Articles by RD
We found 3495 results.
France’s Debt of Dishonour to Haiti
Isabel Macdonald – The Guardian,
23 Aug 2010
After Haiti won independence, France extorted compensation for its slave-owning colonists. Now Nicolas Sarkozy must repay it.
→ read full articleWorld Feeling the Heat as 17 Countries Experience Record Temperatures
John Vidal, environment editor – The Guardian,
16 Aug 2010
2010 sees record highs in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine but also many African, Middle Eastern and Latin American countries.
→ read full articleThe U.S. Ploy to Promote Genetically Engineered Seeds and Pesticides to Poor Mexican Farmers Is Impoverishing Their Communities
Jill Richardson - AlterNet,
16 Aug 2010
The Obama administration’s Feed the Future initiative promises a second Green Revolution that will feed a planet of nine billion people by doubling crop yields by 2050. But considering that we produce enough food to feed the planet today and a billion people still go hungry, are yields really the problem? And if they are, are providing Green Revolution technologies like hybrid and genetically engineered seeds, chemical fertilizer and pesticides to subsistence farmers the best way to achieve them? I visited subsistence farmers in Mexico to find out.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Transgénicos: Nome de Código, “Monsanto”
Bloco de Esquerda, Portugal – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Aug 2010
(Leitura obrigatória para esclarecer-se e educar-se acerca dos males da Monsanto. –Nota do Editor da TMS). Em causa estão a saúde pública no mundo, a preservação ambiental e a biodiversidade. Trabalhos científicos sobre estes assuntos permitiram estabelecer um decálogo de malfeitorias dos OGM e do controlo de Monsanto sobre a sua produção e comercialização: riscos para a saúde pública; contaminação genética sem controlo; aumento da contaminação química devido ao maior uso de biocidas; perda permanente da biodiversidade agropecuária e florestal; aumento da insegurança e perda da soberania alimentar; grande concentração de poder em poucas empresas; degradação da democracia através das pressões sobre a classe política e a actuação dos lobbies; aumento da desigualdade Norte-Sul; prejuízos para a agricultura ecológica devido à contaminação.
→ read full articleAfghanistan: The War Logs
Simon Rogers – The Guardian,
2 Aug 2010
Key incidents from the Wikileaks Afghanistan war logs selected by Guardian writers. As a spreadsheet, with co-ordinates.
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The Listening Post – South of the Border
Richard Gizbert – Al Jazeera,
2 Aug 2010
This week, we bring you a special edition of the Listening Post. Richard Gizbert sits down with Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone to talk about his new film ‘South of the Border’ and the surprising role that media, both Latin American and North American play in shaping and reflecting the narrative of South America’s political history.
→ read full articleMoney Laundering and the Global Drug Trade Fueled by Capitalist Elites
Tom Burghardt – Global Research,
26 Jul 2010
When investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker broke the story four years ago that a DC-9 (N900SA) “registered to a company which once used as its address the hangar of Huffman Aviation, the flight school at the Venice, Florida Airport which trained both terrorist pilots who crashed planes into the World Trade Center, was caught in Campeche by the Mexican military … carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine destined for the U.S.,” it elicited a collective yawn from corporate media. And when authorities searched the plane and found its cargo consisted solely of 128 identical black suitcases marked “private,” packed with cocaine valued at more than $100 million, the silence was deafening.
→ read full articleHumanizing Methodologies in Transformation
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Jul 2010
Talk at the University of South Africa sponsored by the College of Law – 20 Jul 2010
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The Story of Cosmetics: The Ugly Truth of “Toxics In, Toxics Out”
Annie Leonard - The Story of Stuff Project,
26 Jul 2010
The Story of Cosmetics examines the pervasive use of toxic chemicals in our everyday personal care products, from lipstick to baby shampoo. Produced by Free Range Studios and hosted by Annie Leonard, the seven-minute film reveals the implications for consumer and worker health and the environment, and outlines ways we can move the industry away from hazardous chemicals and towards safer alternatives. The film concludes with a call for viewers to support legislation aimed at ensuring the safety of cosmetics and personal care products.
→ read full articleOliver Stone Tells the Real Story of the Leftist Latin American Leaders Transforming the Continent
Daniela Perdomo - ICH,
19 Jul 2010
Stone’s new film traces the rise of Chávez, Lula, Evo, and others who see participatory democracy and cooperation between Latin American countries as the future.
→ read full articleThrough the Wormhole: The Secret State’s Mad Scheme to Control the Internet
Tom Burghardt – Global Research,
5 Jul 2010
Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz once famously wrote that “war is the continuation of politics by other means.” A century later, radical French philosopher Michel Foucault turned Clausewitz on his head and declared that “politics is the continuation of war by other means.” In our topsy-turvy world where truth and lies coexist equally and sociopathic business elites reign supreme, it would hardly be a stretch to theorize that cyber war is the continuation of parapolitical crime by other means.
