No poem tonight, but I just finished Nicholas Shakespeare's biography of Bruce Chatwin, which has much the same effect as a long elegy.  Paul Theroux is shown in a very unflattering light at the very end.  Ironically, Shakespeare's book is the best description I have read of the poignancy of the death of so many brilliant people from AIDS.  I am reminded a little bit of my college history professor, John Boswell, who also died of AIDS, and who had a mesmerizing talent for weaving together the disparate strands and sparse evidence of Medieval history into a coherent and compelling whole.  It is hard sometimes not to led an artist's tragic end overshadow the achievement of his life.

I shall certainly proceed to read several of Chatwin's books, and I will take another book I have had on the shelf for years -- the Road to Xanadu, recommended to me years ago by my friend Elizabeth Kaufman, whom I have not seen for almost 20 years -- and give it another look.  In light of what I have learned about Salman Rushdie, I need to read something by him as well, and also Robert Byron's The Road to Oxiana. One of the great joys of literature is that every book, every idea, leads to new books, new ideas. 

11:54:01 PM    

Morocco promises open media policy 

"The Moroccan government has promised to communication and media professionals an open policy, marked by efficiency and heedful to citizens' expectations and concerns. "In light of the guidelines made by King Mohammed VI to give a new impetus to the dynamic of change, the government decided to adopt an efficient and open media and communication policy, a policy heedful to citizens with a view to promoting their enthusiasm to contribute to Morocco's development process," Moroccan Communication Minister, Nabil Benabdallah said in a letter to media professionals. "The Communication department will see to it that the information sector remain open to freedom of speech, respectful to the profession's code of ethics and built on two major principles: freedom and accountability," the official said."

At first blush, it looks as theough the Moroccan government is at least saying the right things, which is perhaps more than one can say for our own.  However, the troubling phrase about accountability and the "code of ethics" -- in the context of ending a government monopoly -- may suggest that there will still be sharp limits on any government tolerance of dissent.

11:05:33 AM    

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Lott Decried For Part Of Salute to Thurmond (washingtonpost.com) 

"Senate Republican leader Trent Lott of Mississippi has provoked criticism by saying the United States would have been better off if then-segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond had won the presidency in 1948.

"Speaking Thursday at a 100th birthday party and retirement celebration for Sen. Thurmond (R-S.C.) in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Lott said, "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either.""

I am appalled.  Lott should step down as Majority Leader, and probably resign.  At the very least, he needs to make a public apology and explain what exactly he meant by "all these problems."  Perhaps it would have been more convenient for Mississippi's system of racial oppression and the whites who perpetrated it if the Civil Rights movement had never happened, but it is rare even for a Senator from Dixie to suggest it.

9:36:43 AM    

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