Eighty years ago today, 40,000 people gathered in the Opernplatz in Berlin to witness one of the most famous book burnings in history. Books by authors including Heinrich Mann, Bertolt Brecht and Karl Marx, as well as Ernest Hemingway, Jack London and Thomas Mann were burnt at a Nazi gathering on May 10th 1933 attended by Joseph Goebbels, according to the website of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
The burning was a coordinated action by the Nazi German Student Association's Main Office for Press and Propaganda, which they called a ?cleansing? (S?uberung). Students marched in torchlit parades through university towns before burning "upwards of 25,000 books" throughout Germany.
That night came to symbolize the vile nature of the Nazi regime. In 1995, an underground memorial featuring empty bookshelves visible from above was installed in the square in Berlin where it took place.
Rebecca Knuth, author of Burning Books and Leveling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction, told CBC News in 2010 that book burnings "are highly symbolic. When you destroy a book you are destroying your enemy and your enemy's beliefs."
That night in Berlin was just one event of a timeline of significant book burnings in history:
Book burning in the Bible
Burning a manuscript had more significance when it took several months to copy one, and they were hugely valuable items. Burnings are described several times in the Bible, including <a href="http://bible.cc/acts/19-19.htm" target="_blank">Acts 19:19</a>, <a href="http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611_1-Maccabees-1-56/" target="_blank">1 Maccabees 1:56</a> and <a href="http://bible.cc/jeremiah/36-27.htm" target="_blank">Jeremiah 36:27</a>.
The trial and burning of The Talmud (1240)
In 1240, Jewish sacred text The Talmud <a href="http://www.pims.ca/pdf/mst53.pdf" target="_blank">was put on trial in Paris, France</a> in the court of Louis IX (who became St Louis in 1297) for being harmful to Christian society. The book was found guilty and condemned by the court. All the copies in Paris that could be found were gathered together - twenty-four cartloads of scrolls - and burned.
The burning of Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible (1520)
<a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/luther/exsurgedomine.html" target="_blank">The Papal Bull of 1520</a> ordered the burning of Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible. "These works, wherever they may be, shall be sought out carefully by the ordinaries and others [ecclesiastics and regulars], and under each and every one of the above penalties shall be burned publicly and solemnly in the presence of the clerics and people," it said.
First book to be burned what became the USA (1650)
The first book to be banned and burned in the New England colonies was <a href="http://www.clements.umich.edu/exhibits/online/bannedbooks/entry5.html" target="_blank"><em>The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption </em>by William Pynchon</a>, authored in 1650. It refuted the Puritan doctrine of atonement, and was condemned by the Massachusetts General Court who ruled that all copies should be burned in the center of the marketplace in Boston.
The burning of early Braille books (1842)
The invention of Braille, the raised alphabet for the blind, was not initially popular with everyone. <a href="http://www.afb.org/louisbraillemuseum/braillegallery.asp?GalleryID=49" target="_blank">Pierre-Armand Dufau burned 73 books</a> at the Institute for Blind Youth where he was director, believing another method to be superior. He later relented and allowed Braille into the school.
The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (1873 onwards)
Anthony Cornstock founded a committee called The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice within the YMCA of New York, to supervise public morality in 1873. Book burning was on its seal (left), and <a href="http://memory.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2012/ms012088.pdf" target="_blank">according to the Library of Congress,</a> "it became prominent as a monitor and censor of literary works and popular literature." It inspired the passing of The Cornstock Act,<a href="http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=017/llsl017.db&recNum=0639" target="_blank"> a Federal Law that made it illegal to own, sell or send through the mail obscene material. </a> <a href="http://trquinn.com/a-brief-history-of-book-burning/" target="_blank">It is said that</a> 15 tons of books, printing plates and photographs were burned under the law.
Largest book burning in history (1992)
On 17 May 1992 the Serb-led army burned down the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo, destroying more than five thousand manuscripts dating back to medieval times, recording the history of Bosnia. Three months later, on August 25th, the National and University Library in Sarajevo was attacked by Serb forces. Two days later, the library (shown here) had been destroyed. <a href="https://moodle.hampshire.edu/file.php/1223/ZecoBosnLibr.pdf" target="_blank"> It is estimated that 1.2 million books were destroyed</a>, the largest book burning in history.
Book burning in Latin America (Late 20th Century)
The book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Burning-Books-Haig-Bosmajian/dp/0786422084/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368046599&sr=1-1&keywords=0786422084" target="_blank">Burning Books</a></em> by Haig Bosmajian reports that in 1976, "a great book-burning... was shown on television" in Argentina. At the same time, Chile's widespread government-endorsed book burning, including books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which led to an official condemnation by the American Library Assocation. Libraries in Uruguay were being "purified" at this time, and military governments in El Salvador in the 1970s and 80s also burned books they considered subversive.
6,000 volumes of poetry burned in Egypt (2001)
In 2001, 6,000 volumes of poetry 8th-century writer Abu Nuwas <a href="http://www.merip.org/mer/mer219/take-them-out-ballgame" target="_blank">were reportedly burned</a> by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture for their homoerotic content.
Harry Potter books burned (early 2000s)
In the early 2000s, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1735623.stm" target="_blank">Harry Potter books were burned for their "satanic" content</a> in New Mexico, Michigan and Pennsylvania among other places. It's far from the only bestseller to suffer that fate - in 2006, <a href="http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/in-ceccano-italy-i-the-da-vinci-code-i-524061" target="_blank">Dan Brown's <em>The Da Vinci Code</em> was burned in Italy</a> for blasphemous content.
Copies of the Quran accidentally burned in Afghanistan (2012)
In February 2012, US troops at Bagram Base burned 315 religious books that were apparently being used by detainees to pass messages - including copies of the Quran. As soon as the mistake was realized, <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-08-27/afghanistan-quran-burning/57357208/1" target="_blank">water was doused on the fire,</a> but four copies had already been badly burned. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/24/us-afghanistan-korans-idUSTRE81K09T20120224" target="_blank">Twenty-three people were killed in protests across Afghanistan</a> following the error.
Unsecured debt consolidation loans may be something to look into if feeling overwhelmed by high interest rates and balances that seem to grow larger every month. "Thou holdest mine eyes waking; I am so troubled that I cannot speak" (Psalm 77:4). If trying to pay off credit cards and other charge accounts while still maintaining a good credit score, then one of these debt correction tools may be what is needed. These loans have helped many people gain control of their finances. However, as with anything, there are pros and cons to these deals meant to bring hope to overwhelmed debtors.There are many pros, first of all. They can pay off high interest credit cards and other loans and lower the monthly payment. This will enable the borrower to have more cash on hand. Feeling less stress would be wonderful to experience when hearing the phone ring, because only one creditor will be expected in future dealings. A longer period of time to pay off unsecured debt consolidation loans may also be a benefit. Since all of the outstanding credit cards will be paid off, they can either be cut up or saved for emergency use only. The wise use of these offers may also improve the debtor's credit score if continuing to repay the newly joined debt in a timely manner. There are also some companies that offer debt management courses to people who acquire such offers.
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These helpful financing contracts can help an overwhelmed debtor get out of debt if used wisely. They can help learn how to budget the monthly finances and stop relying on credit cards. More cash will be available to use for savings, vacations, or emergencies. If paid on time each month, unsecured debt consolidation loans can improve the borrower's credit score, and if choosing to keep the credit cards, there will be credit available to use for emergencies or other unplanned circumstances. Unsecured debt consolidation can help get rid of the high interest credit card payments and back on the road to financial freedom.
A cautionary tale on genome-sequencing diagnostics for rare diseasesPublic release date: 10-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Patrick Bartosch pbartosch@sanfordburnham.org 407-745-2097 Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Sanford-Burnham researchers discover that several children born with rare diseases called Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation don't contain the mutation in every cell type—raising new questions about inheritance, genomic sequencing, and diagnostic
LA JOLLA, Calif., May 10, 2013 Children born with rare, inherited conditions known as Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation, or CDG, have mutations in one of the many enzymes the body uses to decorate its proteins and cells with sugars. Properly diagnosing a child with CDG and pinpointing the exact sugar gene that's mutated can be a huge relief for parentsthey better understand what they're dealing with and doctors can sometimes use that information to develop a therapeutic approach. Whole-exome sequencing, an abbreviated form of whole-genome sequencing, is increasingly used as a diagnostic for CDG.
But researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) recently discovered three children with CDG who are mosaicsonly some cells in some tissues have the mutation. For that reason, standard exome sequencing initially missed their mutations, highlighting the technique's diagnostic limitations in some rare cases. These findings were published April 4 in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
"This study was one surprise after another," said Hudson Freeze, Ph.D., director of Sanford-Burnham's Genetic Disease Program and senior author of the study. "What we learned is that you have to be carefulyou can't simply trust that you'll get all the answers from gene sequencing alone."
Searching for a rare disease mutation
Complicated arrangements of sugar molecules decorate almost every protein and cell in the body. These sugars are crucial for cellular growth, communication, and many other processes. As a result of a mutation in an enzyme that assembles these sugars, children with CDG experience a wide variety of symptoms, including intellectual disability, digestive problems, seizures, and low blood sugar.
To diagnose CDG, researchers will test the sugar arrangements on a common protein called transferrin. Increasingly, they'll also look for known CDG-related mutations by whole-exome sequencing, a technique that sequences only the small portion of the genome that encodes proteins. The patients are typically three to five years old.
A cautionary tale for genomic diagnostics
In this study, the researchers observed different proportions and representations of sugar arrangements depending on which tissues were examined. In other words, these children have the first demonstrated cases of CDG "mosaicism"their mutations only appear in some cell types throughout the body, not all. As a result, the usual diagnostic tests, like whole-exome sequencing, missed the mutations. It was only when Freeze's team took a closer look, examining proteins by hand using biochemical methods, did they identify the CDG mutations in these three children.
The team then went back to the three original children and examined their transferrin again. Surprisingly, these readings, which had previously shown abnormalities, had become normal. Freeze and his team believe this is because mutated cells in the children's livers died and were replaced by normal cells over time.
"If the transferrin test hadn't been performed early on for these children, we never would've picked up these cases of CDG. We got lucky in this case, but it just shows that we can't rely on any one test by itself in isolation," Freeze said.
###
This research was funded by The Rocket Fund at Sanford-Burnham and the U.S. National Institutes of Health National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases grant R01DK55615 and National Human Genome Research Institute grant 1U54HG006493.
The study was co-authored by Bobby G. Ng, Sanford-Burnham; Kati J. Buckingham, University of Washington; Kimiyo Raymond, Mayo Clinic; Martin Kircher, University of Washington; Emily H. Turner, University of Washington; Miao He, Emory University School of Medicine; Joshua D. Smith, University of Washington; Alexey Eroshkin, Sanford-Burnham; Marta Szybowska, McMaster University; Marie Estelle Losfeld, Sanford-Burnham; Jessica X. Chong, University of Washington; Mariya Kozenko, McMaster University; Chumei Li, McMaster University; Marc C. Patterson, Mayo Clinic; Rodney D. Gilbert, Southampton Children's Hospital; Deborah A. Nickerson, University of Washington; Jay Shendure, University of Washington; Michael J. Bamshad, University of Washington; University of Washington Center for Mendelian Genomics; Hudson H. Freeze, Sanford-Burnham.
About Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute is dedicated to discovering the fundamental molecular causes of disease and devising the innovative therapies of tomorrow. Sanford-Burnham takes a collaborative approach to medical research with major programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, and infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. The Institute is recognized for its National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and expertise in drug discovery technologies. Sanford-Burnham is a nonprofit, independent institute that employs 1,200 scientists and staff in San Diego (La Jolla), California, and Orlando (Lake Nona), Florida. For more information, visit us at sanfordburnham.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A cautionary tale on genome-sequencing diagnostics for rare diseasesPublic release date: 10-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Patrick Bartosch pbartosch@sanfordburnham.org 407-745-2097 Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Sanford-Burnham researchers discover that several children born with rare diseases called Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation don't contain the mutation in every cell type—raising new questions about inheritance, genomic sequencing, and diagnostic
LA JOLLA, Calif., May 10, 2013 Children born with rare, inherited conditions known as Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation, or CDG, have mutations in one of the many enzymes the body uses to decorate its proteins and cells with sugars. Properly diagnosing a child with CDG and pinpointing the exact sugar gene that's mutated can be a huge relief for parentsthey better understand what they're dealing with and doctors can sometimes use that information to develop a therapeutic approach. Whole-exome sequencing, an abbreviated form of whole-genome sequencing, is increasingly used as a diagnostic for CDG.
But researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) recently discovered three children with CDG who are mosaicsonly some cells in some tissues have the mutation. For that reason, standard exome sequencing initially missed their mutations, highlighting the technique's diagnostic limitations in some rare cases. These findings were published April 4 in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
"This study was one surprise after another," said Hudson Freeze, Ph.D., director of Sanford-Burnham's Genetic Disease Program and senior author of the study. "What we learned is that you have to be carefulyou can't simply trust that you'll get all the answers from gene sequencing alone."
Searching for a rare disease mutation
Complicated arrangements of sugar molecules decorate almost every protein and cell in the body. These sugars are crucial for cellular growth, communication, and many other processes. As a result of a mutation in an enzyme that assembles these sugars, children with CDG experience a wide variety of symptoms, including intellectual disability, digestive problems, seizures, and low blood sugar.
To diagnose CDG, researchers will test the sugar arrangements on a common protein called transferrin. Increasingly, they'll also look for known CDG-related mutations by whole-exome sequencing, a technique that sequences only the small portion of the genome that encodes proteins. The patients are typically three to five years old.
A cautionary tale for genomic diagnostics
In this study, the researchers observed different proportions and representations of sugar arrangements depending on which tissues were examined. In other words, these children have the first demonstrated cases of CDG "mosaicism"their mutations only appear in some cell types throughout the body, not all. As a result, the usual diagnostic tests, like whole-exome sequencing, missed the mutations. It was only when Freeze's team took a closer look, examining proteins by hand using biochemical methods, did they identify the CDG mutations in these three children.
The team then went back to the three original children and examined their transferrin again. Surprisingly, these readings, which had previously shown abnormalities, had become normal. Freeze and his team believe this is because mutated cells in the children's livers died and were replaced by normal cells over time.
"If the transferrin test hadn't been performed early on for these children, we never would've picked up these cases of CDG. We got lucky in this case, but it just shows that we can't rely on any one test by itself in isolation," Freeze said.
###
This research was funded by The Rocket Fund at Sanford-Burnham and the U.S. National Institutes of Health National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases grant R01DK55615 and National Human Genome Research Institute grant 1U54HG006493.
The study was co-authored by Bobby G. Ng, Sanford-Burnham; Kati J. Buckingham, University of Washington; Kimiyo Raymond, Mayo Clinic; Martin Kircher, University of Washington; Emily H. Turner, University of Washington; Miao He, Emory University School of Medicine; Joshua D. Smith, University of Washington; Alexey Eroshkin, Sanford-Burnham; Marta Szybowska, McMaster University; Marie Estelle Losfeld, Sanford-Burnham; Jessica X. Chong, University of Washington; Mariya Kozenko, McMaster University; Chumei Li, McMaster University; Marc C. Patterson, Mayo Clinic; Rodney D. Gilbert, Southampton Children's Hospital; Deborah A. Nickerson, University of Washington; Jay Shendure, University of Washington; Michael J. Bamshad, University of Washington; University of Washington Center for Mendelian Genomics; Hudson H. Freeze, Sanford-Burnham.
About Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute is dedicated to discovering the fundamental molecular causes of disease and devising the innovative therapies of tomorrow. Sanford-Burnham takes a collaborative approach to medical research with major programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, and infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. The Institute is recognized for its National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and expertise in drug discovery technologies. Sanford-Burnham is a nonprofit, independent institute that employs 1,200 scientists and staff in San Diego (La Jolla), California, and Orlando (Lake Nona), Florida. For more information, visit us at sanfordburnham.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
May 10, 2013 ? Scientists at Trinity College Dublin have made novel discoveries concerning the current vaccine against whooping cough that may lead to the development of an improved future vaccine. The findings could help reduce the incidence of the disease which is increasing in developed countries. The research led by Professor of Experimental Immunology, Kingston Mills has just been published in the journal PLoS Pathogens.
