15
January, 2004
Sean
Penn Returns To Iraq
By Sean Penn
Sean Penn went to Iraq from Dec. 13 to 15, 2002,
to learn about the American-Iraqi conflict from the people who were
living through it. A year later, the week before Saddam Hussein was
captured, Penn returned to Iraq to find out how life had changed after
the American invasion. What follows is his account of what he saw
The Suicide Message
Of A Mother
Who Left Home To Kill
By Justin Huggler
What prompted a mother of two small children to
abandon them and carry out such a terrible deed remains mysterious.
Gaza is a pressure cooker, where millions of Palestinians are trapped
in a small coastal strip, with mass unemployment and poverty
Civil Society
Initiatives And Peace In Kashmir
By Yoginder Sikand
Insofar as the basis of the Kashmir conflict is
political, a lasting solution to the conflict can only come about at
the political level. Despite this, civil society groups in Kashmir,
and in India as well, do have a crucial role to play in promoting a
peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflict in the region
14 January, 2004
An
Apocalyptic Future
By Ted Glick
Unless we dramatically shift from the use of fossil
fuels to the use of clean and renewable energy, we are facing a truly
apocalyptic future
Global Extinction:
Does It Matter?
By George Monbiot
By 2050, around a quarter of the world's animal
and plant species could die out as a result of global warming. To these
we must add the millions threatened by farming, logging, hunting, fishing
and introduced species. The future is beginning to look a little lonely
Eyewitness in
Iran: Bam Disaster And Beyond
By Jean Shaoul
The earthquake at Bam, the result of a natural
disaster cruelly exacerbated by a regime that has sought to suppress
all political opposition and social dissent, has exposed the real relations
between the government and the people
Islam And Sexual
Equality
By Asghar Ali Engineer
When women were so aware of their rights in the
time of the Prophet and were active on religious and social fronts,
how can they remain passive today and accept the role assigned them
by the orthodox 'ulama who refuse to take into account the new socio-economic
dynamics?
Dalits Barred
Entry Into Temple
By Mohammed Iqbal
Activists participating in a national Dalit Swadhikar
rally that crossed Rajasthan the other day were denied entry into the
famous Shrinath temple in Nathdwara, despite a 15-year-old judgment
of the Rajasthan High Court directing the State Government to ensure
unhindered access for Dalits to the temple
Debating
Indo-Pak Relations
By Imtiaz Alam
More than Kashmir, Indo-Pak relations remained
a hostage to the enmity generated by the partition. It is the liberation
of Indo-Pak relation from the captivity of hostility that can create
a soil of mutual confidence, that can help overcome historically rooted
disputes in a process of reconciliation
13 January, 2004
Syria
Rejects Israeli Invitation To Talks
By Justin Huggler
Syria rejected Israel's invitation to the Syrian
President, Bashar al-Assad, to come to Jerusalem for new peace negotiations
dismissing it as a "media manoeuvre"
Israel's Deadly
Thirst
By Chris McGreal
Last week Israel agreed an extraordinary arms-for-water
deal with Turkey. Whether this goes ahead or not, water lies at the
heart of Israel's relationship with its Arab neighbours and the Palestinians
- and poses some of the toughest challenges for peace in the Middle
East
Towards
A People Centred Fair Trade
Agreement On Agriculture
By Vandana Shiva
All rewriting of trade rules for agriculture is
being driven by the same forces and interests that brought agriculture
into the Uruguay Round of GATT, with its genocidal impacts on peasants
and the poor
12 January, 2004
Life Expectancy
Falls In Poorest Countries
By Barry Mason
Stark global inequalities in health are revealed
in the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) report. World Health Report
2003 highlights the slowing of gains and the widening of health
gaps.
