“When you are hungry, cold is a killer, and the people here are starving and helpless.” Millions of ‘starving and helpless’ people throughout the Horn of Africa know fully the pain of elderly Somali mother, Batula Moalim.
Source: Alternet
Being a resourceful people, Americans are adapting to their new economic situation in a variety of ways.
Most of us are familiar with the tragic numbers that tell the tale of this grueling downturn. During the last peak, about 65 percent of Americans held a job; today, that number is below 59 percent. We just saw the largest two-year drop in “labor compensation” – wages and benefits – since the early 1960s, the foreclosure crisis continues unabated, and for the first time, the number of “99ers” – unemployed Americans whose benefits have run out – has pushed past the two million mark.
The “Arab Spring,” wherein the peoples of the Arab world rose up and are still now rising up against dictators, provides us all with a poignant learning moment, that is, if we are paying attention.
Source: Common Dreams
The following is a version of a talk presented to the Houston Peace and Justice Center conference on July 9, 2011.
In mainstream politics in the United States, everyone agrees on one thing: We’re number one. We’re special. We’re America. We’re on top, where we deserve to be.
In dissident politics in the United States, we have long argued that this quest for economic and military dominance can’t be squared with basic moral and political principles. We’re on top, but it’s unjust and unsustainable.
Source: IPS News
Only two in every five people in the Southern African Development Community has access to safe water for drinking and household use. Three quarters of those lacking access, live in rural areas and the majority of these are women and children.
Chrispin Sedeke, head of the Transboundary Water Management Division of the Ministry for the Environment of the Democratic Republic of Congo, believes that even these discouraging figures are likely understated.
“The statistics from certain countries – like the DRC – are not up to date. The numbers are approximate; those from other countries are only partial. And all the numbers do not cover the same period; that’s what makes the global statistics presented less than reliable,” Sedeke told IPS on the sidelines of the Fifth SADC Water Dialogue, held in the Swazi capital, Mbabane, on Jun. 28 and 29.
Steelworkers in the United States and Canada forge ties with Los Mineros in Mexico.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019