April 2010 - Page 4 of 7 - Toward Freedom

Roma Day in Eastern Europe: Assessing Roma Rights

Chuck Todaro April 15, 2010 Chuck Todaro

Roma at Pata Rat, Romania Garbage Dump

This year's Roma Day on April 8th marked the twenty-year anniversary since the Gypsies of East Europe freely acknowledged their ethnicity. The day has been celebrated throughout the region in gypsy style with music and dance, skewered pork or lamb and plenty of drink as means of celebrating life. The day memorializes the roughly one million Roma exterminated by the Nazis in what has been commonly dubbed the forgotten holocaust, though which Roma scholars have termed Porrajmos, the devouring.

Thailand: Regime Kills Protesters in Bloody Crackdown

Giles Ji Ungpakorn April 14, 2010 Giles Ji Ungpakorn

Protests in Thailand

Soldiers armed with live and rubber bullets attacked the peaceful pro-democracy Red Shirt protests in the centre of Bangkok on April 10. At least 12 people, including a Japanese Reuters reporter, have been shot dead. Tanks were used against peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators. Hundreds more people have been injured. Some soldiers have been taken prisoner and weapons seized. Red Shirt protesters outside Bangkok have seized many provincial headquarters.

The Future of Journalism Is Written in Neon

Bill Boyarsky April 13, 2010 Bill Boyarsky

Source: Truthdig

My search for the I.F. Stone of the 21st century took me to the campus of the University of Southern California and the highly energized office of the Web-based news operation Neon Tommy, sponsored by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

The university, long shackled with a reputation for conservatism, might be considered an odd place to look for a potential successor to Stone, a crusading liberal journalist ostracized by the mainstream media during the Cold War who nevertheless broke major stories in his own I.F. Stone’s Weekly. But USC is changing. And even the old conservative USC produced progressives such as my personal hero, Carey McWilliams, who was editor of The Nation from 1955 to 1975. Truthdig’s editor, Robert Scheer, is on the Annenberg faculty. read more

Obama’s Test on Iran

Stefan Simanowitz April 13, 2010 Stefan Simanowitz

The signing of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signals a further shift in the focus of America's nuclear strategy from her former Cold War foes to so-called rogue states, notably Iran. While President Obama's instincts will ensure he does everything in his power to avoid military conflict with Iran he is up against hawkish elements not just within Congress but within his own party.

Chomsky Warns of Risk of Fascism in America

Matt Rothschild April 13, 2010 Matt Rothschild

Source: The Progressive

“I have the dread sense of the dark clouds of fascism gathering,” he said. “The level of anger and fear is like nothing I can compare in my lifetime.”

Noam Chomsky, the leading leftwing intellectual, warned last week that fascism may be coming to the United States.

“I’m just old enough to have heard a number of Hitler’s speeches on the radio,” he said, “and I have a memory of the texture and the tone of the cheering mobs, and I have the dread sense of the dark clouds of fascism gathering” here at home. read more

U.S. Expanding Military Role in Africa Under Obama

Daniel Volman April 13, 2010 Daniel Volman

Source: IPS News

(IPS) – When Pres. Barack Obama took office in January 2009, it was widely expected that he would dramatically change, or even reverse, the militarised and unilateral security policy that had been pursued by the George W. Bush administration toward Africa, as well as toward other parts of the world.

After one year in office, however, it is clear that the Obama administration is following essentially the same policy that has guided U.S. military policy toward Africa for more than a decade. Indeed, the Obama administration is seeking to expand U.S. military activities on the continent even further. read more