Articles by RD
We found 3647 results.
COLERIDGE AT THE G20
Richard Bronk,
22 Mar 2009
The Romantics have much to teach today’s leaders about the limits of rationalist economics Among the briefing notes being prepared for G20 world leaders, I suspect very few are drawing attention to the lessons taught by Romantic poets and philosophers. This is a pity. For they have much to tell us about the limits of […]
→ read full articleBEAWARE THE MADOFF DIVERSION!
Richard Grossman,
18 Mar 2009
Sure, there are crooks out there. But the overwhelming majority of actions by corporate directors and managers that have created today’s messes have been legal. Not only legal, but also widely regarded as necessary and essential to sustain the American Way of Life. To put food on our tables. To heat our homes. To […]
→ read full articleA FALCON OF PEACE
Tom Engelhardt,
12 Mar 2009
How come they get to be the hawks? And we get to be the doves? A hawk is a noble bird. A dove – well, basically it’s a pigeon. The sort of bird that, in New York City anyway, messes your building’s window sills, is always underfoot, and, along with the city’s rats, makes a […]
→ read full articleGAZA: FAILED SIEGE
The Guardian, UK - Editorial (Mar 3),
4 Mar 2009
Pledging aid for Gaza is the easy bit. Getting it delivered to Gazans living in tents after Israel’s three-week bombardment is another matter. The $3bn that donors promised in Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday will have to penetrate a labyrinth of barriers and conditions, the complexity of which King Minos of Crete would have been proud. The […]
→ read full articleTHE IMPERIAL UNCONSCIOUS
Tom Engelhardt,
3 Mar 2009
Afghan Faces, Predators, Reapers, Terrorist Stars, Roman Conquerors, Imperial Graveyards, and Other Oddities of the Truncated American CenturySometimes, it’s the everyday things, the ones that fly below the radar, that matter. Here, according to Bloomberg News, is part of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’s recent testimony on the Afghan War before the Senate Foreign […]
→ read full articleTHE WORLD REDESIGNS ITSELF
Bernard Guetta,
13 Feb 2009
So Iran is "ready" for a direct dialogue with the United States. The most radical of its leaders, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said so yesterday [Feb. 10/09]. That means that none of the currents present in the Iranian regime rejects the negotiated pursuit – quid pro quo – of normalization with Washington. The entire […]
→ read full article50 YEARS, 100 PEACE & CONFLICT PERSPECTIVES
Rutagengwa Claude Shema, M.D. - Regional Coordinator, Great Lakes Peace Initiative (GLPI),
10 Feb 2009
Review of book by peace discipline pioneer Pr. Dr. Johan Galtung The world we live today is facing multiple challenges, different kind of disasters, but often the calamities made by human beings. In other words, the conflict issues and wars made by ourselves as humane are more disastrous than any natural disaster. The reason is […]
→ read full articleRAPE AS A WEAPON OF WAR: MISANDRY VS. MISOGYNY
Rutagengwa Claude Shema, M.D. - Regional Coordinator, Great Lakes Peace Initiative (GLPI),
10 Feb 2009
My Opinion about Systematic use of Rape and Torture in the Conflict in the Congo A) Rape Rape in DR Congo (République démocratique du Congo, DRC) has been used as a war weapon in different ways. But the fundamental reasons can vary as well. Military on the front line can spend a long time in […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) “Solução Neokeynesiana e Novo Bretton Woods são Fantasias”
Judith Orr e Patrick Ward,
9 Feb 2009
Numa entrevista à revista inglesa Socialist Review, o marxista István Mészàros analisa a crise económica mundial e critica aqueles que apostam que ela será resolvida trazendo de volta as ideias keynesianas e à regulação. "É uma fantasia que uma solução neo-keynesiana e um novo Bretton Woods resolveriam qualquer dos problemas dos dias atuais", defende Mészàros. […]
→ read full articleISTVÁN MÉSZÁROS ON THE STRUCTURAL CRISIS OF THE SYSTEM
Judith Orr and Patrick Ward,
9 Feb 2009
István Mészáros won the 1971 Deutscher Prize for his book Marx’s Theory of Alienation and has written on Marxism ever since. He talks to Judith Orr and Patrick Ward about the current economic crisis. Q: The ruling classes are always surprised by new economic crises and talk about them as aberrations. Why do you believe […]
→ read full articleOBAMA SEEKS NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT DEAL WITH RUSSIA
Ian Traynor in Munich and Luke Harding in Moscow,
7 Feb 2009
Hillary Clinton to head US efforts to reduce warheads to about 1,000 The Obama administration is looking for a quick deal between the US and Russia to more than halve their nuclear weapons stockpiles, reversing the Bush White House’s refusal to be bound by international treaties. Diplomats and officials say they are optimistic Washington and […]
→ read full articleWHISTLING PAST THE AFGHAN GRAVEYARD
Tom Engelhardt,
6 Feb 2009
Where Empires Go to Die It is now a commonplace — as a lead article in the New York Times’s Week in Review pointed out recently — that Afghanistan is "the graveyard of empires." Given Barack Obama’s call for a greater focus on the Afghan War ("we took our eye off the ball when we […]
→ read full article(SPANISH) LA FUERZA CURATIVA DE LA ECOLOGÍA INTERIOR