A new vaccine against whooping cough, caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis was first introduced to the routine vaccination schedule for infants and children in most developed countries, including Ireland over a decade ago. Prior to the introduction of this vaccine, children were immunised with a vaccine made from whole bacteria. Although this 'whole cell pertussis vaccine' was effective at preventing the infection, it had been associated with side effects. Dissatisfaction with that vaccine led to the development of an 'acellular pertussis vaccine' made from components of the bacteria combined with an adjuvant to boost immune responses.
Following its introduction in the late 1990s, the new vaccine has proved to be very safe and has been effective in controlling the potentially fatal disease of whooping cough in children. However, protective immunity conferred with the vaccine falls quite quickly, necessitating frequent booster vaccinations. This fall off in the immunity may be contributing to the number of whooping cough cases which are increasing with quite dramatic increases reported in certain countries, including the US, Australia and the Netherlands.
Professor Kingston Mills's research team at the School of Biochemistry and Immunology in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute has discovered important mechanistic differences in the type of immune responses induced with the new 'acellular' and old 'whole cell' vaccine. The whole cell vaccine, although much more likely to cause adverse reactions in recipients, was capable of inducing strong cellular immune responses mediated by white blood cells called T cells, in particular a type of T cell called Th1 cells. In contrast, the new acellular vaccine, although safer, was less effective in inducing cellular immunity, but instead induced immunity mediated by antibodies and another type of T cell called a Th17 cell.
Most vaccines include a component called an adjuvant to boost immune responses to the bacterial or viral antigens in the vaccine and the acellular pertussis vaccine uses an aluminium salt, called alum. However, Dr Padraig Ross, Dr Sarah Higgins and Ms Aideen Allen in Professor Mills' laboratory, working in collaboration with Dr Rachel McLoughlin and Dr Ed Lavelle, have shown that the vaccine could be improved further through the use of a different adjuvant.
The current vaccine does not enhance the induction of Th1 cells, required for conferring optimum protective immunity against the bacteria. They showed that by switching the adjuvant from alum to an adjuvant based on bacterial DNA, they could induce the crucial Th1 cells and thereby enhance the efficacy of the vaccine against Bordetella pertussis infection in a murine model. The new vaccine has the potential to protect a higher proportion of immunised children using a lower number of doses.
Commenting on the significance of the findings, Professor Mills said: "Although it will not be an easy task to implement, our findings should pave the way for an improved vaccine against whooping cough in children."
Eduardo Hughes Galeano (born September 3, 1940) is a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His best known works are Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire Trilogy, 1986) and Las venas abiertas de Am?rica Latina (Open Veins of Latin America, 1971) which have been translated into twenty languages and transcend orthodox genres: combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and history. The author himself has proclaimed his obsession as a writer saying, "I'm a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America above all and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia."[1]
Galeano was born in Montevideo, Uruguay to a middle class Catholic family of European descent (Italian, Spanish, German and British descent). Like many young Latin American boys, Galeano dreamed of becoming a football (soccer) player; this desire was reflected in some of his works, such as El F?tbol A Sol Y Sombra (Football In Sun and Shadow). In his teens, Galeano worked odd jobs ? as a factory worker, a bill collector, a sign painter, a messenger, a typist, and a bank teller. At 14 years, Galeano sold his first political cartoon to the Socialist Party weekly, El Sol and married for the first time in 1959. He started his career as a journalist in the early 1960s as editor of Marcha, an influential weekly journal which had such contributors as Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Benedetti, Manuel Maldonado Denis and Roberto Fern?ndez Retamar. For two years he edited the daily ?poca and worked as editor-in-chief of the University Press. In 1962, having divorced, he remarried to Graciela Berro.
In 1973, a military coup took power in Uruguay; Galeano was imprisoned and later was forced to flee. His book Open Veins of Latin America was banned by the right-wing military government, not only in Uruguay, but also in Chile and Argentina.[2] He settled in Argentina where he founded the cultural magazine, Crisis. In 1976 he married for the third time to Helena Villagra, however in the same year the Videla regime took power in Argentina in a bloody military coup and his name was added to the lists of those condemned by the death squads. He fled again, this time to Spain, where he wrote his famous trilogy: Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire).
