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Summary
Summary
Just in time for the elections, Arundhati Roy offers us this lucid briefing on what the Bush administration really means when it talks about "compassionate conservativism" and "the war on terror." Roy has characteristic fun in these essays, skewering the hypocrisy of the more-democratic-than-thou clan. But above all, she aims to remind us that we hold the essence of power and the foundation of genuine democracy--the power of the people to counter their self-appointed leaders' tyranny.
First delivered as fiery speeches to sold-out crowds, together these essays are a call to arms against "the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire." Focusing on the disastrous US occupation of Iraq, Roy urges us to recognize--and apply--the scope of our power, exhorting US dockworkers to refuse to load materials war-bound, reservists to reject their call-ups, activists to organize boycotts of Halliburton, and citizens of other nations to collectively resist being deputized as janitor-soldiers to clear away the detritus of the US invasion.
Roy's Guide to Empire also offers us sharp theoretical tools for understanding the New American Empire--a dangerous paradigm, Roy argues here, that is entirely distinct from the imperialism of the British or even the New World Order of George Bush, the elder. She examines how resistance movements build power, using examples of nonviolent organizing in South Africa, India, and the United States. Deftly drawing the thread through ostensibly disconnected issues and arenas, Roy pays particular attention to the parallels between globalization in India, the devastation in Iraq, and the deplorable conditions many African Americans, in particular, must still confront.
With Roy as our "guide," we may not be able to relax from the Sisyphean task of stopping the U.S. juggernaut, but at least we are assured that the struggle for global justice is fortified by Roy's hard-edged brilliance.
Author Notes
Suzanna Arundhati Roy, 1961 - Suzanna Roy was born November 24, 1961. Her parents divorced and she lived with her mother Mary Roy, a social activist, in Aymanam. Her mother ran an informal school named Corpus Christi and it was there Roy developed her intellectual abilities, free from the rules of formal education. At the age of 16, she left home and lived on her own in a squatter's colony in Delhi. She went six years without seeing her mother.
She attended Delhi School of Architecture where she met and married fellow student Gerard Da Cunha. Neither had a great interest in architecture so they quit school and went to Goa. They stayed there for seven months and returned broke. Their marriage lasted only four years. Roy had taken a job at the National Institute of Urban Affairs and, while cycling down a road; film director Pradeep Krishen offered her a small role as a tribal bimbo in Massey Saab. She then received a scholarship to study the restoration of monuments in Italy. During her eight months in Italy, she realized she was a writer. Now married to Krishen, they planned a 26-episode television epic called Banyan Tree. They didn't shoot enough footage for more than four episodes so the serial was scrapped. She wrote the screenplay for the film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones and Electric Moon.
Her next piece caused controversy. It was an article that criticized Shekar Kapur's film Bandit Queen, which was about Phoolan Devi. She accused Kapur of misrepresenting Devi and it eventually became a court case. Afterwards, finished with film, she concentrated on her writing, which became the novel "A God of Small Things." It is based on what it was like growing up in Kerala. The novel contains mild eroticism and again, controversy found Roy having a public interest petition filed to remove the last chapter because of the description of a sexual act. It took Roy five years to write "A God of Small Things" and was released April 4, 1997 in Delhi. It received the Booker prize in London in 1997 and has topped the best-seller lists around the world. Roy is the first non-expatriate Indian author and the first Indian woman to win the Booker prize.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (1)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Those who fear the dry and impenetrable prose of many political essays need have no such reservations with this selection. Indian author Roy (The God of Small Things) brings a novelistic readability and immediacy to her impassioned critiques of imperialism, the corporate media and their "neo-liberal project"-what she describes as "the medium of those who have power and money." Her unequivocally critical look at the Bush administration's policy in Iraq will likely lead American readers to label her as either brilliantly astute or strongly anti-American. Still, she carefully differentiates between governments and their people. In "Instant Mix Imperial Democracy," she congratulates Americans for standing up to their government: "Hundreds of thousands of you have survived the relentless propaganda you have been subjected to, and are actively fighting your own government. In the ultra-patriotic climate that prevails in the United States, that's as brave as any Iraqi or Afghan or Palestinian fighting for his or her Homeland." In the same talk, Roy delivers a scathing critique of the current state of democracy: "The project of corporate globalization has cracked the code of democracy. Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities on sale to the highest bidder." In addition to observing problems; Roy suggests non-violent solutions-boycotts, protests and open discussion. Regardless of whether one agrees with her ideas, Roy crafts articulate and convincing arguments that deserve their place in any debate on globalization, democracy or Iraq.(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
| Peace Is War | p. 1 |
| Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy | p. 41 |
| When the Saints Go Marching Out | p. 69 |
| In Memory of Shankar Guha Niyogi | p. 79 |
| Do Turkeys Enjoy Thanksgiving? | p. 83 |
| How Deep Shall We Dig? | p. 95 |
| Glossary | p. 119 |
| Notes | p. 123 |
| Index | p. 147 |
| About Arundhati Roy | p. 157 |
