Archive | May, 2011

1. Introduction: The Twin Recycling Problems in Brief

Europe’s crisis is caused by its institutional failure to confront two recycling problems: a debt recycling problem and a surplus recycling problem.

When India’s disgraced sports tsar, Suresh Kalmadi, walked into a New Delhi court on the morning of April 26th, a chappal (open-toed shoe) hurled at him missed by a few inches, “robbing him,” as the Calcutta Telegraph gleefully reported, of his “all seasons grin.” Kalmadi, the chief organizer of the 2010 Commonwealth Games and President […]

Statement of Cuban Ambassador Rodolfo Reyes, at the Special Session of the Human Rights Council, on the human rights situation in Syria, Geneva, 29 April 2011 Mr. President: Cuba condemns the hypocrisy and double standards on which the convocation of this special session is based.  Human rights are not its genuine motive.  The motive is […]

Using the United Nations to paint over the popular revolutions in the Middle East Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print

  Freedom for the five Cuban patriots! Gervasio Umpiérrez is a cartoonist based in Montevideo, Uruguay.  This cartoon was published in his blog on 25 April 2011.  Cf. “U.S. Government Asked the Court to Deny Gerardo Hernandez’s Habeas Corpus Motion” (26 April 2011); “The U.S. Government Asked the Court to also Deny Antonio Guerrero’s and […]

It shouldn’t surprise us that many American liberals, including Muslims, are now joining the celebrations of Osama bin Laden’s death. They may not agree with how the War on Terror has been conducted, but they have at least tolerated it and have no reason to view Bin Laden with sympathy in any case. Let us also not forget that Barack Obama, who campaigned for the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, is a liberal himself. To view the mass relief at Bin Laden’s death as a pathology of conservative tea partiers and frat boys who don’t know any better is therefore to miss the point. Bin Laden was the most successful terrorist this country had seen, and the trauma of 9-11 and the fear that he could strike again anytime haunted American minds in ways they were not prepared for. It is, for those who wish to be rid of the imperial anxieties of the past ten years, the time to feel triumphant.

Camille Otrakji is a Syrian political blogger based in Montreal.  Although he tends to keep a low profile, Otrakji has been, for the past several years, at the forefront of many of the most interesting and influential online initiatives relating to Syrian politics.  He is one of the authors and moderators at Joshua Landis’s Syria […]

After passing SB 5, Gov. Kasich and his political allies are focusing their attention on the proposed budget that would continue attacks on working families, eliminate tens of thousands of jobs and cut funding for services, like fire stations, schools, libraries, and more, that Ohioans depend on to keep their communities strong. This Thursday, thousands […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  | Print

  Robert Rabil.  Syria, the United States, and the War on Terror in the Middle East.  Westport: Praeger, 2006.  xxvi + 289 pp.  $49.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-275-99015-2. Robert Rabil’s book examines the ups and downs in Syrian-U.S. relations.  The final portion of its title, the War on Terror in the Middle East is, in reality, […]

“Justice has been done,” said President Obama. “Justice has been done.” “Justice has been done.” Justice has been done!?  Justice!?  Justice??  For the last ten years, we’ve been engaged in an exercise of justice?  That’s what you call what we’ve been doing? Are we supposed to take out a large magnifying glass and a delicate […]

  Two political analysts shared their view with Islam Online: the leadership of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” will not leave Syria unless it is asked to do so.  They say that it is not in the interest of Hamas to leave Damascus now. An Internal Affair London’s Al-Hayat newspaper claimed that Hamas decided […]

  “Let’s drink a toast to all those farmers, workers, artists and intellectuals of the last 100 years who without thought of fame and profit . . . worked tirelessly in their dream of a worldwide socialist revolution, who believed and hoped that a new world was dawning and that their work would contribute to […]

  “You’ve got your numbers wrong on the costs of the war. You haven’t figured in our profits from the sale of weapons to our enemy . . . and to our friend.” Juan Ramón Mora is a cartoonist in Barcelona.  This cartoon was first published in his blog on 1 April 2011 under a […]

You’ve had your way a long, long time, You kings and tyrants, And still you work injustice hour by hour. What ails you that do not tread a path of glory? A man may take the field, although he love the bower. But some hope a divine leader with prophetic voice Will rise amid the […]

Kamal al Fayoumi, Mahalla Textiles Worker and Democratic Labor Party Activist: All of us, as workers, said that the revolution began on February 11 when Mubarak left.  When the head of the old regime stepped down, it was just the start of the revolution.  The revolution began only with the solidarity of all of Egypt’s […]

Will the surprising surge of the New Democratic Party hold today at the ballot boxes in Canada, where voters say health care (31.5%) and jobs/economy (23.4%) are the top issues, only 4.9% of them prioritizing “high taxes” as the number one problem? The graphs above are from Nano Research.  The methodology is available at . […]

  We invite graduate students and young researchers to participate in the URPE (Union for Radical Political Economics) Summer School entitled “Topics in Radical Political Economy: Marxist Theory,” which will take place in Amherst, Massachusetts on the UMass campus on May 24-27, 2011 (right before the World Association for Political Economy conference on May 27-29). […]

  Given the atrocities currently committed in Syria and the spectacularly bad press this generates for the regime, one would think that issuing an effective petition calling for political change in this country would be an easy task.  All such a petition needs to do is to jump on the bandwagon of rapidly mounting protests […]

7,500 Political Prisoners in Lockdown Colombia: students, campesinos, environmentalists, lawyers, researchers, trade unionists, human rights defenders . . . imprisoned under judicial farces Areito Imagen is a collective of artists.  This poster was published on the collective’s blog on 25 April 2011, in solidarity with Joaquín Pérez Becerra.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi […]