Noam Chomsky Dissent Across the Decades,

 

Noam Chomsky Dissent Across the Decades, gave an online talk at Edinburgh International book festival 2022.

 

Whether it’s discussing linguistics with Foucault in a televised debate, authoring more than 100 books or being a fierce critic of American foreign policy, Noam Chomsky has been a highly influential figure for nearly seven decades. Now in his mid 90s, he shows no signs of stopping and joins us today to discuss Chronicles of Dissent, an accessible and broad-ranging collection of talks for those who seek new perspectives on the big topics of our time.

 

*BOOK, Chronicles of Dissent, an accessible and broad-ranging collection of talks for those who seek new perspectives on the big topics of our time. Chomsky said that the corporate press often gets it wrong when ideas can be suppressed with things that you just cant think. We must encourage debate and to look elsewhere. To be different to totalitarian regimes. 

 

In 1920s,  where were the Russians getting information, from BBC and America – in fact many censored Russians better informed than Americans. Could the Ukraine war have been avoided if there had been some thought of Russian security and to Russian red lines, and not to move Nato to border closer.

 

Identity politics can be good. Scottish independence might be good, he said we would need think though the many consequences, and decide what you want for yourselves and also to retain the unity of UK. The UK can’t hang together in present form – is federalism an option? There will be lots of complications and consequences. Ireland reunification?

 

Brexit was a major error, and driven the UK into the pockets of the US. We face madman Putin, and the threat of fascism all over the world. Today levels of poverty are unprecedented.

Brian Cox at Edinburgh book festival 2022

“Its time to be free!”

Cox said that he’s an optimist!

Succession actor Brian cox chatted with Scotland’s First Minster Nicola Sturgeon about his acting career and of his hopes for Scotland’s future independence And his new book The Rabbit in the Hat. .

He got his first thoughts of performing as a young boy, when he sang at a new year party at home and singing on a small stage. Later Cox went down to the London theatre stage, and was a character actor in film.

 

He said young actors can now stay here to be successful, There’s also been the Scottish film successes. His major part in the hit series Succession role, Logan Roy, has a King Lear element, and is not over written. With a wonderful cast and script. Theatre is my church, retain your pass, cathartic. Telling stories and walking with ghosts  and can be cathartic. 

Cox said that after the great war 1945 Scotland was very much north Britain – there were identity battles of the 70s and 80s. We must be true to ourselves – subdued in who were as second class citizen and to discover what we are culturally.

 

He said there is not enough confidence here in Scotland, its not about personalities, but about country and democracy.   Scotland is a place for social democracy. We’ve suffered old style propaganda and our own voice being stifled. He was the voice of  Labour 1996, but became disillusioned and he didn’t  like Blair and the Iraq war and thought it was all wrong

 

Cox will be here for our Campaign for Scotland’s independence Referendum 2023 – we can do better! 

He said its not about personalities but about country and democracy. Time to be free!

 

Lea Ypi on Freedom with Allan Little Edinburgh book festival 2022

 

‘Coke can with a rose’ was a symbol of the west

She spoke of the special shops for tourists, and a marker of contact with the outside world.

BOOK Lea Ypi, “Free, Coming of Age at the End of History”

Lea is a lecturer at the London School of Economics. She decided to write her book from the perspective of her childhood and the naivety of seeing the world for the first time.

Albania was isolated and communist and accused other communist nations of betraying communism. It was viewed as the anti-imperialist lighthouse of the world, surrounded by powerful foes and on the right side of history. The College of Communism at the most eastern edge of Europe. 

They used special codes, with code words like “biography” and the mystery around “university”, and “stayed to study” – (was an informer). If accused of treason, executed. Her father was not allowed to study maths because he was a teacher. There was corruption and divisiveness – there were Marxists, Leninists and Scandinavians. The regime collapsed in1923.

 

Her mother, was bourgeoisie and spoke French and had an aristocracy identity. She grew up in Slovakia and lost her identity, in order to preserve her identity. The Ottoman empire last century. Her mother become an MP, father a teacher. Her grandparents met at the kings wedding. 

