When Syrian President Assad’s father, Hafez, came to power, he marginalized his own people, the Alawites.
Personality Cult of Assads in Syria Usurped Their Own People, the Alawites
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Human Rights
The Prisoner Swap
Like so many other diplomatic and political initiatives in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the recent announcement of a new prisoner release is based on the same solution that has been proposed dozens of times before – only to collapse because the time, and usually Israeli political will, wasn’t right. In this case, the separate announcements made by Hamas leader Khaled Meshal and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, asserted that Hamas would release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas in 2006, while Israel would release 1023 Palestinian prisoners, some of whom had been in jail for decades.
UN Origins Project Series, Part 6: The Things We Fight For
It was the economic deprivation of the 30s that allowed totalitarianism to flourish and shatter the fragile peace that followed World War I.
Poets Stand Up
In Paris, poets staged a flash mob outside the Louvre Museum. In North Carolina, they sent poems to their state legislators, calling on them to restore arts education funding to the decimated state budget. In Vancouver, BC, poets cleaned up a beach before their reading. There was a reading in solidarity with the people of Tibet in Pasadena, California, events throughout Mexico City demanding an end to violence, and “an exorcism of fear and helplessness” in Norman, Oklahoma. Poets gathered in Fez, Morocco, and Jalalabad, Afghanistan and Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
War on Roaches
Set up the four cuts
cut support cut food cut water cut communications
still see stray guerilla roaches, though all food including edible trash
carefully removed or wrapped
in plastic.
An Alternative Eulogy for Steve Jobs
Jobs may have been an exceptional designer, but when it comes to the multifaceted corporate malfeasance that has come to characterize the global electronics industry, Apple is exceptional for its profit margins alone.
Mexican Constitution Now Recognizes Right to Food
On April 29, 2011 the Chamber of Deputies approved the constitutional reform that establishes the right to food in Mexico. On August 17, the Senate received reports that the required majority of the states in the country had approved the reform and ordered its publication in the official federal record.
One Step Closer: Lieberman Calls for No-Fly Zone Over Syria
Sen. Joseph Lieberman stated that he favored a no-fly zone over Syria.
U.S. Obama Waives Aid Curbs on Militaries Using Child Soldiers
The four countries that will continue to receive military assistance despite the use of child soldiers in their armed forces include Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Yemen and the newly independent nation of South Sudan, according to a memo released by the White House late Tuesday.
Spanish Court Won’t Let Cameraman Couso’s Killing at Hands of Americans Die
Once again, a Spanish judge has indicted three American soldiers for the killing of Spanish cameraman José Couso at the Palestine Hotel in the 2003.