New York — The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) demands the immediate release of its former president, Professor Peter Erlinder, whom Rwandan Police arrested early today on charges of “genocide ideology.” He had traveled to Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, on May 23, to join the defense team of Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. Erlinder is […]
Geography Archives: Americas
South America, Central America, United States & Canada
People’s Voices Must Be Heard in Climate Negotiations
In April 2010 more than 35,000 people from 140 countries gathered in Cochabamba, Bolivia and developed the historic Cochabamba People’s Accord, a consensus-based document reflecting substantive solutions to the climate crisis. We, the undersigned organizations, both participated in and/or supported this historic process. Reflecting the voices of global civil society and the agreements reached […]
Pakistan: Beyond the Sound Bites
D. Raghunandan: [Media reports of] Pakistan tend to be overdetermined, or overwhelmed, by the issues of terrorism and extremism. Professor Aijaz Ahmad . . . recently spent some time in Pakistan, and we thought this offers a good opportunity to look at other aspects of life in Pakistan. Aijaz, what do you think Indians and […]
President Obama Should Be Honest about the Iran-Turkey-Brazil Nuclear Deal
Brazilian President Lula, Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan, and their foreign ministers have been too polite in their characterization of President Obama’s role in the nuclear deal they mediated with Iran last week. For we now have documentary evidence that President Obama’s Secretary of State and his White House spokesman are simply not telling the truth […]
A “New World Order” Is Possible — and Needed
The efforts of Brazil and Turkey to find a negotiated solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, which generated a negotiated agreement with Iran last week, must be seen in the context of a growing challenge to the international political order. That political order has been dominated by the United States, with Europe as […]
Socializing Risk: The New Energy Economics
Despite talk of a moratorium, the Interior Department’s Minerals and Management Service is still granting waivers from environmental review for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, including wells in very deep water. Until last month, most of us never thought about the risk that one of those huge offshore rigs would explode in flames […]
The Unspoken Alliance: Military and Nuclear Ties between Israel and Apartheid South Africa
Amy Goodman: As nuclear nonproliferation talks at the United Nations focus on the Middle East this week, we turn to new revelations about Israel’s nuclear weapons program and its close alliance with apartheid South Africa. Israeli President Shimon Peres has denied reports that he offered to sell nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa when […]
Revisiting Global Imbalances
Until recently, the discussion on global imbalances focused on the current account deficit of the US and the current account surplus of China, making this a bilateral rather than a multilateral problem. As a result, the process of rebalancing was seen as involving adjustments in either or both of these countries, and not so much […]
Iran and the United States: Next Steps on the Brazil-Turkey Deal?
On May 24, Iranian representatives, accompanied by Brazilian and Turkish counterparts, met with the IAEA’s Director General, Yukiya Amano. The purpose of the meeting was to present a letter to Amano — as called for in the May 17, 2010 Joint Declaration by Iran, Turkey, and Brazil — formally notifying the IAEA of the Islamic […]
Interviewing Ousama Hamdan, Hamas Leader in Lebanon
Ousama Hamdan is the top Hamas leader in Lebanon and a member of the Hamas politburo. Manuela Paraipan: How do you see European engagement in the area and what do you think are the main challenges for the international community in dealing with the region? Ousama Hamdan: Most of the time, Europeans support American […]
The Upside of the Oil Spill
Uncle Sam: The oil slick does have its economic upside. Now ships can be supplied with fuel right out of the ocean. Tomás Rafael Rodríguez Zayas (Tomy) is a Cuban cartoonist. This cartoon was published by Cambios en Cuba on 23 May 2010. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). FYI: “In the […]
ElBaradei: Brazil-Iran-Turkey Nuclear Deal “Quite a Good Agreement”
Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei was the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an inter-governmental organization under the auspices of the United Nations, from December 1997 to November 2009. Dr. ElBaradei and the IAEA were awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize for “for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for […]
Arizona: State of Shame / Estado de Vergüenza
Arizona, state of shame What have you done with your fear? Instead of being known for your beauty You are now famous for racism and hatred Photos by Bill Steen of the Canelo Project. Song composed by Eugene Rodriguez. Performed by Los Cenzontles (The Mockingbirds). | Print
South Africa: An Unfinished Revolution?
The Fourth Strini Moodley Annual Memorial Lecture, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 13 May 2010 I In her historical novel, A Place of Greater Safety, which is played out against the backdrop of the Great French Revolution through an illuminating character analysis and synthesis of three of that revolution’s most prominent personalities, viz., Maximilien Robespierre, Georges […]
Puerto Rico: Violent Confrontation with Demonstrators
On the night of May 20, 2010, as the governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuño held a political fundraiser in one of the salons of the Hotel Sheraton in San Juan, the capital city, students and supporters clashed with special police forces who arrived to quash the demonstration in the hotel’s lobby. Members of the […]
UNASUR: An Emerging Geopolitical Force
Earlier this month, as the US loudly complained about Venezuela’s decision to purchase arms from Russia, South America’s ministers of defense came together in Guayaquil, Ecuador and put the finishing touches on an agreement to develop common mechanisms of transparency in defense policy and spending. The agreement, which also calls for the creation of a […]
India Needs Course Correction on Iran
The agreement between Iran, Turkey and Brazil for a swap deal on the stockpile of Tehran’s nuclear fuel sets the stage for a diplomatic pirouette of high significance for regional security. The paradigm shift affects Indian interests. The Barack Obama administration has hastily debunked the Iran-Turkey-Brazil deal, which was announced in Tehran on Monday, and […]
Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño
Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print
New York Times Tale on BP Oil Spill: From Bad to Worse
The New York Times ran a story on May 4 that advanced a rather unusual argument: BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill was probably bad, but not that bad. Helping the paper flesh out that line was a group called the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, which the Times dubbed “a conservation group in Corpus Christi, […]
75 Years of UAW — and Where Are We?
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the UAW in May 1935. In December 1936, UAW members seized GM’s Flint plants in a sit-down strike and held on for 44 days to force GM to recognize their union. The victory set off a wave of organizing across the Midwest. For decades […]