→ read full articleMarxism 2010: Fixing a Broken System
Alex Callinicos – The Guardian,
5 Jul 2010
In the wake of the financial crisis Marxist thought is thriving, and in London leading names are discussing turning ideas into action.
→ read full articleWhy Did It Take a Rock Magazine to Report the Military’s Total Disaster in Afghanistan?
Peter Richardson - Alternet,
5 Jul 2010
Anyone in the Pentagon press corps could have written the story that took down McChrystal. So why did it appear in Rolling Stone?
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West Bank Poor Pay Heavy Price
Bernard Smith – Al Jazeera,
5 Jul 2010
A report by the charity Save the Children has said that living conditions in parts of the West Bank are now so dire that people living there are worse off than in blockaded Gaza. The charity claims that an estimated 40,000 Palestinians living under Israeli control are prevented from performing even the most basic repairs to homes, schools and hospitals.
→ read full articleLife after Oil: Cuba Can Teach Us How to Live Without Our Dirty Fossil Fuel Addiction
Jill Richardson - Alternet,
28 Jun 2010
The crisis in the Gulf is only the most recent reminder that we have to begin imagining a post-carbon future.
→ read full articleLatin America: Impunity in Plan Condor’s Shadows
Marie Trigona – Toward Freedom,
28 Jun 2010
“The precise pain, in the precise place, in the precise amount, for the desired effect.” — Dan Mitrione, United States government security advisor for the CIA in Latin America, and instructor in the art of torture teaching techniques in Uruguay during the nation’s 1973-1985 military dictatorship.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Bilionários Ficaram Mais Ricos Em 2009
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Jun 2010
Segundo um relatório da Merrill Lynch sobre a riqueza mundial, o número de pessoas que, no mundo, tem mais de um milhão de dólares para investir aumentou e a sua riqueza cresceu 18,9%.
→ read full articleGulf Oil Spill: A Hole in the World
Naomi Klein – The Guardian,
28 Jun 2010
“Obama cannot order pelicans not to die (no matter whose ass he kicks). And no amount of money – not BP’s $20 billion, not $100 billion – can replace a culture that’s lost its roots.”
→ read full articleHail to the Whistleblowers
James Denselow – The Guardian,
28 Jun 2010
Whistleblowers like those at WikiLeaks make huge sacrifices and are a vital last resort to check the powers of government.
→ read full articleThe Arms Circus, Israel Keeping the World in Turmoil
Gordon Duff, senior editor – Veterans Today,
7 Jun 2010
This week, newspapers around the world received reports and signed documents from South Africa. The reports said that, in 1975, Israel agreed to sell South Africa nuclear weapons. South Africa then released an arms agreement signed by current Israeli President Shimon Peres. This is the document “heard round the world.”
→ read full articleBilderberg 2010: The Security Lockdown Begins
Charlie Skelton – The Guardian,
7 Jun 2010
It’s midday at the Bilderberg conference hotel – and that means helicopters, riot police and angry staff.
→ read full articleIsraelis Opened Fire before Boarding Gaza Flotilla, Say Released Activists
Dorian Jones in Istanbul and Helena Smith – The Guardian,
7 Jun 2010
First eyewitness accounts of raid contradict version put out by Israeli officials.
→ read full articleArmadillo: The Afghanistan War Documentary that Shocked Denmark
Geoffrey Macnab – The Guardian,
7 Jun 2010
In Denmark, the press and public have been stunned by Armadillo, Janus Metz’s documentary about a UK-Danish base in Afghanistan, and the actions of the soldiers based there.
→ read full articleU.S. Defence Spending Far Outpaces Rest of the World
Amanda Bransford - IPS,
7 Jun 2010
The United States continues to lead the world in defence spending, according to a new report released Thursday [27 May 2010] by the Centre for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a U.S.-based non-partisan research organisation. In fact, the U.S outspends Russia, the next highest spender, by more than 800 percent.
→ read full articleThe Brazilian/Turkish Initiative: Rebalancing the World
Prof. Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 May 2010
Instead of welcoming this notable effort to reduce regional tensions, the Brazilian/Turkish initiative was immediately branded as an amateurish irrelevance by the American Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton. She insisted that the concerns about Iranian nuclear enrichment be left exclusively in the hands of the ‘major powers,’ and immediately rallied China and Russia (in addition to France and the United Kingdom) to support a fourth round of punitive sanctions that were to be presented to the UN Security Council in the near future.
→ read full articleEnvironment and Food in Haiti: Two Crises, One Solution
Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
31 May 2010
In this interview, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste discusses the role that agriculture can play in Haiti in addressing both the environmental and food crises. Jean-Baptiste is the Executive Director of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP by its Creole acronym) and the spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Congress of Papay (MPNKP). Until this year, he also sat on the international coordinating committee of Vía Campesina, a confederation of organizations of peasant, family, indigenous, and landless farmers from more than sixty countries.
