November 2009 - Page 3 of 6

From Chile to Guatemala: A Gringo in Latin America

Benjamin Dangl November 17, 2009 Benjamin Dangl

Reviewed: Gringo: A Coming-of-Age in Latin America, by Chesa Boudin, 240 pages, Scribner, 2009.

In Gringo: A Coming-of-Age in Latin America, Chesa Boudin writes of sleeping in a hammock on his way up the Amazon River on a 200 foot boat, working as a translator in Hugo Chavez’s presidential palace, witnessing the rise of President Lula in Brazil and traveling through Argentina during the country’s economic crisis. His reflections and reportage on such experiences provide an exciting road trip through pivotal moments in Latin America’s recent history. read more

Afghanistan: How the US Funds the Taliban

Aram Roston November 17, 2009 Aram Roston

Source: The Nation

On October 29, 2001, while the Taliban’s rule over Afghanistan was under assault, the regime’s ambassador in Islamabad gave a chaotic press conference in front of several dozen reporters sitting on the grass. On the Taliban diplomat’s right sat his interpreter, Ahmad Rateb Popal, a man with an imposing presence. Like the ambassador, Popal wore a black turban, and he had a huge bushy beard. He had a black patch over his right eye socket, a prosthetic left arm and a deformed right hand, the result of injuries from an explosives mishap during an old operation against the Soviets in Kabul. read more

On the Indian Maoists and their Sympathisers

Prasenjit Bose November 17, 2009 Prasenjit Bose

Source: Pragoti.org

As the Maoists continue with their violent and disruptive activities, sections of the intelligentsia are openly expressing sympathy for their cause. Although the sympathy is often couched in rhetoric against the state and its security offensive against the Maoists, what distinguishes the Maoist sympathizers from a broader community of intellectuals and civil rights groups, who are skeptical of the intent and apprehensive of the efficacy of the Union Government’s anti-Maoists operations, is their stubborn refusal to condemn the anarchic violence and mindless killings by the Maoists. read more

West Papua: Let the bird of paradise go free

John Pilger November 16, 2009 John Pilger

Source: New Statesman

The theft of West Papua’s mineral wealth must end. The province’s courageous resistance movement deserves nothing less.

When General Suharto, the west’s man, seized power in Indonesia in the mid-1960s, he offered "a gleam of light in Asia", rejoiced Time magazine. That he had killed up to a million "communists" was of no account in the acquisition of what Richard Nixon called "the richest hoard of natural resources, the greatest prize in South-east Asia". read more

Afghans’ ‘Bravest Woman’ Calls on U.S. to Leave

Amy Littlefield November 16, 2009 Amy Littlefield

Malalai Joya

Malalai Joya, called the "bravest woman in Afghanistan," is finishing up a U.S. tour where she has pressed the Obama administration to pull the military out of her country. She says nothing could be worse for women than what she sees as the current civil war.

Arundhati Roy’s New Book Looks at What We Have Done to Democracy

Al Huebner November 12, 2009 Al Huebner

Arundhati Roy

The essays in a new book by the brilliant Indian writer Arundhati Roy cover topics that range from the attack on the Indian Parliament to the Armenian genocide, and the terrorist attack on Mumbai to George Bush's "triumphant" visit to India and

Pakistan

. But what runs through all of these essays is a critical look at democracy, as practiced in those countries that claim to be democracies.