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Global Notebook 8-24-05

Super User August 24, 2005 Super User

GLOBAL NOTEBOOK, August 24, 2005

Factions fighting over Mexico presidency candidates

MEXICO CITY – Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who left his job as Mexico City’s mayor in July to run for president, is currently favored to win the nomination of the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD). But the party, originally formed through the alliance of several small leftist parties and dissidents who split from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), as well as the candidate himself, have been charged with corruption by Subcomandante Marcos, leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). read more

Darfur, Sudan: The Overkill

Rene Wadlow August 24, 2005 Rene Wadlow

The on-going conflicts in the provinces of Darfur in western Sudan are a textbook example of how programmed escalation of violence can go out of control. It is increasingly difficult for both the insurgency and the government-backed forces to de-escalate the conflict which has been called with reason "genocide". It will be even more difficult after the war to get the pastoralists and the settled agriculturalists to live together again in a relatively cooperative way.

Worker Unions in Iraq: An Interview with Amjad Aljawhary

Benjamin Dangl August 23, 2005 Benjamin Dangl

Amjad Aljawhary is the North American Representative of The Federation of Worker Councils and Unions in Iraq. In this interview he discusses his union's main objectives, the US government's response to union organizing in Iraq, how the money for reconstruction is being spent, public opinion in Iraq regarding the presence of US troops there and what activists and workers outside of the country can do in solidarity to help Iraqi workers.

Heartbreak Hotel in Gaza

Remi Kanazi August 22, 2005 Remi Kanazi

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, military man gone peace-loving hippy, is unilaterally "disengaging" from the Gaza Strip. The hardships Israel is enduring are plastered all over the television, play by play. Scenes of Israeli soldiers, emotionally and physically struggling to remove the 8500 settlers from the Gaza Strip is displayed while CNN anchors utter soft, shocked words in the background. Images of Israeli soldiers painstakingly carry flailing settlers who are protesting the move. Their government once spent billions to protect and contain the animosity of 8500 people who once turned to them for help. But as the old saying goes, you break the law, you pay the price.

Palestine: A Tale of Two Families

Mneesha Gellman August 18, 2005 Mneesha Gellman

In June, 2005 I visited the Hope Flowers School in the town of Al Khadr, located in the West Bank territory of the Middle East occupied by Israel, also known as Palestine. Six kilometers outside of Bethlehem, the school implements a peace and democracy curriculum and was developed in response to the high level of violence the region has experienced. I interviewed two peace activists whose stories highlight the different realities the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel created for Jews and Muslims.

Global Notebook 8-17-05

Super User August 17, 2005 Super User

GLOBAL

UK to test RFID-tagged license plates

LONDON – Tracking of vehicles with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on licenses is about to be tested in Great Britain, and the U.S. government and businesses are watching closely as they consider the idea, Wired magazine reported last week. The high-tech license plates will contain microchips capable of transmitting unique vehicle identification numbers and other data to readers more than 300 feet away.

"We definitely have an interest in testing an RFID-tagged license plate," said Jerry Dike, chairman of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and director of the Vehicle Titles and Registration Division of the Texas Department of Transportation. read more