February 2011

Visit the archives.

First People Still Come Second

Picture: DragonWoman Glenn Ashton - Namibia, Namaqualand and the Namib Desert are all named after the first people who lived in that area, the Nama. Where are the Nama today? The reality is that they have largely become forgotten bit players in a complex world. The indigenous people of various nations, descended from traditional hunter-gatherer clans, are broadly referred to as the “first people” or “first nations.” These first nations generally still receive second-class treatment across the world....

Libya on Knife's Edge

Video Libya is on a knife's edge with many predicting the imminent ousting of the country's dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, who has ruled over the country for 42 years, as high-level diplomats desert Libya's autocratic regime. In a desperate bid to cling to power, the Gaddafi regime has cracked down on anti-government demonstrators in the most brutal manner, killing an unconfirmed number of protestors. The unrest has reached the capitol city of Tripoli and reports have emerged that protestors have...

Trailer: Ethos - A Film about Systemic Change

Video Hosted by twice Oscar nominated actor and activist Woody Harrelson, Ethos is a documentary that lifts the lid on a Pandora's box of systemic issues that guarantee failure in almost every aspect of our lives; from the environment to democracy and our own personal liberty. Ethos examines and  unravels these complex relationships, and offers a solution -- a simple but powerful way for you to change the system. The film includes interviews with notable activists such as Noam Chomsky,...

Trading with the Enemy

Picture: america.gov Jason Hickel - The last decade has seen a remarkable surge in U.S. economic interest in the continent of Africa. Policymakers who once considered Africa the languid backwater of global economics are now rushing in to stake a claim in the continent’s enormous resource endowment. Most of this effort operates with a rhetoric focused on “partnership” and “development,” with the vision of using US trade and investment to lift Africans out of poverty. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary...

Speculation And The Frenzy In Food Markets (Again!)

Video  In recent years there has been great volatility in food prices including a dramatic rise in the period June 2007- June 2008, when the global food price index nearly doubled. The United Nations found that steep increases in food prices in 2008 led to malnourishment for 130 million additional people. In the second half of 2010, food prices rose sharply again, nearly doubling in the case of wheat and increasing more than 60% in the case of maize. Right now in the world economy, we are...

Another World Is Possible, but It Will Take a Social Conscience and Political Leadership to Get Us There

Picture: The Real Revo Fazila Farouk - In recent weeks, two meetings of global significance have come and gone with little media attention. At the end of January, the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting took place in Davos, Switzerland, followed days later by the World Social Forum (WSF) in Dakar, Senegal, which ended on an ecstatic note on the very day people’s power triumphed over Egypt’s autocratic Mubarak regime. The Davos forum was, of course, covered by the bigger television networks, but there was none of...