Geography Archives: Africa

A savage war is being waged against the majority of the people on Earth by the governments of the North on behalf of their multinational companies.  This war is not being fought with bombs or bullets; it is being fought through neo-liberal economic policies.  Its weapons are not being delivered by stealth bombers; they are […]

In the fuss about Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York, a finer point was lost.  Columbia University and its current president, Lee Bollinger, have for some time each been a leader in the fields of foreign policy opportunism and service to global oppressors. In 1955, a mere two years after the CIA reinstated the Shah […]

AN UNBROKEN AGONY: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President by Randall RobinsonBUY THIS BOOK Randall Robinson has written the story of a great tragedy of recent times — the violent overthrow of Haiti’s elected president and government on February 29, 2004.  An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a […]

  The Curve was a club on Lower Main Road in Observatory, a neighborhood with pretensions of being the home of bohemian Cape Town.  “A strange place,” was how Ntone Edjabe, a DJ whose long sets of Fela-tinged Afrobeat were the highlight on Saturday nights, described The Curve.  What made it unique, according to Ntone, […]

  Andre Gorz, philosopher of freedom, sociologist of work, ecologist and democratic socialist, trade union adviser, journalist and for a time editor of Nouvelle Observateur and Les Tempes Modernes, took his life at 84 on the 24th of September together with his wife Dorine, 83, who was suffering from a degenerative disease.  On the 25th […]

September 15, 2007 Dear friends, I have now been back in New York for two weeks, immersed in teaching at Columbia University and reunited with the women and families at the Bronx birthing center, as well as my own family.  I have had time to reflect on my work and need to share with you […]

JENNIFER DOHRN, CNM, is Director of Midwifery Services at the Childbearing Center of Morris Heights, the Bronx, New York, the first birthing center in the United States to serve inner-city women of diverse backgrounds.  Jennifer also directs the midwifery education program at Columbia University School of Nursing.  She has been working in South Africa to […]

27 August 2007 In July 2007, a group of labour leaders from the U.S. issued a statement opposing the growing international campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The statement was signed by a number of presidents from unions including the American Federation of Teachers, the American Postal Workers Union, the Communication Workers […]

  We are writing to ask for your support for a mural on 24th and Capp St that is under attack by Zionists.  The mural depicts related images of struggle by indigenous communities against forces of imperialism, racism, and economic oppression.  Its major theme is breaking down walls — those in Mexico, Palestine, Iraq — […]

A Cardinal Principle of Modern Liberalism The basic assumption of modern liberalism is that freedom is involved in an ongoing, all encompassing struggle against a dangerous enemy, totalitarianism.  The existence of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were and still are presented as the quintessential totalitarian formations.  Liberal thinkers stress that totalitarianism is on the […]

Iran is the new Nazi Germany and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the new Hitler.  Or so Israeli officials have been declaring for months as they and their American allies try to persuade the doubters in Washington that an attack on Tehran is essential.  And if the latest media reports are to be trusted, it looks […]

Farid Esack, a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School, is the author of Qur’an, Liberation and Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective of Interreligious Solidarity against Oppression and On Being a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path in the World Today.  A former national commissioner on gender equality appointed by President Nelson Mandela, Esack was active in the […]

Islamabad, Pakistan July 23, 2007 Farid Esack here (that Muslim guy from South Africa).  I am still around in Islamabad — my last few days — and I am still enjoying it as my two-month sojourn here draws to a close.  Islamabad is not quite Pakistan, certainly not Karachi, where I lived for eight years […]

George Galloway gets suspended from the Commons even as the investigation into the Al-Yamamah deal (which may implicate the UK government in Saudi money laundering for terrorist cells: Simon Jenkins, “Who Exposed This Colossal Bribery? Why, the Feral Beast,” Guardian, 13 June 2007) gets scrapped.  Galloway notes: “The Serious Fraud Office investigation into BAe was […]

  Achievements of the Cuban Revolution are well known to Monthly Review readers.  What is striking about Raúl Castro Ruz’s address on 26 July 2007 (an excerpt from which is reproduced below), on the occasion of Cuba’s National Day of Rebellion, is not his tribute to them but his candid assessment of the “errors which […]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — For my first three days in Pakistan, no conversation could go more than a few minutes without a reference to the crisis at the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) compound.  I had landed in Islamabad on July 8, and by then it seemed clear that government forces would eventually storm the mosque and […]

  The nation is in grief; our memories are full of anguish, and yet we have fresh wounds.  As the Palestinians were commemorating our losses to the Israeli occupation in the Nakba and the Naksa, our blood was running hot in Gaza — but this time we are the murdered and the murderers, too. Hamas […]

CHAIN OF DISASTERS & THE WEAKEST LINK The only thing that Bush’s “war on terror” has spread faster than disaster and misery has been opposition to its means and ends.  Six years into this self-righteously promoted crusade, Washington is more isolated internationally than ever.  Within the U.S., the Commander Guy’s approval rating has fallen below […]

Harlem’s Canaan Baptist Church, long associated with human rights activism, hosted a fundraising rally for women in Darfur, on June 13.  Billed as “Voices for the Voiceless,” the program featured speeches and fund-pitches by the program’s emcee, business developer Judith Price, and main speaker, peace activist and church leader Dr. Thelma Adair, with proclamations by […]

Introduction From the very start, the recent Nigerian elections, which saw Olusegun Obasanjo placing his hand-picked successor Umaru Yar’ Adua into the Presidential palace, were mired in controversy.  The ballot papers for the election, which were printed in South Africa, contained no counterfoils or serial numbers — features which would have made vote riggingdifficult.  In […]