November/December 2006 Issue

Bare Stripped Naked

Bettie Serveert. <i>Minty Fresh</i>.

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Fronted by the elegant Carol van Dyk, this durable Dutch group has been making sad, sublime pop since its classic early-’90s debut album, Palomine. While the Betties weren’t overly raucous in the first place, Bare Stripped Naked (packaged with a live DVD) takes the unplugged route, emphasizing the inspired songwriting of van Dyk and guitarist Peter Visser, who combine limpid melodies and tart lyrics to brew a potent angst cocktail. “Hell is other people / To hell with other people,” van Dyk sighs at one point, going on to exclaim, “God only knows where I want to be / And he knows that it isn’t with you.” Later, she conjectures that a sleeping, smiling lover is dreaming of “how to get away.” Reading her lines calmly, suggesting nothing better could be expected, van Dyk delivers a quietly devastating indictment of romance guaranteed to rattle all but the most determined optimist.

 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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