29 January, 2008
Bush’s
Speech Overshadowed By Deepening Crisis
By Bill Van Auken
George W. Bush used his eighth and final State of the Union speech Monday night to outline an agenda of continuing wars of aggression abroad together with social reaction and political repression at home that is certain to continue well past his leaving office a year from now, no matter which party wins the 2008 election. Yet the ritualistic annual affair was overshadowed by the deepest crisis confronting US and world capitalism since the Great Depression of the 1930s
Politicized
Power Cuts Behind Deadly Riots?
By IRIN
Deadly Shia riots in southern Beirut protesting over power and water cuts have occurred because these basic services have become part of the country's increasingly tense political stand-off, said protesters and analysts
Beware
The Internet’s Looming Class Divide
By Johann Hari
As the internet reshapes our minds and souls in ways we are only beginning to comprehend, we have to fight to keep it equally open to everyone. Otherwise, Tomorrow’s World will become a corporate-controlled world, with inequality built into the cables that connect us all
Why
The Right Loves A Disaster
By Naomi Klein
Every crisis is an opportunity; someone will exploit it. The question we face is this: Will the current turmoil become an excuse to transfer yet more public wealth into private hands, to wipe out the last vestiges of the welfare state, all in the name of economic growth? Or will this latest failure of unfettered markets be the catalyst that is needed to revive a spirit of public interest, to get serious about the pressing crises of our time, from gaping inequality to global warming to failing infrastructure?
Suharto,
The Model Killer,
And His Friends In High Places
By John Pilger
To understand the significance of Suharto, who died on Sunday, is to look beneath the surface of the current world order: the so-called global economy and the ruthless cynicism of those who run it. Suharto was our model mass murderer
Saying
Goodbye To The Oil Age
By Peter Goodchild
What matters is not to wait unthinkingly for the onslaught of hunger and cold, but to form communities that can build houses and plant crops. Like the phoenix, we must rise from the ashes — the ashes of the Age of Excess. We must learn to step outside our plastic-and-metal cocoons and see what is happening with our neighbors, and with all the rest of dirty, sweaty humanity
Eating
As If The Climate Mattered
By Bruce Friedrich
It requires exponentially more resources to eat chickens, pigs, and other animals, because most of what we feed to them is required to keep them alive, and much of the rest is turned into bones and other bits we don't eat; only a fraction of those crops is turned into meat. So you have to grow all the crops required to raise the animals to eat the animals, which is vastly wasteful relative to eating the crops directly
Traffic
Jam On The Highway To Hell
By Sheila Samples
Our refusal to address the mounting list of Bush-Cheney war crimes could be because we cannot force ourselves to admit our "one nation under God" spies upon its citizens, imprisons them without due process, engages in grotesque acts of torture and delights in mass murder. And so we stand here on the precipice of our own destruction, waiting for evil to run its course
Travels
In A Militarised Society:Part 1
By Prasanna Ratnayake
A journey through war torn Sri Lanka
India
In Outer Space - Emerging Concerns
By Rizwana Abbasi
The Chinese / Indian power play in space and with regard to weapons in orbit threatens to turn space into a new sphere of military rivalry and a race toward the application of advanced technologies
28 January, 2008
Return
To Fallujah
By Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah is more difficult to enter than any city in the world. On the road from Baghdad I counted 27 checkpoints, all manned by well-armed soldiers and police. "The siege is total," says Dr Kamal in Fallujah Hospital as he grimly lists his needs, which include everything from drugs and oxygen to electricity and clean water
Iraqis
On "Success" And "Progress"
In Their Country
By Dahr Jamail
Americans may argue among themselves about just how much “success” or “progress” there really is in post-surge Iraq, but it is almost invariably an argument in which Iraqis are but stick figures — or dead bodies. Of late, I have been asking Iraqis I know by email what they make of the American version (or versions) of the unseemly reality that is their country, that they live and suffer with. What does it mean to become a “secondary issue” for your occupier?
Faeces
Change The Face Of Gaza
By Mohammed Omer
Hundreds of thousands of Gazans, almost all of its able male adults among a population of 1.5 million, crossed over into Egypt last week to buy essential provisions – and a new lease of life. That has staved off starvation. But streets continue as sewers
Genocide
In Gaza, Ethnic Cleansing
In The West Bank
By Ilan Pappe
Not long ago, I claimed that Israel is employing genocidal policies in the Gaza Strip. I hesitated before using this very charged term and yet decided to adopt it. The responses I received indicated unease in using such a term. I rethought the term for a while, but concluded with even stronger conviction: it is the only appropriate way to describe what the Israeli army is doing in the Gaza Strip
How
Bush Destroyed The Dollar
By Paul Craig Roberts
If the US government cannot balance its budget by cutting its spending or by raising taxes, the day when it can no longer borrow will see the government paying its bills by printing money like a third world banana republic. Inflation and more exchange rate depreciation will be the order of the day
A
Culture Of Greed And Corruption
By Joseph M. Cachia
The war against greed trumps all wars as it lies at the root of it all. During the Xmas celebrations, the archbishop of Canterbury had warned that human greed is threatening the environmental balance of the Earth. For the purported ‘Christian’ nation that we boast to be, the passion of greed reduces religious doctrine to just many dusty rules. Did you hear any whisper of condemnation by the local church hierarchy regarding the prevailing ‘law of the jungle’? Neither did I!
Venezuela:
The Struggle For
A Mass Revolutionary Party
By Federico Fuentes
In drawing up a balance sheet of why Chavez’s constitutional reform proposal — that aimed to create a framework for the transition towards socialism — was narrowly defeated in a national referendum on December 2, one factor stands out. The Bolivarian revolution’s Achilles heel is the lack of a political instrument capable of confronting the challenges faced in the struggle to construct a new, socially just, Venezuela
Reviewing
Jennifer Van Bergen's
"The Twilight Of Democracy"
By Stephen Lendman
"The Twilight of Democracy: The Bush Plan for America" written in 2005 is a clear and powerfully relevant analysis of the threat to freedom, democracy and justice in America today under the Bush regime. As the author puts it: "(We live in a time when) civil liberties have been broadly violated to an unprecedented degree....My goal (in the book) is to lay bare what the government does and is doing, and why it is so profoundly anti-democractic" and a danger to everyone
Pakistan's
Nuclear Threat
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
A cacophony of protests in Pakistan greeted a recent statement by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammad ElBaradei. "I fear that chaos, or an extremist regime, could take root in that country, which has 30 to 40 warheads," he said. He also expressed fear that "nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of extremist groups in Pakistan or Afghanistan." But Pakistanis live in a state of denial. Even as suicide bombings escalate, criticism of religious extremists remains taboo. The overwhelming majority still attributes recent terrorist events - such as the assassination of Benazir Bhutto - to the Musharraf government. But these delusions will eventually shatter. At some point we will surely see that ElBaradei's warning makes sense
27 January, 2008
Why
Palestinians Are Fleeing
Gaza Concentration Camp
By Dr Gideon Polya
About half the Occupied Palestinians are children and three quarters are women and children. Any person who knowingly ignores, denies, minimizes, excuses, obfuscates, supports, advocates or is other wise complicit in the gross abuses of woman and children has crossed the line between decent humanity and proto-Nazi barbarism. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity
Worse
Than A Crime
By Uri Avnery
The Gaza Strip is the largest prison on earth. The breaking of the Rafah wall was an act of liberation. It proves that an inhuman policy is always a stupid policy: no power can stand up against a mass of people that has crossed the border of despair
Coming
To Terms With The Iraq War
By Emily Spence & Robert Braunstein
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living." All considered, it is high time to learn again about the ways to live
Eight
More Years?
By Ralph Nader
It has always been all about him, Now he sees another admission ticket to the White House through his wife, Hillary Clinton. EIGHT MORE YEARS without a mobilized, demanding participating citizenry is just that-EIGHT MORE YEARS. It’s small wonder that the editors of Fortune Magazine headlined an article last June with the title, “Who Business is Betting On?” Their answer, of course, was Hillary Clinton
Terrorists:
Assassins Or Freedom Fighters?
By Gaither Stewart
While America-Empire allegedly searches for efficacious measures to combat terrorism, more sincere American leaders are advised to examine aspects of European experience as a guide to both what not to do, and to what can be effective. They should not be deluded: No security measures, no no-fly laws, Patriot Act measures, secret concentration camps and torture can eradicate what Power defines as terrorism and the oppressed define as resistance until America unites with the rest of the world
Christians
Should Fear A Christian Nation
By Robert Weitzel
Regrettably, the 2008 presidential frontrunners of both parties are ignoring Jesus’ advice regarding the preferred relationship between church and state by professing—ad nauseam—their undying fidelity to the Christian Right’s version of morality and its vision of our nation as their exclusive fiefdom
In
America They Came First For Dennis Kucinich
By Jerry D. Rose
Yes, they have "come for" Dennis Kucinich and, with his withdrawal from the presidential race, that eloquent voice is removed officially from a presidential debate from which de facto it had been removed by an active corporate media and their allies in the sleeping public. And now, there is the very likely prospect that the same combination of forces may deprive him of his congressional seat and from being heard in that forum as well. It is precisely among that legion of "sleepers" that any vestiges of independent thinking will be roused from their slumbers as the fascist powers come for "them."
The
Rule Of Lawyers?
