A Questioning Generation Takes to the Streets in Scorn and Anger
I personally have heard the teaching of "free everything" at Harvard and when I asked if the electricity was free was essentially drowned out of the conversation. The person stating "free everything" had obviously been born into wealth and power in a foreign country, benefited from a world class education but had not been taught the fundamentals of economics. Instead he(yes it was a man) had learned to parrot his social group, perhaps to retain social standing?
It concerned me then and concerns me now. Why can we collectively not develop new economic models and a legitimate distribution of wealth? The 40 hour work week is arbitrary, prices can for too often now have no relation to cost of good produced and the increasing concentration of wealth globally echoes the court of Louis XVI prior to the French Revolution.
Worldwide that type of turmoil is unnecessary but it is possible if the extremely wealthy do not pay attention, quickly build in new and creative change and be willing to actually work for their livings. Will their financial managers even let the message reach them? Self-interest predicts they will not. The same is true for the security interests. Some threats may indeed be real and do need attention but repeating past thinking in the day of bio, telecom and nuclear risks is inappropriate and high risk for us all.
Democracy, real democracy is the only way to build justice and consensus into our world. As long as we are breathing there is hope.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/ As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe
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Democracy is looking more and more like a sham, but what's the alternative? The last time democracy was so utterly rejected and scorned by so many people was in the 1920's, and that led to the twin totalitarian evils of communism and fascism.
I gotta admit, I have been greatly encouraged by all the global movements for justice, for "Real Democracy" (the name of the Spanish movement this spring), for "Social Justice" (as the Israels chanted), and all the rest. But the level of cynicism is may be too much of a good thing, of course we shouldn't blindly trust our leaders, but if we denigrate all and any potential political leaders, we end up powerless, with a strangely "apolitical political movement." And what do we gain? Nothing.
Here in Chile, a popular slogan of the 5-month long student protest movement has been "El pueblo unido avance sin partido" or "The people united go forward without a (political) party." But how? A poll out today shows that the student demands have a whopping 89% approval. So how on earth can't a democratic system not respond to that?
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/ As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe
What has coincided with the spread of this disillusionment? The spread of neoliberal policies, that, in effect, place the wealthy and large, international corporations in charge, worldwide.
No state can effectively contest them. Indeed, governments, while nominally democratic, become captives of finance. (See the writings of Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the IMF.) Globalization, with no boundaries related to environmental or labor regulation, frees capital from ability of nation states to control it. If corporations don't like a state's policies, whether regulation of capital or the environment or labor laws protecting workers, financiers threaten to leave and take their capital with them.
400 families in the US now control as much wealth as the bottom 40-50 percent of US citizens. One billionaire in Mexico possesses as much wealth as 150 million Mexicans. The same pattern increasingly applies worldwide. Thus the similarity of the complaints of citizens worldwide.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/ As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe
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I was there for the civil rights movement. I was there for the anti-war movement. I was there for the women's march on the Pentagon...and then for two decades I got co-opted into believing the system was actually gonna work for me.
Now, I'm almost sixty, unemployed for three years with a husband who just lost his job through an e-mail. Our health insurance is $800 a month, and he gets $160 a week in unemployment.
Well guess what we've got? Time. I stand in solidarity with those on Wall Street and am ashamed that it took this long to bring me back to the essential truth of what this country is about. Unbridled corporate greed.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/ As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe
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Young voters helped bring President Obama into office, Hoping for Change. No wonder they are disillusioned. The massive TARP bailout did nothing to re-open local stores. Stimulus spending didn’t reach friends who now scramble to pay off college loans or find a minimum wage job.
They watched as Wall Street bankers were awarded huge bonuses, yet no one is prosecuted for stealing their future. Foreclosure signs continue to go up in their neighborhoods and even after passage of the “Affordable Care Act”. When you are unemployed, who can afford a $5,000 deductible? The Fed, Congress, and the White House flap around.
As 25 year-olds with college degrees deliver pizza, they hear about Bernie Madoff, the Koch Brothers, Citizens United, Solyndra, and new laws requiring voter ID cards. Boots dusty from Afghanistan return home to empty manufacturing plants. Why are we surprised when young voters feel pushed aside in a society controlled by privilege and wealth?
This is not the first time young voters have felt this way. In 1932 thousands of the disenfranchised and unemployed veterans demonstrated outside the White House. It required soldiers with fixed bayonets and live ammunition to push them away. As Intel co-founder Andy Grove says, “unemployment is corrosive”.
