President Obama has taken the leap; let’s hope he finds some remaining Palestinian ground to land on. Given his new commitment, if he fails, I wonder if he is willing to lay blame where it duly resides for Israel’s continued rogue action—in Washington D.C.
Browse The Production Lines
Michael Jackson is still exploited in death. AEG and Dr. Death should both pay
It is true that had it not been for Dr. Conrad Murray giving Michael the heavy amount of medication that he did (apart from the ”usual” doses of Lorazepam and Midazolam, he was given an additional 4 mgs of each, plus 10 mg Valium and 25 mg Propofol mixed with Lidocaine), his heart would not have stopped that morning. Dr. Murray was directly responsible and he should be in jail, paying forthe crime he committed. However, it was the inhumane an crippling pressure caused by AEG executives that caused Michael to need those medications in the first place, and they are walking free with absolutely no accountability. Dr. Murray getting all the blame must fit them perfectly
Other articles in Culture
Would the world be better without material consumption?
Growing up in Pakistan, I was made acutely aware of income inequality at multiple levels. My earliest childhood memory of poverty comes from observing the desperation of hawkers in street crossings who tapped on the windows of every car at a stop-light, trying to sell all kinds of “stuff” from hairpins to roses. Should these street vendors have stuck to subsistence lifestyles in the fields and just have been contented with having enough to eat and leading a simple life? Who was I to ordain such simplicity on them?
Other articles in Economics
Axing BBC 6 Music will scupper chances of budding musicians
Persistence is an integral aspect of success and the frustration of a seemingly impenetrable industry leads too many potentially brilliant musicians to abandon their course. Without radio stations and showcases like 6 Music, fewer will hold onto that drive and determination to be heard, and music’s art will suffer. If the only viable course becomes strictly mainstream, music’s development will not only become regressive, but will lose credibility and become debased further as an art form. I dread the day when CDs are stocked solely by supermarkets and truly great bands are left with nothing with which to establish a career
Other articles in Media
The people of Bolivia are rising and provide us with hope
The backbone of Morales’s reform programme was the creation of a new Bolivian constitution, which was ratified by a public referendum in 2009. Morales has signalled that he will make the implementation of the new constitution his main legislative priority at the start of his second term. In a country that is often compared to apartheid South Africa, as the stark divisions of poverty and inequality are marked along racial lines, this constitution represents Bolivia’s Freedom Charter
Other articles in Politics
Interview: Living with Trichotillomania, the urge to pull your hair out
I felt disgusting, ugly, and the worst part was that I blamed myself for my ugliness. That was probably what hurt the most – when a parent would say ”your eyebrows are so thin, have you pulled again?” and I’d become angry and say no, on the inside, I’d scream at myself because I knew it was the truth – and I felt like I was making myself uglier, when I could become more beautiful
Other articles in Psychology
The Gulen Movement is a danger spreading from Turkey to the world
In order to extinguish a fire, first you must prevent it from spreading to other areas. If we want to put out the flames of this fire, then the U.S. must conduct detailed investigations into their schools and recognize them as “a crime organization without guns” and freeze their assets. It would lead to the Gulen cult losing their financial power and an eventual collapse of the organization itself
Other articles in Religion
Other articles in Art
Miners’ efforts fail to cut death toll
A Financial Times survey of five leading UK-listed mining groups – Rio Tinto, Vedanta, Anglo American, Xstrata and BHP Billiton – has found the number of fatalities has stayed the same since 2004. Anglo American is the only miner surveyed that has reduced fatality figures consistently, though its volume of deaths is the highest
Other articles in Science
John PIlger tells what world leaders really mean
John Pilger on Sen. Joe Lieberman and the impending bloodbath
What They Said:
“Iraq was yesterday’s war, Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war.”
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)
What They Mean:
“Iraq was yesterday’s bloodbath. Afghanistan is today’s bloodbath. By acting pre-emptively, we’ll ensure that Yemen is tomorrow’s bloodbath.”
