August 2011

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How to Build a Sustainable World: Practical Guidelines to Change How We Live and Work

Picture: greenforall.org Glenn Ashton - The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has recently released a practical strategic analysis that provides a “greenprint” to shift us from our collective environmental crises toward a sustainable future. Entitled “Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication - A Synthesis for Policy Makers,” it highlights the economic opportunities, which emerge if we shift away from our exploitative patterns of business as usual....

How al-Qaeda Got to Rule in Tripoli

Picture: Maggie Pepe Escobar - His name is Abdelhakim Belhaj. Some in the Middle East might have, but few in the West and across the world would have heard of him.  Time to catch up. Because the story of how an al-Qaeda asset turned out to be the top Libyan military commander in still war-torn Tripoli is bound to shatter - once again - that wilderness of mirrors that is the "war on terror", as well as deeply compromising the carefully constructed propaganda of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's...

Fear and Loathing in South Africa: The Malema Phenomenon

Leonard Gentle - Ah Julius Malema…everywhere else, the world is responding to the biggest crisis of capitalism since 1929 and the threat posed to democracy by the markets. NATO is overthrowing Gaddafi in the latest of the ebbs and flows of the Arab Spring; the indignant of Spain and Greece are rising up against austerity programmes; and global dominance is seeping away from a debt-ridden US. The world is changing. So far there have been two responses that dominate public opinion: disengagement and...

British MP, Rory Stewart: Time to End the War in Afghanistan

Video British MP Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan after 9/11, talking with citizens and warlords alike. Now, a decade later, he asks: Why are Western and coalition forces still fighting there? He shares lessons from past military interventions that worked -- Bosnia, for instance -- and shows that humility and local expertise are the keys to success. © TED Talks

To Be Citizens, Not Children

Picture: midnightmagic.co.uk Richard Pithouse - Tokyo Sexwale recently announced, in Brandfort, in a performance carefully choreographed to be rich with the symbolism of a once insurgent nationalism, that Winnie Mandikizela-Mandela will lead a new government task team on informal settlements. “She will”, he said, “help us develop informal settlements because we cannot solve it without the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela motherly heart.” In the national imagination Brandfort is the feminine version of Robben Island, a...

Political Humour: Where Will Revolution Spark Next?

Video Rap News, Episode 7: It's 2011 and amid a flurry of political leaks and revelations, revolutions have rolled across North Africa and The Middle East. Join your host Robert Foster for long overdue analysis of these events, asking the question that's on everyone's lips -- where will revolution spark next? But when a news flash comes in from a special embedded correspondent, the episode takes an unprecedented turn, as that very question is answered in dramatic fashion. How will the...