Freak Summers
'Will Happen Regularly'
By Tim Radford
Climate scientists from Zurich report in Nature
online that costly extremes of weather will become the norm in the coming
years
11 January, 2004
Saddam's
Ouster Planned Before 9/11
By CBS News
The Bush Administration began laying plans for
an invasion of Iraq, including the use of American troops, within days
of President Bush's inauguration in January of 2001 -- not eight months
later after the 9/11 attacks as has been previously reported
Falluja- Iraq's
Cockpit Of Violence
By Peter Beaumont
Dangers lurk on every street corner for the US
82nd Airborne in Falluja
Guantanamo
Bay: A Global Experiment
In Inhumanity
By Louise Christian
The US example in Guatanamo now legitimises oppression
across the world
Being Young In
Palestine
By Melissa writing from Rafah
Canadian Peace activist Melissa observes the lives
of young palestinians and finds what does this mean to be young in Palestine
10 January, 2004
Climate
Catastrophe
By David Edwards
The corporate media's refusal to address the real
issues behind global warming - the corporations fighting with unrelenting
ferocity to destroy not just the Kyoto protocol but the environment
movement itself - represents the ultimate betrayal of us, our future,
and our planet
Sharon Reiterates
Threat To Annex
West Bank Territory
By Chris Marsden
Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon used the January
5 congress of his Likud Party to reiterate his threat to permanently
annex land on the West Bank and thereby unilaterally determine the shape
of a truncated Palestinian entity
And The Twins Died
By Gideon Levy
Here is another one of those horror stories from
the occupied territories. A young woman in labour is made to wait to
wait for hours at a check point and the woman give birth to twin girls
in the ambulance and both of them die
The
World's True Rogue States
By Dr. Marwan Al Kabalan
The only two states which qualify for the title
"Rogue State" are the US and Israel. Both countries defy international
laws and violate the UN Charter, not out of security requirements, but
in pursuit of supremacy and material gains
The Sturggle
Against Hindutwa And Fascism
By Dr Dr. Rai Mohan Pal and Yoginder Sikand
Unless we have a philosophical revolution to challenge
Hindutwa, real and meaningful social change in India is impossible
09 January, 2004
'US
Climate Policy Bigger Threat To
World Than Terrorism'
By Steve Connor
Tony Blair's chief scientist has launched a withering
attack on President George Bush for failing to tackle climate change,
which he says is more serious than terrorism
Free Trade: Benefit
or Peril
For The Environment?
By Kumar Venkat
A great deal of uncertainty remains about the long-term
environmental impacts of globalization. But the evidence we have so
far suggests that free trade unconstrained by environmental protection
could be a recipe for disaster
After the War
By Noam Chomsky
Speech delivered at Columbia University
US Imposed Democracy
In Afghanistan
By Mike Head
Loya jirga rubber-stamps autocratic regime
American
Terrorist
By John Pilger
Across the world, the slaughter in Iraq, the destruction
of democratic rights and civil liberties in the west and the preparation
for the next invasion are "normalised"
Plain Speak About
The World Social Forum
By Suhas Chakma
In "an open meeting place", where Hindu
nationalists, the neo-Swadeshis and the left wingers may share the same
view on "capital", the debate on "neo-liberalism and
domination of the world by capital" certainly requires re-thinking
08 January, 2004
Global
Warming Will Kill Off
One Million Species
By Steve Connor
A quarter of known land animals and plants, more
than a million species, will eventually die out because of the global
warming that will take place over the next 50 years
Anarchism,
Or The Revolutionary Movement
Of The Twenty-first Century
By David Graeber and Andrej Grubacic
Global revolutionary movement in the twenty first
century, will be one that traces its origins less to the tradition of
Marxism, or even of socialism narrowly defined, but of anarchism
Israel: Brutal
Crackdown On
Anti-occupation Activists
By Chris Marsden
The response of the army, judiciary and the government
of Ariel Sharon to Jewish opponents of Israels occupation of the
West Bank and Gazaand to foreign peace activistsis becoming
ever more brutal
07 January, 2004
How
The War Machine Is Driving The US Economy
By Andrew Gumbel
The war on Iraq was a form of military keynsianism
aimed at bringing the US economy back on the tracks and it seems to
be working as the recent growth figures suggest
New Evidence
Of Indonesias
War Of Repression In Aceh
By John Roberts
A number of recent reports provide a more detailed
picture of the TNIs activities in Aceh. A growing body of evidence
points to indiscriminate civilian killings, beatings and torture, and
arbitrary justice for suspects dragged before the courts
The Fundamental
Obstacle To A One-State
Solution In Historic Palestine
By Omar Barghouti
The current phase has all the emblematic properties
of what may be considered the final chapter of the Zionist project.
