Articles by America
We found 241 results.
Germany Is Bluffing on Greece
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera America,
15 Jun 2015
Berlin is not going to force Athens out of the eurozone anytime soon. The people primarily responsible for Greece’s deep and prolonged depression and high unemployment are pushing policies that would extend the crisis and worsen its impact on those who have suffered the most.
→ read full articleObama’s Cuba Legacy May Run through Venezuela
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera America,
8 Jun 2015
The Cubans made it clear to Obama that normalization of relations would be limited if Washington was unwilling to normalize relations with Venezuela. The president has taken steps to normalize relations with Caracas but faces resistance at home.
→ read full articleWorld’s First Ocean System Targeting Plastic Pollution to Launch in 2016
Renee Lewis – Al Jazeera America,
1 Jun 2015
29 May 2015 – The world’s first system designed to rid the oceans of plastic pollution will be deployed near Japan in 2016, with the aim of eventually capturing half of the plastic found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a large concentration of marine debris located between Hawaii and California.
→ read full articleThe Militarization of Development Aid
Rafia Zakaria – Al Jazeera America,
1 Jun 2015
How War Makes USAID a Dirty Word – Most of the initial criticism focused on [new head of USAID] Gayle Smith’s close relationships with various African despots and her belief that aid is the vehicle for obtaining foreign policy concessions. Humanitarian aid must not bear hidden agendas, and accepting assistance should not come at the cost of cowing to imperialism.
→ read full articleOrganic Is Going Mainstream
Anna Lappé – Al Jazeera America,
18 May 2015
Food-Industry-Funded Spin on Health and Sustainability Is Losing Traction
→ read full articleYarmouk and the Failures of Neutral Humanitarianism
Brent Eng & José Ciro Martínez – Al Jazeera America,
11 May 2015
Aid agencies should acknowledge their role in exacerbating the Syrian crisis. By bringing external resources into life-or-death situations characterized by scarcity, aid agencies have indirectly exacerbated the very situation that they are trying to ameliorate.
→ read full articleBrazil Passes Femicide Law to Curb Domestic Violence
Donna Bowater & Priscilla Moraes – Al Jazeera America,
11 May 2015
Legislation defines gender-based killings and sets out tougher punishments for attackers.
→ read full articleCountries around World Are Revoking Freedom of Assembly
Willie Osterweil – Al Jazeera America,
11 May 2015
Faced with mounting unrest and unwilling to offer reforms, democratic governments are rolling back traditional rights.
→ read full articleWorldwide Nuclear Modernization Programs
Federation of American Scientists,
11 May 2015
Hans Kristensen, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Nuclear Information Project, at the United Nations on April 28 [2015] examined in depth the “modernization” programs of Russia and the United States, and provided overviews of the nuclear weapon activities of the other seven nuclear-armed nations (United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea).
→ read full articleFeds Are Using Fear, Not Facts, in Anti-Encryption Crusade
Joshua Kopstein – Al Jazeera America,
4 May 2015
Federal agencies say encryption will doom us, but they’re already using spy tools that circumvent it. That law enforcement groups continue to ignore a broad consensus of experts speaks to how desperately their position relies on scaremongering and distortions.
→ read full articleNine Things You Might Want to Know about the Massive Pacific Trade Deal
E. Tammy Kim – Al Jazeera America,
4 May 2015
All this trade talk can seem an impenetrable thicket of arcane economics and alphabet soup. Here we provide answers to some basic questions.
→ read full articleDon’t Arm Pakistan’s Teachers
Maham Javaid – Al Jazeera America,
13 Apr 2015
Distributing guns and weapons training to students and school staffers is the wrong way to fight terrorism. Requiring teachers to defend their schools against attack while awaiting security forces reveals the government’s utter failure to develop effective policies.
→ read full articleDestroying the Greek Economy in Order to Save It
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera America,
13 Apr 2015
Blackmail is actually an understatement of what the troika is doing to Greece. It is trying to harm the Greek economy in order to pressure the new Greek government to agree to its demands. Recent European Central Bank actions are not about money or fiscal sustainability but about politics. European authorities are using dirty tactics to bring Greece to heel.
