Perhaps because I am a Brazilian, the first time I heard the expression “buen vivir,” I immediately thought of “boa vida,” a term which in our country is used pejoratively to refer to an easy, tranquil, and carefree life: no work, plenty of evening strolls, luxury at the expense of others, and zero political consciousness.
Subjects Archives: Movements
Iran’s Foreign Policy Strategy: Implications for the United States
We want to draw your attention to a brilliant piece, “Iran’s Foreign Policy Strategy After Saddam,” just published by Kayhan Barzegar, an Iranian scholar and foreign policy analyst currently at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. We have previously posted about an Op Ed that Barzegar published on Iranian perspectives about […]
The Manama Dialogue and Iran’s Pivotal Regional Role
But for Iran, the 6th Manama Dialogue would have failed to achieve its very objective, namely serving as a forum for debating regional security. Held in Bahrain from 11 to 13 December, the occasion attracted Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki following a two-year absence from the annual event. Senior Iranian officials shunned the 2007 […]
Crisis, Populist Neoliberalism, and the Limits to Democracy in Mexico
Forbes magazine recently placed two Mexicans, Carlos Slim and Joaquín Guzmán, high on their list of the most powerful people in the world. Carlos Slim is the world’s third-richest man and CEO of a telecommunications company and Joaquín Guzmán is the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel. While the purpose and the methodology of this […]
US-Iran Talks: The Road to Diplomatic Failure
The talks between the G5 plus 1 and Iran are careening toward a premature breakdown. If they do fall apart, it will be due in large part to a serious diplomatic miscalculation by the Obama administration. Along with its European allies, the Obama administration seized on a plan that cleverly asked Iran to divest […]
Mexican Electrical Workers Union Changes Strategy in Face of Calderón Government’s Intransigence
The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) continues its fight for its members’ jobs and for the union itself, but now, two months since President Felipe Calderón’s liquidation of the state-owned Light and Power Company, seizure of the facilities, and firing of the 44,000 workers, and faced with the government’s intransigence, the union has been forced […]
Iran: Six Months Later
It has been a hell of a year for Iran. Just last winter the nation’s elites were basking in 30 years of revolutionary triumph, launching satellites, enriching uranium, and holding neocon hawks at bay. Then, weeks of fervent presidential campaigning drew out the best and worst of Iranian society’s antagonisms, culminating in a poll exactly […]
Nanotechnology: An Industrial Revolution?
One of the fastest, if not the fastest, growing industries in the world today is based on nanotechnology. The U.S. government spends $1.5 billion a year on nanoresearch funded by 25 federal agencies under the National Nanotechnology Initiative of 2003. There are many new journals with “nano” in their titles and dozens more journals […]
Prueba de fraude electoral en Honduras
The Real News tiene prueba de como el Tribunal Supremo Electoral de Honduras reportaron cifras equivocadas. Cifras, se dice, han servido para consolidar el golpe de estado. Realizado por Jesse Freeston, desde Honduras. In English: Jesse Freeston, “Honduran Elections Exposed” (The Real News, 6 December 2009). | | Print
A Middle Way: The Best Solution to the Nuclear Crisis
Explaining about a draft agreement on nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki noted: “The two sides decided to review the draft. It is being reviewed in Vienna, and Iran will soon declare its viewpoint.” However, some officials have already voiced their opposition to the recent nuclear […]
Spread the Word! U.S. Should Not Recognize Sham Honduras Elections
The elections held in Honduras on November 29 were inherently flawed. Tens of thousands of troops and police officers manned polling stations and even distributed electoral literature. These forces have been responsible for killings, rapes, beatings, and detentions of people opposed to the coup. Media reports cited many people who said they did not […]
Honduras: An Election Validated by Blood and Repression
The new self-titled humanist president has been a key supporter of the regime through five months of massive human rights violations. “They’ve imposed a coup regime on us. They’ve assassinated at least 34 of our companions since the coup that removed the legitimate president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya Rosales. Nationwide, they’ve detained more than 5,000 […]
Coup Laundering in Honduras
Jesse Freeston: Only the governments of Taiwan and the United States have sent international observers, and the delegation funded by the US State Department arrived at the Electoral Tribunal at the same time the leaders of all six independent human rights monitors in Honduras were delivering their request that the elections be suspended. Dr. […]
Elections in Honduras: Whitewashing the Coup
I came to Honduras to participate as a human rights observer of the electoral climate in a delegation organized by the Quixote Center. Several delegations converged, connecting some 30 U.S. citizens with dozens more from Canada, Europe, and Latin America. In the days prior to the elections we scattered to different cities, towns, and […]
Lynne Stewart Update
23 November 2009 Hello All, It’s taken me a minute to report on Lynne because I have waited to talk to attorneys after they have visited with her firsthand to discuss Lynne’s situation, needs, and other matters. Lynne Stewart 53504-054 MCC/NY 150 Park Row New York, NY 10007 Above is Lynne’s mailing address. All […]
Lynne Stewart: An American Story
Just what good is freedom if no one is free, And folks go to jail if they dare disagree? And lawyers get punished for doing their jobs? And folks are afraid of the White House lynch mob? Lynne Stewart was doing what she had to do Protecting her client and civil rights, too. She […]
U.S. Group That Supported Overthrows of Democratically Elected Governments in Haiti and Venezuela Will Observe Elections in Honduras
International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute Plan to Observe Elections Controlled by Honduran Military and Police Cf. Eva Golinger, “The Role of the International Republican Institute (IRI) in the Honduran Coup” (Postcards from the Revolution , 6 July 2009) Washington, D.C. – The National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), organizations […]
Honduras: The Constituent Assembly Is the Solution
One side is the barely veiled alliance between Washington and Micheletti. The other side consists of the Constitutional Zelaya Government, the National Front against the Coup d’Etat and the principal former presidential candidate linked to the latter who has decided to boycott the November 29 elections. The candidate had formally taken his final position […]
Report on the Revolutionary Struggle for Civilian Supremacy, Democracy and Peace in Nepal
What started as a focus on protests against military supremacy has silently led to a focus on support for civilian supremacy. The retirement of Rookmangud Katawal, the ex-military chief and the main person who triggered the present crisis, has de facto diverted the attention of the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to support civil […]
Big City Superintendents: Dictatorship or Democracy? Lessons from Paulo Freire
During my teaching career I’ve worked under nine different superintendents. I’ve taught for nearly 30 years, so the average reign of a Milwaukee superintendent has been a little over three years, about normal for big city school districts. While some people, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, decry these short tenures as a […]
