GUEST: Helena Cobban, a British writer and researcher on international relations and the Middle East, will talk about the company she founded, Just World Books.
There are people in the media exploring ways to keep uncensored information available to the public. Helena Cobban worked as a Middle East correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, the go to newspaper in the US if you wanted to read news articles unfiltered by the big corporations or your government.
Book publishing seems to be a continuation of her efforts. Gaza is off limits to the US mainstream media. Why not a Gaza cookbook that shows Palestinian culture and cuisine? Can one read a book about family cooking and then look the other way while Israel slaughters 500 Palestinian children in Gaza? Our politicians are paid by the Israel Lobby to ignore war crimes. Ordinary citizens who read cookbooks are much more apt to start a moral debate about apartheid.
Also fascinating is the technology that allows for the instant printing of books like this. Technology seems to keep one step ahead of the censors and the secret police. Or is it the human spirit that keeps reasserting itself?