a world of difference in the two photographs. While it is easy to see these differences, it may be a bit more difficult to articulate them for others--why are eyes are drawn to one image and averted from the other.

• What do you think about decision of newspapers editors not to publish the Drew photograph?
  
  
• Here's a link to an NPR piece on cell phone photos taken after the London subway bombings in August 2005. What do you think of the proposition that such photographs are going to change how we understand history?
  

Music and Mayhem in Laurel Canyon

In this entertaining piece, Music and Mayhem in Laurel Canyon (9/7/06 - 7:18), NPR's Renée Montagne interviews Michael Walker, author of the Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood. It seems while San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood got all the publicity as the hotspot of the late-60s counter-culture, many of the major musicians of the era were ensconced in this rustic Los Angeles neighborhood: the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, Frank Zappa, Crosby Stills and Nash, the Eagles, Jim Morrison, and a host of others.

Here's Walker's take on why this happened: ""Musicians need to breathe the same air. And these were some of the best musicians of their generation, sort of by luck and happenstance jammed into this beautiful, leafy, little neighborhood." Read more about Laurel Canyon at Wikipedia.

Musings

• This piece is based on the assumption of the mythic status of the times and musicians--a time when everything seems to have been larger than life. How much of this feeling is still present in today's youth?
  
  
• One memorable aspect of counter-culture during the time of Laurel Canyon was its anti-war stance. Can one find a similar anti-war culture today? Where? If not, what? What's the difference between then, when we were at war in Vietnam, and now, when we are at war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

The Wacky World of John Hodgman

Thanks to a new series of TV commercials for Apple computers, John Hodgman has become a household face, if not a name. He's the nerd who represents the clunky PC, as compared to the hip guy playing a Mac. It turns out that, once again, art is imitating life, and that Hodgman really is something of a professional nerd and all-around oddball. Here in this interview with Robert Siegel (9/5/06 - 8:15) we learn that Hodgman is also a master humorist.

Classroom thoughts

• Slate magazine's media critic Seth Stevenson takes a look at the new Mac ads (6/21/06 - 4:03). You can view the original ads at the Apple site. Most of us are not used to such focused ad criticism--what do you think of Stevenson's remarks.
  
  
• Apple is clearly trying to sell its computers because they hip, cool, or generally sexy in a special kind of male way. Exactly what is it that the Mac guy has that the PC guy doesn't? Who or what else is society is like the Mac guy, the PC guy?
  
  
• Hodgman's humor is best described as deadpan, described this way by Mark Twain: "The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it." (Read more at Wikipedia.com.) Discuss your experience with deadpan wits.
  

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

In this piece, NPR's legal correspondent, Nina Totenberg, presents a detailed analysis of the Supreme Court's June 2006 ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (9/5/06 - 9:19). Hamdan's main crime is having served as Osama bin Laden's driver in Afghanistan, although, as one commentator noted, after World War II we interviewed Hitler's driver but neither arrested nor otherwise prosecuted him.

In any case, in the Hamdan decision the high court (in a 5-3 decision) ruled against the system set up by President Bush to try accused war criminals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Experts are calling this the "most important ruling on executive power in decades, or perhaps ever." Read more at Wikipedia.com.

Classroom thoughts

• There are lots of legal peculiarities in this or any court ruling, but the key issue here is clear: What are the limits, if any, on the executive power of the President in the one area where everyone acknowledges the President has the greatest power, that is, in the area of protecting the national security? In other words, are there conditions regarding national security that empowers the President to act contrary to, or without regard for, existing U.S. laws?
  
  
• A related issue here is what to make of exceptions. In other words, even if one concedes that under extraordinary circumstances, the President should be able to act without regard to existing laws, the question becomes what a circumstance truly extraordinary? More specifically, is the "war on terror," which has been going on for at least five years and has no clear end in sight, such a circumstance? Is the age in which we are now living really all that exceptional?
  
  
• The NPR piece focuses on the efforts of attorney Neal Katyal as the David in this David-and-Goliath story. Why do "Davids" make such appealing heroes, and do you think Katyal is one?
  

A Better Breakfast

In this Morning Edition segment, A Better Breakfast Can Boost a Child's Brainpower (8/31/06 - 4:53), Allison Aubrey reviews current thinking on an old topic, one all of us, at one time or another, have been instructed on, usually by our mothers: namely, the benefits of eating a good breakfast. One study reviewed in the piece compared students who ate sweetened oatmeal with those who had Cap'n Crunch; then both groups had theor short-term memories tested. No surprise: The oatmeal eaters did 20 percent better than the Crunch-ers.

On the same page, check out the article, "Breakfast of Scholars: What Eggs-perts Suggest," by Roseanne Pereira and Marc Silver. This earlier short piece, Breakfast Survey (5/31/2000 - 2:15) look at what people in Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Boston had for breakfast.

Classroom thoughts

• Might as well start with the obvious: what the class had for breakfast. Here's a good chance to build class-based knowledge set, and then have class do some qualitatively analysis and case studies.
  
  
• What is it with Cap'n Crunch? Why does everyone make fun of this stuff? There's even a Wikipedia entry.
  

Dixie Chicks' Summer Tour

The country music group, the Dixie Chicks, raises a number of important issues about contemporary American values, mostly related to "the incident": the remark made by Natalie Maines to a London audience some three years, at the start of current Iraq War, that she was "ashamed" President Bush was from the group's home state of Texas. Craig Havighurst's piece, Dixie Chicks Summer Tour Not All Smooth Sailing (8/31/06 - 7:18) brings the story up to date by focusing on how the continuing repercussions are affecting their current tour, including response to their new album's lead song, "Not Ready to Make Nice."

Last May, Melissa Block did this feature on their current album, Taking the Long Way (5/23/06 - 8:54). You can read more about the Dixie Chicks at Wikipedia.

Classroom thoughts

• What are your thoughts on "the incident" -- a performer's public criticism of the President, and the response it produced? What does it say about the nature of dissent and the power of consensus in the U.S.?
  
  
• While dissent may have been more widespread during the Vietnam War, in large measure because of the military draft that made young people opposed to the war subject to having to fight it, it is unclear if dissent was any more popular. The actress Jane Fonda became immensely unpopular at the time, as was the now widely admired ex-heavyweight champ, Muhammad Ali, who has largely remade his image. Check and see what people had to say at the time when he refused to allow himself to be drafted into the U.S. Army.
  
  
• Havighurst's piece refers to the 200+ country stations owned by a single company, Clear Channel Communications (@ Wikipedia). What advantages or disadvantages do you see in one company having such control?