Articles by RD
We found 3631 results.
(Castellano) Liu en Oslo, Vanunu en Berlín
Rafael Poch – La Vanguardia,
20 Dec 2010
Tras 18 años en una cárcel israelí, once de ellos en régimen de aislamiento, el israelí Mordechai Vanunu tampoco puede venir a Berlín a recoger el premio de la Liga Internacional de Derechos Humanos.
→ read full articleThe Delusions of the Peace Process
Richard Falk – Al Jazeera,
20 Dec 2010
In effect, a habitual armed robber was being asked to stop robbing a few banks for three months in exchange for a huge financial payoff. Such an arrangement qualifies as a transparently shameless embrace of Israeli lawlessness on behalf of a peace process that has no prospect of producing peace, much less justice.
→ read full articleBaby Steps Made at Climate Summit Pale in Comparison to the Change Needed
Tina Gerhardt - AlterNet,
20 Dec 2010
“All of us will be affected by the lack of ambition and political will of a small group of countries,” concluded one NGO.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks’ Lesson on Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
20 Dec 2010
What the US embassy cables reveal about Washington’s malign influence should make Latin American nations quit the UN force…. This logic is why they got rid of Aristide – who was much to the left of Preval – and won’t let him back in the country. This is why Washington funded the recent “elections” that excluded Haiti’s largest political party, the equivalent of shutting out the Democrats and Republicans in the United States. And this is why Minustah is still occupying the country, more than six years after the coup, without any apparent mission other than replacing the hated Haitian army – which Aristide had abolished – as a repressive force.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Backlash: The First Global Cyber War Has Begun, Claim Hackers
Mark Townsend, Paul Harris in New York, Alex Duval Smith in Johannesburg, Dan Sabbagh, Josh Halliday – The Guardian,
13 Dec 2010
As Julian Assange is held in solitary confinement at Wandsworth prison, the anonymous community of hacktivists takes to the cyber battlefields.
→ read full articleUS Involvement in Iraq: A Lot of Blood for Little Oil
Cordula Meyer – Der Spiegel,
13 Dec 2010
Contrary to what many people believe, the Iraq war provided few advantages for the US oil industry. The diplomatic cables show that, in most cases, it was competitors to the Americans who often did better in the country. Only one US company truly profited: Halliburton.
→ read full articleFBI Wiretapping of Internet Users: “All Your Data Belongs to Us”
Tom Burghardt – Global Research,
6 Dec 2010
A Seamless Global Surveillance Web. In a further sign that Barack Obama’s faux “progressive” regime will soon seek broad new Executive Branch power, The New York Times disclosed last week that FBI chief and cover-up specialist extraordinaire, Robert S. Mueller III, “traveled to Silicon Valley on Tuesday to meet with top executives of several technology firms about a proposal to make it easier to wiretap Internet users.”
→ read full articleIreland’s Debt Servitude
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – The Telegraph,
6 Dec 2010
Stripped to its essentials, the €85bn package imposed on Ireland by the Eurogroup and the European Central Bank is a bail-out for improvident British, German, Dutch, and Belgian bankers and creditors. The Irish taxpayers carry the full burden, and deplete what remains of their reserve pension fund to cover a quarter of the cost. This arrangement – I am not going to grace it with the term deal – was announced in Brussels before the elected Taoiseach of Ireland had been able to tell his own people what their fate would be.
→ read full articleBailout Talks: Four Truths Ireland Can’t Ignore
Richard Douthwaite - ConstructIreland,
29 Nov 2010
[Governor of the Central Bank Patrick Honohan, the financial regulator Matthew Elderfield, and the head of the National Treasury Management Agency John Corrigan]: unless these three men insist that the following four truths are accepted by those on the other side of the table, the country will be presented with an agreement that will blight its future for at least a generation…. Ireland has no alternative but to renege on the guarantees and to build itself a future within the EU but outside the eurozone.
