Catégorie : World People

Rand Clifford is a writer living in Spokane, Washington, with his wife Mary Ann, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Mink. Rand’s novels CASTLING, TIMING, VOICES OF VIRES, and PRIEST LAKE CATHEDRAL are published by StarChief Press. (Find this on Countercurrent.org).

He writes: Imagine mainstream media reliably telling Americans the truth about the most vital issues of our time. Indeed, that’s quite a stretch—but try forgetting for a moment the millions of Americans oblivious to rampant omission; citizens who, after so much manipulation and deceit, also still believe lies on the fresh list. Just envision a well-informed population that knows their way past omission, while knowing the difference between lies/propaganda, and the truth. Envision the New World Order dead in its tracks … (full text, July 9, 2008).

Beyond the Speed of Lies.

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Rand Clifford – USA

Only One Kind of Science, May 14, 2007.

Any hope of resuscitating our Constitutional Republic, and keeping our nation from descending into the tar pit of One World Fascist government, exists in an informed population throwing off apathy, turning OFF corporate media, paying attention to what is really happening, and making sacrifices only by which the psychopaths now in power may be exposed for their crimes and brought to justice. They don’t have our guns, yet, but with martial law just one more false flag terror contrivance away (all « legalities » are in place, along with the 800+ Rex 84 « camps » WE paid for), they think they have already won. Surely, the odds are in their favor, and they’re getting cocky—giving us our last, best window of hope—if enough Americans can still think for themselves. (full text, May 2008).

The Spark That Lit The War.

He writes also: Astonishing as it is, the daily load of lies dumped on Americans by mainstream corporate media (CorpoMedia), lurking a step beyond is the reality of most of the lies finding belief. Respect of being told the truth is not earned by swallowing whatever lies are in the load—that simply earns what we have: CorpoMedia as the propaganda arm of our corporate-fascist federal government (CorpoGov). Millions still seem to believe that some kind of law dictates media honesty. But to CorpoMedia, truth, facts … largely illusion, often an enemy. Media conglomeration has left us with only a few monster corporations controlling virtually all mainstream “news”—a stupid liars’ gumbo rich with moral supremacy, victimization, innocence and righteousness cranked with MSG and corn syrup and fat … (full text, April 17, 2008).

The Google book download TIMING, 448 pages, 2005.

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Nurjahan Begum was born on June 4, 1925, as Nurun Nahar. Her father, renowned journalist and editor of the monthly Shawgat, Mohammad Nasiruddin, lived in Kolkata, while she, « Nuri », lived with her mother, Fatema Begum, in Chalitatoli … she is named as adhunika heroe … She says: « When I came to Kolkata, my father, to the utter dismay of my mother, had my nose-pin cut off and my hair sheared into a ‘China bob’ cut! » … and: « I had a wonderful childhood, » she says. « We did everything, from singing and dancing to acting. » She even wrote, directed and acted in college plays. « But it was all within the walls of the school and college » … (full text).

The reality is these modest village enterprises give a whole new definition to small business. In fact, they’re the smallest of the small, all of them built up over a few years starting with a no-collateral microloan equivalent in takas, the Bangladeshi currency, to a lousy couple of hundred Australian dollars. Grameen-inspired, they’re many and varied, be it sewing the country’s traditionally colourful saris, selling them locally at affordable prices, or handmade mats from bamboo husks. No formal education or training, as such, is required. Point being, these women and 6 million others just like them throughout Bangladesh, have neither of these things. But, thanks to their microbusinesses, they told us, now their kids will … (full interview text).

Her photo made in 1946.

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Nurjahan Begum – India

English video, translated in french: interview with Nurjahan Begum about the Grameen bank, 4.07 min, linked with/lié avec: Madame Begum, de la Grameen Bank, invitée vedette des Dialogues en Humanité, juin 18, 2008.

Making Inroads for the Others.

