Jul 31 2014 - 1:38pm
Amid the success of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland, there has been a troubling development for the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) went into liquidation.
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Jul 31 2014 - 11:16am
By Ibrahim Bahati
More than 10,000 people have died and 1.5 million are displaced in South Sudan’s current violent conflict amidst the destructive rhetoric of rivals President Salva Kiir and former President Riek Machar. UNICEF reported that 9,000 children have been recruited or abducted as child soldiers by both sides. Alongside the report, 23-year-old Ring Placido describes his experience as a former member of the South Sudanese children’s battalion, “Nyony,” at the age of six: “’I was very frightened and upset to be taken from my mother … But I could not show fear or sadness, because they would have beaten me. I had no choice but to become one of them.’”
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Jul 28 2014 - 11:06am
Here we go again. Another loud-mouthed commentator perpetuating the storyline that somehow, victims of domestic violence provoke their abusers. This time, it was Steven A. Smith on ESPN’s First Look. In a two minute diatribe Smith at first seem to recognize how appalling it is that Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice has been suspended for only two games after violently assaulting his then-fiancé (now wife) Janay Palmer in an elevator, punching her in the face and knocking her out completely.
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Jul 27 2014 - 3:25pm
I was jogging around our nearby lake when I saw two women walking. As I passed them, I recognized one as a former friend of mine. Our eyes met but she quickly averted them. I realized who it was by the time I was way past them. It brought back many memories of what I call The Dark Days of (My) Divorce.
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Jul 25 2014 - 4:26pm
By Jeanine Russaw
Thirty. Twenty. Fifteen.
She puts up a good fight: struggling, kicking, and biting are just par for the course. Not to mention, she’s used to it; it’s happened before. Ten. Five. She lets out an agonizing scream. Zero.
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Jul 25 2014 - 7:56am
It's hard to know whether to be pleased each time the place I live, Charlottesville, Va., is named the happiest city in the United States. I grew up largely in Northern Virginia (suburbs of Washington, D.C.) and Charlottesville is a long ways away in Central Virginia. I remember hearing that Fairfax County schools, which I attended at the time, were ranked best in the country. Wow, I thought, other people's schools must be truly awful!
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Jul 24 2014 - 2:32pm
The word will not be spoken in any formal speeches and it won’t be mentioned in final statements and declarations, but it will be talked about in the corridors and it will be at the back of everyone’s mind as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits five Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations from July 25 to August 2. The word is “China”.
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Jul 23 2014 - 7:23pm
Hand it to President Obama for appointing Eric Holder the first African American Attorney General in US history. Then try to fathom that after generations of civil and human rights work by African Americans -- whom the US Constitution once called “3/5 of a person” -- it is Holder who declared some brown skinned prisoners of war to be “non-persons.” The men are held outside the law by the US at Guantánamo Bay.
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Jul 21 2014 - 11:16am
Americans committed to better living for bosses can take heart at the fact that college and university administrators—unlike their faculty (increasingly reduced to rootless and benefitless adjuncts) and students (saddled with ever more debt)―are thriving.
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Jul 20 2014 - 11:45am
I have long believed that good teaching is a lot like acting. This summer, I have had the chance to reflect more deeply about those connections, having had the wonderful opportunity to participate in my local children’s theater’s (Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater) production of "Shrek the Musical", alongside my 10-year-old daughter. Here I share some of my observations about how community-based theater in general and Shrek the Musical, specifically, are wonderful reminders of what peace education should look like.
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Jul 18 2014 - 2:24pm
An alternative to violent force is nonviolent force. This can look like many things, but economic sanctions are a major category of compulsion by nonviolent means. Do they always work? This question is answered best with another question, does violence always work? In fact, no method of compulsion always works (with the possible exception of a crying baby).
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Jul 17 2014 - 1:10pm
It is news that should awaken the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from their complacent attitude toward developing countries. It is also news that should confirm to the G20 that what used to be the G7 – a group of the seven industrialised nations -- no longer controls the world’s financial affairs.
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Jul 16 2014 - 6:03pm
By John Loretz
There’s more bad news from the climate scientists. Not about global warming, where the news is never good, but about the impact nuclear weapons would have on the atmosphere, our climate, and food production if even a very small number were used in a limited, regional conflict.
