2009
2009 issues
Another Day Will Come
, 15 July 2009
The Economic Crisis and Obama’s Response
, 15 July 2009It is a relief to have a new Administration, to be at the start of a new government rather than at the end of one, and to have a President with the talent of President Obama and with the public confidence that he presently enjoys. That said, there is a real question as to whether this opportunity will be used in a way that makes for an effective course of action in the time during which the window of opportunity will be open.
On the Roma Again
, 15 July 2009During an official visit to the Czech Republic in May, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned that the rising number of refugee claimants coming to Canada from that country presented a growing concern for his government. As Immigration Minister Jason Kenney had done a month previously, he hinted that if the Czech government did not investigate the commercial networks allegedly orchestrating and profiting from the flow of claimants, Canada would consider reinstating visa restrictions for Czech citizens visiting Canada. In turn, the outgoing Czech Prime Minister, Mirek (...)
Impressionist Journalism
, 15 July 2009I impersonated a journalist at two events of citizen-driven activism and the following is my impression of the proceedings as the mucous of apathy and cirrostrati of lassitude that quotidianly cataract my mind’s eye were obliterated by the hot breath of tumult that rides alongside the voice of the people. You get the idea: people caring about their communities— sadly all-too novel a concept. Two approaches, two different means with, for now at least, the same ends.
The first event is a good old fashion rally-march-squat. An autonomous, community-run social centre is the prize. (...)
A History of Violence
, 15 July 2009The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were a fearsome force that controlled a third of Sri Lanka at their peak. They ran a de facto state with their own air force, navy, and infantry. In their final days, they collapsed like a pack of cards after holding out for twenty-six years. The Tamil Tigers may be finished, but the ethnic conflict that created them has yet to be resolved.
The Rise of the (fallen) Machines
, 15 July 2009
Protests and the Global City
, 15 July 2009
Let My People Go
, 15 July 2009SOS Esclaves (SOS Slaves), a Mauritanian NGO run by the son of slaves, received this year’s Anti Slavery International Award.
“I, for my part, together with a number of my friends realized that slavery was unjust, and that we could not accept the traditional law of Mauritanian society”, says Boubacar Messaoud, the co-founder of SOS Esclaves at the London ceremony where he was given the 2009 Anti Slavery International award, “Consequently, I consider myself a free and independent man and refuse to accept this law that traditional Mauritanian society has forced on me since (...)
If You Think In Terms Of A Year, Plant A Seed
, 20 May 2009
Namibia, a vast country inhabited by two million people, is one of the
smaller economies in Southern Africa. It adopted a market-based
economic system after achieving independence from apartheid-
era South Africa in 1990. Despite creating favourable investment
conditions and its high levels of political stability, Namibia, with its
ample mineral and marine resources, could not break the vicious
cycle of mass unemployment, inequality, and poverty.
In 2002, the Namibian government appointed the Namibia Tax
Consortium to review Namibia’s tax system and to explore ways of (...)
Balancing The Scales
, 20 May 2009Rather than getting squeezed by
conventional trade, thousands of
artisans and farmers around the world
will have enough money to provide their
families with food, shelter, education,
and health care.
The Fair Trade movement is a worldwide
phenomenon that holds at its core the
belief that people come before profits.
Fair Trade is a response to the global
inequalities caused by the conventional
trading system that has all too often
resulted in the rich becoming richer
whilst the producers at the bottom of
the trade chain remain desperately poor.
In order for an (...)
Not Another Brick in the Wall
, 20 May 2009
You Can Never Go Home Again
, 20 May 2009The Crimean Tatars are a Turkic people who inhabited the Crimean peninsula— now a part of Ukraine— for over seven centuries. They established their own Khanate in the 1440s and remained an important power in Eastern Europe until 1783, when Crimea was annexed to Russia. During World War II, Stalin deported the entire Crimean Tatar population en masse to Central Asia, mainly Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It was only after the Soviet Union collapsed that the doors of Crimea were reopened to these indigenous people.
:Peruvian Graffiti
, 20 May 2009AIJ’s MR Wiseman recently read the handwriting on the
wall. It belonged to artist-at-large :Peru.
For a free trip, go to www.peru143.com
and explore all of his creations.
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; (...)