If ever there was a profession suited for women it most certainly is journalism. Women are by nature sensitive, compassionate and lovers of honesty – all attributes needed to be a good journalist. Which is why there are more and more women in the print and electronic media today all over the world … It was especially difficult for Bangali Muslim women of the time for whom social stricture was compounded by religious sanction … But Nurjahan Begum, the editor of the weekly, was extremely lucky on that count. Her father, renowned journalist and editor of the monthly Shawgat, Mohammad Nasiruddin, was a progressive, forward-thinking man and wanted her daughter to be the same. He also did not believe in the social customs like observing purdah. « When I came to Kolkata, » reminisces Nurjahan Begum, « my father, to the utter dismay of my mother, had my nose-pin taken off and my hair sheared into a ‘China bob’ cut! » … (full long text).

microcredit.tv.

… A great cover story women working: Thanks to Star Weekend Magazine for its cover story « Leading Women to Change » published on March 11, 2005. I enjoyed reading the article and pay my tribute to the renowned journalist and social worker Nurjahan Begum. Nurjahan Begum did many things for women’s development which was not an easy task during that time. These days we do not find equally determined and courageous women working for the progress of women. In spite of religious conflict and social blindings, she has always aspired to do better for women. May we be blessed with more women like Nurjahan Begum, who acts for the betterment life of women not only politically but also socially. (Mamunur Rashid Tomal … Department of English, DU, on The Daily Star, March 25, 2005).

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Linked with Women’s Earth Alliance WEA;

Kaisha Atakhanova is the Founder and Director of EcoCenter in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, and the Coordinator of the national Anti-Nuclear Campaign in Kazakhstan. This campaign, spearheaded by Kaisha and her colleagues, mobilized largely women citizens to stop the government from weakening the legislation against commercial import and storage of radioactive waste in 2003. In recognition of her accomplishments, Kaisha received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2005, which she plans to use to establish a Socio-Ecological Investment Fund to support women’s initiatives and NGO activists in the region. (Women’s Earth Alliance).

She says: … « The greatest challenge was lack of finances. My university helped some by letting my colleagues and me continue to use equipment and a laboratory, so long as we worked for free and trained students. My husband also helped, as he was then in business. It was not a big help, but it helped us to survive. Another early challenge was the old communists in the government, who were very aggressive. They said, « Kaisha is selling the country’s secrets abroad for dollars, » and tried to keep me from sending my results to Europe and the U.S. One threatened to use the successor of the KGB to stop my work. They couldn’t do too much since I worked with famous scientists. When they threatened me, it was like they were threatening the scientists. Those who were against my research back then now sometimes come to my seminars and receive certificates from the center » … (full interview text).

Kaisha Atakhanova received $125,000 award.

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Kaisha Atakhanova – Kazakhstan

Guerrières pour l’Environnement, des Femmes qui protègent la Terre.

… Creating a Roadmap for Democracy: As a result of Atakhanova’s efforts, the nuclear waste legislation not only was stopped, but the visibility of nuclear contamination issues has reached new heights across the country. The budding grassroots civil society movement asserted its right and ability to challenge government’s anti-democratic interests in an entirely new way. In addition, under Atakhanova’s leadership, EcoCenter has helped develop an environmental movement through EcoForum, a network of more than 100 NGOs nationwide … (full text).

She is mentionned as political heroe.

The Republic of Kazakhstan bears the scars of its Soviet past. Intensive agriculture has drastically shrunk the inland Aral Sea, creating one of the world’s worst ecological disasters, while decades of nuclear testing have poisoned the landscape and its people. The country – which is dominated by vast stretches of steppe grassland, and underlain by rich oil and mineral deposits – currently harbors some 237 million tons of nuclear waste … (full text).

Crude Accountability.