John Pilger
(+5 rating, 5 votes)
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John is a multi-award winning journalist who has won the British Journalist of the Year Award twice, reported from all the corners of the world, and won two academy awards for his films. He writes a column for the New Statesman, as well as regular contributions to the Guardian. Salman Rushdie has written: "Pilger's strength is his gift for finding the image, the instant that reveals all: he is a photographer using words instead of a camera". John Pilger on the Wall Street Journal on Bolivian democracy
–What They Said:
“A dictatorship that fosters the production and distribution of cocaine is not apt to enjoy a positive international image. But when that same government cloaks itself in the language of social justice, with a special emphasis on the enfranchisement of indigenous people, it wins world-wide acclaim.”
Mary O’Grady, Wall Street Journal, on The End of Bolivian Democracy, November 22nd 2009
– What They Mean:
“The United States is affronted that the people of Bolivia have caused a genuine democracy to rise in an impoverished country long defiled by Washington’s “interests”, principally a fraudulent anti-drugs campaign that has disguised the United States’ role as the biggest drugs promoter in the world.”
John Pilger
(+7 rating, 9 votes) Loading ...John is a multi-award winning journalist who has won the British Journalist of the Year Award twice, reported from all the corners of the world, and won two academy awards for his films. He writes a column for the New Statesman, as well as regular contributions to the Guardian. Salman Rushdie has written: "Pilger's strength is his gift for finding the image, the instant that reveals all: he is a photographer using words instead of a camera". John Pilger on Uribe and those US bases
What He Said:
“This agreement with the United States is in force by the principle of sovereign equality. I want to state to you all: there is no Colombian resignation of sovereignty. This move does not imply any abdication of sovereignty at all.”
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, late August, in a meeting with Latin American leaders.
What He Meant:
“Come on, amigos, how can any Colombian president say no to a North American bribe of millions, tens of millions of dollars? For that kind of money, El Presidente Obama can have as many US bases in Colombia he wants, as long as leaves me and the boys enough of the narcotics business to get by on.”
John Pilger
(+4 rating, 8 votes) Loading ...John is a multi-award winning journalist who has won the British Journalist of the Year Award twice, reported from all the corners of the world, and won two academy awards for his films. He writes a column for the New Statesman, as well as regular contributions to the Guardian. Salman Rushdie has written: "Pilger's strength is his gift for finding the image, the instant that reveals all: he is a photographer using words instead of a camera". John Pilger on Obama in Turkey
What Obama Said:
“I am honored to pay tribute to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a man whose vision, tenacity and courage put the Republic of Turkey on the path of democracy and whose legacy continues to inspire generations around the world.”
Barack Obama’s inscription in the visitor’s notebook in Anitkabir, Ataturk’s mausoleum
What He Meant:
“I am honoured to pay tribute to Turkey’s national hero as part of a campaign by all US administrations to force the European Union to accept Turkey as a full member, regardless of its appalling human rights record, especially against the Kurds, so that US and NATO bases in Turkey can play a more aggressive role in the Middle East and Central Asia.”
John Pilger
(+16 rating, 20 votes) Loading ...John is a multi-award winning journalist who has won the British Journalist of the Year Award twice, reported from all the corners of the world, and won two academy awards for his films. He writes a column for the New Statesman, as well as regular contributions to the Guardian. Salman Rushdie has written: "Pilger's strength is his gift for finding the image, the instant that reveals all: he is a photographer using words instead of a camera". Noam Chomsky on the Cuban embargo and “democracy promotion”
What They Say:
“After 47 years… the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of ‘bringing democracy to the Cuban people’”.
Republican Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), in his introduction to a report on Cuba by his senior staffer, Carl Meacham.
What They Mean:
Lugar carefully says “stated purpose.” He is an intelligent man, and surely knows that the actual purpose was completely different. No one familiar with US practices in the region or elsewhere can possibly believe that the goal of intensive US terror operations against Cuba and harsh economic warfare was intended to “bring democracy to the Cuban people.” That is just propaganda, unusually vulgar in this case.
