What’s It Really Like to Deal in Regional Currency?
Want to encourage the local economy? Try printing your own regional money.
Month: October 2010
Iraqis Respond to WikiLeaks Files
Al Jazeera: Iraqi public saw the leaked documents reflecting what they had long suspected was the truth
The official reaction from the Iraqi government to the release of WikiLeaks files about the country has been measured in tone. But many members of the Iraqi public say the leaked documents reflect what they had long suspected was the truth. Rawya Rageh reports from Baghdad.
Grassroots Unionism Under Attack in Argentina: Killing of Activist Sparks Protests
The killing of 23-year old labor activist Mariano Ferreyra has sparked massive protests in Argentina. The country’s rich labor history has been plagued with violent episodes. This death sends an ominous reminder of the legacy of union bureaucracy and violence against workers.
The real reason Obama has let us all down
Source: The Independent
Is Barack Obama a politician whose actions should be judged soberly, or a figure from a feel-good fairytale to be revered from afar?
For two years now, most of the good and honorable people who desperately wanted him to beat John McCain – as I did –have watched his actions through a distorting haze of hoping for the best. So when Obama set us all up for another global crash by refusing to reregulate the banks or stop even their riskiest practices, we looked away. When Obama set us all up for more terror attacks by trebling the troops in Afghanistan and launching a vicious air war on Pakistan that is swelling the ranks of jihadis, we didn’t want to hear it. When Obama set us all up for environmental disaster by refusing to put the brakes on his country’s unprecedented and unmatched emissions of climate-destabilizing gases, we switched over to watch will.i.am’s YouTube rejig of the President’s “yes, we can” speech. And when a week from now he is beaten at the mid-term elections – after having so little to show the American people – by a group of even more irrational Republicans, we will weep for him.
Afghan Feminist: Why Foreign Troops Should Leave
Malalai Joya, now 32, was the youngest woman elected to the Afghan Parliament in 2005. A feminist activist who has defied the Taliban, Joya says the war is a crime against her people that is propping up corrupt warlords and fundamentalists no better than the Taliban.
“War Does This to Your Mind”
Source: Truthout
Kabul – Khamad Jan, age 22, remembers that, as a youngster, he was a good student who enjoyed studying. “Now, I can’t seem to think,” he said sadly, looking at the ground. There was a long pause. “War does this to your mind.”
He and his family fled their village when Taliban forces began to attack the area. Bamiyan Province is home to a great number of Hazara families, and Khamad Jan’s is one of them. Traditionally, other Afghan ethnic groups have discriminated against Hazaras, regarding them as descendants of Mongolian tribes and, therefore, inferior.