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Jul 16 2014 - 10:25am
As a huge fan of the Miami Heat, my heart was broken twice this summer: First, when the team was overwhelmed by the San Antonio Spurs to lose the 2014 NBA finals, and again when Lebron James announced he is leaving the team to return to his home, Cleveland, to play for the Cavaliers. Despite these disappointments, though, I believe that losing Lebron has much to teach us about dignity in the face of adversity, leadership, and forgiveness—all important themes for peacemakers and peace educators.
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Jul 13 2014 - 10:37pm
My dreams are invaded these days by the specter of methane frozen under arctic ice bubbling up as the ice above it melts, setting up a potentially irreversible cycle: more methane, more climate change, yet more methane, yet more climate change. A group of us here in our little coastal Maine town are so disgusted with congressional gridlock and so eager to do something that we have formed a cooperative to help our fellow citizens transition off fossil fuels in their homes. Co-op members walk their talk; outside each meeting it’s a veritable pride of Priuses.
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Jul 11 2014 - 3:24pm
by Mairav Zonszein
Thursday was my “due date.” I began my 40th week of pregnancy yesterday and am due to go into labor any day now. I’ve been mentally and physically preparing myself for this exciting and unpredictable moment for months, planning to have as natural, active and positive an experience as I can without any unnecessary interventions.
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Jul 10 2014 - 4:39pm
The Institute of Commonwealth Studies at London University held a colloquium on Thursday July 10, 2014 on the subject of “Why join the Commonwealth?”. I was invited to be a lead speaker. What follows below is a very much shortened version of my remarks given the space restriction of this column.
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Jul 10 2014 - 11:07am
Updated 3 weeks ago
During the Second World War, over 110,000 Japanese-Americans were rounded up by the US government, and placed into concentration camps. Why? Because of fear. Since then, this same type of fear has caused many more irrational actions from our government. Last year, it became widespread knowledge that the National Security Agency was monitoring, collecting, and storing private information from millions of American citizens. The range of activities from this federal agency was revealed to be enormous—such as tapping telephone calls, collecting text messages from cell phones, monitoring social media, what books Americans are reading or checking-out of libraries, along with sorting through millions of e-mails—all of this being done without a warrant. Read more
Jul 9 2014 - 7:13pm
By Pieter Both and Wim Zwijnenburg
Syria’s ongoing civil war has already resulted in more than conservative estimates of 120,000 mortalities (including nearly 15,000 children) and has brought enormous destruction in cities and towns all over the country. Apart from the direct impact of the violent conflict on the lives of Syrian citizens, health and environmental impacts are emerging as serious problems that deserve immediate and long-term attention.
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Jul 8 2014 - 10:36pm
During my recent visit to Gangjeong, on Jeju Island, South Korea, where a protest community has struggled for years to block construction of a U.S. military base, conversations over delicious meals in the community kitchen were a delightful daily event. At lunchtime on my first day there I met Emily and Dongwon, a young and recently married couple, both protesters, who had met each other in Gangjeong. Emily recalled that when her parents finally travelled from Taiwan to meet her partner, they had to visit him in prison.
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Jul 7 2014 - 5:07pm
Last month the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a report titled “War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing,” shedding much-needed light on the emergence of a militarist ethos in policing across the nation.
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Jul 7 2014 - 12:48pm
Ever since the horrors of submarine warfare became a key issue during World War I, submarines have had a sinister reputation. And the building of new, immensely costly, nuclear-armed submarines by the U.S. government and others may soon raise the level of earlier anxiety to a nuclear nightmare.
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Jul 7 2014 - 9:05am
A relatively new group engaging in non-state political violence, ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, recently called for the creation of an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria and a continuation and strengthening of jihad during Ramadan, according to a video that emerged through social media. ISIS, born of Al Qaeda members in Iraq and matured in the Syrian civil war power vacuum, is so radical that Al Qaeda “disowned” it. As if its goals of coerced dominance aren’t bad enough, Al Qaeda criticized ISIS for its brutality against civilians and Muslims. Repeat: Al Qaeda criticized ISIS. For brutality.
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Jul 6 2014 - 4:34pm
By Sarah Sult
If you were to travel to Iraqi Kurdistan (which is safer than many neighborhoods of U.S. cities) you will not only see U.S flags and framed pictures of George W. Bush, you'll actually meet younger generation Kurds named "Bush."
