From: Embassy of Cuba in Athens, Monday, September 25, 2006
Press Communiqué

The President of the Non-Aligned Movement has learned with indignation that on the afternoon of Saturday 23 September 2006, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, H.E. Mr. Nicolás Maduro, was illegally held for an hour and a half at JFK Airport by authorities of the Government of the United States of America, as he was about to board a flight bound for the city of Miami on his way to Caracas. The Venezuelan Foreign Minister informed that, while held, he was threatened to be beaten and handcuffed, in addition to being insulted and having his documents removed. The President of the Non-Aligned Movement considers that the incident with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of one of its member countries is an unacceptable violation of the Vienna Convention, of the obligations of the Government of the United States of America as host country of the United Nations and of all relevant norms and practices regarding the treatment of internationally protected persons. Therefore, the President of the Non-Aligned Movement hereby expresses its strongest protest to this gross provocation, which could take place again against any member of the Movement.

New York, 23 September 2006

“People honestly concerned about Darfur should listen to the calm common sense of Alex de Waal, a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard, an advisor to the African Union, and author of “Darfur: A Short History of a Long War”:

“I don’t believe there is a military solution. It will not defeat the holdout rebel groups. What it will do is, it will kill more people, create more hunger, create more displacement and make the situation even more intractable … I think the key thing to bear in mind is that the solution to Darfur is a political solution. No solution can be imposed by any amount of arm twisting, any amount of bluster, any amount of military force. Even if we sent 100,000 NATO troops, we would not be able to impose a solution. The solution has to come through political negotiation.”

Where is all the Aghanistan-earmarked billions of dollars in aid going? It’s being sqanedered by multinationals. No wonder conditions aren’t greatly improving on the ground.

Read this article on why America is not really a neoliberal society. “There exists very robust scientific evidence that the United States is not a neoliberal society (as it is constantly defined) and that the U.S. state is not reducing its key role in developing the national economy… This empirical evidence shows that federal government interventionism (in the economic, political, cultural, and security spheres) has increased over the last thirty years. In the economic sphere, for example, protectionism has not declined. It has grown, with higher subsidies to the agricultural, military, aerospace, and biomedical sectors. In the social arena, state interventions to weaken social rights (and most particularly labor rights) have increased enormously (not only under Reagan, but also under Bush Senior, Clinton, and Bush Junior), and surveillance of the citizenry has increased exponentially.”

The imperialist assault continues at home and abroad. A large public service union in South Korea is rooted by riot police; their offices stormed and its leaders arrested. This happend after the S. Korean government passed a law that requires unions to register as legal entities. The problem is that the law serverely limits the right to strike and right to assemble in public.

This is a good article on why NATO’s mission in Afghanistan is not likely to succeed. It’s interesting to see how Canada’s propaganda machine and acadmic elites are cranking out stories engineered to garner support for the mission. The facts however, are really indisputable.
Is it really just a coincidence that there is a major oil pipline runnning throught he country, and that it is worth billions upon billions?

Asaf Rashid
(Sept 23, 2006)

Universities are places of critical thought and study, not places where there is simply complacent acceptance of ideas just because those ideas are supportive of particularly influential institutions in our society. Considering this, UNB’s recently unveiled Milton Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society is an example of what universities should shy away from. The Gregg Centre seeks to uncritically promote the Canadian Armed Forces rather than to engage in the academic exercise of critically evaluating their actions and ideas. I would argue that if UNB wants to maintain and/or develop the image of an institute of critical thought and study, the Gregg Centre should be moved off campus, with its affiliation to UNB severed. My reasoning is as follows.
Read the rest of this entry »

Will Canada send F-18s to Afghanistan?

Of course it’s unethical to commodify a public good; but the analysis needs to include more than just ethical arguments.

“Everyone’s heard about the human rights abuses in African gold and diamond mines. But when it comes to their ultra-cool, razor-thin cell phones, American consumers won’t get the message.”

–Of-course they do not want people to know… it is because you wouldn’t like the answer. The corporations that CIDA continues to promote overseas are not the nicest group you will meet… in fact, they are among the worst human rights and environment abusers around.

–I agree with Chavez, everyone should read Hegemony or Survival… or just go online and read Chomsky’s writings for free. Pretty much everything that he says in the book is somewhere online. The book just makes it easier to find.

–The rich continue to take from the poor. The Bretton Woods system must go.

–If you are going to provide more space for graduate students then you better make sure that there is space in the universities for them and make sure there is enough public funding for them to actually do some work. It is dubious that the Ontario Liberals have thought this far ahead.

–That’s because the Liberals continue to lie about everything. The Tories are no better (in fact, they are worse). The only solution to the problems facing the people on Ontario is to move to a party that puts the people before profit.

–So does the Citizens’ Press and Leftnews. National pharmacare now.

–Co-ops continue to be an important part of the revolution in Venezuela. However, there are some concerns that the workers in these Co-ops are not getting the full protections that others are getting. It is something that has got to be taken more seriously.

–The US strongmen continue to threaten and push smaller countries around to get their own way. This is no exception. It is hardly surprising that Musharraf co-operated.

–Billionaires and homeless living next to each other. The city is going to spend a billion on the Olympics by 2010 but it cannot house its people? The system must change.

–Makes one sick to think of all that money and how it is earned. The charity work that these people do is, quite obviously, not enough to make up for all the problems making billions causes.

–I think that it is the same old terror… mainly groups that do not represent the interests of the vast majority of the people trying to hold onto power. Troops out now.

–Let’s hope that the people still recognize that Lula’s party or left is the only way to go. To elect in a right wing state in Brazil is not going to be good for anyone.