Richard Seymour on April 13, 2010 0 Comments
Revolution in Kyrgyzstan: nothing to do with tulips
Politics
Maureen Freely interview on Ataturk, Kurdish human rights, Orhan Pamuk, and the Armenian genocide
Matt Kennard — April 12, 2010 10 Comments
Born in Neptune, New Jersey, Freely grew up in Turkey and now lives in England, where she lectures at the University of Warwick and is an occasional contributor to The Guardian and The Independent newspapers. Among her novels is The Life of the Party, set in Turkey. She has also written The Other Rebecca, a [...]
Politics
The sad trimph of managerialism in the UK
David Barrie — April 11, 2010 3 Comments
We need to enable the millions of disenchanted voters to register their active disapproval of cynical or corrupt politicians by casting a negative vote. The negative vote would be an alternative to the familiar positive vote. You would have to choose whether to vote for someone whose views you supported, or against someone whose views you opposed. The final tally of votes for each candidate would be the product of subtracting all negative votes cast from all positive ones. Surely it would be much better if we could accurately direct our disapproval at the politicians we most dislike, rather than registering a protest vote or just staying at home?
Politics
Clare Short interview on Blair, Brown, Iraq and Afghanistan
Matt Kennard — April 9, 2010 0 Comments
“I think Blair is a peculiar kind of man. I think he is fundamentally a presentational person and he is superb at presentation and he’s very careful always to use language which leaves plenty of wriggle room and doesn’t tie him down too firmly and that’s what he is good at”
Editor's Pick, Politics
Worst. Election. Ever.
Richard Seymour — April 8, 2010 1 Comment
This election, then, could hardly be less inspiring. At most, it punctuates the processes leading toward a ferocious class conflict, accentuating one or other facet of it, handing the advantage briefly to one or other force. But of itself, it is hard to see democracy’s summit, the conscientious register of public opinion on all vital matters, in this emaciated ritual
Politics
China executes Japanese senior citizen
Randy Poehlman — April 6, 2010 3 Comments
“Yes, China will execute a 65 year old Japanese man for drug smuggling. His execution is to be followed by three more elderly Japanese citizens in the coming week. The Chinese judicial system is free to act with independence, but the world would really like to know how many executions are carried out in China annually?”
Editor's Pick, Politics
Bolivia guiding the world to socialism
Roger Burbach — April 6, 2010 1 Comment
During the past decade Latin America has become a scene of hope and expectations as its leaders and social movements have raised the banner of 21st century socialism in a world ravished by imperial adventures and economic disasters. Proponents of the new socialism assert that it will break with the state-centered socialism of the last century, and will be driven by grassroots social movements that construct an alternative order from the bottom up
Editor's Pick, Politics
“There is no Kurdish Lobby in the US”: Butan Amedi on Kurdish strategy for influencing Washington
sarwar salar chuchani — April 1, 2010 0 Comments
As far as I’m concerned, the Kurds have no organized lobby in the US. In the past, the Kurdish parties have hired certain individuals to lobby for their cause in Washington. But in America, paid agents are not well-respected. A true Kurdish lobby must be independent, and it must emerge from the Kurdish-American community. It must be able to finance itself independently. The strength of any successful lobbying group is in its neutrality with regard to the US politics and its understanding of the US interests and, ultimately, the interests of the nation for which they are lobbying
Editor's Pick, Politics
Guatemala’s Fotokids escape gangs and find expression
Ana Caistor-Arendar — March 30, 2010 0 Comments
Ten-year-old Diego lives beside the train tracks in the centre of Guatemala City. He has two older brothers, who belong to rival gangs. A year ago one of Diego’s brothers was shot in the stomach by a member of the other brother’s gang.
Diego is not in a gang. He had been taking lessons in photography at Fotokids, an organisation that attempts to bring young people in Guatemala out of poverty by providing training in the visual arts. He had dropped out of the organisation, claiming it was too much hard work, but returned shortly after he left.
“He came in one day and said to me, ‘I’ve been thinking about it, this is a really good project, would you accept me back?’,” recollects Nancy McGirr, who founded the organisation 18 years ago. “He is now here every other day in the morning, without fail, and not only is he doing his work but he is enthusiastically involving himself.”
Art, Editor's Pick, Politics
Happy Passover from Gaza
Sam Bahour — March 29, 2010 0 Comments
It is written in the Talmud: We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are. I urge you, while you commemorate the Hebrews’ ancient slavery and deliverance, to see yourselves finally as equals in this world: equal with your neighbors, neither their masters nor their slaves. I urge you to see yourself and your children in the image of every Palestinian mother, father and child in Gaza. Let this year be the year of your shared redemption!
Editor's Pick, Politics, Religion
Globalisation marches on
Noam Chomsky — March 27, 2010 1 Comment
So we have another significant shift in global power: from the general population to the principal architects of the global system, a process aided by the undermining of functioning democracy in the United States and other of the Earth’s most powerful states.
The future depends on how much the great majority is willing to endure, and whether that great majority will collectively offer a constructive response to confront the problems at the core of the state capitalist system of domination and control.
Politics
Fotokids in Guatemala find beauty in the dumps
Ana Caistor-Arendar — March 27, 2010 0 Comments
Even by Latin American standards, the social indices for Guatemala are alarming, with an estimated 55 per cent of the country’s population living below the poverty line. Over half of the country’s population is under 18-years-old, and its dilapidated public education system is only able to serve 20 per cent of the country’s children. The result is an oversized and extremely young workforce with limited employment options.
This grim reality also partly explains how Nancy ended up strolling through Guatemala’s largest rubbish dump. Spanning forty acres, this pit of decomposing waste is one of the largest and most toxic in Central America. Here household rubbish and recyclables rot alongside discarded medical supplies and deteriorating animal and human remains. Nancy was drawn to the lives of the approximately 1,000 children living in the landfill. Many of them worked alongside their parents, searching through the waste for items such as clothes, cardboard and glass, to resell to middle-men at a phenomenally low price.
“I was walking around with my camera,” Nancy recollects, her thick mid-Western drawl still intact, “and it suddenly dawned on me – why not give the children cameras and see how they would photograph the dump. How it would be reflected through their eyes.”