→ read full articleGrassroots Movement Blocks Water Privatization in Mexico
Alfredo Acedo, Americas Program – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Mar 2015
With this victory of grassroots mobilization, legislators loyal to the Peña Nieto government have been temporarily prevented from formalizing the privatization of water, which would have given large companies broad control of the precious resource, to set rates and boost their profits.
→ read full articleCorporations That Benefit People and the Planet
Mary Turck – Al Jazeera America,
16 Mar 2015
Though they are still for-profit businesses, public benefit companies focus on environmental and social benefits. B Corps offer an alternative to capitalism run rampant – a choice to make profit just one of many corporate goals rather than the only or primary goal.
→ read full articleThe Time for a New Economics Is at Hand
Julie Matthaei – Al Jazeera America,
16 Mar 2015
The crises we now face illustrate the limits of neoclassical orthodoxy. With capitalism beset by multiple interconnected crises, the hegemony of neoliberalism appears to have peaked.
→ read full articleLet Clowns Be Clowns and Elephants Be Elephants
Lori Gruen – Al Jazeera America,
16 Mar 2015
Ringling Bros. finally bows to public distaste for its exploitation of highly intelligent, social animals.
→ read full articleUN Expert Slams US as Only Nation to Imprison Kids for Life without Parole
Natasja Sheriff – Al Jazeera America,
16 Mar 2015
A sentence of life without parole means life and death in prison — a practice considered cruel and inhumane punishment for juveniles under both international and U.S. law.
→ read full articleWikimedia vs. NSA: Challenge to Mass Surveillance under the FISA Amendments Act
ACLU-American Civil Liberties Union – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Mar 2015
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are: Wikimedia Foundation, The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, PEN American Center, Global Fund for Women, The Nation Magazine, The Rutherford Institute, and The Washington Office on Latin America.
→ read full articleMyanmar’s [Burma’s] Buddhist Terrorism Problem
Usaid Siddiqui – Al Jazeera America,
23 Feb 2015
18 Feb 2015 – The country’s Rohingya minority is one of the most persecuted groups in the world. Burmese activists and leaders such as Suu Kyi must stand up for the human rights of the Rohingya community.
→ read full articleBan Greyhound Racing Now
Lori Gruen – Al Jazeera America,
23 Feb 2015
Empathy for animals demands an end to the practice. When people treat greyhounds as disposable things, they are not only hurting the dogs but also furthering a culture of cruelty and indifference toward animals.
→ read full articleDon’t Blame Greece for the EU’s Woes
Stephen Kinzer – Al Jazeera America,
16 Feb 2015
The pan-European project is waning because of its inherent flaws. The deepest flaw in the EU concept was the fantasy that Europeans would steadily become less nationalistic.
→ read full articleJunk the Phrase ‘Human Capital’
Branko Milanovic – Al Jazeera America,
16 Feb 2015
It has added nothing but conceptual confusion for the last 50 years. The term “capital” should be used as it is used in common parlance and as it was used during more than 200 years of economics: for property distinct from one’s labor.
→ read full articleMy Gitmo Client’s Interpreter Worked for the CIA
Ramzi Kassem – Al Jazeera America,
16 Feb 2015
Latest embarrassing incident demonstrates that military tribunals cannot mete out justice to detainees. This revelation should undercut any trust the public retains in the integrity of the military commissions system at Guantánamo.
→ read full articleGreece to the Troika: ‘You Don’t Own Us!’
Lynn Stuart Parramore – Al Jazeera America,
2 Feb 2015
Alarmists have warned that Syriza’s victory will ignite instability and economic disaster, but that threat sounds hollow to a country already laid to waste by flawed policies. While it is true that Greece is a small country of 10 million people that represents a mere 2.5 percent of Europe’s economy, the elections could have big consequences well beyond the country’s borders.
→ read full articleCan GMOs Save the World?
Anna Lappé – Al Jazeera America,
5 Jan 2015
Monsanto Claims That Biotech Can Feed the Planet. Here’s Why It Won’t
→ read full articleShame Is Good. Shame Is Right. Shame Works
Lynn Stuart Parramore – Al Jazeera America,
29 Dec 2014
Shaming may not bring America’s corporate Scrooges immediately around to a Dickensian redemption, but it can play a key role in creating a societal consensus that certain behaviors are indeed disgraceful — and that’s a start. No shame, no blame, you might say.