→ read full article[WikiLeaks] US Embassy Cables Leak Sparks Global Diplomacy Crisis
David Leigh – The Guardian,
29 Nov 2010
• More than 250,000 dispatches reveal US foreign strategies
• Diplomats ordered to spy on allies as well as enemies
• Hillary Clinton leads frantic ‘damage limitation’
The United States was catapulted into a worldwide diplomatic crisis today [28 Nov 2010], with the leaking to the Guardian and other international media of more than 250,000 classified cables from its embassies, many sent as recently as February this year.
Haiti: One More Shameful UN Betrayal
Peter Hallward – The Guardian,
29 Nov 2010
Cholera is just the latest disaster to be linked to the UN in Haiti – and the election won’t change the nature of the mission.
→ read full article
The Story of Electronics
Annie Leonard, Story of Stuff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Nov 2010
Why “designed for the dump” electronics are toxic to people and the planet … and what to do about it.
→ read full articleWhy Desperate Haitians Want to Kick Out UN Troops
Isabeau Doucet – The Guardian,
22 Nov 2010
It’s a familiar pattern – in the 1980s, when Aids first came to the world’s attention, Haitians were stigmatised as one of the four Hs – homosexuals, hemophiliacs, heroin users and Haitian – having brought the disease to the US. But, like cholera, Aids was not indigenous to Haiti and is only now ravaging the country because somebody else brought it in. And, while Haitians face stigmatisation from their neighbours once again, the world must take its share of the blame. The real question is: why? Why is there crippling poverty? Why no water, sanitation or medical infrastructure?
→ read full articleHubble: Why the World-Famous Telescope Will Go Out in a Blaze of Glory
Nick Harding – The Independent,
22 Nov 2010
When it blasted off 20 years ago, few thought it would succeed. But it showed us a universe we didn’t know existed.
→ read full articleHaiti: Refugee Camps May Model Future Society
Elizabeth Senatus and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
8 Nov 2010
While it should never be the case that a high percentage of the Haitian population remains living in refugee camps ten months after the earthquake, still camp residents have managed to create in a few of those camps a small-scale model of the type of future society that many would like to see. Their camps have achieved democratic participation by community members, autonomy from foreign authority, a focus on meeting the needs of all, dignified living conditions, respect for rights, creativity, and a commitment to gender equity.
→ read full articleThe Tide Has Changed in Gaza: A Musical Lesson on Humanity
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
25 Oct 2010
If one tried to fit music compositions into an equivalent literary style, Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble’s latest release would come across as a most engaging political essay: persuasive, argumentative, rational, original, imaginative and always unfailingly accessible. But unlike the rigid politicking of politicians and increasingly Machiavellian style of today’s political essayists – so brazen they no longer hide behind illusory moral façades – the band’s latest work is also unapologetically humanistic.
→ read full articleA World Made by War: How Old Will You Be When the American War State Goes Down?
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
18 Oct 2010
I’ve had two mobilized moments in my life. The first was in the Vietnam War years; the second, the one that leaves me as a nine-year-old, began on the morning of September 11, 2001. I turned on the TV while doing my morning exercises, saw a smoking hole in a World Trade Center tower, and thought that, as in 1945 when a B-25 slammed into the Empire State Building, a terrible accident had happened. Later, after the drums of war had begun to beat, after the first headlines had screamed their World-War-II-style messages (“the Pearl Harbor of the 21st century”), I had another thought. And for a reasonably politically sophisticated guy, my second response was not only as off-base as the first, but also remarkably dumb. I thought that this horrific event taking place in my hometown might open Americans up to the pain of the world. No such luck, of course.
→ read full articleIsrael’s Loyalty Oath: Discriminatory by Design
The Guardian, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Oct 2010
New pledge requires future citizens declare their loyalty to an ideology, one intended to exclude Palestinians.
