Barney Rossett, Grove Press Founder, Dead at 89, RIP

Barney Rossett, owner of Grove Press, publisher of the Evergreen Review, and hero of my early adolescence is dead at 89 (Feb 23, 2012).  When I was 13 I found the Evergreen Review. Under its influence (it was a literary magazine) I found the influential writers in my life. Perhaps some of its contents were over my head but I read on with the conviction that something there was very important to the development of my life.  I certainly understood “Lady Chatterly’s Lover.”  

I will say that, indirectly, Barney Rossett was the most influential person in my life.  He published magic like a pied piper and I followed picking up every precious morsel. – Carlos 

Death of a pioneer of avant-garde literature publishing

Grove published Evergreen Review, a literary magazine whose March-April 1960 edition includes work by Albert Camus, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bertolt Brecht, and LeRoi Jones, as well as Edward Albee‘s first play, The Zoo Story.

Grove published French avant-garde of the era, including Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jean Genet, and Eugène Ionesco; most of the American Beats of the 1950s, including Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg; and poets associated with Black Mountain and the San Francisco Renaissance such as Robert Duncan.

In 1954 Grove published Samuel Beckett‘s play Waiting for Godot after it was refused by more mainstream publishers. Since then it has been Beckett’s U.S. publisher. In 2006 Grove published an anniversary bilingual edition of Waiting for Godot and a special four-volume edition of Beckett’s works, with commissioned introductions byEdward Albee, J. M. Coetzee, Salman Rushdie, and Colm Tóibín, to commemorate his centenary (April 2006).

Grove is also the U.S. publisher of the works of Harold Pinter; in 2006 it published a collection called The Essential Pinter, which includes Pinter’s Nobel Lecture, entitled “Art, Truth & Politics.”

Grove is also the exclusive United States publisher of the unabridged complete works of the Marquis de Sade.  In addition, Grove publishes Japanese authors, such as Kenzaburo Oe.  He died Tuesday in New York City. He was 89.  His daughter, Tansey Rosset, said he died after undergoing surgery to replace a heart valve.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12054/1212023-122-0.stm

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Barney+Rossett&view=detail&id=6E59F909E61A8E8DB53DF5C9F223603A57C53C96&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR

Assange Does Simpsons!

The Simpsons’ 500th Episode, Starring Julian Assange: A Look Back at a One of America’s Most Politically Relevant Shows

February 19, 2012  |

Assange is one of the most prominent political figures the show has ever scored.  The weird tale of Julian Assange just got weirder: the WikiLeaks founder will appear in cartoon form on the 500th episode of “The Simpsons,” airing today. According to reports, Assange recorded his voiceovers from “a secret location” over the summer, although since he is currently on house arrest in a British mansion, it’s not hard to imagine that said location was the horse stable (or the panic room).

The Simpsons has been running since 1989, the longest-airing scripted prime-time show in television history, and for Assange to appear on a milestone episode is a perfect capper to a powerful stint as a political and cultural force. Renowned for having a distinct liberal bent, “The Simpsons” was probably the first animated cartoon with an explicit political perspective since Looney Tunes was running war propaganda storylines in the 1940s. But in 15 years, the show has never had a political figure as controversial as Assange guest as him or herself. Oh sure, it’s had plenty of famous cameos—Hollywood icons like Ernest Borgnine and Elizabeth Taylor, cool musicians like Sonic Youth and 50 Cent, an abundance of stars from the sports world (in the early years), an abundance of stars from the cooking world (in the later years). Stephen Hawking and Stephen Jay Gould have repped for science, Jasper Johns for visual art, Amy Tan for novelists. But in a legacy of political relevance (and good humor) that wanes and waxes depending on the year (and collection of writers), Assange’s appearance signals a return to form, and perhaps the most dramatic political statement the show has ever made.

