Nonviolence training from Terje Carlsson & Bo Harringer on Vimeo.
Showing all posts in June 2019
Alice Walker on why Gaza Flotilla 2 is essential
Foreign Policy: Why are you taking part in the flotilla mission? Alice Walker: In 2009, I was in Gaza, just after Operation Cast Lead, and I saw the incredible damage and devastation. I have a good understanding of what’s on the ground there and how the water system was destroyed and the sewage system. I…
This is what US aid brought Egypt
Nothing: Ninety percent of the total US$6 billion in USAID granted to Egypt over the past 30 years has been misused, while it is unknown where the rest was spent, a report by the Economic Studies Center revealed. USAID is a US agency whose primary purpose is to distribute civilian foreign aid. The report said…
Bin Laden wanted to re-brand his little firm
Fascinating, if true: As Osama bin Laden watched his terrorist organization get picked apart, he lamented in his final writings that al-Qaida was suffering from a marketing problem. His group was killing too many Muslims and that was bad for business. The West was winning the public relations fight. All his old comrades were dead…
The threat of internal critics over war and conflict
Now we know the Bush administration wanted personal information on leading Iraq war critic Juan Cole (who knew that writing a popular blog was such a threat to the US government?) The former CIA agent who revealed this information, Glenn Carle, tells Democracy Now! why he was deeply concerned by the White House request and…
Of course the war against Libya is about securing oil
And yet most in the corporate press prattle about human rights and “humanitarian intervention”. Yes, Gaddafi is a brute but that’s nothing new. “Saving civilians” is the catch-cry of those backing NATO action. But a close examination of Wikileaks documents and more honest reporting shows that Libyan oil nationalism was deeply worrying Western governments and…
Israel struggling with that narrative thing
Joseph Dana in South Africa’s Mail and Guardian: In the wake of the Arab Spring, Israel is starting to lose its edge in convincing the international community that the conflict is simply about peace and not rights. Palestinian demonstrations on Israel’s borders and checkpoints have highlighted the sea change taking place.
US official; we love the internet (as long as views approved by State Dept)
Let me get this straight. A web evangelist, working for the US government, admires the ability of the internet to assist Arab revolutions and compares its power to Che Guevera, a man the establishment regards as a terrorist. I guess backing real freedom in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain is a bridge too far for this…
Should society be promoting privatised education?
In my view, no damn way. Making a huge profit from rich students who buy their way into a system where learning comes second to scoring that corporate job after completion is troubling. Of course, many publicly run universities are sadly moving in a similar direction these days: A private, run-for-profit university has launched an…
Ethnic cleansing by another name
Yes: There has been a sharp rise in the number of Palestinian structures razed by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank this year, with over 700 people left homeless, rights groups said on Wednesday. So far, Israeli forces have demolished “103 residential structures … most of them tents, huts, and tin shacks, in which…