→ read full articleUS Space Weapon Now Circling the Globe
John Lasker – Toward Freedom,
31 May 2010
The US space weapon X-37 is now circling the globe in relative secrecy. It is an unmanned space plane that looks like a smaller version of the Space Shuttle and was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on April 22, 2010. This new weapon poses threats to global peace and risks sparking an arms race in space.
→ read full articleHaitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds
Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
24 May 2010
“A new earthquake” is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto’s seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day.
→ read full articleThe Iran Nuclear Deal and the New Premier League of Global Powers
Simon Tisdall – The Guardian,
24 May 2010
Brazil and Turkey are determined to pursue diplomacy and compromise – even if it means upsetting Washington.
→ read full articleJerusalem Residents Attack Writer Elie Wiesel over Appeal to Barack Obama
Chris McGreal – The Guardian,
17 May 2010
Holocaust survivor accused of ignoring anti-Arab discrimination in Jerusalem.
→ read full articleFinance 202: How We Became Debt Slaves (And Learned to Love It)
Gordon Arnaut - ICH,
17 May 2010
Right now, the US Congress is holding hearings about bank wrongdoing. It is very entertaining kabuki theatre, but nothing will change. The Goldman chief (thief?) and his cohorts may take a bit of a grilling, but behind the scenes his bagmen are funneling millions of dollars into the campaign trunks of every representative, senator (or likely hopeful) in the land.
→ read full articleThe Role of Natural Resources in Civil Wars
Phumlani Majavu – Toward Freedom,
10 May 2010
On the surface, it might look like the Congolese have no one to blame but themselves, since they are the ones doing the killing, and to an extent, this argument seems sensible. However, when we go beyond the facade, the facts tell us that foreign governments and multinational companies, greedy for the natural resources found in the DRC, are in cahoots with the militias and they too, are responsible for the plunder and the killings.
→ read full articleBolivia’s Fight for Survival Can Help Save Democracy Too
Naomi Klein – The Guardian,
26 Apr 2010
The people’s summit to tackle climate change is a radical, transformative response to the failure of the Copenhagen club.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Dia da Terra: Conferência Propõe Referendo Mundial
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Apr 2010
A Conferência de Cochabamba vai anunciar uma campanha para um referendo a realizar no dia da Terra, a 22 de Abril de 2011, sobre a criação dum tribunal internacional de justiça climática.
→ read full articleEmbedded War Reporting Cannot Escape Its Own Bias
Alison Banville – The Guardian,
26 Apr 2010
Rather than offer a ‘greater reality’, it actually hinders attempts to make sense of a conflict.
→ read full articleMessage to Bolivia: Nature’s Rights Are Also Human Rights
Eduardo Galeano – Znet,
26 Apr 2010
Message of the author of the Open Veins of Latin America to participants of the First World Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba from April 19 to 22, as an alternative to the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit.
→ read full article(Castellano) Los Derechos del Hombre y la Tierra
Eduardo Galeano – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Apr 2010
Mensaje del autor de Las Venas abiertas de América Latina a los asistentes a la Cumbre de la Madre Tierra que se celebra en Bolivia, como alternativa a la Cumbre sobre el Cambio Climático en Copenhague.
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US Community Learns About Rural Healthcare from Iran
Rosiland Jordan – Al Jazeera,
26 Apr 2010
Mississippi delta neighbourhood is learning from the Iranians on how they have successfully run a rural healthcare plan.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Direitos Humanos e Direitos da Terra
Eduardo Galeano – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Apr 2010
Mensagem do autor de “As Veias Abertas da América Latina’ aos participantes da Reunião de Cúpula da Mãe Terra que se realiza na Bolívia como alternativa à Reunião de Cúpula sobre a mudanca climática em Copenhagen.
→ read full articleThe Palestinians Are Winning the Legitimacy War: Will It Matter?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Apr 2010
A Palestinian victory in the legitimacy war with Israel would not necessarily produce the desired political results. It is vital that the Palestinians exercise “patience, resolve, leadership and vision, as well as sufficient pressure” if they are to win their just rights.
→ read full articleTHE MARKET COLONIZATION of INTELLECTUALS
Lewis R. Gordon - Truthout,
12 Apr 2010
Securing a job is the rhetorical trump that legitimizes the entire process. In the academy, it leads to a strange logic: The best way to get a job is to have one. Thus, many academics and by extension many public academic intellectuals are perpetually on the job market. Market potentiality governs everything they produce. In the academy, nothing is more marketable than the reputation of being smart. This makes sense: No one wants dumb intellectuals.
→ read full articleBLOWBACK IN KYRGYZSTAN
Joseph Huff-Hannon – The Guardian,
12 Apr 2010
The turmoil in a small Central Asian country speaks volumes about US ‘democratisation’ efforts in the region.
