Larrikin is a word often, and inaccurately used, in Australian political lingo. Australia’s longest serving Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, was known as one such figure. He was praised as the great communicator and healer between the forces of labour and capital, enjoyed imbibing, his sports and varied female company. He could also be vain and ruthless. In June, a[Read More...]
In 2007, I travelled throughout Afghanistan with an Afghan-Canadian research partner,(1) and we asked more than one hundred Afghans: What do you think about the international intervention in Afghanistan? It was as evident then as it has been proven now that a critical mass of Afghans perceived the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan as illegitimate, unnecessary, and serving the interests[Read More...]
In the vast history of imperialist exploitation few episodes match the depravity of Haiti’s debt of independence. Military blackmail of a small country by a superpower, prioritizing “property rights” over human rights, racial capitalism, a sellout “light skinned” local bourgeoise and the way our past haunts the present are all part of the story. After winning their liberation from slavery[Read More...]
The Taliban’s lightning fast takeover of Afghanistan was amazingly achieved with relatively little killing and bloodshed. Since the rout of the government, an entity essentially installed by the US, the Taliban has been assuring the Afghan people that its governance style will be more moderate than under its previous rule. Many people in Afghanistan are very fearful and particularly skeptical[Read More...]
Professor Noam Chomsky was interviewed recently about war and peace. One of the facts that he mentioned, which of course NO ONE in our embedded mainstream media ever reports is this: “ Some background facts may be useful. According to the major international monitor, SIPRI, “The growth in total [military] spending in 2020 was largely influenced by expenditure patterns in the[Read More...]
In May, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a visit to Greenland. In a rather unedifying way, he was called ‘Tony’ by his hosts, a disarming point that was bound to open the floodgates of insincerity. For all the convivial stuffing, there was a certain sting to the occasion: the previous Trump administration had revisited a fantasy long nurtured[Read More...]
MEA’s statement Aug 31 said Indian envoy Deepak Mittal met Sher Mohd Abbas Stanekzai, Head of Taliban’s Political Office, in Doha that day, in the first formal exchange. India’s concerns were raised that “Aghanistan’s soil should not be used for anti-Indian activities and terrorism in any manner.” And he “assured that these issues would be positively addressed.” It is high[Read More...]
Developments in Afghanistan, prior to and after its takeover by the Taliban, remind us of the political realignment of global powers in Europe on the eve of the 2nd World War. Although a tiny state (covering 652,000 km – slightly smaller than Texas – with a population of 26.5 million), Afghanistan might well be the pivot on which the reconfiguration[Read More...]
The visit to Tianjin by President Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry on September 1-3 is assuming a huge dimension holding promise as a defining moment in the tense bilateral relationship between China and the US. Unlike Kerry’s previous visit in April to Shanghai, his conversation has broadened and deepened this time around, going well beyond climate change issues. Chinese State[Read More...]
The Covid Pandemic and Climate Crisis underscores a fatal split in the 21st Century within every society and human being’s better survival instinct’s, mirrored by the irresponsibility of the corporate world’s resistance to a genuine worldwide carbon emissions tax strategy to protect us all from ultimate climate calamity. On all sides of the arguments there exists blood brothers and sisters[Read More...]
