Articles by Al Jazeera
We found 953 results.
Interactive: World Nuclear Club
Mohammed Haddad and Ben Piven - Al Jazeera,
11 Jun 2012
While 14 nations host nuclear weapons, 30 countries generate atomic energy, and another 18 are building future reactors.
→ read full articleNicaragua’s ‘Revolutionary’ Drug War
Charles Davis – Al Jazeera,
4 Jun 2012
Ortega’s fixation on getting support for the ‘war on drugs’ may simply be an attempt to appeal to social conservatives. It’s been left to the likes of Guatemalan President Perez Molina – a former general elected last year on a platform of going after drug traffickers with an “iron fist” – to state the obvious: the status quo isn’t working. “We have to talk about decriminalisation of the production, the transit and, of course, the consumption” of drugs, he recently told CNN en Espanol, stating something that previously only ex-heads of state have had the courage to say.
→ read full articleQuebec’s Conflict of Contrasting Social Visions
Stefan Christoff – Al Jazeera,
4 Jun 2012
What began as a protest over tuition hikes has now become a standoff over a much deeper political discord in Quebec… Amnesty International describes the law as granting “unprecedented police powers,” and as violating “freedoms of speech, assembly and movement in breach of Canada’s international obligations.” Student unions are now challenging Law 78 at the Superior Court of Quebec, while hundreds of lawyers joined an evening demonstration against the law in Montreal.
→ read full articleFrom Iceland to Ireland: Two Paths to Financial Recovery?
Dan Hind – Al Jazeera,
4 Jun 2012
Iceland isn’t a model for Ireland. It is a model for the whole European Union. In the years before 2008, in both countries a lightly regulated financial sector ran out of control. Iceland’s big three banks – Glitnir, Kaupthing and Landsbanki – had lent out more than US $200 billion, eleven times the country’s GDP. Ireland’s banks were holding assets of around seven times GDP on their books. Much of the money had been lent abroad.
→ read full articleNATO Summit Highlights Neo-Con/Neo-Liberal Overlap
Paul Rosenberg – Al Jazeera,
4 Jun 2012
As the general election phase of the American presidential election gets underway, the recent NATO summit serves as a potent reminder of just how little difference there ultimately is between the neo-con extremists who dominated US foreign policy under George W Bush, and the neo-liberals who run just about everything in the Obama administration.
→ read full articleWhat’s Behind Obama’s New Military Base In Chile?
Nikolas Kozloff – Al Jazeera,
4 Jun 2012
The construction of a new US military base in Chile has some locals worrying – and wondering what it’s for. Obama has been even more militaristic than predecessor George Bush. In particular, he has been quietly constructing American bases in the remote Southern Cone. It’s an intriguing news story which has received scant attention in the US media, much less the so-called progressive media.
→ read full articleRio+20: A Green Industrial Revolution or Climate Change Diplomacy?
Hilal Elver – Al Jazeera,
4 Jun 2012
Diplomats at climate change talks this week appear unlikely to draft a workable legal document on CO2 reduction.
→ read full articleAlgerian MPs Boycott Parliament Session
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2012
Opposition legislators boycott inaugural session of parliament, claiming fraud in election held earlier this month. For Algeria, the only country in North Africa left largely untouched by last year’s so-called “Arab Spring” revolts, a prolonged boycott by the MPs could complicate a reform of the constitution which President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has promised for this year.
→ read full articleVenezuela’s Indigenous University
Rhodri Davies – Al Jazeera,
28 May 2012
The institution, located in 5,000 acres of forestland, teaches ancient wisdom and rights in the modern world.
→ read full articleDR Congo: Victim to the Western Quest for Justice
Jessica Hatcher – Al Jazeera,
21 May 2012
The international judicial system could be helping to fuel the country’s recent surge in conflict.
→ read full articleAlgeria’s Election Was a Fraud
Jeremy Keenan – Al Jazeera,
21 May 2012
The results of Algeria’s May 10 [2012] legislative elections have been met with such fury by Algerians that some analysts believe that these will be the last elections held under the current regime. If there were any hopes for democracy still remaining in the country, these elections snuffed them out.
→ read full articleBelo Monte: Brazil’s Damned Democracy
Manuela Picq – Al Jazeera,
21 May 2012
The Belo Monte dam project shows the government’s failure to respect indigenous rights and reform energy policy.
→ read full article‘We’ve Gone Way beyond Apartheid’
Frank Barat – Al Jazeera,
7 May 2012
Israel may annex Area C – with the consent of the Palestinian Authority. I caught up with Jeff Halper, long time Israeli peace activist, director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine while he was on a European speaking tour. Here is what he had to say about the situation in Palestine/Israel.
