Between the Taliban and a Hard Place: The Struggle of Afghanistan’s Youth
The powerful attraction of Afghanistan youth to the Taliban often has little to do with religious views and everything to do with an empty stomach.
Month: August 2011
US: New Drug Tests Target the Poor
Source: In These Times
The growing number of poor Americans now face a new indignity, thanks to a legislative trend sweeping through state capitols: mandatory drug tests for needy citizens. This year alone, at least 30 state legislatures (including Louisiana, Massachusetts and Illinois) have considered bills that would require people to pass a drug test to become eligible to receive welfare benefits. Some states—including New Mexico, Maine and Kentucky—have proposed extending the practice to those collecting unemployment, Medicaid and food stamps.
Philadelphia’s Declaration of War on Black Youth
Source: Counterpunch
The character of our present moment is undeniable, and the tangled web of causes and consequences is the same from London to Cairo to Santiago: budget cuts in the name of “austerity,” rising unemployment, increasing popular resistance, and an upsurge in racist violence and policing measures like “stop-and-frisk.” The failure of an economic system in the short and long term has generated an entire class of undesirables, living proof of that failure who must be contained, controlled, and silenced.
Walking in the footsteps of Archbishop Romero
David Rodriguez was a catholic priest. In the early eighties he took up arms and led guerrilla fighters during El Salvador’s 12-year civil war. Today he is a member of parliament. This is his story.
Police Brutality in Italy: Remembering Genoa a Decade Later
Ten years ago this past July, protests were organized against the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy.For us in Europe these protests were a chance to affirm that we were not a generation lacking ideals.
Cuba: Women Rappers a Vocal Minority
Source: IPS News
Women are still a small minority on Cuba’s hip hop scene. “If the situation is hard for us nationwide, imagine what it’s like in the eastern region, where this genre has very little recognition,” says Yaneidys Tamayo, leader of the group Las Positivas.
Tamayo, Irina Rodríguez and Orielis Mayet, who have the only all-woman rap group in Cuba, swim against the tide in Santiago de Cuba, a province at the eastern tip of the island marked by musical preferences that range from reggaeton to rumba and are directed at a public that is more interested in dancing than in hearing the messages these women want to send from the stage.