August 2010
10 posts
“This guy’s like Gandhi, but better; he likes puppets. I love puppets. I...”
– Dwayne the bartender
“They’ve got their little categories, like ‘conscious’ and...”
– Mos Def
“Throughout the rich world, government has simply got too big and Mr Cameron’s...”
– The Economist, again. The cuts are necessary because “government has simply gotten too big”, they say. What a well-reasoned argument. I’m an anarchist at heart, so, generally, the smaller government the better. But the proposed cuts will wreck services and lives, strengthening private companies and...
“Teachers and doctors (many of whom supported Mr Clegg) seldom welcome change.”
– The Economist, brushing aside opposition to the cuts. Those doctors and teachers are just stuck in their ways, you see.
“[New Colombian president] Santos comes to power on a wave of public support,...”
– Al-Jazeera, who didn’t mention that turnout was about 45%.
Torturers Lurking Behind Uniforms →
IPS article on the widespread use of torture in Latin America, focusing mostly on Venezuela and Colombia. Utterly horrific.
(via Instapaper)
Mistah McChrystal — he dead →
Pepe Escobar spells out why the West are in Afghanistan:
So what’s “the mission” in AfPak? For the Obama team it’s rather to use Afghanistan as a pawn to expand the already abysmal fissure between the US and Iran, and to throw Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Wahhabi Saudi Arabia at each other’s throats.
But for the industrial-military complex it goes way beyond....
All's fair in cuts and war | Terry Jones →
Did you notice there was one department that didn’t figure in the budget cuts?
Yes, it was the Ministry of Defence. Which is pretty surprising, since the UK spends more on its military than Russia. In fact, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, last year it was the world’s third biggest spender on military matters. We can be proud that our country, in 2009, a...
The asylum seekers who survive on £10 a week →
“People think we should give asylum only to those who have a genuine need, not to those who have a so-called bogus claim,” she says. “But what people don’t understand is that the system is not fair. People don’t flee their country unless they have a very good reason for doing so, and it is difficult to prove what happened to you unless you have scars from torture up your arms. The fact that you...
July 2010
33 posts
Reinventing Demons →
At an April 7 press conference, President Barack Obama’s special advisor for the Summit of Americas Jeffrey Davidow announced the administration’s new plan to provide U.S.-funded “public safety” programs to other governments throughout the Western Hemisphere. U.S. public safety programs are necessary now, Davidow said, because “Latin America [and] the Caribbean are witnessing an increase in...