Article published in Amauta with permission from the authors

by Clare Bayard & Sarah Lazare

Think back seven years ago to this day. Where were you on March 19th, 2003, when the invasion began? Did you see “Shock and Awe” footage of the orange explosions in the clear Baghdad sky, piped in grainy TV shows, lit at night with the green glow of CNN cameras? Did you read the tickertapes under these images of neighborhoods lit on fire? Over those next days, did you, like many of us, collapse in overwhelmed grief and rage, frantic at not knowing how we could stop our government’s onslaught?

It’s important to remember how we channeled this into organizing that built dynamic alliances, influenced public opinion, and communicated to the rest of the world that people inside the United States were not all united behind the war. At the same time, we failed to prevent the invasion and have not yet ended the occupation of Iraq, or Afghanistan. We say this, recognizing how many of us tried to put our bodies in the way as best we could, in a million different ways. Many people suffered burnout and heartbreak. The sheer numbers of antiwar demonstrators, which just a month before the invasion of Iraq coordinated the biggest street protests in the history of the world, have dropped precipitously each year as we hit this awful anniversary. Read the full story

Source: Al Jazeera English

March 11, 2010

He was the first African-American to get a PhD in philosophy at Princeton.

He went on to write more than 20 books, receive more than 20 honourary degrees, to teach at Harvard and Yale, and hold classes at universities from Paris to Addis Abeba.

With his latest hip hop CD he was named “MTV’s artist of the week”, and he has provided futuristic philosophical commentary on all three Matrix movies.

In a famous spat with the then president of Harvard University he called Lawrence Summers “the Ariel Sharon of higher education.”

Avi Lewis talks to Cornel West, a professor of African American Studies at Princeton, hip hop artist, and one of the most controversial academics in the US, about the state of democracy for African-Americans today, the Obama administration, and his dispute with Lawrence Summers.

He also shares his views on US foreign policy, the war in Afghanistan, global recession, and the growing pressure on Barack Obama.

Article published in Amauta with permission from the author

(Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Magnera, Fotomoe)

by Norman Solomon

Not long ago, the most prominent supporters of the public option were touting it as essential for healthcare reform. Now, suddenly, it’s incidental.

In fact, many who were lauding a public option as the key to a better healthcare future are now condemning just about anyone who insists that the absence of a public option makes the current bill unworthy of support.

Consider this statement: “If I were a senator, I would not vote for the current healthcare bill. Any measure that expands private insurers’ monopoly over healthcare and transfers millions of taxpayer dollars to private corporations is not real healthcare reform.”

That statement is as true today as it was when Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, made it three months ago in a Washington Post op-ed. But now, a concerted political blitz is depicting anyone who takes such a position as a menace to “real healthcare reform.” Read the full story

Source: Salon

BBC screenshot

by Glenn Greenwald
March 17, 2010

French documentarians conducted an experiment where they created a faux game show — with all the typical studio trappings — and then instructed participants (who believed it was a real TV program) to administer electric shock to unseen contestants each time they answered questions incorrectly, with increasing potency for each wrong answer.  Even as the unseen contestants (who were actors) screamed in agony and pleaded for mercy — and even once they went silent and were presumably dead — 81% of the participants continued to obey the instructions of the authority-figure/host and kept administering higher and higher levels of electric shock.  The experiment was a replica of the one conducted in 1961 by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram, where 65% of participants obeyed instructions from a designated authority figure to administer electric shock to unseen individuals, and never stopped obeying even as they heard excruciating screams and then silence.  This new French experiment was designed to measure the added power of television to place people into submission to authority and induce them to administer torture. Read the full story

Artículo publicado en Amauta por medio de América Latina en Movimiento

(Foto: Nicola Sacco/Oxfam International)

La crisis financiera y económica de 2008 está modificando el mapamundi. Al sacudón inicial sucede un lento pero persistente reacomodo del tablero global, que muestra un serio deterioro del poder de la otrora única superpotencia. Turquía, Alemania, Japón y Brasil toman distancias, y comienzan a tejer nuevas alianzas.

por Raúl Zibechi

Las ondas concéntricas que formó la crisis con epicentro en Estados Unidos, van alcanzando, con diferente intensidad, a cada región. En algunos casos se trata apenas de pequeñas olas -como se jactara un año atrás el presidente de Brasil- pero en otros esas ondas tienen la potencia de fuertes marejadas, capaces de destruir viejas alianzas y abrir el juego a nuevos actores. La década que recién comienza promete grandes cambios, algunos de los cuales ya se avizoran. Read the full story

Article published in Amauta with permission from TomDispatch and the author

Source: TomDispatch

F-35 fighter jet

by Tom Engelhardt

When was the last time you saw the headline, “Cost of [Pentagon-weapons-system-of-your-choice] halved”?  Probably never.  Still, the thought came to mind when this recent Associated Press headline caught my eye: “Pentagon: F-35 fighter jet cost doubles.”

