The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
Juan Cole -
In 1957, a United States shocked by the Soviet launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite bounced into action to compete on the world stage. More than 50 years later, in May of 2011, the U.S. is facing a new challenge. The Chinese Communist Party has decided to launch a crash program to produce green energy, a field where it already has a commanding lead over the U.S. The difference between 1957 and 2011 is that American politics in the meantime have been captured by parasitic or corrupt industries...
Now that Osama Bin Laden has been killed, what does the future hold for America's Af-Pak strategy? Al Jazeera's "Empire" hosts a fascinating discussion with Middle Eastern experts, including progressive analyst Tariq Ali. The discussion examines the future of Al Qaeda, while reflecting on the origins of the organization and the Jihadi ideology. In addition, it examines the foothold that the Taliban has in the region and unpacks possible scenarios to achieve peace and stability...
Carmel deAmicis -
Crowd Surfing Without Tears
From a couple blocks away we could hear the screaming. It was a loud bellow rumbling through the spaces between skyscrapers, the unmistakable sound of a jubilant crowd at a sports stadium. Except this wasn’t a sports stadium – it was Ground Zero, minutes after Obama addressed the nation to tell us Bin Laden was dead. The people trickling towards the site began sprinting as they got closer, running straight into a teeming mass of young people. A wall of...
"Bin Laden is dead, but the world is still governed by bin Ladens. People cheer because they thought they saw justice, but this was not justice delivered by victims. This was one killer killing another," says American activist and journalist, Allan Nairn.
“I think we need an American uprising, if we’re to put a stop to this kind of killing of innocent people," argues Nairn.
Find more coverage on the Killing of Osamam Bin Laden on Democracy Now.
10...
Pepe Escobar -
The Sheikh he drove his Cadillac
He went a-cruisin' down the ville
The Muezzin was a-standin'
On the radiator grill
The Clash, Rock the Casbah
It's irrelevant. It may be a rockin' Hollywood thriller - an Osama/Obama double bill (directed by Kathryn "Hurt Locker" Bigelow). But the targeted assassination - allegedly with an iconic American bullet to the head - of Osama bin Laden on Monday in fact only matches the irrelevancy the larger than life jihadi Godfather had...
Leonard Gentle -
On one side of the world NATO bombs Libya and on the other, the newly expanded BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) meet on the island of Hainan, off the south coast of China. Two seemingly unrelated events. But there are links and forces at play fuelling important new power contestations in the world.
Western bombs are raining down on Libya and a “no-fly zone” is being imposed after a United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution. At the UN,...