→ read full articleIRAN’S CALLS FOR N-FREE MIDEAST SHOULD BE BACKED
Linda Heard – Arab News,
12 Apr 2010
From April 17-18, Iran intends to host a nuclear disarmament summit just four days after Washington concludes a nuclear security summit to which Tehran was not invited. Under the banner “Nuclear energy for everyone, nuclear arms for no one”, Iran calls for a nuclear-free Middle East and an end to nuclear proliferation globally.
→ read full articleSOCIAL FAULT LINES: THE DISASTER OF POVERTY IN HAITI
Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
12 Apr 2010
Laura Wagner, a U.S. anthropologist who survived – barely – Haiti’s earthquake in January, writes, “Social scientists who study catastrophes say there are no natural disasters. In every calamity, it is inevitably the poor who suffer more, die more, and will continue to suffer and die after the cameras turn their gaze elsewhere. Do not be deceived by claims that everyone was affected equally — fault lines are social as well as geological.”
→ read full articleBIG BROTHER AND THE HIDDEN HAND OF THE “FREE MARKET”
Tom Burghardt – Global Research,
12 Apr 2010
As the securitization of daily life increase at near exponential rates (all to keep us “safe,” mind you) the dark contours of an American police state, like a pilot’s last glimpse of an icy peak before a plane crash, wobbles into view.
→ read full articleIZZY AWARD WINNER JEREMY SCAHILL: “WE’RE AT A GROUND ZERO MOMENT TO SAVE REAL JOURNALISM”
Byard Duncan – Alternet,
28 Mar 2010
The winner of the second annual Izzy Award, named after muckraking journalist I.F. Stone, discusses independent media and this critical moment in journalism. On March 24, 2010, the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, in Ithaca, NY announced that award-winning independent journalist Jeremy Scahill would receive the second annual “Izzy Award.” The Izzy, […]
→ read full article
THE STORY OF BOTTLED WATER
Annie Leonard, Story of Stuff - TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Mar 2010
The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day), employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the […]
→ read full articleHAITI: WHERE SOLIDARITY MEANS SURVIVAL
Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
26 Mar 2010
Perhaps more than anything today, Haiti needs a new macro-economy, one based above all on meeting the needs of its citizens. Post-earthquake economic restructuring could include equitable distribution of resources, high levels of employment with fair compensation, local production, and provision of social services. In the meantime, what saved many during the earthquake, and what is […]
→ read full articleBOLIVIA CREATES A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR CLIMATE TALKS THAT FAILED AT COPENHAGEN
Pablo Solón - The Guardian,
26 Mar 2010
Bolivia will host an international meeting on climate change next month because it is not prepared to ‘betray its people.’In the aftermath of the Copenhagen climate conference, those who defended the widely condemned outcome tended to talk about it as a "step in the right direction". This was always a tendentious argument, given that tackling […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) DEPOIS DE ELEGER DILMA PRESIDENTE, LULA VAI CORRER MUNDO PARA CHEGAR À ONU
Antonio Carlos Lacerda - Pravda Brasil,
24 Mar 2010
Depois que o jornal inglês The Times disse que o presidente do Brasil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, que recentemente brincou estar "contaminado pelo vírus da paz", estaria avaliando uma tentativa de se tornar o próximo secretário-geral da ONU, cresceram as especulações da imprensa a respeito dessa possibilidade. Tanto cresceram que o presidente já estaria […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) ESPANHA: PARTILHA DE FICHEIROS NÃO É PIRATARIA
Esquerda.net, Portugal,
18 Mar 2010
Juiz de Barcelona decide que blogger que divulga links de partilha de filmes e músicas não atenta contra os direitos de propriedade intelectual. Um juiz de Barcelona decidiu que o blogger Jesus Guerra Calderon é inocente das acusações de violação de propriedade intelectual que lhe fizera a Sociedade Geral dos Autores e Editores da Espanha. […]
→ read full articleON THE WAIHOPAI THREE VERDICT, AND EAST JERUSALEM
Gordon Campbell,
18 Mar 2010
The acquittal of the Waihopai Three for their attack on the Waihopai spy base is as welcome as it is surprising. To succeed in court, one would have thought they would need to have proved a direct connection between the base near Blenheim and the war atrocities inside Iraq and/or the renditions occurring elsewhere – […]
→ read full articleACTIVISM IS CHANGE: A VIEW FROM THE STRUGGLE IN GAZA
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
18 Mar 2010
An activist is a person who feels strongly about a cause and who is also willing to dedicate time and energy towards advancing and realizing this cause. This might be my own limited interpretation of what activism means. I was born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp where the daily struggles of the community […]
→ read full articleBANNING CLUSTER BOMBS: LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS OF CONFLICTS
Rene Wadlow - Toward Freedom,
18 Mar 2010
In a remarkable combination of civil society pressure and leadership from a small number of progressive States, a strong ban on the use, manufacture, and stocking of cluster bombs will come into force on August 1, 2010 now that 30 States have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The Convention bans the use, production, transfer […]
→ read full articleBEYOND ORWELL: THE ELECTRONIC POLICE STATE, 2010
Tom Burghardt – Global Research,
17 Mar 2010
A truism perhaps, but before resorting to brute force and open repression to halt the “barbarians at the gates,” that would be us, the masters of declining empires (and the chattering classes who polish their boots) regale us with tales of “democracy on the march,” “hope” and other banalities before the mailed fist comes crashing […]
→ read full articleNETANYAHU AGAINST THE REST OF THE WORLD
