"O"

While I am no regular viewer of Oprah Winfrey's TV show - "Oprah" - I must say I am very intrigued by the influence of her book club so I had to check out the website today --

www.oprah.com/bookclub

Several immediate observations came to mind during my scan of this website:

• It does not appear to have any visitor feedback/interactivity -- why not replicate the "book club" experience of friends gathering in a living room by at least having a blog/bulletin board where readers/website visitors can "discuss" a book with each other?
• The chosen books for this book club lack any selections from the fields of - history, economics, global politics, entrepreneurship, etc. - unless I simply missed them since I did not recognize all of the titles. I would love to see her book club select a book like "The Mystery of Capital" by Hernando de Soto to get more people to appreciate the value of property rights.
• I would love to see Oprah take racism and censorship/book bans head on by selecting "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. I mention this book because it has been challenged by activist parents who find its use of the "n-word" for blacks offensive although Mr. Twain wrote the book to insult the racists.

I plan to book mark Oprah's website so I can at least monitor her book selections -- given her enormous influence all book lovers should take an interest in this vehicle for literacy.

Todd

Germany

Sadly it appears the skin head culture of hate still exists in Germany as evidenced by this recent news story from Pretzien (near Magdeburg), Germany. The story goes that seven men with the neo-nazi organization, "East Elbe Homeland Federation", burned a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank on a bonfire while they chanted, "German youth, German blood............" If convicted the men would face prison terms of up to 5 years.

In a show of complete stupidity one of the men defended his book burning by claiming it was a symbolic gesture "to rid himself of this bad chapter of German history..........." Using this line of logic would it then be okay for me to burn copies of "My Life" and "Living History" (or is that "Herstory"?) :-) by Bill and Hillary Clinton "to rid myself of the memory of their 8 years in the White House" ?

No, of course not, it would be far better for me to educate myself about these two people so I can help keep Hillary out of the White House in 2009.

Read to learn not burn,

Todd

New Zealand

While attending a conference in Canada this past week I had the pleasure of meeting one of the speakers -- Alan Duff of New Zealand.

Mr. Duff is an "award winning novelist, film maker, and social activist" perhaps best known for the film, "Once Were Warriors", which focused on his Maori culture. I wanted to talk with Mr. Duff after his speech because he is the founder of the "Books in Homes" program which distributes books to 500 schools in New Zealand:

www.booksinhomes.org.nz

"The Books in Homes Programme was inspired by Alan Duff who, with the help of Christine Fernyhough, developed the idea after realising that failures in adult life often stem from childhoods spent in bookless homes. The philosophy behind the programme is simple - to break the cycle of 'booklessness'. Kids who can't read become adults who can't communicate and that's a serious disadvantage in a world that operates on the written word."

Entrepreneurs/activists such as Mr. Duff are improving lives faster and more efficiently than any government I have experienced. If any readers of this blog have a great example of a government improving quality of life please let me know.

Keep up the great work Mr. Duff -- perhaps one day a New Zealand university will recognize your public service with a honorary degree!! I mention this because in his speech in Canada Mr. Duff noted that he has never been invited as a guest speaker to any New Zealand university despite his professional and social achievements.

Clearly political correctness is the power on campus.

Todd

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

While visiting Halifax this past weekend for a conference I had some free time to explore the literary community which led me to these discoveries:

• Best Second Hand Bookstore (as rated by readers of "The Coast" weekly guide)-- John W. Doull Bookseller at 1684 Barrington Street. Now this bookstore looked like a hybrid between your grandmother's attic and a tornado with books located in every available area of the store!! In some aisles I had to be careful not to bump into stacks of books thus risking toppling them everywhere. I had to laugh when I read the signs that requested patrons to "return the books in alpha orders for future shoppers" -- wow, good thing the fire marshal wasn't visiting the store!! Overall, a very fun experience to simply explore their thousands of random titles.
• Online Book Club -- created for readers of the local newspaper it can be found at; www.hfxnews.ca under the heading, "HfxBookTalk", which provides content for publishing in the newspaper. Overall I thought this was an ideal blend of "old" and "new" media operations.
• Atlantic Books Awards -- this ceremony is set for May 11th at "Pier 21" (see "Our Home and Native Land" at http://spacebeaglenotes.blogspot.com). For more information on the award categories which include best fiction, best Atlantic-published, best poetry, etc. readers can visit; www.writers.ns.ca/bookfest07

Read widely and read locally,

Todd

Somalia

Students at Minnesota's Metropolitan State University have partnered with our Somali immigrant community to construct a library in Puntland, a semi autonomous state in northeastern Somalia. The project is being administered by a non-profit group, created by Ali Abdurashid, called Somali Family Services.

Construction on the library began in January 2007 and should be completed in December 2007 thus becoming the "first public library in the region" according to the article I read. Anyone interested in this project can contact:

Tom O'Connell
Metropolitan State Professor of Political Science
tom.oconnell@metrostate.edu

Libraries are essential infrastructure that help communities to succeed but like a family pet libraries must be "fed" with books so I hope Metropolitan State and my friends at Books for Africa (www.booksforafrica.org) explore ways to work together.

Progress in Africa,

Todd

Cartoon

The "Frank and Ernest" (by Bob Thaves) cartoon in my local newspaper today featured a picture of a king sitting in a throne with a court aide standing nearby. The king is looking at the aide to declare:

"The literacy rate is going up? -- I suppose we better start thinking about censorship."

The amazing power of cartoons -- in one short sentence Mr. Thaves summarizes exactly how government works. Step One - achieve some objective such as higher literacy rates via some program. Step Two - regulate the results of the program.

Perhaps newspapers should start printing a few of their cartoons on the front page with the main news stories.

Todd

The Bard

From the April 19, 2007 USA Today newspaper comes this report published in conjunction with William Shakespeare's 443rd birthday. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), an organization in Washington DC which promotes academic quality, studied 70 universities in terms of their English degree programs.

The study shows that only 15 of these 70 institutions require English majors to take a course on Shakespeare. In addition the study found the following:

• Within the Ivy League schools only Harvard University requires a study of Shakespeare
• Only 3 of the 11 universities in the Big 10 conference (yes, they have 11 members) -- Illinois, Minnesota (yeah!!), and Wisconsin -- require a study of Shakespeare

Anne Neal, president of ACTA, had this to say regarding earning a bachelor's degree in English without the study of Shakespeare "is tantamount to fraud". I completely agree with Ms. Neal. Given the quantity and quality of Shakespeare's work how can any university award an English degree in good faith without having a study of the Bard's work as a core class? This would be the equivalent of awarding a degree in American History without requiring students to study President George Washington.

As tuition rates continue to climb we consumers of higher education should demand better results.

Lay on MacDuff,

Todd