R to L: Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman in "All the President's Men (1976)" |
Tuesday, January 09, 2024
Support Local Independent Media Like Atlanta's "285 South" by Sophia Qureshi
Friday, December 08, 2023
Film: "A Town Called Victoria" by Li Lu
Sunday, November 19, 2023
Review: 36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime by Tarek Albaba
I watched 36 Seconds: Portraity of a Hate Crime by Tarek Albaba via the NYC Film Festival, where it is available for streaming through November 26, 2023.
Monday, October 30, 2023
Review: "Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood and the World" by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope
Let us respect the colonialist plunderers of old. At least they had to risk "cannibals" and malaria. Today's plundering colonialists risk bad sushi and paper cuts in hotel lobbies in Switzerland and Singapore.
Reading Tom Wright's and Bradley Hope's Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood and the World engendered in me the same nausea and disgust I felt after reading The Secret World of Oil by Ken Silverstein. Every dollar extracted from the poorer nations of the world is a dollar taken away from development efforts. And while Wright's and Hope's narrative takes advantage of the extravagence of Jho Low, the central character, to maintain the reader's interest, it matters not if the people who extract the money spend it on birthday parties, yachts and jewelry or actual productive business enterprises. It's all theft from the world's poor.
The looting of 1MDB is the subject of Billion Dollar Whale. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak oversaw the creation and management of 1MDB, a sovereign national fund, and, through cronies and bankers, pilfered millions (tens, hundreds?) of USD.
The best passage in the book is towards the end, on p. 371:
Western financial institutions, from Goldman to auditors and private banks, had unwittingly helped Low get away with it, impoverishing Malaysia. (emphasis added)
Tuesday, October 03, 2023
Children's Books from Ruqaya's Bookshelf: Is It Time to Demand More from Muslim Children's Literature?
- Basirah the Basketballer says Insha'Allah by Hafsah Dabiri (more links)
- Zaid and the Gigantic Cloud by Helal Musleh
- The Great Hair Exchange by Asmaa Hussein (founder of Ruqaya's Bookshelf)
- Not Too Little to Make a Difference by Lela Usama Goldsmith
- Mr. Gamal's Gratitude Glasses by Asmaa Hussein
- Nusaiba and the 5th Grade Bullies by Asmaa Hussein
- Pepperoni, Pitches (and Other Problems) by Shifa Saltagi Safadi
- Spell It Like S-A-M-A-R by Shifa Saltagi Safadi
Monday, October 02, 2023
Book Given Away: "Calling for a Blanket Dance" by Oscar Hokeah