Cruz: Elephant Cemetery: the UN in Lebanon7 Sep 2007(03-09-2007) The main ideological battlefield in the Middle East is Lebanon. However much United States media cover the situation in Iraq (and one should remember the only thing they worry about is the number of their dead soldiers), that country is not the one where the region’s future is at stake, but rather a small Mediterranean country, also Arab : Lebanon.
Rosen: Soft Crimes Against Democracy6 Sep 2007Disgraceful, shameful, illegal, and yes, dangerous. These are words that come to mind every time the Bush administration makes yet another attempt to consolidate executive power, while wrapping itself in secrecy and deception.
Burchill: No reason to assume she’ll be right, mate6 Sep 2007THOSE who have much at stake in the current stock market shakedown employ an interesting, if self-defeating strategy to mask a financial system that seems crisis-prone. The subprime mortgage meltdown in the US triggered a liquidity crisis in markets that are not even exposed to its bad debts or irresponsible lending practices, including Australia.
Barnes: Activists young and old gather to think outside the bomb6 Sep 2007In her soft, earnest tone, Leimomi Kamiya explains to a wide-eyed audience that many Marshall Island natives have little knowledge about the effects of massive radiation contamination in their country, deposited by over 100 United States and United Kingdom nuclear bomb tests. “It’s sad when you personally experience the bomb and you don’t have the knowledge or know what you can do about it,” said the seventeen-year-old.
Ghosn: What’s next for Nahr al-Bared6 Sep 2007Victory celebrations are dominating the Lebanese airwaves for the foreseeable future and presidential election “campaigns” here are in full swing. The issue of reconstructing the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp will never see the light of day in any of the Lebanese media outlets, whether pro-government or opposition—just like the humanitarian crisis at Baddawi refugee camp has failed to capture any front page headlines over the past three months.
Susskind: Hurricane Felix’s First Responders5 Sep 2007A 50-year-old Miskito woman named Rose Cunningham, was the early warning system for dozens of impoverished Nicaraguan communities that took a direct hit from Hurricane Felix on Tuesday. Rose, who directs a small community development organization in the nearby town of Waspam, had the benefit of Internet access the day before the storm hit the country’s North Atlantic Coast.
Evans: Project for a Participatory Society – UK5 Sep 2007Doherty: What is the Project for a Participatory Society – UK? How did it come about?Evans: The Project for a Participatory Society is a UK based initiative started in 2006. It was set up to facilitate the coming together of UK based social justice activists who, along with others in different parts of the world, are interested in developing and organising around participatory vision and strategy as discussed on a title=”http://www.
Seabrook: A rich man’s world5 Sep 2007The most puzzling aspect of the official response to social evils in rich societies is its superficiality. “Remedies” proposed for under-age drinking are a characteristic expression of this: raise the drinking age, make drinking more expensive, prevent the sale of cheap drink in supermarkets and petrol stations.
Palast: New Orleans two years after5 Sep 2007[Thurs August 30] “They wanted them poor niggers out of there and they ain’t had no intention to allow it to be reopened to no poor niggers, you know? And that’s just the bottom line.” It wasn’t a pretty statement.
Goodman: From the Bayou to Baghdad: Mission Accomplished?5 Sep 2007During the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, several dozen public-housing residents and activists marched to the headquarters of the Housing Authority of New Orleans. The marchers occupied the offices for hours.
Zirin: Cleaning Up After the Orioles4 Sep 2007Finally something newsworthy is happening at Camden Yards in September. No, it’s not the Baltimore Orioles limping toward another lackluster finish at their ornate ballpark, famous for selling old-time baseball nostalgia at high-end prices.
Engelhardt: Seven Years in Hell4 Sep 2007On August 22nd, breaking into his Crawford vacation, the President addressed the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, giving what is already known as his “Vietnam speech.” That day, George W.
Lemoine: Up in arms4 Sep 2007United States armaments are pouring into the Middle East. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced on 2 August that deliveries over the next 10 years will reach $62bn.
Lendman: Middle East Madness4 Sep 2007Administration rhetoric is heated and the dominant media keep trumpeting it. It signals war with Iran of the “shock and awe” kind – intensive, massive and maybe with nuclear weapons.
Ali: Secularism and Islam: the Turkish experience4 Sep 2007RECENT political developments in Turkey have prompted an outpouring of comment to the effect that the re-election of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), commonly described as Islamist, and the success of its presidential candidate, Abdullah Gul, proves that Islam and democracy are not mutually incompatible. That may be a point worth making, although chances are that those who have hitherto been convinced otherwise – be they Muslim obscurantists, Arab potentates or inveterate Islamophobes – will remain unconvinced by the Turkish example.
Weisbrot: Needed for Labor Day: Something to Celebrate4 Sep 2007Another Labor Day is here and American workers are still waiting for something to celebrate. How about a wage increase? Well, the average real wage today is just where it was nearly five years ago, in December 2002, despite the fact that our economy and productivity have been growing the whole time.
Cohen: Hillary Rolls On: Are Netroots a Paper Tiger?4 Sep 2007As a longtime progressive tired of ineffective protesting, I’ve watched in glee as MoveOn has amassed political power by Webbing a few million of us and our dollars together. I’m a proud MoveOn member, even though I disagree sometimes with its leaders (mostly over too-cozy relations with top Democrats).
Polo Democratico Alternativo: Regarding death squads, vigilantes, and paramilitary politics in Colombia3 Sep 2007[Bogotá, August 20, 2007] Every Colombian expresses public support for the cessation of violent acts which bloody the nation. There is also apparent consensus that restorative justice must be the foundation to any peace process, that victims should be afforded reparations, and that those involved should tell the whole truth about their acts of violence as a pre-requisite to becoming beneficiaries of society’s generosity.
Barker: Do Capitalists Fund Revolutions? (Part 1 of 2)3 Sep 2007To date capitalists have financially supported two types of revolution: they have funded the neoliberal revolution to “take the risk out of democracy”,[1] and they have supported/hijacked popular revolutions (or in some cases manufactured ‘revolutions’) in countries of geostrategic importance (i.e.
Christoff: Battle of the Ballot Box, Part 13 Sep 2007MANILA—Across the Philippine archipelago, millions of voters cast ballots in the 2007 mid-term elections in May while a wave of political violence swept the country, including multiple assassinations and fire-bombings of polling stations. According to the Philippine National Police, approximately 130 people lost their lives during a national vote widely viewed as a test to the political legitimacy of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, an important US ally in the Asia-Pacific region.
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