Dreamways

"Antonia Shapovalova, ‘a commissar in the pro-Kremlin movement Nashi’, has designed lingerie with a view to persuading the young ladies of Russia to have more babies.” This sounds like quite the titillating daydream in post-Soviet Russia. What does the lingerie look like? How does it work? Of all things, the dainties address (hoping to undress?) and appeal of solidarity to Russia’s political Big Boss Man, Vladimir Putin (whose nickname is Vova.) "Vova, I'm with you," is printed (stitched? branded?) across the front of the tiny briefs. Imagine

"You cannot hear the name Martin Luther King Jr. and not think of death. For as famous as he may have been in life, it is death that ultimately defined him.“ So begins an essay written by Michael Eric Dyson on the 40th anniversary of King’s death in April 4, 1968 ("The Burdens of Martyrdom: Death distorted the true legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. – Why the turbulence of his life is what matters today“, Time Magazine, 07 Apr 08). The author connects a figure who is famous for having a Dream is inextricably to Death.

"Finding guilt-free food for our menus – food that’s clean, green and humane – is about as easy as securing a housing loan. And we’re suddenly paying more - 75 percent more in the last six years – to stock our pantries. Around the world, from Cairo to Port-au-Prince, increases in food prices have governments facing riots born of shortage and hunger.“ This is the waking nightmare recounted by Dan Barber in his article "Change We Can Stomach“ (The New York Times, 11 May 08).

"Moundville, Ala. After residents of the Riverbend Farms subdivision noticed that an oily, fetid substance had begun fouling the Black Warrior River, which runs through their backyards, Mark Storey, a retired petroleum plant workers, hopped into his boat to follow the plume upstream to its source. It turned out to be an old chemical factory that had been converted into Alabama’s first bio-diesel plant, a refinery that intended to turn soybean oil into earth-friendly fuel.“ Earth-friendly fuel polluting waterways? Is this science fiction?