→ read full articleMerry Christmas: UN Declares Arms Trade Treaty to Go Into Effect Dec. 24 [2014]
Joe Wolverton, II, J.D. – The New American,
29 Dec 2014
On its official website, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (yes, that’s really a thing and yes, it is housed right here in the United States) announced that the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) “will enter into force on 24 December 2014.” Merry Christmas!
→ read full articleHacked Corporations Don’t Deserve Our Sympathy
Joshua Kopstein – Al Jazeera America,
29 Dec 2014
There is no cyber Pearl Harbor. Sony has been falling on its own sword for a long time.
→ read full articleNew York Fracking Ban Reverberates Nationally
Peter Moskowitz – Al Jazeera America,
22 Dec 2014
Activists say the ban will embolden the anti-fracking movement in several states.
→ read full articleThinking Outside the Oslo Box
Mark LeVine & Mathias Mossberg – Al Jazeera America,
8 Dec 2014
The Oslo Accord has failed to bring justice to Palestinians or peace and security to Israelis. As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once again spirals toward large-scale violence, the United States’ policymaking establishment is finally coming to grips with the demise of the Oslo peace process.
→ read full articleUS Joins Somalia and South Sudan in Failing to Support Child Rights
Arjun Sethi – Al Jazeera America,
24 Nov 2014
25 years later, as the world celebrates Universal Children’s Day, only three countries bear the shame of not having ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Somalia, South Sudan and the United States.
→ read full articleBrave Little Denmark Leads War against Coal
Paul Hockenos – Al Jazeera America,
24 Nov 2014
Danish energy policies offer model even more admirable than Germany’s. A coal-free Denmark would be a beacon not just for the rest of Europe but also for a world gradually coming to grips with the reality of climate change.
→ read full articleBehind The Barbarism: Misreading Online Militant Magazines
Rafia Zakaria – Al Jazeera America,
24 Nov 2014
In focusing narrowly on ISIL’s barbarities, the media are missing crucial insights on the group’s evolution. The proliferating militant magazines offer rare glimpses into the ascent of militancy, their appeal to Western youth and shifting political realities in the Muslim world.
→ read full articleCreditors Use New Devices to Put Squeeze on Debtors
Jathan Sadowski & Frank A. Pasquale – Al Jazeera America,
10 Nov 2014
Technologies of control promise dystopian future if public doesn’t fight back. The device allows lenders to track and monitor the location of the vehicle — both in real time and over time — and provides them with the ability to remotely shut off vehicles if, say, the borrower falls behind on payments (sometimes by just a few days) or drives outside an approved area.
→ read full articleUN Launches Global Campaign to End Female Genital Mutilation
Voice of America – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
30 Oct 2014 – The U.N. secretary-general has launched a global media campaign aimed at putting an end to female genital mutilation.
→ read full articleThe Decline of Journalism from Watergate to ‘Dark Alliance’
Nick Schou – Al Jazeera America,
27 Oct 2014
What if Ben Bradlee had overseen Gary Webb’s investigation into the CIA, Contras and crack cocaine? “We are trying to follow in Gary Webb’s footsteps not only because the reporting he did was so important and fearless, but how vindictive the way the CIA and media reacted underscores how urgent it is to shine a light on what they are doing.” –Glenn Greenwald
→ read full articleThe Case for a Europe of Regions
Paul Hockenos – Al Jazeera America,
20 Oct 2014
The critical lessons that Europe’s political elite would do well to take away from Scotland and Catalonia should be the same as the ones that invigorated European integration from the beginning: more democracy, fewer borders. There’s a middle road between out-and-out separatism and rigid centralized states, even if finding it will be time-consuming and contentious.
→ read full articleGermany’s Energy Model Can Save the World
Paul Hockenos – Al Jazeera America,
6 Oct 2014
The US and China can switch to renewables now – and prosper from it. The shift to citizen-owned energy in Germany has dethroned the big utilities that for so long put the brakes on anything that looked like a threat to fossil fuels.
→ read full articleHard Choices: Hillary Clinton Admits Role in Honduran Coup Aftermath
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera America,
6 Oct 2014
Clinton’s embrace of far-right narrative on Latin America is part of electoral strategy.