→ read full articleMap: US Bases Encircle Iran
Ben Piven - Al Jazeera,
7 May 2012
From an active-duty force of 1.4 million soldiers, the US has deployed some 350,000 troops to at least 130 foreign countries around the world. Some are at Cold War-era installations, but many are in or near combat zones in the Middle East. At more than 750 bases internationally, private contractors and third-country nationals also form a large percentage of the staff, in addition to military reservists and civilian employees of the Pentagon.
→ read full articleUS ‘Expands Yemen Drone Strikes Policy’
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
Barack Obama has approved a new policy shift which allows the Central Intelligence Agency and the US military to launch drone attacks in Yemen when the identity of those who could be killed is not known. The Washington Post, quoting administration officials, said on Thursday [26 Apr 2012] that the US president approved the use of “signature” strikes this month.
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Gulf of Mexico Seafood Deformities Alarm Scientists
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
30 Apr 2012
It’s almost two years since BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, scientists say they have found deformities among seafood and a great decline in the numbers of marine life.
→ read full articleNuclear Energy and Democracy
MV Ramana and Suvrat Raju – Al Jazeera,
30 Apr 2012
For six months, protesters in Koodankulam, India have physically stopped construction of a nuclear plant.
→ read full articleThe Passion of Bradley Manning
Belen Fernandez – Al Jazeera,
30 Apr 2012
Many have questioned Manning’s sanity for allegedly releasing US military files, but who’s questioning military tactics?
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Johan Galtung: How Do You Define Peace?
Al Jazeera | The Stream – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
Is US global dominance in decline? Discussing the future of geopolitics with Johan Galtung.
→ read full articleNuclear Hopes Fade with the End of Bulgaria’s Belene
Julian Popov – Al Jazeera,
23 Apr 2012
Cancellation of the plant is a blow to European nuclear plans, but new energy strategies are being developed.
→ read full articleYusuf Islam on Music and Faith
Malika Bilal – Al Jazeera,
23 Apr 2012
Artist once known as Cat Stevens explains why he left music, why he returned and why his latest project tops the rest.
→ read full articleHunger Strike a Signal to World’s Oppressed
Linah Alsaafin – Al Jazeera,
23 Apr 2012
There are currently more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, over 300 of those, in administrative detention. Adnan’s hunger strike, which eventually attracted international media attention and solidarity from around the world, inspired other administrative detainees to go on hunger strike. Hana Shalabi went on strike for 43 days before she was released and deported. Five others are now in the Ramleh prison hospital, including Bilal Thiab and Thaer Halahleh, who have not eaten for 52 days.
→ read full articlePro-Palestinian Activists Detained In Israel
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
More than 40 pro-Palestinian activists reached Tel Aviv’s international airport as part of an attempted “fly-in” only to be detained by Israeli authorities. On Sunday [15 Apr 2012] 41 people had been refused entry at Ben Gurion airport by early afternoon and would be deported. The Welcome to Palestine campaign, now in its third consecutive year, aims to gather activists from over 15 countries in Israel from April 15 to 21 to “challenge the Israeli siege of the occupied territories”, it says on its website.
→ read full articleAll the Pain in Spain
Pepe Escobar – Al Jazeera,
16 Apr 2012
Make no mistake; the future of the euro is being played in Spain. The euro may win – but at a price; millions of Spaniards as “collateral damage”. The future may be grim, but a global ola of rebellion may still be at hand. As I left Barcelona’s airport back to Asia I couldn’t help erase the verse of a classic Echo and the Bunnymen song ringing in my head: “See you in the barricades, babe.”
→ read full articleLiving In a Nuclear Hell
Charles Stratford – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
The town of Muslymovo has to be one of the saddest places on earth. The thousands of people who have little choice but to live here, on the banks of the Techa river not far from Russia’s southern border with Kazakhstan, are the victims of a nuclear disaster that began more than six decades ago.
→ read full articleEl Salvador’s Gang Truce
Mike Allison – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
A promising truce brokered by the Church that has reduced homicides by an average of 10 people per day should be upheld.
→ read full articleIs Portugal Hopeless?
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
In the beginning of 2012, Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners, dubbed the situation of Greece and Portugal “hopeless”. In support of his verdict, Darda cited high debt loads and poor prospects for growth in the two countries. The paradox of the current situation is that the European Union’s bailout package came with stipulations that, once implemented, will only worsen every fixable structural problem on the list.
→ read full articleBahraini Villagers Fear Effects of Tear Gas
Gregg Carlstrom – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
Many towns are blanketed nightly with the gas, raising fears of cancer and other long-term health problems.
→ read full articleAusterity vs Solidarity: Democratic Legitimacy and Europe’s Future
Andrea Mammone – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
Across the EU, there is an outcry – including from economists – about the potential damaging effects of austerity plans.
→ read full articleThe Doctrine of Intervention
Manuela Picq – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
One does not think of archaic papal bulls when witnessing democratic states like Brazil or the United States building dams on Amazon rivers or drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean. Yet today’s political ethics are surprisingly similar to the doctrine of discovery set by the Vatican back in 1452.