Leonardo Boff,
5 Feb 2009
En tiempos de crisis como el nuestro buscamos fuentes de inspiración allí donde se encuentren Una de ellas es la ecología interior. Para evaluar su importancia debemos concienciarnos de que nuestra relación con la Tierra, por lo menos en los últimos siglos, está basada en falsas premisas éticas y espirituales: antropocentrismo, negación del valor intrínseco […]
→ read full articleMUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE – SEARCHING FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER
Gerhard Spoerl - SPIEGEL,
1 Feb 2009
The closely watched Munich security conference, which starts next week (Feb 6), has become a large-scale summit for world leaders. This year the US is sending a high-ranking delegation, led by Vice President Joe Biden, which may seek informal dialogue with Iran on the event’s sidelines. President Barack Obama’s advisers spent days puzzling over the […]
→ read full articleHILLARY CLINTON AND JAMES STEINBERG “TALK TOUGH” ON LATIN AMERICA
April Howard,
30 Jan 2009
While President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and their appointees emphasize a return to diplomacy in foreign relations, so far they show little inclination to be diplomatic toward leftist governments in Latin America. In fact, recent comments by Obama, Clinton and recent appointees show a continuation of an antiquated socialist-phobic analysis and a lack […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) CEM MIL NA MARCHA DE ABERTURA DO FÓRUM SOCIAL MUNDIAL
João Romão, de Belém do Pará, Brasil, para o Esquerda.net,
29 Jan 2009
Os cem mil participantes no Fórum atravessaram a cidade de Belém, bloquearam o trânsito, trouxeram para as janelas a população local e mobilizaram um enorme aparato policial, intimidativo mas que se limitou a observar um extraordinário desfile com todas as reivindicações sociais do planeta, todos os sons da militância solidária, toda a alegria do desejo […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) BARGHOUTI: “NÃO QUERO CRIAR ILUSÕES SOBRE OBAMA”
Esquerda.net,
25 Jan 2009
Nesta entrevista ao jornal egípcio Al-Ahram, dada antes do início da trégua em Gaza, o secretário-geral da Iniciativa Nacional Palestiniana, Mustafa Barghouti, duvida que Obama rompa com o lóbi judeu e observa que a administração Bush fez tudo para que o novo presidente se veja incapaz de operar mudanças na política americana em relação ao […]
→ read full article‘ISRAEL HAS A HABIT OF CLOSING ITS EYES TO HARD FACTS’
Volkhard Windfuhr,
14 Jan 2009
SPIEGEL Online interview with former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali The Israeli military strike in Gaza will have "unforeseeable consequences" for the region, warns former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. In an interview with SPIEGEL Online, he discusses the short-sightedness of Israeli politicians, Egypt’s role and his muted hopes for peace. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Has Israel’s current offensive […]
→ read full articleISRAEL VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW
Prof. Richard Falk - United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories,
4 Jan 2009
The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war. Those violations include: Collective punishment – the entire 1.5 million people who live […]
→ read full articleTHE U.S. HAS 761 MILITARY BASES ACROSS THE PLANET, AND WE SIMPLY NEVER TALK ABOUT IT
Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com,
4 Jan 2009
Here it is, as simply as I can put it: In the course of any year, there must be relatively few countries on this planet on which U.S. soldiers do not set foot, whether with guns blazing, humanitarian aid in hand, or just for a friendly visit. In startling numbers of countries, our soldiers not […]
→ read full articleISRAEL’S WAR CRIMES
Richard Falk,
1 Jan 2009
Editor’s Note: This statement was issued December 27 in response to Israel’s attack in Gaza by Professor Richard Falk, United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in the Occupied Territories and a longtime member of The Nation’s editorial board. The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law […]
→ read full articleBUSH PUSHES PERSIAN GULF NUCLEAR AGREEMENT
Howard Lafranchi,
23 Dec 2008
But critics say the US should go slowly on a deal that would help an ally of Iran. The Bush administration is quietly advancing a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), raising concerns in Congress and among nonproliferation experts about the deal’s repercussions in a volatile region. The deal to […]
→ read full articleMY EXPULSION FROM ISRAEL
Richard Falk,
21 Dec 2008
When I arrived in Israel as a UN representative I knew there might be problems at the airport. And there were. On December 14, I arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel to carry out my UN role as special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories. I was leading a mission that had intended […]
→ read full articleMOOD MIXED AS CLIMATE SUMMIT ENDS
Richard Black - BBC News Environment Correspondent,
14 Dec 2008
Poznan – The UN climate summit has ended with delegates taking very different views on how much it has achieved. Western delegates said progress here had been encouraging, but environment groups said rich countries had not shown enough ambition. Developing nations were angry that more money was not put forward to […]
