Page 776 – Toward Freedom

The Fight For Ethnic Reconciliation and Peace in Kosovo

Siena Anstis July 2, 2008 Siena Anstis

Bosniak, Serb, Albanian & Roma Women Meet

Mitrovica, Northern Kosovo-Kosovo is beautiful in the summer with its rolling hills, lush fields and emerald green lakes. In the towns hit hardest by the civil war in the late 1990s, reconstruction has largely been successful. In Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, cafés are packed with young Kosovars drinking espresso; summer nights are vibrant, bars and restaurants are full. Signs of positive change in Kosovo are obvious, yet the dilemma of inter-ethnic reconciliation remains.

Nonviolent Action & the Road to Independence

Greg Guma July 2, 2008 Greg Guma

Each year, as fireworks celebrate the Declaration of Independence and people discuss how the United States began, the spotlight normally turns to "revolutionary" leaders and the "armed struggle" waged more than two centuries ago. But as usual, the real story is a bit different. The movement toward independence in the "new world" actually began a decade before the "shot heard round the world" and involved thousands of people. By the time things turned violent, substitute governments and firm alliances were operating in nine colonies.

“The World According to Monsanto”

The Real News Network June 30, 2008 The Real News Network

Monsanto is a world leader in industrial agriculture, providing the seeds for 90 percent of the world’s genetically modified crops. Once a chemical company based in the US, Monsanto has transformed into an international life sciences company, aiming to solve world hunger and protect the environment. Filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, however, exposes the company’s troubling past, in her recent film, The World According to Monsanto. In an interview with The Real News Network, she discusses Monsanto’s controversial practices from a producer of PCBs and Agent Orange to genetically modified seeds and related herbicides. read more

This Brave Nation: Two Generations of Hope

Brave Nation June 30, 2008 Brave Nation

Source: The Nation

In a Lower Manhattan apartment, one of the greatest living musicians and activists sat down with one of the country’s most effective young grassroots leaders. Pete Seeger, with a list of awards and honors longer than the neck on his famed banjo, still works tirelessly at 88 years of age. He spoke with Majora Carter, the young and indefatigable founder of Sustainable South Bronx, an organization that is re-shaping the neighborhood of her youth through pioneering green-collar economic development projects, about the environmental work he has worked at for more than forty years. And while he’s at it, he also finds time to sing a couple songs, demanding the film crew sing along, because it’s not nearly as much fun singing to someone as it is singing with someone. read more

Interview: Speaking with Hugo! author Bart Jones

Daniel Denvir June 26, 2008 Daniel Denvir

Bart Jones is the author of Hugo! The Hugo Chavez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution (Steerforth, New Hampshire 2007). Jones lived in Venezuela from 1992 to 2000, working initially as a Maryknoll lay missioner and then as a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press. He now lives in Long Island, New York with his wife and two children. The book has also just been released in the UK and will soon be published in Brazil in Portuguese.

Bush Administration Accused of Withholding “Lifesaving” Aid to Haiti

Cyril Mychalejko June 25, 2008 Cyril Mychalejko

Collecting Water in Haiti

Human rights groups released a report on June 23rd accusing the Bush Administration of blocking "potentially lifesaving" aid to Haiti in order to meddle in the impoverished nation's political affairs. The report, "Wòch nan Soley: The Denial of the Right to Water in Haiti," also takes aim at the international community for its role in politicizing aid while standing idly by as people suffer and die.