→ read full articleObama Inches US Closer to Accepting Land Mine Ban
Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Laureate – Al Jazeera America,
29 Sep 2014
Land mines are illegal, indiscriminate weapons that can kill long after the end of armed conflicts, which means that those affected by this lethal detritus of war are civilians.
→ read full articleThe New (Religious) Face of Civil Disobedience
Sanford Levinson – Al Jazeera America,
22 Sep 2014
A resurgent sanctuary movement may complicate the precepts of the Christian right. Conservatives and liberals might find themselves rethinking some of their views about the meaning of religious freedom and the responsibilities of good citizenship.
→ read full articleWhy Latin American Leaders Are Standing Up to Israel
Laura Carlsen – Al Jazeera America,
18 Aug 2014
A Latin America freed from U.S. dictums has the capacity, if not to isolate a wayward state, at least to send a powerful message of opprobrium. Hopefully, other nations will see the example and follow suit.
→ read full articleThe Uphill Battle to Hold US Corporations Accountable for Abuses Abroad
Lauren Carasik – Al Jazeera America,
11 Aug 2014
Big companies employ their considerable resources to invoke the protections of international law when it suits them, taking advantage of free trade agreements that grant corporations the right to sue governments. Yet they aggressively resist efforts to impose accountability across borders.
→ read full articleSecrecy News – Identity Intelligence and Special Operations
Steven Aftergood - Federation of American Scientists,
4 Aug 2014
“Identity intelligence” is a relatively new intelligence construct that refers to the analysis and use of personal information, including biometric and forensic data among others, to identify intelligence targets of interest and to deny them anonymity.
→ read full articleStudy: Diet, Exercise May Prevent Dementia
Gary Stix – Scientific American,
28 Jul 2014
New research suggests a multi-pronged approach may be most effective in preserving brain health long-term.
→ read full articleBolivia Makes Child Labor Legal from Age 10
The Associated Press – Al Jazeera America,
21 Jul 2014
Child labor has been common in a nation that ranks as one of the poorest in the Americas.
→ read full articleUS-German Relations Reach Breaking Point
John Batchelor – Al Jazeera America,
14 Jul 2014
Berlin holds the whip hand in the EU. The way Berlin goes, Paris, London, Rome and the other NATO members will follow. Berlin’s inclination since well before the Ukraine crisis was to move closer to Moscow in the “Common Eurasian home” narrative.
→ read full articleAbsolutely Nothing: A Veteran’s Savage Indictment of the Iraq War
Jim Wright, Americans Against the Tea Party – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jul 2014
The same old motley cast of characters, the warhawks and the chickenhawks and the billionaires and the simple-minded saber-rattlers and the same old hate-filled pundits, they just can’t wait to jump back into Iraq…. Why? Is it to end terrorism? Is it to enforce peace at the muzzle of a gun? Is it it to make defense contractors rich? Is it for jobs? Or is it for magic flying bunnies who shoot rainbows and cheap gasoline out of their … to the sound of Yankee Doodle Dandy?
→ read full articleUS Signals Intention to Eliminate Its Land Mines, Join Treaty
Renee Lewis – Al Jazeera America,
7 Jul 2014
The U.S. military will not be expanding its land mine stockpile and aims to eventually eliminate its entire supply so that it can accede to the Ottawa Convention, a 15-year-old international treaty on mines, the White House announced Friday [27 Jun 2014].
→ read full articleThey Knew Our Secrets. One Year Later, We Know Theirs.
American Civil Liberties Union – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jun 2014
One year ago, the world had never heard of Edward Snowden, and we knew very little about the breathtaking scope of U.S. government surveillance. One year later, we know more than ever before about our government’s mass surveillance apparatus. We now have the power to rein it in.
→ read full articleA Message From Edward Snowden, One Year Later
Edward Snowden – American Civil Liberties Union,
9 Jun 2014
4 Jun 2014 – Below is an email ACLU supporters received from Edward Snowden this morning, one year to the day since The Guardian broke the first in a series of revelations exposing the breathtaking scope of U.S. government surveillance.
→ read full articleRussia, China Sign Deal to Bypass U.S. Dollar
Michael Pizzi – Al Jazeera America,
26 May 2014
In a blow to U.S. global financial hegemony, Russia and China on Tuesday [20 May 20114] signed a deal to pay each other in domestic currencies, followed by the announcement on Wednesday of a $100 billion annual trade on natural gas, 10 years in the making.