In 1919 the peoples drama when the independent nation state of Albania was declared. Things changed, with a communist republic. Mass emigration and shot at border if trying to escape. The market economy became a gangster capitalism and people became poorer and lost jobs. Parts of the economy became criminalized. Civil war erupted and an economic crisis. There was no financial sector, and fraudulent investments. Collapsed, and started looting and violence. Detested any foreign imposed system. 

Liberalism had won and right all along, great powers decide borders. The EU said to reform economy. In 1989 the Berlin wall came down, but there was also nostalgia for the east and maternity leave. 

The Ottoman empire had 3 different religions - Catholic, Greek orthodoxy and Muslim. There was Freedom of religion and Religions living peacefully and not an issue. Albania is a Nato country and close friends to US. The politicians promised citizen-led grassroots, privatization and shop therapy, 

 

Tyranny and coercion versus freedom and democracy. The idea of freedom has no blueprint – the abstract idea of freedom. Against ‘Empire” and inclusive democratic idea of sovereignty and afraid of forces outside that they can’t control. Civic engagement to regenerate they can’t control.  

**Albania is a country in SE Europe located on the Adriatic, Ionian and Mediterranean seas and land borders with Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Greece. Albania has been inhabited by Illyrians, Thracians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, and Ottomans. The Albanians established the autonomous Principality of Arbër in the 12th century. 

Albania formed between the 13th and 14th centuries. Ottoman conquest in 15^th c. Albania remained under Ottoman rule for five centuries. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the Albanian Renaissance. 

After the defeat of the Ottomans in the Balkan wars, the Nation state of Albania declared independence in 1912. In the 20th century, the Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy, before becoming a protectorate of Nazi Germany. 

 

Enver Hoxha formed the Peoples republic of Albania after WWII modeled under the terms of Hoxhaism. 

The Revolutions of 1991 concluded the fall of communism and the establishment of the current Republic of Albania.

Albania is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic and a developing country with an upper-middle income economy dominated by the service sector, followed by manufacturing.^[10] It went through a process of transition following the end of communism in 1990, from centralised planning to a market-based economy. Albania is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, UNESCO, NATO, WTO, COE, OSCE, and OIC. It has been a candidate for membership in the EU since 2014. 

 

Oliver Bullough on Dirty Russian money at Edinburgh book festival 2022

Oliver Bullough spoke on Dirty Russian money with Ian Rankin at Edinburgh book festival 2022, ad his new book Butler to the World.

In the 1990s journalist Bullough worked in Kurdistan and Russia – when there was huge hope in the east. Then he was in St Petersburg, two weeks before Putin, who has transformed Russia in his own image – with rigged elections, war – tycoons, tax dodgers and criminals.

 

Russia Oligarchs transformed London as supposed “philanthropists and wealth creators”,. So what went wrong? – the answer is to follow the money. There are Kleptocracy tours London to West London, Eton square, Belgravia.- who store their great wealth in offshore shell companies, 20 billion is hard to spend, and they migrate around the world…

 

*The Suez Crisis 1957

And the loss of empire. Before pound sterling was the dominant currency, after it was the dollar. Before during the empire. Britain had been an oligarchy and sold expertise to others. Afterwards the Dollar became the main currency for financing trade.  

 

A large part of the world is not accounted for – hard to hide wealth. 

 

*One Trillion in British and Scottish shell companies in Edinburgh Britain then had a special role protecting illegal wealth –defamation laws. Britain began to protect illicit, unexplained wealth. – they donate and are donors for universities. Here UK we don’t investigate financial crime and agencies are not funded. There are no rules…..less regulated skulduggery

The City of London has great loopholes, and is known as the London Laundromat. Foreigners break laws elsewhere, and their money is not safe in these territories. 

The Offshore market – was 4B in the 60s: 41B in 80s: and 3 trillion now

 Accounting money is like a “Sponge through a sieve– which splinters into thousands of tiny single cell organisms.” With massive online gambling, and Euro dollar

 

Countries became independent – Caymen islands, British Virgin islands, and were reinvented as shell companies, and worlds biggest tax havens. With secrecy and tax free. Private fund Ltd. Partnerships are less regulated. 