By Hamid Golpira
The only bright spot was the emergence of a new trend in the political life of Pakistan, the lawyers' movement. It was the lawyers' movement that launched the protests that resulted in the temporary reinstatement of the Supreme Court chief justice
Importance
Of Being Bilkis
By Kalpana Sharma
It took exceptional courage for Bilkis Bano to walk up to the police station and file a complaint, and persist with it
26 January, 2008
US
Ready To Deploy Combat Troops In Pakistan
By Bill Van Auken
The United States is “ready, willing and able” to deploy American combat troops in Pakistan for joint military operations in the country’s troubled border region, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday
Beirut's
Assassins Kill The Detective On Their Trail
By Robert Fisk
The assassins of Beirut are getting personal. Yesterday morning, they killed the most important detective on their trail, the very man who is leading the Lebanese government's investigations into the murder – and attempted murder – of so many of the country's politicians, journalists and soldiers
Listening
To Grasshoppers - Genocide,
Denial And Celebration
By Arundhati Roy
An abridged version of a lecture delivered by Arundhati Roy in Istanbul on January 18, 2008, to commemorate the first anniversary of the assassination of Hrant Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian paper, Agos
Why
The Democrats Will Not Impeach
By Joseph A. Lopisi
The Democrats know that any investigation of 9/11 will clearly implicate them. The Democrats would be implicated not for the planning and orchestration of the actual false flag attack but for the intentional cover-up and subsequent support of the Patriot Act, support for the fake war on terror to replace the Cold War, the illegal war against Iraq and Afghanistan based on obvious lies, the planned illegal attack on Iran and the illegal wiretaps. Simply put, the Democrats would be implicated in the fascist takeover of this country
The
True Miracle Of Israel
By Ramzy Baroud
If there is any miracle in Israel's existence it is that the lies upon which it is founded could be perpetuated for so long, despite glaringly obvious truths to the contrary. Indeed, it is a miracle that such grave injustice could reign for so long uncontested
The
Peace Maker
By Jonathan Ben Efrat
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, cannot move a finger without permission from abroad. The international community pressures him to combat Hamas and to compromise. Those who manage to finish PeaceMaker discover that the Palestinian State is tied hand and foot to Israel's economy by free-trade agreements and joint projects. Israel supplies the capital and know-how, Palestinians supply cheap labor
Meat’s
Meat….So Let’s Eat
By Jason Miller
We pride ourselves on our devotion to the principle of equality here in the United States, so it’s time to put our values where our mouths are, so to speak. Pigs, chickens, cows, and the like already endure abject suffering so we can consume their flesh, so it is only fair that we include “man’s best friend.” How could they better prove their deep loyalty to us than by sacrificing their lives to feed us?
The
Women Of Balochistan: A Rising Political Voice?
By Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharjee
The Pakistani leadership, due to the strong anti-national sentiments nurtured by the Balochis has kept them away from most of the administrative and defence mechanism of the nation. The province remains to be significantly deprived of the economic and political privileges that is enjoyed by the provinces of Sindh and Punjab, but still with the assistance of its womenfolk, Balochistan remains to be a region where political, social and economic compulsions has paved the way for a unique empowerment of women, which remains unusual for the region of South Asia
Saluting
Bilkis Bano: Reflecting On Gujarat
By Ram Puniyani
The grit, determination and strength of the victim, Bilkis bano, and the support of civil rights group which supported her, are crucial factors in getting the justice. The justice in this case stands out as a small ray of respite, in the gloomy scenario of Gujarat, where by now justice for minorities is conspicuous by its absence
25 January, 2008
India-US
Nuclear Deal Runs Out Of Steam
By Praful Bidwai
Has the controversial United States-India nuclear cooperation deal finally run out of steam after tough, and at times tortuous, negotiations spread over two-and-a-half years? There are several pointers that this may have happened on account of both domestic and international factors
Iraq:
'US The Biggest Producer Of Terror'
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr Jamail
Broken promises have brought a dramatic increase in anti-U.S. sentiment across the capital city of Iraq's Diyala province. Many people in Baquba, capital of Diyala 40 km northeast of Baghdad, had supported U.S. forces when they ousted former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. But failed reconstruction projects and muddled policies mean the U.S. has lost that support
24 January, 2008
Freedom
At Last For Gaza: But How Long?
By Donald Macintyre
The steel-helmeted Egyptian border guards standing by their armoured personnel carriers seemed pleased enough to see the tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children who squeezed between the now flattened eight- metre concrete slabs of wall or scrambled across the furrows in the now uselessly prone and twisted corrugated iron barrier
Sword
Dancing While Gaza Starves
By Osamah Khalil
Responding to the crisis, the Arab states again demonstrated their impotence and callous disregard for Palestinian suffering. In the diplomatic equivalent of a sword dance, an emergency meeting of the Arab League was held in Cairo on Monday. The result was a request by the League that the UN investigate Israel's actions. However, it is unlikely that any such investigative body will be created
9-11
Truth And The Holocaust
By Wendy Campbell
Real 9-11 Truthers seek the Truth about all matters, especially with regards to politics related to the subjects at hand: US foreign policy, Israel, Palestine, Zionism, WW I and WWII, etc
NATO
Must Prepare For Nuclear First Strike,
Report Urges
By Bill Van Auken
A chilling report prepared by a group of top military commanders from the US and its NATO allies declares that the alliance must be prepared to launch a preemptive nuclear first strike because of “asymmetric threats and global challenges” posed to the West
Iraq:
Under Curfew, This Is No Life
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr Jamail
Continuing curfew has brought normal life to a standstill in Baquba, capital of the restive Diyala province north of Baghdad
A
Lesson In How To Create Iraqi Orphans
By Robert Fisk
It's not difficult to create orphans in Iraq. If you're an insurgent, you can blow yourself up in a crowded market. If you're an American air force pilot, you can bomb the wrong house in the wrong village. Or if you're a Western mercenary, you can fire 40 bullets into the widowed mother of 14-year-old Alice Awanis and her sisters Karoon and Nora, the first just 20, the second a year older. But when the three girls landed at Amman airport from Baghdad last week they believed that they were free of the horrors of Baghdad and might travel to Northern Ireland to escape the terrible memory of their mother's violent death
Peak
Oil As Obsessional Neurosis
By Peter Goodchild
When writing about peak oil and related matters in the category of doom and gloom, one encounters Nietzsche’s paradox: There are only two kinds of readers, those who already know, and those who will never know, so why bother? Isn’t it the case that to be caught in such a circle is solid evidence of an obsessional neurosis?
Israeli
Oppression In Hebron -
A Case History Of Separation,
Forced Displacement And Terror
By Stephen Lendman
Hebron's City Center is a case study example. It was once a thriving commercial and residential area. Today it's a "Ghost Town" because Israel destroyed its fabric of life through a state-imposed policy of land seizures, extended curfews, harsh restrictions on free movement and unaddressed violence. Combined, they terrorize Palestinians and prohibit them from driving or even walking on the area's main streets. That, in turn, makes life impossible for them. The consequences have been devastating with peoples' lives uprooted
Camp
Or Conspiracy?
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
Palestinians look for ways to escape from the camps; we cannot escape our conscience, if indeed, we have one
How
To Stop The Downturn
By Joseph E. Stiglitz
America's economy is headed for a major slowdown. Whether there is a recession (two quarters of negative growth) is less important than the fact that the economy will operate well below its potential, and unemployment will grow. The country needs a stimulus, but anything we do will add to our soaring deficit, so it is important to get as much bang for the buck as possible
"Lame
Duck" Citizens And The Global Economy
By Pablo Ouziel
In regards to our ‘global economy’, one is better off reading Dostoevsky’s The Gambler and saying to himself, “at the present moment I must repair to the roulette-table,” than listening to George Bush deluding himself about the fact that “while there is some uncertainty, the financial markets are strong and solid.” The truth is, our global markets have become a “lame duck” and all we can do is wait for the next disaster to shake the corrupt foundation on which things have been run
Democracy's
Bilkis Test
By Ajay K. Mehra
The judgment on the Bilkis Bano case provides an opportunity to reflect on a range of issues relating to inter-community relations as well as the state and legal mechanisms available to deal with riots in India
Trilaterals
Triangulating In Pakistan
By Gul Jammas Hussain
Three decades have passed since the Trilaterals toppled the Bhutto government and then eliminated him physically, but their efforts to destabilize Pakistan are still on. In fact, with the assassination of Bhutto's daughter in Rawalpindi on December 27, they have intensified their efforts to destabilize this immensely important South Asian country -- a geopolitical hub which the US wants to use as a base for military intelligence operations
23 January, 2008
Markets
Slide Even After US Cuts
Interest Rates
By Andre Damon
The Fed’s emergency action gave more the impression of a panicked attempt to stave off catastrophe, confirming the growing conviction that the US economy is sliding into recession, regardless of attempts at either monetary or fiscal stimulus
Hard
Times A-Coming
By Dave Lindorff
Get ready for some hard economic times. The next step will be soaring inflation, as strapped companies in China, India and elsewere start raising their prices for goods shipped to the US and paid for in dollars. Then the Fed will have to respond by raising interest rates again, in an effort to shore up the currency. And with that will come deeper recession and an even lower stock market
Farewell
To Old Economic Nostrums
By Paul Craig Roberts
The rebate will help Americans reduce their credit card debt. However, adding $150 billion to an existing federal budget deficit that will be worsened by recession could further alarm America's foreign creditors, traders in currency markets, and OPEC oil producers. If the rebate loses its punch to consumer debt reduction, imports, and pressure on the dollar, what will the government do next?
Will
Economic Stimulus Measures
Stave Off Recession?