At the beginning of 1985 Galeano returned to Montevideo, where he continues to live. Following the victory of Tabar? V?zquez and the Broad Front alliance in the 2004 Uruguayan elections marking the first left-wing government in Uruguayan history Galeano wrote a piece for The Progressive titled "Where the People Voted Against Fear" in which Galeano showed support for the new government and concluded that the Uruguayan populace used "common sense" and were "tired of being cheated" by the traditional Colorado and Blanco parties.[3] Following the creation of TeleSUR, a pan-Latin American television station based in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2005 Galeano along with other left-wing intellectuals such as Tariq Ali and Adolfo P?rez Esquivel joined the network's 36 member advisory committee.[4]
In 2006, Galeano signed a petition in support of the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States of America.
On February 10, 2007, Galeano underwent a successful operation to treat lung cancer.[5] During an interview with journalist Amy Goodman following Barack Obama's election as President of the United States in November 2008, Galeano said, "The White House will be Barack Obama's house in the time coming, but this White House was built by black slaves. And I?d like, I hope, that he never, never forgets this."[6] At the April 17, 2009, opening session of the 5th Summit of the Americas held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave a copy of Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America to U.S. President Barack Obama, who was making his first diplomatic visit to the region.[7] This made the English language edition of the book go to #2 position and the Spanish version to #11 on the Amazon.com bestseller list.
In a May 2009 interview he spoke about his past and recent works, some of which deal with the relationships between freedom and slavery, and democracies and dictatorships; "... not only the United States, also some European countries, have spread military dictatorships all over the world. And they feel as if they are able to teach democracy...". He also talked about how and why he has changed his writing style, and his recent rise in popularity.[8]
"Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that, one magical day, good luck will suddenly rain down on them - will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn?t rain down, yesterday, today, tomorrow or ever. Good luck doesn?t even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is tickling, or if they begin the new day on their right foot, or start the new year with a change of brooms. The nobodies: nobody?s children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no-ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way. Who are not, but could be. Who don?t speak languages, but dialects. Who don?t have religions, but superstitions. Who don?t create art, but handicrafts. Who don?t have culture, but folklore. Who are not human beings, but human resources. Who do not have faces, but arms. Who do not have names, but numbers. Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the crime reports of the local paper. The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them."
? Eduardo Galeano, "The Nobodies"[9]
Las venas abiertas de Am?rica Latina (Open Veins of Latin America) is arguably Galeano's best-known work. In this book, he analyzes the history of Latin America as a whole from the time period of European contact with the New World to contemporary Latin America arguing against the European and later U.S. economic exploitation and political dominance over the region. It was the first of his many books to be translated by Cedric Belfrage into English. It is a classic among scholars of Latin American history. The book gained popularity in the English-speaking world after the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave it as a gift to the American President Barack Obama.
Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire) is a three-volume narrative of the history of America, North and South. The characters are historical figures; generals, artists, revolutionaries, workers, conquerors and the conquered, who are portrayed in brief episodes which reflect the colonial history of the continent. It starts with pre-Columbian creation myths and ends in the 1980s. It highlights not only the colonial oppression that the continent underwent but particularly the long history of resistance, from individual acts of heroism to mass revolutionary movements.
Memoria del fuego is widely praised by reviewers. Galeano was compared to John Dos Passos and Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez. Ronald Wright wrote in the Times Literary Supplement: "Great writers... dissolve old genres and found new ones. This trilogy by one of South America's most daring and accomplished authors is impossible to classify."
In New York Times Book Review Jay Parini praised as perhaps his most daring work The Book of Embraces, a collection of short, often lyrical stories presenting Galeano's views on emotion, art, politics, and values, as well as offering a scathing critique of modern capitalistic society and views on an ideal society and mindset. (The Book of Embraces was the last book Cedric Belfrage translated before he died in 1991.)