He is one of the most prominent political figures “The Simpsons” has ever scored. It’s not hard to imagine why: when the show portrays real people in politics (Nixon or Liddy, Clinton or Bush), it tends to be taking the piss out, and a politician would need a pretty solid notion of his or her importance to step into such a situation willingly. Case in point: the only elected American official ever to appear on an episode of “The Simpsons” as himself was Rudy Giuliani, in the 2007 episode “Stop or My Dog Will Shoot”—but his clip was pulled from the final cut after it was announced he would run for president in 2008. (That didn’t stop the show from using another actor to spoof him during the campaign.) In 2003, British Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared, but only briefly, as a character welcoming the family to his country.

Even acknowledging the hazards, it’s curious that some of the politicians whose ideologies are more aligned with those of “The Simpsons” writers haven’t shown up. Al Gore has been portrayed plenty of times through the years for his deadpan style, his presidential run, and later, for his dedication to global warming awareness. But the only Gore who’s actually guest-voiced his own character on a Simpsons episode has been Vidal, in 2006’s “Moe’N’a Lisa,” when he spoofed his own novels (saying Burr was based on a commercial for Eskimo Pies).

Beyond those few, the majority of explicitly political people ever to have appeared on the Simpsons have been news anchors, pundits, or news-anchor-pundit-comedians: Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Keith Olbermann, Charlie Rose, Larry King, Dan Rather and, arguably, your boy Rupert Murdoch. Of all these men, Olbermann and Murdoch, arch-rivals to the death, run a close race as to whose appearance was funniest and most wry. In the case of Olbermann, he appears in Marge’s nightmare, naming her “The Worst Person in the World” for TiVoing through commercials. But Murdoch wins by a hair: having been taken down numerous times over the years by Simpsons writers — who can forget, “Fox News: not racist, but number one with racists!” He actually wrote his own line: “’I'm Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire tyrant, and this is my skybox.” You can cut the irony with a knife.   http://tinyurl.com/7pcugp9

 

Zé Claudio Ribeiro da Silva: Dead in Fight to Save Amazon

This is a testament to a tree hugger and his wife.  A couple whose lives ended for informing on lumber interests that must cut down the forest and move on.  Who informed on the cattle interests who converted the clear cut remnants of the jungle to pasture each year – year after year.  - Carlos

Death in the morning

“I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment,” said Ze Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, an Amazon rainforest activist, at an environmental conference in Manaus. Six months later Ze Claudio was dead – gunned down, alongside his wife Maria, on May 24, 2011 in a remote corner of the Brazilian Amazon.

Renowned for standing up to the illegal loggers and ranchers who have laid waste to the world’s greatest tropical forest, Ze Claudio had long known he was a marked man. Investigations into the assassination are ongoing, but few doubt he was killed because of this unflinching struggle in defence of the environment. After riddling his body with bullets, the gunmen cut off one of Jose Claudio’s ears - proof, police say, that they had successfully completed their mission.  Video here: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeracorrespondent/2011/09/2011918122311463189.html

TED (Portuguese) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO2pwnrji8I

Petition for Dilma  http://www.avaaz.org/po/codigo_florestal_urgente/96.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

Svante Pääbo Sequences Denisova (Neandertal Contemporary) Genome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svante_Paabo

Entire genome of extinct human decoded from fossil

February 7, 2012

EnlargeResearchers have now been able to sequence the entire Denisova genome using 10 milligram of a finger bone fragment that was found in the Denisova-Cave in Southern Sibiria. © MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology

(PhysOrg.com) — In 2010, Svante Pääbo and his colleagues presented a draft version of the genome from a small fragment of a human finger bone discovered in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. The DNA sequences showed that this individual came from a previously unknown group of extinct humans that have become known as Denisovans. Together with their sister group the Neandertals, Denisovans are the closest extinct relatives of currently living humans.