She saysw also: … « I am from the city of Karaganda, which is near the southern perimeter of the testing area. During my childhood we always felt these small earthquakes, but we didn’t understand what they were. We were 400 km [about 250 miles] away from the explosions, and so we couldn’t see the nuclear mushroom. But we could always feel the earthquakes. The dishes on the shelves would clink, the light fittings would shake, everything shook. Our parents guessed that the earthquakes probably had something to do with the military, but didn’t know for sure. People who lived closer to the site also weren’t sure what was happening. The military would only tell them not to go out on the street and not to look at the sky. Now cancer is the main disease in our region. My father, my mother, and my sister all died of cancer, and only the day before yesterday I buried my brother, who also died from cancer. When people in my family die, they die of cancer » … (full interview text).

Look on this Google map where she is living.

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Bülent Ersoy (born 1952) is a Turkish celebrity. She is a popular singer of Ottoman classical music. Over the years, Ersoy has become a symbol for the increased tolerance to LGBT figures in Turkish media. Later Life: Already one of Turkey’s most popular male singers and actors, Bülent Ersoy gained international notoriety in 1981 for a sex change operation by Dr. Mındıkoğlu in her native country. Ersoy kept the name « Bülent » even though it is more common among males. After the operation, Bülent found herself in opposition to the homophobic and transphobic regime of Kenan Evren. In a crackdown on « social deviance, » Ersoy’s public performances were banned along with those of other transsexual and transgendered people. From Ersoy’s standpoint, the ban should not have even applied to her, as she was an actual woman and not simply a man dressed as one. To circumvent the ban, she petitioned the Turkish courts to legally recognize her as a woman. The petition was rejected in January of 1982. Days later, Ersoy attempted suicide. In 1983 she left the entertainment industry in protest of the Evren regime’s repressive policies. Later that same year, Evren left office and many of his policies were rescinded … // … Ersoy sparked major controversy in February 2008 when she publicly criticised Turkey’s incursion into Northern Iraq and said she « would not send her sons to war » if she were a mother. An Istanbul public prosecutor has subsequently filed charges against her for « turning Turks against compulsory military service », an article which also brought prominent Turkish intellectual Perihan Magden to trial in recent past. The Turkish Human Right Foundation (IHD) have stood up to Ersoy’s defence. The attention to the fact that she is an extraordinarily talented singer with an unequaled command of her voice, often distracts one from Ersoy’s transsexual status. In the show ‘Popstar Alaturka’, Bulent Ersoy has announced that she will be beginning a new album project very soon and the album is expected to be ready by the end of Summer 2008… Although she did not announce what would be genre of the album, it is expected that it will be cross breed between Turkish Classical Style and ‘Arabesk‘… Selami Sahin who is a famous songwriter in Turkey is also said to have composed two new songs to Bulent Ersoy. (full text).

Divabulentersoy.com’ a Hosgeldiniz!

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Bülent Ersoy – Turkey

Videos:
Bülent Ersoy Mini Konser – 2, 9.58 min;
BULENT ERSOY-YAKTI BENI, 3.58 min.

Célèbre pour sa voix et ses talents d’actrice, Bulent Ersoy, reine de la vie nocturne turque, défraye les chroniques il y a quelques jours en déclarant dans une émission de télévision, que si elle avait été en mesure d’avoir un enfant, elle ne l’aurait jamais laissé partir au front. Cette déclaration provoque un tollé et vaut à la chanteuse transexuelle une mise en examen pour « atteinte au prestige de l’armée » … (texte entier).

On ne touche pas au service militaire en Turquie.

… A popular transsexual Turkish singer went on trial Wednesday on charges of trying to turn the public against military service. Bulent Ersoy could face more than two years in prison for saying during a live television show that if she had children, she would not want them to join the army to fight Kurdish rebels … (full text).

Listen her on LAST fm.

… The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, is pressing Turkey to do away with laws that stifle free expression. Under EU pressure, Turkey amended a law in April that barred the denigration of Turkish identity and institutions. The law had been used to prosecute Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and other intellectuals. But human rights groups said the changes did not go far enough and pointed to other freedom-curbing laws, such as the one used against Ersoy … (full text).