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Jul 4 2014 - 9:33pm
Remarks at Independence from America event outside Menwith Hill "RFA" (NSA) base in Yorkshire.
http://warisacrime.org/content/celebrating-independence-america-england
First of all, thank you to Lindis Percy and everyone else involved in bringing me here, and letting me bring my son Wesley along.
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Jul 4 2014 - 10:27am
Polio, once a global scourge, was on the verge of eradication in 2012. Since that time, it has reemerged as a global public health emergency according to the World Health Organization. Why has it now spread from its final strongholds in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan to at least 10 countries spanning Asia, Africa and the Middle East? It is not because of changes in the virus or ineffective vaccines. The answer is war, and as we all know, “truth is the first casualty of war.”
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Jul 3 2014 - 9:43am
“Bun-wuk” or “Fiyah-d-wuk” are two names for a troubling phenomenon that has recently emerged in certain countries of the 15-nation Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Unless it is nipped in the bud by practical measures to address the growing difficulties associated with youth, it is bound to spread like wildfire with troubling consequences throughout the region, given the predilection for copy-cat behaviour particularly among young people.
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Jul 2 2014 - 7:29pm
By David Swanson,
Remarks in London, England, July 2, 2014.
Thank you to Bruce Kent and the Movement for the Abolition of War and to Veterans For Peace and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Thank you to the Stop the War Coalition and everyone else for helping spread the word.
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Jul 2 2014 - 9:23am
Did you know?
The first woman to be recorded in the Congressional Record -- Mildred Lewis Rutherford -- was 10 years young at the outbreak of the American War Between the States in 1861. Fifty-five years later she said in a 1916 speech: Read more
Jun 27 2014 - 11:01pm
Considering the reality American taxpayers have been paying the financial and human costs for most of the defense efforts to protect the likes of Iraq, Saudi Arabia and a few other spots in the Middle East, isn’t it time we started sending bills for services rendered? After all, in terms of just the money, we’re talking close to a few trillion dollars. There is no realistic price to cover the human sacrifices.
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Jun 27 2014 - 8:34pm
By Bert Sacks
“Those Iraqis have been fighting each other for centuries,” a friend recently said to me. I have heard this mistaken view too often.
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Jun 26 2014 - 8:24am
Human trafficking is a despicable, dehumanising and exploitative practice that is rightly described as ‘modern day slavery’. That its principal victims are women and children, who are not only stripped of their rights but also of their humanity, is a stain of disgrace on governments that fail to act to stop the perpetrators.
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Jun 25 2014 - 6:13pm
Students heading off to college for the first time or even to a new campus as a transfer are always full of questions. As an academic adviser at my university, I am happy to answer whatever a student or parent who accompanies their son or daughter might ask. Most of the questions I have been asked, however, are related to the pathway to graduation and career opportunities thereafter.
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Jun 24 2014 - 6:27am
Updated 5 weeks ago
Voting rights was a priority of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. The struggle to secure these rights achieved real traction and impact in the early 1960s. While the Jim Crow South was rife with voter suppression, there was no place more in need of voting reforms than Mississippi. Although black Mississippians comprised nearly 50 percent of the state’s population in 1960, less than 7 percent of its eligible black constituency was registered to vote, representing the lowest percentage in the union. In some counties, no blacks were registered to vote. Despite ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment ninety years early, terrorist tactics – from fear and intimidation to beatings and lynchings – prevented blacks from exercising their constitutional right to vote. Later, legislation in several states, i.e., the passage of state constitutional amendments beginning in 1890, severely restricted black voter participation – through measures such as poll taxes, background checks and literacy tests. By 1960, the southern black population had been politically disenfranchised for almost a century. Read more
Jun 23 2014 - 4:42pm
A new report from the Netherlands based on US Air Force firing coördinates shows that our military fired its armor-piercing munitions ¾ made of waste uranium-238 which is called “depleted uranium” or DU ¾ into civilian areas of Iraq and at Iraqi troops during the 2003 invasion and occupation, defying the US Air Force’s own legal advice that the toxic and radioactive ammunition be used only against hardened targets in compliance with the Laws of War.
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