The Leipzig team has now developed sensitive novel techniques which have allowed them to sequence every position in the Denisovan genome about 30 times over, using DNA extracted from less than 10 milligrams of the finger bone. In the previous draft version published in 2010, each position in the genome was determined, on average, only twice. This level of resolution was sufficient to establish the relationship of Denisovans to Neandertals and present-day humans, but often made it impossible for researchers to study the evolution of specific parts of the genome. The now-completed version of the genome allows even the small differences between the copies of genes that this individual inherited from its mother and father to be distinguished. This Wednesday the Leipzig group makes the entire Denisovan genome sequence available for the scientific community over the internet.

“The genome is of very high quality”, says Matthias Meyer, who developed the techniques that made this technical feat possible. “We cover all non-repetitive DNA sequences in the Denisovan genome so many times that it has fewer errors than most genomes from present-day humans that have been determined to date”.

The genome represents the first high-coverage, complete genome sequence of an archaic human group – a leap in the study of extinct forms of humans. “We hope that biologists will be able to use this genome to discover genetic changes that were important for the development of modern human culture and technology, and enabled modern humans to leave Africa and rapidly spread around the world, starting around 100,000 years ago” says Pääbo. The genome is also expected to reveal new aspects of the history of Denisovans and Neandertals.

The group plans to present a paper describing the genome later this year. “But we want to make it freely available to everybody already now” says Pääbo. “We believe that many scientists will find it useful in their research”.

The project is made possible by financing from the Max Planck Society and is part of efforts since almost 30 years by Dr. Pääbo’s group to study ancient DNA. The finger bone was discovered by Professor Anatoly Derevianko and Professor Michail Shunkov from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2008 during their excavations at Denisova Cave, a unique archaeological site which contains cultural layers indicating that human occupation at the site started up to 280,000 years ago. The finger bone was found in a layer which has been dated to between 50,000 and 30,000 years ago.

The genome is available at http://www.eva.mpg.de/denisova and as a Public Data Set via Amazon Web Services (AWS):http://aws.amazon.com/datasets/2357 .

Provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (news : web)

How the US Uses the UN Veto – and How it is Used by Russia and China

I understand the use of  the veto to advance national interests but it is interesting to see what these interests were/are.  The 1970s were a long time ago but the ratio of  US vetoes vs China’s and Russia’s vetoes is instructive.  But how do we explain our extensive use of the security council veto?  Certainly not to achieve consensus.

 Putting the UN veto in perspective

Of­fi­cial Wash­ing­ton has been rife with con­dem­na­tion at the de­ci­sion by the gov­ern­ments of Rus­sia and China to veto an oth­er­wise unan­i­mous UN Se­cu­rity Coun­cil res­o­lu­tion con­demn­ing the on­go­ing re­pres­sion in Syria and call­ing for a halt to vi­o­lence on all sides; un­fet­tered ac­cess for Arab League mon­i­tors; and “a Syr­ian-led po­lit­i­cal tran­si­tion to a de­mo­c­ra­tic, plural po­lit­i­cal sys­tem, in which cit­i­zens are equal re­gard­less of their af­fil­i­a­tions or eth­nic­i­ties or be­liefs.”

Human rights ac­tivists were out­raged, as they should be. What is strik­ing, how­ever, is the re­sponse from US of­fi­cials and pun­dits so roundly con­demn­ing the use of the veto by these two per­ma­nent mem­bers of the Se­cu­rity Coun­cil to pro­tect the Syr­ian regime from ac­count­abil­ity for its sav­age re­pres­sion against its own cit­i­zens.