→ read full articleWhales: Their Emerging Right to Life
Anthony D'Amato (with Sudhir K. Chopra) - American Journal of International Law,
19 May 2014
Writers of science fiction have often speculated about what it would be like to discover, on a planet in outer space, a much higher form of intelligence. How would we react to those creatures? Would we be so fearful of them that we would try to kill them? Or would we welcome the opportunity to attempt to understand their language and culture?
→ read full articleChevron Uses Deep Pockets to Win Ecuador Legal Battle
Lauren Carasik – Al Jazeera America,
19 May 2014
Chevron’s bid to embolden transnational corporations to use their deep pockets to thwart justice underestimates the tenacity and resourcefulness of their opposition.
→ read full articleMultinational Corporations Play Key Role in Qatar Labor Abuses
Arezo Yazd – Al Jazeera America,
19 May 2014
While many cited the Qatari government’s responsibility for labor-related abuses that resulted in over 500 deaths of Indian migrant workers since 2012, few mention the importance of corporate responsibility, primarily in light of construction for World Cup 2022.
→ read full articleExclusive: Emails Reveal Close Google Relationship with NSA
Jason Leopold – Al Jazeera America,
12 May 2014
6 May 2014 – Email exchanges between NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander and Google executives Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt suggest a far cozier working relationship than was implied by Silicon Valley brass after last year’s revelations about NSA spying.
→ read full articleWhy 21st Century Capitalism Can’t Last
Bhaskar Sunkara – Al Jazeera America,
28 Apr 2014
The response to French economist Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” has been surprising, to say the least. Though the Amazon best-seller is well written and artfully translated from French by Arthur Goldhammer, the 696-page text is filled with enough charts and footnotes to occupy experts for months.
→ read full articleMarshall Islands Sues Nuclear Powers for Failure on Disarmament
The Associated Press – Al Jazeera America,
28 Apr 2014
“I personally see it as kind of David and Goliath, except that there are no slingshots involved,” said David Krieger, president of the California-based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Krieger is acting as a consultant in the case. There are hopes that other countries will join the legal effort, he said.
→ read full articleChile Derails ‘Monsanto Law’ That Would Privatize Seeds
Asha DuMonthier - New America Media,
31 Mar 2014
This month, rural women, indigenous communities and farmers in Chile found themselves on the winning end of a long-fought battle against a bill that had come to be known by many in this country as simply, the “Monsanto Law.”
→ read full articleAmerica’s Torture Doctors
Philip Giraldi – The American Conservative,
24 Mar 2014
For me one of the most horrifying revelations about the torture carried out by the CIA at its black sites, and the military at its prisons, was that medical doctors not only stood by to monitor the process but were also involved in providing advice to make the torture both mentally and physically more effective.
→ read full articleThe UN Is Not Above the Law
Lauren Carasik @ajam – Al Jazeera America,
10 Mar 2014
The US should support accountability claim for the cholera epidemic in Haiti.
→ read full articleWorld’s Largest Grid Operator Reveals Why Increased Wind Energy Means Increased Savings
Michael Goggin, American Wind Energy Association – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Mar 2014
The largest grid operator in the world, serving 60 million customers, issued the final results of a major wind integration study on Monday [3 Mar 2014] and they are even better than the preliminary results.
→ read full articleGigabytes Gone Wild
Neil Richards and Jonathan King – Al Jazeera America,
3 Mar 2014
Big data has outpaced our legal system’s ability to control it — we need a new ethics for a new digital age.
→ read full articleChina Issues Retaliatory Report on US Human Rights
Voice of America – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Mar 2014
February 28, 2014 – China has issued a report documenting alleged human rights abuses in the United States after an annual State Department global rights survey strongly criticized Beijing.
→ read full articleOld Testament Armed Forces
Philip Giraldi – The American Conservative,
24 Feb 2014
Religious zealotry runs rampant in the U.S. military, and among those wishing to deploy it. The connection between America’s wars with the more fundamentalist forms of Christianity in the US is striking. Opinion polls suggest that the more religiously conservative one is, the more one will support overseas wars or even war crimes.
