On Thursday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) launched an appeal to the major powers for a record $41 billion to help the 183 million people most in need of life-saving assistance. This was a large increase on the $35 billion requested for 2021 and double the amount sought just four years ago. It is[Read More...]
“Cuba reaffirms its support and solidarity with the Nicaraguan people and government,” said a statement from Cuba’s ministry of foreign affairs. Cuba has applauded Nicaragua’s decision to renounce the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS) and resign from this multinational organization controlled by the U.S. The Cuban foreign ministry’s statement said: “The OAS has remained silent on multiple[Read More...]
Stick to the script: owe that duty of care to your population, so the legal experts in government tell you. Self-interest pays, if in small amounts. These rigid, formulaic assumptions have done wonders to harm and deter any spirit of cooperation regarding dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. History’s record of humanity’s response to plagues, pandemics and disease is one of[Read More...]
What alt-right guru Steve Bannon failed to create, German taxpayers have just stepped in to revive: a Nationalist International. Thanks to the German government, the far right is about to get its own well-heeled global think tank, complete with the sort of political academy that was so dear to Bannon’s plan for world domination. Germany’s gift to the far right is[Read More...]
As most readers know, whenever the US seeks to force a nation to accede to its wishes, a spokesperson will say, “All options are on the table,” meaning the use of military force is at least a possibility if not likely. Seldom, however, will one ever hear a US spokesperson say, “The use of military force has been taken off[Read More...]
The history of humanitarian or policing missions is a history of taking sides, disruptive partiality and the forfeiture of the very object powers claim when intervening in another country. Things become particularly absurd when the individual or government pleading for such help to an outside force is struggling to survive yet making grand statements about democracy and the like. Take[Read More...]
The terrible secret about Faustian deals is that they need a Mephistopheles to nurture them. That said, Goethe’s Mephisto is very different from the crude devil of medieval legend. Goethe sketches him as a cultivated, witty, and cynical exponent of materialism and nihilism who preaches a sophisticated doctrine of philosophical negation. There is no way the Abraham Accords would have[Read More...]
During the inauguration ceremony of the recently elected mayors and governors, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro called on the new authorities to develop a system of government based on the principles of popular power. Beyond Bourgeois Democracy “We must govern to build the People’s new power from Venezuelan Socialism. I will insist on this a thousand times: we must build a new[Read More...]
When the Department of Defense released its annual report on Chinese military strength in early November, one claim generated headlines around the world. By 2030, it suggested, China would probably have 1,000 nuclear warheads — three times more than at present and enough to pose a substantial threat to the United States. As a Washington Post headline put it, typically enough: “China accelerates nuclear weapons[Read More...]
Hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean is at its highest point since 2000, after a 30 percent increase in the number of people suffering hunger from 2019 to 2020, says a new UN report. According to the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2021, in just one year, and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of[Read More...]