→ read full articleAn Odious Affair: The UN in Somalia
Abdi Ismail Samatar – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
The organisation may destroy the country’s political autonomy if there is no immediate pro-Somali intervention. This brief essay examines the particular roles played by two UN agencies – the Monitoring Group for Somalia and Eritrea (MG) and the United Nations Special Representative (SR) – in the reproduction of the disaster in the country. These two agencies have separate mandates, but collectively they have been engaged in activities that undermine Somali efforts to rebuild the country.
→ read full articleUnderstanding the Sanusi of Cyrenaica: How to Avoid a Civil War in Libya
Akbar Ahmed and Frankie Martin – Al Jazeera,
2 Apr 2012
Emerging from the nightmare of dictatorship, Libya has a new challenge – to fully accommodate its own people. This article is the seventh in a series by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistani high commissioner to the UK, exploring how a litany of volatile centre/periphery conflicts with deep historical roots were interpreted after 9/11 in the new global paradigm of anti-terrorism – with profound and often violent consequences.
→ read full articleThe Myth of Freedom in the Land of the Free (Part 1 of 2)
John Stoehr – Al Jazeera,
2 Apr 2012
The US touts itself as the land of free, but it has laws which are designed to crush criticisms of the state.
→ read full articleSelling War from 1917 to 2012 (Part 2 of 2)
John Stoehr – Al Jazeera,
2 Apr 2012
One day in 1917, US President Woodrow Wilson sat in his office scratching his head. He faced a dilemma. The war in Europe was very good for American business, but he needed to persuade the American public that entering the war was good for democracy. The problem was that Americans were deeply sceptical of capitalism.
→ read full articleIran and N Korea Excluded From Nuclear Summit
Naj Taylor – Al Jazeera,
2 Apr 2012
In my view the Summit risks achieving its mildly noble objectives at the cost of a further deterioration of diplomatic relations with both North Korea and Iran. First, the hosting of the Summit in Seoul, while rightfully prioritising the Korean peninsula as a nuclear flashpoint, will do little to ease relations between Pyongyang’s young regime and the United States. Second, the exclusion of North Korea and Iran from the talks runs counter to other initiatives underway which are being conducted in accordance with the vision of a “dialogue among civilizations.”
→ read full articleIsrael Cuts Ties With UN Human Rights Body
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
Israel has said it has severed contacts with the UN Human Rights Council after the group’s launch last week of an international investigation into Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The decision, announced by a foreign ministry spokesman on Monday [26 Mar 2012], meant that the fact-finding team the council planned to send to the West Bank will not be allowed to enter the territory or Israel, said spokesman Yigal Palmor.
→ read full articleBRICS Summit: A Perspective from Brazil
Gabriel Elizondo – Al Jazeera,
2 Apr 2012
Stuenkel specialises in Brazil’s relations with India, but also more broadly focuses his research on the BRICS. He is currently a professor of international relations at Getulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo. He also runs a blog called Post Western World, which looks at how emerging powers are changing the world. Below is part of my interview with Stuenkel, where he sheds light on Brazil and the prospects and challenges the BRICS face. He also pushes back against those who say that the BRICS countries have failed.
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Hans Blix: The Iranian Threat (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Talk to Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
The former UN Weapons inspector talks about Iran and how to prevent a nuclear arms race and military crisis in the Middle East.
→ read full articleAlgerian Dissident Silenced By France
Yasmine Ryan – Al Jazeera,
26 Mar 2012
The arrest by French authorities of Mourad Dhina, one of the most vocal critics of Algeria’s administration, underscores just how little has changed in the North African country.
[TMS Editor’s Note: Dr. Mourad Dhina and RACHAD TV are close associates of TRANSCEND, of which Dr. Abbas Aroua is the Convener for the Arab World. Prof. Johan Galtung has granted many interviews to RACHAD TV over the years. He and TRANSCEND would never get involved with terrorists. Such accusations against Dr. Dhina are ludicrous. Please see Prof. Galtung’s Feb 6, 2012 TMS Editorial about Dr. Dhina HERE –Antonio C. S. Rosa]
No One Asked Their Names
Qais Azimy – Al Jazeera,
26 Mar 2012
Many mainstream media outlets channelled a significant amount of energy into uncovering the slightest detail about the accused soldier – now identified as Staff Sergeant Robert Bales. We even know where his wife wanted to go for vacation. But the victims became a footnote, just the number 16. No one bothered to ask their ages, their hobbies, their aspirations. Worst of all, no one bothered to ask their names. In honoring their memory, I write their names below, and the little we know about them: that nine of them were children, three were women.
→ read full articleSharp Increase in Palestinian Deaths in 2011
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
An annual report from the Jerusalem-based B’Tselem showed that in 2011 Israeli security forces killed a total of 105 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, of whom 37 were confirmed as non-combatants. “The picture is harsh, not because of dramatic events or a sudden deterioration, but precisely because of the routine,” the report said.