→ read full articleIsrael Jittery over Global Boycotts
Dalia Hatuqa – Al Jazeera America,
24 Feb 2014
But never has the issue of boycotts caused so much vexation inside Israel’s corridors of power. Israeli politicians have been trading barbs about who is fueling the situation.
→ read full articleUN Claims Uruguay Not Allowed to End Marijuana Prohibition
Alex Newman, New American – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2013
UN narcotics bureaucrats, whose generous tax-funded salaries depend on the perpetuation of the war on various plants and substances, have responded with outrage and concern. The controversial global body is now under fire after claiming that Uruguay’s recent decision to end marijuana prohibition violates “international law.”
→ read full articleResolution on Academic Boycott of Israel
American Studies Association – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Dec 2013
It is resolved that the American Studies Association endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. It is also resolved that the ASA supports the protected rights of students and scholars everywhere to engage in research and public speaking about Israel-Palestine and in support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement.
→ read full articleStatement from Edward Snowden
ACLU-American Civil Liberties Union – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Nov 2013
The German magazine Der Spiegel published a statement Sunday [3 Nov 2013] from Edward Snowden that it translated from English to German. Snowden has provided the ACLU with the original English text.
→ read full articleBreaking Up Is Hard to Do
Silvio Waisbord – Americas Quarterly,
4 Nov 2013
Tackling Latin America’s media empires is critical for the health of democracies.
→ read full articleIs Brazil the New Regional Champion of Democracy?
Prof. Oliver Stuenkel – Americas Quarterly,
4 Nov 2013
Don’t confuse Brasília’s stepped-up profile with U.S.-style democracy promotion.
→ read full articleCarter, Elders Call for End to Burma Violence
Voice of America – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Sep 2013
Jimmy Carter and other former world leaders known as “The Elders” have called on Burma to end violence against the country’s minority Muslim population. Before ending a three day visit to Burma in Rangoon Thursday [Sep 26, 2013], the former U.S. president said the problem cannot be ignored.
→ read full articleWhat Is the Obama-Backed Free Syrian Army?
Alex Newman – New American,
23 Sep 2013
The outfit’s main selling point appears to be that, as opposed to the more effective fighting forces in Syria, the Free Syrian Army is not technically al-Qaeda. But what is the Free Syrian Army, really? Virtually everyone agrees that it is dominated by Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood and various other hardline Salafist groups known for violently seeking sharia law and strict enforcement of their interpretation of Islamic doctrine.
→ read full article
Fukushima Radiation Leakage Still Going On
CCTV America – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Aug 2013
Anchor Anand Naidoo asks radiation expert Dr. Janette Sherman why the leakage is still going on at Fukushima — and if it will imperil other countries.
→ read full articleThe Left vs. the Liberal Media
Neil Clark – The American Conservative,
20 May 2013
Media Lens Debunks the BBC’s Humanitarian Interventionists
→ read full articleEvidence Shows [NATO Supported] Syrian Rebels Behind Chemical Attack
Raven Clabough – The New American,
1 Apr 2013
27 Mar 2013 – Reports of a chemical weapon attack in Syria’s Aleppo Province last week provoked leaders and politicians, particularly in the West, to advocate more fiercely for the overthrow of the Assad regime, despite the vague details surrounding the attack. Current data seem to suggest, however, that it was not government forces behind the attack, but rebel forces.
→ read full articleHow the Media Sanitize Honduras’s Brutal Regime
Keane Bhatt – North American Congress on Latin America-NACLA,
11 Mar 2013
On the evening of Saturday, September 22 [2012], human rights lawyer Antonio Trejo stepped outside a wedding ceremony to take a phone call. Standing in the church parking lot he was shot six times by unknown assailants. In this insulated world, Honduran victims of economic hardship and state terror remain invisible. Pinochet, the original administrator of shock therapy, distilled the insouciance of today’s intellectual and media culture when, in 1979, he remarked, “I trust the people all right; but they’re not yet ready.”
→ read full articleLords of Disorder: Billions for Wall Street, Sacrifice for Everyone Else
Richard Eskow, Campaign for America’s Future – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Mar 2013
We’re collecting nothing from the big banks in return for our generosity. Instead we’re demanding sacrifice from the elderly, the disabled, the poor, the young, the middle class – pretty much everybody, in fact, who isn’t “too big to fail.”
