“You don’t have to do this.” Those are the near-last words of several victims in the Coen brothers’ classic, No Country for Old Men, as they try to convince the movie’s unrelenting assassin that he should spare them. The assassin, played by Javier Bardem, finds this annoying, because in his mind these murders are pre-determined. […]
Geography Archives: Americas
South America, Central America, United States & Canada
Pakistan at the Precipice
To watch my country of birth unravel has been a curious thing. As the Taliban continues to sweep across vast swaths of northern Pakistan, American pundits and officials ask incredulously, “How can their government let this happen? How can their people let this happen?” The United States looks on anxiously like a jolted passerby watching […]
The Union Premium
Countless academics have sought to measure the tangible benefits of being a union member. The difference between union and non-union wages, often referred to as the “union premium,” can be calculated in many different ways. It’s a profoundly complex field. . . . Here’s a classic example of the poop one has to wade […]
Peru: Indigenous People Declare the Real State of Emergency
On May 9, 2009, the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency in the regions of Loreta, Amazonas, Cusco, and Ucalyali — where thousands of indigenous people have mobilized against several new laws that threaten to strip away their indigenous land rights. In effect, the state of emergency (SoE) is a “declaration of war” against […]
US Pakistan Policy Is Floundering
Aijaz Ahmad and Paul Jay
Paul Jay: So, we left off the first segment of the interview with you suggesting that there really doesn’t seem to be any kind of sensible strategy of the US in Pakistan and Afghanistan. What would the sensible strategy be right now? Obama seems to have . . . it’s very strange, they assessed the […]
Shield the Commodity Markets against Excessive Speculation
The latest economic indicators in the United States and other industrial countries suggest that economic decline might finally be coming to an end and a recovery can begin by late 2009. Once it starts, however, the global recovery can face a new potential threat from rapidly rising commodity prices, particularly for oil, food, and […]
US Policy Makes Things Worse in Pakistan
Aijaz Ahmad and Paul Jay
Paul Jay: So, President Karzai has just been in Washington, President Zardari has been in Washington, meeting President Obama. What effect are the policies of the three presidents having in Pakistan? Aijaz Ahmad: We know that the pressure from the United States that has been mounted over the last two weeks has led to […]
Our Everyday Crisis
Among leftists and fighters against the system, the predominant idea is usually that the current crisis is “their” crisis, a crisis of capital and capitalists, which has dramatic consequences for the world of labor. It turns out to be very difficult to accept that we, too, are going through “our” crisis, a crisis of our […]
From Blunder to Blunder in Afghanistan
“I also made it clear that the United States will work with our Afghan and international partners to make every effort to avoid civilian casualties as we help the Afghan government combat our common enemy,” US President Barack Obama promised. He received his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari at […]
Africa: Tractored Out by “Land Grabs”?
JOHANNESBURG, 11 May 2009 (IRIN) — Rich countries and firms are leasing or buying massive tracts of land in developing nations for the production of food or biofuel. An area equivalent to Germany’s farmed land is at stake, and tens of billions of dollars on offer. On the plus side, agro-industrial production could develop underused […]
Mexican Human Rights Organizations Speak Out against US Militarization of Mexico
On May 6, 67 Mexican human rights organizations (all non-governmental organizations) along with several other Mexican organizations and individuals, made a call to end US support to the Mexican military in the war on drugs. The letter came after the approval of the 2009 installment of the controversial three-year Merida initiative which provides US […]
New Phase in the US-Israel Relations?
The wave of pressures exercised by Washington on Israel could signal the beginning of a new era in the relations between the US and Israeli governments. The administration of US President Barack Obama has reiterated the requirement that a Palestinian state be created, a key issue, which is not supported by the new right-wing government […]
Obama Misses Opportunity for Accountability on Aid to Israel
Washington, DC (May 7, 2009) — The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a national coalition of more than 280 organizations working to change U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine to support human rights, international law, and equality, today criticized the Obama Administration for including $2.775 billion in unconditioned military aid to Israel in its FY2010 […]
Doctors, Single Payer Activists Arrested, Make History at Senate Finance Roundtable
5 May 2009 — It has finally happened right here in the United States. Citizens who believe healthcare is a human right have been arrested and are being processed like criminals through the Southeast District of Columbia police station. Their crime? Asking for single payer healthcare reform — publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare — […]
Antonio Giustozzi, Researcher, London School of Economics and Political Science: “The New Afghan Taliban Are Waging a Real Guerrilla War”
Antonio Giustozzi, a researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science, is one of the internationally recognized specialists on the Taliban. Author of Koran, Kalashnikov, and Laptop: The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan (Columbia University Press, 2008) among other books, this academic divides his time between London and Afghanistan. Talking to Le Monde in […]
How Ideological Enemies Collaborated to Achieve Divergent Goals
Francis R. Nicosia. Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany. Cambridge University Press, 2008. xiv + 324 pp. $85.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-521-88392-4. In his latest book, Francis R. Nicosia returns to and explores in greater detail one of the major topics of his important earlier book, The Third Reich and the Palestine Question (1985): the complex […]
Paraguay: Protests and Rubber Bullets Greet Return of Dictatorship Criminal
Workers and activists gathered in the central plaza of Asunción, Paraguay on May 1st to commemorate International Workers Day. Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo marked the day by raising the minimum wage by 5%, half of what many of the unions present were demanding. But another piece of news set the tone for this annual gathering: […]
The State and Local Drag on the Stimulus
Introduction The stimulus bill that President Obama pushed through Congress in the first month of his presidency was an important first step in counteracting the economic downturn. However, as many analysts have noted, it is not likely to be sufficient to turn around the economy. Economic and fiscal data only available after the passage of […]
Los Expatriados
We would like to announce the creation of a new discussion blog Los Expatriados where we present and analyze issues relevant to the discussions surrounding the present colonial situation of Puerto Rico. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega noted the absence of Cuba and Puerto Rico that tarnishes the name of the Summit of the Americas. He […]
Pakistan: Who’s to Blame?
Speaking at the National Assembly, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said that the military could stop the Taliban and that the country’s nuclear weapons were safe. “Does this parliament not have moral courage to stop them?” he asked. Pakistan is on a precipice. The Swat Valley, once called the Switzerland of Pakistan for […]
