Michael T. Klare's latest book on the geopolitics of energy: your purchase benefits LCC programmingRising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy, by Michael T. Klare

Reviewed By Dick Platkin

Richard Dreyfuss, Dick Cheney: The actor incarnates the veep in Oliver Stone's "W"In his new movie "W," a biopic about outgoing President George W. Bush, director Oliver Stone has Dick Cheney (played by Richard Dreyfuss) narrate a series of large-screen slides that demonstrate how the countries adjacent to the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea contain most of the world’s proven oil and gas reserves. As the Cheney-Dreyfuss presentation unfolds, we see the locations where the U.S. government has constructed dozens upon dozens of Middle East military installations since the first Gulf War. We are also told that the country which controls these Middle Eastern oil and gas reserves will control the Eurasian continent. This, in turn, will become key for the U.S. to maintain its dominant position in the global economy.

Christopher Caldwell on "What is the West's Problem with Islam?"

Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West: your purchase benefits LCC programming Europe has received a wave of immigration from the global south in recent decades, similar in scope to the US-but very different in its results. Many immigrant and second-generation communities have astronomical unemployment rates and a thin connection to European identity. Some have produced terrorists. The problems are particularly severe among newcomers from the Muslim world.

If Europe has an Islam problem, whose fault is it? Is Islamic belief and culture incompatible with Western institutions? Or is there such a thing as "Islamophobia," poisoning immigrants' efforts to integrate on European terms?

Christopher Caldwell, who writes for the Financial Times, The New York Times Magazine and The Weekly Standard, visits Zócalo to talk about themes from his upcoming book, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West.

By Crystal Allene Cook

Read about the "Art Knows No Borders" event on November 18, 2008.

Arriving in Yerevan, Armenia on a Fulbright in 2004 to research a novel, I had some specific things in mind. Once on the ground, making friends, talking to people, traveling, many of my preconceived notions of those things, and of myself, soon began to change.

The eclectic Al-Fareed aka Alfred Madain is a deejay, musician and ethnomusicologist in Los Angeles. A walking encyclopedia of traditional, folkloric and contemporary music of the Arab/Islamic world and Africa, he intimately “gets” and analyzes music ranging from ancient traditions to modern world techno, hip hop, western new wave, heavy metal and punk. Al-Fareed’s attuned feel for rock gives him the ability to reflect on the west from an eastern perspective and on the east from a western perspective. As a music historian he can explain the history and influence of ziryab (a musician of the Baghdadi and Andalusian courts) as well as the history and influence of Woody Guthrie, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Black Flag, Blind Lemon Jefferson, the Velvet Underground and more.

No Borders: by Anna-Marie Lopez de LeonThis eclectic event benefitting Doctors Without Borders includes a silent art auction with work by dozens of contributing artists including Anna-Marie Lopez de Leon, and performances by the Middle Eastern-jazz fusion group Saffron Parade Arabesque Band, Tehran’s heavy metal band TarantisT, belly dancers, deejays and much more. Pic Vicious and Killsonic will perform later in the soirée.

The Silk Road Music & Dance Ensemble and the iST-West Ensemble will perform live with special guest vocalist Serpil Borazan. Featuring Rowan Storm on percussions, with Nyofu Tyson on saz, Neil Seigel on Azeri tar, Ergun Tamer on kanun and Robyn Friend performing dances of Turkey and Central Asia, plus additional musicians.

Language for a New Century: your purchase benefits LCC programmingKudos to Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond. This handsome new anthology (Norton 2008) celebrates the artistic and cultural forces flourishing today in the East—gathering an unprecedented selection of works by East Asian, Middle Eastern, South Asian and Central Asian poets as well as poets living in the diaspora. The volume is organized around nine themes—including childhood, politics and oppression, identity, war, homeland and love—and includes more than 400 unique voices from 59 countries. Each section of the anthology—organized by theme rather than national affiliation—is preceded by a personal essay from the editors that introduces the poetry and invokes the readers to examine their own identities in light of these powerful poems.