Geography Archives: Americas

The torture of prisoners in U.S. custody isn’t confined to foreign countries.  For more than two weeks, inmates at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison have been on a hunger strike to protest torturous conditions in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) there.  Prisoners have been held for years in solitary confinement, which can amount to torture.  […]

Still lacking a fire starter called diplomacy, Uncle Sam fails to detonate a war against Syria. Hamid Karout is a Syrian cartoonist.  This cartoon was first published in Tishreen on 14 July 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  Cf. “‘The OIC has a strong desire to build national dialogue between governments and […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Cf. “Nota da Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência (SBPC) e da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (ABC) sobre a decisão da Câmara dos Deputados com relação ao Código Florestal” (25 May 2011); Mario Osava, “Brazil: Politicians Out of Sync with Public Sentiment on the Environment” (Inter Press Service, […]

  We are 47 people from 22 organizations in 18 countries (Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Angola, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Central African Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Portugal, USA, France, and Germany).  We are farmers and staff representing member organizations of La Via Campesina, along with allies from other farmer […]

Javier Batiz, the great Mexican rock-and-roll guitarist, played and sang last week in a concert that embodied and gave voice to everything that is most wonderful about Tijuana and the U.S.-Mexico border region.  Batiz, who since he was thirteen has played in the bars and nightclubs of Tijuana, performed this time with the Baja California […]

The Euro is crashing today to record lows against the Swiss Franc, and interest rates on Italian and Spanish bonds have hit record highs.  This latest episode in the Eurozone crisis is a result of fears that the contagion is now hitting Italy.  With a two-trillion dollar economy and $2.45 trillion in debt, Italy is […]

Iran’s recent successful launch of a second satellite into orbit has drawn considerable attention around the world. As in the past, Iran’s announcement of the launch of its domestically built satellite into space received mixed reactions in the West. Some mainstream U.S. media treated the announcement with skepticism and ridicule. “Before you cancel that European vacation or start building a bomb shelter, it’s worth taking Iran’s boasts with a grain of salt,” one commentator wrote in Wired. “While Iran has cooked up some indigenous weaponry over the years, its desire to puff out its chest and pronounce immunity from the effects of international sanctions has led to some absurd exaggerations and outright lies.”

“Chávez, go away already!” Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  See, also, Victor Nieto, “What the Hell Do They Want?” (MRZine, 27 June 2011).  Cf. “Bolivian Leader: Hugo Chavez’s Health Improving” (Associated Press, 10 […]

Argentinean singer Facundo Cabral, best known for his song “I’m Not from Here, Nor Am I from There,” was murdered this morning on his way to Guatemala’s La Aurora airport after a concert tour of that country. In his 2006 interview with Télam, Cabral said: “People often call me maestro, singer-songwriter, poet, troubadour, minstrel, and […]

  Excerpt: Cooling power plants requires the single largest share of U.S. freshwater withdrawals: 41 percent.  This water dependence threatens both the availability and the quality of our water resources. . . . The water use habits of power plants pose risks, not only to the water sources and to other users, but also to […]

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.” — Bob Marley, “Redemption Song,” 1979 I’ve got it made.  I’m sixty-one years old and I’ve been retired for two and a half years.  I’ve got a pension, health insurance, and money in the bank.  I own my own home.  I’m debt free.  I’m a fortunate man, but it wasn’t […]

  NUMSA and other COSATU workers, ANC Youth League President Julius Malema, and members of the South African Communist Party gathered outside the United States Embassy in Pretoria, Gauteng to demonstrate against the NATO bombings of Libya.  “South Africa should not have voted for that resolution,” said Malema, referring to UN Security Council Resolution 1973 […]

Bernard-Henri Lévy, well known for his devotion to humanitarian military interventions, organized a conference to “stop the massacre” in Syria, “SOS Syrie,” in Paris on the fourth of July.  There is no doubt that BHL is eager to replicate his Libyan success in Syria.  Given the clear Russian opposition to any military intervention in Syria, […]

One of last month’s most interesting developments in Persian Gulf power politics played out not in the Middle East, but in Vienna, Paris, and Washington.  For these Western cities were the venues for an important series of exchanges that revealed much about the changing balance of power among the Middle East’s major oil producers, including […]

There is a pervasive view that growth under capitalism, though it may worsen poverty, even absolute poverty, to start with, eventually leads to a lowering of poverty.  The experience of the English Industrial Revolution is invoked in this context.  There has been a huge debate among economic historians about the impact of the Industrial Revolution […]

  Much of the discussion surrounding the Greek crisis revolves around the probability and implications of a sovereign default and on whether the introduction of a national currency (which, for simplicity, we could call the new drachma) would help pull the Greek economy out of recession (see for example Manasse 2011 on this site).  Less […]

Attending to other matters that are now top priority, I momentarily strayed from the frequency with which I had been writing reflections in the year 2010; however, Hugo Chávez Frías’ proclamation last Thursday the 30th, obliges me to write these lines.… The president of Venezuela is one of the men who has done the most for the health and education of his people; since these are subjects where the Cuban Revolution has accumulated the most experience, we gladly collaborate to the maximum with this sister country in both areas.

  After a two-hour standoff at sea, the U.S. Boat to Gaza The Audacity of Hope was seized by the Greek Coast Guard and forced to return to the port of Piraeus under military escort.  The boat’s captain has been put in jail, charged with disturbing sea traffic — which includes endangering the lives of […]

  Havana, Cuba, 30 June 2011 Now, in this new moment of difficulties, especially since Fidel Castro himself, the very man of the Moncada Barracks, of Granma, and of Sierra Maestra, the eternal giant, came to tell me the hard news of cancer, I began to ask my Lord Jesus, the God of my parents, […]

Seeing a wind farm in Paraguaná, the Right says . . .“Look at how Chávez has camouflaged Iranian missiles.” Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  See, also, Eva Golinger, “Washington Plans Further Actions against […]