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Those who can’t be bothered to go out and vote on election day or think their vote won’t make a difference not only miss the point but also miss a prime opportunity to voice their dissatisfaction. In the Western world, we preach and proselytize the gospel of democracy and even try to force it on other countries (whether they like it or not), providing expertise and money to set up a framework for democratic elections. Over history, people across the world have died (or put their lives in (…)

(c) newscientist
* 18:32 15 January 2010 by Kate Ravilious
Earthquake experts are warning that the devastating quake that struck Haiti on Tuesday could be the first of several in the region. They say historical records suggest that not all the energy that has built up in the faults running through the Caribbean region was released in this week’s tragedy.
Their fear is that enough energy remains in the fault system to trigger another earthquake of the same scale as Tuesday’s.
The (…)

New Caledonia’s pro-independence USTKE (Union of Kanak and Exploited Workers) union leader Gérard Jodar has been granted release from a nine-month jail sentence he was serving for disrupting air traffic during violent clashes on the tarmac of the Magenta domestic airport late May 2009.
The ruling was handed down by an Appeals Court in New Caledonia’s capital Nouméa, local media reported.
Mid-September 2009, a former appeal ruling reduced Jodar’s initial sentence of 12 to nine months. (…)

by Roomy Naqvy
This is off the wires right now and is recent news. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has used the photograph of a Spanish lawmaker as part of a digitally enhanced Osama bin Laden picture, angering him. They have subsequently expressed regrets for the procedure. It is the leftist lawmaker, Gaspar Llamazares. He was justifiably angry at the mix-up. Llamazares’s grey hair, jaw line and forehead were simply pasted by an FBI technician and no one bothered to cross check (…)

A JAZZMAN CHRONICLE by Jack Random. DISSEMINATE FREELY.
“To the people of Haiti we say clearly and with conviction: You will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten.”
President Barack Obama 14 January 2010.
“We have been living for one year now under this de facto government which is destroying the country. 95% of the people…who were working government jobs have been fired. Children cannot go to school. Students cannot advance in their studies. We are wondering how far this (…)

Most people fall into two camps on the issue of voting. Either they believe that it is one’s civic duty to vote in an election or they shun elections altogether. Not bothering to vote is a sign of apathy while voting for the sake of voting can put the wrong party in power. Not many voters are even aware that a third option is available to them: the null vote! “Votez Nul” is a very straightforward French campaign to have a defaced ballot or null vote recognized for what it is. If individuals (…)

Cuban involvement in "sensitive areas" threatens the Venezuelan State Experts warned against the work of Cubans in airports, public registry and notary’s offices
The defection of Cuban doctors who arrived in Venezuela to work with health care social program Mission Barrio Adentro and later fled to the United States produced evidence of Cuba’s "security officers" working in the immigration area of Maiquetía, Venezuela’s major airport. Claims had been formerly made, yet now there is a (…)

2010 January 13
By Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD
With the long awaited decision by the Obama Administration in regards to the new strategy for Afghanistan, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated to the point that the US commanders started using the word ‘defeat’ in their report to Washington. The word defeat has rarely been uttered by military; however, Afghanistan is the exception, where defeat is a realistic outcome. There, defeat is a reality that all invaders have faced (…)

I have recently been called to answer the question of with whom, when and where to align oneself as a warrior for social justice. These questions come up regularly in my teaching classes about resistance and revolution in a Justice Studies department in the USA. However, a more troubling and persistent call also comes from relationships with family members, neighbors and colleagues.
For some time now, a growing number of people, whether they call themselves right wingers, left wingers, (…)

Congratulations to Conservative MP Andrew Murrison for raising the issue of the Western Sahara at PMQ’s today. Sadly, Murrison’s question... "What are the Prime Minister’s views on the situation in Western Sahara" was so vague that it enabled Brown to give a similarly vague and incomprehensible reply about the need to combat terrorism. However, there have been state sponsored terrorists in Western Sahara for the last 35 years, since the Moroccans illegally invaded and occupied the country (…)