Alternatives International Journal
Venezuela : Nicolas Maduro, pour continuer
, 15 avril 2013La droite vénézuélienne, battue depuis 1998 par le chavisme, a affûté sa stratégie électorale et infléchi hypocritement son discours vers "plus de social".
Ultralibérale, elle s’est réclamée par exemple des "missions sociales" de Chavez. Le mensonge a payé..., mais il est une nouvelle fois battu, avec une marge plus limitée que celle que nous attendions.
Manifestement le "quotient personnel" de Chavez allait au-delà du "vote socialiste".
La campagne politique, très affective de Maduro, très émotionnelle après la mort
du "comandante" Chavez, n’a pas entraîné l’adhésion de l’ensemble du vote (...)
The 1893 Columbian Exposition in
Chicago bemused visitors with its
unique Middle Eastern Cairo Street. But
the representation of Islam did not get a
warm reception— the audience likened
the Islamic call to prayer to the noise
of a dogfight! Even in the twenty-first
century, the Western media struggles
to face reality: Muslims, far from being a
mere sideshow, comprise a remarkably
large part of those who immigrate to the
West. Since the 1960s, Muslims in the
West have progressed steadily from
the realm of the “invisible—newcomers
to new lands with little public voice of
recognition— (...)
Israeli Apartheid
, 21 April 2009For the liberation movements of southern
Africa, Israel and apartheid South Africa
represented a racist, colonial axis. It
was noted that people like John Vorster
had been Nazi sympathisers, interned
during World War II - yet feted as heroes
in Israel and, incidentally, never again
referred to by South African Zionists as
anti-Semites.
It is instructive to add that in its conduct
and methods of repression, Israel came to
resemble more and more apartheid South
Africa at its zenith— even surpassing its
brutality, house demolitions, removal of
communities, targeted assassinations, (...)
A SLAPP in the Face
, 21 April 2009In January, the Norwegian government
decided to exclude Canada’s Barrick
Gold from its pensions investment
fund, deeming the activities of the
mining company in Papua New Guinea
as “an unacceptable risk of extensive
and irreversible damage to the natural
environment.” This sort of indictment is not
unique; Canadian mining multinationals
in Africa face numerous allegations of
environmental damage. Worse, their
reputation for a lack of ecological respect
pales in comparison to their other alleged
activities, such as the violent confiscation
of property, tax evasion, corruption, and (...)
Hands Extended Across America
, 21 April 2009“Let me say this as clearly as I can:
The United States is not, and will
never be, at war with Islam,” declared
President Barack Obama before the
Turkish Grand National Assembly. His
words came in stark contrast to former
President George Bush’s use of the
word “crusade” to describe America’s
post 9/11 efforts.
Barack Obama’s speech in Turkey was
a significant step toward mitigating the
tensions that have been stewing between
the United States and the Muslim world.
His remarks were a marked effort to
shake off the mistrusts that characterized
the Bush administration’s dealings with (...)
Haneen of Nazareth
, 21 April 2009Quebeckers at Heart
, 21 April 2009The statistics speak for themselves.
In Quebec, the unemployment rate
among those of North African origin is
29% compared to a rate of 7% among
the general population. Discrimination
exists, and the Quebec government is
struggling to tackle it.
A Quebecker of North African origin,
Nacer, 50 years old, has lived in
Montreal for 20 years. Despite his
best efforts, he and his family have
been unable to break off of the path
of poverty. With an elegance and
softness that are out of place with the
harshness of the acts of racism that he
recounts, he speaks of the employment (...)
The Great Lakes’ Grand Alliance
, 21 April 2009In Africa’s Great Lakes region, fifteen
years removed from the genocide,
shadows still loom large. Although
most Rwandans have returned to a life
of normalcy, thousands of Hutus have
remained in the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC) where they are led
by veterans of the 1995 genocide in a
group called the Democratic Forces for
the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). For
fifteen years they have fought in a series
of wars that have devastated the DRC.
Established in North and South Kivu, in
the eastern part of the country just across
the border from Rwanda, the FDLR,
besides being (...)
It can come as no great shock when,
after giving your credit card number and
assorted personal details to a late-night
television psychic, their subsequent
prediction is that you will become a
victim of bank fraud.
And what, pray tell, happens when
public money is given to resuscitate
myopic and amoral private enterprises
that are proving to be shrewd and
rather discriminating paupers in spite
of their dismal records of commercial
ineptitude? Heads they win, tails we
lose. There is a renewed poignancy
to the tragedy of the commons, which
began sometime in the distant past
with (...)
Red-lighting India’s Brothels
, 14 March 2009Geeta Thapa falters when she talks about her future, “There are many
pursuing me… and… I haven’t been able to say ‘yes.’”
