democracy
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Yemen Newslinks 28 July 2011
28 July 2011 — williambowles.info Yemen president won’t give up power by force: minister Reuters By Samia Nakhoul LONDON (Reuters) – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who escaped an attempt on his life by opponents, will only cede power through the ballot box and the country will descend into civil war if he is forced Continue reading
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Democracy Now! 14 July 2011: Dr. Paul Farmer on Haiti After the Earthquake
Dr. Paul Farmer, who was worked in Haiti for nearly three decades and now serves as the the U.N. deputy special envoy for Haiti, discusses how U.S.-backed coups and neoliberal programs have not only subverted Haiti’s democracy, but also seriously weakened its public health. Continue reading
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Egypt Newslinks 13 July 2011
13 July 2011 — williambowles.info The Path to Democracy in Egypt The Atlantic By Daniel Brumberg Cairo is full of a hundred metaphors for the incoherence, fragmentation, and spirited improvisation that animate Egypt’s unfolding transition. My favorite was the traffic cram that erupted at a major intersection near Cairo … http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/07/the-path-to-democracy-in-egypt/241712/ Continue reading
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The boycott law subverts Israeli democracy — Haaretz
Knesset members who vote for the anti-Boycott Law must understand they are supporting the gagging of protest in an effort to liquidate democracy. Continue reading
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Ibrahim Hewitt: Israel’s fifth columnists silence Sheikh Raed Salah
Thousands of words have been written about the scandalous arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah by the British government in what is being seen as an attempt to silence him at the insistence of the pro-Israel Lobby. Supporters of the Sheikh from all sides of the political and religious divide in Palestine and beyond have stepped… Continue reading
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Media Lens: 'Extreme Dishonesty’ – The Guardian, Noam Chomsky and Venezuela
Noam Chomsky was once famously described by the New York Times as ‘arguably the most important intellectual alive’. And yet, as mentioned earlier, the Guardian is normally happy to ignore him and his views. But when Chomsky expresses criticism of an official enemy of the West, he suddenly does exist and matter for the Guardian. Continue reading
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Surprise! Iraq War Deaths Exceed Vietnam War By Gary Vey
More Gulf War Veterans have died than Vietnam Veterans. This probably is news to you. But the truth has been hidden by a technicality. So here is the truth. Continue reading
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US increases pressure on Syrian President
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to make a transition to democracy. This comes as thousands of people take to the streets every day to support President Assad. Continue reading
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Making the World Safe for Hypocrisy By Michael Parenti
Why has the United States government supported counterinsurgency in Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, and many other places around the world, at such a loss of human life to the populations of those nations? Why did it invade tiny Grenada and then Panama? Why did it support mercenary wars against progressive governments in Nicaragua, Mozambique, Angola,… Continue reading
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‘Public Opinion’: The Phantom Menace By John Brissenden
Any 11 year old who saw Avatar or The Matrix has a basic understanding of constructed reality; teenagers carefully construct and reconstruct their online identity; politicians and pundits alike talk without shame or irony about presentation, optics and symbolism rather than policy. It is no different on the left. Resistance to the cult of austerity… Continue reading
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Afghan Drawdown, Libyan Murder By Craig Murray
Could anyone watch Jeremy Bowen’s piece on BBC News last night, which showed a grieving father hugging the wrapped bodies of two tiny children killed in a NATO bombing? The fact the tiny childrens’ grandfather was a Gadaffi minister seemed to Jeremy Bowen a possible justification – he posed a dichotomy that by killing these… Continue reading
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Economic and Social Catastrophe: Spain’s “Indignados” Wherever you focus in Europe you hear the same cries of indignation By Pablo Ouziel
While “Europe’s slow-motion financial collapse” – as Mother Jones magazine described it in a June 6th article – continues to unravel, Spain, like other European states continues to implement anti-social-neo-liberal policies with strong opposition from the citizenry. Continue reading
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Egypt Newslinks for 13 June 2011
13 June 2011 — williambowles.info Reports: US man held in Egypt as Israeli spy msnbc.com CAIRO — Egypt arrested a man on Sunday — identified in Israeli media reports as a US citizen — suspected of spying for Israel and recruiting agents to destabilize Egypt, a prosecutor and judicial sources said. A 19-year-old woman who Continue reading
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Lie To Me By Joel S. Hirschhorn
Here is what Americans should learn: All elected Democrats and Republicans have succeeded because they are excellent liars and, therefore, not one of them can ever be trusted to be telling the truth Continue reading
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NORTH AFRICA: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF REVOLT Middle East Report 259 12 June 2011
Tunisia and Egypt, where the 2011 Arab rebellions began, will do much to determine the course of the upheavals elsewhere. The degree of political democracy that Tunisians and Egyptians achieve will be the most watched barometer. But just as important will be the extent of reform of the economic order. Continue reading
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Empire Games – but who writes the rules? By William Bowles
The Western left’s abdication, nay abandonment of principles that go to the heart of the socialist liberation project has been long in the making, centuries even and made all the more obvious by the left’s take on events in Libya and now Syria. Critiques of the ‘humanitarian, socialist interventionists’ came thick and thin but for… Continue reading
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The Lies behind the West's War on Libya By Jean-Paul Pougala
Africans should think about the real reasons why western countries are waging war on Libya, writes Jean-Paul Pougala, in an analysis that traces the country’s role in shaping the African Union and the development of the continent. Continue reading
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Elleni Centime Zeleke, “Libya: The Poverty of Analyses”
I am confused by the analyses of the Anglophone left with regard to the social revolts in Libya. The only thing folks seem able to muster is a series of bifurcated abstractions. Thus certain metaphors in the analyses of Libya prevail such as, ‘greed and grievance’, ‘patron and client’, ‘rapacious rule vs innocent population ‘,… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 