Month: December 2007

Photo from Baltimore.Indymedia.org

Year in Review: Progressive Good Tidings of 2007

Mark Engler December 27, 2007 Mark Engler

Understanding what is wrong in our society; speaking out against injustice; denouncing abuses by the powerful. All of these are crucial tasks. Many of us devote a large part of the year to them, and they are certainly necessary if we are to create a better world. At the same time, it is highly doubtful that these acts are sufficient. Creating positive social change takes more. It takes the knowledge that people can organize to win justice and an awareness that, even in inhospitable times, some things can go right. The holiday season provides an important moment to reflect on a few of those advances that offered hope in 2007-many of which came about just in the past few weeks.

Robert Jensen

Beyond Religion: Interview with Robert Jensen

Jeff Nall December 24, 2007 Jeff Nall

Robert Jensen
Last year, around the same time Hemant Mehta (the eBay atheist) was visiting various churches, atheist and journalism scholar Robert Jensen joined one. Jensen, a journalism scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, said he joined St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin as a political act of moral solidarity. Earlier this year I spoke Jensen about his personal beliefs regarding religion and how he got involved with the church. In response, Jensen challenged freethinkers to open their critical analysis to all potentially corrupt power structures, not just religion. He also urges rational minds to strip away all of their illusions, be they illusions about supernaturalism or societal constructs.

Mining in DRC, Photo: KH Snow

Congo: Three Cheers for Eve Ensler?

keith harmon snow December 24, 2007 keith harmon snow

Mining in DRC, Photo: KH Snow
A major propaganda front has swept the Western media decrying the unprecedented sexual violence in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. As this story goes to press the war in Congo-claiming 1000 lives a day in the East and more than 7 million people since 1996-is escalating yet again. More than 1.2 million were reported displaced in June, with at least 8000 additional displaced persons on October 22 after fighting escalated-as Western-backed forces perpetrate genocide and terrorism to depopulate and secure the land for multinational mining interests.

Photo from cafod.org.uk

Casualties in the Scramble for Congo’s Resources

Maurice Carney & Carrie Crawford December 19, 2007 Maurice Carney & Carrie Crawford

Mining in Congo
Over the past few months a lot of ink has flowed in mainstream publications about the situation in the Congo. In almost all of the articles, the underlying reason for the crisis in the Congo - the scramble for Congo's spectacular natural wealth- has been consistently omitted or underplayed. The front-page article in Thursday, December 13, 2007 New York Times entitled "After Clashes, Fear of War on Congo's Edge" by Lydia Polgreen is no exception. Not only were there key omissions, but also, a glaring factual error said volumes about the manner in which mainstream media covers Congo.