→ read full article9 IS NOT 11
Arundhati Roy and Tom Engelhardt,
13 Dec 2008
The single omnipresent historical reference in the American media immediately in the wake of September 11, 2001, was, of course, "Pearl Harbor" – and those code words for it, "infamy" and "day of infamy," splashed in mile-high letters across the front pages of papers. What we had experienced, it was commonly said then, was "the […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) MARIE-MONIQUE ROBIN: “O MUNDO SEGUNDO A MONSANTO”
Esquerda.net,
2 Dec 2008
Com uma eminente presença em mais de 46 países e com lucros impressionantes, a Monsanto converteu-se na empresa líder dos organismos geneticamente modificados (OGM), assim como numa das companhias mais controversas da indústria mundial devido à fabricação de PCB (piraleno), devastadores herbicidas (como o agente laranja usado durante a guerra do Vietname) ou a hormona […]
→ read full articleFLIGHT PATH TO DISASTER IN AFGHANISTAN
Tom Engelhardt,
17 Nov 2008
One of the eerier reports on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan appeared recently in the New York Times. Journalist John Burns visited the Russian ambassador in Kabul, Zamir N. Kabulov, who, back in the 1980s, when the Russians were the Americans in Afghanistan, and the Americans were launching the jihad that would eventually wend its […]
→ read full articleDO UNTO OTHERS
Karen Armstrong – The Guardian,
15 Nov 2008
World Religions Too Often Seem Predicated on Prejudice, When Their True Roots Lie in Compassion The practice of compassion is central to every one of the major world religions – but sometimes you would never know it. Instead, religion is associated with violence, intolerance and seems more preoccupied by dogmatic or sexual orthodoxy. People don’t […]
→ read full articleCLUSTER BOMB ‘SOON TO BE THING OF THE PAST’
Angus Crawford - BBC News Germany,
15 Nov 2008
On 3 December, more than 100 countries, including the UK, will sign a treaty banning cluster bombs. As a result Britain, by law, will have to destroy more than 30 million explosives. The UK does not have the facilities, so they are being exported to Germany for disposal. "I feel good to work for a […]
→ read full articleSELF-EVIDENT TRUTHS
The Guardian - Editorial,
14 Nov 2008
If there is a truth which the world now holds to be self-evident, it is that the US prison camp in Guantánamo Bay should close. Four prosecutors at the camp have resigned, and the last one to do so, Darrel Vandeveld, could become a defence witness. He claimed the US government was not providing lawyers […]
→ read full article(SPANISH) OJALÁ
Eduardo Galeano,
9 Nov 2008
¿Obama probará, desde el gobierno, que sus amenazas guerreras contra Irán y Pakistán fueron no más que palabras, proclamadas para seducir oídos difíciles durante la campaña electoral? Ojalá. Y ojalá no caiga ni por un momento en la tentación de repetir las hazañas de George W. Bush. Al fin y al cabo, Obama tuvo la […]
→ read full articleSUFFERING WITHOUT END
The Guardian - Editorial,
31 Oct 2008
If the words humanitarian catastrophe and eastern Congo have a familiar ring to them, it is because the fundamental causes of a conflict that has claimed five million lives and continues to kill 45,000 a month through starvation and disease remain unaddressed. And this despite the world’s largest peacekeeping force, with the strongest mandate […]
→ read full articleECONOMIC PEACE
Garda Ghista,
20 Oct 2008
President, World Prout Assembly, Kentucky, USA Economic peace can be defined as that state wherein people are provided the minimum necessities of life – food, water, clothing, health care and education. In tandem with this provision, people must be guaranteed adequate purchasing power. This definition correlates with numerous treaties and conventions of international law. In […]
→ read full articleHOW TO SAVE THE U.S. ECONOMY
Richard C. Cook,
17 Oct 2008
The crashing stock market has given its verdict. The financial rescue plan currently being implemented by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve System will fail to revitalize the producing economy, even with continued interest rate cuts. This is because the banking system is essentially a supply-side, trickle-down mechanism with a currency based on […]
→ read full articleHORIZONS OF A GRAND THEORY OF PEACE
Richard Falk,
12 Oct 2008
Presented at a conference at ICU-International Christian University, Tokyo, earlier this year. I. Introduction My approach to such a daunting challenge seeks to be attentive to the urgings of Professor Shin Chiba that “..our quest for a grand theory of peace should be made in response to the crisis of the present age as it […]
→ read full articleFROM EMPIRE TO DEMOCRACY
Howard Zinn,
6 Oct 2008
Let’s not waste $700bn on a bail-out, but use ‘big government’ for what it’s best at – shaping a society that is fair and peaceable. This current financial crisis is a major way-station on the way to the collapse of the American empire. The first important sign was 9/11, with the most heavily-armed nation in […]
→ read full articleDOES THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN NEED A NEW WAR?
