Archive for August 31st, 2010

Here’s an interesting podcast I listened to with Terry Gross interviewing Jane Mayer about the Koch (pronounced ‘coke’ and no relation to former New York mayor Ed Koch) brothers. Apparently they have been funding various politically motivated organisations for decades. They run the second largest privately held firm in the United States (Koch Industries) which produces, amongst many other things, Brawny paper towels. Hence the photo.  Their father (Fred Koch) made his money in crude oil refining and spent some time in the Soviet Union when Stalin was in power.  David Koch was a vice-presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party in the 1980 general election.   He co-owns Koch Industries with his brother Charles.  The company apparently has annual revenues of $98 billion and includes Georgia-Pacific and the Lycra product made by a subsidiary company called Invista.  You can read the original article in The New Yorker here.

Brawny paper towels

You can isten to Gerbrand Bakker’s acceptance speech below. This summer his book ‘The Twin’ won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He takes the opportunity to lament the disappointing points tally of the Dutch entry at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 when it was held in Dublin. The Dutch got a total of 4 points from Austria, and came 23rd out of 25, ahead of Estonia and Lithuania. Towards the end, at around 6:20, he says that instead of talking for another few minutes he will do what seems to be the right thing and plays the song, Waar is de zon? sung by Willeke Alberti.

China Style Dub

Insert your worker’s revolutionary statement here please. And enjoy this dub reworking of propaganda.