The actual reasons for the terror and economic warfare were explained clearly at the very outset: the goal was to cause “rising discomfort among hungry Cubans” so that they would overthrow the regime (Kennedy); to “bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of the government” (Eisenhower’s State Department). The threat of Cuba, as Kennedy’s Latin American advisor Arthur Schlesinger advised the incoming president, is that successful independent development there might stimulate others who suffer from similar problems to follow the same course, so that the system of US domination might unravel. The liberal Democratic administrations were outraged over Cuba’s “successful defiance” of US policies going back to the Monroe Doctrine, which was intended to ensure obedience to the US will in the hemisphere. To a substantial extent, US terror and economic warfare has achieved its actual goals, causing bitter suffering among Cubans, impeding economic development, and undermining moves towards more internal democracy. Exactly as intended.
The case is an interesting one. For decades a large majority of Americans have wanted to establish normal relations with Cuba. In more recent years, substantial US business interests (agribusiness, energy, others) are in favor of that too. Of course, the US is entirely isolated in the world in maintaining the embargo; at the UN it can only garner support, reflexively, from Israel and a few Pacific dependencies. But the policy persists, and in fact became harsher under the Democrats in the 1990s in order to cause Cubans to suffer more after Russian assistance evaporated.
It is one of the occasional illustrations of how state interests prevail over business interests; and the will of the population is as usual irrelevant. More than is usually recognized, the conduct of international affairs resembles the Mafia. The Godfather does not tolerate defiance, even from some small storekeeper. And for good reasons: the rot can spread, to use the terminology of high-level US planners (or Schlesinger, in the case cited).
Noam Chomsky
(+17 rating, 19 votes) Loading ...
Noam is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Philosophy at the
Massachusettes Institute of Technology. In a 2005 poll by Prospect
magazine and Foreign Affairs he was voted the most important public
intellectual alive. Chomsky ranks with Marx, Shakespeare and the Bible
as one of the 10 most quoted sources in history - and is the only
writer among them still alive. Robert Trivers on religion and science
What They Said:
“It’s important for people of faith to go on record as saying we have no conflict with science. Otherwise, people may get an impression that religious people are dumb, ignorant and hostile to science.”
Rev. James Rhodenhiser, rector of St. Clare of Assisi Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor, as his congregation took part in Evolution Weeekend on the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth.
What They Mean:
“It is important for religious people to say that “we” have no conflict with science — not because we are interesting in exploring this issue — but because we need to keep up a public pretense that we are not completely out of touch with reality.”
Robert Trivers
(+4 rating, 10 votes) Loading ...
Robert is perhaps the most important evolutionary biologist and psychologist in the world. Harvard professor Steven Pinker has written, "I consider Trivers one of the great thinkers in the history of Western thought. It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that he has provided a scientific explanation for the human condition: the intricately complicated and endlessly fascinating relationships that bind us to one another."
He teaches at Rutgers University. John Pilger on Timothy Garton Ash on Obama
What He Said:
“We have entered a period of historical transition in which the United States will become first among equals, rather than simply top dog, hyperpower and unquestioned hegemon. But for Europeans, it may be a case of being careful what you wish for, because the Obama administration is likely to say, ‘Good, then put your money where your mouth is, and in the first place, put more troops in Afghanistan.’ ”
Timothy Garton Ash, on Obama’s victory in the New York Times.
What He Meant:
“We have entered a period of historical transition in which pompous columnists and other courtiers of great power are relieved at the prospect of a return to the delusion of a ‘unilateral’ US democracy. The last eight years have been hell for us because George W. Bush stripped away the facade and gave the world a glimpse of what American power really is, not what its liberal supporters pretend it is. Now, thank the Lord Obama, humanity will be once against distracted from the truth and be content with hoping — I hope.”
John Pilger
(+13 rating, 17 votes) Loading ...John is a multi-award winning journalist who has won the British Journalist of the Year Award twice, reported from all the corners of the world, and won two academy awards for his films. He writes a column for the New Statesman, as well as regular contributions to the Guardian. Salman Rushdie has written: "Pilger's strength is his gift for finding the image, the instant that reveals all: he is a photographer using words instead of a camera". Noam Chomsky on the US, Israel, and Gaza
What He Said:
“Hamas has so far sustained a very heavy blow from us, but we have yet to achieve our objective and therefore the operation continues”.