→ read full articleThe UN’s Chequered Record in West Papua
Jennifer Robinson – Al Jazeera,
26 Mar 2012
But few are aware of the UN’s failure in its first attempt at administration in West Papua more than 40 years earlier. East Timor got a democratic vote. West Papua got a sham vote. East Timor got independence. West Papua became part of Indonesia – against its will and in breach of its right to self-determination under the UN Charter.
→ read full articleThe Corporate Titans Take On the Internet
Peter Frase – Al Jazeera,
19 Mar 2012
The fight over copyright is not a struggle between capital and labour, but one between different factions of capital.
→ read full articleExperts Struggle To Collect Data in Fukushima
D. Parvaz – Al Jazeera,
19 Mar 2012
Is enough being done to ensure solid data, key to making future nuclear safety plans, is being gathered in Fukushima? The trouble is that a series of cover-ups, coupled with a slow response left room for many questions. “The people don’t trust the authorities any more. They said that the power plants were safe and they turned out not to be, and then they made the mistake of not evacuating people soon enough,” said Boilley. “And the authorities [didn’t] trust the population at the beginning … they considered the population as children, not adults who can understand the risks.”
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Rabbi Dovid Weiss: Zionism Has Created ‘Rivers of Blood’
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
The Jewish scholar explains why Zionism and Judaism are not necessarily the same thing and why he believes that Israel as a state is not legitimate.
→ read full articleGlobal Financial Crisis as a Human Rights Issue
Danny Schechter – Al Jazeera,
19 Mar 2012
I think it’s important we recognise that there are economic and social rights as well as political ones, and that if the UN has the duty to “protect” ordinary people against military abuses, it also has the obligation to protect citizens who are being abused by the decisions of the 1 per cent – bankers, economic policymakers and big business honchos. Sitting in the luxury of an Intercontinental Hotel where every third TV ad is for a pricey watch or a Mercedes, I realise that so many in the diplomatic elite, tooling around in their chauffeured cars, identify more with the 1 per cent that has benefited from a crisis that seems to be deepening.
→ read full articleMillennium Development Goal Drinking Water Target Met
Danny Schechter – Al Jazeera,
19 Mar 2012
6 Mar 2012 – The world has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, well in advance of the MDG 2015 deadline, according to a report issued today by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). Between 1990 and 2010, over two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources, such as piped supplies and protected wells.
→ read full articleJapan’s Radiation: Ignorance Isn’t Bliss
D. Parvaz – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
Feeling that officials aren’t doing enough, everyone, farmer to housewife, is learning about radiation contamination. While the Japanese government is making efforts to neutralise fears of radiation contamination, there are a couple of cold, hard facts it can’t overcome.
→ read full articleThe Martyrdom of Elephants: A Sad Tale of Greed
Julie Owono – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
A recent mass slaughter of elephants shows Cameroon’s government is woefully unequipped to deal with poachers. The year 2012 started dramatically. According to the UN, 450 carcasses of these animals – a protected species – have been found near Cameroon’s northern border with Chad. The slaughter is especially worrisome given that, as of 2007, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated that only 1,000 to 5,000 elephants are still left in Cameroon.
→ read full articleRevenge of the Settlers
Nour Samaha – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
Palestinians are under increasing attacks from Israeli settlers, especially in the last few years, reports have found. For Israeli activist Nawi, the motivations of settlers are much more straightforward. “Most of the settlers are motivated by religious ideas; that the Arabs are unwelcome people and they need to leave,” he said. “It is not an argument you can reason with. They want Palestine.”
→ read full articleGauging Arab Public Opinion
Marwan Bishara – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
The first of its kind – a poll conducted in 12 Arab countries, representing over 80 per cent of the population of the Arab world, in an attempt to gauge the region’s political mood, shows: Israel and the US are seen as more threatening than Iran. A high 84 per cent believe the Palestinian question is the cause of all Arabs and not the Palestinians only, and 84 per cent reject the notion of their state’s recognition of Israel. Only 21 per cent support, to a certain degree, the peace agreement signed between Egypt, Jordan and the PLO with Israel.
→ read full articleThe Continuing Saga of UN Impunity
Kristen Saloomey – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
The United Nations is no stranger to scandal. There are the wayward peacekeeping troops who take advantage of the vulnerable people they are supposed to be protecting and commit rape and sexual abuse. Think: Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Then there’s corruption, as happened in the Oil-for-Food Programme.
→ read full articleA Revolution in Botanical Nomenclature
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
Since January 1, botanical terms are to be named in English rather than Latin, changing a centuries old practice.
→ read full articleIceland’s Ex-PM on Trial over Banks Crisis
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
The former prime minister of Iceland has gone on trial in a special court in Reykjavik on charges of negligence over his handling of the country’s 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of the country’s banking system.
