June 2nd, 2004 · Comments Off
Oh, you have got to love this! Here
is the full post, and below is an excerpt. The bottom line is
that this explosive film will be in US theaters just
before the Democratic convention!
..fresh off its Palme d’Or at last month’s Cannes Film Festival, Miramax cochiefs Harvey and Bob Weinstein bought back the rights to Fahrenheit 9/11 from Disney for $6 million, essentially what it cost the Mouse House to finance the film.
The brothers Weinstein formed their own company, named the Fellowship Adventure Group, to release the film.
After deciding against going at it alone, the Weinsteins joined forces
with Lions Gate Films and IFC Films to distribute the doc, which probes
the Bush family’s ties to prominent Saudis, including the family of
Osama bin Laden, and blasts the President’s handling of 9-11 and his
rush to war in Iraq.
Showtime, which has an existing agreement with Lions Gate, landed the
U.S. pay-TV rights. A deal is still being worked out for home-video
rights, though sources close to negotiations say Universal Home Video
looks like the leading candidate, with Lions Gate’s own
home-entertainment division the darkhorse.
Quoth the Weinsteins: “This is a true coalition. The passion that Lions
Gate, IFC Films and Showtime have demonstrated reflects our desire to
enable Michael Moore’s extraordinary work to be viewed by as many
filmgoers as possible as soon as possible.”
While the details still have to be ironed out, Fahrenheit 9/11 is expected to unspool on about 1,000 screens across the country, making it the biggest release ever for a documentary.
..All the principals are now ramping up their resources to get the film
in theaters in just three weeks. The distributors are frantically
buying TV ads, cutting trailers, locking down screens and getting the
necessary prints in order.
Tags: Presidential politics
June 2nd, 2004 · Comments Off
Tags: Economics and cybenetics
June 2nd, 2004 · Comments Off
Here are some late night musings in-progress. Two of points of view on
democratic development in edge states like Sudan, Iraq, and Afghanistan:
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Component of nation building
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Current de facto US approach
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Alternative point of view
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Bombing, shock and awe
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Plows the ground for later establishment of democracy by
destroying the enemy and the enemy’s institutions, and showing the people the
power of the United States to help and protect them
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Spreads trauma, fear, hatred and desire for revenge.
Psychological and social damage makes subsequent democracy, social and
economic development difficult
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Democracy
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Focuses on identification of a few elite leaders with appropriate values and credentials, and on limited voting
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Requires a web of capabilities, including a free press, open
education, free speech and assembly, and a variety of democratic institutions
constituting a vibrant civil society and producing effective democratic leaders
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Economic development
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Systems integrators help get the major utilities and
industries operating. Best
if these systems include substantial oil production
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Promotes a robust innovation-oriented entrepreneurial business
sector, with most business formation in small and medium-sized
businesses developing middle-class workers and owners
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Information and communication technology
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Supports big business, and is itself big business
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Provides
low cost access for individuals in order to promote open
communication, education, and thus democracy. Supports small and
medium-sized businesses in order to promote efficiency and innovation;
is mostly an ecosystem of small and medium sized businesses, layered on
top of affordable communications and computing
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Law for economic development
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Provides congenial operating environment for large
businesses and protection for large domestic and foreign investors
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Provides a framework for giving the poor property rights
and access to the formal economy; provides for worker health and safety and
fair wages and rights to bargain collectively; provides a fair level playing
field and effective dispute resolution for entrepreneurs; establishes
workable competition law in order to protect middle class businesses from
monopoly practices of large established companies and interests
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Law for social development
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Controls aberrant behavior
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Protects the democratic rights of individuals so that they
can pursue their lives with a minimum of government and/or authoritarian
interference, and can participate in democratic institutions without fear of
reprisals
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In my own experience in Africa, these two approaches are often at
odds. Support for large businesses and large-scale investors
tends to raise prices and make services too expensive for most of the
population. Thus the broad public of the nation does not
benefit. By contrast, maximum development of small and
medium-sized entreprenerial businesses requires that infrastructure
services such as telecommucations and energy become low-cost, highly
accessible public goods–which in turn gores the ox of the largest
companies and investors.
Tags: Economics and cybenetics
June 2nd, 2004 · Comments Off
Very! Here is a poster being offered online by the Boston University African Studies Center.
Tags: Economics and cybenetics
