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30 September, 2005

Arctic Ice Melts At Record Level
By David Adam

Global warming in the Arctic could be soaring out of control, scientists warned yesterday as new figures revealed that melting of sea ice in the region has accelerated to record levels

Fossil Fuels Set To Become Relics
By Abid Aslam

Energy drawn from the wind, tide, sun, Earth's heat, and farm waste is poised to begin replacing oil and other fossil fuels, a prominent research group said Wednesday in a wake-up call to industry executives and government officials worldwide

Why I Was Smiling
By Cindy Sheehan

I had a huge grin on my face when I was getting arrested. I have received a lot of flak for smiling. Apparently I am not supposed to smile, but I had some really good reasons for doing so

A Summary Execution
By Celso Amorin

The Menezes killing is a reminder that human rights cannot be a stick to beat the developing world

Tom DeLayed?
By Remi Kanazi

The President may not be able to handle the political firestorm and consequently withdraw support for Tom Delay. We'll see in the coming months if Delay fades off into the sunset like former strongman Newt Gingrich, or if he can ride out this hurricane

"Suppose...": Arguments For
An Impeachment Resolution
By Bernard Weiner

Introducing a resolution calling for impeachment hearings is the first serious step along that road back to political sanity and moral accountability for our country. Let's demand that our Representatives in Congress do it, and if they won't, we will elect those who will

Communal Politics Climax And Downfall
By Asghar Ali Engineer

Communal politics, being highly emotional, is heady and creates strong illusion of success. Those who indulge in communal politics create emotional hysteria among their followers. We in India have had many experiences such emotional politics

Ilayaperumal: A Dalit In The Congress
By Ravikumar

An important Dalit leader L Elayaperumal died at the age of 82 on September 9 in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu. What BP Mandal did for the OBC-shudras, Elayaperumal did for the Dalits way back in 1969. However, given that Elayaperumal was a Dalit in the Congress, his report was never implemented

28 September, 2005

Are Global Oil Supplies About To Peak?
By George Monbiot

Are global oil supplies about to peak? Are they, in other words, about to reach their maximum and then go into decline? There is a simple answer to this question: no one has the faintest idea

Bush In A Bottle
By John Chuckman

There have been rumors of Bush taking to the bottle again. Since alcoholics are never cured, this is possible. The stress of having his ineptitude so publicly displayed as it was in New Orleans and of having his every major policy collapsing before his eyes would certainly tend to push him in this direction

The Decline And Fall Of Senator Bill Frist
By Jason Leopold

It's one thing to lie in politics. It's another to be caught in a lie. Bill Frist has been caught in a lie. His political future is over. The immediate question is, can he survive as Majority Leader?

My First Time
By Cindy Sheehan

The rumors are true this time. I was arrested in front of the White House today. It was my first time ever being arrested

More Dissent, More Censorship
By Dahr Jamail

As we prepared to leave his hotel last night, my colleague Stelios Kouloglou half-jokingly offered, “You can come visit Greece anytime, whether for vacation or for political asylum.” I only half-laughed as I shook his hand

Iraq's Draft Constitution
By Baghdad Burning

The final version (Version 3.0) of the Iraqi draft constitution was finally submitted to the UN about ten days ago. It was published in English in the New York Times on the 15th of September

Iyothee Thass & The Politics Of Naming
By Ravikumar

Today, even uttering the name of Iyothee Thass in the Tamil public sphere has become an act of a rebellion. The Dravidian parties, communists and Tamil nationalists - nobody has any regard for Thass. No wonder his name has been dropped from the National Center for Siddha Research. This is an insult not just to Dalits but Tamils as such

27 September, 2005

Time To Bring Our Troops Home
By Todd Huffman

This war that our leaders have concocted has sapped our military strength, our credibility, our economy, our disaster preparedness, our morale, and our moral standing in the world. It has increased the threats America faces, and reduced the military, financial, and diplomatic tools with which we can respond. It is time to bring our troops home

Peaceful Assault On The Epicenter Of Evil
By Jason Miller

The ugly face of America represents a minority of its populace. It is time for the majority to impose their will and show the world that the US is a nation capable of engaging in truly noble causes

The Bells of Liberty
By Remi Kanazi

A poem

Global Warming? You Better Believe It
By Derrick Z. Jackson

As the media screams about the one-two punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the question becomes how many more times does America need to be knocked to the canvas before we answer the bell on global warming

