July 2012 - Page 6 of 6 - Toward Freedom

Innu Continue to Protest the Plan Nord and Romaine River Hydro Project

Alexis Lathem July 4, 2012 Alexis Lathem

On the morning of June 10th, a group of Innu people from the community of ManiUtenam, near the Quebec City of Sept Isle, set out on a 360 kilometer march towards a Hydro Quebec dam construction site on the Romaine River. Dressed in florescent vests, they departed from an encampment at the entrance to the reserve, beside Route 138, the only major road in the region, where the group has maintained a continual protest since the end of April.

Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts: A Mixed Legacy

Jean Kayigamba July 3, 2012 Jean Kayigamba

The traditional community Gacaca courts –set up to prosecute the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide– will be closing this month. But how will they be remembered by Rwandans?

All Work and No Pay: America’s Great Speedup

Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery July 2, 2012 Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery

Source: Mother Jones

On a bright spring day in a wisteria-bedecked courtyard full of earnest, if half-drunk, conference attendees, we were commiserating with a fellow journalist about all the jobs we knew of that were going unfilled, being absorbed or handled “on the side.” It was tough for all concerned, but necessary—you know, doing more with less.

“Ah,” he said, “the speedup.”

His old-school phrase gave form to something we’d been noticing with increasing apprehension—and it extended far beyond journalism. We’d hear from creative professionals in what seemed to be dream jobs who were crumbling under ever-expanding to-do lists; from bus drivers, hospital technicians, construction workers, doctors, and lawyers who shame-facedly whispered that no matter how hard they tried to keep up with the extra hours and extra tasks, they just couldn’t hold it together. (And don’t even ask about family time.) read more

Waiting for Helicopters: Cholera, Prejudice, and the Right to Water in Haiti

Deepa Panchang July 2, 2012 Deepa Panchang

Scientists have shown that the cholera pathogen came to Haiti with foreign UN troops who carried the bacteria in their bodies, and whose military base was dumping its sewage into a nearby river.