Galeano is also an avid soccer fan; in his childhood, Galeano had the dream of becoming a soccer player and this desire is the subject of some of his writings, among them Soccer in Sun and Shadow (1995), a review of the history of the game. Galeano compares it with a theater performance and with war; he criticizes its unholy alliance with global corporations but attacks leftist intellectuals who reject the game and its attraction to the broad masses for ideological reasons.
Galeano's Espejos (Mirrors) is Galeano's most expansive work since Memory of Fire. Galeano offers a broad mosaic of history told through the voices of the unseen, unheard, and forgotten. Recalling the lives of artists, writers, gods and visionaries, Galeano's makes "lore out of the mass of history and stories that make this world, and make us human." (Rick Simonson) Mirrors was published in the US in English by Nation Books in June 2009.
Galeano is a regular contributor to The Progressive and the New Internationalist, and has also been published in the Monthly Review and The Nation.
^Mark your calendars...... Octopus Books
^Fresh Off Worldwide Attention for Joining Obama?s Book Collection, Uruguayan Author Eduardo Galeano Returns with "Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone".
^Eduardo Galeano, "Where the People Voted Against Fear" January 2005 The Progressive
^Alfonso Daniels, "'Chavez TV' beams into South America" July 26, 2005 The Guardian
^Eduardo Galeano se recupera de operaci?n El Universal, 11 February 2007 (Spanish)
^Interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, November 5, 2008 (video, audio, and print transcript)
^The Washington Times
^Audio and transcript of interview, May 2009
^Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor, by Paul Farmer, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-24326-9, pg 1
Interview with Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Galeano, "The Devil's Devils" (Trans. Mark K. Jensen), Le Monde diplomatique, no. 617 (August 2005), p.?10.
Sandra Cisneros reads "Los Nadies/The Nobodies" by Eduardo Galeano from Book of Embraces, El libro de los abrazos (1989) "[1]".
"'Voices of Time': Legendary Uruguayan Writer Eduardo Galeano on Immigration, Latin America, Iraq, Writing ? and Soccer," Democracy Now! 19 May 2006
"Reflections from Eduardo Galeano," The Leonard Lopate Show, 19 May 2006.
"Writer Without Borders" -- interview by Scott Widmer on In These Times
"Author of the Month," Escritores.org
Eduardo Galeano Articles Third World Traveler
The Guardian: Ch?vez creates overnight bestseller with book gift to Obama
Eduardo Galeano Interviewed by Jonah Raskin by Monthly Review, October 2009
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This week we chat with Joseph Willis, 37, boys basketball coach at Bloomingdale High School for the past four years.
Last night, he took part in the school?s annual student-faculty basketball game. The game was part of a weekend full of activities to benefit Bell Shoals Beef ?O? Brady?s server Kim Camille and husband Roger, who was recently diagnosed with lymphoma for a second time.
Where did the idea for the student-faculty basketball game come from?
Before I came to Bloomingdale, I had heard about other schools having charity basketball games to support some great causes. So when I arrived here, I was really excited about rallying our students and teachers together to do something for this terrific school and community. ??
What are some of the organizations and people the game has helped in previous years?
In years past, proceeds have gone towards pediatric cancer and an organization called Lyrics For Life (formed by musical band Sister Hazel). Cormac McCarthy, owner of the Bloomingdale and Fishhawk Beef ?O? Brady's and ultra-supporter of our basketball and athletic programs here at Bloomingdale, recommended this group. ?
What are your goals for the Bloomingdale High basketball team next season?
Our goals are always to improve and work hard in everything we do. We are always striving to get better athletically, academically, and with our character. We were very young this past season and now these guys are more experienced. I expect a lot from them this coming season.
Who is your all-time favorite basketball player?
Michael Jordan. He reminds me of how I used to play (Students, take note). I'm kidding of course. I liked the entire Chicago Bulls teams from that era. Jordan, Pippen, Grant, Paxson ? they all played as a team.
Who do you see meeting in this year?s NBA Finals, and who comes out on top?
I think the Heat are really good and should win it. The Spurs are also very good and have the edge out west now that (Oklahoma City?s) Russell Westbrook has gone down. I don't watch much NBA since I am a college guy, but I'm always impressed with how good those guys are.
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Public release date: 10-May-2013
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