A lit­tle per­spec­tive is re­quired here: Since 1970, China has used its veto power eight times, and Rus­sia (and the for­mer So­viet Union) has used its veto power 13 times. How­ever, the United States has used its veto power 83 times, pri­mar­ily in de­fense of al­lies ac­cused of vi­o­lat­ing in­ter­na­tional hu­man­i­tar­ian law. Forty-two of these US ve­toes were to pro­tect Is­rael from crit­i­cism for il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing sus­pected war crimes. To this day, Is­rael oc­cu­pies and col­o­nizes a large swath of south­west­ern Syria in vi­o­la­tion of a se­ries of UN Se­cu­rity Coun­cil res­o­lu­tions, which the United States has suc­cess­fully blocked from en­forc­ing. Yet, Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton in­sists that it is the Rus­sians and Chi­nese who have “neutered” the Se­cu­rity Coun­cil in its abil­ity to de­fend basic human rights.

What draft res­o­lu­tions by the United Na­tion Se­cu­rity Coun­cil did the United States find so ter­ri­ble that both De­mo­c­ra­tic and Re­pub­li­can ad­min­is­tra­tions felt com­pelled to veto? Just to give a few ex­am­ples:

• En­force­ment of sanc­tions against the bru­tal white mi­nor­ity regime in Rhode­sia – 1970
• Op­po­si­tion to South Africa’s oc­cu­pa­tion of Namibia – 1975
• The ap­pli­ca­tion of Viet­nam to join the United Na­tions -1976
• A call for the cre­ation of a Pales­tin­ian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with strict se­cu­rity guar­an­tees for Is­rael – 1976
• Sanc­tions against the apartheid regime in South Africa – 1977
• Con­demn­ing the on­go­ing oc­cu­pa­tion of south­ern An­gola by apartheid South Africa – 1981
• Op­po­si­tion to Is­rael’s de facto an­nex­a­tion of Syr­ian ter­ri­tory in­vaded and oc­cu­pied in the 1967 war – 1982
• Calls for a halt to Is­rael’s in­va­sion of Lebanon – 1982
• Calls for cease-fire be­tween Is­raeli oc­cu­pa­tion forces and joint Lebanese-Pales­tin­ian forces dur­ing the siege of Beirut – 1982
• Op­po­si­tion to the US in­va­sion of Grenada – 1983
• Calls for an end of US-spon­sored at­tacks against Nicaragua – 1985
• A call to honor the rul­ing by the In­ter­na­tional Court of Jus­tice call­ing for an end to US-spon­sored con­tras against Nicaragua – 1986
• Crit­i­cism of Is­raeli at­tacks against civil­ians in Lebanon -1988
• Op­po­si­tion to the US in­va­sion of Panama – 1990
• Con­dem­na­tion of Is­raeli vi­o­la­tions of the Fourth Geneva Con­ven­tion in the oc­cu­pied West Bank -1997
• Es­tab­lish­ment of an un­armed human rights ob­server force in the oc­cu­pied Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ries – 2001
• Con­dem­na­tion of the killing of UN em­ploy­ees and de­struc­tion of a World Food Pro­gram ware­house by Is­raeli oc­cu­pa­tion forces – 2002
• A call on Is­rael to cease con­struc­tion of its sep­a­ra­tion wall deep in­side the oc­cu­pied West Bank – 2003
• Con­dem­na­tion of Is­raeli as­sas­si­na­tions of Pales­tin­ian lead­ers – 2004
• Re­it­er­a­tion of the il­le­gal­ity of Is­raeli col­o­niza­tion in the oc­cu­pied West Bank and a freeze on ad­di­tional con­struc­tion of set­tle­ments – 2011

In vir­tu­ally every one of these res­o­lu­tions, the United States cast the sole neg­a­tive vote in the oth­er­wise-unan­i­mous 15-mem­ber Se­cu­rity Coun­cil. And some of the res­o­lu­tions ve­toed by the United States in­volved gov­ern­ments re­spon­si­ble for even more civil­ian deaths than the Syr­ian regime in its bloody year­long crack­down.