Bernhard Zand - Spiegel,
17 Mar 2010
Rarely before have Jews and Arabs been as united as they are in the face of the Iranian threat. But Israel’s government is deliberately ignoring this historic opportunity to push the peace process forward. Indeed, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government seems satisfied with the status quo.One of the tenets of the Middle East conflict has always been […]
→ read full articleBILLIONAIRES AND MEGA-CORPORATIONS BEHIND IMMENSE LAND GRAB IN AFRICA
John Vidal – Mail & Guardian,
10 Mar 2010
20+ African countries are selling or leasing land for intensive agriculture on a shocking scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era. We turned off the main road to Awassa, talked our way past security guards and drove a mile across empty land before we found what will soon […]
→ read full articleBOLIVIA, A BEACON OF HOPE
Matt Kennard – The Guardian,
9 Mar 2010
The inspiring example of Evo Morales’s Bolivian government. There’s a game I’ve been playing recently. Any time I read the news and get depressed about the parlous state of our world, I type "Bolivia" into Google news and wait for the results. It’s really all you need to brighten up your day. In the last […]
→ read full articleHONDURAS AFTER THE COUP: FEAR AND DEFIANCE
Peter Lackowski - Toward Freedom,
5 Mar 2010
"Nos tienen miedo porque no tenemos miedo." ("They are afraid of us because we are not afraid of them.") This slogan was chanted by the thousands of demonstrators who defied the illegitimate de facto government imposed by the Honduran military in the protests that erupted throughout the country immediately after the after the coup of […]
→ read full articleGM POTATO APPROVAL ‘A BIG STEP FOR GERMANY’
Josh Ward - Spiegel,
4 Mar 2010
The European Union has approved its first genetically modified plant since 1998. Though it claims its green light for BASF’s Amflora potato breed is based on "sound science," that will do little to satisfy opponents. German editorialists differ in their stances on the debate over what critics call "Frankenstein foods."Genetically modified (GM) plants have always […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) COMISSÃO EUROPEIA AUTORIZA O CULTIVO DE BATATA TRANSGÉNICA
Esquerda.net, Portugal,
4 Mar 2010
Pela primeira vez desde 1998, a Comissão Europeia autorizou o cultivo de um transgénico: a batata Amflora, produzida pelo grupo alemão BASF. Aceitou também a comercialização de milho da Monsanto. A Comissão Europeia autorizou o cultivo de um transgénico, o que não acontecia desde 1998 e aproveitou para autorizar também a comercialização, mas não o […]
→ read full articleISRAEL AND APARTHEID: IS IT A FAIR COMPARISON?
Edward C. Corrigan – Dissident Voice,
2 Mar 2010
There is a controversy raging in North America over Israeli Apartheid Week (March 1-7 2010).1 A resolution was passed in the Ontario Provincial Parliament which was unanimously supported (only 30 MPPs voted) and declared the comparison of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to apartheid as “odious.” To quote an article in the Toronto Star Canada’s […]
→ read full article
PERU FARMERS ABANDON COCA
Rosiland Jordan - AlJazeera,
2 Mar 2010
Peru has long been one of the world’s largest producers of coca, the plant often used to produce cocaine. It figures alongside Afghanistan, Colombia and Mexico in the list of countries where growing plants that can yield narcotics is a multibillion-dollar industry. Although Peru has seen a recent surge in the coca production, a United […]
→ read full articleLATIN AMERICA’S PATH TO INDEPENDENCE
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
26 Feb 2010
With the creation of a new regional organisation, Latin America is emerging as a power bloc with its own interests and agenda. Latin America took another historic step forward this week with the creation of a new regional organization of 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries. The United States and Canada were excluded. The increasing […]
→ read full articleFOLLOWING THE MINERAL TRAIL: CONGO RESOURCE WARS AND RWANDA
John Lasker – Toward Freedom,
20 Feb 2010
The Rwandan government and its military have largely been suspected by a UN Panel of Experts, human rights organizations and independent journalists, of financially supporting a number of violent militias that have destabilized the eastern Congo region to illegally traffic millions-of-dollars worth of minerals such as coltan, gold, and cassiterite. These minerals are then brought […]
→ read full articleTHE HUMANITARIAN MYTH
Richard Seymour – Socialist Worker,
11 Feb 2010
The author of The Liberal Defense of Murder analyzes the propaganda manufactured to justify U.S. actions in Haiti after the earthquake.WITHIN DAYS of Haiti suffering an earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter scale, the U.S. government had sent thousands of 82nd Airborne troops and Marines, alongside the super-carrier USS Carl Vinson. By this Sunday, a […]
→ read full articlePEPE LOBO, IMPERIALISM AND THE RESISTANCE: CONSOLIDATING THE COUP IN HONDURAS
Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber – Counterpunch,
10 Feb 2010
A country of sharp inequality and class polarization, Honduras recently returned to the frontlines in the battle for Latin America’s soul. The terrain of struggle has shifted on multiple occasions over the last seven months, following the military coup against the democratically-elected President, Manuel “Mel” Zelaya. The battle entered its latest phase last week with […]
→ read full articleMBAs UNPREPARED FOR A MORALLY COMPLEX FUTURE
Thomas N. Gladwin and David Berdish – Financial Times,
9 Feb 2010
Following Copenhagen, we face a perfect storm of global moral questions: what do we owe future generations, the deprived and the environment? Companies are being challenged to declare and act on their social and moral obligations. But business schools are failing to prepare leaders for this challenging task. The Aspen Institute’s latest Beyond Grey Pinstripes […]
→ read full articleCOULD U.S. AIR STRIKES PUSH PAKISTAN INTO KHMER ROUGE TYPE GENOCIDE?
