Ethnicity and Identity

I have just re-read Gezim Alpion's Encounters with Civilization and written a review. Alpion has some very interesting things to say about ethnicity, identity and location. He is an cosmopolitan Albanian who has single handedly decided to ressurect the reputation of Albanians after their collective trashing in English popular culture and the tabloid press. He hasn't yet look at the USA but should. In Wag the Dog (D: Levinson, 1997) war is manufactured against Albania simply to deflect press attention from the Presidents sexual activity. Why Albania a character in the film asks. Because it is small, obscure, powerless and nobody knows where it is, was the reply. Good sociology always looks at the margins to illuminate the centre and this is precisely what Alpion does. With regard to the Wag the Dog; it certainly resonated in the Clinton era as it prefigured the Lewinsky affair. Who said politics doesn't imitate art?