The Invention of Morel - by Adolfo Bioy Casares

‘This was my last chance with Faustine – my last chance to kneel down, to tell her of my love, my life. But I did nothing. It did not seem right, somehow. True, women naturally welcome any sort of tribute. But in this case it would be better to let the situation develop naturally. We are suspicious of a stranger who tells us his life story, who tells us spontaneously that he has been captured, sentenced to life imprisonment, and that we are his reason for living. We are afraid that he is merely tricking us into buying a fountain pen or a bottle with a miniature sailing vessel inside.’

Review on Waggish

Lamerica - a film by Gianni Amelio

Released in 1994 this film about a pair of business-man adventurers trying to make a swift profit in post-communist Albania explores the landscape of transition sharply contrasting the expectations of Albanian would-be-refugees and our young Italian protagonist. According to the author of this review:

'In Italy, the film flatly states, young men only die in car accidents. But L'America poses other questions that are more elusive, and more universal: Have Albanians (or, for that matter, Romanians, East Germans, or Poles) found freedom, after decades under communist rule? Or, has a new kind of tyranny, that of capitalism and greed, replaced the old?'

Read more - from Migrant and Diasporic Cinema in Contemporary Europe

The reality behind Russian reform

A review of Paul Klebnikov's 'Godfather of the Kremlin', by John Laughland from Sanders Research Associates Limited.

read more

The mad world of shadow bankers

A man in his element Gordon comes to the rescue..
..but seriously, this article is as steady-handed a draft of the narrative we'll never fully comprehend as we could hope for.

from New Statesman - by Iain Macwhirter

Ukraine's Prime Minister on the IMF loan:

"I hope legislators will show wisdom and support the nation," said Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, in a statement. "Today all should be united to help Ukraine make its way past this extremely difficult stage of the global financial Armageddon."

Tymoshenko's comments made no reference to MPs in her own party who have repeatedly kept parliament from considering any new laws by physically surrounding the parliament speaker's lecturn and using threats and force to prevent legislation reaching the floor.

Read more from eNews

High Stakes in Autoland

Seems like Porsche has pulled one over on the hedge-funds, the slick corporate against the suave boutique, epic entertainment!

Forbes - Financial Times blog

America is self-destructing & bringing the rest of the world down with it - Global Research

A readable economic history of the past century..

Death of the American Empire

The Mega-Bunker of Baghdad

The new American Embassy in Baghdad will be the largest, least welcoming, and most lavish embassy in the world: a $600 million massively fortified compound with 619 blast-resistant apartments and a food court fit for a shopping mall. Unfortunately, like other similarly constructed U.S. Embassies, it may already be obsolete.

by William Langewiesche November 2007 in Vanity Fair read more

The South Sea Bubble

Nick Laird on the history of speculation.. from the Guardian, Sat October 25th.

the new BBC theme

Taking Baudrillard's theory of "ecstatic communication" that one step further...

Drum and Bush!

'Our music is older than Bach'

"...but then he starts to play, and it is impossible to believe that that four digits and 21 strings could create such a sound."

Toumani Diabaté interview from the Guardian

The Shock Doctrine

Reading Naomi Klein's latest work is certainly an eye-opener in the present climate, I wondered what opportunities she has read into our little 'crunch ' since 'Shock Doctrine' was published.

Naomi Klien's Shock Doctrine articles

Shackleton

Spice up your underground with this intriguing interview with the producer, dj, and probable mint tea drinker that is SHACKLETON!

Shackleton interview from FactMagazine