6 May, 2009
NATO drills, Russian bases, opposition blockades and military mutinies: A radical solution for Georgia?
“I am a Georgian. So I don’t speak for Russian or US interests,” says renowned Georgian newspaper publisher Malkhaz Gulashvili. As Georgia and the surrounding region undergo further militarization by the two superpowers, Gulashvili provides a radical proposal to help create a peaceful and independent Georgia.
2 May, 2009 – Green Left
The 2009 South African general election turned out to be a landmark event for the African National Congress (ANC). The party faced some of its stiffest competition and still came out tops, despite a dismal 15-year delivery record.
In an ironic twist, the people whom the ANC has failed most (the poor) turned out en masse to keep it in power. But those for whom it’s been bending over backwards for (the elite) appear to have voted for the opposition.
The actions of both groups defy belief, but in a world where perception trumps reality, perhaps one shouldn’t be surprised that it is the estimation of the ANC’s perceived worth that seems to have motivated voters’ behaviour.
Despite being sold down the river by the elite politics of their party, the poor still see the ANC as their saviour.
William Hughes Interviews Medea Benjamin, Malachy Kilbride, Louis Wolf, Brian Hennessy, Eric Anderson, Rev. Philip Wheaton, Athena Viscusi
CodePink Protester Desiree Fairooz Stands Up for Gaza as Shimon Peres Speaks at Annual AIPAC Conference
http://widgets.vodpod.com/w/video_embed/ExternalVideo.820351
more about ““AIPAC, Interrupteds”“, posted with vodpod
The wars that have wracked the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1996, killing well over 5 million people (International Rescue Committee, 1/08) in what may be the deadliest conflict since World War II, are officially over. A peace agreement was signed in 2002, and general elections were held in 2006.
But conflict and the humanitarian crisis continue. The most recent survey (IRC, 1/08) estimated that 45,000 people are dying each month from conflict-related causes (primarily hunger and disease), nearly the same shocking rate as during the war itself. And with the recent flare-up of violence in Congo’s volatile east, things don’t seem to be getting any better.
To put the death rate in perspective, at the peak of the Darfur crisis, the conflict-related death rate there was less than a third of the Congo’s, and by 2005 it had dropped to less than 4,000 per month (CRED, 5/26/05). The United Nations has estimated some 300,000 may have died in total as a result of the years of conflict in Darfur (CRED, 4/24/08, SSRC.org, 3/25/09); the same number die from the Congo conflict every six and a half months.
The New Dark Age 