By Richard C. Cook
If you dig a little deeper, it is easy to see that the U.S. never really got out of the recession of 2000-2002 which followed the bursting of the dot.com bubble at the end of the Bill Clinton presidency. This event was marked by the stock market crash starting in December 2000 that cost Americans over a trillion dollars in retirement savings and other forms of paper “wealth” over a period of a few months
How
To Sink America
By Chalmers Johnson
Why the Debt Crisis Is Now the Greatest Threat to the American Republic
How
The West Was Re-sold
By Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Let me make this simple and practical suggestion to the President and Congress: Cut out the middleman and mail the 145 billion dollars directly to China. That's where it is going to end up anyway. The America people will thank you for not filling their homes and garages with more junk. And...this is important...you can all take pride in boasting to the people that you kept the government out of it
Racism
And Politics In America
By Lee Sustar
Race and racism are center stage in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination as the South Carolina primary approaches. The trigger for the current debate was a comment by Sen. Hillary Clinton that “Dr. [Martin Luther] King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done.” This was taken by many African American politicians and longtime activists as denigrating the entire Black liberation movement
Gaza's
Last Gasp
By Sonja Karkar
The Palestinians need candles desperately and they need your voice to speak for them. There are many ways that you can do this. Organize demonstrations or vigils, or take part in ones that are already being organized. Take the time and write to newspapers and politicians urging them to take action and bring an end to this humanitarian disaster. Also, a deluge of letters to the Israeli Embassy would allow the Israelis to see that the world does not support a siege on the people of Gaza
The
Uncounted Dead Of Iraq
By Nicole Colson
The mainstream media are trumpeting a new report in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that estimates the number of Iraqis who died from violence in the three years following the U.S. invasion as “only” 151,000. This figure is less than a quarter of a previous Johns Hopkins University estimate of approximately 600,000 dead as the result of violence since the U.S. invasion of 2003
Islam-West
Division Is Worsening
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Majority of the people in Muslim and western countries believe that Islam-West division is worsening while each side thinks the other disrespects their culture, says a report on Muslim-Western relations released on January 21, 2008 in Davos, Switzerland
22 January, 2008
Threat
Of US Recession Panics Global
Stock Markets
By Andre Damon
Stock prices plummeted worldwide Monday and Tuesday , amid heightened fears of a US recession. While over the course of last week US financial markets suffered the worst fall since 2002, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping by 5 percent, many Asian and European indices dropped by a similar amount in just one day
The
False US Economy Versus Nature’s
Expansion-Contraction Cycle
By Shepherd Bliss
The growth-based US economy is contracting. Media economists are alarmed, even panicky. They describe this as a “recession” and wring their hands with woe. They should have expected this downturn and we should accept it. Lets see what will happen. Maybe the Earth will benefit from the declining US economy? Perhaps its pollution and other threats to the global climate and environment will lessen?
European
Collusion In Israel's Slow Genocide
By Omar Barghouti
The European Union, Israel's largest trade partner in the world, is watching by as Israel tightens its barbaric siege on Gaza, collectively punishing 1.5 million Palestinian civilians, condemning them to devastation, and visiting imminent death upon hundreds of kidney dialysis and heart patients, prematurely born babies, and all others dependent on electric power for their very survival
Gaza: No Rights,
Little Mercy
By Mohammed Omer
Plight of Palestine patients in Gaza worsens
Iraq:
Police And Army Getting Sidelined
By Ahmed Ali & Dahr Jamail
New military operations in Diyala province north of Baghdad have exacerbated a growing conflict between U.S.-backed Sunni fighters on the one hand and Iraqi army and police forces on the other
The
Rapture Can’t Happen Soon Enough To Suit Me
By Robert Weitzel
Twenty-three percent of the 208 million adults in America identify themselves as either Pentecostal or Charismatic Christians [a.k.a. Rapture-ready]. In the event of the Rapture up to 50 million workers will be leaving their jobs without clocking out. The number of positions vacated will be five times as many needed to wipe out the country’s unemployment, leaving the rest of us in a workers’ paradise. Affirmative action be damned! It’s “trickle up” economics at work here
Corporate
Media Keeps King "In His Place"!
Buries King's Fiery Condemnation Of US Wars
By Jay Janson
During the last year of his life from April 1967 to April 1968, King thundered eloquently against U.S. imperialist wars and against international predatory capitalism, factually denouncing CIA overseas crimes, and U.S. brutal foreign policies. It seems likely that it was for these heavy accusations of genocide against the U.S. government and his calling attention to the cruel indifference of Americans and blind immorality of the U.S. establishment that King was silenced, and not because of his civil rights crusade
The
Vanunu Saga: 2008
By Eileen Fleming
On July 2, 2007, the whistle blower of Israel's WMD Program, Mordechai Vanunu was sentenced to six more months in jail for interviews he gave foreign media in 2004. On January 7, 2008, the day before his appeal was to begin; Israel re-sentenced him to six months of community service instead
Musharaf
And Pro Pakistan Kashmiris
By Dr Shabir Choudhry
Musharaf factor is important in the context of Kashmir. He has transformed pro Pakistan Kashmiris in to 'Pro Independence' and 'Pro Kashmir' Kashmiris. This is something we have been working for so many years and have always faced uphill struggle, but Musharaf has done it within few years
There
Is Pause And Not Full Stop
At The End Of Peace Process
By Prof Amitabh Mattoo & Zafar Choudhary
Interview with Prof Amitabh Mattoo, Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu
21 January, 2008
Death
And Darkness In Gaza
People Are dying, Help Us!
By Free Gaza
A humanitarian crisis is underway as the Gaza Strip's only power plant began to shut down on Sunday, and the tiny coastal territory entered its third full day without shipments of vital food and fuel supplies due to Israel's punitive sanctions
So
Many Tragedies In So Little Time
By Mohammed Omer
Where to start…, what to talk about…? The crippling electricity shortages, affecting hospitals as well as civilians? The air strikes & on-going, daily bombings by the Israeli army, their indiscriminate targeting of civilians and police stations…? Israel ’s non-accidental, enforced starvation of 1.5 million people by closing off ALL borders and not allowing in even UN aid, let alone basic medicinal, food, and construction needs…? With Some Chilling photos
Israel's
War Crimes In The Gaza Strip
By Ida Audeh
Gaza is plunged in darkness, its power plant shut down because Israel denies it fuel. Israel is systematically destroying the Gaza Strip and the lives of the 1.5 million Palestinians who live there, but never is Israel's collective ravaging of a civilian population denounced for what it is: a war crime
Gaza
Situation Potentially Disastrous
By PCHR
Israel is manufacturing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip that is seriously deteriorating every aspect of civilian life. To date, 45 patients have died as a direct result of Israeli Occupying Force (IOF) closure and siege of the Gaza Strip
Economic
Warfare In Gaza
By Yossi Wolfson
In both cases, Gaza and Lebanon, Israel has made indiscriminate war from the air on civilians while hesitating to commit ground forces. In both it has sought to destroy the economic infrastructure and reduce the civilian population to primitive conditions. By harming them, it was thought, you could get them to pressure their leaders and thus make political gains. This notion proved false in Lebanon, as in Gaza. The Israeli attacks amount to an expression of weakness, but the price will not be paid by those who launch them, rather by civilians on both sides
Systemic
Collapse
By Peter Goodchild
The reason why we live in the Age of Peak Everything is that everything is connected: oil, electricity, metals, food, water, money. Everything depends on everything. And there is no redundancy. It is more cost-effective to have everything balanced on the head of a pin than to have ten pins for ten things. Redundancy is not cost-effective. That is why redundant people are laid off. Redundancy is sometimes permissible for warfare or other emergencies, but we live at the center of the civilized world, where emergencies can never happen
Global
Warming - Stop Arguing - Take Action Now
By Ron Campbell
As mankind faces the most dramatic natural disaster in history we are squabbling instead of taking action. We need to stop arguing, come up with a plan and take action NOW
Remembering
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Though his fight ended at the time of his death in 1968, the realm of social injustice and discrimination in our society and the battle for equality is still very real today. Dr. King's work remains unfinished and that eliminating poverty, racial discrimination and inequality continues to be a challenge for all Americans
Book
Review: Robert McChesney's
"Communication Revolution"
By Stephen Lendman
Robert McChesney's newest book and subject of this review is titled Communication Revolution - Critical Junctures and the Future of Media. He believes it may be his best one, and Annenberg School of Communication Dean, Machael Delli Carpini, says it is "part media critique, part intellectual history, part personal memoir, and part manifesto."
Horrors
By Mustapha B Marrouchi
Why do the horror, bleakness, and backward-looking despair seem to appeal to a Western audience pleased with itself, comforted by the feeling that the future is safe, that it has nothing to learn from Africa except the price it charges for toys and luxuries that it no longer chooses or knows how to make?
Norwegian
Medicine For Vedanta
By Kavaljit Singh
At the face of protest from the Dongria Kondh tribals of the Niyamgiri hilly region of Orissa Norwegian sovereign fund sells off its stake in Vedanta Resources which was preparing to build the upcoming $850 million aluminium refinery and bauxite mining project at Lanjigarh
19 January, 2008
Bush
Announces “Stimulus” Plan
By Patrick Martin
There was a distinct note of panic in the sudden issuance of a statement, only hours after Bush’s return to the US from a weeklong trip through the Middle East. Bush could give few details of the stimulus package, since they have not been worked out, but instead outlined what he called the broad “principles”: the package should be limited to 1 percent of GDP, or about $140 billion; and it should consist of tax cuts only, with no increase in social spending
The
Week The Economy Turned Nasty
By Jeremy Warner
Retail sales plummet; gas and electricity prices soar, further eating into already squeezed disposable incomes; Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, two of the great symbols of American capitalism, forced to hand round the begging bowl among Asian and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds after massive write-downs on US sub-prime mortgage lending
18 January, 2007
Wall
Street Posts More Losses
By Bill Van Auken & Andre Damon
With major Wall Street finance houses posting tens of billions of dollars in new losses, housing starts declining 30 percent compared to last year, retail sales plunging and unemployment climbing to 5 percent—a two year high—the Bush White House, the Democratic congressional leadership and the Federal Reserve Board chairman all signaled Thursday their support for the passage of an economic stimulation package
Tourism
At The End Of The World
By Stephen Leahy
Hurry! Hurry! See the polar bears, penguins, Arctic glaciers, small pacific islands before they disappear forever due to global warming.Tourism companies are now using climate change as a marketing tool
US-
Iran Relations: Fifty Years of Deceit
By Gaither Stewart
Meanwhile, what is happening in the everyday reality of US-Iran relations? Each day we see on TV the gray, menacing US warships sitting just off Iran’s coast at the Straits of Hormuz. What we don’t see is the US threatening buildup in Azerbaijan along the Caspian Sea on Iran’s northwest borders. What we don’t see is the war that the United States and Great Britain have been waging against Iran for at least two years. Actually, for fifty years
WHO,
UN, US, DU And NGOs
By Clinton Callahan
How much does it take to inspire the UN leadership to reclaim its integrity and disallow the subversion of US-paid indecision makers? How many hundreds of thousands of cancerated soldiers and civilians, and babies born with no brains and organs outside their bodies will finally cause the UN to step up to its rightful responsibility to protect the world's peoples from being victimized by power crazed psychopaths?
