Geography Archives: Americas

Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  Cf. “Given the impossibility of obtaining UN approval for an attack on Syria or Iran, it’s clear as the Qatar sky what’s going on.  Arm and finance a group of revolutionaries and get them to start an uprising.  When the state cracks down, get the opposition to call […]

In a recent debate the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination treated cutting the deficit as the panacea that would address the European crisis and prevent the United States from having a similar fate.  This diagnosis is wrong but it is unfortunately not unique to the Republicans in this country.  In fact, it is this […]

The leader of al-Nahda movement, Rachid Ghannouchi, made his first visit to a foreign country after the first post-revolution Tunisian elections. His choice was the State of Qatar. Analysts see many messages in this gesture but some Tunisians are troubled by the invitation he had extended to the Emir of Qatar. Although many do not want any foreign leader present during the opening session of the constituent assembly, some Tunisians are singling out the ruler of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, as a persona non grata. They see him as a bully who is using Al Jazeera and his huge wealth to push an agenda that is not necessarily in the interest of their country.

World Peace Forum Teach-In, Vancouver, Canada, November 12, 2011 (Modified from Notes) We are at what social theorists call a “historic moment,” in which real change suddenly seems possible.  It is therefore all the more important to learn from past struggles.  One of the first lessens of a long history of dissent from the early […]

  The current Occupy Movement has captured people’s imagination and refocused the national discussion on issues of economic injustice, social stratification, and corruptions of American democracy.  Contrary to what some people might think, the Occupy Movement is not composed solely of “young, idealistic college kids.”  People of many different ages, ethnicities, and ideological persuasions are […]

The Occupy Wall Street uprising has taken the nation by storm, beginning in the Financial District in Manhattan and then spreading to cities and towns in every part of the country and around the world.  The anger over growing inequality and the political power of the rich that has been bubbling under the surface for […]

TO give some idea of the potential of the USSR in its efforts to maintain parity with the United States in this sphere, suffice it to note that when its disintegration came about in 1991, there were 81 nuclear warheads in Byelorussia, 1,400 in Kazakhstan, and approximately 5,000 in Ukraine, which were passed on to […]

No sane person, especially someone who has had access to the elementary knowledge acquired in primary school, would agree that our species, especially those who are children, teenagers or youth, should be deprived of the right to live, today, tomorrow and forever. Never have human beings, throughout their eventful history, as persons endowed with intelligence, […]

  For his first post-election trip, Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Ennahdha party, visited the Emir of Qatar.  No surprise — he has to thank his sponsors and reassure them on their investments. This visit is worrisome, since Ennahdha is now the leading political force in Tunisia.  It is clear that the party is […]

This is a reconstruction from notes of a keynote address delivered to the Power Shift West Conference, Eugene, Oregon, November 5, 2011. All of us here today, along with countless others around the world, are currently engaged in the collective struggle to save the planet as a place of habitation for humanity and innumerable other […]

ON Sunday, November 6, 72 hours ago, there was a general election in which Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega and the FSLN won an overwhelming victory. Perhaps by chance, the following day was the 94th anniversary of the glorious Soviet Socialist Revolution. Indelible pages of history were written by Russian workers, peasants and soldiers, and the name […]

  The Social Economy Context The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement has clearly expressed the hopes and great potentialities of the working class both in the U.S. and globally.  The 99 percent are speaking up and saying that they will no longer do the bidding of the 1 percent.  In essence it is the revolt […]

If the United States maintains the current pace of deportations, at least 15,000 children run the risk of becoming separated from their undocumented parents and placed in foster care, noted Prensa Latina. According to a report published by the Applied Research Center (ARC) on the 2nd of November, there are currently over 5,000 minors who […]

  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 […]

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 | […]

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 […]

  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, […]

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 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 […]

  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 […]