→ read full articleUS Must Seize Opportunity to Support Palestinian Nonviolence
Yousef Munayyer – Al Jazeera,
5 Mar 2012
More than ever, polling data shows, Palestinians are supporting nonviolent resistance. A series of polls of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza which included a question on nonviolence reveals an undeniable trend in the past 18 months. In June of 2010, 51 per cent of Palestinians polled responded that nonviolent resistance was a preferred alternative to stalled negotiations. In a poll at the end of 2011 that number jumped to over 61 per cent.
→ read full articleBahrain Delays UN Investigator Visit
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Government requests torture investigator to delay visit, while strengthening restrictions on visits by rights groups. The UN human rights office in Geneva said on Thursday [1 Mar 2012] that Bahrain had formally requested that the visit of the special rapporteur on torture be delayed until July. Bahrain, an ally of the United States and home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, is ruled by the Sunni Muslim al-Khalifa family, and has been under pressure to institute political and rights reforms since its violent crackdown on the uprising.
→ read full articleUN Peacekeepers Not About to Leave Haiti
Benedict Moran – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
A bas Kolera, a bas Minista,– Creole for “down with cholera, down with MINUSTAH,” the United Nation peacekeeping force in Haiti – can be seen spray-painted across Port-au-Prince. After years of scandal, including allegations of sexual abuse and accusations of introducing cholera into the country, many Haitians want the UN’s third-largest peacekeeping force to leave. But despite calls to leave, the UN Security Council, which recently made a visit to the country to assess its mission, foresees a UN military presence in the country for years to come.
→ read full articleThe Best Information Is Quantum Information
Joseph Emerson – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
Quantum computing could revolutionise the field of cryptography, with major implications for privacy and security.
→ read full articleThe European Union and the Rhetoric of Immaturity
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
The tendency to infantalise select member states is in line with their animalisation, evident in the insulting abbreviation of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain in the word PIGS, neither as human nor as rational as the rest of the EU countries. Throughout Western philosophy, both children and animals, with their capricious wills, have been considered deficient from the standpoint of fully developed rational adults and, hence, in need of training, education, and disciplining.
→ read full articleThe Birth Control Bishops
Rose Aguilar – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
Rather than spend energy fighting contraception legislation, the Catholic Bishops should clean up their own backyard – Forget child abuse. The Catholic Bishops would rather spend their time, money, and resources on birth control and women’s sex lives. The main debate over the past few weeks in the United States has been about birth control. And guess who’s dominating it? The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the country’s official organisation of the Catholic hierarchy.
→ read full articleBP Goes to Court
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
The largest environmental trial in US history begins February 27 [2012], as BP is sued for its 2010 oil spill disaster.
→ read full articleEgypt Military’s Economic Empire
Sherine Tadros – Al Jazeera,
20 Feb 2012
The military’s vast economic interests in Egypt are one of those secrets which is not really a secret. Their social clubs, complexes, villages and products are clear for all to see, but their precise hold on the country’s economy has never been determined. Analysts have predicted the Egyptian military control anything from 15 per cent to 40 per cent of the economy. Even those are wild estimates.
→ read full articleNir Rosen on Syria’s Protest Movement
Al Jazeera staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
Journalist Nir Rosen recently spent two months in Syria. As well as meeting members of various communities across the country – supporters of the country’s rulers and of the opposition alike – he spent time with armed resistance groups in Homs, Idlib, Deraa, and Damascus suburbs. He also travelled extensively around the country last year, documenting his experiences for Al Jazeera.
→ read full articleTurkey’s Civilian-Military Complex
Pinar Kemerli – Al Jazeera,
20 Feb 2012
The plight of conscientious objectors in the country shows that the country has not eclipsed its military past.
→ read full articleBeing a Communist In 2012
Santiago Zabala – Al Jazeera,
13 Feb 2012
Being a communist in 2012 is not a political choice, but rather an existential matter. The global levels of political, economic and social inequality we are going to reach this year because of capitalism’s logics of production not only are alarming, but also threaten our existence. Unfortunately, war with Iran is likely to begin, public protest might increase throughout the West because of government austerity programmes, and these very disorders will probably be suppressed with sophisticated high-tech weapons.
→ read full articleWith Arabs Taking Control of Their Fate, Is the UN Still Relevant?
Sarah Mousa – Al Jazeera,
13 Feb 2012
The UN Security Council stands as a relic of a past age; rather than voicing global concerns, it is a platform for permanent members to confirm the hierarchy of the world order. The five permanent members each individually have the authority to veto any resolution. The veto is often used by these great powers not out of concern for keeping peace, as the council was supposedly created to do, but to secure perceived interests – however contradictory they may be to basic principles of humanity.
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Spanish Judge Defends Probe into Franco-Era
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
The world-renowned Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon has defiantly rejected charges of abuse of power for opening an investigation into Franco-era crimes.
