December 2009
17 posts
THE ROVING EYE : It's bomb, bomb, bomb Iran time →
Pepe Escobar is easily one of my favourite journalists.
I’m clearing through a load of his older articles that have been sitting unread in Instapaper for months, and each one is pleasure to read.
United States President Barack Obama - now running three wars (Iraq and the AfPak combo) - demanded that Iran (which is not at war with anybody) demonstrate “its peaceful intentions or be held...
Hollywood comes to blows with Upton Sinclair →
I was disappointed that Daniel Day- Lewis won an Oscar for There Will Be Blood, not because he’s not a great actor (he is), but because the movie was such a betrayal of the book on which it was based. Movies don’t have to follow books. Many don’t. But in this case, what we missed were the things that made Upton Sinclair’s Oil! a politically courageous book for its time....
NED and the Empire's New Clothes →
Since the first Reagan administration, the U.S. taxpayer has been enlisted in the export of “American-style democracy” through a hybrid organization called the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The component parts of the NED-the two major political parties, big business, and big labor-represent the acceptable boundaries of American politics. The NED, in effect, represents the American...
What I learned about the Bolivian elections →
What I love about Latin America is that the difference between the facts and the coverage in the mainstream media is just hilarious.
Blogs and alternative media are always ready to point this out. Here’s a couple of points from Abiding in Bolivia’s round-up of reports on the Bolivian elections:
Evo Morales threatens journalists with ethics and threatens political opposition with...
Normalising the Crime of the Century →
John Pilger:
The invasion is the crime of the 21st century. During 17 years of assault on a defenseless civilian population, veiled with weasel monikers like “sanctions” and “no-fly zones” and “building democracy,” more people have died in Iraq than during the peak years of the slave trade.
…
The purpose of the Chilcot inquiry is to normalize an epic...
The internal combustion engine has got to go
As a species, we must realise that burning stuff in a metal box and dumping the fumes into the air is not an acceptable way of powering anything.
“We must collectively deal with twin threats on an unprecedented scale: global...”
– Dr Tilman Ruff, chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
“There is no way back, this is our time, the awakening of the indigenous people....”
– Fidel Surco
The mainstream press has traditionally spoken to and for the homogenous middle. United by their belief in the current political, social, and cultural ideas of their day, the audiences of the conventional media receive a rather narrow spectrum of thought that reinforces these beliefs. Although the conventional media certainly report on controversy within the narrow spectrum — Democratic policies...
Venezuela is no tyranny | venezuelanalysis.com →
It is noteworthy that the notable elements of the Venezuelan opposition have broadly sympathised with the illegal de facto government of Micheletti in Honduras. Maybe in Honduras we have a serious glimpse of what “democracy” would have been like in Venezuela had its violent attempts to overthrow Chávez been successful?
Good piece by Francisco Dominguez that rebuts some of the most common...
Ecuador, Bolivia Show that Even Small Developing... →
The standard reporting and even quasi-academic analysis of Bolivia and Ecuador are that they are victims of populist, socialist, “anti-American” governments - aligned with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Cuba, of course - and on the road to ruin. To be sure, both countries have many challenges ahead, the most important of which will be to implement economic strategies that can diversify and develop...
Roots and branches of the bases | ZNet →
The bases are to take the oil, the gold, industry and agriculture. To contain the mass civil resistance of the people. To repress the mobilizations of the “savages who dwell in the regions that are part of the territories” of any of the contracts of the transnationals, “by bodies of armed police or public forces when necessary.”
A great article by Hector Mondragon on the latest wave of US...
1 tag
WatchHere’s the video of John Pilger discussing “why journalism matters” with Professor Richard Keeble of the Lincoln School of Journalism. It took place on Monday, October 12th 2009.
It’s taken forever to get sorted, and the video quality & the camera work isn’t the best, but it’s the whole talk, including the Q&A at the end.
If you’d like to read...
Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (Spotify link) →
Do yourself a musical favour.
Use good headphones/earphones/speakers.