None of this jus­ti­fies the Russ­ian-Chi­nese veto of the res­o­lu­tion chal­leng­ing the Syr­ian regime’s re­pres­sion, of course. It does, how­ever, make the self-right­eous con­dem­na­tion of this most re­cent veto by the very sup­port­ers of many of these ear­lier US ve­toes look rather ridicu­lous in the eyes of those who sup­port human rights and in­ter­na­tional law re­gard­less of the of­fend­ing regime’s geopo­lit­i­cal al­liances.

http://www.nationofchange.org/putting-un-veto-perspective-1328977209

Danger on the River in Brazil: – Not Huckleberry Finn

Most know I love Brazil. My knowledge is, however, peripheral.  That is, from Rio south to Porto Alegre.  Brazil is big.  There is a lot to see between Rio and Porto Alegre – a lot.  It’s like looking at a face.  You see the contours and beauty, you see the mystery, you hear the dulcet tones of Português on the lips, you look into the eyes and try to see within.  

Brazil is large and complex.  Here’s a look at river life that will make some cringe.    Al Jazeera does some excellent work and this is an example of some of the best.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/2011/05/201153142852595854.html

How the Guarani Die in Rio Grande do Sul

Occasionally people get arrested, occasionally the government comes to the aid of the indigenous asserting their rights.  The fact is that it is the fazendeiro (rancher) who pays the local taxes that pay the judges and the police.  Even the federal authority resident in the area is beholden to the power structure.

The ranchers claim they have paid for the land.  The local tribes dispute this and the land is being surveyed for incursion into tribal lands.

Six men face charges for Guarani murders in legal ‘milestone’9 February

Genivaldo Vera’s mother next to his tomb. He was killed by gunmen in 2009. © Public Ministry, MS/ Survival

Six men are being brought to trial for the murder of two Guarani Indians who were killed in Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul state in 2009.

The case has been described as ‘an important milestone’ by a public prosecutor.

Genivaldo Verá and Rolindo Verá were victims of an armed attack, after their Y’poi community attempted to reclaim its ancestral land from ranchers.

Brazil’s Public Ministry has announced that ranchers and politicians are among those facing prosecution. The charges they face include: homicide; hiding a body; shooting a firearm; and bodily harm against an elderly person.

One of the men under investigation, cattle rancher Firmino Escobar, also held the Guarani of Y’poi hostage in 2010, imprisoning them on their land and cutting off food and medical supplies.

Survival has a recording of him refusing an undercover Survival campaigner entry to the site. He also falsely denied any Indians were on the land.

The Public Ministry is considering opening another police investigation into other people who may have been involved in the fatal attack in 2009.

Rolindo Verá. His body was never found after the 2009 attack. © Public Ministry, MS/Survival

Speaking to Survival, a Guarani man from Y’poi community said, ‘This is really good news. That is what we were hoping for.’  Guarani communities face regular attacks from gunmen employed by ranchers to evict them from their land, but the perpetrators are rarely apprehended.

Public Prosecutor Thiago dos Santos Luz described the decision as a crucial step in ‘the fight for the effective protection of the fundamental rights of the Guarani Indians of Mato Grosso do Sul state, who are victims of constant violence.’

One of the few previous times a Guarani murder case went to court was in 2011. It related to the murder of Marcos Veron, an internationally respected Guarani leader who was beaten to death in 2003.

(‘His voice is not silenced.’)

In this emotional interview, Marcos Verón’s daughter-in-law tells Survival researcher Fiona Watson how she saw her father-in-law killed. At the end, Verón’s widow comes up to embrace Fiona.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘This investigation is encouraging, but the Brazilian government should remember that there are many more Guarani deaths that go uninvestigated. Ranchers have long attacked the Guarani with impunity – the tribe should not be under threat of murder for taking back land that is rightfully theirs.’

Privacy: You, too, can become an Informer

I use an antivirus program because I don’t like nasty people infecting my computer.   I use Tor (a program that bounces my searches around among many other sites) to obscure my activities so other malefactors who might just nosy (or worse) will find it hard to effortlessly monitor my life.  I use the postal mail for the same reason.  

