Vali Nasr. Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World. New York: Free Press, 2009. 320 pp. This empirically informative yet analytically defective book labors to dissect the complexities of political and economic development in the Muslim world, strongly focusing on Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, […]
Geography Archives: Africa
Countries in the continent of Africa
The Oliver Kamm School of Falsification: Imperial Truth-Enforcement, British Branch
An important and perhaps growing feature of official and strong-interest-group propaganda is the resort to personal attacks and flak to keep dissidents at bay and inconvenient thoughts out of sight and mind. This has been notable over many years in the case of pro-Israel propaganda, where we can observe a positive correlation between upward spikes […]
From Rights to Commons: Dispatches from South Africa’s Revolution
“But we can’t eat rights, hawu!” Those five words of protest from the lips of South Africa’s underclass sting like a slap in the face. Good liberals will always take offense. We find ourselves scrambling desperately to battle the mad claim that “things were better under apartheid.” “But of what worth is a job,” we […]
Illicit Sex, Law, and Community in Islam
Elyse Semerdjian. Off the Straight Path: Illicit Sex, Law, and Community in Ottoman Aleppo. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2008. xxxviii + 247 pp. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8156-3173-6. The content of Off the Straight Path is less juicy than its title suggests. The reader with an appetite for stories of sexual scandals and dangerous liaisons […]
Allow Aristide to Return to Haiti Now
Haiti is facing one of its most severe challenges after a large earthquake rocked the capital yesterday destroying most government buildings and killing possibly thousands. Now more than ever the people of Haiti need hope for the future and, as Haiti’s ambassador to Washington Raymond Joseph said yesterday on CNN, “we need unity to meet […]
Stone Hammered to Gravel
The office workers did not know, plodding through 1963 and Marshall Square station in Johannesburg, that you would dart down the street between them, thinking the police would never fire into the crowd. Sargeant Kleingeld did not know, as you escaped his fumbling hands and the pistol on his hip, that he would one […]
Hollywood Pretends to Learn from Nelson Mandela
Since its release last December Invictus has caused quite a stir among American movie-goers, garnering relatively high reviews from critics, bagging third place among box-office openers, taking home a series of award nominations, and — perhaps most importantly — winning airtime on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. But while director Clint Eastwood’s successes with this […]
In Solidarity with the Real Anti-Racist Movement in Cuba
Within weeks of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January 1959, its leadership, with the enthusiastic support of black and mestizo Cubans, took steps to dismantle the most visible forms of racial discrimination on the island. Within a couple of years the Revolution dismantled the economic underpinnings of racial oppression that had its roots […]
Dennis Vincent Brutus, 1924-2009
World-renowned political organizer and one of Africa’s most celebrated poets, Dennis Brutus, died early on December 26 in Cape Town, in his sleep, aged 85. Even in his last days, Brutus was fully engaged, advocating social protest against those responsible for climate change, and promoting reparations to black South Africans from corporations that benefited from […]
Slouching Toward D.C., Trailing Bags of Tea
In The Taming of the American Crowd: From Stamp Riots to Shopping Sprees, I argue that unlike the kind of crowds that have surged across the pages of American history and unlike crowds in certain other parts of the world, today’s American crowds seldom even figure in the news. We have crowds of shoppers, spectators, […]
What Was Really Decided in Copenhagen?
Detailed accounts from participants in the recent Copenhagen climate summit are still coming in, but a few things are already quite clear, even as countries step up the blame game in response to the summit’s disappointing conclusion. First, the 2 1/2 pages of diplomatic blather that the participating countries ultimately consented to “take note” […]
Curing Post-Copenhagen Hangover
In Copenhagen, the world’s richest leaders continued their fiery fossil fuel party last Friday night, ignoring requests of global village neighbors to please chill out. Instead of halting the hedonism, Barack Obama and the Euro elites cracked open the mansion door to add a few nouveau riche guests: South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, China’s Wen Jiabao […]
Beyond Ecological Imperialism
So the Copenhagen summit did not deliver any hope of substantive change, or even any indication that the world’s leaders are sufficiently aware of the vastness and urgency of the problem. But is that such a surprise? Nothing in the much-hyped runup to the summit suggested that the organisers and participants had genuine ambitions to […]
COSATU Delegation to Join the Gaza Freedom March!
This new year’s eve, 31 December 2009, thousands of people and activists from all over the world will gather in Gaza for a historic march against the naked brutality being carried out by Israel in enforcing the illegal occupation there. A COSATU delegation, together with other South Africans, including former Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, will […]
Poverty: A Political Football in Iran among Rival Factions
Iran is not going to the 2010 World Cup, but there is another football being kicked around in the domestic Iranian media: the extent of poverty in Iran. Last month, the Statistical Center of Iran reported that 70 percent of Iranians earn less than a monthly income of $450 for a household of five. This […]
Gaza Freedom March: Palestinian Non-violence and International Solidarity
I’m going to discuss the utility of non-violent resistance as it applies to resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict and, specifically, the occupation and blockade of the Gaza strip. Even more specifically, I’m going to discuss the Gaza Freedom March (GFM), of which I’m one of the organizers. But before discussing Palestinian non-violence, several things must be […]
Open Letter from U.S. Trade Unionists to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: Boycott Apartheid Israel
“Sanctions alone cannot eradicate apartheid; that task is ultimately left to the people of South Africa themselves. But economic pressure and political isolation of the South African government can hasten the day when justice and freedom reign in that troubled land.” — Richard L. Trumka, June 23, 1987 “We call on other workers and unions […]
Copenhagen and Capitalism
Paul Jay, Senior Editor, The Real News Network: So let’s talk about Copenhagen. If in fact most of the scientific community is quite persuaded in the climate change science, and certainly they are, and all the world governments say they are, what’s preventing us from getting a serious agreement, and particularly with China and […]
An Open Letter to the UN Climate Change Gathering in Copenhagen
Allow me to make a few points about the current international negotiations which are likely to make a huge impact on the future of the planet. At the heart of the issue is the trade off that has to be made between those who want to continue on a path of exploitation and the protesters […]
On Being Detained by the Israeli Government
The NLG NYC Condemns the Israeli Government for the Detention of African American Political Activists 25 November 2009 The New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild condemns the actions of the Israeli government for its unlawful and racially motivated detention of two African-American political activists. On November 23, 2009, Dhoruba Bin Wahad, […]
