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Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter! Drug Companies and Psychiatrists
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Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter!
Drug Companies and Psychiatrists
Partners in CrimeEugenia Tsao reports on the upcoming revision of one of the most important books in America, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Here’s where the drug lords, the shrinks and the insurance companies collude in establishing hundreds of bogus psychic conditions requiring the psychotropic drugs from which they reap billions every year. There are about 250,000 migrant laborers in Israel, mostly from the Philippines and Thailand. Meanwhile tens of thousands of Palestinians can’t find work. From Tel Aviv, Yonatan Preminger reports on Israel’s vicious employment strategy. Also in this latest newsletter Andrew Cockburn updates his CounterPunch world exclusive on how the U.S. has secretly helped build Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.
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Today's Stories July 10-12, 2009 Alexander Cockburn José Pertierra John Ross Conn Hallinan Nikolas Kozloff Clifton Ross / Carl Ginsburg Michael Neumann Gilad Atzmon Ellen Hodgson Brown Jim Goodman Christopher Bickerton Wendell Potter Raymond Lawrence Walid El Houri Stephanie Westbrook July 9, 2009 Ronnie Cummings Jonathan Cook Nikolas Kozloff James Bovard Norman Solomon Afghanistan: the Escalation Scam Allan Nairn Andy Worthington Tomas Borge Nadia Hijab Paul Krassner Website of the Day July 8, 2009 Saul Landau Dean Baker Winslow T. Wheeler Eric Walberg Ray McGovern David Rosen Dr. Mona El Farra Ron Jacobs Benjamin Dangl Alan Farago Website of the Day July 7, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Uri Avnery Brian M. Downing Gary Leupp Gregory A. Burris David Macaray Laura Flanders Alan Farago Greg Moses Dan Bacher Website of the Day July 6, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Diana Johnstone Nikolas Kozloff Gary Leupp Jonathan Cook Tim Wise Franklin Lamb Charles R. Larson Carlos Benemann Shepherd Bliss Jerry Kroth Karyn Strickler Website of the Day July 3-5, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Eamonn Fingleton Jeffrey St. Clair Mike Whitney Pam Martens George Ciccariello-Maher Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Anthony DiMaggio Roger Burbach John Ross Nikolas Kozloff Gareth Porter Andy Worthington Saul Landau David Macaray Adam Federman Jane Slaughter Labor's Vague Rally for Health Care Russell Mokhiber Black Caucus Muzzled on Israeli Kidnapping of McKinney Robert Jensen Robert Bryce Belén Fernandez Missy Comley Beattie C. G. Estabrook Stephen Martin Charles R. Larson Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend July 2, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Nikolas Kozloff Wendell Potter Ellen Hodgson Brown Christian Christensen Iran: Networked Dissent? Patrick Irelan Binoy Kampmark Returning Iraq Nicola Nasser Brian Tokar Dan Bacher Website of the Day July 1, 2009 Vijay Prashad Alberto Vallente Thorensen Paul Craig Roberts Robert Weissman Manuel García, Jr. Victor Figueroa-Clark / Pablo Navarrete Norman Solomon Franklin Lamb Martha Rosenberg Diane Rejman Website of the Day June 30, 2009 Michael Hudson Esam Al-Amin Benjamin Dangl Jonathan Cook Franklin Lamb George Wuerthner Todd Gordon Ron Jacobs Kenneth Libby Julian Vigo Website of the Day
June 29, 2009 Ishmael Reed Nikolas Kozloff Clifton Ross Patrick Cockburn Uri Avnery Conn Hallinan James G. Abourezk Ralph Nader Carol Miller Greg Moses Website of the Day June 26-28, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Doug Peacock Daniel Wolff Mike Whitney John Ross David Rosen Emily Ratner Gareth Porter Farid Marjai Nadia Hijab Paul Craig Roberts Fred Gardner Carl Ginsburg Paul Watson David Ker Thomson Farzana Versey Geoff Berne Todd Alan Price Ramzy Baroud Jeff Sher Dr. Carol Paris Despite My Arrest by Max Baucus, I Will Continue to Advocate for Quality Health Care for All Walter Brasch Adultery as Family Value? Glen Johnson Charlotte Laws Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend June 25, 2009 Kathy Kelly Jack Bratich Wendell Potter Charles R. Larson Alan Farago Jonathan Cook Gareth Porter Bitta Mostofi / David Macaray Mark Schuller Website of the Day June 24, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Dean Baker Andy Worthington James Bovard Diana Gibson / P. Sainath Gareth Porter Robert Alvarez Dave Lindorff Steven Colatrella Remembering Giovanni Arrighi Website of the Day
June 23, 2009 David Price Patrick Cockburn James Ridgeway / Dave Lindorff Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero Gary Leupp Brian M. Downing Robert Bryce Nicholas Dearden Yousef Munayyer Website of the Day June 22, 2009 Michael Hudson Esam Al-Amin Chris Floyd Jack Z. Bratich Atash Yaghmaian Laura Carlsen Paul Craig Roberts Vijay Prashad Fred Gardner Andy Thayer David Macaray Website of the Day
June 19 - 21, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patrick Cockburn Al Giordano Henry A. Giroux Anthony DiMaggio Paul Craig Roberts John Ross Gareth Porter Carl Ginsburg Tommi Avicolli Mecca Joe Bageant Serge Halimi P. Sainath Jim Goodman Dave Lindorff Rannie Amiri Robert Fantina Harvey Wasserman Walter Brasch David Ker Thomson Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Ben Sonnenberg Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
