Since 1994, Ultra-red has established a unique position in the world of sound art. Their highly analytical projects, which range from radio broadcasts to art installations, directly link social activism to sound experiments. A global collective, Ultra-red made its mark through electronic music composition, although their practice gradually shifted to a more process-based engagement. Merging […]
Waltz with Bashir might not change Israeli politics, but it is a powerful antiwar movie nonetheless.
The outcome of Israel’s extensive air, artillery, and ground assault on the Gaza strip from December 27 — January 17 illustrates Israel’s wrong-headed approach to Hamas, the religiously grounded organization that has controlled the territory since it ousted the rival Fatah faction in June 2007. It exposes the bankruptcy of the theory of reprisals and the flawed notion that inflicting hardship on the Palestinian people will lead them to choose more “moderate” leaders. And it highlights the urgency of the resolution of Israel’s longstanding conflict with the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. How Israel proceeds from this point will reveal whether it has learned from the results of its assault. How the United States addresses the underlying conflict will determine whether it will be resolved.
The collapse of the Israeli Left may be the latest casualty of last month’s war in Gaza. The fighting appears to have scuttled what remains of the Israeli-Arab peace process, as a nationalist bloc of parties opposing territorial compromise with the Palestinians now occupies the majority of Israel’s parliament. The right-wing Likud party will lead the governing coalition, to which they have pledged to invite parties that openly traffic in anti-Arab rhetoric.
"I am the one, whom they will kill in the end, because he himself has never killed." Miklos Radnoti If as a tourist your son comes to my country my son will be kind with him simply because in our religion a guest is a gift of God even if he is our long-standing enemy....
Let’s say that President Barack Obama appointed me as his Karl Rove. My advice: Don’t move on. The best way to tie the opposition on the right into a pretzel is to go after the Bush administration for all of its high crimes and misdemeanors. The radical right will fall back to defend its conduct for the last eight years. It will have less time and energy to battle the current agenda. The administration should embrace Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-VT) Truth Commission, prosecute the Justice Department lawyers for their torture memos, rake the top Pentagon officials over the coals for war crimes in Iraq, and uncover as much dirt as possible on how the Bush administration subverted the constitution, undermined international law, and hijacked America.
The people of Burma have high hopes for Barack Obama. Burmese still look to Washington — rather than Beijing, New Delhi, or Moscow — to provide reliable political support for democratic change. But although Burma is back in the headlines — with the Rohingya refugee crisis and Thailand’s refusal to provide these stateless Burmese Muslim boat-people with refugee status — the other foreign policy issues pressing in on the Obama administration may quickly push the Southeast Asian country to the back burner.
A desire for change isn’t a sentiment unique to voters in the United States, and it’s not something that our country should fear when embraced by our Southern neighbors. El Salvador, a country that will hold presidential elections on March 15, is a case in point. It’s a place where a single party has been in power for two decades. It has long been mired in poverty, crime, and corruption. And its own Cheneys and Rumsfelds remain in power. A victory by the progressive frontrunner in the electoral contest — the first Latin American presidential elections since President Barack Obama’s inauguration — would give the new White House an opportunity to reject fear-mongering about the rise of left-leaning governments in Latin America and instead praise the regional wave of democratic transformation.
In December, The New York Times reported that Obama’s Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and Defense Secretary had all “embraced a sweeping shift of priorities and resources in the national security arena…a rebalancing of America’s security portfolio after a huge investment in new combat capabilities during the Bush years.”
More than 100,000 people gathered on the edge of the Amazon rainforest for the 9th World Social Forum in Belém, Brazil in late January. Youth from local universities mixed with seasoned activists from around the globe. Sheltered from the beating sun and drenching rains by huge white tents, they talked in pairs and in the hundreds, to old friends and new allies. The conversations amounted to nothing less than a full-scale re-imagining of the world order — one rising out of the ashes of today’s economic, ecological, and cultural crises.