Rev. Richard Skaff,
6 Oct 2008
Historically, the US has gone to war every time the value of the greenbacks plummeted or the economy drastically slumped. Is today’s economic disaster and weakened dollar a symptom for a new war? The US government/the military industrial complex plans to sell once again Israel 1,000 buster-bunker bombs which Israeli experts said last Monday could […]
→ read full articleTHE END OF US BIPARTISANSHIP?
Robert Reynolds in Oxford, Mississippi,
6 Oct 2008
Aljazeera.net POLITICIAN, (noun): An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organised society is reared. When he wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive. (Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary) What we are witnessing […]
→ read full articleLATIN AMERICA CENSORED: TOWARD FREEDOM EDITOR RECEIVES PROJECT CENSORED AWARD
Toward Freedom & Project Censored,
6 Oct 2008
A number of recent developments have dramatically changed the military and political landscape of Latin America. While some electoral victories in Latin America signal a regional shift to the left, Washington continues to expand its military and navy presence throughout the hemisphere. This year Toward Freedom editor Benjamin Dangl received a Project Censored Award for […]
→ read full articleCooperation as Rebellion:
April Howard,
30 Sep 2008
Creating Sustainable Agriculture in Paraguay In Paraguay, where 1 percent of the population owns 77 percent of all arable land, corrupt agrarian reform and the booming soybean industry is leading the country towards an industrial agricultural export model that leaves no room for small food producers. While many Paraguayan campesino [small farmer] families have moved […]
→ read full articleThank You, Ladies and Gentlemen
Richard C. Cook,
30 Sep 2008
Satire Te purpose of this brief statement is publicly to express my admiration and amazement at the way the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, The Honorable Ben Shalom Bernanke, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, The Honorable Timothy F. Geithner, and the Secretary of the Treasury, The Honorable Henry M. Paulson, […]
→ read full article? o fim do Capitalismo?
esquerda.net - Portugal,
30 Sep 2008
Esta pergunta circulou nos últimos dias na imprensa financeira respeitável. Assim colocada, a pergunta não tem grande sentido. Todos conhecemos a correlação das forças sociais e políticas. E todos sabemos que uma transição sistémica desejável deverá ser o resultado de um longo processo de acumulação de forças democráticas e de vitórias socialistas no campo das […]
→ read full articleREFUSING TO OPPRESS
Neve Gordon,
16 Sep 2008
Read more
→ read full articleRICH COUNTRIES ONCE USED GUNBOATS TO SEIZE FOOD:
George Monbiot, Guardian UK,
16 Sep 2008
Now They Use Trade DealsRead more
→ read full articleNEW SPY SOFTWARE COMING ON-LINE
Tom Burghardt,
16 Sep 2008
"Surveillance in a Box" Makes its DebutRead more
→ read full articleGOING ON AN IMPERIAL BENDER HOW THE U.S. GARRISONS THE PLANET AND DOESN’T EVEN NOTICE
Tom Engelhardt,
14 Sep 2008
At the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans had an estimated 37 majormilitary bases scattered around their dominions. At the height of theBritish Empire, the British had 36 of them planetwide. Depending onjust who you listen to and how you count, we have hundreds of bases.According to Pentagon records, in fact, there are 761 […]
→ read full articleTHE BUSH REGIME’S IMPERIAL AFFIRMATION: ENDLESS WAR, ENDLESS CONQUEST, ENDLESS REPRESSION
Tom Burghardt,
14 Sep 2008
While people around the world begin to celebrate George W. Bush’sJanuary 20, 2009 departure from the White House, senior administrationofficials are crafting legislation, rule changes and executive ordersthat will make permanent the worst excesses of this criminal regime. Read more
→ read full article