Guantanamo
As A Symbol
By Ramzy Baroud
Guantanamo is a dark spot in US history and shall go down in world history as a symbol of injustice and oppression. And it will continue to be a jarring reminder of the inhumanity, the torture, and the extreme violence associated with the Bush administration's so- called war on terror
This
Time Next Year?
By Daoud Kuttab
An independent Palestinian state living alongside a secure state of Israel requires political will and an environment that will produce public support for peace. These elements are essential for negotiations in 2008 to succeed. Nothing would provide public support for peace talks more than an end to Israeli settlement activity and the release of Palestinian political prisoners. We can only hope that President Bush toured the West Bank with eyes open to the daily suffering of Palestinian life, and that he matches his commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state with the resolve necessary to hold Israel to its commitments
What
Would It Look Like If Civilization
Had A Nervous Breakdown?
By Dave Eriqat
What was once wrong is now right; truth, once considered noble, has given way to endemic dissembling; where we once championed helping people in need, today we push them away (as in the case of the homeless) or simply kill them (as in Palestine); knowledge is scorned, while unsubstantiated belief is embraced
Unimpeachable
– Under House Protection
By James Rothenberg
That the White House enjoys impeachment invulnerability is not sufficient reason for abandoning the effort. And that one elaborates the very reasons for this invulnerability is no indication of its permanence. Neither is peeling wool from your eyes surrender
Book
Review: The Scar Of David
By William James Martin
The Scar of David, by Susan Abulhawa, is about a scar and a man named David who bears the scar, and another scar -- the scar worn by Amal, the protagonist of the story, whom we follow from childhood and who also incurred a scar on her lower abdomen as the result of the exit wound of a rifle bullet from an Israeli soldier who shot her in the back as she walked to her home in the Jenin refugee camp.Of course, it is also about other scars – the scar of the land
United
He Stands
By Farah Aziz
Ishwar Sharma, 51, a native of Dewaria, U.P., migrated to Delhi in search of a better livelihood in 1984. Adopted through family occupation, Ishwar professionally is a carpenter, but in his social circles, he is better known for his public networking and charismatic speeches. A construction worker himself, Ishwar has taken the onus of mobilising his worker community to fight for its rights, which according to him is the only way to emancipation
PTA
President Gives His Life
For Want Of School Building
By Anil Gulati
Shiv Prasad Ahirwar was president of Parents' Teacher Association of a primary government school in Bhagwanganj area of the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. He had burnt himself in protest and frustration on January 7, 2008. This was not for any of his own personal demands but for want of school building for the children of the school of which he represents.He had suffered 80 per cent burns and then he succumbed to death in the Bhopal government hospital
17 January, 2008
Israeli
Forces Kill 17 Gazans
In Less Than Four Hours
By PCHR
On Tuesday morning, 15 January 2008, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed 17 Palestinians, including five civilians, and wounded at least 30 others, five of whom are in a serious condition, during an incursion into the al-Shojaeya and al-Zaytoun neighborhoods of east Gaza City
Judeo-Christian
Peace Processes
For The Killing Of Muslim Palestinians
By Agustin Velloso
Sixteen Palestinians died today, half a dozen yesterday, a similar amount in the previous days. 4,000 have died since September 2000 - many under age. More than 25,000 have been injured - many crippled for life. More than 11,000 are held prisoner - many uncharged and held without trial. More than 6,000 houses have been demolished in the Gaza Strip - another gross violation of Geneva Conventions
Institutionalized
Spying On Americans
By Stephen Lendman
This article reviews two police state tools (among many in use) in America. One is new, undiscussed and largely unknown to the public. The other was covered in a December article by this writer called Police State America. Here it's updated with new information
Bloody
Reality Bears No Relation
To The Delusions Of This President
By Robert Fisk
As a bomb explodes in Beirut and Israel kills 19 in Gaza raids, Bush takes his Middle East peace mission to Saudi Arabia (and signs off $20bn weapons deal with repressive regime)
Bush,
Sarkozy Look For Different Things
In The Middle East, Influence Included
By Marwan Asmar
Two men with different personas looking for different things in the Middle East, one a saber-rattler, a no-nonsense Texan, the other a more mellow Parisian with a Jewish background but coming across as more affable. Two major presidents in one week! People around the world must be envying the Middle East for playing host to US president George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy for being in the region within few days of each other pushing for seemingly different political ends
The
Pakistan Conundrum
By Scott Ritter
The bravado of the respective candidate’s ‘hunt Osama down until he is brought to justice’ rhetoric is as empty as their promises to seek stability inside Pakistan, for the two are inherently contradictory policy directions. To pursue one is to fail on the other
Pak-Afghan
Militancy Is Linked
With The NATO Forces In The region
By Javed I. Chaudry
Musharraf’s administration was in power for just over a year when 9/11 happened. Musharraf was told by the United States in no uncertain terms that Pakistan would be bombed back to the stone age if he chose not to participate in the so called war on terror. Although he has been a reluctant player in this American game but, his participation is the major reason for his unpopularity in the country. The conflict is between the United States and the people of Afghanistan, but Pakistan has been dragged into it by force, certainly not its own choice. This may well be due to an American plan to render Pakistan and its administration extremely weak and chaotic, only to use the excuse to control its nuclear assets in the end
'World's
Cheapest Car Environmentally Costly'
By Praful Bidwai
The ‘dream car’ may turn out to be an ecological nightmare and a not-so-safe driving machine, without airbags to protect riders or anti-lock braking systems. It could prove a menace to India’s already congested roads, and a source of enormous pollution and of health damage, besides becoming a drain on public resources
Imagine
A World Without Islam!
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Take away Islam, and the world would still be left with the main forces that drive today's conflicts, including colonialism, cross-national ideologies, ethnic conflicts and terrorism, says Graham Fuller, a former Vice-Chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA in charge of long-range strategic forecasting and currently a professor of history at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada)
Why
Is Civil Society Mute To
Threat Of Communalism In India?
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
If we do not find answers to our inherent discriminations as well as false nationalism, which is disturbingly turning into an upper caste cricket match that we witnessed in Sydney, then, I am afraid, the situation would go out of hand. This is the biggest hour of crisis in our social life and we have to respond it with responsibility and courage and not to let down the founding fathers of our nation, who gave us a secular and liberal constitution which is still our proud possession and a guarantee for social justice and equality for all
15 January, 2008
US
Bank Losses Intensify Recession Fears
By Patrick Martin
Two more major banks reported heavy mortgage and consumer-loan losses Monday for the fourth quarter of 2007, reinforcing fears that that US financial crisis will likely trigger a recession, not only in America, but worldwide
Traumatised
Veterans ‘Have Killed 120 In US’
By Stephen Foley
A new study has identified more than 120 killings committed by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as psychologically troubled soldiers slip through the net of an overextended military mental health system
Afghan
Prison Looks Like Another Guantanamo
By William Fisher
It is a prison located on the U.S. military base at base in the ancient city of Bagram near Charikar in Parvan, Afghanistan. The detention centre was set up by the U.S. military as a temporary screening site after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan overthrew the Taliban. It currently houses some 630 prisoners -- close to three times as many as are still held at Guantanamo
Iraq:
Awoken To A New Danger
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail
The newly formed 'Awakening' forces set up by the U.S. military are bringing new conflict among people
Stress:
In Iraq And USA
By Layla Anwar
Stress is when you have no job because some f... backward retard came and occupied your country, pillaged it and stripped you of your livelihood. That is stress.Stress is when you run from hospital ward to hospital ward, from prison to prison, from militia to militia looking for your loved one only to recognize them from their teeth fillings in some morgue...That is stress alright
The
Death Of The Stalinist Left In Palestine
By Randa Abu Naeem
Empty rhetoric has turned out to be the weapon not only of “Arab reactionary regimes;” it has been adopted by the Left itself. Stalin would have been happy to see his disciples at work in Palestine
Halliburton
Gang Rape Victim Finds No Justice
By David Swanson
What does one say to a young woman gang raped by men paid by us to work for a company from which our vice president profits, men who have yet to be charged with any crime, a company yet to make amends in any way, and a presidential administration effectively granted immunity by our representatives in Congress?
European
Union: A Clique Of Multinationals
Or A Union Of Peoples?