One trillion dollars has been stolen from Russia. There has been enormous crime done to victims all over the world. 

 

Roger Mullen SNP mp – worked to try to close loopholes. An Economic crime bill 2016 under Cameron didn’t go far enough. Also the Russian Report was delayed and redacted - about potential Russian interference in Brexit, and elections

 

Questions?  Have any countries resisted? – America quite good, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, 

Armies of lawyers write all the rules. Non Dom status and investor visas. Unexplained wealth. We can’t do anything unless everyone does something? Is this true? Can we not investigate anyone who doesn’t work but has huge unexplained wealth?

 

Diana Gabaldon at Edinburgh book festival 2022

 

Diana Gabaldon in Edinburgh

 •    NEW BOOK – Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone

(we must tell the bees if something important is happening.) 

 About rebuilding the house on the ridge – with a third floor as a refuge.  She said this book is like a snake – she only knows where it is going a third of the way through. To  preserve what they love, and loop through the woods and time, always back to the Ridge. About “Loyalty”

 

She spoke of  keeping the Gaelic culture alive. 

For her first two books she was getting Gaelic from a dictionary. Ian Taylor got in touch with her and did translations. They were afraid Gaelic would be a dead language in ten years – “It would not be because we didn’t try.” She said, and Gabaldon was quite emotional over this. 

 

She has been in recent times one of the most significant people for Scotland’s soft power on the world stage.  She hopes there has been a Gaelic culture revival.

 (She would certainly enjoy Niteworks, who perform with beautiful Gaelic singers, I highly recommend.)

 

She is now writing book ten, and perhaps the last in this long running saga. While the first books were set in Scotland , the more recent seasons have been set in America, on the Mackenzie Ridge. In this way she has melded her own unusual roots – Mexican and English - with the important contributions  the Scots made in the early years of  European settlements in America before the wars of Independence. .

 

Her books are on the Number One best sellers list.

 As a child she read Disney comics and later thought, I could write better stories – so she wrote to the magazine editor. – Her first comic book was Scrooge McDuck.

G spoke of her writing process - ‘who is this character and what do they want.” The people are real for me she said. She enjoys the research process too and walking on battlefields, which are very spiritual. The research plus what appeals to me. 

 

After the fact storylines and shaping. She references her earlier books with delicate engineering, picking up the threads and little bits of the pattern.

 

130K book sales of her first edition. – and she has managed to stay ahead of the TV show. 

She is now writing on a prequel, of Brianna and Allan, Jamie’s parents and the Jacobites. 

 

She worked in research Arizona state university. 

Gabaldon studied Zoology, marine biology, and a PHD in behavioral ecology. Later she wrote

software reviews and technical articles for computer publications, as well as popular-science articles and Disney comics. She was a professor with an expertise in scientific computation at ASU for 12 years before leaving to write full-time.

 

And yes the Kilt inspiration!  

Season 6 Outlander

Fintan OToole The known Unknowns, Edinburgh book festival 2022

 

Fintan OToole discussed his new book at the Edinburgh International Book festival – #edbookfest

We Don’t Know Ourselves, on Ireland from 1958, on Irish emigration at this time 50s and 60s when 3 in 5 would leave;

 

The need for change and the need to stay the same. He talked of the Seeds of change.

 

“In order for things to stay the same things must change.”

The knowing and not knowing…

O’Toole is one of the most creative and challenging commentators on current affairs today and he writes for the Irish Times. I highly recommend his book on Brexit Heroic Failure.

 

He discussed Ireland’s hundred years of independence since 1920 – and the Partition of Ireland into the more developed north and underdeveloped south. East Germany and Ireland lost most populations with young people leaving for better lives.

Sometimes we must gamble for transformation and economic change. 

He said that avoidance can be creative as we avoid reality. A surreal story.

 

Fintan spoke of the deeply rooted power structure of the church and state in Ireland. Catholicism and Nationalism, both were martyrs for Ireland, Ireland has now moved on. Back in the fifties the Troubles all seemed unreal and the IRA a joke. The peace story and dirty violence.

