Month: August 2017

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Noam Chomsky on How the United States Developed Such a Scandalous Health System

C.J. Polychroniou August 7, 2017 C.J. Polychroniou

Source: Truthout

In the following excerpt, originally published at Truthout in January 2017, shortly before Donald Trump’s inauguration, Chomsky discusses the historical and political factors that have created and maintained such a shamefully profit-driven health system in the United States.

C.J. Polychroniou: Article 25 of the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) states that the right to health care is indeed a human right. Yet, it is estimated that close to 30 million Americans remain uninsured even with the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in place. What are some of the key cultural, economic and political factors that make the US an outlier in the provision of free health care? read more

'Alarming' levels of malnutrition and famine-like conditions in north-east Nigeria. Credit: UN Photo

Inching Closer to Mass Starvation: Nigeria’s Ticking Time Bomb

Cheick Ba August 7, 2017 Cheick Ba

In the dusty arid town of Dikwa, tens of thousands of Nigerians queue for hours in sweltering 40-degree heat for water. Fatuma is one of 100,000 people displaced in the Borno State town, the epicenter of Nigeria’s conflict. She sifts through remnants of food aid seeds, drying them out to prepare them to eat. The violence was the first thing Nigerians feared for their lives. Now they fear famine.

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A Million Children Are at Risk of Death by Cholera in Yemen

Vijay Prashad August 4, 2017 Vijay Prashad

Source: Alternet

Last Thursday, the head of the UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF), Anthony Lake, arrived in Amman, Jordan after a heart-wrenching tour of war-ravaged Yemen. ‘Stop the war,’ said Lake. It was a clear message. No subtlety was needed. ‘All of us,’ he said, ‘should feel ‘immense pity, even agony, for all of those children and others who are suffering, and they should feel anger, anger that this, our generation, is scarred by the irresponsibility of governments and others to allow these things to be happening.’ read more

Protesters taking direct action to stop work on the Dakota Access oil pipeline. (Credit: Reuters, A. Cullen)

Organizing for Structural Change: A Manual for a New Era of Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigns

George Lakey August 2, 2017 George Lakey

We can learn a lot about strategy from the U.S. civil rights movement. What worked for them in facing an almost overwhelming array of forces was a particular technique known as the escalating nonviolent direct action campaign. Since that 1955-65 decade we’ve learned much more about how powerful campaigns build powerful movements leading to major change. Some of those lessons are here.

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Is Morocco Headed Toward Insurrection?

Hisham Aidi August 2, 2017 Hisham Aidi

Source: The Nation

The northeastern Rif, Berber heartland and site of the 1920s Rif Republic, is on fire—and the protests are spreading.

Curfews, roadblocks, checkpoints on highways leading to Al Hoceima in northeastern Morocco; neighborhoods encircled by military trucks; police attacking protesters; mass arrests; activists abducted off the streets. Since May 26, the first day of Ramadan, the city of Al Hoceima has seen continuous tumult, culminating with a day of bloody clashes on June 26, in what is now being called the Black Eid of 2017. Tensions had been running high in the Rif region, with ongoing protests since October, when a young fish vendor died at the hands of the police, crushed to death in a trash compactor as he tried to retrieve his confiscated merchandise. A truce of sorts had been negotiated in mid-May, when a ministerial delegation arrived in the city of Al Hoceima promising various development projects. read more