Ezili Dantò: HLLN Letter to Edmond Mulet on behalf of the people demonstrating against the UN and the sham elections: Goodbye UN! Bon Voyage
Haiti’s Michel Martelly: The Election, Fraud, and the Future
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Georgianne Nienaber: Martelly talked about the electoral process, the meaning of democracy, the profound challenges facing Haiti, the controversial United Nations presence, and how his flamboyant past sometimes “haunts” him as he seeks the Presidency.
Haiti: Ground Truthing Cholera in Mirebalais
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Georgianne Nienaber: In very worrisome news Tuesday, the Haitian Health Ministry estimated that the cholera outbreak in Haiti is resulting in an average of 32 deaths every 24 hours since the epidemic began on October 20
Will Sanity Be Restored and Fear Be Kept Alive?
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David Swanson: If our government is, uniquely among wealthy countries, denying people healthcare, shouldn’t we talk about that? How “sane” can it be to always seek out the middle ground and believe whatever propositions lie halfway between advocacy for peace and justice and advocacy for glorified racist ignorance and corporatism?
Investing in Our Future
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Rep. Pete Stark: The idea of a financial speculation tax is getting consideration in many corners of the world, and not a moment too soon. When the UN Summit kicks off next week, an international financial speculation tax to fund the Millennium Development Goals should be at the top of the agenda.
Europe Grapples With Immigration Issue
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Andrea Nill: Rather than adopting the marginalizing policies that have aggravated Europe’s immigration woes, the U.S. would be better off leading the way in building a humane immigration system that’s in tune with today’s modern global economy.
Congo: More Intimidation as Blood Flows Faster than Oil Spilled into the Gulf of Mexico
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Georgianne Nienaber: The United States has strategic and mining interests in DRC and until the American people wake up and demand that our government do something to actually promote human rights in the Great Lakes Region, we can expect more of the same and press release after press release from Human Rights organizations will swarm foreign news desks like so many hyenas after the kill.
Bill Clinton Puts Influential Muscle Behind Agricultural Production in Haiti
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Georgianne Nienaber: Given the huge remaining humanitarian and economic crisis facing Haiti, it is puzzling that mainstream media in the United States short-changed coverage of former President Bill Clinton’s early August visit to Leogane. The symbolism is significant, considering that Leogane and the nearby village of Fayette are at the epicenter of the 7.0 quake.
On Reading the Sunday Paper
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Ron Wolff: Like many people, I get some of my news these days from blogs. But I still read a daily newspaper. Had I not, I might have missed several key reports.
President John McCain’s First 18 Months in Office
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Ted Vaill: President McCain has urged that the United Nations move its headquarters out of the U.S., and he has proposed that the U.S. leave the UN, which he calls “useless and corrupt”. He also has refused to meet with most foreign leaders in the White House, or to travel abroad, except for heavily guarded and secret trips to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Haiti: “All the Resources Are in the Wrong Place”
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Georgianne Nienaber: Relief efforts are limping along. There are thousands of foreign NGOs on the ground, but no overall organized effort to distribute aid. Compounding the problem is the fact that IDP camps are springing up overnight, and rural areas face a different set of problems than those faced in the city of Port-au-Prince.
Congolese Groups Demand Ouster of Abusive Army Commander
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Georgiianne Nienaber: The four-page formal complaint describes a compendium of horrific abuses – including massacres of civilians, summary executions, rape, mutilations of women, the dumping of bodies into latrines, and the recruitment of children – all committed by troops under Zimurinda’s command from 2007 to the present.
Congo Descending into Third Circle of Hell
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Georgianne Nienaber: What’s the rape and torture and burning alive of many thousands of women and children got to do with anything? What has JUSTICE got to do with anything, for God’s sake? Kabila wants “peace,” after all. A stray bullet might mar the finish on one of his bikes.
