December 2013 - Page 4 of 6

Uruguay becomes first nation to legalise marijuana trade

BBC News December 13, 2013 BBC News

Uruguay has become the first country in the world to make it legal to grow, sell and consume marijuana.

After nearly 12 hours of debate, senators gave the government-sponsored bill their historic final approval.

The law allowing registered Uruguayans over 18 to buy up to 40g (1,4oz) of the drug a month is not expected to come into force before April.

The government hopes it will help tackle drug cartels, but critics say it will expose more people to drugs.

Dozens of supporters of the bill proposed by the left-wing President Jose Mujica gathered outside the Congress in Montevideo to follow the vote. read more

From the Middle East to Lausanne: Arabic Thoughts Amidst the Alps

Ramzy Baroud December 13, 2013 Ramzy Baroud

It has been nearly a week since I embarked on a speaking tour in French-speaking countries of Europe. The trip was more difficult than I thought it would be, but also successful. I am here to talk about Gaza, to explain Arab revolutions and to remind many of their moral responsibility towards Palestine and Arab nations.

French troops in Central African Republic

France’s Aggressive Foreign Policy a Result of the Decline of US Global Power

Immanuel Wallerstein December 10, 2013 Immanuel Wallerstein

What is permitting France's return to aggressiveness in foreign policy is precisely the decline of United States’ effective power on the world scene. Suddenly, France can seem more hardline against the enemy, now defined as the Islamic enemy, than the United States.

More U.N. States Quietly Say No to Drug War

Samuel Oakford December 10, 2013 Samuel Oakford

An internal United Nations draft document leaked last weekend has offered outsiders a rare look at longstanding disagreements between member states over the course of U.N. drug policy.

A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse

David Graeber December 10, 2013 David Graeber

Source: The Baffler

What is a revolution? We used to think we knew. Revolutions were seizures of power by popular forces aiming to transform the very nature of the political, social, and economic system in the country in which the revolution took place, usually according to some visionary dream of a just society. Nowadays, we live in an age when, if rebel armies do come sweeping into a city, or mass uprisings overthrow a dictator, it’s unlikely to have any such implications; when profound social transformation does occur—as with, say, the rise of feminism—it’s likely to take an entirely different form. It’s not that revolutionary dreams aren’t out there. But contemporary revolutionaries rarely think they can bring them into being by some modern-day equivalent of storming the Bastille. read more

Chomsky: It Is All Working Quite Well for the Rich, Powerful

CJ Polychroniou and Anastasia Giamali December 10, 2013 CJ Polychroniou and Anastasia Giamali

Source: Truthout

This is a shorter and slightly revised version of an interview with Noam Chomsky which appeared on Sunday, Dec. 8 in the Syriza-aligned paper Avgi in Greece.

C.J. Polychroniou and Anastasia Giamali: Neoliberal ideology claims that the government is a problem, society does not exist and individuals are responsible for their own fate. Yet, big business and the rich rely, as ever, on state intervention to maintain their hold over the economy and to enjoy a bigger slice of the economic pie. Is neoliberalism a myth, merely an ideological construct? read more