→ read full articleJustice in Spain Means Memory
Ana Messuti – Al Jazeera,
13 Feb 2012
In so far as the Supreme Court of Spain finds that Judge Garzon perverted the course of Justice by trying to investigate Franco’s crimes against humanity, a big step will be taken towards the burial of Memory and Justice. Memory in search of Justice is Memory in anger. Perhaps, after all, death is not going to trump Justice, as the fury of Memory is going to trump injustice. Sooner or later, one way or other, Justice will have to prevail in Spain.
→ read full article‘Big Brother’ Concerns over Google Changes
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
The California-based internet giant said in a blog post that the changes were designed to improve the user experience across various Google products, which range from web search to Gmail, YouTube and Google+, the social networking platform launched by the company last year. “Instead of keeping separate vats of information for each of its products, Google will now allow them to cross-pollinate, creating a complete picture of who you are, what you read, where you’re going and what you’re up to.”
→ read full articleMaking Sense of Twitter’s Censorship
Ali M Latifi – Al Jazeera,
30 Jan 2012
In an announcement on its official blog, the micro-blogging service Twitter has said it will enable country-specific censorship of content on the site. In a Forbes article highly circulated on the site early Friday [27 Jan 1012], Mark Gibbs wrote that Twitter was committing “social suicide” with the censorship announcement. Gibbs’ article raised fears of an algorithm incapable of understanding the sarcasm that permeate the 140-character blasts comprising the service’s contents.
→ read full articleYear of the Dragon Roars into Asia
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
23 Jan 2012 – Millions across Asia celebrate the Chinese New Year, with superstitious anticipating a year filled with luck. A billion-plus Asians have welcomed the Year of the Dragon with a cacophony of fireworks, hoping the mightiest sign in the Chinese zodiac will usher in the wealth and power it represents.
→ read full articleDam It: Brazil’s Belo Monte Stirs Controversy
Gabriel Elizondo – Al Jazeera,
23 Jan 2012
About 24,000 people will be displaced from towns in the Amazon to make way for the world’s third biggest dam. Five thousand men are working in two shifts, from 7 am until 5 pm and from 5 pm until 2:30 am, six days a week. The construction area is gigantic, to form two reservoirs 500 square kilometres in size. A ‘small city’ is being built inside the work area to accommodate some of the 20,000 labourers and engineers who will be working here by November 2013. When completed, Belo Monte will be the world’s third largest hydroelectric dam and the latest cost estimate is $14bn.
→ read full articleOhio Quakes Raise Fracking Questions
Kristen Saloomey – Al Jazeera,
23 Jan 2012
Seismologists from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources-ODNR asked to study the quakes had already gone on record saying they were directly linked to one well in particular. “I think this case has reached point of being proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” John Armbruster told me when I visited him at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
→ read full articleSpain: Justice Chases a Human-Rights Judge
Jonah Hull – Al Jazeera,
23 Jan 2012
The darling of human-rights groups – and victims – in Spain and around the world, Balthasar Garzon stepped on many toes in his long career. Members of both the ruling Popular Party and the previous Socialist government resent indictments handed down implicating officials in corruption and state-sponsored death squads. He’s no friend of extant elements of old regimes in Latin America, where amnesties for war crimes have successively been tested and repealed in Guatemala and Argentina after Garzon’s indictment of Chile’s General Augusto Pinochet in the late 1990s.
→ read full articleRivers Must Flow: The Case against Big Dams
Lori Pottinger – Al Jazeera,
16 Jan 2012
Large dams threaten the planet’s riverine lifelines and action must be taken soon. More than 50,000 large dams now choke about two-thirds of the world’s largest rivers. The consequences of this massive engineering programme have been devastating. Large dams have wiped out species; flooded huge areas of wetlands, forests and farmlands; displaced tens of millions of people, and affected close to half a billion people living downstream.
→ read full articleThe End of the Keynesian Era
Nathan Lewis – Al Jazeera,
9 Jan 2012
The beginning of the Keynesian Era can be dated, perhaps, to September 1931 – the year when Britain intentionally devalued the pound, throwing the world into turmoil and currency conflict. Today, we are again in an extended period of economic crisis. However, I suspect that this will turn out to be the end of the Keynesian Era – the time when it is, in fact, Keynesianism itself which destroys us.
→ read full articlePrivate Security and ‘the Israelites of Latin America’
Belen Fernandez – Al Jazeera,
9 Jan 2012
An Israeli defence consultancy is assisting with dirty work in Colombia previously monopolised by the United States. A pet factoid wielded by self-appointed experts on the matter is that it is currently possible to travel by air from Caracas to Tehran with only one stop in Damascus. Lest policymakers and the general public fail to respond with adequate alarm to such news, the severity of the threat is underscored via invented links between Muslims in Latin America and every potentially unfavourable regional trend, resulting in a spectre of Islamo-narco-socialist crime cartels menacing the southern border of the US.
