Geography Archives: South Africa

On 6 February 2007, President Bush announced that the United States would create a new military command for Africa, to be known as Africa Command or Africom.  Throughout the Cold War and for more than a decade afterwards, the U.S. did not have a military command for Africa; instead, U.S. military activities on the African […]

Today, two movements for the promotion of human rights in Sudan and Palestine seek to emulate the successful role played by boycotts, divestment, and sanctions in achieving democracy and equality in South Africa.  The two movements, however, have received radically different receptions on Capitol Hill.  This double standard testifies to official Washington’s selectivity when it […]

Amidst her welcome critique of the biofuel mania, Vandana Shiva‘s ZNet commentary last month (December 13, 2007) also made this point: “The Kyoto Protocol totally avoided the material challenge of stopping activities that lead to higher emissions and the political challenge of regulation of the polluters and making the polluters pay in accordance with principles […]

“O there are times, we must confess To harboring a whim — we Like to picture old Karl Marx Sliding down our chimney” — Susie Day “Help fund the good fight.   By contributing to MR, you help reinforce the left and reclaim the future.” — Richard D. Vogel “To do my part, I just […]

“O there are times, we must confess To harboring a whim — we Like to picture old Karl Marx Sliding down our chimney” — Susie Day “Help fund the good fight.   By contributing to MR, you help reinforce the left and reclaim the future.” — Richard D. Vogel “To do my part, I just […]

  “O there are times, we must confess To harboring a whim — we Like to picture old Karl Marx Sliding down our chimney” — Susie Day“Help fund the good fight.   By contributing to MR, you help reinforce the left and reclaim the future.” — Richard D. Vogel “To do my part, I just […]

“O there are times, we must confess To harboring a whim — we Like to picture old Karl Marx Sliding down our chimney” — Susie Day “Help fund the good fight.   By contributing to MR, you help reinforce the left and reclaim the future.” — Richard D. Vogel “To do my part, I just […]

Introduction On the 17th and 18th of November 2007, the finance ministers and reserve bank governors of the G20 countries, along with leading International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank officials, will be gathering in the seaside village of Kleinmond, South Africa.1  During this meeting — which will be hosted by the current Chair of […]

  Preamble Dear Friends, it is a great privilege to be with you again since 2002.  As you know, my address then has recently been in the news because on the basis of a distortion of what I said, President Dease of St Thomas University decided I shouldn’t visit his campus.  It is good that […]

A savage war is being waged against the majority of the people on Earth by the governments of the North on behalf of their multinational companies.  This war is not being fought with bombs or bullets; it is being fought through neo-liberal economic policies.  Its weapons are not being delivered by stealth bombers; they are […]

In the fuss about Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York, a finer point was lost.  Columbia University and its current president, Lee Bollinger, have for some time each been a leader in the fields of foreign policy opportunism and service to global oppressors. In 1955, a mere two years after the CIA reinstated the Shah […]

AN UNBROKEN AGONY: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President by Randall RobinsonBUY THIS BOOK Randall Robinson has written the story of a great tragedy of recent times — the violent overthrow of Haiti’s elected president and government on February 29, 2004.  An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a […]

  The Curve was a club on Lower Main Road in Observatory, a neighborhood with pretensions of being the home of bohemian Cape Town.  “A strange place,” was how Ntone Edjabe, a DJ whose long sets of Fela-tinged Afrobeat were the highlight on Saturday nights, described The Curve.  What made it unique, according to Ntone, […]

  Andre Gorz, philosopher of freedom, sociologist of work, ecologist and democratic socialist, trade union adviser, journalist and for a time editor of Nouvelle Observateur and Les Tempes Modernes, took his life at 84 on the 24th of September together with his wife Dorine, 83, who was suffering from a degenerative disease.  On the 25th […]

September 15, 2007 Dear friends, I have now been back in New York for two weeks, immersed in teaching at Columbia University and reunited with the women and families at the Bronx birthing center, as well as my own family.  I have had time to reflect on my work and need to share with you […]

JENNIFER DOHRN, CNM, is Director of Midwifery Services at the Childbearing Center of Morris Heights, the Bronx, New York, the first birthing center in the United States to serve inner-city women of diverse backgrounds.  Jennifer also directs the midwifery education program at Columbia University School of Nursing.  She has been working in South Africa to […]

27 August 2007 In July 2007, a group of labour leaders from the U.S. issued a statement opposing the growing international campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The statement was signed by a number of presidents from unions including the American Federation of Teachers, the American Postal Workers Union, the Communication Workers […]

Iran is the new Nazi Germany and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the new Hitler.  Or so Israeli officials have been declaring for months as they and their American allies try to persuade the doubters in Washington that an attack on Tehran is essential.  And if the latest media reports are to be trusted, it looks […]

Farid Esack, a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School, is the author of Qur’an, Liberation and Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective of Interreligious Solidarity against Oppression and On Being a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path in the World Today.  A former national commissioner on gender equality appointed by President Nelson Mandela, Esack was active in the […]

Islamabad, Pakistan July 23, 2007 Farid Esack here (that Muslim guy from South Africa).  I am still around in Islamabad — my last few days — and I am still enjoying it as my two-month sojourn here draws to a close.  Islamabad is not quite Pakistan, certainly not Karachi, where I lived for eight years […]