07 March 2002

All politics are local "How will the world look when the global policies of the world's most powerful economy are set in the mountains of West Virginia? The world will look increasingly dangerous and unstable." Jeff Sachs tries to explain the politics of steel tariffs and Kyoto treaty rejection. Against his better judgement (I suspect), Jeff ends on a slightly optimistic note. 10:45:56 PM

Novelist's eye If you want insight into today's Zimbabwe, Christopher Hope's reportage tops anything I've read. Hope is an excellent South African novelist, and his writing combines a novelist's eye with the hard work of a reporter. Since the heyday of Granta magazine, British papers have made an artform of this kind of work (I know some American magazines do it, but it lacks the immediacy of a newspaper report). Tim Garton Ash is a historian who combines his deep knowledge and perspective with the best journalistic impulses. His analysis of the state of Serbia makes the important case for both the International Criminal Court (stymied by US opposition) and for a truth and reconciliation process in former Yugoslavia. "The problem for enlightened Serbs is that the Milosevic trial is currently reinforcing that denial, and syndrome of victimhood, rather than breaking it open." 6:16:30 PM

Since when is bigness goodness? Bill Safire's value is that he can be unpredictable. Doesn't this sound more Naomi Klein than paid-up Republican: "Why should we supinely go along with the seizure of economic power by today's triopolies and duopolies on their march to becoming tomorrow's monopolies?" I also appreciated him being right on the mark about where innovation takes place. "Only the monster conglomerate can afford to invest in new technologies, complaisant Washington regulators tell us -- as if innovation and invention were not also found in small laboratories and the brains of creative loners." 11:26:27 AM

© Copyright 2002 Lance Knobel.