By Gaither Stewart
People to the East want the material wealth of the West, they want it now, but just as Dutch or French or Italians they are cautious about surrendering their separateness, the particular. That is Europe’s quandary: a super-state of multinationals or the particular and separateness
Face
To Face With Hezbollah
By Dan Lieberman
The Many Faces of the Lebanese Shiite Organization
Kashmiris
Are Suffering
By Gulam Jeelani
For India, Kashmir is perhaps an ‘integral part’ of the country, the only Muslim majority state and thus the bedrock of its democracy and secular preamble. For Pakistan it is not less than a ‘jugular vein’ and often supposed to be an unfinished task at the time of partition. While asserting this way both the countries have suffocated the Kashmiris in between
A
Case Before The Nation
By Dr Haider Mehdi
Having admitted all that is claimed by the incumbent leader, the nation still needs some kind of criteria to evaluate the performance of its political leadership. After all, that is a common process in a democratically-run nation – and the General (retd.) asserts that present-day Pakistan is a true democracy shaped and gifted by him and supported by American benevolence
14 January, 2008
Bush
Escalates Threats Against Iran
By Joe Kay
US President George Bush has used his trip through the Middle East to escalate his warmongering threats against Iran. Speaking at numerous stops in a region of the world where he is widely and deeply hated, Bush has mouthed democratic platitudes while seeking to build support among the Arab bourgeois regimes for a wider military conflagration
Layla
Anwar – An Arab Woman Blues:
Indicting The Reader
By Garda Ghista
Layla Anwar is the pseudonym for an Iraqi blogger, in her early to mid-forties, who appears to be writing directly from Baghdad, right in the line of fire, so to speak. She comes from a secular, upper-middle class, Sunni background and remains loyal to Saddam Hussein. Unlike the blogger Baghdad Burning, Layla does not write for the American left. Rather, she writes to all Americans, including the American left, and condemns us all along with the Bush-Cheney regime. She indicts every single American for being a part of the destruction and devastation of her motherland. She writes to the enemy
Loss
Of Antarctic Ice Has Soared
By 75 Per Cent In Just 10 Years
By Steve Connor
Parts of the ice sheets covering Antarctica are melting faster than predicted, with the net loss of ice probably accelerating in recent years because of global warming, a study has found
Economic
Collapse And Global Ecology
By Dr. Glen Barry
Given widespread failure to pursue policies sufficient to reverse deterioration of the biosphere and avoid ecological collapse, the best we can hope for may be that the growth-based economic system crashes sooner rather than later
Enemies
From Within: Big Enviro Groups
Holding Back Anti-Warming Movement
By Megan Tady
The heat is on environmental groups and politicians to churn out proposals for stabilizing the planet’s rising temperatures, but some environmentalists say existing plans to cool climate change are timid. Their criticism reveals a rift between two approaches: preserving the American way of life at the expense of quicker solutions, or changing the structure of U.S. society to counter an unprecedented threat
Using
Bhutto For Imperial Gain
By Stephen Lendman
From the time of her father's death to her own, Bhutto had close ties to Washington, the CIA, Pakistan's military, its ISI, as well as to the Taliban (established in her second term), "militant Islam" and Big Oil interests. She was a servant of power and pocketed billions for her efforts. In the end, she lost out and paid with her life on December 27
Why
Pakistanis See US Bigger Threat
Than Al Qaeda?
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Any direct American military action would further anger the Pakistanis. Raids by American troops would prompt a powerful popular backlash against the United States and President Musharraf who is extremely unpopular. One of major reason of his unpopularity is deployment of about 100,000 Pakistan army tribal territories along Pakistan-Afghanistan border under pressure from America. Army is seen fighting its own people in the name of "war on terrorism."
Face
To Face With Munir Malik
By Baber Ayaz
We are publishing an interview with Munir Malik, the former president of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association who was imprisoned and given drugs under the pretext of painkillers which caused him renal failure and liver damage, but who continues to be an inspiration for the movement for the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law in Pakistan
Gujarat:
Blame The Middle Class
By Ashis Nandy
Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be easy. The class has found in militant religious nationalism a new self- respect and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the way Bengali babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different times have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class has smelt blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, finance and coordinate them with impunity. The actual killers are the lowest of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class controls the media and education, which have become hate factories in recent times. And they receive spirited support from most non-resident Indians who, at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more nationalist, bloodthirsty, and irresponsible
"We
Need A Jammu And Kashmir-Centric Solution"
By Zafar Choudhary
Interview With Jammu And Kashmir Governor
12 January, 2008
Bernanke
Warns Of Recession
By Andre Damon & Joe Kay
US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Wednesday that the US economy is slowing dramatically and broadly hinted that the Fed would aggressively cut interest rates in response, perhaps before its next scheduled policy meeting at the end of January
The
Deflation Time Bomb
By Mike Whitney
When banks don’t lend and consumers don’t borrow; the economy crashes. End of story. The whole system is predicated on the prudent use of credit. That system is now in terminal distress. Everyone to the bunkers. Perhaps the whole “inflation-deflation” debate is academic. The real issue is the length and severity of the impending recession. That’s what we really want to know. And how many people will needlessly suffer
US
Carries Out Massive Bombing
On Outskirts Of Baghdad
By James Cogan
The US military unleashed a huge bombardment on the Arab Jubour district just 15 kilometres south-east of Baghdad on Thursday. In the space of 10 minutes, B-1 Stealth bombers and F-16 fighter-bombers pounded 47 targets with 47,500 pounds of high explosive bombs. A military spokesman, Major Alayne Conway, boasted that the operation “was one of the largest air strikes since the onset of the war”. The blasts were seen, heard and felt in the suburbs of Iraq’s capital
Iraq:
Less Violent But Not Less Hellish
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail
U.S. and Iraqi officials claim that security is improving across al-Anbar province and much of Iraq. Security during the last half of 2007 was indeed better than in the period between February 2006 and mid-2007. But this has brought little solace to many Iraqis, because violence is still worse than in 2005 and early 2006
Sustainable
Futures
By Ashok Agrwaal
The European notion of expansion, growth, etc, along a linear path was wholly misconceived. This does not negate everything that they thought and did during this period. But it is not possible to make a selection from out of the millions of ideas that emerged from their mindset. The rejection has to be wholesale
Celebrating
Collapse: The Coming Adventure -
Apocalypse No! Part 5
By Juan Santos
What extraordinary fortune to be here at the close of the drama, and to have the chance to learn from it and to practice within it, to be certain that what we do now really, really counts. We’ll have the chance to learn what it might mean to live as free human beings. It is entirely possible that the coming Crisis will create bonds between us, where nothing else has done so before, the same kind of bonds created by hurricanes, floods and other “disasters.”
The
Tower: Breaking The Death Grip Of
Profit And Power - Apocalypse No! Part 6
By Juan Santos
It is worse than anything I can imagine, to be so alone, in a practical sense, almost entirely in the absence of a living community, so alone in being willing to face the meaning of this Time and to prepare for the devastation that awaits. The title of a famous science fiction novel by Harlan Ellison almost captures the feeling: I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream. But that’s not quite it. I have a voice. I am whispering, reasoning, incanting, pleading, screaming - but you have no ears. I’m not telling you “We’re all going to die!” Of course, we’re all going to die. That’s not news. The news is that billions of us are going to die more or less at once. The dying is going to start Soon
Final
Winter Of Our Bush Discontent
By Robert S. Becker
No end to wars or scandals, yet deliverance in sight
US
Elections: Just Like The Movies
By Ramzy Baroud
The United States political process bears an uncanny resemblance to mainstream filmmaking. Elections and speeches are scripted to the letter, politicians put on a tirelessly rehearsed act, catering endlessly to the whims of the target audience. A successful Hollywood filmmaker can't afford to risk raising issues in a way that don't immediately reflect audience sympathies. Good politicians vying for votes are similar in that they speak according to the already existing expectations -- and prejudices -- of the voting public
The
Comeback Cry: Hillary Reconnects
With Her “Feminine Side
By Robert Weitzel
When asked, "How do you keep upbeat and so wonderful?" Hillary began by talking about her hair and then, either by epiphany or serendipity, or cold, calculating political strategy, she eased onto her “feminine side,” “This is very personal for me. It’s not just political . . . It’s about our country. It’s about our kids’ futures. It’s really about all of us together.”
The
"O" Word And Jesus Christ!
By Eileen Fleming
For Bush to say the "O" word while in Israel was a major step into reality.Bush acknowledged the rights of 4.4 million Palestinian diaspora refugees to receive compensation, but he ignored Article 13-2, of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS which Israel agreed to uphold when it became a state and which affirms: Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country
The
Great Ethanol Corndoggle
By Rand Clifford
If wisdom graces America with a return to hemp farming, we might kill the ethanol corndoggle. We can grow corn for food, and let high-powered energy crops like hemp fuel a healthy and home-grown new energy paradigm for America
Monkey
Business
By Anand Patwardhan
I agree that Bhajji alone should not be in the dock for it. It is a sin we have to collectively expiate by first recognizing that racism does in fact exist and flourish in this country, as indeed it does in most parts of the world including and specially in Australia, a land that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of aborigines and stole children from their parents to bring them up white
11 January, 2008
Can
The World Afford The Tata Nano?
By Andrew Buncombe
It's either the start of a people's revolution or the trigger for social and environmental headaches across the globe. The Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car, was unveiled with great fanfare in the Indian capital yesterday amid bright lights and blaring music
Bush
Exploits Strait Of Hormuz
Incident To Threaten Iran
By Peter Symonds
Five days after Sunday’s encounter between US warships and Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz, details of what took place remain in dispute. What is clear, however, is that the US administration, at the very least, deliberately inflated the incident on the eve of President Bush’s visit to the Middle East to menace Iran and raise the political temperature in the volatile region
Official
Version Of Naval Incident Starts To Unravel
By Gareth Porter
Despite the official and media portrayal of the incident in the Strait of Hormuz early Monday morning as a serious threat to U.S. ships from Iranian speedboats that nearly resulted in a "battle at sea", new information over the past three days suggests that the incident did not involve such a threat and that no U.S. commander was on the verge of firing at the Iranian boats
Is
Bush Losing His Grip On The Military?
By Chris Gelken
The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet has released a statement saying it cannot say with any certainty that threats to blow up its vessels actually came from Iranian Navy speedboats in Sunday's Straits of Hormuz incident.The revelation tacitly supports the Iranian version of events, in that it was a normal challenge by Iranian naval officials for the American vessels to identify themselves, and at no time was there any serious danger of an escalation or any hostile action
The
"Good Good War" Is A Bad War
By John Pilger
John Pilger describes how the invasion of Afghanistan, which was widely supported in the West as a 'good war' and justifiable response to 9/11, was actually planned months before 9/11 and is the latest instalment of 'a great game'
What
Does Obama Actually Stand For?