Pratap Chatterjee and Tom Engelhardt - Tomdispatch.com,
9 Feb 2010
Almost every day, reports come back from the CIA’s “secret” battlefield in the Pakistani tribal borderlands. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles — that is, pilot-less drones — shoot missiles (18 of them in a single attack on a tiny village last week) or drop bombs and then the news comes in: a certain number of al-Qaeda or […]
→ read full articleMOSSADEGH AND AHMADINEJAD: IRAN FACES ALMOST THE SAME DILEMMA AS 1953
Ardeshir Ommani - Iranian,
3 Feb 2010
There is a stark similarity between some aspects of the political atmosphere dominant over Iran today and those under Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh right before the U.S.-led coup of 1953 that resulted in the overthrow of the legitimate government of Iran and the establishment of a U.S.-puppet government of the Shah. In the period between […]
→ read full articleA MARVELOUS VICTORY
Howard Zinn,
2 Feb 2010
An excerpt from his recent book A Power Governments Cannot Suppress published by City Lights Books, www.citylights.com. In this world of war and injustice, how does a person manage to stay socially engaged, committed to the struggle, and remain healthy without burning out or becoming resigned or cynical? I am totally confident not that the […]
→ read full articleTHE US GAME IN LATIN AMERICA
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
1 Feb 2010
US interference in the politics of Haiti and Honduras is only the latest example of its long-term manipulations in Latin America.When I write about US foreign policy in places such as Haiti or Honduras, I often get responses from people who find it difficult to believe that the US government would care enough about these […]
→ read full articleTHE TERROR CARD: FEAR IS THE KEY TO OBEDIENCE
Rev. Richard Skaff - Global Research,
31 Jan 2010
The Terrorism Industrial Complex (TIC)Webster’s dictionary defines terrorism as the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. [1]. However, the United States code defined terrorism as “(An) act of terrorism means an activity that (A) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the […]
→ read full articlePEOPLE’S HISTORIAN AND PROGRESSIVE HERO HOWARD ZINN DIES
Mark Feeney and Bryan Marquard – Boston Globe,
28 Jan 2010
National treasure, and acclaimed author of "People’s History of the United States" passed away at age 87. Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam… died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was […]
→ read full articleWHY SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IS NOT A JOB FOR THE MARKET
Michael Edwards – Open Democracy,
26 Jan 2010
In 2007, I experienced one of those fork-in-the-road moments that seem to occur when you least expect them. It was another day at the office, sifting through e-mails in the Ford Foundation’s glass palace in Manhattan, where I worked as one of the organization’s six directors. As usual, half of my inbox was filled by […]
→ read full articleTHE VOICES OF PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY IN VENEZUELA
Hans Bennett - Upside Down Word,
26 Jan 2010
A review of Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the GrassrootsThere are many different ways that the corporate media continues to misrepresent the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Many critics of this biased media coverage have directly challenged the demonization of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but very few critics, if any, have exposed the media’s virtual erasure of […]
→ read full articleHAITI’S SUFFERING IS A RESULT OF CALCULATED IMPOVERISHMENT
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
26 Jan 2010
Haiti’s poverty is treated as some baffling quirk of history or culture, when in reality it is the direct consequence of a uniquely brutal relationship with the outside world — notably the US, France and Britain — stretching back centuries. There is no relief for the people of Haiti, it seems, even in their hour […]
→ read full articleIMF CLARIFIES TERMS OF HAITI’S LOAN
Richard Kim – The Nation,
26 Jan 2010
Last Friday I wrote about the IMF’s new $100 million loan to Haiti. I cited debt relief activists who told me that the new loan would be an extension of the IMF’s existing loan of $165 million. This information was confirmed by the IMF’s press release, which stated that "emergency financing would be provided as […]
→ read full articleSECURING DISASTER IN HAITI
Peter Hallward – Haitian Analysis,
26 Jan 2010
Nine days after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, it’s now clear that the initial phase of the U.S.-led relief operation has conformed to the three fundamental tendencies that have shaped the more general course of the island’s recent history. [1] It has adopted military priorities and strategies. It has sidelined […]
→ read full articleTHE HUMANITARIAN MYTH
