“Flying Rug,” by Abdullah Syed, is constructed from dollar bills folded into the shape of drones — the pilotless American aircraft that fire missiles in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The paper planes are stapled together in circular patterns that resemble those of an oriental carpet.
When thousands of Bangladeshi take to the streets again on March 28th as part of a decade-long battle to halt a devastating British-owned open-pit coal mine, the world will not only be watching whether Bangladesh’s government will honor a coal ban agreement from 2006 or resort to violence.
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In light of disturbing WikiLeaks cables, American and worldwide human rights and environmental organizations will also be questioning why the Obama administration is covertly pushing for Bangladesh to reverse course and acquiesce to an internationally condemned massive open-pit mine that will displace an estimated 100,000-200,000 villagers and ravage desperately needed farm land and water resources.
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The short answer, from US Ambassador James Moriarty’s leaked memos: “Asia Energy, the company behind the Phulbari project, has sixty percent US investment. Asia Energy officials told the Ambassador they were cautiously optimistic that the project would win government approval in the coming months.”
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Phulbari Coal Project threatens numerous dangers and potential damages, ranging from the degradation of a major agricultural region in Bangladesh to pollution of the world’s largest wetlands.
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More here.
“We will stage a sit-in in Peshawar for three days on the road, used by NATO tankers and leading to Afghanistan, if the government does not stop the drone attacks on our land” said Imran Khan. More here.
Some of the [Israeli] young women draft resisters see their resistance as a result of their feminist views. They object not only to the occupation, or to the war crimes committed by the army or to organized violence, but also to the second-class citizenship assigned to women and other groups by militarization. (Rela Mazali, an Israeli writer and feminist peace activist, is a founder of New Profile, a group challenging the militarization of Israeli society and opposing the occupation)
The Bronx-born Glenn Ligon, now fifty, makes combative points of being black and being gay. Handsomely and sensitively installed by the Whitney curator Scott Rothkopf, the show communicates an appealingly complex sensibility that is subject to self-doubt and aesthetic yearning, even when it is forcefully on message. Ligon emerges as a companionable spirit in an endemic ordeal of American democracy—who we are, beset by what we are taken to be—which, most afflicts those, of course, who are most swiftly and carelessly categorized, as by skin color. Ligon’s anxiety plays out by fits and starts throughout the show, on notes that are comic or angry or just bemused. Elegance steadies him. The artist’s superb command of painterly and presentational rhetoric impresses because it has crucial work to do: it gives public poise to private conflict.
From: Unhidden Identities – A Glenn Ligon retrospective by Peter Schjeldahl, March 21, 2011, The New Yorker
More than 20,000 inmates are held in supermax prisons, which by definition isolate their prisoners. Perhaps 50,000 to 80,000 more are in solitary confinement on any given day in other prisons and local jails, many of them within sight of communities where Americans go about their everyday lives. More here.
The University of Johannesburg has voted to end its relationship with Ben Gurion University – another confirmation of the efficacy of the global BDS movement which, in a remarkable short time, has had a major impact on Israel’s ability to continue its occupation of West Bank with little international regard. More here.
just like pakistan!!! “Saleh basically said to the Bush administration, “We’re going to give you full access to Yemen’s territories to conduct counterterrorist operations.” They hatched a plot where Yemen would extract funding for its own military out of the Bush administration in return for the Bush administration being able to conduct counterterrorist operations inside of Yemen, including the killing of Yemeni citizens.
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The U.S. has been almost entirely silent in the face of Saleh’s forces gunning down their own citizens, which stands in stark contrast to the position that the U.S. has taken on some of the other regimes in the area.
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The U.S. has forces on the ground in Yemen that have been directly killing people in unilateral operations. They’ve done air strikes inside of Yemen. They’ve trained Yemeni forces. The U.S. has spent a lot of money militarily in Yemen, and very little money, by comparison, building up Yemen’s civilian infrastructure. So, you could say that U.S. policy has played a central role in the last decade of destabilization in Yemen and has also undermined the authority of their own leader that they back by killing civilians in air strikes. So, I think that the Obama administration’s position on Yemen has been one of deafening silence thus far.
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. It was a disaster in Iraq, where it resulted in a strengthening of Saddam Hussein’s regime. The U.S. has bombed Gaddafi’s house. The U.S. is bombing targets that have no aerial value whatsoever. You know, I’m against the U.S. policy in Libya for tactical and strategic reasons. I think that it could end up backfiring in a tremendous way and keeping Gaddafi in power even longer. And if the United States is going to start intervening in every failed rebellion or insurrection around the world, it’s going to be very, very busy. I think this was a reactionary policy with very little sight of an endgame. This morning we heard that an F-15 went down inside of Libya. Remember Donald Rumsfeld said in November of 2002, “Iraq might be five days, five weeks or five months, but no longer than that,” and 50,000 U.S. troops and an equal number of private contractors remain there. So, I don’t see an endgame here. I think this is a classic case of knee-jerk “we need to remain relevant in the world so we’re going to take military action,” while propping up ruthless dictators elsewhere that have conducted the same kinds of operations, or ignoring far worse humanitarian crises and far worse mass slaughter on the part of dictators around the world.
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Right now, the U.S., the French, the Brits, along with several other European countries—Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy—are carrying out a military attack on Libya without support from either Arab or African forces.
Since the bombardment began, which of course has gone way beyond a no-fly zone, as according to the U.N. resolution, the African Union has tried to send a delegation to Libya to begin negotiations between the two sides. The U.N. refused to give them permission. It’s not clear who was in that position of authority to authorize or not authorize – and in this case, refuse to authorize – the African Union delegation from going to Libya.
More here.
so i just saw this advertised on tv at the gym and i’m thinking how language can be used to frame an issue with the deliberate slant u want. instead of “unwelcome: the muslims next door” (which does not even represent all muslims or all next doors), the title of this series should have been: “racism: as american as apple pie”, no? more here on this horribly-titled series.
Some 1500 activists rallied in Lafayette Park and marched to the White House fence today, where 113 were arrested. Chanting “Stop the wars, expose the lies, free Bradley Manning!” the protesters marked the 8th anniversary of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. More here.
u.s. operations in world wars I and II r not included. interesting how libya comes up several times on this list. more here.
The U.S. is the last country in a moral position to criticize Khadafi for his treatment of Arab civilians. Remember Fallujah. (Glen Ford)
It is all wearingly familiar. And now we are back at it again, banging our desks in spiritual unity. We don’t have many options, do we, unless we want to see another Srebrenica? But hold on. Didn’t that happen long after we had imposed our “no-fly” zone over Bosnia? Full article.
obomber to the rescue! “President Barack Obama authorized limited military action against Libya Saturday, saying Moammar Gadhafi’s continued assault on his own people left the U.S. and its international partners with no other choice.” LOL!!! more here.