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Martha “Pati” Ruiz Corzo is a recognized leader for building a bottom-up civil conservation movement in central Mexico. Located in the Sierra Gorda mountains, Pati and her husband began organizing concerned citizens for a regional rescue program based on environmental education, economic development, forestry management, and community development specifically directed to women who are the heads of household in the rural extreme poverty communities due to high rates of migration of working age men to the USA … (full text).

She is a social entrepreneur recognized by Ashoka … (full text).

In l984 she and her husband Roberto, an accountant, decided to abandon their professions and comfortable middle class, urban lifestyle in Querétaro City. They moved to Roberto’s home region, in the mountains of Sierra Gorda, to live a self-sufficient life with their two sons Roberto and Mario. « I was plagued with health problems, as was [Mario], one of my two sons, » Ruiz explains. « Through research I came to understand that the way we were living, the toxicity of Querétaro City, was literally making us sick » … (full text).

Martha Ruiz Corto has long used music and songs to educate children about the environment (scroll down).

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Martha Isabel “Pati” Ruiz Corzo – Mexico-Jalpan

Video: For a sustainable economy; tourism as a tool to empower local communities and conservation in the Sierra Gorda, Mexico, 3.07 min.

Where she lives: Martha Isabel “Pati” Ruiz Corzo, Address: Jalpan MexicoCategory: Activists, Used in the following map: WGGAN Global Map – Martha “Pati” Ruiz Corzo is a recognized leader for building a bottom-up civil conservation movement in central Mexico. Located in the Sierra Gorda mountains, Pati and her husband began organizing concerned citizens for a regional rescue program based on environmental education, economic development, forestry management, and community development specifically directed to women who are the heads of household in the rural extreme poverty communities due to high rates of migration of working age men to the USA. (Community Walk).

Find her living place on this google-map.

… The Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, which she and her husband founded, addresses the survival needs of the 100,000 men, women and children living in this biosphere by promoting alternative economic approaches while preserving the area’s endangered ecosystem. As a result of its visible success, in 1997, the Mexican government designated the area as the first federally protected reserve in Mexico.
(full text).

Document ID: C25112 – Education and communication for conservation: co-management of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Mexico.

Pati Ruiz and a citizen effort spearheaded by the Sierra Gorda Ecology Group (Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda) have, through a long process of negotiation, created the one-million acre (383,567-hectare) Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve to protect Mexico’s most eco-diverse region. Thanks to their leadership, this unique environmental treasure is protected, and damaged areas are beginning to recover … (full text).

Google download-book: Communicating protected areas, 311 pages, 2004; also on IUCN;

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Linked with Antiwar.com, and with Consortium News.com.

Gareth Porter (born June 18, 1942 in Independence, Kansas) is an American historian, investigative journalist and policy analyst on U.S. foreign and military policy. A strong opponent of U.S. wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, he has also written on the potential for diplomatic compromise to end or avoid wars in Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Korea, Iraq and Iran. He is the author of a history of the origins of the Vietnam War, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam … (full text).

Among his books are Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (University of California Press), Vietnam: A History in Documents, Vietnam: The Politics of Bureaucratic Socialism (Cornell University Press), and A Peace Denied. Dr. Porter’s many articles on international affairs, including the mass killings and mass starvation of Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge, have appeared in such publications as The Guardian, The Nation, and Foreign Affairs. (full text).

He says: … « that US House Res. 362 suggests the use of force with new bill … « , (video on the real news, 5 min, July 2, 2008).

Pentagon blocked Cheney’s attack on Iran, June 10, 2008.

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Gareth Porter – USA

POLITICS: Official Says Iran Accepts P5+1 Talks Proposal, July 2, 2008.

Clawson and Eisenstadt conclude that a military strike against Iran by the United States could be successful, but they acknowledge that such a strike « might cause Iran’s leadership to conclude that the country needed nuclear weapons to deter and defend against the United States » … (full text, July 2, 2008).

He says also: … « that aggressive policy towards Iran from both the US and Israel is partially responsible for the rising price of oil ».

