Transcribing the Past

  The Black Ball   By Ralph Ellison I had rushed through the early part of the day mopping the lobby, placing fresh sand in the tall green jars, sweeping and dusting the halls, and emptying the trash to be burned later on in the day into the incinerator. And I had stopped only once to chase out after a can of milk for Mrs Johnson, who had a new baby and was always nice to my boy. I had started at six o’clock, and around eight I ran out to the quarters where we lived over the garage to dress the boy and give him his fruit and cereal. He was very thoughtful sitting there in his high chair and paused several times with his spoon midway to his mouth to watch me as I chewed my toast. `What’s the matter son?`   `Daddy, am I black?` `Of course not, you’re brown. You know you’re not black.` `Well yesterday Jackie said I was so black.` `He was just kidding. You mustn’t let them kid you, son.` `Brown’s much nicer than white isn’t it Daddy?` He was four, a lit...

      bombing of an apartment block in Borodyanka, north of Kyiv   Earlier I translated a declaration against the war by members of the Russian Esperantist Union condemning the war. I thought it was odd that the current president hadn't signed it and that it wasn't an official statement. But I figured there might be some procedural cause. And that an official condemnation would follow once a vote or whatever was needed had been done. And this declaration was a quick public response to fill the gap, to make their disapproval known in the meantime.  Well, the current president has openly supported the "special operation" and the signatories have been threatened with arrest and the group's online presence has been flooded with patriotic criticism. The full story  https://www.liberafolio.org/2022/03/06/prezidanto-de-reu-subtenas-la-militon/ The criticism was all in Russian, which to me strongly suggest most of the pressure was coming from Russian nationalists. ...

  Link https://youtu.be/p5G8A7oCa6I This week, we cover the Miike coal mine strike of 1960. As labor and management do battle over the future of the mines, how will the future of the country be shaped by their clash? http://isaacmeyer.net/2018/06/episode-245-the-summer-of-rage-part-2/   Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 245 the Summer of Rage Part II. Last week we covered the protests that brought down the Kishi government and set the tenor for the next half century of Japanese politics. A consensus on economic growth and nothing else. This week I want to talk about another protest which also stretched into the summer of 1960, and which helped set the tone for the future of post-war Japan. Last week we looked at what is by any measure the beating heart of Japan, Tokyo itself. This week our focus is about as far away from that as you can get, a small called Miike, split between Fukuoka and Kumamoto Prefectures in central Kyush...

  La ĉefurbo de Ukrainio en pli paca epoko. Declaration of SAT against the war in Ukraine The SAT Executive Committee, and the organising committee of the 95th SAT Congress, which was to be held in Moscow this year, issued a joint statement on the war in Ukraine. Libera Folio publishes its text. Joint declaration of the SAT Executive Committee and the organising committee of the 95th SAT Congress, which was to be held this year in Moscow.  The Congressional Organising Committee for the 95th Congress of SAT, together with the Executive Committee, states that due to the impossibility of holding a SAT congress in a warring country, the congress will not be able to take place this year. We condemn the aggression of the current Russian government against the Ukrainian people. We support the anti-war movement in Russia and Esperantists, workers, students and people who are helping the civilians of Ukraine. Diplomacy worldwide must be used to end the war and not escalate the conflic...

  Link https://youtu.be/exD6tc-wI0o Recently trainers giant Nike hired Colin Kaepernick to be its new celebrity sponsor. Kaepernick is a professional American style Football player but his fame is largely boosted by his public protesting against police killings of African Americans. As a result this has made him a target of right wing American vitriol. As a result they greeted his lucrative and high profile new gig with alarm and outrage. Currently #Nikeboycott is trending on social media platforms, as are pictures of very strange and impotent protests of consumers destroying the Nike products that they have already bought. So yeah that's probably not going to hurt Nike's profit margins much at all unless they get their act together. However Nike is a pretty awful company, most well all capitalist business are, its rooted in their structure and motives for existence. Nike is infamous for its use of sweatshops and what became known in the 1990s as Corporate s...