new york times – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

An Open Letter to the Media on the “Irony” of Snowden’s Request for Asylum in Venezuela and Ecuador

The supposed “irony” of whistle-blower Edward Snowden seeking asylum in countries such as Ecuador and Venezuela has become a media meme. Numerous articles, op-eds, reports and editorials in outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and MSNBC have hammered on this idea since the news first broke […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Encircling Empire: Report #16—War, Hegemony, Ideology, and Resistance

Encircling Empire: Report #16—War, Hegemony, Ideology, and Resistance Encircling Empire Reports is a selection of essays, blog posts, and news reports covering a given time period, providing links and representative extracts or key passages from each resource, usually focusing on certain countries/continents and/or processes in each report. The focus of the reports ranges from imperialism […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Still Standing: Zimbabwe

“Mr. Mugabe, at the age of 88, is rumored to be in poor health. In April, rumors spread in Harare that he was on his deathbed in Singapore, but he appeared at the country’s independence day celebration a few days later, looking fit as he walked around a soccer stadium under a blazing sun for […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Innocently Informing State Terrorism: Journalism, Knowledge, and Counterinsurgency

With President Barack Obama sending at least 30,000 additional American troops to knock the Taliban off-balance and a U.S.-led offensive in Helmand province, a better understanding of today’s Taliban is central to the effort to defeat them and to begin withdrawing some American troops from Afghanistan in summer 2011. (McClatchy, 14 March 2010) A very […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Afghanistan’s Little Girls on the Front Line, Part 2

This post was previously published as a comment by M. Jamil Hanifi, Open Anthropology’s new blogger. While we work out bugs with Jamil’s access, I am republishing his comment as a post. It first appeared in connection with the article, “In Afghanistan It’s Now All About the Little Girls“. M. Jamil Hanifi 15 August 2009 […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

In Afghanistan It’s Now All About the Little Girls (1.5)

Women and Children First Here is U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, writing on his Twitter page: helped open a school in the Panjshir Valley yesterday. built by Greg Mortenson. smiles on those young faces said it all! power of education (15 July 2009) And then some more tweets about […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Suspect Media: Making Propaganda for the Human Terrain System (2.2)

Why do I say suspect media? We know by now that The New York Times published completely false accounts that legitimized claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction leading up to the 2003 invasion. We see how CNN anchors, even now, continue to provide moments of careless speech when rushing out the words, “Iran’s […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Spectroscopic Survey of Imperial (De)formations: A Wholly Dispassionate and Disinterested Report from the Links

Breaking down the White Light of Empire, This report starts at the big blue end of the spectrum: Afghanistan, Iraq, held low under the high water of 1492, By an oversized 227 year old man of war. A down swinging empire of rising fear, meets its boomerang, With the lies told abroad only believed at […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Diane Lewis: Anthropology and Colonialism

In the opening paragraph to her 1973 article on “Anthropology and Colonialism” (a relatively unique focus for an article, even at that late time), Diane Lewis writes: ANTHROPOLOGY is in a state of crisis. This is demonstrated in the field and in the classroom by the marked estrangement between anthropologists and the nonwhite people they […]