contributions

6.6 Million Children Under the Age of Five Died Last Year Mostly from Easily Treatable Diseases.
Most of the deaths have been from pneumonia, malaria, or diarrhea. Over 70% of these deaths have occurred in Africa and South-East Asia. Nearly half of all under five deaths occur in five countries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, China, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.
The women and children of the Congo have had to endure two decades of warfare, hundreds of thousands of displaced (…)

HOW AMERICA LEARNED TO PLAY GOD
The Aftermath of 9/11: America’s Second Great Transformation and the Emergence of a Brave New World
John Chuckman
I call America’s pattern of behavior since 9/11 a “great transformation” because it involves revolutionary changes for the country and, unavoidably, the entire world. In its internal affairs, America has effectively weakened the protections of the Bill of Rights and instituted many of the practices of police states – all under the insidious (…)

By Nicola Nasser*
The ongoing aggressive Saudi policy for a militarized “regime change” in Syria is more an expression of internal vulnerability, trying hopelessly to avert change outside their borders lest change sweeps inside, than being a positive show of leadership and power, but Syrian developments are proving by the day that the Saudis are fighting a lost battle against change.
Riyadh is fighting several preemptive battles outside its borders in its immediate proximity in a (…)

Mr President Obama 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington DC 20500 (USA)
Mr President,
Here we are in November of 2013, and the four Cubans, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, and Ramón Labañino, have still not been set free.
I often wonder what the real reasons were for their being arrested on September 12th 1998. FBI agents had already uncovered the Avispa Network agents since 1996, but held off arresting (…)

Argentine farmworker Fabian Tomasi wasn’t trained to use protective gear as he pumped pesticides into crop dusters. Now at 47, he’s a living skeleton.
Schoolteacher Andrea Druetta lives in a town where it’s illegal to spray agrochemicals within 550 yards of homes, and yet soy is planted just 33 yards from her back door. Recently, her boys were showered in chemicals while swimming in their backyard pool.
Sofia Gatica’s search for answers after losing her newborn to kidney failure led to (…)

By Nicola Nasser*
Gradually, awareness that de-Zionization of the US and European foreign policy as well as the internal policies of the State of Israel has become a prerequisite for peace in the Middle East is steadily taking roots in Israeli and world public opinion and consciousness.
However this awareness has yet to wait for drying up the Zionist ideological wellsprings of the Arab – Israeli conflict and translating it into real politics by de-Zionization of Israel and disengaging (…)

CUTTING THE MIDDLE EAST’S GORDIAN KNOT: WHY ISRAEL CANNOT SURVIVE IN ITS PRESENT FORM John Chuckman
Some Israelis are fond of comparing Israel’s displacement of Palestinians to the historical experience of North Americans in displacing indigenous people, but the comparison is inaccurate on almost every level. First, comparing events of two hundred years ago and today is misleading: norms of human rights and ethics and law have changed tremendously in that time. Besides, people all over the (…)

I must preface that rather rude statement with a confession that I use it all the time.
It’s true... that I am literally on Google+ from the morning until the night. Once upon a time I used to use Twitter hDh wirenewsco quite a bit and I still use Facebook from time to time, but Google+ has indeed captured my attention and frankly, I cannot put it down.
But it’s a love, hate relationship.
I love some of the features, such as the ease at which you can share a video or image or file (…)

The new climate criminal, anti-environment, effective climate change denialist and extreme right wing Coalition Government of Australia is threatening to ban boycotts by environmentalists against companies involved in environmental devastation. However it has also foreshadowed cutting off any Federal funding for any academic who supports Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel. Since some of the leading Australian proponents of BDS are anti-racist Jewish (…)

(San Francisco) Back when all the hoo-rah started about bombing Syria by the high up mukety-mucks, I wondered if it could be done. So, I started with looking up the essential facts. Seems simple enough; it was anything but. Let’s do the math.
Start from Where?
The days when American Carriers confidently patrolled the Mediterranean Sea are gone since Putin’s Russian Navy took over the Med. There are only four US destroyers there, carefully watched and under the gun from many Russkie (…)