I also use an anonymizer that changes my internet address.  I’m not doing anything illegal, I just think that I should be able to enjoy some modicum of privacy from internet voyeurs (public or private).  

Of course I’m in awe of the NSA, CIA, and FBI, and other less well known agencies who have the power to intercept telephonic and banking traffic worldwide and simultaneously.  If they want you they’ll get you – ask Bin Laden.  I just want to make the “cost” of casual surveillance high enough to be able to fly under the wire.  

If everyone used Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and Steganography to further conceal, on the internet, what used to be concealed by licking an envelope, it would make spying on citizens a lot more difficult.  I think it’s reasonable to assume that our communications are being mined  by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and lesser aggregators as well as national and foreign intelligence agencies at all times.

This is life in the 21st century.  Newspeak is used all the time while messaging and unhistory is revealed every time I turn on the TV.  Classical privacy died a century ago.  Nevertheless, the government wants to create informers to inform on citizens who just want a little privacy.

Total Information Awareness (TIA) or whatever its name has become these days is just too sexy an item to disappear.  TIA is also the most dangerous thing should the wrong government come to power.  Oh, for goodness sakes, I’m not talking about America!  This isn’t East Germany!

Do You Like Online Privacy? You May Be a Terrorist

February 1, 2012 in News

Public Intelligence

A flyer designed by the FBI and the Department of Justice to promote suspicious activity reporting in internet cafes lists basic tools used for online privacy as potential signs of terrorist activity.  The document, part of a program called “Communities Against Terrorism”, lists the use of “anonymizers, portals, or other means to shield IP address” as a sign that a person could be engaged in or supporting terrorist activity.  The use of encryption is also listed as a suspicious activity along with steganography, the practice of using “software to hide encrypted data in digital photos” or other media.  In fact, the flyer recommends that anyone “overly concerned about privacy” or attempting to “shield the screen from view of others” should be considered suspicious and potentially engaged in terrorist activities.

Logging into an account associated with a residential internet service provider (such as Comcast or AOL), an activity that could simply indicate that you are on a trip, is also considered a suspicious activity.  Viewing any content related to “military tactics” including manuals or “revolutionary literature” is also considered a potential indicator of terrorist activity.  This would mean that viewing a number of websites, including the one you are on right now, could be construed by a hapless employee as an highly suspicious activity potentially linking you to terrorism.

The “Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities” contained in the flyer are not to be construed alone as a sign of terrorist activity and the document notes that “just because someone’s speech, actions, beliefs, appearance, or way of life is different; it does not mean that he or she is suspicious.”  However, many of the activities described in the document are basic practices of any individual concerned with security or privacy online.  The use of PGP, VPNs, Tor or any of the many other technologies for anonymity and privacy online are directly targeted by the flyer, which is distributed to businesses in an effort to promote the reporting of these activities.  http://publicintelligence.net/do-you-like-online-privacy-you-may-be-a-terrorist/

George Orwell, Noam Chomsky: What Is “Unhistory?”

The Viet Nam war in the rear view mirror.  As a patriotic American veteran of Viet Nam era, I can only shake my head at the cost and loss.

Anniversaries From “Unhistory”

Monday 6 February 2012

by: Noam Chomsky, Truthout | Op-Ed

Flying under radar control with a B-66 Destroyer, Air Force F-105 Thunderchief pilots bomb a military target through low clouds over the southern panhandle of North Vietnam. June 14, 1966. (Photo: Lt. Col. Cecil J. Poss, USAF)

George Orwell coined the useful term “unperson” for creatures denied personhood because they don’t abide by state doctrine. We may add the term “unhistory” to refer to the fate of unpersons, expunged from history on similar grounds.

The unhistory of unpersons is illuminated by the fate of anniversaries. Important ones are usually commemorated, with due solemnity when appropriate: Pearl Harbor, for example. Some are not, and we can learn a lot about ourselves by extricating them from unhistory.

