BAGnewsNotes

L'Aquila: The Woe Summit

Or is that, whew!

With all the hype, distraction and showmanship inflicted on poor earthquake ravaged L'Aquila, Wednesday's stroll by G-8 summiteers comes off no better than disaster tourism. (And then, all hail the dramatic and fun-loving Berlusconi.)

Tent city that awaits the G8 (The Independent)

(image: Jim Young/Reuters. The ruined city of Onna near L'Aquila, central Italy, July 8, 2009. Onna was almost totally destroyed in the April 6, 2009 earthquake in which some 300 people died.)

Makeshift Memorials and Memory

by guest blogger Cara Finnegan

The U. S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. is closed today in the wake of the shooting yesterday that killed security guard Stephen T. Johns, who leaves behind a wife and young son. This photo captures well how layered collective memory can be: a poignant, makeshift memorial left at a place formally (and fiercely) dedicated to remembering the very worst effects of human hatred. The presence of security guards in the background only heightens the sense of tragedy and vulnerability.

After the shooting, Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a statement that said in part, "It is deeply disturbing that one of America's most powerful symbols of the memory of the Holocaust was selected as the site of the attack just days after President Obama accompanied Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel to the Buchenwald death camp." Indeed, it is hard not to wonder if the incredibly human, moving, and yes, empathic images of Obama and Wiesel were what set this guy off.

(image: TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)

When Disaster Can’t Be Seen

by contributer Robert Hariman

Sometime Tuesday I picked up the news that an Air France airliner had disappeared in the mid-Atlantic.

Dropping from 35,0000 feet, hope for a heroic water landing seemed remote. As I checked periodically, the lack of news became increasingly ominous. Along with that, another form of unease began to make itself felt. Where was the plane–or at least the wreckage? Had it completely disappeared without a trace? Would there be nothing to mark the loss? No twisted fuselage, or crumpled wing–of course not, they sink–but not even objects floating on the water? A pillow, a suitcase, something, anything that could provide a sense of personal connection, of continuity between before and after, some cushion against complete annihilation?

Ubiquity

As the swine flu outbreak deepens, panicked citizens of North America are donning face masks. In Mexico City's downtown square, the Zócalo, for example, the army handed out face masks, and customs officials on U.S. borders are wearing protective personal gear, such as gloves and masks. But do surgical masks offer effective protection against viruses? In 2003, Jon Cohen wrote that the SARS virus, which is just 100 nanometers in size, can easily pass through such barriers. And there's every reason to believe that swine flu, at 80 to 120 nanometers, can, too. From: Do Surgical Masks Stop Swine Flu? Probably not. (Slate)

Wearing one is at least reassuring. Seeing everybody else wearing one (as the newswires stockpile examples) is not.

(image: Daniel Aguilar/Reuters. Mexico City April 29, 2009)

Flu Fear

I was struck by this photo from today's newswire. It shows soldiers and police in Indonesia, dressed in special suits, taking part in a flu prevention drill.

More than the contents of the photo itself, however, what took me aback -- when I finally read the caption, more closely, a second time -- is that the photo isn't contemporary to the current swine flu outbreak. Instead, it's a file photo taken last year as part of a bird flu prevention drill.

Knowing that, the photo -- a terrifying one, to be sure, with this apocalyptic-looking scene on a dirt road -- helps demonstrate how quickly distinctions can disappear between fact and assumption, and between worry, fear and hysteria.

(image: Dadang Tri /Reuters. Jakarta December 16, 2008)

The Skillet

I've been thinking about how much rain they've had in the Sacramento area this past week. I was also thinking about the act of adding spice, and the irony of the phrase: "spice of life."

This photo -- taken at a tent city in Sacramento -- has a real Depression-era feeling to it. These Farm Security Administration images by Dorothea Lange (1, 2, 3) were all taken in Sacramento. This last one shows a family's food supply. (Click on photos to enlarge.) And here are a few more images from the tent city above.

