Year / 2007

by Edward Champion

1.2 Million Dead — You Are Responsible for This

Intellience Daily: “When those responsible for the American war in Iraq face a public reckoning for their colossal crimes, the weekend of September 15-16, 2007 will be an important piece of evidence against them. On Friday, September 14 there were brief press reports of a scientific survey by the British polling organization ORB, which resulted in an estimate of 1.2 million violent deaths in Iraq since the US invasion.”

1.2 million.

Think about that. That’s the entire population of Dallas. Or San Diego. Or San Antonio. Imagine. All wiped out.

If this isn’t genocide, I don’t know what is.

The only newspapers to report this figure were the Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe. Nothing whatsoever from The New York Times or the Washington Post.

I am sickened to be part of a country that doesn’t act to stop this carnage. That looks the other way. That doesn’t move to stop these barbarians. That doesn’t contemplate its own actions.

Report this figure. Tell others about this figure. Be reminded every day of this figure.

History will not judge Bush well. But I suspect it will judge us more harshly. 1.2 million? If this is even half-true, then we deserve everything we get because of our representative apathy. So what are we going to do? What are you going to do?

by Edward Champion

Coming to Bat Segundo

Correspondent: I have to ask you about the fact that every character in this book is sleeping with somebody else.

Adichie: [laughs]

adichie.jpgCorrespondent: And there is no monogamous marriage exemplar in any of the characters, in any of the major characters. This struck me as kind of interesting. It’s a very sensual book, certainly. But it’s not just that. It seemed to sort of suggest to me that one could not be loyal in one’s relationship; therefore, one could not be loyal to any of these causes that were actually occurring in Nigeria at the time. I was wondering if you could, sort of, describe how the relationship and the loyalty in the relationship, or the presumed loyalty, depending upon what sort of arrangement you have…

Adichie: [laughs]

Correspondent: And how you got permission. But that’s a whole ‘nother side track. Sorry! I’ll shut up. Go for it.

Adichie: Okay, now, that’s really interesting. I’ll have to think about that. The parallel between the relationship and the cause, I don’t know. I think what I wanted to do with that was simply to say human beings are flawed, were hopelessly flawed, and also in some ways to — so my parents were telling me these stories about the war and often I would be thinking, wondering how much it changed their relationship. And when I would ask people questions or read things about the war, and there’s a lot of people sleeping with each other, as there is everywhere I think, it made me wonder about how relationships changed. When you have a relationship and everyone’s happy and your life is comfortably middle-class, and you’re sort of having cucumber sandwiches. And then suddenly, you’re reduced to this place where you are thinking about eating lizards. It has to do something to the way you have sex! You know? That’s what I’m thinking.

Correspondent: Yeah.

Adichie: And I guess also just to show the ability to forgive. How in war, horrible things are happening, but then you’re finding yourself forgiving the person you love, who’s hurt you, who’s betrayed you. You know? And I sort of saw them as — it’s difficult for them to be loyal to one another, because the struggle to be be loyal to this big thing, this cause, this faith in something bigger than they are, and I think there’s a part of me that’s hopelessly romantic. And I just love the idea of believing in something. You know, standing up for something. And we don’t have that in Nigeria anymore. And it depresses me.

The whole of this interview with Chimamanda Adichie will appear very soon on The Bat Segundo Show.

by Edward Champion

Roundup

by Edward Champion

Inflation and the “Miracles” of Unregulated Commerce to Come?

Sunday Times: “The world’s investment banks are to reveal a $30 billion (£14.9 billion) hit from bad debts as they unveil results that give the first real insight into the impact of the debt crisis….Attention in the markets will switch this week to the Federal Reserve and its decision on interest rates on Tuesday. While the Fed is widely expected to announce a cut in the key Fed funds rate, and possibly an accompanying reduction in the discount rate, analysts are split on whether it will be a quarter or half-point reduction.”

by Edward Champion

Brooklyn Book Fest — Superficial Notes

  • Jonathan Safran Foer ran away from me.
  • Richard Nash hid from everybody because he is a Steelers fan. (Who knew?)
  • Jonathan Lethem wore a crazy T-shirt. So did I. He was good enough not to run away from me.
  • Dennis Loy Johnson resembled a badass from a Sam Peckinpah film. He could not run away, because he was running the Melville House booth.
  • George Saunders is a very kind man.
  • Gavin Grant is also a very kind man.
  • We gave Francine Prose directions. She ran away, but she was polite about it.
  • Tao Lin is still a very shy young man.
  • Paul Slovak ran away from me, but only because our group was accosted by a rather idiosyncratic self-published individual.
  • I learned from Molly at Coffee House Press that not even Minneapolis is immune from the Apple Store.
  • I am offering these superficial notes, because I was in no condition to report on the event. There is yet another deadline. But it was a pleasant diversion. And if you ran into me and did not run away, apologies for my momentary discombobulated mind.
  • It is officially autumn in New York.