By Lance Selfa
Those who are counting on Obama's promises to “reach across the aisle” to get things done might take a look at Obama's record on health care reform in the Illinois General Assembly
How
Peak Oil Changed My Life
By Aaron Wissner
Peak oil drives me to share what I know, and to go further, to illuminate the fundamental failure of our global culture to plan and prepare for its own future. The bleak reality is this: peak oil is not really about the decline of our most precious energy resource. Peak oil is one symptom of our civilization’s inability to find and follow a cultural vision of sustainability
What's
The Real Source Of Kenya's Violence?
By Lee Sustar
The class polarization--along with an increase in police violence in the name of fighting gangs in the slums--set the stage for the explosion of political violence. The Kikuyu, who are disproportionately represented in business and commercial life, became the scapegoats for class inequality
"What
Is The Lesson To Be Learned
From The Holocaust?"
By Silvia Cattori & Hedy Epstein
An interview with Hedy Epstein, who advocates for a better understanding of the Palestinian conflict and shows great concern about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza strip
Levite
Be Gone: Releasing The Samaritan Within
By Jason Miller
It’s time to abandon the childish notion that it is “all about me.” The world is in flames, in large part because of us. We need to be Samaritans, not Levites
Human
Rights In The West And The Rest
By Samir Naim-Ahmed
The world by the end of the 20th century is still sharply divided into the humanized minority in the west and the dehumanized majority in the rest. The debate over such issues as the universality or particularity of human rights or the priority of economic, social, and cultural rights over the civil and political rights should be kept in abeyance until the lines separating the humans and non humans have been erased and universal minimal standards of human living conditions have been attained by human beings world-wide
Pakistan:
Campaigns Of Mass Deception
By Mehroz Siraj Sadruddin
The future, however does not bode well for the PPP, neither for Nawaz Sharif, but certainly it would bode well for democracy in Pakistan. This should only happen if the media and the lawyers’ community continue their credible protests and struggle for the establishment of the rule of law, supremacy of the constitution, as it stood in 1973 and freedom of speech, action, expression and the media in this country. It is only then that the Army, through massive pressure can be forced back to the barracks, where it truly belongs
Children
Speak Up
By Monideepa Sahu
The Karnataka government has passed an order making it mandatory for panchayats in the state to offer children a platform to voice their concerns and problems, through special children's gram sabhas
10 January, 2008
The
Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Growing?
By Denny Burbeck
The Antarctic ice sheet is growing in height in the central region, but making just that one point is very misleading and quite dishonest
Flames
In Kenya
By Bill Fletcher, Jr.
The recent elections and post-election riots in Kenya bring forward great sorrow and also give one pause. Is this another situation where Africans tear each other apart, one may ask? How is it that people who have lived next to one another can go after each other in what appears to be the wink of an eye?
The
India-Australia Cricket Conflict:
Sport, Profits And Nationalism
By Mike Head
To boost its stocks, the BCCI needs victories too, both on and off the field. In the current clash with Australia, it is openly playing to its big business and popular constituencies, with hefty appeals to Indian nationalism
India
In Denial
By Mike Marqusee
The response of the BCCI to the cricket row in Australia illustrates the problem of entrenched racism in India
Tar
Sands vs. Clean Water:
Eating The Earth For Cars
By Mark Robinowitz
The tar sands production center in northern Alberta in Canada is one of the clearest signs that the easy-to-get oil is on the wane. Tar sands are a low grade hydrocarbon deposit that requires enormous energy input to process and convert it into something resembling petroleum
Fraud
US-Style: Fake Videos And Elections
By Stephen Lendman
Now the January, 2008 election: dateline New Hampshire. Zogby International has a well-deserved reputation for accuracy. It's January 5 - 7 pre-election poll numbers showed Obama at 42% v. Clinton's 29% - an impossible gap to close in a few days or even weeks. Yet magically it happened. Clinton miraculously snatched victory from certain defeat with 39% of the vote to Obama's 36% with the loser saying no more than "I am still fired up and ready to go." Where to he should ask after this type reversal with obvious grim signs for his hopes
Italy,
Italians And Silvio Berlusconi-
A Case For Anything For Power
By Gaither Stewart
I have dwelled on Moravia because he showed in his fiction that the bored indifference of the Italian people as a whole facilitated the birth and twenty-year survival of Fascism, the same political indifference that marks Italian society today in the face of the modern form of reactionary extremism that is Silvio Berlusconi
Hillary
And Bush: 21st Century Democracy
And USA Tax Dollars At Work
By Eileen Fleming
By 2002 the costs to American Taxpayers because of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict was already $3 Trillion. The U.S. government's financial support to Israel for the construction of the wall is $1.5 million per mile. The Wall is three times as long and twice as high as the wall that fell in Berlin. See your tax dollars at work America in this short powerful video on The Wall: On November 15, 2005, Senator Clinton stood on the Jerusalem side of The Wall and was quoted in Ha'aretz, expressing support for The Wall because it "is against terrorists" and "not against the Palestinian people."
Bush's
Last Throw Against Iran
By M K Bhadrakumar
The leitmotif of Bush's high-profile tour of the Middle East is unmistakably Iran. But Washington's Iran policy lies in tatters and it has no choice but to ratchet up anti-Iran rhetoric, though it realizes there are no takers in the Middle East for such rhetoric of fire and brimstone. The danger now is that Tehran may choose to hunker down and prefer to deal with the next US administration
Bush
Has Nothing New To Offer Middle East
By Chris Gelken
Lame duck President seeking last minute foreign policy success
The
Realities As Put Forward
By Syed Ali Safvi
US policy towards Muslim nations has always been presumptuous, currently fearless Iran takes the heat, comments Syed Ali Safvi
The
Dirty Tricks Brigade
By Beena Sarwar
Already stunned at the loss of their leader, the PPP is now reeling from the registration of tens of thousands of FIRs against its workers. Its electoral candidates face charges that include attempted murder. All this only contributes towards the existing uncertainty and may generate more violence that could provide the establishment a pretext to further postpone elections. This must not be allowed to happen
09 January, 2008
Has
Recession Arrived In USA?
By BBC
The feared recession in the US economy has already arrived, according to a report from Merrill Lynch. It said that Friday's employment report, which sent shares tumbling worldwide, confirmed that the US is in the first month of a recession. Its view is controversial, with banks such as Lehman Brothers disagreeing
No
Jobs For The New Economy Or The Old
By Paul Craig Roberts
December did not bring Americans any jobs. To the contrary, the private sector lost 13,000 jobs from the previous month. If December is a harbinger of the New Year, it is going to be a bad one
Don’t
Worry The Price Per Barrel Is $100!
By Dr Marwan Asmar
Don’t worry the price of oil—currently hovering at around $100 per barrel—‘is not very high’—but is likely to go higher if we take into account the oil demand, production costs and inflationary pressures. These are not the expressed views of the man-in-the-street, but that of the current rotating president of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) Chakib Khelil
The
$100 Barrel Of Oil vs. The Global War On Terror
By Tom Engelhardt
Consider the debate among four Democratic presidential candidates on ABC News last Saturday night. In the previous week, the price of a barrel of oil briefly touched $100, unemployment hit 5%, the stock market had the worst three-day start since the Great Depression, and the word "recession" was in the headlines and in the air. So when ABC debate moderator Charlie Gibson announced that the first fifteen-minute segment would be taken up with "what is generally agreed to be… the greatest threat to the United States today," what did you expect?
China:
Slipping On High Oil Prices
By Antoneta Bezlova
China’s economic minders have always prided themselves on the fact that despite the country’s insatiable appetite for energy its booming economy has remained largely insulated from fluctuating international oil prices. But when prices hit 100 US dollars per barrel in early January, the unease among officials and pundits was palpable
2007
- A Convulsive Year
By Peter Taaffe
2007 - a convulsive year - ended to the roar of the assassin's bullet and bomb, cutting down Benazir Bhutto, the fourth such civilian leader or president to be murdered since the foundation of Pakistan 60 years ago. Kenya is scarred by riots in protest at another 'stolen' election
Creative
Living Arrangements
By Jon Loux
There is a lot of talk these days about making different arrangements as the economy continues to decline, and even accelerate, over the next several years and decades. Dick Cheney assures us that the American way of life is ‘non-negotiable.’ I guess that means that we can just sit back and watch it drain away, grain by grain, like some thermodynamic hour glass. Since we can no longer negotiate the steady passage of time and entropy (when could we ever?) we must ‘make other arrangements.’
A
Hostile President
By Gideon Levy
George Bush is coming to Israel this week. History will yet judge him for his actions and his failures. The world feels enmity toward him and even the U.S. is already sick and tired of him. Only here is he accorded honor and glory
A
Hopeful 08: Impeachment And Climate Change
By Bill Henderson
Without a cathartic event in 08, Obama will win the presidency to become the same old / same old president, ineffectual except perhaps as commander in chief. He may have de facto won the presidency today in New Hampshire, but even a landslide vote next November won't give him a mandate for systemic change, a mandate for the type of change needed in America but presently impossible
Reviewing
David Edwards
And David Cromwell's "Guardians Of Power"
By Stephen Lendman
Book Review: "Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media". It's a work distinguished author John Pilger calls "required reading" and "the most important book about journalism (he) can remember" since Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman's classic - "Manufacturing Dissent." Cromwell and Edwards "have done the job of true journalists: they have set the record straight" in contrast to the mainstream that distorts and corrupts it for the powerful. Their book is must reading and will be reviewed in-depth, chapter by chapter, to show why. It's also why no major broadsheet ever mentions it or its important content. This review covers lots of it
Double
Standard On Divestment
By Josh Reubner
Today, two movements for the promotion of human rights in Sudan and Palestine seek to emulate the successful role played by boycotts, divestment, and sanctions in achieving democracy and equality in South Africa. The two movements, however, have received radically different receptions on Capitol Hill. This double standard testifies to official Washington's selectivity when it comes to promoting human rights around the globe and its tendency to overlook the faults of its allies while using human rights as a pretext to punish its adversaries
Sri
Lankan Government Pulls Out Of
2002 Ceasefire Agreement
By Wije Dias
After waging an undeclared civil war for two years, the Sri Lankan government gave notice on January 2 that it would pull out of the 2002 ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The decision sets the stage for a further escalation of fighting aimed at destroying the LTTE militarily and effectively ends any prospect of peace talks and a negotiated resolution to the 25-year conflict
How
Maruti 'Celebrates' The Molester !