How Corporations Cashed In On Katrina
By Ralph Nader

After every national tragedy, large corporations move to cash in. They arrange for no-competitive bid contracts so that their cronyism can get them large government contracts awarded with few safeguards to prevent waste, fraud and abuse

The Hindu Rashtra Of Gujarat
By V.B.Rawat

A journey into Narendra Modi's Gujarat

A New Order For Today
By Chandrabhan Prasad

Strange as this might sound, several constituents of Indian society are turning abnormal. Unnoticed by sociologists, this exceptional phenomenon is taking place on a mass scale

23 September, 2005

Homilies Won't Stop The Hurricanes
By Jeremy Rifkin

Americans need to get out of their SUVs and learn the harsh lesson of Katrina and Rita

Now It's The Turn Of Hurricane Rita
By Joseph Kay

Hurricane Rita is the second giant storm in three weeks to threaten the United States along the Gulf Coast. The same basic features of American society that so shocked the nation and the world following Hurricane Katrina are again on display: the enormous social inequality, the decay of public infrastructure, the indifference, incompetence and lack of preparation of the American ruling elite

Big And Easy Iraqi-Style Contracts
Flood New Orleans
By Pratap Chatterjee

We see no-bid contracts in the Katrina areas going to the same companies that they went to in Iraq without the kind of accountability that we have to demand

Get To Know Ben Marble
By Rob Kall

An interview with the guy who told Dick Cheney to go Fuc* himself

Visiting The Post-9/11 America
By Hassan N. Gardezi

The fourth anniversary of 9/11 has come and gone as another occasion to reflect on the many ways in which this tragic episode changed the course of world affairs

An Impeccable Moderation
By Revd. B J Alexander

In Srilanka the Sinhalese ought to seriously review their politico Buddhism and establish a fresh world view based on factual history rather than on mythical belief systems. Until this paradigm shift happens, the reality suggests that no amount of peace talking could bear sweet fruit

Dalits In Pakistan
Book Review By Yoginder Sikand

Caste, the scourge of Hinduism, is so deeply entrenched in Indian society that it has not left the adherents of Islam, Sikhism, Christianity and Buddhism-theoretically egalitarian religions-unaffected. So firmly rooted is the cancer of caste in the region that it survives and thrives in neighbouring Pakistan, where over 95% of the population are Muslims

Globalisation Of Education
By K V Sagar

Any hasty involvement in the global educational market can end up in harming the vital interests of students, and particularly of poor and downtrodden for generations to come

22 September, 2005

We Can't Say We Weren't Warned
By Richard Steiner

Will we as a society learn from this perfect storm, reaffirm our "respect for nature" and attend to our deteriorating planetary life-support systems before it's too late, or not?

Hurricane Katrina: A Public Health
And Environmental Disaster
By John Levine

Besides the devastation Hurricane Katrina has caused directly along the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, the long-term environmental and health impact of the storm will be severe. Particularly in the city of New Orleans, the immediate destruction is compounded by the effects of pollution and disease

The GOP’s Fiscal Policies Turned A Natural Disaster
Into A Man-Made Catastrophe
By Jason Leopold

You don’t have to look too far than New Orleans, a city wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, as evidence of the Bush administration’s and Congress’ fiscal irresponsibility. It’s a direct result of Washington’s financial incompetence that the cost for rebuilding The Big Easy is estimated to top $200 billion

The Ugly Face Of The Empire
By Sorit Gupto

Empire does not need watch dogs, It actually needs beauticians who can hide the wounds and scars form it's ugly face . Journalist fraternity is caught in between Line of Control and the Apartheid Wall. Their master are telling them 'the do's and don'ts'

Australia’s Shallow Multiculturalism
By Ghali Hassan

Under the leadership of Prime Minister John Howard, Australia evolved from a “tolerant”, forward-looking society into one of the most intolerant and conservative societies in the Western world. Today, Australia’s multiculturalism is only useful as political rhetoric and an instrument of marginalisation

Shattering Democracy: Sharon's Plan For Palestine
By Remi Kanazi

Hamas is doing something the founders of Israel never thought to do: assimilate into the political process in the land on which they live, and substantiate their voice by positive means. If the founders of Israel and people like Ariel Sharon had done this, armed groups such as Hamas wouldn't be fighting against the injustices that have plagued Palestinian society for the last 58 years