Richard Seymour – Socialist Worker,
26 Jan 2010
The author of The Liberal Defense of Murder, analyzes the propaganda manufactured to justify U.S. actions in Haiti after the earthquake. With U.S. forces obstructing aid and beefing up "security" while Haitians die, no one should accept that the U.S. is motivated by "humanitarianism."WITHIN DAYS of Haiti suffering an earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter […]
→ read full articleONE QUARTER OF US GRAIN CROPS FED TO CARS – NOT PEOPLE, NEW FIGURES SHOW
John Vidal, environment editor – The Guardian,
22 Jan 2010
New analysis of 2009 US Department of Agriculture figures suggests biofuel revolution is impacting on world food supplies.One-quarter of all the maize and other grain crops grown in the US now ends up as biofuel in cars rather than being used to feed people, according to new analysis which suggests that the biofuel revolution launched […]
→ read full articleSTAND SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH THE PEOPLE OF HAITI
Marilyn Langlois - Haiti Emergency Relief Fund Board Member, TRANSCEND Convener for USA,
22 Jan 2010
–When asked “How are they surviving?” Haitian journalist Wadner Pierre responded, “Well, they’re all sharing. That’s what we do. That’s the way Haitians are.” (January 16) –“The city has seen little violence, despite persistent fears that shortages of food, water and shelter will spark unrest.” (January 21) –Photograph of a white female US Navy medic cradling and […]
→ read full articleIRAQ LITTERED WITH HIGH LEVELS OF NUCLEAR AND DIOXIN CONTAMINATION, STUDY FINDS
Martin Chulov in Baghdad - The Guardian,
22 Jan 2010
• Greater rates of cancer and birth defects near sites• Depleted uranium among poisons revealed in reportMore than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels or radiation and dioxins, with three decades of war and neglect having left environmental ruin in large parts of the country, an official Iraqi study has found. Areas […]
→ read full articleOBAMA AT ONE: LITTLE SURPRISING IN ABSENCE OF PROGRESSIVE SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Howard Zinn, historian – The Nation,
22 Jan 2010
I think people are dazzled by Obama’s rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president–which means, in our time, a dangerous president–unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction. I’ve been searching hard for a highlight. The only thing that […]
→ read full articleHOW OBAMA BETRAYS REVEREND KING’S PHILOSOPHY OF NONVIOLENCE
Jeff Nall – Toward Freedom,
21 Jan 2010
Each year, many remember Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s work on behalf of civil rights. Yet the most fundamental piece of his philosophical legacy, his rejection of the utility and morality of violence between individuals and nations, remains at best ignorantly obscured or at worst actively suppressed. In his 1967 book, Where Do We […]
→ read full articlePROFITING FROM HAITI’S CRISIS
Benjamin Dangl – Toward Freedom,
21 Jan 2010
US corporations, private mercenaries, Washington and the International Monetary Fund are using the crisis in Haiti to make a profit, promote unpopular neoliberal policies, and extend military and economic control over the Haitian people. In the aftermath of the earthquake, with much of the infrastructure and government services destroyed, Haitians have relied on each other […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) TERREMOTO É DESASTRE NATURAL, MAS A POBREZA EXTREMA, NÃO
Eduardo Sales de Lima e Igor Ojeda – Brasil de Fato,
21 Jan 2010
Mídia relaciona efeitos graves do terremoto com a pobreza extrema, mas não diz por que o país caribenho é tão subdesenvolvido.Um terremoto oportuno? “A pobreza extrema do Haiti é uma construção histórica bi-centenária” As imagens das TVs de todo o mundo mostram um verdadeiro inferno. Destruição total, corpos estirados, homens e mulheres aos prantos. Os […]
→ read full articleOUR ROLE IN HAITI’S PLIGHT
Peter Hallward- The Guardian,
14 Jan 2010
If we are serious about assisting this devastated land we must stop trying to control and exploit it.Any large city in the world would have suffered extensive damage from an earthquake on the scale of the one that ravaged Haiti’s capital city on Tuesday afternoon, but it’s no accident that so much of Port-au-Prince now […]
→ read full articleTHREE HOLY WARS
Howard Zinn - Truthout,
12 Jan 2010
The Progressive 100th Anniversary Speech in Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2009.Matt Rothschild: For all his fame he’s more humble, or as I told him once, he fakes it better than anyone I know. So, let’s hear it for Howard Zinn. Howard Zinn: Hello. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. As Matt said, I am a […]
→ read full articleTERROR IS THE PRICE OF SUPPORT FOR DESPOTS AND DICTATORS
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
12 Jan 2010
