New Literature from Poland

In 1989 the "Iron Curtain" ideologically separating Easten Europe and the Western world was lifted. But since 1989 a new cultural curtain has been unveiled. As a result many in the Western world, including Canada, are completely unaware of the new literature emerging from the former "Eastern Bloc".  InPoland, for instance, many young writers have appeared on the literary scene. Several of these writers are explaining the world beyond eastern Europe, for example Katarzyna Wezyk, who sees Canada as a "post-national" state because of its progressive policies around refugees, the environment and its social safety net, Natasha Goerke, Wojciech Jagielski, Artur Domaslowski, Wojciech Tochman, Przymowich Szcztrek. These writers address universal problems of our time, such as poverty, exclusion, hunger and exploitation. Other writers like Adrzej Stasiuk, Olga Tokarczuk, Doronto Maslowska, Paulina Wilk, and Magdalena Tulli focus more on specifically eastern issues. All these writers exhibit innovative approaches to language and literary form. A rich new tradition of eastern European literature is exploding but if you visit your local library in the GTA, as I did in Mississauga,
you will find only a few and then often not their most recent works.  

Question MORE, Chris!

Alexander Sokolov, investigative reporter detained since 2015
Alexander Tolmachev, journalist sentenced to 9 years in prison
Igor Rudnikov, editor of "Novye Kolesa" in detention since 2017
Alexander Valov, editor of the Site "Blogsochi" in detention since Jan. 2018
Alexey Nazimov, editor of "Tvoya Gazeta" in detention since 2016
Zhalaudi Geriev, journalist sentenced to 3 years in prison
Alexey Kungurov, blogger in detention since 2016

Why aren't these Russian journalists at the World Cup?
Have you heard anything about them on RT (Russia Today)?
They are all in Russian jails. 

At a time when the Putin regime in Russia is engaged in a full-blown propaganda war unprecedented since the “Cold War” of the 1950’s and 1960’s a new presence has emerged in the world of news media. Its name is Russia Today, or RT for short to conceal its origins. 

According to EU vs Disinformation Campaign 

The chief editor of RT (Russia Today), Margarita Simonyan, cannot be blamed for lack of openness about the nature of the outlet whose output she manages on behalf of the Russian government. In her own words, RT is needed “for about the same reason as why the country needs a Defense Ministry.” RT is capable of “conducting information war against the whole Western world,” using “the information weapon,” Simonyan has explained. (January 15, 2018)

Along with its military powers, Russia's use of RT and other media is an aggressive weapon in its information war with the West.  To support this campaign RT has an annual budget of $400 million, with which it has been able to attract former headline voices of the western progressive media such as Lee Camp, Ed Schulz, and Chris Hedges, well-respected and insisive critics of U.S. mainstream politics and culture. Hedges who formally worked for the New York Times and has established  a reputation for fearless investigative reporting, now works for RT America, where he presents an interview show called On Contact. 

RT America is a state-run outlet for the Putin regime which is engaged in all-out campaign to silence its own critics. Most recently, Max Borodin, a Siberian journalist who "fell from the balcony of his apartment". Most notoriously, but by no means the last victim, was an outspoken journalist of the Novaya Gazeta, Anna Politovskaya, who was beaten to death.

In working for RT, without explanation or apology as far as I know, Hedges is betraying his fellow journalists and weakening the credibility of many former allies on the political left.  In doing so he is encouraging a kind of new McCarthyism. Whatever his reasons – and Hedges has been silent about them to date – the damage has been done. To apply to him RT's trademark sign-off slogan, it is time for Chris Hedges to “Question More" of Russia, a country ranked 148 in the 2018 World Press Freedom Report.  That report is annually compiled by the Reporters Without Borders and is based on levels of press pluralism, independence, legal protection and journalist safety. For more see Reporters Without Borders website https://rsf.org/en/