February 2010
25 posts
Hopes And Prospects →
The British understood that they were to be lieutenants. Foreign Office officials ruefully observed that guided by “the economic imperialism of American business interests, [Washington is] attempting to elbow us out, under the cloak of a benevolent and avuncular internationalism.” The Minister of State at the Foreign Office commented to his cabinet colleagues that Americans believe “that the...
Howard Zinn →
Whenever there was a struggle for peace and justice, Howard was there, on the front lines, unflagging in his enthusiasm, and inspiring in his integrity, engagement, eloquence and insight, light touch of humor in the face of adversity, dedication to non-violence, and sheer decency. It is hard even to imagine how many young people’s lives were touched, and how deeply, by his achievements, both in...
Honduras: The Coup That Never Happened →
The central issue at stake in Honduras today – and the spark for the oligarchy’s risky decision to carry out the coup in June – is the increasingly adamant insistence on the part of Honduran social movements for a constituyente, the striking of an assembly to re-write the constitution. It was, indeed, this very question that was to be put to a non-binding referendum on the morning of the coup...
“We teach people why they are poor. For that, we are a threat.”
– Miguel Alonzo Macias, director of Red Comal (via Instapaper)
Why the Oscars are a con | John Pilger →
This year’s Oscar nominations are a parade of propaganda, stereotypes and downright dishonesty. The dominant theme is as old as Hollywood: America’s divine right to invade other societies, steal their history and occupy our memory. When will directors and writers behave like artists and not pimps for a world-view devoted to control and destruction?
This article makes me wish Pilger wrote...
Media Battles in Latin America Not About “Free... →
But as is generally the case when private media monopolies are challenged by progressive governments, the view presented by these powerful corporations and their allies in the United States is one-sided and over-simplified. Ecuador, with a democratic left government, is facing the same challenge faced by all of the left-of-center governments in the region: the private media is dominated by...
Being foreign: The others | The Economist →
Perhaps foreigners are, by their nature, hard to satisfy. A foreigner is, after all, someone who didn’t like his own country enough to stay there. Even so, the complaining foreigner poses something of a logical contradiction. He complains about the country in which he finds himself, yet he is there by choice. Why doesn’t he go home?
(via Instapaper)
Rich Media, Poor Democracy | C-SPAN →
Robert McChesney introduced by David Barsamian. What’s not to like?
Mr. McChesney talked about his book, Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times (The History of Communication), published by University of Illinois Press. The book explores the author’s thesis that media corporations have become more wealthy, more complex and more concentrated. After his comments he...
What You're Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should... →
True enough. But that’s not the whole story. What’s missing is any explanation of why there are so many Haitians living in and around Port-au-Prince and why so many of them are forced to survive on so little. Indeed, even when an explanation is ventured, it is often outrageously false such as a former U.S. diplomat’s testimony on CNN that Port-au-Prince’s overpopulation was due to the fact...
Our role in Haiti's plight | Peter Hallward →
Along with sending emergency relief, we should ask what we can do to facilitate the self-empowerment of Haiti’s people and public institutions. If we are serious about helping we need to stop trying to control Haiti’s government, to pacify its citizens, and to exploit its economy. And then we need to start paying for at least some of the damage we’ve already done.
(via Instapaper)
“We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives...”
– Howard Zinn (via azspot)
Neoliberal roots of Haiti's food crisis |... →
From that time on, the only way to receive U.S. foreign assistance was to embrace a dichotomy that dictated the only way to help the poor was to create more business opportunities for the wealthy. It was an export of the “trickle-down” theory and what became known as “Reaganomics,” which over time became the major thrust of U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Caribbean and Latin America.
...
NLP | Venezuela and the BBC - Part 2 →
The BBC’s job is to hold a “nation” together, so the underlying presumption in its activity is that there is “a Britain” and Britain is good. Right from the outset, the objective of the BBC was to inculcate a national culture, to “improve” the minds and culture of “a people”, a natural duty of a national broadcaster. However, the concept of the nation in this instance has always been bound to a...
NLP | Venezuela and the BBC →
Perhaps most shockingly of all the BBC reported the military coup against an elected government with massive popular support as a “return to democracy” and even sub-headed a section of one article as “Restoring Democracy”! One of the themes of the BBC’s reporting, which our research uncovered, was the way in which Chavez seems to come from nowhere, destabilising Venezuela (poverty, inequality...
Chomsky | The Corporate Takeover of U.S. Democracy →
Now corporate managers can in effect buy elections directly, bypassing more complex indirect means. It is well-known that corporate contributions, sometimes packaged in complex ways, can tip the balance in elections, hence driving policy. The court has just handed much more power to the small sector of the population that dominates the economy.
Political economist Thomas Ferguson’s...
The Creed of Objectivity Killed the News →
Objectivity creates the formula of quoting Establishment specialists or experts within the narrow confines of the power elite who debate policy nuance like medieval theologians. As long as one viewpoint is balanced by another, usually no more than what Sigmund Freud would term “the narcissism of minor difference,” the job of a reporter is deemed complete. But this is more often a way to obscure...
A Decade of Propaganda? The BBC’s Reporting of... →
According to the research the BBC seems never to have accepted the legitimacy of the President, insinuating throughout the sample that Chavez lacks electoral support, at one point comparing him to Hitler (‘Venezuela’s Dictatorship’ 31/08/99).
This undermining of Chavez must be understood in the context of his electoral record: his legitimacy is questioned despite the fact that he has been...
“It was well understood, long before George Orwell, that memory must be...”
– Noam Chomsky (via fuckyeahradicalquotes)
“If you want to make changes in the world, you’re going to have to be there day...”
– Noam Chomsky (via fuckyeahradicalquotes)
“The only way you can beat organized money is with organized people.”
– Saul Alinsky
“Consider the coverage of labor, or poor people. Poor people in our news media...”
– Robert McChesney