… This is, I think, very important for the simple reason that it does provide a kind of smoking gun evidence, if you will, that this whole unfolding threat to Iran has not been simply a psyops, simply an intimidation operation. We know now for a fact that Dick Cheney did, in fact, propose within the Administration that they attack Revolutionary Guard bases in Iran that were supposedly connected with supplying or training the Iraqi Shiite militiamen coming back to Iraq to fight U.S. occupation forces. And this would be done if and when they could get some kind of concrete evidence that would basically convict the Iranians of some direct involvement in the fight in Iraq … (full interview text, June 27, 2008).

US pushes Iraqi Shi’ites closer to Iran, June 26, 2008.

… The assumption that the United States should exploit its military dominance to exert pressure on adversaries has long dominated the thinking of the US national security and political elite. But this central tenet of conventional security doctrine was sharply rejected last week by a senior practitioner of crisis diplomacy at the debut of a major new centrist foreign policy think-tank. At the first conference of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), ambassador James Dobbins, who was former president Bill Clinton special envoy for Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo and the George W Bush administration’s first special envoy to Afghanistan, sharply rejected the well-established concept of coercive diplomacy … (full text).

Cheney, Lieberman and Iran War Conspiracy, August 16, 2007.

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Eric Alterman is a Distinguished Professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and Professor of Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He is also “The Liberal Media” columnist for The Nation and a fellow of the Nation Institute, a senior fellow and “Altercation” weblogger for Media Matters for America, (formerly at MSNBC.com) in Washington, DC, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, where he writes and edits the « Think Again » column, a senior fellow (since 1985) at the World Policy Institute at The New School in New York, and a history consultant to HBO Films. Alterman is the author of seven books, including the national bestsellers, What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News (2003, 2004), and The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America (with Mark Green, 2004). The others include: When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and its Consequences, (2004, 2005). His Sound & Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy (1992, 2000), won the 1992 George Orwell Award and his It Ain’t No Sin to be Glad You’re Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen (1999, 2001), won the 1999 Stephen Crane Literary Award, and Who Speaks for America? Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy, (1998). His newest book is Why We’re Liberals: A Political Handbook to Post-Bush America, (2008). (on FORA.tv).

Termed « the most honest and incisive media critic writing today” in the National Catholic Reporter, and author of “the smartest and funniest political journal out there,” in The San Francisco Chronicle, Alterman is frequent lecturer and contributor to numerous publications in the US, Europe, and Latin America … (full text).

His blog at the Huffington Post.

His personal website on FORA.tv.

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Eric Alterman – USA

Video, authors at Google: Eric Alterman, 57 min, April 21, 2008.

One of the many (many) salutary aspects of Barack Obama’s impending presidential nomination is the sea change his victory marks in the battle for the mind-set of the American foreign policy establishment. Not only was Obama unambiguously opposed to the American invasion of Iraq back when it mattered but – in marked contrast to the Clinton campaign – so were most of his advisers and supporters. Indeed, without this essential distinction from his opponent, coupled with her unwillingness to repudiate or apologize for her vote for George W. Bush’s war, the Obama campaign would likely never have found the base of support it needed to mount a serious nomination fight … (full text, June 29, 2008).

Is Obama a Conservative or a Progressive Realist, June 30, 2008.

He writes: … Taking its place, of course, is the Internet, which is about to pass newspapers as a source of political news for American readers. For young people, and for the most politically engaged, it has already done so. As early as May, 2004, newspapers had become the least preferred source for news among younger people. According to “Abandoning the News,” published by the Carnegie Corporation, thirty-nine per cent of respondents under the age of thirty-five told researchers that they expected to use the Internet in the future for news purposes; just eight per cent said that they would rely on a newspaper … (full text, March 31, 2008).

Out of Print, the death and life of the American newspaper, March 31, 2008.l

Blowhards and windbagsUS elections 2008: The media’s myopic obsession with campaign narratives over events of real significance does a disservice to the public … (full text, January 11, 2008).

The Ideological Crossroads: Will Americans Choose Liberalism, Conservatism, or Something Different in 2008, June 16, 2008.

