POWERFUL MULTI-NATIONAL AGRIBUSINESS CORPORATIONS AND A COMPLIANT AND CORRUPT LOCAL GOVERNMENT: RECIPE FOR WORLD LAND GRABS. (Foreign Policy in Focus) Recent protests in African country of Sierra Leone highlight a world pattern: the acquisition for mono-culture cultivation of tracts of land removed from the control of local farmers. Around 20% of the country’s arable land [...]
The darkest and most frightening echoes of the 2008 financial crisis that rocked the global economy were stirred over the past week as mega-bank JP Morgan Chase broke the news of a stunning $2 billion loss in a trading debacle similar to the kind that conspired to wreak the American economy only three-and-a-half years ago. [...]
While the undeniable ramifications of a warming planet are hard to ignore in the first months of what many say will be the hottest year in recorded history, some leading scientists and climate experts argue that important policy decisions that would perpetuate American reliance on fossil fuels could truly mean “game over” for climate change. [...]
Two prominent members of President Barack Obama’s administration have made forceful and highly public declarations of their support for marriage equality and legalizing gay marriage, placing the White House in an embarrassing position and highlighting the deep divide between the LGBT community and the president. Among the myriad issues where President Obama has let down [...]
` OBAMA AND HIS FRIENDS LAUNCH NEW ERA OF FRANCO-AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH A LESS-THAN CONCILIATORY TAKE ON THE NEW FRENCH SOCIALIST PRESIDENT. (Buzz Feed) ` The overwhelming defeat on Sunday of incumbent French President Nicolas Sarkozy has already sent “ripples” across the pond to America, where Sarkozy’s successor, Socialist Francois Hollande, has received a decidedly chilly reception [...]
As economic instability continues to roil world markets and threaten the marginal sliver of a recovery since the global recession of 2008, the pace of income inequality has quickened as the rich really are getting richer — a lot richer. On both sides of the Atlantic, the gap between prosperity and financial hardship is growing [...]
President Obama made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday, seeking to proclaim a new turning point in the overwhelmingly unpopular conflict. With two-thirds of the public expressing public opposition to the war and supporting an immediate withdrawal, Obama faces risks in highlighting the war in Afghanistan and giving the country what amounted to a [...]
“WE HAD TO DESTROY THE VILLAGE IN ORDER TO SAVE IT.” (Common Dreams) This “idiotic” statement of a U.S. Army Major to explain the bombing of the Ben Tre hamlet during the Vietnam war seems to be the “thinking” as well behind the current “education reform” movement directed to destroying public education in order to [...]
EUROPE IS DYING, BRICS IS ASCENDING AND WHAT DOES DR. ZBIG ADVOCATE FOR MAINTAINING U.S. FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE IN THE WORLD? AN EXPANDED (AND RE-ENERGIZED) EUROPE AS THE KEY U.S. ALLY. (Tom Dispatch) Pepe Escobar assays the international geo-political situation, noting the economic crisis of “old” Europe and the rising economic strength of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, [...]
The first three months of 2012 have emerged as a turning point in the American occupation of Afghanistan, with a string of deadly and gruesome incidents seeming to embody the wider deterioration of a mission that is ill-defined and spiraling out of control. Recent headlines out of Afghanistan have left little doubt that something very [...]
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