NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW ON-LINE

A collection of essays, divided into two main sections:

CONTROVERSIES, the first part consists of seven pieces. The first, LIE DETECTORS: ON SECRETS AND HYPERSECURITY IN LOS ALAMOS deals with the problems faced by post Cold War Nuclear security. Does over-security create gossip? Should the fact that there are "secrets" be kept secret anyway? A complex piece.

In PIONEERING SPIRIT: AN INTERVIEW WITH ELLEN SPIRO, the Los Alamos thread continues here with Spiro's most recent video, ATOMIC ED AND THE BLACK HOLE. Ed is a former Los Alamos National Laboratory machinist who became an atomic junk collector. THE BLACK HOLE is his unofficial museum.

HISTORIC TRUTHS/ LOOKING AT EARTH analyses the coincidences in the American Space Programme achievements and simultaneous warfare on Earth; accompanied by a selection of black and white photos clarifying the subject matter.

Subsequent essays discuss globalization; and I found one of the most interesting pieces was Jonathan Bach's "THE TASTE REMAINS": CONSUMPTION, (N)OSTALGIA, AND THE PRODUCTION OF EAST GERMANY, a fascinating analysis of how East German products are becoming more desirable to consumers. Before Unification, it was more common for Germans from the more commercial West to send presents to their relatives in the East. Now it would appear that with more than ten years elapsing, there is a feeling of nostalgia for the best of the East.

The second section is entitled: AFRICAN MODES OF SELF-WRITING REVISITED. A selection of eleven challenging essays. For me the clearest message is in the form of a quote from V. Y. Mudimbe's L'AUTRE FACE DU ROYAUME:

To adopt an image, everything takes place as if the African intellectual were trapped in an elevator that perpetually goes up and down. In principle, a single gesture would be sufficient to stop the machine, get out, and rent an apartment or room; in sum, live and experience the reality of the world. But apparently, he does not understand that the initiative to escape belongs to him.

An impressive, finely-produced volume, with its attractive yet understated cover illustration of a photo of a bomb explosion.

This is a substantial journal sponsored by the Humanities and Social Sciences Divisions of the University of Chicago and the Society for Transnational Cultural Studies. It contains seven polemic essays and at the back there is a list of books received. The essay topics range from UNSANCTIONED WEALTH; OR, THE PRODUCTIVITY OF DEBT IN NORTHERN CAMEROON (Janet Roitman) to THE FBI FILES (Arnold Mesches).

Sarah S Lochlann Jain gives a polemic called "COME UP TO THE KOOL TASTE": AFRICAN AMERICAN UPWARD MOBILITY AND THE SEMIOTICS OF SMOKING MENTHOLS. It is only in the last ten years or so of the last century that people have been able to consider themselves injured by cigarettes on legal grounds. The Reverend Jesse Brown brought the case on behalf of black smokers. It was argued that African Americans and their communities were targeted with specific advertising to lure them into using mentholated tobacco products. The case was dismissed in 1999. Mentholated tobacco products may contain carcinogens. The essay explores marketing:

Thus, even healthy blacks could not access goods and other signifiers of their class, and, when they could, they found that the symbols of oppression went far beyond second-class service and goods. They were met at the county store with not only staggeringly racist advertising and product labels but also sales counters stocked with souvenirs of the latest lynching, including postcards of the event and victims' severed fingers and toes.

Besides the obvious dangers of mentholated cigarettes, there are various reasons for the seemingly greater injuries suffered by African American smokers, according to medical researchers. For example, studies show that minority smokers are both less likely to participate in potentially expensive smoking cessation programs than the general population and less likely to receive cessation advice from health care providers. Other studies suggest that African Americans metabolize carcinogens and nicotine more slowly than white Americans do.

I would like to see more primary research papers alongside review documents on current awareness, but this is a good journal.

This is a sumptuously produced top-quality academic journal published by Duke University, containing an impressive introductory essay, eight major articles, a photo study, a brief review essay, and an exchange of views between scholars representing opposed viewpoints. The journal's stated aims center upon current research in the following areas:

1. the cultural transformations associated with cities, media and consumption
2. the cultural flows that draw cities, societies and states into larger transnational relationships and global political economies
3. globalization

Yet while I felt the quality, and substance of the writing here is top-notch, my principal reservation about PUBLIC CULTURE has to do with the editorial decision to allow contributors to express themselves so expansively. With few exceptions, the articles are too long. In most cases, such as Vicente L. Rafael's THE CELL PHONE AND THE CROWD: MESSIANIC POLITICS IN THE CONTEMPORARY PHILLIPINES, or Sergui Alex. Oushakine's CRIMES OF SUBSTITUTION: DETECTION IN LATE SOVIET SOCIETY, there is a core observation of significance, and illuminative (often fascinating) discussion, but this slowly degenerates into reiteration and repetitively structured argumentation. Amanda Weidman's GURU AND GRAMAPHONE: FANTASIES OF FIDELITY AND MODERN TECHNOLOGIES OF THE REAL is better-paced overall, while Michael Kaplan's ICONOMICS: THE RHETORIC OF SPECULATION is a very engaging piece, and one that may be of use to scholars in diverse areas of research, particularly media and literary studies. Christopher Schneider's photography adds a further dimension to this issue, but the final section of the journal, entitled EXCHANGE, with its rancorous debate between academics is not altogether instructive.

Nevertheless, the credentials of those contributing to PUBLIC CULTURE are impeccable, and the enthusiastic spirit of enquiry that motivates the editors is likely to ensure that this will remain an academic journal of considerable standing, and one that ought to be seen as doing important interdisciplinary work.

This is an exceptionally well-researched and well-written book covering many sections of international cultures not readily available in other books or magazines.

The author has brought forward themes such as AIDS/HIV in a caring and compassionate way as to help people understand the real problems people with this illness are facing, no matter which country they are from.

There is a quiet understanding and explanation for the way in which people circulate and settle around various areas of the world brought forward and explained in a clear and easy to comprehend manner.

For anyone wanting to get a clearer understanding of things going on in the world — many items are not covered or explained so clearly anywhere else — this is an excellent book to gain an insight into vagaries of the cultures of the world, this is an excellent purchase and one worthy of any scholar's bookcase.

The only drawback of this book is that it is so in-depth that it may be difficult for many to understand, but certainly worth purchasing.