As Eric Alterman pointed out in a recent New Yorker article, “In the Internet Age,… no one has figured out how to rescue the newspaper in the United States or abroad.” Print circulation is at its lowest level since records have been kept and online revenue from advertising and subscriptions are nowhere close to making up for those declines. It is well known that journals and scholarly presses are also struggling to adapt their business models … (full text, June 26, 2008).

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Linked with Stockholm Challenge, and with the African Conservation Foundation ACF.

Sebastian Chuwa is a man with a vision for his country, his people, and the future generations who will inherit their legacy. For 30 years he has been actively studying environmental problems in his east African homeland of Tanzania and the solutions he has found offer results that benefit not only the land, but all the populations that depend on it for life and sustenance. His methods are based on the two primary objectives of community activism – organizing people to address their problems at a local level, and youth education – influencing the teaching of conservation in schools, beginning at the primary level … (full text).

Who is Sebastian Chuwa?

Sebastian’s interests not only lie with his botanical studies, Seba has a wide and in depth knowledge of his countries natural history and ethnic culture accompanied with a charming personality … (full text).

Video: Sebastian Chuwa Wins Top Arbor Day Award, 9.47 min, added June 8, 2007.

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Sebastian Chuwa – Tanzania

The blog: Africa Unchained, on Sebastian Chuwa, the tree planter.

When Sebastian Chuwa left his childhood home on the southern slope of Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro 30 years ago to work as a conservator at the Ngorongoro Crater, he couldn’t have predicted that he would one day be back on the legendary mountain, helping both Kilimanjaro and its people. And yet, since 1991, that’s exactly what he has been doing. The million-plus residents of the agricultural area surrounding Africa’s tallest peak have for centuries relied on the mountain’s generous rainy seasons and glaciers, but severe climate change has led to decreased rainfall and a receding glacial cap … (full text).

Mpingo trees back on slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Chuwa has achieved his success in replanting largely by using Tanzania’s national tree, the African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon) as a flagship species in the fight against deforestation. Usually referred to by its Swahili name, mpingo, this remarkable tree once dotted the entire African dry savannah. Today it is estimated that less than three million mpingo trees remain, with most stands confined to Tanzania and Mozambique … (full text).

His picture.

… Sebastian’s interest in botany led him to discover a completely new plant species in the Ngorongoro Highlands, and this has been named after him. He has also been nominated for the prestigious Rolex Award for his work in propagating indigenous tree species on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. In February 2002 the Olympic Committee honoured his conservation efforts by presenting him with the Spirit of the Land Award in person during a visit to Salt Lake City, USA … (full text).

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Linked with truthdig.com.

Christopher L. Hedges (born 18 September 1956 in St. Johnsbury, Vermont) is a journalist and author, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and society. Hedges is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City and a Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than fifty countries, and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, where he spent fifteen years. Hedges was part of The New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism. He received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism … and: He … describes war as « the most potent narcotic invented by humankind » … and: he says (about Iraq): « We are embarking on an occupation that, if history is any guide, will be as damaging to our souls as it will be to our prestige and power and security » … (full text).

Videos with Chis Hedges:

• Sunshara, Judson – WCW, Chris Hedges, 9/25/07, 52.51 min;
• American Fascists, Chris Hedges on The Hour (CBC), 9.44 min;
• Questions for Chris, L.A.Times festival of books, 3 min, June 1, 2008.

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Chris Hedges – USA

Welcome Home, Soldier: Now Shut Up, June 28th, 2008.

Six months ago, veteran war reporter Chris Hedges and I embarked on an intensive project to answer these questions. We wanted to document and reveal the ugly, under-acknowledged underbelly of the occupation. To do this, we interviewed more than 50 Iraq war combat veterans on the record about their experiences with Iraqi civilians. Many of them described witnessing, and even participating in, atrocities against unarmed Iraqis. Chris and I discovered that war crimes against Iraqi non-combatants have been far more widespread than is commonly known … (full long text, June 12, 2008).

