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When we stop dreaming
Najwa Sheikh Ahmed, Nusierat Camp, Gaza Strip
The life of the Palestinian refugees over the last 60 years was very unique, and rich, rich of the amount of sufferings they have to endure, rich of their capability to live and to cope, and rich of the their willingness to survive and continue, to challenge all the circumstances around them. The dilemma of the Palestinian refugees was not only about loosing the homeland but also about loosing all the human rights that the free world is calling to adapt, loosing the security, the respect and the dignity.
My father represents the second generation of the refugees in Gaza, he was a hard worker, spent most of his life working in Israel, he was such a peevish father, but from the inside we all knew how much he loved us and wanted us to be the best in everything, his ambition stimulated him and gave him the strength to work even harder to fulfill it, until he managed to support his nine children high education. I still can remember how my father managed to save the money for my eldest brother’s study at the university in Cairo, and how he used to hide the money inside the shoes, I also still remember how he used to repair our shoes with his own hands, but what I mostly still remember the moment when my father slaps me on the face before he gave me the Arabic book he bought to me for school, I felt frozen, could not find an explanation until I heard his words, “I slapped you to remember how hard I worked to buy you this book, so you will never loose it, and you will know how expensive it was”.
Human Rights in Israel and Occupied Palestine
Stephen Lendman
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) publishes annual reports on "The State of Human Rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories." This article reviews its December 2008 one as human rights activists commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on December 10.
ACRI is Israel's leading human and civil rights organization and the only one addressing all liberty and rights issues. It was founded in 1972, is independent and nonpartisan, believes human and civil rights are universal, and leads the struggle for these issues in Israel and Occupied Palestine (OPT) through litigation, legal advocacy, education, and public outreach.
Stephen Harper Wants Canadians to Spend Billions Implementing a Failed and Costly U.S. Prison System
by chycho
A warning to Canada, Dr Jekyll has turned into Mr. Hyde again, and it didn’t take long.
Stephen Harper has on numerous occasions promised to work with every party in parliament for the betterment of Canadians, but don’t you believe him. He is back to his old ways at the first opportunity that has presented itself, promising to send Canadians back to the dark ages.
The Worst and the Dimmest
Link: http://ddjango.blogspot.com/2009/03/worst-and-dimmest.html
ddjango
That's a quote from Kunstler's latest at Clusterfuck Nation, "What's Next?" (click quote to read original). The title is not only a very good question, it's the only question worth considering.
If you can, please suspend ideological and hopeful thinking for a few minutes. Let go of what's "thinkable" and "unthinkable" to ponder this scenario . . .
Why is the Bank alone playing Monopoly?
Roland Michel Tremblay
Monopoly is one of the oldest board games in the Western World. It has become a symbol to everything that we are about, a symbol to capitalism. It is such a simple game, anyone can learn to play it in minutes, and yet, within this simple game, it is amazing how our whole way of life can be resumed. Is it still worth playing the game though, or is the bank playing alone nowadays?
I always loved playing Monopoly, I have been playing since I was born. My first time must have been when I was 3 years old. Today I play it on my Nintendo DS, on my PC, and even on my phone/Pocket PC. I still enjoy it tremendously. Critics of the game have pointed out that you can get tired of playing Monopoly, since it is always the same, and it lasts for a bloody long time, before everyone goes bust, except the winner.
Rome Diary: March 2009 Update- Fascist Times in the Land Where Lemon Trees Bloom, 'Tottering Steps Along the Rim of Fascism and Revolution'
Gaither Stewart
(Rome) ISTAT, Italy’s Statistical Office, has announced that for the first time the nation’s population has passed 60,000,000. The disconcerting reality behind the statistic is that while Italy ages and Italians produce less children, immigration is providing the growth of the nation that until a few decades ago was an emigration country and Italian workers spread over north Europe. Today, as usual, immigrants do what Italians don’t. Over 1,000,000 Romanians are in Italy today, followed closely by Albanians and Moroccans. immigrants make front page news. Usually negative news. Not a day passes that foreigners (until the crisis immigrants were the manpower necessary for Italian industry), are not accused of nefarious crimes.
GOP hypocrisy on health care
Mary Shaw
President Obama has nominated Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.
In addition to the other challenges that Sebelius will face in this new role, I hope she will be able to implement the affordable health care for all which Obama has promised us. To that end, Sebelius will be working closely with Nancy-Ann Deparle, who will direct the White House Office for Health Reform.
It's Time For the Madness To Stop
Sheila Samples
Sometimes it's hard to come to grips with the truth -- especially if that truth is about our own country, and is in direct opposition to everything we've been taught since childhood. Patriotism is in our genes, and through the years it has been a national conviction that, if our country needed us, serving in the military to protect our freedom was not only the right thing to do, but the only thing to do. We still believe that. We still leap to our feet at the first beat of a drum at a military parade, clutch our hearts at the sight of the Stars and Stripes, weep at the refrain of the National Anthem. However, far too many of us succumb to the pomp and pageantry of war -- of mission accomplished -- with little concern for the human beings who made that possible -- what they went through, what they're still going through -- so we can maintain our arrogant national pride.
Systemic Failure: Capitalism "Lays An Egg"
Stephen Lendman
After the 1929 October 24, 28 and 29 market crash, the weekly entertainment industry magazine Variety (on October 30) published its most famous ever headline: "Wall Street Lays an Egg." In October 2008, history repeated, and since the October 2007 peak, equity prices plunged over 50% after the Dow and S & P (in February) posted their second worst ever monthly percentage declines - topped only in 1933 during the depths of the Great Depression. So far, the current market drop matches its 1929 - 1932 pace, and like then, shows no signs of abating.
With world economies collapsing, stocks are still overvalued by every metric - dividends, price to book, sales, free cash flow, or earnings based on GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principals) or "reported" earnings, not "operating" ones, easily manipulated to exclude "write-offs." By the mid-late 1990s, companies switched to the latter method to hide over-valuations. The practice still continues to let expensive stocks masquerade as cheap ones and make the market overall look attractive to the unwary.
Why isn’t the oil industry bailing out the auto sector? End of Suburbia: Who Killed the Electric Car?
by chycho
Importance of The Big Three
“General Motors, Ford and Chrysler weren't labelled the Big Three just because they produced the most vehicles in North America. As giant employers, they had big influence, energizing entire economies with their big union wages and benefits packages. As giant manufacturers, they created style. Status was instantly signalled by black Lincolns and pink Corvettes. Seatbelts, reduced vehicle emissions and electric cars had to wait until the carmakers were good and ready. As giant political contributors, they had big power. The L.A. Times recently calculated that since 1990, the auto industry as a whole has donated $100 million US to Republicans and $34 million to Democrats.”
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