→ read full articleResource Nationalism: Beyond Ideology
Hal Weitzman – Americas Quarterly,
11 Feb 2013
The hemisphere revives an old policy standby. Latin America’s political Left has displayed symptoms of bipolarity for much of the past decade. One Left had “truly socialist and progressive roots” that was “following pragmatic, sensible and realistic paths.” The other stemmed from “a populist, purely nationalist past” that had “proven much less responsive to modernizing influences.”
→ read full articleRepression, Resistance, and Indigenous Rights in Guatemala
Anita Isaacs and Rachel Schwartz – Americas Quarterly,
4 Feb 2013
Can centuries of exploitation be reversed?
→ read full articleThe Geopolitics of the Modern Resource Boom
Bernice Lee – Americas Quarterly,
4 Feb 2013
Intensified resource stress, driven in part by the booming demand from emerging economies and a decade of tight commodity markets, is reshaping the global economy. Whether the resources are actually diminishing is a matter of debate, but one thing is clear: the resources sector is increasingly characterized by supply disruptions, volatile prices and rising political tensions over access. In many places, myopic government policies have exacerbated the challenges.
→ read full articleLatin America’s Middle Class in Global Perspective
Jamele Rigolini – Americas Quarterly,
19 Nov 2012
Different patterns of economic growth in BRIC countries have brought different social changes. Comparing the middle class in Latin America to the new middle classes in the BRIC countries.
→ read full articleShould Scientists and Engineers Resist Taking Military Money?
John Horgan – Scientific American,
19 Nov 2012
In recent years several professional societies, notably the American Psychological Association and the American Anthropological Association, have been wracked by debates over whether members should consult for the armed forces or other defense agencies. My guess is that such disputes will become more common, as ethical ideals collide with economic realities.
→ read full articleIceland’s Economy Now Growing Faster Than the U.S. And EU after Arresting Corrupt Bankers
American Live Wire – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2012
Iceland didn’t follow the rest of the world by bailing out bankers. Surprisingly, they arrested them instead. Now their economy is recovering faster than the EU and the United States.
→ read full articleMEK Delisting is a Gift to the Regime, a Disaster for the Iranian People and the U.S.
National Iranian American Council – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) deplores the decision to remove the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations. The decision opens the door to Congressional funding of the MEK to conduct terrorist attacks in Iran, makes war with Iran far more likely, and will seriously damage Iran’s peaceful pro-democracy movement as well as America’s standing among ordinary Iranians.
→ read full articleThe Democrats’ Jerusalem Arithmetic: When Israel Is Concerned, Half = Two-Thirds
Alison Weir, IfAmericansKnew – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Sep 2012
We’re Tired of Pretend Democracy – Not often is a political fix so public. The Democratic committee that develops the party’s campaign platform recently failed to include the apparently obligatory “Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel” pronouncement. In fact, I believe an uprising in the United States may be coming. People are tired of wars and killing, and of being sold a pack of goods by both parties using lies, deception, and manipulation.
→ read full articleReform and Change, Cuban Style
David Tebaldi – Americas Quarterly,
30 Jul 2012
Cuba’s 53-year-old revolutionary socialist system is in transition. Toward what, though, is anyone’s guess.
→ read full articleHumanitarian Interventionism Brazilian Style?
Matias Spektor – Americas Quarterly,
30 Jul 2012
Brazil tries to strike a balance between sovereignty and preventing atrocities. By November 2011, Brazilian officials began to circulate a concept paper at the UN entitled “Responsibility While Protecting,” or RWP. The paper argued that without limits on what the powerful may do, the emerging ideology of humanitarian intervention could easily become a tool for foreign manipulation.
→ read full articleCholera and the Road to Modernity: Lessons from One Latin American Epidemic for Another
Jonathan Weigel and Paul Farmer – Americas Quarterly,
30 Jul 2012
A bold, comprehensive campaign to control cholera in Haiti could save thousands of lives. So why the holdup?
→ read full articleEngineering Consent for an Attack on Syria: Another Syrian “Civilian Massacre” Story Falls Apart
Alex Newman – The New American,
16 Jul 2012
Yet another alleged “massacre” of “civilians” by the Syrian regime was in the establishment-press headlines this week, supposedly a brutal killing spree by dictator Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Despite hysterical reporting and wild statements by political leaders, however, even “opposition activists” were conceding early on that most of the dead were actually armed [by the West] combatants who had staged attacks on the regime’s military forces.
