“When they ask me, ‘What do you want to be when you’re big,’ I respond, ‘I want to be like Lula.’” The statement was not voiced by a progressive president of the region but by the most conservative of all: Juan Manuel Santos.
The Passing of the Postwar Era
In every aspect of human existence, change is a constant. Yet change that actually matters occurs only rarely. Even then, except in retrospect, genuinely transformative change is difficult to identify. By attributing cosmic significance to every novelty and declaring every unexpected event a revolution, self-assigned interpreters of the contemporary scene — politicians and pundits above all — exacerbate the problem of distinguishing between the trivial and the non-trivial.
Stalemate: How Tel Aviv and Washington Will Uphold the Status Quo in Egypt and Syria
The U.S. does not wish to be seen as responsible for “losing” Egypt to Islamists in the coming elections.
Occupy and the Climate Negotiations
Anyone who claims that the fate of the climate talks is bound to the fate of the Occupy movement better expect a bit of skepticism in return. Now, if it were Occupy and the Climate Justice movement, that would be a different story! Both are complex social movements, and both are driving hard for economic justice. Their overlap is inevitable. But the negotiations themselves? What have they to do with economic justice? What have they to do with the great divide between “the 1%” and “the 99%”?
On Seeds
Thanks to the US’s 2009 Global Food Security Act, food aid policy for the first time mandates the use of genetic modification technologies. Nidhi Tandon looks at how this legislation helps biotechnology companies monopolise the seed industry at the expense of farmers, and explores some of the dubious links between these corporations, the Gates Foundation and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
Fukushima Women against Nuclear Power
From the very first, it has been quite difficult to politicize earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku, despite the poor planning, the slow and uneven response, the failure to provide aid in a timely way in the days and weeks afterward, and the often poorly organized evacuation centers—an issue which resulted in a number of unexplained deaths. Now, the temporary housing facilities virtually insure that communities, or what is left of them, will stay dysfunctional for a while, even as their residents are often the ones called upon to manage their own relief. While the silences of fatalism and the shock of such a terrible disaster have been noted, anyone who has been to the Northeast on a regular basis is aware that the frustration and anger erupt in different ways almost every day. The point, however, is that rarely does it emerge in the unified voices of protest, rarely in coherent demands for systematic help, almost never in anger expressed in a way that the rest of the nation can hear.
In contrast, the threat of nuclear radiation and critiques of the nuclear industry have been skillfully politicized in ways that have led to the largest set of demonstrations in Japan (with the exception of Okinawa) since the US-Japan security treaty protests of the 1960s and 1970s. These protests have been based in Tokyo, utilizing urban networks of activists who have provided the digital framework for organization that has brought together an older generation of anti-nuclear activists, young families, hip urbanites, office workers and union protesters. This is, perhaps ironic, considering that many of the protesters and marchers rarely have contact with Tohoku. The nuclear threat, organizers say, extends beyond Tohoku, even beyond Japan. And indeed, this is the message that has been heard around the world, as the anti-nuke protest and politics were staged with specific reference to Fukushima (sadly, rarely with respect to the wider ‘Tohoku’ region).
Arab Spring Takes Back Seat to U.S. Military Aid for Egypt
There’s no accommodation that President Obama can make that will satisfy Americans hawkish for Israel.
Iran: Here We Go . . .
While neoconservative commentators were declaring that diplomacy doesn’t work with Iran, members of Congress were setting about ensuring that it wouldn’t.
Playing With Fire on the Korean Peninsula
The six-party talks may or may not resolve the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, but they are the only game in town.
U.S. Government Brushes Aside Threat UFOs May Pose to National Security
Though presumed benign, UFOs may either pose or perceive to be posing, a threat to national security.