Geography Archives: Americas

  • And Papandreou Says He Is a Socialist

    Papandreou writes on a blackboard as a punishment meted out by Germany and France: “I must not consult the Greek people I must not consult the Greek people I must not consult the Greek people I must not con. . . .” Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | […]

  • Camila Vallejo, Proud of Being Communist

      The Chilean student leader doesn’t mince her words. “The ideas of communists today have real significance for they make sense in the context of people’s awakening,” said Camila Vallejo, a militant of the Communist Youths and one of the main leaders of the student movement which has been demanding structural reforms of education for […]

  • Indignant, in Revolt, and Mobilizing against a Totally Illegitimate G20

    Over 10,000 demonstrators marched on the streets of Nice on the first of November, to denounce the illegitimacy of G20 and the injustice of economic policies that it advocates.  Indignant Spaniards and others, Wall Street occupiers, Greek and Senegalese rebels, Tunisian and Egyptian revolutionaries, Latin American, Italian, English, German, and French alterglobalization activists — all […]

  • An Open Letter to Greg Mankiw

      Wednesday November 2, 2011 Dear Professor Mankiw — Today, we are walking out of your class, Economics 10, in order to express our discontent with the bias inherent in this introductory economics course.  We are deeply concerned about the way that this bias affects students, the University, and our greater society. As Harvard undergraduates, […]

  • Legal Flaws in US Complaint Against Iran

    The US allegation of an Iranian government plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in Washington is meritless as a matter of law, principally due to the egregious flaws and inexplicable discrepancies in the (amended) complaint in a federal court in Manhattan.

  • Clarence Thomas Speaks at Occupy Oakland General Strike

      Clarence Thomas is a former officer and long-time labor activist with ILWU Local 10.  I spoke with him about the prospect of a shutdown of the Port of Oakland this evening — a goal of Occupy Oakland demonstrators who called a general strike today. Clarence Thomas: “One of the reasons why they are doing […]

  • Prison vs. Princeton

      It costs the state of New Jersey more money to hold a prisoner for one year than to fund one Princeton student’s tuition.  Here’s an overview of the disturbing trend of prioritizing prison over higher education in the US. PublicAdministration.Net was created as an online informational resource for individuals looking to pursue public administration-related […]

  • NATO’s Genocidal Role (Part 5)

    On March 9th this year, under the title of “NATO, War, Lies and Business”, I published a new Reflection about the role of that warlike organization. I am selecting some fundamental paragraphs from that Reflection: “As some may be aware, in September of 1969, Muammar al-Gaddafi, an Arab Bedouin soldier of a peculiar character and […]

  • After Iraq

      Obama with a map of the Persian Gulf region in hand: “Excuse me!  Does this bus stop at Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Oman?” Gervasio Umpiérrez is a cartoonist based in Montevideo, Uruguay.  This cartoon was published on his blog and by Rebelión on 1 November 2011; it is […]

  • All Day, All Week (All Century), Occupy Wall Street

    For as long as Wall Street has stood for greed and unearned profits there have been those who have stood against it. In 1890, the leader of the Knights of Labor railed at “the control of our financial affairs by the bulls and bears of Wall Street.”  Six years later, a spokesman for New York […]

  • To My Policymakers

    Give me a page and I’ll give you a monument, leaning haphazardly like a staggering drunk, a lopsided photograph, a mirror tilted forward to the feet; like an off-center catwalk, brown paper bag strut in an empty alley way, stale six am whisky breathing on cold marble steps. I’ll sing you a jingle slurred to […]

  • The Time for Action Is Now

      “In 1969, a group of black and Puerto Rican students occupied City College demanding the integration of CUNY, which at the time had an overwhelmingly white student body.  The occupation spread to other CUNY campuses, forcing the Board of Trustees to implement a ground-breaking new admissions policy.” Such occupations also occurred in the 1980s […]

  • Capitalism and Environmental Catastrophe

    John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff at Occupy Wall Street.  Photo by Carrie Ann Naumoff This is a reconstruction from notes of a talk delivered at a teach-in on “The Capitalist Crisis and the Environment” organized by the Education and Empowerment Working Group, Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park (Liberty Plaza), New York, October 23, 2011. […]

  • Obama Administration Escalates Confrontation with Iran: Why?

    The Obama Administration announced two weeks ago that a bumbling Iranian-American used car salesman had conspired with a U.S. government agent posing as a representative of Mexican drug cartels to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.  This brought highly skeptical reactions from experts here across the political spectrum. But even if some of this tale […]

  • San Francisco’s Teirisias

    Despite the cars, the cabs, the buses, despite the feet shuffled together on subways, the screaming on the sidewalks and the bar-music blaring out of doorways — this is also a city of silence — the silence of a woman with an outstretched hand, clasping onto the smooth round beads of a rosary tangled around […]

  • Interview with Salim Lamrani: “The Economic Sanctions against Cuba Constitute the Principal Obstacle to the Development of the Country”

      Salim Lamrani.  État de siège; les sanctions économiques des États-Unis contre Cuba(State of Siege: The United States’ economic sanctions against Cuba).  Prologue by Wayne S. Smith.  Preface by Paul Estrade.  Paris, Editions Estrella, 2011.  15 euros. CSF: You’ve just published a new book under the title État de siège.  What exactly do you cover […]

  • Footage of Scott Olsen Being Shot by Police at Occupy Oakland

      This footage is proof that Scott Olsen was shot in the face by police without provocation during the Occupy Oakland march on Tuesday, October 25.  The moment leading up to the shooting, Olsen was standing completely still.  He was then hit in the head with a tear gas canister, which is potentially fatal.  Also, […]

  • Israel: Social Activists Gear Up for Mass Rally in Tel Aviv and Other Cities

    Protest leaders prepare for demonstrations next Saturday, October 29, across Israel, turning up the heat following the government announcement of an electricity price hike. After being put on the back burner for the past few weeks, the social protest is slowly turning up the heat following the recent electricity price hike announced by Israel’s neo-liberal […]

  • Occupied Japan and Occupying Wall Street

    1) Not long ago I heard a writer claim that her publisher had demanded that the word “manifesto” be replaced in the title of her novel.  This is an Asian American woman who is feisty and strong-willed and political, who during readings calls out “blond boys” for flaunting the privileges of their maleness and their […]

  • Pessimism of the Reality, Optimism of the Ideal

      I. It seems to me that José Vasconcelos has found a formula on pessimism and optimism that not only defines the feeling of the new Ibero-American generation in the face of the contemporary crisis, but also corresponds to the absolute mentality and sensibility of an era in which, despite the thesis of José Ortega […]