Right now we are failing to commemorate an event of great human significance: the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s decision to launch the direct invasion of South Vietnam, soon to become the most extreme crime of aggression since World War II.

For the rest of this article, go to

http://www.truth-out.org/anniversaries-unhistory/1328369965

Sundance Award: “The House I Live In”

The wretched story of race, crack, crime, and how black youth bear the brunt of what is a racially focused crime that singles out black youth.  This is a crime with roots in the importation of the crack cocaine phenomenon that may have its roots in the importation of crack cocaine culture by our government’s importation of cocaine to pay for the Iran-Contra debacle of the 1980′s – Carlos

A Colossal Failure: Sundance Award-Winning Film Sheds New Light on Destructive Drug War

Amy Goodman interviews the Director of “The House I Live In” to explore the horrific failures of drug war, as well as the argument for a public health approach.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=I1UMvLYVDP4

January 31, 2012  |

 This weekend the top documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival went to “The House I Live In,” which questions why the United States has spent more than $1 trillion on drug arrests in the past 40 years, and yet drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever. The film examines the economic, as well as the moral and practical, failures of the so-called “war on drugs,” and calls on the United States to approach drug abuse not as a “war,” but as a matter of public health. We need “a very changed dialogue in this country that understands drugs as a public health concern and not a criminal justice concern,” says the film’s Director Eugene Jarecki. “That means the system has to say, ‘We were wrong.’” We also speak with Nannie Jeter, who helped raise Jarecki as her own son succumbed to drug addiction and is highlighted in the film. We air clips from the film, featuring Michelle Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow;” Canadian physician and bestselling author, Gabor Maté; and David Simon, creator of “The Wire.”

AMY GOODMAN: As the Republican presidential candidates challenge President Obama with competing visions for how to improve the struggling U.S. economy, a new documentary questions the amount of money this country spends on the so-called “war on drugs.” Over the last 40 years, more than 45 million drug-related arrests have cost an estimated $1 trillion. Yet drugs are cheaper, purer and more available today than ever. The documentary is called The House I Live In. It examines the economic, as well as the moral and practical, failures of the war on drugs and calls on the U.S. to approach drug abuse not as a war, but as a matter of public health.

The House I Live In won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary this past weekend at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, the largest independent film showcase in the country. Democracy Now! was there earlier in the week, and I spoke with the film’s director, Eugene Jarecki, along with one of his main characters in the film, Nannie Jeter, about what inspired him to look at the war on drugs.

 EUGENE JARECKI: The film is a movie which was very much inspired by Nannie Jeter, who’s sitting with me. I grew up—I’ve known Nannie my whole life. Nannie worked with my family from the time I was a toddler and taught me a great deal about life and about the struggles of people in this country. And as I grew up, you know, I was very close with Nannie, and I was very close with members of her family, some of whom have come here to Sundance. And I grew up, and I’ve had a pretty privileged life. I’ve been able to become a filmmaker. I’ve met opportunity along the way. I’ve had a lot of positive experiences. And I noticed that young people in her family, who were growing up alongside me, were not having that kind of experience, and I wanted to know why.

I wanted to know why people I love and care about—I mean, I knew that we were all living in a post-civil-rights America. Nannie Jeter is African American. Her family is African American. But I thought that was all supposed to get better, and so I thought we were on a path all together, as I think a lot of people did. And yet, despite certain gains that African Americans have made, for the masses of black people in this country, it remains a pretty tough road to hoe. And I wanted to know what went wrong. And I began to learn that from Nannie, and that really sent me on a journey, because I started to ask her my first questions about what she thought had happened, even within her own family and community.  For the full article see:

http://www.alternet.org/story/153956/a_colossal_failure%3A__sundance_award-winning_film_sheds_new_light_on_destructive_drug_war_?akid=8216.901764.J_IJc2&rd=1&t=9