Either WE come together to restructure the American economy for the benefit of us all, or these young voters will bring it to our attention – in ways the rest of America may not like.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/ As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe
Palestine: On the Eve of the U.N. Vote
The Palestinians have a right to petition the U.N. for recognition, for
membership and even for establishment of a territorial home, just as Israel
achieved. The United States serves its heritage poorly in denying any people
that peaceful avenue to achieving their interests. If we believe in the U.N. we
should support its efforts to resolve territorial disputes peacefully; if we
don't believe in supporting its efforts, we should remove ourselves and our
money from an organization in which we have so little faith and whose
credibility we so easily dismiss.
Read the article NPR/Palestinians To Seek Full U.N. Membership Next Week
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You should not mistake ghosts of the mind for actual events in the physical
world. We never opted for this "siege mentality" nor do we want it, but caution
and suspicion and anxiety are natural responses of the few surrounded by many
that are hostile.
If we were many and if the enemy were few - the situation
would be different. But rejecting real threats as paranoia is self-delusion. We
never asked the "Palestinians" to terrorize us, steal our ancient homeland,
steal and rewrite our 4000 years of Jewish history nor did we ask them to engage
in boycotts, propaganda, terrorism, missile attacks, rocket attacks, kidnapping,
demographic warfare nor acting the Trojan Horse of 22 anti-Semitic Arab states.
We never asked Turkey to provoke us. We never asked Turkey to breach our moral,
just and legal blockade of Gaza - which by the way doesn't belong to any
"Palestinian" people or state in the history of mankind - nor did we ask the
Turks to beat up and manhandle our soldiers. Our soldiers acted bravely and
responsibly and I'm very proud of them.
Change our policies? How about the
"Palestinians" and the Turks changing their policies against us and getting off
our backs?
Read the article YNET NEWS/Israel's siege mentality
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As a Turkish-American in NY with many Jewish friends, colleagues, I have
followed recent development closely. Frankly, I am concerned, and don't think
any of this is headed in a good direction.
Talk of war is grandstanding - the
reality is, Israel & Turkey, cannot and will not go to war. It disappoints
me to see the yip-yap on some of these comments around who is stronger, etc. The
bigger matter that will affect Israeli (and to a lesser degree, Turkish) day to
day lives is commercial trade. Any lifting of normal trading relationships will
affect both nations greatly, probably Israel a little more so. That is not to
say that Turkey will not suffer - Israel is technologically far advanced to
anyone else in the region, and this has benefited Turkey greatly.
The whole
thing is disappointing - I used to carry the close Turko-Israeli relationship as
a source of pride. I think it is important for Israelis and Jews worldwide to
understand the history of Turkish/Jewish relationships throughout history. We
have been your friends for centuries. Yes, the US is your largest backer right
now, but that is a consequence of money influencing politicians. Absent this
influence, don't go looking to the Anglo-Saxon world for friendship.
Read the article YNET NEWS/Warships can be in E-Med at any moment
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This is the result of a changing reality in the Middle East and
the Arab tribes each fighting for a place of power and wealth in tomorrow's
region.
Israel is just the punching bag, as usually.
Arab
despots are trying to hold on to power and blame "Zionists" for issues in their
countries.
Other leaders claim to be the new prophet and will lead Arab
Middle East to the new enlightened age.
All claim to be friends of the
"Palestinians" yet treat those hosted in their respective countries like crap.
Now Abdallah is rattling his sword against Israel. Why? Not because he
hates Israel but because he knows how fragile his kingdom is under the parasitic
threat of "Palestinians".
All of this Arab rhetoric is common over the
past 1400 years, and is not about Israel. It's about those trying to gain power
and those trying to hold on to power.
Read the article YNET NEWS/Warships can be in E-Med at any moment
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Turkey has been Israel's best friend in the region for years. Turkey is not an enemy of Israel...only the conduct of Israel could make it one. Israel no longer has a firm grasp on Gaza's southern border... the blockade of Gaza can't do what Israel claims it is intended for. All it can do is continue to stifle any economic growth, any chance to achieve self-sufficiency...ironically, any positive alternative to violent resistance.
It is past time for Israel to end the siege, end the occupation of the West Bank, and make a serious effort at peace with the Palestinians... something it has never yet done.
Read the article DAILY BEAST/the Erdogan Doctrine
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You have just published the most outspoken and fair assessment of the Israeli
Palestinian issue that I have ever seen in the mainstream Western media,
which has always shielded Israel from serious criticism by simply downplaying
or ignoring their unjust and illegal actions and positions in the past.
However, like the
others, you have not pointed out the most obvious
consequence of the U.S. policy of overly protecting and condoning Israel’s
positions – terror attacks against the United States, however unjustified and
cruel such acts are. Yes, 9/11 was such an act, but over the past ten years,
no one in the mainstream media had made such a simple connection– 9/11 and
other acts were just attacks by “terrorists” who carried them out simply
to
“terrorize”.