So why is an attractive, independent 22 year-old reluctant to commit
to marriage? Geeta believes if she reveals her “secret” no one will
love her, yet if she does not how will this diminutive young woman bear
the enormous weight of her past and move into a brighter future?
She was sixteen-and-a-half when the Rescue Foundation pulled her
out of Mumbai’s dangerous network of gated brothels. For three
years she had lived in a series of windowless single bedrooms. A (...)
March is International Women’s Month.
And what better way is there to celebrate
the contributions to our planet of more
than 50% of the world’s people than
to offer them a full 1/12 of the year as
a token of gratitude. Yes, a whopping
31 days— note that Women were not
short changed with one of those 30-day
months like September, which incidentally
and without a hint of bitterness, is
(seriously and sadly) Be Kind to Editors
& Writers Month, nor were they offered
the diminutive February like those who
are unfortunate enough to be (again
seriously and sadly, but for altogether (...)
Southern Food: All You Can Eat
, 14 March 2009Wealthy states and multinational
corporations are buying up long-term
leases on sizeable tracts of farmland
in developing countries. Inspired by
the recent food crisis, it has become a
veritable bonanza that reeks of colonialism
and risks disastrous consequences.
Saudi Arabia has gained control of around
1.6 million hectares of land in Indonesia,
which is the equivalent of approximately
three quarters of Québec’s cropland.
Together with the United Arab Emirates,
Saudi Arabia has also appropriated 1.4
million hectares in countries like Pakistan
and Sudan. The Persian Gulf states (...)
India’s Queen-in-Waiting
, 14 March 2009She was ranked 59th in the Forbes list
of the 100 most powerful women last
year, only just behind Queen Elizabeth
II, whose great-great grandmother,
Queen Victoria, once subsumed India
to the British crown. The media call her
the Dalit Queen, but she simply calls
herself by her given name, Mayawati.
She is currently chief minister of one
of India’s most important electoral
provinces, Uttar Pradesh, and it is
widely reported that she has her eyes
set on the prime minister’s seat in the
upcoming general elections.
India is no stranger to female politicians
or heads of government; (...)
Breaking the Cycle of Impunity in Guatemala
, , 14 March 2009Juana Mendez is an indigenous Mayan
and mother of 11 children. Illiterate
and speaking only K’iche’, she lives
below the poverty line in a rural area
of Guatemala. Following the discovery
of opium plants near her home in
December of 2004, Juana was arrested
and arbitrarily imprisoned. One month
after her arrest, she was brought to
the Nebaj regional police station in the
province of Quiché, where she spent the
night before making her first statement
in court the next day. During the night,
at least two intoxicated police officers
sexually assaulted her, threatening her
life in (...)
Israeli Apartheid
, 14 March 2009I want to start by quoting a South African
who emphatically stated as far back as
1963 that “Israel is an apartheid state.”
Those were not the words of Nelson
Mandela, Archbishop Tutu or Joe Slovo,
but were uttered by none other than the
architect of apartheid itself, racist Prime
Minister, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd.
He was irked by the criticism of apartheid
policy and Harold Macmillan’s “Winds of
Change” speech, in contrast to the West’s
unconditional support for Zionist Israel.
To be sure Verwoerd was correct. Both
states preached and implemented a
policy based on racial ethnicity; (...)
Engineering Equality
, 14 March 2009To improve the gender equity at the
College of Engineering and Technology,
dedicated members of the University
of Dar es Salaam’s Gender Center
began the Special Pre-Entry Program
in 2004, which immediately increased
the percentage of female students to
15.5% in the academic year 2004-
2005 (up from 7.3% in 2002-2003).
In the academic year of 2007-2008,
24.5% of students in engineering
were female. The program achieved
this increase in enrolment by allowing
girls with low marks coming out of
secondary school to undergo eight
weeks of intensive, targeted training
in engineering (...)
Loathe Thy Neighbour?
, 14 March 2009The heated debate over African migration
to the European Union (EU) is cast in
divisive, hyperbolic terms. Depending
on one’s national affiliation or political
leanings, the undocumented migrants
who undertake the journey across
the Mediterranean Sea from Northern
Africa to Southern Europe represent a
security crisis or a humanitarian crisis.
The solution is either to tighten borders
or to tear down walls. Migrants— and
Europeans— are caricaturized as villains
or victims.
These simplistic, discursive tactics
are effective at generating support for
either side of the debate. They (...)
Review: A Look into the Inner-workings of the Machine
, 14 March 2009The September 11 2001 Al-Qaeda
terrorist attacks shook the White
House into a state of controlled
panic and the nation into exhaustive
asymmetric warfare. Worse, no
one really knew if graver threats yet
loomed. Led by George W. Bush’s
itchy trigger finger and Dick Cheney’s
nightmarish scenarios, this ignorance
turned the ensuing counterterrorist
war into a battle for the country’s
soul. Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side
is a well-documented and lucidly
written testimony of how the Bush
administration sacrificed the sacred
habeas corpus. It will fascinate
readers who were frustrated by the (...)