Egypt’s complicity in Gaza’s siege underlines the role of western support for such regimes in the spread of war. If an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor had gone on hunger strike in support of a besieged people in another part of the world, and hundreds of mostly western protesters had been stoned and beaten by police, you […]
→ read full articleTHE HOLOCAUST WE WILL NOT SEE
George Monbiot - The Guardian,
12 Jan 2010
Avatar half-tells a story we would all prefer to forget.Avatar, James Cameron’s blockbusting 3-D film, is both profoundly silly and profound. It’s profound because, like most films about aliens, it is a metaphor for contact between different human cultures. But in this case the metaphor is conscious and precise: this is the story of European […]
→ read full articleEINSTEIN ON PALESTINE AND ZIONISM
Edward C. Corrigan – Dissident Voice,
11 Jan 2010
There is some controversy over Einstein’s political views especially on the issue of Palestine and the creation of a Jewish State. Many Zionists claim Einstein as one of their own. Einstein, however, was a pacifist, a universalist and abhorred nationalism. The recently published book, Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About the Middle […]
→ read full articleMEDIA BATTLES IN LATIN AMERICA NOT ABOUT “FREE SPEECH”
Mark Weisbrot - The Guardian,
10 Jan 2010
For at least a month now in Ecuador there has been a battle over regulation of the media. It has been in the front pages of the newspapers most of the time, and a leading daily, El Comercio, referred to the fight as one for “defense of human rights and the free practice of journalism.” […]
→ read full articleWHO WOULD BENEFIT POLITICALLY FROM A TERRORIST INCIDENT ON AMERICAN SOIL? THE STRANGE CASE OF UMAR FAROUK ABDULMUTALLAB
Tom Burghardt - Global Research,
9 Jan 2010
Despite some $40 billion dollars spent by the American people on airline security since 2001, allegedly to thwart attacks on the Heimat, the botched attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas Day was foiled, not by a bloated counterterrorist bureaucracy, but by the passengers themselves. Talk […]
→ read full articleAN AMERICAN WORLD OF WAR – THE YEAR OF THE ASSASSIN
Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse - TomDispatch,
9 Jan 2010
What to Watch for in 2010 According to the Chinese calendar, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger. We don’t name our years, but if we did, this one might prospectively be called the Year of the Assassin.We, of course, think of ourselves as something like the peaceable kingdom. After all, the shock of September […]
→ read full articleOBAMA’S BIOWEAPONS PROGRAM
Tom Burghardt – Global Research,
22 Dec 2009
The Obama administration’s recent declaration on bioweapons would simply be another run-of-the-mill example of our "change" president’s duplicity were it not such an unmitigated disaster. Recapitulating sinister Cold War practices that informed American ruling class consensus when it came to secretly toying with nature’s most deadly pathogens, (a) because they could, (b) because it was, and […]
→ read full articleTHIS IS ABOUT US
George Monbiot - The Guardian,
19 Dec 2009
The talks at Copenhagen are not just about climate change. They represent a battle to redefine humanity. This is the moment at which we turn and face ourselves. Here, in the plastic corridors and crowded stalls, among impenetrable texts and withering procedures, humankind decides what it is and what it will become. It chooses whether […]
→ read full articleCOPENHAGEN CLIMATE PROTESTERS RALLY
Bibi van der Zee in Copenhagen, David Batty and agencies – The Guardian,
13 Dec 2009
Thousands of people march as part of a global protest to demand that governments agree a new climate deal.Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Copenhagen today (Sat, Dec 12, 2009] as part of a global protest to demand governments across the world agree a binding new global deal to tackle climate […]
→ read full articleAGENCY AND INTERVENTION
Jake Lynch, with additional research by Emily Parsons-Lord,
11 Dec 2009
Drug money from trading across the Sahara desert is funding insurgents and ‘terrorists’. So said the UN Office on Drugs and Crime this week, invoking an alarming vision of West African cocaine meeting heroin coming through East Africa, with the proceeds being used by “terrorists and anti-government forces… to fund their operations, purchase equipment and […]
→ read full articleBOLIVIA: REVOLUTIONARY CHANGE
The Guardian – Editorial, Dec 8 2009,
10 Dec 2009
President Evo Morales won a stunning victory in Bolivia yesterday, taking 63% of the popular vote and guiding his party to win control of congress. Bolivia’s first indigenous president has won the biggest popular mandate in recent memory, destroying three political parties that rotated the presidency between them for the last two decades. In doing […]
→ read full article