Global News and Analysis Archives - Page 271 of 294

The Market Colonization of Intellectuals

Lewis R. Gordon April 21, 2010 Lewis R. Gordon

In many forums over the past decade, public intellectuals seem unable to talk about pressing social issues without performing the equivalent of an academic literature review. Although reasons range from trying to inform their audiences of relevant debates to efforts to demonstrate erudition, that many public intellectuals present their work as the basis for rewards in academe and the entertainment industry suggests influences tantamount to the colonization of intellectuals by the ever-expanding market. read more

Tuvalu v. ExxonMobil? The Coming Tide of Transnational Climate Lawsuits

Rachel Morris April 20, 2010 Rachel Morris

Source: Mother Jones

Also from the Climate Desk: A look at domestic legal strategies to address global warming [1].

The Prunéřov power station [2] is the Czech Republic’s biggest polluter: Its 300-feet-high cooling towers push plumes of white smoke high above the flat, featureless fields of northern Bohemia. Prunéřov reliably wins a place on lists of Europe’s dirtiest power plants, emitting 11.1 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. So when CEZ Group, the state-controlled utility, proposed an overhaul to extend the facility’s life for another quarter of a century, protests flared-including one from a place about as far from the sooty industrial region as you can get, a place of tropical temperatures and turquoise seas with not a smokestack in sight. This January, the Federated States of Micronesia, some 8,000 miles away in the Pacific Ocean, lodged a legal challenge to the Prunéřov plant on the grounds that its chronic pollution threatens the island nation’s existence. read more

Climate Change Conference in Bolivia: In Defense of Pachamama

Franz Chávez April 19, 2010 Franz Chávez

Source: IPS News

Through their ancestral knowledge and traditions, indigenous peoples will make a unique and invaluable contribution to the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which begins Monday, Apr. 19 in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba.

Julio Quette of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB) told IPS that the 74 different indigenous groups who inhabit South America’s Amazon region "have traditionally coexisted with nature and the forests," and that it is up to the industrialised countries to halt the pollution and destruction of the planet. read more

The Future of Journalism Is Written in Neon

Bill Boyarsky April 13, 2010 Bill Boyarsky

Source: Truthdig

My search for the I.F. Stone of the 21st century took me to the campus of the University of Southern California and the highly energized office of the Web-based news operation Neon Tommy, sponsored by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

The university, long shackled with a reputation for conservatism, might be considered an odd place to look for a potential successor to Stone, a crusading liberal journalist ostracized by the mainstream media during the Cold War who nevertheless broke major stories in his own I.F. Stone’s Weekly. But USC is changing. And even the old conservative USC produced progressives such as my personal hero, Carey McWilliams, who was editor of The Nation from 1955 to 1975. Truthdig’s editor, Robert Scheer, is on the Annenberg faculty. read more

Chomsky Warns of Risk of Fascism in America

Matt Rothschild April 13, 2010 Matt Rothschild

Source: The Progressive

“I have the dread sense of the dark clouds of fascism gathering,” he said. “The level of anger and fear is like nothing I can compare in my lifetime.”

Noam Chomsky, the leading leftwing intellectual, warned last week that fascism may be coming to the United States.

“I’m just old enough to have heard a number of Hitler’s speeches on the radio,” he said, “and I have a memory of the texture and the tone of the cheering mobs, and I have the dread sense of the dark clouds of fascism gathering” here at home. read more

U.S. Expanding Military Role in Africa Under Obama

Daniel Volman April 13, 2010 Daniel Volman

Source: IPS News

(IPS) – When Pres. Barack Obama took office in January 2009, it was widely expected that he would dramatically change, or even reverse, the militarised and unilateral security policy that had been pursued by the George W. Bush administration toward Africa, as well as toward other parts of the world.

After one year in office, however, it is clear that the Obama administration is following essentially the same policy that has guided U.S. military policy toward Africa for more than a decade. Indeed, the Obama administration is seeking to expand U.S. military activities on the continent even further. read more