Labor Day weekend is upon us. And as in so many other things in this world, this is a case of American “exceptionalism.” Labor Day is celebrated on May 1 worldwide. But in the US, it was moved to the first Monday in September to take the whiff of radicalism away from it and depoliticize it–simply as another day off, the last day of summer, a day for barbeques, not barricades. The US made May Day “Law Day” in a clear affirmation of a value that was considered more worthy of celebrating. Did you know this? How many media outlets will remind us of this history? Anyone want to guess?

TOWER OF BABBLE

Here in South Africa, the debates at the summit continue. In my mind, the reports on the South African Broadcasting Corporation seem to be the best and most comprehensive that I have seen on TV. They are focusing on the issues, interviewing representatives from NGO’s like the Sierra Club, who blasted the no show by President Bush. The US delegation says it has not changed US policy and seems quite content with it.

Jeffrey Sachs, the economist who helped destroy the Russian economy, now reborn as an advisor to the UN, is also criticizing the US. He noted that there are two discourses in the world — one here in Johannesburg about solving problems affecting tens of millions and another in Washington where war talk is the only talk. He noted that if every rich country only set aside one penny of every ten dollars for aid, there would be a l0 BILLION dollar fund available to help poor countries meet urgent health needs.

Issues like agriculture were on the agenda. I heard a farmer from Canada describe how he was sued by the Monsanto Company for patent violations when a plant with their genetically modified secret formula was found near his property. He swore it wasn’t his. The company won and he lost a lot of money. Issues like this that pit small farmers against giant agricultural interests are on the agenda. OXFAM is focusing on correcting trade imbalances, especially when it comes to the European Community’s dumping of sugar on African countries, undercutting their industries and chance to compete in world markets. FAIRNESS is the battle cry in this debate

FIDEL TO THE RESCUE?

Tomorrow the heads of states start arriving, with Fidel Castro on the roster as a possible rally speaker. There will be three marches and I hope to be covering at least one of them. One can only hope that the South African police will cool it or this summit could become another Seattle.

For another view on some of the media coverage: See TomPaine.Com for Tom Turner’s report:

“A huge horde of reporters is swirling about, looking for something to report, and myriad groups are only to happy to supply new books and reports and studies at press conferences and receptions.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6283

AFGHANISTAN “DETERIORATING”

As the 9/11 anniversary approaches, there are warnings buzzing on the web of new attacks. But also a report from Stratfor.com on the deteriorating situation on the Internet that I don’t see much news about in the news.

“Recent reports indicate the Taliban and al Qaeda are egrouping in preparation for a major escalation of fighting in Afganistan. Moreover, STRATFOR has received intelligence that resistance to U.S. forces in Afghanistan has spread well beyond these groups, threatening a steep increase in fighting over the coming months.”

MORE ON JACKIE MASON FROM READERS

I have had some feedback to my report yesterday on comic Jackie Mason’s canceling a Palestinian comic from a show he booked him for. This controversy has been all over CNN and other US outlets but I hadn’t seen the coverage. Here are two readers writing from Chicago:

John Carlin writes: “Being a standup comic myself, I heard about the Jackie Mason controversy a couple of days ago. While the story in the Tribune does indeed seem troubling, there’s one or two points they somehow neglected to mention. More than one comic in Chicago has chimed in to let me know that this gentleman’s “act” consists of jokes about car bombing, killing infidels, etc. As Mason’s audience is largely Jewish, I think it would have been an inappropriate choice to have that comedian open the show. Of course, booking him in the first place was a mistake on the clubs’ part, if for no other reason than his inexperience. And the fact that they waited until the last minute to cancel him is, while troubling, unfortunately not a rare occurence in the standup world, no matter what your ethnicity. When I first read the story, I was outraged myself, until I talked to a couple of my friends in Chicago about it and realized that all this controversy was created by none other than the fired comedian himself. No one likes to be fired from a gig, and Mason’s managers comments seem pretty damming [sic] (and Mason’s appearance on CNN last night won him no points), but it now looks like the Tribune left quite a bit out of the story. Take care.”

Stefanos Dris comments: “When I saw the story about Hanania on Fox Chicago, there was no mention of Mason’s manager’s statement. Mason was shown disputing that Hanania was fired on the basis of ethnicity - after all, he said, he hired himin the first place. In fact, Mason blamed Hanania of being anti-semitic, due to his criticism of Ariel Sharon. Interestingly enough, none of the”journalists” on Fox bothered to mention that Hanania’s wife is Jewish (I heard this on another channel and verified it on the Hanania’s own site).

This whole story is reminiscent of another controversy that took place in my previous university, UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology). It was back in July when a renowned Professorof Linguistics “unappointed” two Israeli colleagues (and friends!) from the boards of her private linguistics journals. Prof Mona Baker was taking part in a boycott of Israeli academics that started in the UK. Of course the UK media picked up on this story, and even blamed the university for not punishing her (the Telegraph decided that what concerned two privately owned journals was UMIST’s responsibility). Inaddition, the student unions of the University of Manchester and UMIST condemned the firings since they were on the basis of nationality. Given that Israeli intellectuals are often critical of the current Israeli government, what good can possibly come from a boycott of academics.Ludicrous…” (According to the morning papers, Mason had nothing to do with the hiring or the firing–which was done by Zanies’ club manager, not Mason’s.)

That’s all for now. Back, I hope tomorrow. Share your comments by hitting RESPOND or writing: dissector@mediachannel.org