By Anjali Sinha & Subhash Gatade
The logo of Maruti-Suzuki talks of 'Count on Us'. And as far as women's dignity' is concerned the Maruti needs to introspect whether it can be really 'Counted upon or not'
08 January, 2008
Pakistanis
See US As Greatest Threat
By Jim Lobe
Amid reports that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is considering aggressive covert actions against armed Islamist forces in western Pakistan, a new survey released here Monday suggested that such an effort would be opposed by an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis themselves
Why
Barack Should De-Escalate On Pakistan
By Tom Hayden
As predicted, Barack Obama's advocacy of unilateral military intervention in Pakistan if there is "actionable intelligence" against al-Qaeda is giving legitimacy to the Bush administration's gathering plan for an escalation
On
Rejecting "The System"
By Emily Spence
Even if imperfect at it, we owe it to ourselves and each other to strive to create a better world as best as we can given our underlying circumstances. Then, who knows? Maybe at a certain point, we can reach a point in the far ahead times where some benefit has accrued on account of our seminal action. Maybe we can be one of the snowflakes that provides the weight to reach that final tipping point
LIBERTY,
Vanunu, Dylan And Doors
By Eileen Fleming
Although Vanunu's and the LIBERTY Vet's situations are very different, they are also very connected in my heart/gut. In both instances governments that claim to be democracies told truth tellers to SHUT UP and both governments have lied and covered up........
Naval
Encounter Highlights Tensions
Stoked By Bush Trip To Middle East
By Peter Symonds
An incident in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday involving US warships and small, high-speed Iranian craft has served to heighten tensions in the Gulf on the eve of President Bush’s departure for his first extended trip to the Middle East. The Iranian foreign ministry downplayed the encounter as “a normal issue” that “happens every now and then for both sides”, but the Pentagon and White House did the opposite, claiming that the Iranian actions had been provocative and dangerous
Did
Senator McCain Betray?
By Mike Ghouse
What Mr. Russert, Stephanapoulus, Chris Wallace and Charlie Gibson forgot or chose not to ask was this major question. Senator, the why did you not get Osama? Why did you have to wait to be elected to do that? Isn't that a betrayal to your party and to your President? Isn't that a betrayal to our nation? I am disappointed that none of the Journalist asked that question, a total of four times, and none could ask that? It is not too late now
The
United Nations, India And Kashmir
By Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai
If promises are made to be broken, then Kashmir may be summoned to prove the treacherous proposition. Broken promises haunt Kashmir's history, and explain its tragedy
Kashmir:
Difference Of Opinion
By Kashoo Tawseef
Jammu and Kashmir needs a step-by-step approach to normalization and confidence building between the various parties, leading eventually to a solution which will be according to the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir
Pakistan
After Benazir's Assassination
By Stefania Maurizi
An interview with Pervez Hoodhoy
07 January, 2008
Disappearing
World: The Village
Falling Into The Sea
By Mark Hughes
Skipsea is disappearing fast. It sits on the fastest-eroding coastline in Europe and every year the sea swallows another chunk of land. Mark Hughes visits the people living on the edge
Iraq
Death Rate Belies US Claims Of Success
By Kim Sengupta
The death rate in Iraq in the past 12 months has been the second highest in any year since the invasion, according to figures that appear to contradict American claims that the troop "surge" has dramatically reduced the level of violence across the country
Iraq:
Killer Of U.S. Soldiers Becomes A Hero
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail
The recent killing of two U.S. soldiers by their Iraqi colleague has raised disturbing questions about U.S. military relations with the Iraqis they work with
Pakistan:
Bhutto's Murder
Rekindles Ethnic Suspicions
By Irfan Ahmed
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, leader of the powerful Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and twice prime minister, has pushed to the brink a country already known for regionalism and ethnic suspicion
Babies
Up Against The Occupation
By Eileen Fleming
On January 3, 2008, I received the following email from the Little Town of Bethlehem in Occupied Territory:I want to share with you some good news. On Dec. 31 at 3:00 pm Jerusalem time my wife gave birth to our second daughter…Both of them are doing good. Up to this very moment I am not able to see either of them because of the Israeli policies of preventing Palestinians from entering Jerusalem. It seems I am too dangerous and being with my wife represents a security threat to the state of Israel
Minorities
And The American Electorate
By Mary Shaw
This is an historic election year in the U.S. For the first time ever, the pool of Democratic presidential candidates includes a woman, an African American, and a Latino. And, better yet, the first and third spots in the Iowa caucuses went to the African American and the woman, respectively
Riots
In Orissa
By Angana Chatterji
Independent investigators charge that the violence was planned, that the police had prior knowledge of Hindutva groups’ intent to riot. The pertinent district collector and superintendent of police have been transferred, not discharged. A Judicial Review Commission (JRC) chaired by a former (not sitting) judge has been appointed by the government of Orissa to investigate the riots. Its power or legitimacy is in question
06 January, 2008
Cutbacks
To Iraqi Food Rations Threaten
Malnutrition And Starvation
By James Cogan
Under conditions of widespread malnutrition, run-away inflation and mass unemployment, the Iraqi Trade Ministry is preparing to slash the provision of subsidised food and basic hygiene necessities under the Public Distribution System
The
Iraq Charade
By Ramzy Baroud
In recent months, we have been inundated by media reports bringing good news from Iraq, with countless testimonials to the great improvement in security enjoyed by the country in general and the Baghdad area in particular. This progress is attributed solely to the judicious ‘surge’ of US military presence, and the astute tactics enacted by occupation forces in a place that once personified despair and violence
Israel
And 9-11
By Wendy Campbell
I would like to make the proclamation that anyone who DOESN’T think that Israel was involved with 9-11 is naïve, at best
Things
Most People Would Rather Not Know
By Timothy V. Gatto
The American people need to understand one thing, and this by the way is the most important thing that they could possibly understand; there is no military solution to the problems that exist in the Middle East
Taser
Jolts On The Road Toward Mutiny
By Gaither Stewart
What if in the shaky super power in decline, the United States of America, tottering on the brink of disaster, just what if the next turn of events was a popular mutiny against the gradual, little-charted American Counter-Revolution that has been going on for decades?
Survival
Tools—Farming, Stories, Poetry,
Writing, And Leaning
By Shepherd Bliss
Everything that lives dies—individuals, nations, and even planets. The Grim Reaper gets all of us, even empires. The United States seems to be at the end of its rope in many ways—loosing wars, a falling dollar and declining economy, decreasing prestige among the peoples of the world. A key question now is how to live during the transition from the no-longer of the American Empire, trying to salvage the best of America, and make it to whatever not-yet we can create. The deepening darkness can be more manageable if we lean on each other
The
Destiny Of Politics And Choices In Pakistan!
By Dr Salim Nazzal
The question "where the train of Pakistan is heading?" has for now remained unanswered. It is difficult question and cannot be answered simply to everyone's satisfaction because of the weight of complexity that exists. However, it is almost certain that Pakistan may need a new social contract, which would lead the state towards new hope for peace and stability
To
Pindi Station
By Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Nearly every report of Benazir Bhutto's terrible demise began by noting her historic distinction of being the first female head of government in an Islamic country. Mentioned far below, if at all, was a far more notable legacy -- that it was her administration that orginated the Taliban
Rumi
And Advaita
By Dr.Auswaf Ahsan
Perceiving a writer while reading his/her text shows maturity of the reader whereas gazing his/her religion/ethnicity prior to reading the text is blatant bias
05 January, 2008
Obama,
Huckabee Finish First In Iowa
By Patrick Martin
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas won the Democratic and Republican caucuses in Iowa January 3, dealing significant setbacks to the candidates previously considered frontrunners for the two parties’ presidential nominations
How
Many Kids Will Bush America Kill In 2008?