→ read full articleChilean Miners Rescue: This is a Rare Moment of Global Joy
Michael White – The Guardian,
18 Oct 2010
When was the last time this happened? I’ve been racking my brains. I can think of a few happy ones. Unfortunately most such unifying experiences seen around the planet are negative.
→ read full article(French) Retour sur l’Émergence du Mouvement pour la Justice Climatique
Michael Hardt & Nicolas Haeringer, Entretien avec Michael Hardt – CETRI,
11 Oct 2010
Pour Michael Hardt, Copenhague pourrait bien être une étincelle qui débouche sur un nouveau cycle de luttes – des luttes plurielles, non dénuées de contradictions. Les penser, et éventuellement les dépasser, implique un travail de théorisation, autour, entre autres, de la question des “communs” : pour sauver le climat, sortir de la propriété ?
→ read full article(Portuguese) No Brasil, pela Primeira Vez, um Deputado Federal É Condenado à Prisão
Antonio Carlos Lacerda, Correspondente no Brasil - Pravda,
11 Oct 2010
O deputado federal do Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro (PTB) do Estado de Goiás, no Centro-Oeste do Brasil, José Fuscaldi Cesílio, o Tatico, foi condenado pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF) a sete anos de prisão, em regime semi-aberto, por apropriação indébita e sonegação fiscal. Esta é a primeira vez que no Brasil um deputado federal é condenado à prisão.
→ read full articleMedia Disinformation: Washington’s “Regime-Change Hit-List” – Iran vs. Honduras (Part 1)
Edward S. Herman and David Peterson – Monthly Review,
11 Oct 2010
It would be hard to find a better test of the integrity of the establishment U.S. media than in their comparative treatment of Iran and Honduras over the past couple of years (2009-2010).
→ read full articleEcuador’s Correa Haunted by Honduras
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
4 Oct 2010
This was a coup attempt – encouraged by Washington’s shameful support for the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya last year. In June of last year, when the Honduran military overthrew the social-democratic government of Manuel Zelaya, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador took it personally. “We have intelligence reports that say that after Zelaya, I’m next,” said Correa.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Não É Possível Pensar em Desenvolvimento sem Valorizar as Pessoas
Marcus Eduardo de Oliveira - Pravda,
4 Oct 2010
O desenvolvimento, em suas múltiplas manifestações, não é uma questão de ter, mas sim de ser mais. Sábios e filósofos de todos os tempos e de todos os horizontes profetizaram a esse respeito. Gandhi argumentou que o desenvolvimento seria bom e justo somente se elevasse a condição dos mais modestos. Em defesa de uma economia com uma face mais humana, padre Louis Joseph Lebret pontuou que o desenvolvimento não deve ser visto apenas pelo prisma econômico (acúmulo material), mas também pelo social, ético, político, moral. Adam Smith, preocupado em estudar a riqueza das nações, afirmou que a verdadeira riqueza deve ser avaliada pelo padrão de vida das famílias.
→ read full articleAn Alternative Environmental Future for Haiti
Aldrin Calixte and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
4 Oct 2010
Haiti is famous around the world primarily for its problems, one being advanced ecological destruction. However, as with its other problems, citizens – with international friends and the occasional help of the government – are working to turn this around and create a healthy environment.
→ read full article(Castellano) Irak Indemniza a Estados Unidos
Carlos Sardiña – Periodismo Humano,
27 Sep 2010
El Gobierno iraquí ha accedido a pagar 400 millones de dólares a varios ciudadanos estadounidenses que fueron prisioneros del régimen de Saddam Hussein durante la primera guerra del Golfo…. Como no podía ser de otra manera, la decisión del Gobierno iraquí ha suscitado una enorme indignación entre la población que ha sufrido y sigue sufriendo una guerra que dura ya siete años y ha destruido el país. Lo más sangrante es que los iraquíes no tienen posibilidad alguna de exigir un mínimo de justicia en Estados Unidos por su responsabilidad en una tragedia mucha mayor que los daños sufridos por varios centenares de estadounidenses hace dos decenios ni a pedir el mismo tipo de compensaciones a las fuerzas de ocupación.
