barovsky
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It Is Freedom, Only Freedom Which Can Quench Our Thirst: The Forty-Seventh Newsletter (2020)
19 November 2020 — Tricontinental Cover of dossier 34: Paulo Freire and Popular Struggle in South Africa Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. In 2011, the Swedish novelist Henning Mankell travelled to India to deliver the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Lecture in New Delhi. Mankell recounted an incident from Mozambique, where he lived… Continue reading
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Covid-19: New evidence on face masks
A few months back I wrote an article about the state of the evidence on face masks. At that point, there were no good studies looking at the effectiveness of face masks in preventing the spread of covid-19 specifically, but there was a systematic review that looked at all randomized trials that had been done on face masks… Continue reading
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Historical undercurrents in Nagorno-Karabakh
The analysts focusing on the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis through the prism of regional politics fail to factor in that the Caucasus comprises ancient peoples. The Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted this in remarks to the media in Moscow yesterday when he brushed aside the perception that Moscow could be harbouring a grudge against Armenian prime minister… Continue reading
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Why COVID-19 Testing Is a Tragic Waste
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the clarion call has been to test, test and test some more. However, right from the start, serious questions arose about the tests being used to diagnose this infection, and questions have only multiplied since then. Continue reading
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Glyphosate: Hypocrisy and Public Health in the UK
The government is extremely worried about a substance that could be contributing to a spiralling public health crisis that has been decades in the making. It has been detected in food and in urine. The government has therefore decided to carry out mass urine testing. It has found millions of ‘cases’. The more it tests,… Continue reading
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UK Crony Capitalism: The NAO report
Today, the National Audit Office has released a damning report into Government procurement practices. It confirms what we have been saying for months. Government failed to manage conflicts of interest, dished out public money to deeply unsuitable companies, and has improperly shied away from proper scrutiny. Continue reading
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Covid Offices and the Religion of Remote Work
Masks can prove liberating. The hidden face affords security. Obnoxious authority breathes better, hiding in comfort. Behind the material, confidence finds a home. While tens of millions of jobs have been lost to the novel coronavirus globally, security services, surveillance officers and pen pushers are thriving, policing admissions to facilities, churning through health and safety… Continue reading
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France defies European court ruling upholding right to boycott Israel
The government of President Emmanuel Macron is defying a landmark judgment from the European Court of Human Rights that protects the right of people to call for a boycott of Israeli products. Continue reading
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Stamping on the ‘anti-vaxxers’ – a very stupid idea
The COVID19 pandemic has thrown into sharp relief the concerns that a number of people have about vaccination. However, such is the eagerness to develop a vaccine, and get everyone to take it, that authorities are now looking to ban anyone who raises doubts. For example, the Labour Party in the UK is now calling… Continue reading
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Calls for a public enquiry into awards of Covid-related contracts
The original brief of this website, set up ten years ago, was to raise awareness of the ‘revolving door’, rewards for failure, widespread behind-the-scene lobbying and party funding which corrupts the decision-making process here and abroad. There is currently a resurgence of such concerns, expressed here by Professor Prem Sikka and later by Sophie Hill,… Continue reading
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Exiting the false “jobs versus environment” dilemma
Amidst the renewed rise of obscene inequalities, a wave of protests is sweeping through Italy, from south to north. On the one hand, the pandemic has engendered an upsurge in workplace disputes to defend health and in mobilizations to protect the income of workers affected by COVID-19-related restrictions. On the other hand, however, we have… Continue reading
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The Dead And Those About To Die – Climate Protests And The Corporate Media
It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. Wilfred Owen, the great English poet of the First World War, described this phrase as ‘the old Lie’ in his famous war poem, ‘Dulce et decorum est’. Patriotism so often means ‘honouring’ those who ‘fell in service to this country’, grand ceremonies at war memorials,… Continue reading
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Biden’s “normalcy” means return of “ancien régime”
There has been a spate of reports in the American media that the US president-elect Joe Biden is assembling his cabinet of ministers. Most reports mention that Biden’s secretary of state will be Susan Rice, former US ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Advisor in the Barack Obama administration. Reportedly, Biden’s choice for… Continue reading
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RCEP Hops on the New Silk Roads
Ho Chi Minh, in his eternal abode, will be savoring it with a heavenly smirk. Vietnam was the – virtual – host as the 10 Asean nations, plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, on the final day of the 37th Asean Summit. Continue reading
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Capitalism’s Coronavirus Catastrophe
Wall Street’s war machine includes 11 aircraft carriers and 5,800 nuclear weapons. Yet the capitalist government in the United States is helpless to combat the latest coronavirus surge. Continue reading
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Assange Defense: Another chance to add your name!
What we are writing today to talk about is our next angle for LTEs– getting the President to pardon Assange before he leaves office. Whether you think this is a long shot or our best chance at freeing Assange, we believe this is a crucial piece of our advocacy. We want to show the nation… Continue reading
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Spycops Public Inquiry report, week 2
The second week of the Undercover Policing Inquiry has been shocking and frustrating. We’ve heard harrowing testimony from women deceived into relationships by undercover officers, accounts of racism and discrimination – and also attempts at justification from police lawyers. Continue reading
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Covid-19: politicisation, “corruption,” and suppression of science
Politicians and governments are suppressing science. They do so in the public interest, they say, to accelerate availability of diagnostics and treatments. They do so to support innovation, to bring products to market at unprecedented speed. Both of these reasons are partly plausible; the greatest deceptions are founded in a grain of truth. But the… Continue reading
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“Biggest Monster Rebounds!” COVID “Pandemic” Has Triggered a Global Hunger and Population Displacement. UN Report
On November 10, 2020, UN Report: International Organization of Migration – World Food Program Find Global Hunger and Population Displacement Could Surge as People on the Move and Those Relying on Dwindling Remittances Seek Work to Support Their Families. The Report Shows how the Pandemic has Driven up Food Insecurity and Increased Vulnerability Among Migrants,… Continue reading
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India’s farewell to ASEAN as it boards RCEP train
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks at the 17th ASEAN-India Summit on November 12 makes sad reading. It comes in the specific context of the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership [RCEP] on Sunday — the mega free trade agreement centred on the ASEAN plus China, Japan and South Korea. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 