America’s Secure Flight Program
, 18 February 2009This year will see the implementation
of a new piece of American legislation
developed by the Department
of Homeland Security called the
Secure Flight Program (SFP). The
bill contains at least one measure
that has raised the ire of many
Canadian civil liberties organisations;
airlines must provide the United
States’ Transportation Security
Administration with such personal
information as a passenger’s passport
and travel itinerary three days before
any flight goes through American
airspace. All information gathered
is subsequently cross-referenced
against lists of suspected (...)
Two beings, alike in dignity,
determination and dedication,
became engaged in a standoff.
Neither was willing to blink for
fear that in that split second their
adversary would finally strike. The
result? Neither blinked. Their eyes
dried-out, blinding them both.
A scorpion happens across a frog
and asks him for a ride across the
river. The Frog, wary of his potentially
lethal interlocutor, queries, “If I
help you across the river, will you
promise not to sting me?” Quoth
the Scorpion, “Kind Frog, I am King
of the Scorpions, if you help me I
shall tell all of my subjects to protect (...)
Testimonies from Gaza
, 15 February 2009The story of Dr. Awni Jarw, aged
37. His house was bombed by the
Israeli air force.
“Yousef was 18 months-old. My wife
and I had been waiting for him for
so long. He brought us joy and love,
with his laugh and smile. He filled our
home with happiness. But all of a
sudden, I found myself searching for
his tiny body parts all over my house.
When looking for the body parts of
my wife, I found Yousef’s tiny feet,
the lower part of my wife’s body, my
baby’s head and hand. I collected
them and put them together so that
they can be united in death.”
(Source: Palestine Monitor)
Story of (...)
Things Are Falling Apart
, 15 February 2009It’s sixty years and counting since the
founding of the State of Israel, and
nothing seems to change, except
for the worse. The torment of the
Palestinian people is unending—as
is the massive control of the United
States by Zionist lobbies, the passive
yet deadly acquiescence of other
Western democracies, the corruption
of compliant Arab states, and, above
all, the ever-mounting brutalization
of Israel. All these forces are locked
together into a nightmarish embrace
that sows despair among people of
good will.
The Zionist project once commanded
the respect and sympathy of much
of (...)
Jewish Opposition to Israel
, 15 February 2009Part of the global outrage against the
Israeli assault on Gaza has been a
much stronger voice from dissident
Jews. I was one of eight Jewish
women who were arrested for an
occupation of the Israeli consulate in
Toronto on January 8. The next day,
Jewish activists blocked the entrance
to the Israeli consulate in Boston.
The following Monday, 1,000 Jews
demonstrated in front of the Israeli
consulate in New York City and,
a couple of days later, a group of
young Jewish activists locked down
the consulate in Los Angeles.
The BBC reported that the Council
of Jewish Communities in (...)
Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions
, 15 February 2009In July 2005, a large coalition of
Palestinian civil society groups
issued a call for a global Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions strategy
(BDS) against Israel until it complied
with international human rights
agreements and UN resolutions.
Calling on people of conscience all
over the world, these organizations
propose a non-violent tactic similar to
that of the African National Congress
in their struggle against apartheid in
South Africa.
Israel’s dual laws for Jewish settlers
and Palestinians, the segregation of
roads and housing, and restrictions
on Palestinians’ freedom of (...)
The Science of Equality
, 15 February 2009“We are turning science and
technology into a weapon that the
poor can use to combat their poverty.”
For almost 50 years, this has been the
creed of Indian NGO Kerala Sasthra
Sahithya Parishad (KSSP), who
have helped impoverished citizens
to actively pursue the social change
that leads to greater equality.
The roots of Kerala Sasthra Sahithya
Parishad, which translated from
Malayalam means “The forum for
scientific literature of Kerala”, date
back to 1962. The primary objective
of this small group of researchers
was to translate scientific works into
their local language in an (...)
When thinking about human trafficking, most of us
conjure up exotic images of gangs, flophouses and
forced prostitution. That is part of it, but in today’s day and
age we should be taking a good look at more mundane
activities. In Canada, as in many parts of the world,
human trafficking has also become a phenomenon in
the services and manufacturing sectors.
Belligerent Buddhism in Sri Lanka
19 November 2008To begin this month’s issue without a few words on the US election would be impossible. Every four years, when the
most powerful country in the world goes to the ballot box, the rest of the world takes notice. Although much ink has
been shed on the end of a unipolar world- including in this very space- the United States is still the world’s economic,
military, cultural, academic, etc, leader. It remains, at the very least, the first among equals. The attention lavished upon
this election from across the globe proves just that.
