contributions

by Naomi Klein
When Manuel Rozental got home one night last month, friends told him two strange men had been asking questions about him. In this close-knit indigenous community in southwestern Colombia ringed by soldiers, right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerrillas, strangers asking questions about you is never a good thing.
The Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, which leads a political movement that is autonomous from all those armed forces, held an emergency (…)

by United for Peace and Justice
The week before the Thanksgiving break events in Congress were dazzling! For the first time since the war in Iraq began, major divisions in Congress have come to the surface - and that means significant new opportunities for our work. Below is a quick re-cap of what happened. While none of the initiatives totally articulates our position, they are all important developments. Now, more than ever before, there are openings in the Congressional work. We are (…)

by Pierre Tristam
Since Sept. 11, we’ve been living under a "clash of civilizations" doctrine that can be summed up this way: Over there, dogma, orthodoxy, Islam; over here, democracy, pluralism, Constitution. Over there, dark continents, dark ages, terrorism; over here, enlightened West, enlightenment, freedom.
The doctrine has been used to justify two wars (so far) and a wholesale shift in the way the United States deploys its aims abroad and projects them at home. The doctrine draws (…)

by Michael Hirsch
The Wall Street Journal, which maddeningly restricts nearly all its on-line content to print-edition subscribers, is two-faced. It’s pro-corporate editorial/opinion section carries the same primal sensibility that Jack London ascribed to leaders of America’s business classes when he called them "cavemen in evening dress." The predictable, hard-right opinion pages are a Fox News with semi-colons, combining slavering respect for all-things Bushie with a loathing for unions (…)

By Michael Massing
The past few months have witnessed a striking change in the fortunes of two well-known journalists: Anderson Cooper and Judith Miller. CNN’s Cooper, the one-time host of the entertainment show The Mole, who was known mostly for his pin-up good looks, hip outfits, and showy sentimentality, suddenly emerged during Hurricane Katrina as a tribune for the dispossessed and a scourge of do-nothing officials. He sought out poor blacks who were stranded in New Orleans, expressed (…)

9/11: Possible Motives Of The Bush Administration by Dr. David Ray Griffin December 2, 2005 911Truth.org
The 9/11 Commission understood that its mandate, as we have seen, was to provide "the fullest possible account" of the "facts and circumstances" surrounding 9/11. Included in those facts and circumstances are ones that, according to some critics of the official account of 9/11, provide evidence that the Bush administration intentionally allowed the attacks of 9/11. Some critics have (…)

By Jane Ciabattari
African women are taking over artistic territory once controlled by men and are now telling the continent’s new stories in books and movies. The final article in our eight-part series on emerging female leaders in Africa.
PRINCETON, N.J. (WOMENSENEWS)—Who will tell the stories of contemporary Africa?
A new generation has emerged since Nigeria’s Chinua Achebe in 1958 wrote the first "African" novel, "Things Fall Apart," detailing the destruction of the Igbo culture by (…)

– Study shows one in five girls has wounded herself ’Must-have’ culture brings feelings of inadequacy
by Mark Honigsbaum
Far more British teenagers than previously thought are inflicting injuries on themselves because of feelings of failure and social inadequacy, according to research by mental health experts.
A survey published today by The Priory, which specialises in treating mental health problems and addictions, finds that as many as one in five girls between the ages of 15-17 has (…)

by Uri Avnery
A POLITICAL earthquake is itself a rare event. When two major political earthquakes follow each other in quick succession, this is almost unheard of.
One such earthquake was the election of Amir Peretz as leader of the Labor Party. The other is Sharon’s leaving the Likud and forming a new party.
Suddenly, the political landscape has changed beyond recognition. Previously, there were two mountains. Now there are three - and none of them stands where either of the two was (…)

by Julian Bond
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - What is it with some people?
Why do they persist in believing racial minorities are inveterate cheaters at the polls? What kind of racist criminal profiling takes place in their minds?
Now comes Georgia State Rep. Sue Burmesiter (R-Augusta) telling the United States Department of Justice that if Black people in her district "are not paid to vote, they don’t go to the polls."
She predicted that if a restrictive law she proposed was adopted, fewer (…)