→ read full articleRachel Corrie, 9 Years On
Arab American Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
Far more important than remembering Rachel’s tragic death is remembering her inspiring life. Seldom in life do we come across someone with the extraordinary commitment to justice that Rachel possessed. If only she could see how she has inspired so many in the USA to demand justice for Palestinians, including her parents who have become outspoken critics of the occupation their daughter protested years before.
→ read full articleRothschilds Want Iran’s Banks
Pete Papaherakles – American Free Press,
20 Feb 2012
The Rothschilds exert powerful influence over the world’s major news agencies. By repetition, the masses are duped into believing horror stories about evil villains. The Rothschilds control the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the IMF, the World Bank and the Bank of International Settlements. Also they own most of the gold in the world as well as the London Gold Exchange, which sets the price of gold every day. It is said the family owns over half the wealth of the planet—estimated by Credit Suisse to be $231 trillion—and is controlled by Evelyn Rothschild, the current head of the family.
→ read full articleChristian Jihad
Patrick Allitt – The American Conservative,
13 Feb 2012
Is it true that the Bible teaches peace and the Koran war? Only if you approach the books selectively, taking the gentlest of Jesus’ teachings and setting them against the harshest of Muhammad’s. Philip Jenkins’s challenging new book Laying Down the Sword shows that the Bible contains incitements not just to violence but also to genocide. He argues that Christians and Jews should struggle to make sense of these violent texts as a central element of their tradition, rather than hurry past them or ignore them altogether.
→ read full article“Zombie” Fly Parasite Killing Honeybees
Katherine Harmon – Scientific American,
9 Jan 2012
John Hafernik, a biology professor at San Francisco State University, collected some belly-up bees from the ground around the University’s biology building. “But I left them in a vial on my desk and forgot about them. The next time I looked at the vial, there were all these fly pupae surrounding the bees,” he said. A fly (Apocephalus borealis) had inserted its eggs into the bees, using their bodies as a home for its developing larvae. And the invaders had somehow led the bees from their hives to their deaths.
→ read full article‘Most’ Biomedical Chimp Research Declared ‘Unnecessary’ by Federal Agency
Meredith Wadman of Nature magazine – Scientific American,
26 Dec 2011
In a watershed moment for chimpanzee research, the U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report on December 15 [2011] declaring that “most current use of chimpanzees for biomedical research is unnecessary” and recommending the sharp curtailing of government-funded research on humankind’s closest genetic relative. Within an hour, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds research on chimpanzees, announced that he accepted the recommendations and would move to implement them as swiftly as possible.
→ read full articleBilderberg Leader Mario Monti Takes Over Italy in “Coup”
Alex Newman – The New American,
21 Nov 2011
Italy’s new Prime Minister Mario Monti, who rose to power in what critics called a “coup d’etat,” is a prominent member of the world elite in the truest sense of the term. In fact, he is a leader in at least two of the most influential cabals in existence today: the secretive Bilderberg Group and David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission.
→ read full articleThe Phantom Menace: Fantasies, Falsehoods, and Fear-Mongering about Iran’s Nuclear Program
Nima Shirazi – Wide Asleep in America,
14 Nov 2011
For nearly thirty years now, U.S. and Zionist politicians and analysts, along with some of their European allies, have warned that Iranian nuclear weapons capability is just around the corner and that such a possibility would not only be catastrophic for Israel with its 400 nuclear warheads and state-of-the-art killing power supplied by U.S. taxpayers, but that it would also endanger regional dictatorships, Europe, and even the United States.
→ read full articleBrazilian Winds Fuel Green Job Creation
Alice Marcondes, Tierramérica – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 Nov 2011
The term “green jobs”, coined to describe employment that contributes in some way to preserving or restoring the environment, is increasingly entering the vocabulary of companies keen to respond to the social demand for a cleaner economy. Brazil has not been left behind by this trend.
→ read full articleGreater Israel—or Peace?
The American Conservative – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2011
Pathbreaking scholars Norman Finkelstein and John Mearsheimer speak out about the precarious future of the Jewish state.
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