Last July, in the midst of a brutal heat wave, we visited the World Exposition in Shanghai. This was the first world's fair ever hosted by the People's Republic of China, and its government reportedly spent over $50 billion on the event, nearly twice the amount it spent on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Given the sheer spectacle and diplomatic value of the games, and how little attention the 2010 Expo garnered in the U.S., this sum is staggering. >>
In Postcards
ST Editorial Collective member Michael Ralph shares photos from the 2011 World Social Forum (Dakar, Senegal, February 6th-11th), including a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy just hours before Mubarak's resignation was announced. Patrick Bond and Immanuel Wallerstein share their reflections on WSF 2011.... >>
Dancing in front of the May Day march against the state of Arizona's draconian anti-immigration laws down Broadway in New York City, one protestor in festive spring drag. >>
From the community
By Ernest Larsen and Sherry Millner. Suppose you take a barefoot walk along the sweeping stretch of white-powder China Beach toward what the marines called Monkey Mountain (toward Da Nang, that is, where U.S. soldiers were sent for R&R--the first marines deployed to Vietnam, came ashore at Namo Beach, on the north end of Da Nang in '65). It's best, if you have any sort of a sensitive streak, not to allow your gaze to stray too far ashore. >>
Periscope
Bird on Fire
Bird on Fire offers many crucial lessons for environmental and climate justice activists. To draw out some of those lessons, Social Text has assembled a group of prominent activist intellectuals to comment on Ross’s important book, as well as an excerpt from the book and a video of a talk that Ross gave at the CUNY Graduate Center. Sandy Bahr is the director of the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter in Arizona; Kristin Koptiuch is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Arizona State University; Laura Pulido is Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California; and Julie Sze is Associate Professor of American Studies at UC Davis. >>