By Dr Gideon Polya
What can decent people do to counter this horrendous Bush American barbarism in 2008? Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent folk must (a) inform others and (b) act ethically by applying Sanctions and Boycotts in relation to all their avoidable dealings with individuals, corporations and countries complicit in this continuing mass pedocide, this continuing, remorseless Bush-ite mass murder of innocent children
Toward
A Post-Oil Community
By Peter Goodchild
Benumbed and benighted, these recent graduates are certainly not ready for the bizarre future that now awaits them, a world unlike anything their parents encountered. Any twenty-year-old who has never gone to bed hungry is precisely the sort of person who will be unlikely to find a meal in the year 2030. It is the young people who have previously had to fight for survival who will have the stamina — both physically and psychologically — to fight for survival in the future. The soft will not live long. It’s the wolves that will eat well, not the lap dogs
Time
To Stop The Greenwashing
By Glen Barry
Global ecological sustainability depends upon identifying and acting upon ambitious, sufficient eco-policies now; and rejecting misleading, exploitative and inadequate reformist pandering
An
Iron Fist In A Velvet Glove
By Ted Rall
How American Democracy Relies on Fascism
Evidence
Of Israeli 'Cowardly Blending'
Comes To Light
By Jonathan Cook
A new report, written by a respected Israeli human rights organisation, one representing the country’s Arab minority not its Jewish majority, has unearthed evidence showing that during the fighting Israel committed war crimes not only against Lebanese civilians -- as was already known -- but also against its own Arab citizens. This is an aspect of the war that has been almost entirely neglected until now
The
Myth Of Sectarianism
By Dahr Jamail
If the U.S. leaves Iraq, the violent sectarianism between the Sunni and Shia will worsen. This is what Republicans and Democrats alike will have us believe. This key piece of rhetoric is used to justify the continuance of the occupation of Iraq
Iraqis
Resort To Selling Children
By Afif Sarhan
Local officials and aid workers have expressed concern over the alarming rate at which children are disappearing countrywide in Iraq's current unstable environment
Reviewing
F. William Engdahl's
Seeds Of Destruction - Part III
By Stephen Lendman
This is the third and final part of William Engdahl's powerfully important book about four Anglo-American agribusiness giants and their aim to control world food supply, make it all genetically engineered, and use it as a geopolitical weapon. The story is chilling and needs to be read in full to learn the type future they plan for us. Parts I and II were published and are available on this web site. Part III follows below
Congress'
Soft-Hindutva Is Destroying Pluarlism
By Kuldip Nayar
Up to a point, Sonia Gandhi stuck to her remark of maut ke saudagar and told the Election Commission of India that calling a spade a spade did not violate any code of election. But then she herself watered down her stand. Whoever advised her, did great harm to the party and its cause
03 January, 2008
Kucinich
Backs Obama In Iowa Primary
By Jeff Lassahn
Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich has announced to his supporters in Iowa that if he does not reach the 15 percent threshold of votes needed to proceed to the second round of nominating the party’s presidential candidate, he “strongly encourages” them to vote for Senator Barack Obama. This further underscores the cynical and deceptive nature of Kucinich’s campaign and his supposedly leftist, antiwar stance
Dear
Iowa, Vote For Dennis But Don't Listen To Him
By David Swanson
I love Dennis Kucinich and think he is far and away the best candidate running for president. He and I are speaking together on a panel in New Hampshire this weekend. But asking his supporters in Iowa to vote for Obama as their second choice makes no sense to me
Hey
Iowa, Only One Candidate Links
Education With War Spending
By Heather Wokusch
Obama is aiming for younger caucus-goers. Clinton is targeting women. Both demographic groups should take another look at Kucinich, and his plan to put the nation's youth in college, not in Baghdad
Mob-Buster
To Probe CIA Over
Al-Qaeda Interrogations
By Chris Gelken
America’s top lawman has announced the launch of a criminal investigation into the CIA’s destruction of videotapes allegedly showing the violent interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects being held at a secret prison.Attorney General Michael Mukasey has appointed a modern day ‘Untouchable’ to head up the investigation. But will mob-buster John Durham be tough enough to take on the Central Intelligence Agency and possibly even the White House?
Put
Option On America, Part 3
By Rand Clifford
Many "accidents" combined to save Israelis from becoming WTC casualties on 9-11. And while CorpoMedia did burp a perfunctory blurb about Odigo employees and their tip that could have saved thousands of American lives, if shared, but the blurb got buried. So many things Americans need to know are routinely buried that every day it becomes clearer to freethinkers: America’s Fourth Estate has become Israel’s Fifth Column
How
Bush Took Us To The Dark Side
By Tom Engelhardt
If you really want to catch the spirit of the Bush legacy one year early, try to imagine the poem an Emma Lazarus of this moment might write, something appropriate for a gigantic statue in New York harbor of a guard from Mohamed Bashmilah's living nightmare -- dressed all in black, a black mask covering his head and neck, tinted yellow plastic over the eyes, a man, hands sheathed in rubber gloves, holding up not a torch but a video camera and dragging chains
How
Britain Became Party To A Crime
That May Have Killed A Million People
By George Monbiot
Not having a written constitution allowed Blair and his advisers to go to war without reference to parliament or the public
Reviewing
F. William Engdahl's
Seeds Of Destruction - Part II
By Stephen Lendman
William Engdahl's book is a diabolical account of how four Anglo-American agribusiness giants plan world domination by patenting life forms to gain worldwide control of our food supply and our lives. This review is in three in-depth parts
Solidarity
And Equality: Something To Believe In
By Gaither Stewart
It’s easy to conclude that the world is what it is and that we have to live in it as best we can. But I believe we can imagine it better than it is. Since 1968 youth movements of the world have marched under the slogan that a different world is possible. And what’s wrong with the idea of Utopia as a guide?
The
Life And Death Of Benazir Bhutto:
A Pakistani Tragedy
By M. Shahid Alam
Pakistan has a chance of averting a civil war, but only by distancing itself from the United States. This distancing is now vital for Pakistan: and one could argue, for the United States too. Only by distancing itself from the United States does any Pakistani government now have a chance of preventing the militants from overwhelming Pakistan itself. No government that cleaves to the United States and Israel has a chance of winning popular support in its efforts to contain the spread of the Islamist insurgency. Sadly, Benazir Bhutto too – like Musharraf – has cultivated the Israeli lobby in the United States
Advertisements
Need To Respect Human Rights
By Anil Gulati
A TV advertisement concerning Happydent teeth whitening gum represented the worst case of human rights violation; the advertisement is still being run. May be it is a call to act
Right
To Education At Crossroads In Jharkhand
By Gladson Dungdung
More than 4 lakh children are still engaged as child labourers in the state
02 January, 2007
The
State Of Iraq As It Enters 2008
By James Cogan
Media reports about New Year parties in parts of Baghdad cannot disguise the fact that Iraqis have little to look forward to in 2008, and even less to celebrate about 2007. Last year was yet another of death, destruction and suffering
The 08
Challenge
By Bill Henderson
If you understand that climate change is an emergency then the challenge in 08 becomes winning a mandate for almost impossible systemic change in a United States still in ideological thrall to failing markets
Happiness
For Sale
By Mike Ghouse
Life becomes meaningful and powerful when you do things for others; it is the anecdote against sorrow that surrounds us from time to time. That is the wisdom in Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islam, Jain, Jewish, Native religions, Shinto, Sikh, Wicca, Zoroastrian and other faiths – living for the sake of others, a proven formula for happiness
Now
We Are Human Commodities
By Chris Maser
We, as a society, are losing sight of one another as human beings—witness the Wall-Street money chase in which numerous, large corporations discount human value as they increasingly convert people into faceless commodities that are bought and sold on a whim to improve the corporate standing in the competitive marketplace. After all, market share translates into political power, which translates into higher profit margins, both of which exacerbate the corporate disregard for people, the rampant destruction of Nature, and the squandering of natural resources
Reviewing
F. William Engdahl's
"Seeds of Destruction"
By Stephen Lendman
Engdahl's newest book is just out from the Centre for Research on Globalization. It's a sequel to his first one called "Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation" and subject of this review. It's the diabolical story of how Washington and four Anglo-American agribusiness giants plan world domination by patenting life forms to gain worldwide control of our food supply and why that prospect is chilling. The book's compelling contents are reviewed below in-depth so readers will know the type future Henry Kissinger had in mind in 1970 when he said: "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people."
Death
By Election
By David Swanson
If we want credible elections and palatable candidates, we will break the electoral spell and start behaving like the citizens of a democracy
America:
Land Of The Free And Home Of The What?
By Stan Moody
As the New Year gets underway, I found myself giving some thought as to the extent of terrorist activities worldwide. So I ran a search and came up with a website that flags all the terrorist acts in the world and updates every 310 seconds. The information there is nothing less than riveting
Welcome
To Third World, U.S.A.
By Arthur Donner & Doug Peters
The U.S. today has many more features in common with Third World status than Canada ever did back in the mid-1990s
Class
Is In Session
By Harold Niver
The truth is that the class war is being waged on anyone who is NOT a wealthy white educated Christian American male. Think about all of the people that don't fit that mold and you'll begin to understand exactly what "class" means. You'll also see how deftly propaganda is being used to stir up division and distrust within the ranks of the working class
When
Pro-Life Is Anti-Family
By Mirah Riben
The state of Florida’s “Choose Life” license plate fund established by a group of Marion County residents who wanted to encourage women to choose life over abortion. Funds raised through the sale of the license plates are used to support pregnant women who plan to continue their pregnancies, based on financial need, but with a big string attached. Women who do not abort an unplanned pregnancy, but choose life and desire to raise their own children, are denied help from the program. The funds can ONLY be given to those who choose life and relinquish their beloved babies for adoption, usually by non-related strangers
Orissa:
Anti Christian Violnce
By Ram Puniyani
It is no coincident that the BJP is part of the ruling coalition in Orissa, and those involved in the vandalism are part of some or the other organization directly affiliated with the RSS. The major such are Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Bajrang dal and their local variants. While the media reports are sketchy, the Citizens Inquiry team, which was to visit the area has been denied permission to visit the districts and was escorted out of the area
The
Left Needs Rethinking, Not Abject Apologia
By Praful Bidwai
Prabhat Patnaik has done what no other intellectual allied to West Bengal's Left Front has even attempted after Nandigram: namely, try to turn the tables on Left-leaning critics of the CPM by gratuitously attacking them for their " messianic moralism" and their presumed "disdain" for "the messy world of politics"
Paste
A Poster, Go To Jail !
By Subhash Gatade
The recent bill aptly titled 'Delhi Prevention of Property Defacement Act 2007' introduced in the Delhi assembly makes depressing reading. According to its provisions a mere act of putting posters on the walls or writing anything with chalk. paint or any other material can make you liable for a punishment of one year in jail. Additionally you can be asked to pay a fine of Rs.50,000
Live
From Ayodhya
By Nigar Ataulla (with inputs from Yoginder Sikand)
Why do we want to bind our love for each other or for God in monuments and mansions? God is eternal, all around us, He is within us and everywhere. So why are we fighting over mandirs or masjids?