Ehud Barak, Israeli Defense Minister, January 6th 2008.
What He Meant:
We should speak of US-Israeli objectives. It’s more than just symbolic that Gaza is being pounded by US jet bombers and helicopters, of course in violation of US law (not to speak of international humanitarian law).
Traditionally over the years, Israel has sought to crush any resistance to its programs of takeover of the parts of Palestine it regards as valuable, while eliminating any hope for the indigenous population to have a decent existence enjoying national rights. Probably one factor in US support for Israel is that this resonates so well with American history, a fact that has not gone unnoticed. The West Bank and Gaza are, of course, a single unit: Occupied Palestine. Israeli military control of the West Bank, now with the help of US-trained collaborators, is so effective that protest or resistance there is unlikely. But the occupied Gaza Strip — and there has not been a day when it hasn’t been occupied — still has a degree of independence, and there are reactions there to Israeli crimes, which continue daily. The reactions can be condemned as criminal and politically foolish, but those who offer no alternative have no moral grounds to issue such judgments, particularly those in the US who choose to be directly implicated in these ongoing crimes — by their words, their actions, or their silence.
Noam Chomsky
(+30 rating, 36 votes) Loading ...Noam is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Philosophy at the
Massachusettes Institute of Technology. In a 2005 poll by Prospect
magazine and Foreign Affairs he was voted the most important public
intellectual alive. Chomsky ranks with Marx, Shakespeare and the Bible
as one of the 10 most quoted sources in history - and is the only
writer among them still alive. John Pilger on Tony Blair and Gaza
What He Said:
“I think the circumstances focus very much around clear action to cut off the supply of arms and money from the tunnels that go from Egypt into Gaza. I think if there were strong, clear, definitive action on that, that would give us the best context to get an immediate ceasefire and to start to change the situation.”
Tony Blair, ‘Peace Envoy’, January 6th 2008.
What He Meant:
“I think the circumstances focus very much around clear action finally to expel the Palestinians from their homeland and, if necessary, eliminate them from the human map. As for my own position, my arrest this morning on charges of crimes against humanity will not deter me from accepting President Bush’s Freedom Medal; I understand he and I are to have joining cells.”
John Pilger
(+5 rating, 7 votes) Loading ...John is a multi-award winning journalist who has won the British Journalist of the Year Award twice, reported from all the corners of the world, and won two academy awards for his films. He writes a column for the New Statesman, as well as regular contributions to the Guardian. Salman Rushdie has written: "Pilger's strength is his gift for finding the image, the instant that reveals all: he is a photographer using words instead of a camera". Robert Trivers on the Gaza attack
What They Said:
“Israel can and must mete out a severe punishment to Hamas, one that sears its consciousness (yes, sears its consciousness) and causes it to hesitate before it fires again, and to much more scrupulously control the other organisations.”
Ofer Shelah, Ma’ariv newspaper, 29th December 2008.
What They Mean:
“Israel can and must practice torture on a truly massive — indeed ethnic scale — torture so severe as to sear into the Arab consciousness once and for all the futility of even thoughts of resistance (as well as the importance to Arabs of suppressing such thoughts in others).”
Robert Trivers
(+7 rating, 9 votes) Loading ...Robert is perhaps the most important evolutionary biologist and psychologist in the world. Harvard professor Steven Pinker has written, "I consider Trivers one of the great thinkers in the history of Western thought. It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that he has provided a scientific explanation for the human condition: the intricately complicated and endlessly fascinating relationships that bind us to one another."
He teaches at Rutgers University. From The Factory Floor
The people of Bolivia are rising and provide us with hope
The backbone of Morales’s reform programme was the creation of a new Bolivian constitution, which was ratified by a public referendum in 2009. Morales has signalled that he will make the implementation of the new constitution his main legislative priority at the start of his second term. In a country that is often compared to apartheid South Africa, as the stark divisions of poverty and inequality are marked along racial lines, this constitution represents Bolivia’s Freedom Charter
America To The Rescue, (Not) Again
President Obama has taken the leap; let’s hope he finds some remaining Palestinian ground to land on. Given his new commitment, if he fails, I wonder if he is willing to lay blame where it duly resides for Israel’s continued rogue action—in Washington D.C.
