With the world's attention focused on climate change, one of the methods suggested to reduce global carbon emissions is causing the displacement of indigenous persons as western companies rush to invest in tree-planting projects in developing countries.Benet Girl at Work
In this interview, Bethlehem Mayor Victor Bartarseh speaks candidly about what life is like for the citizens of this West Bank city. Bethlehem has the highest rate of unemployment in the West Bank and is entirely surrounded by the separation wall. Mayor Bartarseh describes the physical and psychological impact of living with the wall.
Would Americans who don't want government coming between them and their health care prefer Halliburton play the role of the decider? One way or the other, we would all do well to pay close attention to what's going on in California right now. If the Golden State's reputation as a 'trend setter' holds true for health care, those in need of affordable health insurance could find themselves up against private contractors like Halliburton.
Reclaiming Latin America: Experiments in Radical Social Democracy provides an in depth and accessible introduction to Latin American politics for people seeking to understand this past tumultuous and hopeful decade. While avoiding superficial analysis and simplistic leftist cheerleading, this book addresses the complexity and diversity of the new Latin American left.
Source: Mother Jones
The internet cafe in the Fijian capital, Suva, was usually open all night long. Dimly lit, with rows of sleek, modern terminals, the place was packed at all hours with teenage boys playing boisterous rounds of video games. But one day soon after I arrived, the staff told me they now had to shut down by 5 p.m. Police orders, they shrugged: The country’s military junta had declared martial law a few days before, and things were a bit tense.
I sat down and sent out a few emails-filling friends in on my visit to the Fiji Water bottling plant, forwarding a story about foreign journalists being kicked off the island. Then my connection died. "It will just be a few minutes," one of the clerks said.
Source: The New Statesman
It is ten years since East Timor’s referendum on freedom from Indonesia – but, as the gaps in a new film show, the western cover-up continues
On 30 August it will be a decade since the people of East Timor defied the genocidal occupiers of their country to take part in a United Nations referendum and vote for their freedom and independence. A "scorched earth" campaign by the Indonesian dictatorship followed, adding to a toll of carnage that had begun 24 years earlier when Indonesia invaded tiny East Timor with the secret support of Australia, Britain and the United States. According to a committee of the Australian parliament, "at least 200,000" died under the occupation, a third of the population.
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