→ read full articleNuclear Dangers and Opportunities in the Middle East
Richard Falk and David Krieger – Nuclear Age Peace Foundation,
27 Sep 2010
Hardly a week goes by without an Israeli top official threatening to attack Iran so as to disrupt or destroy its nuclear program, which is suspected of moving in the direction of acquiring nuclear weapons. Shamelessly, as well, the extreme right think tanks in the Washington Beltway and many faithful followers of Israel echo these dangerous sentiments. They send Tel Aviv a signal that it has a green light to launch an attack on Iran at the time of its choosing, along with the reassuring message that the United States Government will step forward in support, whatever the adverse economic and diplomatic consequences for the region.
→ read full articleHaiti: Don’t Give Us Food, Help Us Produce
Beverly Bell and Jonas Deronzil – Toward Freedom,
27 Sep 2010
Since foreign rice has invaded Haiti, we plant our rice but we can’t sell it. The foreigners have all the possibilities: they have water, they have machinery, they have easy access to fertilizer and other inputs. They can grow their rice in quantity. The peasants, poor devils, we spend a lot to grow it, but we can’t sell it. Sometimes we have to go to the loan sharks just to get enough money to survive.
→ read full articleChris Hedges on Moral Courage
Toward Freedom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Sep 2010
Chris Hedges begins this speech to the Veterans for Peace convention by saying, “Physical courage is something you see on a battlefield. Moral courage you almost never see.”
→ read full articleSudan: Prospect and Lesson
Richard Cockett – Open Democracy,
20 Sep 2010
The forthcoming referendum on independence in south Sudan could lead to the break-up of Africa’s biggest country. But if Sudan has failed as a unitary state its end carries dangers.
→ read full articleRebel Soldiers: Dissent Grows in the British Military
Dan Read – Toward Freedom,
6 Sep 2010
Glenton had spent the last nine months behind bars for refusing to return to Afghanistan and espousing his anti-war views. Addressing a meeting of the Stop the War Coalition after his confinement, he said it was “badge of honor to have gone to prison” and that he has “more in common with the people of Afghanistan than my own political and military leaders.”
→ read full articleSpace Warfare: Preparing the “Battlespace” for a New Imperial Adventure
Tom Burghardt – Global Research,
30 Aug 2010
Secretive Mini-Shuttles and Spy Satellites
→ read full articleBreaking the Information Monopoly
Darian Worden – AlterNet,
30 Aug 2010
With modern information and publishing technologies, it’s easier than ever for average folks to actively participate in the spread of information. We can look beneath the official stories and create our own narratives that are not based in helplessness, isolation, or politicians’ posturing.
→ read full articleTwo Dangerous Ingredients in Everyday Products That Are Threatening Our Health
Jill Richardson - AlterNet,
30 Aug 2010
Numerous chemicals that are legally used in personal care products are untested, inadequately tested, or even proven harmful, but few are as widely used and as unnecessary as the endocrine disrupting chemicals triclosan (an ingredient in 75 percent of liquid hand soaps) and triclocarban (most commonly found in deodorant bar soaps).
→ read full articleThe Transformation of Latin America is a Global Advance
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
23 Aug 2010
The radical tide is about to be put to the test in Brazil and Venezuela. If support holds, it will have lessons for all of us.
→ read full articleFrance Urged to Repay Haiti Billions Paid For Its Independence
Kim Willsher in Paris – The Guardian,
23 Aug 2010
A group of international academics and authors has written to Nicolas Sarkozy calling on France to reimburse the crushing “independence debt” it imposed on Haiti nearly 200 years ago.
→ read full articleFrance’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.
→ read full article
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
→ read full article
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?
→ read full article
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.
→ read full article
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 […]
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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 article