Global News and Analysis Archives - Page 52 of 294

The Forgotten Syria Crisis: How the World Profits Off of War

Vijay Prashad December 12, 2017 Vijay Prashad

The vultures have already begun to circle around Syria for the contracts to reconstruct the country.

For the past six years, ‘Syria’ had come to refer to war and the refugee crisis. News about Syria rushed onto the front pages. The devastation of the country seized the imagination of people across the world. What was this war about? How could a country – seemingly stable – fall so quickly into the vortex of chaos? What about the millions of Syrians who were so hastily removed from their homes, hiding with family members inside Syria or rushing outside to refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey? read more

The Market in Walls Is Growing in a Warming World

Todd Miller December 11, 2017 Todd Miller

Source: Tom Dispatch

When I first talked to the three Honduran men in the train yard in the southern Mexican town of Tenosique, I had no idea that they were climate-change refugees. We were 20 miles from the border with Guatemala at a rail yard where Central American refugees often congregated to try to board La Bestia (“the Beast”), the nickname given to the infamous train that has proven so deadly for those traveling north toward the United States.

The men hid momentarily as a Mexican army truck with masked, heavily armed soldiers drove by. Given Washington’s pressure on Mexico to fortify its southern border, U.S. Border Patrol agents might have trained those very soldiers. As soon as they were gone, the Hondurans told me that they had been stuck here for six long days. The night before, they had tried to jump on La Bestia, but it was moving too fast. read more

Resisting Trumpism Requires a Grand Unifying Theory

Sonali Kolhatkar December 11, 2017 Sonali Kolhatkar

Source: Truthdig

The past few weeks have been hellish for Americans. With one assault after another on our Constitution and our rights, it has felt like an endless stream of slaps to the face and punches to the gut.

From the decision by Federal Communications Commission Chair Ajit Pai to end net neutrality to the unconscionable late-night vote Friday by Senate Republicans on a tax reform bill that had amendments scribbled in by hand to Donald Trump’s unprecedented undoing of national monument designationsin Utah to the Supreme Court’s Muslim ban-affirming order on Monday, it feels as though the entire nation is under attack all at once. read more

Noam Chomsky: Global Discontents and the Rising Threats to Democracy

Noam Chomsky December 6, 2017 Noam Chomsky

Source: The American Empire Project

An excerpt from Noam Chomsky’s book Global Discontents: Conversations on the Rising Threats to Democracy:

STATE SPYING AND DEMOCRACY
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS (JUNE 20, 2013)

Edward Snowden’s revelations of widespread state surveillance of Internet and telephone communications have caused some consternation here in the United States—and around the world. Were you at all surprised by the government’s electronic dragnet?

Somewhat—not a lot. I think we can take for granted that if technology or other means of control and domination are available, then power systems are going to use them. Take the recent revelations about the relationship between the National Security Agency (NSA) and Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is a synonym for the commercial use of surveillance. The NSA is going to Silicon Valley for help, because the commercial enterprises have been doing this already, on a great scale, and they have the technological expertise. So apparently, a private security officer was brought to the NSA to help them develop sophisticated techniques of surveillance and control.¹ read more

The President of Honduras is Deploying US-Trained Forces Against Election Protesters

Lee Fang and Danielle Marie Mackey December 4, 2017 Lee Fang and Danielle Marie Mackey

Source: The Intercept

HONDURAN PRESIDENT JUAN Orlando Hernández, using the specter of rampant crime and the drug trade, won extensive support from the American government to build up highly trained state security forces. Now, those same forces are repressing democracy.

The post-election situation in Honduras continues to deteriorate as Hernández, a conservative leader and stalwart U.S. ally in Central America, has disputed the result of last week’s vote while working to crack down on protests sweeping the nation. read more

Kenya: Forty Billionaires and Forty Million Beggars

Matt Carotenuto December 4, 2017 Matt Carotenuto

Source: Jacobin

Although Kenya often appears in the press as a nation split by ethnic discord, it has just two “tribes”: the rich and the poor.

In recent months, presidential politics have dominated the international coverage of Kenya — and for good reason. Political scions Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga — sons of the country’s first president and vice president, respectively — have squared off for the nation’s highest office in an environment swirling with legal battles, corruption, and state-sponsored violence. read more