Month: May 2008

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Polarizing Bolivia: Santa Cruz Votes for Autonomy

Benjamin Dangl May 8, 2008 Benjamin Dangl

Photo: Bolivia Indymedia
A vote for autonomy in Santa Cruz, Bolivia was passed by approximately 82% of voters on Sunday, May 4th. The vote endorses a move by Santa Cruz to, among other things, gain more control of gas reserves in the area and resist the central government's break up of large land holdings. Clashes during the vote in Santa Cruz left 35 injured. One man died from asphyxiation due to tear gas fired by police forces. The vote and conflict marks a new phase in the polarization of Bolivia, and a new challenge for the region. 

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Crisis in Burma: A Constitution is More Than a Document

Rene Wadlow May 7, 2008 Rene Wadlow

The tropical cyclone Nargris which struck the Burma Irrawaddy delta on May 3, and the incompetent military response for relief efforts, could be the equivalent of Katrina in New Orleans in showing the incoherence of Myanmar's military government and its disregard of the welfare of its people. Prior to the cyclone, the government was planning to hold a referendum on a government-drafted constitution for the country.  If all goes as in now planned, the referendum will be held on 10 May in most of the country and in the storm-ravaged areas on 24 May.  Were people to vote freely, it is likely that the military constitution would be swept away. 

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Presidential Death Match: Media’s Big Event

Greg Guma May 6, 2008 Greg Guma

Presidential elections have been media spectacles for almost 50 years, roughly since television became the national drug. One landmark 1960 production, arguably the first televised "presidential death match," pitted Jack Kennedy, an Arthurian figure to be sure, against Dick Nixon, doing a creepy Richard III imitation. Their TV debate is said to have turned the tide, but the election itself was questionable, and high Camelot hopes were cut short by assassination and war.

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Vermont Peace Activists Occupy General Dynamics Weapons Plant

Benjamin Dangl May 2, 2008 Benjamin Dangl

On May 1st, International Workers’ Day, ten peace activists in Burlington, Vermont entered General Dynamics and locked themselves together in the main lobby of the building in protest against the company’s weapons manufacturing and war profiteering. University of Vermont student Benjamin Dube, one of the dozens of other activists present at the event, leaned out a window of the lobby, and pointed to the GD building, explaining, “This is the gas tank of the war machine, and we are the sugar.” read more

Photo from Treehugger.com

Peruvian Women Rally Against Rising Food Prices

Toward Freedom May 1, 2008 Toward Freedom

On April 30 in Lima, Peru, over 2,000 women protested against rising food prices. This recent outburst is part of a food crisis that is sweeping the globe, from Kazakhstan to Haiti. In Lima, women from poor communities and soup kitchens beat on empty pots and carried signs in front of the congress, chanting to President Alan Garcia: "The pot is empty, Garcia!"