Obama Falls into Bush’s Iran Trap, June 9, 2008.

He writes: … All governments lie, as I.F. Stone pointed out, and it is the job of the journalist to do the hard, tedious reporting to shine a light on these lies. It is the job of courtiers, those on television playing the role of journalists, to feed off the scraps tossed to them by the powerful and never question the system. In the slang of the profession, these television courtiers are “throats.” These courtiers, including the late Tim Russert, never gave a voice to credible critics in the buildup to the war against Iraq. They were too busy playing their roles as red-blooded American patriots. They never fought back in their public forums against the steady erosion of our civil liberties and the trashing of our Constitution. These courtiers blindly accept the administration’s current propaganda to justify an attack on Iran. They parrot this propaganda. They dare not defy the corporate state. The corporations that employ them make them famous and rich. It is their Faustian pact. No class of courtiers, from the eunuchs behind Manchus in the 19th century to the Baghdad caliphs of the Abbasid caliphate, has ever transformed itself into a responsible elite. Courtiers are hedonists of power … (full text, June 23, 2008).

The real consequences when America is at war, June 5, 2008.

Continuer la lecture de « Chris Hedges – USA »

Linked with Opium of the masses – part 2.

Eric Walberg is a journalist and writes for Al-Ahram Weekly. He tells on his own website: If you want to see me in action, you can watch a panel discussion about the Annapolis meeting between Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli PM Ehud Olmert: TV Debate, Middle East: Part 1, 5.25 min; part 2, 7.17 min. … (see also all his other videos on Youtube).

He writes: … While Georgians see themselves as part of Europe, “the whole history of Georgia is of Georgian kings writing to Western kings for help, or for understanding. And sometimes not even getting a response,” said its thoroughly Westernised president, Mikheil Saakashvili, in a recent interview. “Not just being an isolated, faraway country, but part of something bigger”. With a population of 4.7 million, this beautiful land, noted for its dozen or so hot-blooded independent-minded peoples, is surrounded by at best indifferent neighbours Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and of course Russia. Its fiery 40-year-old president does not disappoint, with his penchant for thumbing his nose at Russia and lavishly admiring US President George W Bush … (full text, May 7th, 2008).

His personal Website.

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Eric Walberg – Canada

Heart of darkness: Afghan Resistance against Foreign Occupation, June 4, 2008.

… For sceptics about the possibility of some form of LHOP/MHOP, just consider the following: if indeed 6,000 elite business leaders control the world’s fate, surely such an immensely wealthy and powerful coterie could solve the food crisis in a flash. The massive expenditures on arms and the wanton destruction they cause every second, could, if stopped, provide the will and resources to restructure the world to end starvation, let alone poverty, leaving lots left over for the elite to wallow in. There is no organised force of any consequence opposing this world elite. What’s stopping it? (full long text about food crisis).
[Explanation: « Made it Happen On Purpose » (MHOP) … and: « Let it Happen On Purpose » (LHOP) …]

Silent tsunami, May 17th, 2008.

Twenty years ago this week the Soviet Union began its withdrawal from Afghanistan, eight and a half years after it was invited by the desperate People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which had degenerated into intra-party squabbling and was beset by Islamic rebels massively financed by the United States. The straw that broke the Soviets’ back was when the US began providing Stinger missiles to Osama bin Laden and his friends … (full text).

He asks: « Is there more than meets the eye in the sudden flurry of talk about a world food crisis » … (full long text).

… Eric wrote to me, and I fully agree with his view: « My philosophy of journalism is that it should help shape the historical dialectic. Indeed, I hope that our arguments reach Russian political types and help support the Good in Russian politics – renewing the anti-imperial stance of Soviet Russia. It’s not at all a sure thing, with the strong Zionist lobby in Russia which continues to press and fight Putin. His is not yet primarily a principled position, but the principles have becoming stronger the past few years, as he wrestles with both the domestic and international dragons » … (full text, July 8, 2007).

His personal Library.

Continuer la lecture de « Eric Walberg – Canada »