Would the world be better without material consumption?
Growing up in Pakistan, I was made acutely aware of income inequality at multiple levels. My earliest childhood memory of poverty comes from observing the desperation of hawkers in street crossings who tapped on the windows of every car at a stop-light, trying to sell all kinds of “stuff” from hairpins to roses. Should these street vendors have stuck to subsistence lifestyles in the fields and just have been contented with having enough to eat and leading a simple life? Who was I to ordain such simplicity on them?
Pity the nation of Congo
In the past fifteen years, Rwanda and Uganda have the chief supporter of armed groups in Eastern Congo. They have twice invaded the Congo, taking control of rich mining areas and helping themselves with tons of coltan and gold (to name a few) instead of going after negative forces they claimed to have been pursuing. In 2002 and 2003, folowing intense international pressure, both Rwanda and Uganda, respectively, claimed to have withdrew their troops from Congo’s soil =- but reports persist about the continued involvement of Rwandan forces in Eastern Congo
Congo is still the issue
Last year in Parliament I asked about our failure to Joseph Kony to justice. He’s the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has carried out atrocities in Uganda, Southern Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Congo. They LRA recently carried out an attack in Darfur. Kony has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Yet he remains at large
Axing BBC 6 Music will scupper chances of budding musicians
Persistence is an integral aspect of success and the frustration of a seemingly impenetrable industry leads too many potentially brilliant musicians to abandon their course. Without radio stations and showcases like 6 Music, fewer will hold onto that drive and determination to be heard, and music’s art will suffer. If the only viable course becomes strictly mainstream, music’s development will not only become regressive, but will lose credibility and become debased further as an art form. I dread the day when CDs are stocked solely by supermarkets and truly great bands are left with nothing with which to establish a career
Living on benefits in the UK
Near where we live there is a brand new complex of smartish looking business premises. At the time, they had just one occupant: Shaw Trust. And Chubby was possibly the first person to walk through their doors. They gave him a piece of paper outlining the change in our finances if he were to work twenty hours a week. He would gain just over £110.40 a week in pay, from which £1.14 national insurance and £1.04 income tax would be deducted. He would lose £98.45 in long term incapacity benefit
The British public want retribution not redistribution
Few are aware that this Christmas past, when most of us were enjoying our extensive festive indulgences, a chronic shortage of affordable housing left 83,000 homeless British children in temporary accommodation. Over 33% of these children cannot go to school due to appalling disruption in their lives and are twice as likely to suffer poor health. In describing the appalling disruption and emotional distress that children suffered, Adam Simpson, the director of the charity Shelter, described the euphemistic term “temporary accommodation” as a “terrible parody”
Michael Moore’s Kapital
Capitalism: A Love Story does not involve the emotional crescendos of Moore’s previous output. Think of the jarring juxtaposition, in Sicko, between the entranced exploration of European health systems and the bitterly cold treatment of America’s poor by the healthcare giants. There are shocking, appalling moments in Capitalism, but these are interspersed with stories of resistance as Moore’s cameras film people preventing the eviction of local families, and capture workers at Republic Windows and Doors as they force the Bank of America to back down and fund their severance packages
Palestine’s Economic Pieces
A new building in Ramallah, or 100 for that matter, make for good ribbon-cutting ceremonies, but are as far from economic state-building as is wrong is from right
New Chinese ambassador to Tokyo will improve relations
Cheng Yonghua kicked-off a new diplomatic mission to Tokyo this morning. The new Ambassador arrived on Sunday and will be busy from the beginning. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is planning on making an official state visit to Japan in the spring. The announcement of Cheng as Beijing’s representative to Japan is expected, in some ways to bridge the divide between the two major economies of Asia.
Turkey, coups and the ‘Sledgehammer’ operation
Turkey has been rattled by the news this week that about 50 military commanders were detained for allegedly planning a coup to overthrow the democratically elected Islamic-leaning government.
The commanders are accused of “attempting to remove the government through force and violence” in a supposed plot codenamed “Sledgehammer.” Alleged tactics include planting bombs at mosques and [...]