GLOBAL WATER CRISIS GETS SCANT MEDIA OR POLITICAL ATTENTION…AND THAT CAN LITERALLY BE DEADLY. Long thought of as solely and environmental issue, access to clean water can no longer be stereotyped as the domain of “tree hugging” activists. With a shrinking supply, climate change and rampant pollution affecting this quite invaluable resource, water is [...]
SRI LANKA IS “COUNTRY OF CONCERN” TO BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE FOR ITS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES; BUT A MAIN BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY FOR U.K. ARMS DEALERS. Expose article by U.K. Independent shows that millions of pounds worth of small arms have flown into the country, many of them used in the escalated violence of the government [...]
“MARRIAGE IS THE FOUNDATION OF SOCIETY.” These opening words of the 1996 federal welfare-reform law symbolize the prejudice in American society to the favor married persons and to the disadvantage of those who live alone or in unmarried cohabitation. “Bridefare” public policies express this prejudice, whether in the form of “defense of marriage” insistence [...]
HOW ALEXANDER THE GREAT BECAME ALEXANDER THE HUMILIATED: MODERN EMPIRES SHOULD LEARN A LITTLE FROM HISTORY. (Counterpunch) Deepak Tripathi notes a recurring pattern when imperial powers, drunk with the hubris of their self-perceived invincibility, push their domination to the point of deeply humilating vanquished peoples. What history “teaches” is that these operations carry within them [...]
A “LAKE SIDE SETTLEMENT” IN AFRICA HAS “MOVED” 22 KILOMETERS FROM THE BANKS OF THE CONTINENT’S LARGEST WATER RESERVOIR. (Africa News) Lake Chad in Nigeria and Chad continues to dry up at an alarming pace. The extended drought put the lives of 30 million people in the Sahel region at risk and precipitates an intense struggle [...]
APOCALYPSE NOW: LEADING SCIENTISTS SAY WORLD STANDS “FIVE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT” ON THE “DOOMSDAY CLOCK” (UK Guardian) The so-called “Doomsday Clock” at the University of Chicago is an exercise in public relations by some of the world’s leading scientists, seeking to categorize in a familiar method the kind and level of threats facing the very [...]
HOW IS THAT ARAB SPRING THING WORKING OUT IN EGYPT TODAY? (UK Independent) Apparently the “liberation” of that country from an “autocratic” Hosni Mubarak has descended into a winter of repression. Arab opinion is inflamed as military regime’s police violently break up anti-government protests and a video is broadcast across the Middle East of a [...]
CRISIS IN PAKISTAN: “THEY DEMONSTRATE COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW AND HUMAN LIFE, AND ARE IN STARK VIOLATION OF PAKISTANI SOVEREIGNTY.” The already-crumbling relationship between the United States government and Pakistan was dealt a new blow over the weekend when 25 Pakistani soldiers were killed in an air strike launched by US forces. It was [...]
GLEN FORD TO OCCUPY HARLEM: NEVER MIND WHAT THOSE WHITE KIDS IN ZUCOTTI PARK ARE THINKING: WHAT ARE WE THINKING WHEN WE SUPPORT THE BLACK MISLEADERSHIP CLASS? (Black Agenda Report) Ford addresses the convening meeting of the Occupy Harlem movement at a Harlem Church, and gives a “power to the people” speech about the necessity [...]
WHERE ARE THE HAPPIEST FAMILIES IN ITALY? WHY IN FLORENCE OF COURSE! (The Florentine) How do we know this? Because the Chamber of Commerce of Monza and Brianza, an “administrative province” that contains the city of Florence, conducts a survey in Italy and reports this fact. Only 19% of Florentines define themselves as “unhappy,” compared [...]
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