→ read full articleIsrael’s Radical Settlers: A Fifth Column?
Roxanne Horesh – Al Jazeera,
9 Jan 2012
Oz Zion, West Bank – Heroic youth. Righteous Jews. Hill top kids. Crazy folks. Nationalist criminals. Vigilantes. Terrorists. The price tag movement. Countless names exist for a group of settlers in the occupied West Bank that exact retribution against Palestinians and the Israeli army in response to policies targeting the settlement movement. The group has burned and desecrated mosques, destroyed olive groves on private Palestinian land, harassed people and property, and most recently confronted an Israeli army base.
→ read full articlePushing Iran towards a Nuclear Bomb
Patrick Disney – Al Jazeera,
9 Jan 2012
For the US, the current dynamic with Iran contains a real danger of sleepwalking toward disaster. The goal of Western policy toward Iran is to delay Iran’s actual acquisition of a bomb through sabotage, assassinations, cyber attacks and other covert activities. But this is tragically misaligned with the reality of Iranian decision-making.
→ read full articleWhy Latin America Calls On Philosophers
Santiago Zabala – Al Jazeera,
9 Jan 2012
Similar to the World Social Forum of Brazil, both the prize and forum aim to reflect not only upon the social progress that characterises these nations, but also the progress taking place in rest of the world; this is why only thinkers whose position is essentially leftist are invited, that is, those in the service of the weak, marginalised, and oppressed sectors of society.
→ read full articleFallujah Babies: Under A New Kind of Siege
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
9 Jan 2012
While the US military has formally withdrawn from Iraq, doctors and residents of Fallujah are blaming weapons like depleted uranium and white phosphorous used during two devastating US attacks on Fallujah in 2004 for what are being described as “catastrophic” levels of birth defects and abnormalities.
→ read full articleWestern Oil Firms Remain As US Exits Iraq
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
9 Jan 2012
The end of the US military occupation does not mean Iraqis have full control of their oil. While the US military has formally ended its occupation of Iraq, some of the largest western oil companies, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, remain.
→ read full article
Philosopher Slavoj Zizek on World Affairs
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
The Slovenian philosopher and critical theorist talks to Al Jazeera about the momentous changes taking place in the global financial and political system.
→ read full articleExxon ‘Loses’ Venezuela Nationalisation Case
Chris Arsenault – Al Jazeera,
9 Jan 2012
Hugo Chavez must be smiling. In the latest showdown between western oil companies and Venezuela’s populist president, Exxon Mobil is widely seen as the loser, after the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ruled that the world’s biggest oil company would not be entitled to most of the damages it demanded after its fields were nationalised. “The ICC only awarded Exxon ten per cent of what they wanted,” Chavez said recently. “You can make your own conclusions.”
→ read full articleEuropean Shame over the Roma Question
Julian Popov – Al Jazeera,
2 Jan 2012
European strategies to ‘integrate’ Roma populations have failed due to a lack of inclusiveness. Earlier this year, the European Commission published one of those beautiful documents called a “Communication” under the title “An EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020”. The question of whether the national strategies for Roma integration will work has a simple answer: they will not. The question of whether the European funds for Roma integration will be absorbed also has a simple answer: they will.
→ read full articleThe Eagle, the Bear and the Dragon
Pepe Escobar – Al Jazeera,
26 Dec 2011
Here’s a new Cold War fable for an emerging multipolar world. Once upon a time in the young 21st century, the eagle, the bear and the dragon took their (furry) gloves off and engaged in a New Cold War.
→ read full articleNo Justice for Bradley Manning
Charles Davis – Al Jazeera,
26 Dec 2011
Other young soldiers thinking of telling the truth about America’s wars must by now have surely gotten the message: if you see something, don’t say something. Meanwhile, Manning couldn’t be faulted for wondering why he did not just take a cue from his commander-in-chief and kill some innocent foreigners like a good American boy. Instead of facing a lifetime in prison, he might have been up for a medal.
→ read full articleA Forgotten Invasion, a Forgotten Dictator
Mike Allison – Al Jazeera,
26 Dec 2011
On Sunday [18 Dec 2011], former strongman Manuel Noriega returned to Panama following twenty-plus years in US and French prisons. However, the return to his native country remains as clouded in mystery as the reasons for his initial departure. Noriega had been involved in the drug trade for many years, and at the same time that he was on both CIA and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) payrolls. I would also argue that, like President Ronald Reagan’s invasion of Grenada in 1983, President Bush likely believed that an operation to remove Noriega would be an easy foreign policy success. While Noriega was neither the most repressive dictator nor the most corrupt, he was the most vulnerable to US military force.