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Weekend Edition Corruption in Its Most Benign Form Thrives in Marx's ShadowThe Shades of Highgate CemeteryBy ROGER GAESS If you could time-travel back to London in, say, the mid-1850s, you might find yourself strolling in Highgate Cemetery, taking in what had become a cutting-edge showpiece of the Victorian sensibility. It was a place to see and be seen, so occasionally you might have to edge past well-bred ladies showing off their fashionable threads amid the dark Romanticism that energised the era. Decked throughout in the reigning symbols of grief and decay, Highgate Cemetery, which opened in 1839, represented the zenith of nineteenth-century landscape design and funerary architecture, the latter clearly influenced by recent archaeological discoveries in Egypt and Mesopotamia. As such, it increasingly became the final resting place of choice for England’s status-conscious rich and famous, as well as for its eccentrics. Located on London’s northern heights, the cemetery’s prim, trim and pristine footpaths, shrubbery and trees were in its heyday tended by a staff of 28 gardeners. Now, in contrast, it is three decades into a rescue mission steered by a non-profit organisation that managed to snatch the whole wondrous thing from the jaws of financial ruin and near-irreversible demise. Despite earlier years of neglect, its allure persists, helped along by the fact that Karl Marx and George Eliot, as well as scores of other notables, are buried here. Visitors generally first gravitate to the cemetery’s older, more ostentatiously Victorian, western half. (An eastern side was added in 1854, doubling the size to 37 acres.) Here, the trees and vegetation threaten to overrun the place. When moisture slicks the winding gravel passageways, the going can be difficult. Volunteer staff of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery (FOHC), the charity that has overseen the grounds since 1975, conduct regular tours of the western sector. Entry to that half is limited to tour groups, both to help ensure safety and to protect against vandalism. Today the FOHC characterize the cemetery as an active burial ground within the framework of managed woodland, and plough whatever money the cemetery generates back in to refurbishing and embellishing it. Early on in any tour, burial places, like that of Sir Loftus Otway, a British cavalry commander, will as often as not be pointed out to illustrate various symbols the Victorians utilised in cemetery ornamentation. In Otway’s case, it is the inverted canons that dot the perimeter of his gravesite, set in the military formation of a phalanx. Among symbols, the more ubiquitous include broken pillars, signifying a life cut short; urns partially draped, to allow an opening for the soul to ascend to Heaven; the wreath, marking victory over death; and the lamb, an embodiment of innocence, the standard at the grave of a child. Walking on, twigs snapping under your feet, the majestic gateway to the Egyptian Avenue suddenly comes into view, heightening sensations of a bygone era. The entranceway was modelled on the Valley of the Kings and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and is hedged by towering obelisks. You enter the wrought-iron gate under a pharaonic arch, and begin an incremental ascent. There is the squeak of the door closing behind you, and then the heavy thud. Sixteen catacombs line both sides of the Avenue. Each of the sepulchers comprises a family vault of a dozen coffins set on shelves. The vaults’ cast-iron doors bear embossed inverted torches, marking the fire of life extinguished. The Avenue leads up to the Circle of Lebanon, and together they comprise the focal point of a necropolis, or city of the dead. The Circle is a kind of round canal dug from the high ground north of the Avenue. Catacombs were built against the walls of the inner circle, and a magnificent cedar tree, now about 300 years old, remains situated at the Circle’s centre. These family vaults were constructed first, in the Egyptian-themed Gothic Revival style, just prior to the Avenue itself. A few years after the cemetery opened, a second set of catacombs was added along the Circle’s outer wall. Via a stone stairway you ascend to a terrace of more catacombs. Nearby is the stately mausoleum of Julius Beer, a financial and media magnate. Beer had the mausoleum built in memory of his daughter Ada, who died at the age of eight, and modelled it on the original mausoleum of King Mausolus at Halicarnassus, which was one of the Wonders of the Ancient World. Through glass slits in the doors you can see a blue-and-gold mosaic ceiling and a relief sculpture of an angel carrying a child to Heaven. Highgate and similar cemeteries were the product of a radical reform movement. Graveyards in eighteenth-century England were overcrowded, body snatchers active and bones sometimes jutted from yawning graves. The Victorians revolted against this, and pressed for secure and hygienic resting places for their dead. The extensive wealth that the Industrial Revolution created had expanded the middle class, which