Perhaps the American public should be made aware of this - not
that their government should change policies to appease the terrorists but
simply because it would be right and it
would reduce anti-U.S. feelings in
the region and elsewhere thus reducing the support base of the terrorists.
This
could be done without sacrificing the State of Israel but by asking them
to make a few sacrifices – we would like to have everything on our wish list
but
we can’t.
Read the article TIME/Why the Obama Administration is Failing in its Efforts to Stop the Palestinians'
U.N. Bid
Libyan Rebels on Final Drive Against Gadhafi Regime
My eyes well up and my throat tightens with feeling for the Libyan rebels, who have persevered against great odds and with great courage, not knowing how to fight a war yet fighting nonetheless, and now on the verge of winning.
They have right and morality on their side. I hope that when they take control, they will be able to resist destructive urges such as tribalism, lust for power, using gunfire to settle disagreements, and failing to realize that, despite the issues that may divide them, they all have one overriding issue in common: desire for freedom.
It is this desire that has brought them this far, and in forming a government and a political system - things in which they have absolutely no experience, at the express commands of Qaddafi - they must remember that above all they are human beings who love freedom enough to die for it, and it is freedom that can unite them and show them how to govern themselves.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/
More Clashes After Rebels Sweep Tripoli
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The heroic Libyan people will soon defeat Qaddafi and his dictatorial regime. Salute to the people’s revolutionary cause in solidarity.
However, Libyan people’s democratic revolution is just beginning. Enormous difficulties and barriers are ahead. They should overcome these difficulties with continued revolutions without hesitation. No genuine people’s revolution can claim final victory after overthrowing the dictatorial regime. The reactionary regime and its lackeys will not give in easily. They want to serve the enemies of the people both at home and abroad to restore their lost paradise by counter-revolutionary activities, openly or covertly.
International monopoly capital will certainly want to buy off corrupted officials and traitors in Libya to take control and even sole ownership of petroleum and natural gas resources. Revolutionaries should fight against the colonialist forces and their schemes by continuing revolutions. They should not lay down their arms before they establish a genuine revolutionary regime and thoroughly destroy domestic and foreign counter-revolutionary forces in Libya. A nationwide cultural revolution is necessary to wipe out the remnants of the enemy’s ideology and the old culture.
Again, people’s revolution can never end.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/
More Clashes After Rebels Sweep Tripol
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To those praising President Obama and NATO for completing their objectives, let history being a warning to you. The same was said when the "Mission Accomplished" banner was unfurled behind GWB. The war is most certainly not over. The army of the Qaddafi regime is still out there and it is still very loyal. And what are we celebrating? Yes, a cruel regime is now in tatters but who knows what may come. Does 1979 Afghanistan ring a bell? Who did we support in this war? Are they really the purveyors of Democracy? Will we have to intervene again to prevent more bloodshed and persecution? Recent events in Egypt seem to confirm this.
I'm holding by judgement for now. The responsibilities of President Obama and NATO have not ended yet.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/
More Clashes After Rebels Sweep Tripol
Interesting the number of predictions about Libya becoming a terrorist state
post-Gadaffi. First of all, Gadaffi created a true terrorist state in the first
place, and only agreed to cooperate with GWB when he became concerned that he
could be the next Saddam after 9/11 attacks.
Moreover, Mustafa Abdul
Jalil is the clear leader of the rebel forces. He has a long record of
opposition to the Gaddaffi regime, and has a very positive rating from Human
Rights Watch.
It is too early to tell what may happen to the future of
Libya. On the other hand it is rather silly for those around here to scoff,
especially given that so many of the detractors are so blindly stupid when it
comes to Libya in the first place. I guess the real fear on the right is that
Obama may get some credit for helping the rebels overthrow Gaddaffi. And we
wouldn't want that now, would we?
Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Tripoli Jubilant, Jittery Amid Pockets of Resistance
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The rebel's victory is a testament to a certain amount of advance planning and
coordination with NATO which is anxious to terminate this prolonged conflict.
The rebels, to their credit, have come a long way from a disorganized
protest movement to being a loosely organized group to overthrow a despotic
ruler. But they're still largely a civilian force with virtually no military
training.
The Libyan National Transitional Council is now charged with
imposing order in a large city and they could start by sending UNIFORMED troups
to Tripoli.
To heal the wounds of war something like a truth and
reconciliation commission or military or civilian tribunals to prosecute crimes
may be needed. The sooner that Seif al-Islam is tried and, if convicted, hanged
(preferably in a public square) the better. The same goes for Gadhafi's other
top henchmen and for Gadhafi himself if he is captured alive (and any other
persons committing atrocities against civilians).
Prolonging trials of
such individuals just serves to promote instability as was shown by the Iraqi
experience with Saddam Hussein after his capture.
Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Tripoli Jubilant, Jittery Amid Pockets of Resistance