British Iraq Inquiry Ours Too
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Joseph Palermo: What the United Kingdom is dealing with is the hangover of the crimes of George W. Bush, crimes that have been conveniently swept under the rug on this side of the pond. Blair was Bush’s poodle and now he finds himself in the hot seat defending the actions of his former master. Seeing a former Prime Minister grilled is a wonderful thing. We’d never see a U.S. president in a similar predicament because, ironically, the president is now more of a monarch than any executive in Britain.
Could a Hillary Clinton Avatar Save Congo?
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Georgianne Nienaber: Surprisingly, to some, the bad guys list also includes scientists, conservationists, non-governmental organizations, doctors, lawyers, public relations professionals and just about anyone who stands to make a buck off of the suffering. As one local Congolese activist told me, “rape is big business in Congo these days.”
HRW Report on Congo: Fetuses Ripped From Wombs and Children Burned
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“Continued killing and rape by all sides in eastern Congo shows that the UN Security Council needs a new approach to protect civilians,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Security Council should send a group of experts to Congo to kick-start a serious civilian protection plan.”
Obama Speaks (Some) Truth From Power
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President Obama’s Nobel lecture might have showed us that the United States has reached a turning point: either the national security monster we’ve created is going to eat us alive by bankrupting the country or we’re going to have to shift course. We must begin to spin off the 700 or so military bases and installations around the world and focus on building a better life for our own people here at home.
Thinking Outside the Box: What Obama Could Have Said
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nstead of resorting to outdated thinking, what if Obama had drawn upon modern instruments of international and interpersonal relations? What if he had adopted a program of change in the way the United States relates to the world?
Congo: Time to Send in the Clowns?
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Congolese president Joseph Kabila paved the way for a troupe of Spanish Clowns, while thugs and militia rule the Kivus and truth-seeking journalist are threatened.
Grassroots News from Congo: Midwives Transform Trash Into Hope
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The midwives need the means to accomplish their noble goal of saving women through direct intervention, HIV/AIDS counseling, and nutrition. This is truly a grassroots effort with a humble beginning that literally transforms grass and roots into life-supporting energy.
After a Century of Overthrows, What’s Washington’s Role?
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It is heartening to see the international community condemn the leaders of the coup against President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras. The United Nations welcomed him as an exiled hero and the Organization of American States has threatened to expel Honduras if the plotters do not reinstate Zelaya within days. President Obama and the State Department [...]
Congo Violence: Déjà Vu All Over Again?
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A force of armed combatants massacred at least 152 Congolese civilians and wounded another 106 at Gatumba refugee camp. The victims were largely Banyamulenge, a group often categorized with Tutsi. At the intersection of two faltering peace processes, the attack underlined the continuing political conflicts. Most victims were women and children. Loosely called “Interahamwe,” some [...]
Torture? What About the Crime of Waging Aggressive War?
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Right after the climactic finish of World War Two, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, while picking through the aftermath of the world’s biggest bloodbath to date, famously called the waging of aggressive war “essentially an evil thing.” “[T]o initiate war of aggression,” the tribunal concluded, “is not only an international crime; it is the [...]
US to Boycott UN Racism Forum
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A global conference devoted to addressing racism is having trouble attracting an audience. The event, slated to take place in South Africa next week, boasts Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a plenary speaker — and so far, only a handful of leaders have RSVP-ed oui. Others have announced they will not attend: Israel, Canada, some [...]
U.S. Troops to Stay in Iraq Until 2012?
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by Joseph Palermo – In yet another cynical ploy from the good offices of the George W. Bush Administration, we are now told that after “tough” negotiations the Iraqi Parliament has approved a December 31, 2011 exit date for American combat troops.
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Picking Up Where FDR Left Off
A Global New Deal As the economic crisis ripples through the world, some liberal commentators say that the only solution to it is a Global New Deal. A Global New Deal is a fine idea if it globalizes the heart of the domestic New Deal: the promise of protecting everyone from the threat of abject [...]