(Update 1: I wanted to add this reaction from the discussion thread by Public Sphere given how closely and elegantly it hews to the photograph:

Big job losses have hit the male population harder in this recession, and woman have become a much larger share of the working population over the last 30 years. Behind the concrete in the lower right we see plastic bags and a bottle of what looks like cooking oil. Seen in such close proximity to the skillet, it brings to mind a chain of associations: from the health risks (macro and micro) of subsisting off processed food, the impacts of our farming and food distribution systems, to the environmental consequences of a disposable culture which produces garbage. In the mid-ground, the tent city sits on uneven ground; the lack of steady, solid homes in this tilted landscape speaks volumes about Mortgage industry and how the country got here. That sloping line is reinforced by the power lines overhead. Energy production and consumption will be powerful themes in our new economy. There is a strong contrast with the complete lack of electric power consumption in the cooking in the foreground. I wonder, will those power lines carry new energy or will they remain emblems of an old technology? Finally, the heavy clouds looming close overhead lends the palpable feeling of imminent downpour from sources they can't control (financial or otherwise). Its frightening how real this photo feels.)

(Update 2: food supply link corrected. Also, here is an expanded list of FSA images Lange made in Sacramento)

(image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. March 4, 2009. caption: Newly homeless couple Tammy Day and her husband Keith Day cook potatoes over a campfire at a homeless tent city in Sacramento, California. The tent city is seeing an increase in population as the economy worsens and more people are becoming unemployed and having their homes slip into foreclosure.)

Your Turn: Stimulus-Created Police

This image was taken this morning in Columbus where Obama attended a police graduation. The recruits were part of a 27 person class that was laid off in January. As noted by the President, the jobs were saved by the recently signed stimulus bill. In a vivid reference, TIME referred to the personnel as "stimulus-created police."

All I would add is that any photo op this week had to contend with an economy falling further off the cliff.

Your thoughts?

(image: Larry Downing/Reuters. Columbus, March 6, 2009)

Geithner OMG

At the NY Fed, the supposed watchdog had an all too cozy relationship with Wall Street and Citi Group. Once nominated for Treasury Secretary, he stumbled out of the gate as a result of several years shorting his taxes. He stumbled again with the "O" banking plan. He owes Summers like Cheney owed Rummy. Above all -- and this is not just superficial, given his role as the combined Mr. Fixit and U.S. Communicator-in-Chief of the financial meltdown -- Tim Geither doesn't come off assertive, personable or even that relatable.

This photo by Ben Lowy, taken as the Administration was settling in, leads off a slide show at Fortune titled "Inside Obama's economic war room."

Outside The Box

For me, what's poignant about the photo is the way it "emblemizes" how FUBAR the country is as a result of rampant consumption and irrational exuberance.

...And then, it also feels like a book-end to this.

From Newsweek slide show, "The Bare Market."

(image: Justin Sullivan/Getty. caption: The parking lot sits empty at an out-of-business Circuit City store January 27, 2009 in San Rafael, California. The Conference Board announced today that the Consumer Confidence Index fell to 37.7 from a revised 38.6 in December.)

Bring On The Handcuffs

If Ms. Pendergest-Holt was an obvious target -- as Chief Investment Officer for Alan Stanford, the financier who managed an $8 billion Ponzi scheme -- it's still a small satisfaction to see someone, anyone offering financial smoke and mirrors do a perp walk these days.

Congress members attend Caribbean caucus meeting with Allen Stanford (TPM slideshow)

(image: Sharon Steinmann - AP/Houston Chronicle. caption: Laura Pendergest-Holt, the chief investment officer of troubled Stanford Financial Group, center, is brought into the Federal Court building, Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, in Houston. Pendergest-Holt faces charges she obstructed the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of the Stanford scandal by lying about her knowledge of the firm's activities and by omitting key details.)