in turn began to ape the gentry. Ostentatious funeral processions – with hearses pulled by horses crowned in plumes of black ostrich feathers – and exaggerated displays of grief became the preferred norm. Anticipating this, the London Cemetery Company built Highgate Cemetery, promising its stockholders their investments would remain sound for a hundred years. The company sold rights of burial in perpetuity. But the carnage of the first world war quashed Romantic attitudes towards death, and by the end of the second world war, the great majority of plots had been sold, rendering the enterprise a wasting asset. The dog had its day Not surprisingly, some Victorians had welcomed any opportunity to thumb their noses at the pompous notions of status and self-declared worth. This is where the tombstone of Thomas Sayers, with its sculpture of a resting pet bullmastiff, comes in. Sayers, a celebrated bare-fisted boxer, was the David Beckham of his day. His untimely death in 1865 at age 39 prompted an unofficial day of mass mourning. As his funeral procession made its way to Highgate Cemetery, fans thronged the streets and pubs closed in his honor. Directly behind Sayers’ hearse, as sole occupant of a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, came the pugilist’s dog – the designated official mourner. Amid a spirit of stoked iconoclasm, as one contemporary noted, thousands entered the cemetery “playing leap-frog with every sepulchral monument of a convenient height that stood in their way”. The dog and other outsiders had their day. The George Eliot (1819-80) gravestone – a modest grey obelisk – is situated halfway up a hill of dense overgrowth, just before Karl Marx. Her partner of nearly 25 years, novelist George Henry Lewes, who died in 1878, is buried nearby and largely accounts for her choice of burial site. Her grave is in an area reserved for dissenters, or non-Anglicans. George Eliot, one of the greatest of English novelists, whose Middlemarch and other works are still much loved, was born Mary Ann (later Marian) Evans, and adopted her pseudonym “George” in affectionate regard for Lewes, who had helped her gain publication in the exclusionary male-dominated literary world of their time. Her possibility of burial in Westminster Abbey had been ruled out due to her rejection of Christianity and the fact that her relationship with Lewes, however monogamous, occurred in the context of their failure to marry. The tombstone of Marx (1818-83) consists of an imposing marble bust atop a large block of Cornish granite bearing the inscription “Workers of all lands unite”. Whenever I catch sight of the tomb, I’m reminded of the 1966 film Morgan. That flick created cult status for David Warner, who played an endearing eccentric. In the scene filmed at the cemetery, Warner sweeps his ageing mother upon his shoulders and trots her around the Marx gravestone in an over-the-top celebration of their working-class heritage. Marx had arrived in London in 1849 as a German émigré and took up permanent residence there. He last lived in Kentish Town, in north London, not far from Highgate Cemetery. Marx had originally been buried in a far corner of the cemetery, some 100 yards from the current site, in the same grave as his wife Jenny, whose death had preceded his by 15 months. That grave was topped by a simple ground-level plaque that recorded their birth and death dates. But as the grave increasingly became a pilgrimage site, with visitors complaining of difficulties in locating it, the British Communist Party in the mid-1950s re-interred the remains of Marx and his extended family in a more prominent setting. The old gravestone was incorporated into the face of the new monument, designed by Lawrence Bradshaw. In the last few decades, a number of leading international reformers and revolutionaries have chosen to be buried in the vicinity of Marx’s grave. Just across the path from Marx is the impressive flat gravestone of Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), an evolutionary biologist and free-market proponent. The two would not have seen eye to eye in their lifetimes, but in death they remain fixed in each other’s sights. This eastern sector arguably contains the wider range of personages, if you add in people like Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Sir Ralph Richardson, the actor. Burials are ongoing, though the eastern half has the greater selection of available plots. One newcomer is Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian dissident turned critic who was murdered in London by poisoning in 2006. All told, some 170,000 people are now buried here. Highgate Cemetery remains a kind of masked ball of treasures. Increasingly it’s becoming a wildlife sanctuary, and the place continues to live on in the imagination. Roger Gaess is a journalist and photographer (www.rogergaess.com) based in London and New York. This article appears in the July edition of this excellent monthly, whose English language edition can be found at mondediplo.com. This full text appears by agreement with Le Monde Diplomatique. CounterPunch features one or two articles from LMD every month.
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Spell Albuquerque:
Waiting for
Lightning
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