We are witnessing the rapid demise of Zionism, and nothing can be done
to save it, for Zionism is intent on killing itself. I, for one, support
euthanasia
Casting Out
Caste
By Chandana Mathur and Sujani Reddy
An Interview with Henri Tiphagne
05 January, 2004
British
Soldiers 'Kicked Iraqi Prisoner To Death'
By Robert Fisk
Eight young Iraqis arrested in Basra were kicked
and assaulted by British soldiers, one of them so badly that he died
in British custody
Coffee
In The Times Of Globalisation
By Josh Frank
The global coffee industry has endured colossal
changes over the past fifty years. Production of beans has shifted from
country to country in the interest of transnational corporations pushing
the price to historical lows and impoverishing millions of farmers
04 January, 2004
Saddams
Capture: A Deal Brokered
Behind The Scenes?
By David Pratt
When it emerged that the Kurds had captured the
Iraqi dictator, the US celebrations evaporated. Subsequent power-brokering
in Iraq reveal that it is quite possible that secret deal was struck
between the US and the Kurds that could ultimately determine the emerging
power structure in Iraq
Controlling
What We Hear From Iraq
By Dahr Jamail
ElectronicIraq.net, has been banned from at least
one of the US military bases in Iraq. Like other repressive dictatorships
and regimes, the US military has now followed suit in Iraq by attempting
to select what its personnel should and should not read
Jesus vs. The Beast
Of The Apocalypse
By Glen Martin
Evil presents itself as "respectability,"
as the established way of doing things, as the accepted social morality
of a society. Evil hides, they say, in everydayness, in business as
usual, in what is given honors and the highest praise. Evil poses as
its opposite
Mr Bush Has One Priority
For 2004
By Robert Fisk
Get America out of Iraq. Fast Iraq is breaking
up into rebels and collaborators, with a vast heap of innocent bodies
turning up each day at the morgues
03 January, 2004
'Our
Children Are Dead, Our Grief Is Endless'
By James Astill
Devastated survivors of the Bam earthquake turn
anger on government as Red Crescent is praised for relief effort
World Economy:
No Smooth Path
To Growth In 2004
By Nick Beams
The longer the world economy continues on the present
path, the greater will be the underlying disequilibrium and the possibility
of a major financial crisis
An Interview With
Noam Chomsky
By Hawzheen O. Kareem and Noam Chomsky
Communal Riots
2003
By Asghar Ali Engineer
Communal riots have become the fate of India. Most
of the riots are engineered by the politicians who claim to be most
patriotic. The year 2003 too, like previous years, saw its own quota
of communal violence
Communalism
2003
By Ram Puniyani
In India, communalism is rising by default, it
is as much the success of the long work of RSS and its progeny as much
it is due to the failure of the progressivepeople to understand the
multiple dimensions of social, economic and cultural life of the people
in all its rich complexity
02 January, 2004
Dictatorship
Goes Constitutional
By Abid Ullah Jan
Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharraf,
has won vast powers, including the authority to dismiss the elected
government, after the Senate approved a set of sweeping constitutional
amendments
How
Natural Is Normal?
By Nivedita Menon
The recent episode of a lesbian couple in Kerala
having to seek court intervention to stop police persecution initiated
by their parents, starkly underlines the fearsome question that lies
unrecognized at the heart of the furore around Section 377 of the Indian
Penal Code: Is it natural to be normal?
01 January, 2004
New Year's
Wish
List
By Satya Sagar
What does one do with an entire New Year on hand
when the shambles of the last one are still all around us? Just think
of what the year 2003 really represents to the future well-being of
planet Earth?
Why is Al-Adamiyah
Targeted
By the Americans?
By Dahr Jamail
Al-Adamiyah stands as the symbol of 'Kholmi',
the idea and hope for one united great Arab Nation. The area has always
been known as 'The Mother of the Revolution', even during the reign
of Saddam Hussein
UK Charity Seeks Compensation
Over
"Lost" Cancer Drugs For Iraqi Children
By Robert Fisk
A British charity for Iraqi children is demanding
that the Government repay almost £100,000 to its donors after
nearly half its shipment of medicines including vital cancer drugs
was lost by the British Army after the Anglo-American invasion
of Iraq
TheTwo Faces Of
India
By Seema Mustafa
There was a time when India looked at the poor
as the yardstick for policy making. Today she looks at the middle class
and the rich, the poor having disappeared from the map of progress and
development. The political language is now coloured by corporate hype
in era of hard sell consumerism