→ read full articleWestern Hunger for Myanmar’s ‘Cleansed’ Lands
Francis Wade – Al Jazeera,
19 Dec 2011
Recent reforms in Myanmar don’t address the country’s brutal wars against ethnic minorities. A 15-year-old boy told staff from Physicians for Human Rights how he had been forced to walk in front of a Burmese army patrol, ensuring that he and not they took the full blast from any landmine hidden along the path.
→ read full articleStateless Finally Arrive On the World Political Map
Davinder Kumar – Al Jazeera,
19 Dec 2011
The political drive to tackle statelessness has finally found a foothold on the global platform, writes the author.
→ read full articleWhat’s the Harm of Cluster Munitions?
Naj Taylor – Al Jazeera,
19 Dec 2011
Proposed legislation in Australia undermines the international Convention on cluster munitions. This is the third part of a three-part essay. Here, I examine the problem of institutional investment in cluster munitions producers.
→ read full articleLatin America’s Message to the Arab World
Pepe Escobar – Al Jazeera,
12 Dec 2011
Take a good look at this 1970 photo. The 22-year-old woman in the photo is about to be examined by a bunch of subtropical inquisitors. She has just been tortured, electrocuted and waterboarded – what Dick Cheney dismisses as “enhanced interrogation” – for 22 days. Yet she didn’t break down. Today this woman, Dilma Rousseff, is the President of Brazil.
→ read full articleBuilding Truth in Brazil
Manuela Picq – Al Jazeera,
12 Dec 2011
Some things take time. Dilma Rousseff, once a political prisoner who survived repeated torture at the hands of the military dictatorship, is now, a quarter of a century later, Brazil’s commander-in-chief. President Rousseff, Brazil’s first female head of state, pushed forward the creation of a Truth Commission to unveil crimes committed during the country’s military regime.
→ read full articleSaving Shambala from a Russia-China Pipeline
Jon Letman – Al Jazeera,
12 Dec 2011
Opening a remote border region to development threatens to destroy Central Asian wilderness and culture. The plot is familiar – giant multinational corporations want to develop a controversial gas pipeline – but the setting is anything but familiar. As Jennifer Castner, director of The Altai Project, dedicated to protecting the natural and cultural heritage of Altai says, “Gazprom wants to build this pipeline. I don’t think they care what they have to do in order to do it.”
→ read full articleDrones: A Deeply Unsettling Future
Trevor Timm – Al Jazeera,
12 Dec 2011
The rapid expansion of a drone arms race has emerged both domestically and abroad, leaving everyone vulnerable. Whether they are being used for surveillance or all-out combat, drones will soon pose serious risks for all of the world’s citizens. They can offer governments, police departments, or private citizens unprecedented capabilities for spying, and given their security vulnerabilities, the potential consequences could be endless.
→ read full articleThe Paradox of a ‘Responsible’ Arms Maker
Naj Taylor – Al Jazeera,
12 Dec 2011
The negative impact of arms manufacture calls for a closer look at corporate social responsibility. This is the first in a three-part essay that explores an often neglected aspect of corporate responsibility: the paradox of being a “responsible” arms maker.
→ read full articleFamine as a Crime against Humanity
Abdi Ismail Samatar – Al Jazeera,
5 Dec 2011
Several months ago, I wrote an essay entitled “Genocidal Politics and the Somali Famine”. It appears that the coordinator of the UN’s Monitoring Committee for Somalia agrees with the essay’s proposition that nature is not to blame and that powerful human actors are responsible for the catastrophe.
→ read full article‘Bugsplat’: The Ugly US Drone War in Pakistan
Jennifer Robinson – Al Jazeera,
5 Dec 2011
It’s time for the US to re-examine the consequences of its dehumanising, deadly attacks in Pakistan. This weekend [27 Nov 2011], Pakistan ordered the closure of the US drone base after a US attack killed 26 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border. This news will be welcomed by the people of Waziristan, where communities have borne the brunt of the “collateral damage” of the US covert drone war.
→ read full articleUK: Who Are You Going To Believe? The Media?
Daniel Hind – Al Jazeera,
5 Dec 2011
The Leveson inquiry is asking questions of society that mainstream media must not be allowed to answer. Commentators have paid much less attention to the questions Leveson considers to be central. The media don’t want to host a discussion that is framed in constitutional terms. They don’t want their audiences to think too hard about what is meant by “the public interest” and they are frantic to ensure that any debate about checks and balances leaves their privileges unnoticed and intact.
→ read full articleA Mental and Physical Hell
Renee Lewis – Al Jazeera,
5 Dec 2011
The majority of the world’s trafficked people are in Southeast Asia, and about half of those are forced into sex work. The life of a sexually trafficked woman in Southeast Asia is almost unimaginable. The majority of victims are between 18 and 24 years old. Sexually trafficked women are often forced to have sex with as many as five to 15 men each night – and in most places they are not allowed to refuse potential “clients” for any reason.
→ read full article