Archive | July, 2011

Attending to other matters that are now top priority, I momentarily strayed from the frequency with which I had been writing reflections in the year 2010; however, Hugo Chávez Frías’ proclamation last Thursday the 30th, obliges me to write these lines.… The president of Venezuela is one of the men who has done the most for the health and education of his people; since these are subjects where the Cuban Revolution has accumulated the most experience, we gladly collaborate to the maximum with this sister country in both areas.

  “I liked training and defending my country, and now I’m training women from all ages to use weapons.” — Fatima Masoud 30 June 2011 30 June 2011 Cf. Waniss Otman and Erling Karlberg, “The Growing Role of Women in Libyan Society” (The Libyan Economy: Economic Diversification and International Repositioning, Springer, 2007). | Print  

Behind every good man, one finds a good woman, or so we’re told.  In this year’s contest for the Teamster presidency, that traditional gender-based relationship has been reversed — at least in Sandy Pope’s campaign.  In Las Vegas last Thursday night, it was a small band of good men (plus a handful of their union […]

  An international flotilla of nine ships and hundreds of crew and passengers is a huge undertaking, in Gaza as much as anywhere.  Mahmoud Elmadhoun knows this better than most.  A member of Gaza’s Higher Government Committee, as well as the Governmental Committee for Breaking the Siege and Receiving Delegations (GCBS), which is tasked with […]

“Don’t negotiate with Muammar Gaddafi.  Negotiate with the Libyan people. . . .  These are our voices against NATO.  Here are the voices of the people.” — Muammar Gaddafi Green Square, Tripoli, Libya, 1 July 2011 Cf. “It can’t be denied that the demonstration in favor of Qadhdhafi yesterday was really massive.  I used to […]

  After a two-hour standoff at sea, the U.S. Boat to Gaza The Audacity of Hope was seized by the Greek Coast Guard and forced to return to the port of Piraeus under military escort.  The boat’s captain has been put in jail, charged with disturbing sea traffic — which includes endangering the lives of […]

  Many countries, Iran and North Korea are among them, told us it was our mistake to give up, to have stopped developing long-range missiles and to become friendly with the West.  Our example means one should never trust the West and should always be on alert — for them it is fine to change […]

The debate within the Left party, and outside it too, was hot and heavy.  It took a dramatic turn on June 28th when its Bundestag members, in caucus, modified their controversial position of June 7th. Ever since its formation in 2007 this party has been under savage attack from all four other major parties.  But […]

  Havana, Cuba, 30 June 2011 Now, in this new moment of difficulties, especially since Fidel Castro himself, the very man of the Moncada Barracks, of Granma, and of Sierra Maestra, the eternal giant, came to tell me the hard news of cancer, I began to ask my Lord Jesus, the God of my parents, […]