Here’s the story behind it:  Since 2001, when an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was expected to cost an already hefty $50 million, the plane’s cost has soared into the stratosphere (despite the fact that the aircraft itself has barely left the ground).  The estimated cost today is $113 million per plane.  Yes, that’s per plane.  This supposed future workhorse of the U.S. military is now priced like the planet’s most precious gem.  It’s also 2 ½ years behind schedule.  Keep in mind that the Marines, the Air Force, and the Navy are planning to buy a combined 2,450 of them for what’s now an eye-popping $323 billion.  And if you think the costs are likely to stay in the $113 million range, given the history of Pentagon cost overruns, then I have a nice little national security bridge to Brooklyn I think the U.S. public might love. Read the full story

Fuente: IPS

por Thalif Deen

NACIONES UNIDAS, 16 mar (IPS) – La crisis financiera mundial no impidió que la venta de armas creciera 22 por ciento en el último quinquenio. Tanto países ricos como pobres reforzaron sus arsenales con aviones caza, helicópteros de combate, submarinos, vehículos blindados y sistemas de defensa aérea.

Los cinco mayores compradores de armas en el período de 2005 a 2009 fueron China, India, Corea del Sur, Emiratos Árabes Unidos y Grecia, según los últimos datos divulgados por el Instituto Internacional de Estocolmo de Investigación para la Paz (Sipri, por sus siglas en inglés).

La lista continúa con Turquía, Singapur, Pakistán, Malasia, Israel, Argelia, Marruecos, Libia, Egipto, Irán, Sudáfrica, Arabia Saudita, Brasil, Sudán, Chile y Venezuela. Read the full story

Article published in Amauta with permission from the author

We the people have given away our sovereign money-creating power to private, for-profit lending institutions, which have used it to siphon wealth from the productive economy. Some states are moving to take that power back.

by Ellen Brown

“Hundreds of job-creating projects are still on hold because Michigan businesses and entrepreneurs cannot get bank financing. We can break the credit crunch and beat Wall Street at their own game by keeping our money right here in Michigan and investing it to retool our economy and create jobs.”

–Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero in the Detroit News, May 9, 2010

Struggling with 14% unemployment, Michigan has been particularly hard hit by the nation’s economic downturn. Virg Bernero, mayor of the state’s capitol and a leading Democratic candidate for governor, proposes that the state relieve its economic ills by opening a state-owned bank. He says the bank could protect consumers by making low-interest loans to those most in need, including students and small businesses; and could help community banks by buying mortgages off their books and working with them to fund development projects. Read the full story

Fuente: Página/12

(Imagen: AFP)

por Juan Gelman
18 de marzo, 2010

Está dicho en un valsecito criollo de Gardel y Le Pera: “Hoy una promesa, mañana una traición,/amores de estudiante flores de un día son”. Hace mucho que el presidente Obama dejó los estudios, pero no abandona, al parecer, ese sentimiento inefable que embarga a cualquier joven. En su primer día de gobierno envió un memorándum a los directores de los departamentos y agencias ejecutivos en el que señalaba: “Mi gobierno se propone crear un nivel de apertura sin precedentes. Trabajaremos juntos para garantizar la confianza pública y establecer un sistema de transparencia, participación pública y cooperación. La apertura fortalecerá nuestra democracia y promoverá la eficiencia y la eficacia de la gobernabilidad” (www.whitehouse.gov, 21-1-09). Pero los organismos convocados, cuando se les solicita información, esgrimen la palabra “secreto” con más frecuencia que el gobierno Bush. Read the full story

Fuente: Gush Shalom
Traducción: Carlos Sanchis y revisado por Caty R., Rebelión

(Caricatura: Peter Schrank)

por Uri Avnery
13 de marzo, 2010

Algunas semanas las noticias están dominadas por una sola palabra. La palabra de esta semana es «cronometraje».

Todo es una cuestión de cronometraje. El gobierno de Israel ha insultado al vicepresidente de Estados Unidos, Joe Biden, uno de los mayores «amigos» de Israel (significado: alguien completamente sumiso al AIPAC) y ha escupido a la cara del presidente Barack Obama. ¿Y qué? Todo es una cuestión de cronometraje.

Si el gobierno hubiera anunciado la construcción de 1.600 nuevas viviendas en Jerusalén Oriental un día antes, habría sido perfecto. Si lo hubiera anunciado tres días después habría sido maravilloso. Pero hacerlo exactamente cuando Joe Biden estaba a punto de cenar con Bibi y Sarah’le, fue realmente un mal momento. Read the full story