 

He spoke of the Drug crisis in Ireland, and the story of the Dunn brothers and the industrial schools. Fintan was the first in his family to go to university, and he spoke of class and access. The vicious repression and of how the state ignores reality. The Heroin epidemic, no one knew what it was.

 

The Church power melted away so fast. He joked that so many women in Ireland had menstrual problems – and used the Pill to help their menstrual cycle! The safety value was emigration. He spoke of the Irish absurdity, and hypocrisy. 

 

In the late 90s there emerged the Celtic Tiger, with its highly educated workforce. There was the foreign direct investment, the American base n Europe, Pharma, the European massive headquarters and different narratives, Nobody knows what the Irish GDP is  - the mystery of money! 

People came back, and they wanted change, Great writers came back. 

Questions – a United Ireland?

He said that Brexit day changed everything! They had had two generations of boredom – but Brexit raised all these existential questions. 

 

A survey found many would vote for a reunited Ireland.

But when asked, “Would you change anything? No.” - Irish double-ness in all its diversity!

UK breaks up at pace, and people aren’t really ready for it.  And different voices and diversity, 

 

“Not two becomes one, become stronger, and Unite in friendship and unity.” 

The genius of the Good Friday agreement is that “I can be both Irish and British, and you can choose.”  that people can be Irish and British, British or British and Irish. 

 

Edinburgh Book Festival 2022!

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2022 returns

with 600 events, 550 authors, 50 countries – under the banner “All Together Now”.

 

EIBF returns with a full program this year and hopes to recreate that buzz, after the Lockdowns. To build on the hybrid format developed over two years of pandemic – with live, in-person events also available to steam online.

 

For the first time since 2019, nearly all events will be live on stage in Edinburgh and will add a new venue at Central Hall - a 700+ seat theatre space in the heart of the city and a 5 minute walk from the Festival Village at Edinburgh College of Art.

 EIBF has re-located from its Charlotte square site (since 1982) – to save the 120 trees, the festival has been hurting their roots with the amount of foot fall: this has been an ecological decision. The festival’s new home will be the Edinburgh University Future’s building which will offer both enough indoor and outdoor space and a village green space.

This year the festival takes place at the Edinburgh art college Lauriston place.

 

*EIBF director Nick Barley  - “We’ve learned a great deal since 2019 – the world has changed immeasurably with the pandemic and war in Europe – but we’re also beginning to imagine what a better future should look like. Exploring these issues in inspiring conversations with scientists, historians, poets and novelists is exactly where the book festival comes into its own.

 

Ruby Wax

Nile Rodgers & Irvine Welsh

AUTHORS for 2022 – Ali Smith, Alexander McCall Smith, Julian Barnes.

Nobel peace prize winner Maria Ressa, Outlander Diana Gabaldon, linguist Noam Chomsky, director Armando iannucci. Meg Mason and many more.

FM Nicola sturgeon in conversation with Louise Welsh and Brian Cox (of Succession fame)

 

The festival plans to be more inclusive with Stories and Scarm – for all to tell our own stories, such a Syrian refugees. The festival has been encouraging people from all backgrounds. 

PLUS Val McDermid with her new book 89, which charts Scotland history via a thriller;  Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet, her new book set in the Medici Renaissance. 

Douglas Stuart, author of Young Mungo, in conversation with Ian Rankin, 

Music – Martha Wainwright, Jarvis Cocker, Vishti Bunyan, Ricky Ross, Stuart Cosgrove.

Alan Cummings

Also discussions on the role of Europe, impact of war with Ukrainian historian Sarhii Plokky.

**PLUS the large Children’s Book Festival with its

Baillie Gifford program – Julia Donaldson, Cressida Cowell, Michael Morpurgo. And new super heroes, Little Badman and Stunt Boy.

 

'Come together' for conversations with storytellers, musicians, politicians, actors, chefs, illustrators and more this August. Attend live in-person events in Edinburgh or watch events at home, 

**Tickets  https://www.edbookfest.co.uk

 

John Byrne

Ian Rankin

Alexander MacColl Smith

Seamus Heaney