British, Masters Of Colonialism
By Junaid Khan

The idea on which the foreign policy of the West is based is the spread of capitalism and to make this view point dominate the whole world. Colonialism is a tool for spreading capitalism to the world and forcing it on others and a master of this tool is Britain

River Interlinking: Narmada Part 2?
By Purushottam S. Kulkarni

As India is preparing to take up a major river linking project the question being asked is this" Are we heading in the same direction as Narmada?" Where as always and as millions have done before, the rural folk will have to face displacement, move to road side slums and make way for "development"

The Course Of Naxalism
By Manoranjan Mohanty

India's Maoists, while faced with considerable weaknesses of their own, have been able to continue the fight because of the abject failures of the Indian state

21 September, 2005

German Election: A Clear Rejection
Of Right-Wing Policies
By Peter Schwarz

The result of the election for the German parliament (Bundestag) on Sunday can be interpreted in only one way: policies based on welfare cuts and the re-division of social wealth to benefit the rich have met with bitter resistance from the German population and been vigorously rejected

A World Turned Upside Down
By George Monbiot

Today the climatologists at the Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado will publish the results of the latest satellite survey of Arctic sea ice. It looks as if this month's coverage will be the lowest ever recorded. The Arctic, they warn, could already have reached tipping point

Liar, Liar
By Jason Miller

If George Bush had encountered the same fate as Jim Carrey’s character in the movie Liar Liar, and had been rendered incapable of lying, America would not have been subjected to thirty minutes of manipulative propaganda on 9/15

CIA Intelligence Reports Seven Months Before
9/11 Said Iraq Posed No Threat To U.S.
By Jason Leopold

CIA Director George Tenet testified before Congress in February 2001 that Iraq posed no immediate threat to the United States or to other countries in the Middle East

An Untouchable Accommodation?
By Revd. B J Alexander

Dalit Solidarity Network UK Report 2005 entitled Caste Discrimination and the Private Sector incorporates some startling information to prospective investors in South Asia

Justice Needed At Indira Sagar
By Angana Chatterji

For those held captive by the Indira Sagar Pariyojana (also Narmada Sagar), the Madhya Pradesh High Court Order of July 27 and August 17, 2005 sets an unprecedented context for justice

17 September, 2005

Global Warming 'Past The Point Of No Return'
By Steve Connor

A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. Scientists fear that the Arctic has now entered an irreversible phase of warming which will accelerate the loss of the polar sea ice that has helped to keep the climate stable for thousands of years

The St. Patrick's Four Return to Trial
By Leigh Saavedra

On Monday, September 19, the rights of all peace activists go on trial. Representing us are four Catholic anti-war activists who have already stood trial for their stand against the invasion of Iraq. Now, more than two years later, cleared of the original charge of criminal mischief, they are being charged with conspiracy and will be tried again

Racist White Australia Jails &
Deports US Peace Activist
By Gideon Polya

Anti-war Texan Scott Parkin is a teacher, environmentalist and peace activist who gives workshops on peaceful protest. On Saturday 10 September 2005 he was publicly seized by 6 Australian Government security officials in a popular restaurant area of Melbourne. He was subsequently imprisoned for 6 days without charge in a prison for dangerous criminals awaiting trial

Meanwhile, In Iraq...
By Dahr Jamail

For the last several days at least 6,000 US soldiers along with approximately 4,000 Iraqi soldiers were laying siege to the city of Tal-Afar, near Mosul in northern Iraq. It is estimated that 90% of the residents have left their homes because of the violence and destruction of the siege, as well as to avoid home raids and snipers

1, 2, 3, Not It! : How The Separation Of Powers Is
Helping California Avoid Gay Marriage
By Andrea K Rufo

Sometimes the separation of powers can be harsh. Take gay rights efforts in California – a state with takes pride in just how close it's willing to treat gay unions like marriages but refuses to take that final step to make them legal

Madhya Pradesh: Lengthening Trident Shadows
By Ram Puniyani

In a public function held in Jabalpur, M.P. (Sept. 2005) five thousand trishuls were distributed under the leadership Mr. Pravin Togadia of Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The function was organized by Bajarang Dal, an affiliate of RSS. In the meeting a pledge was administered, which stated that all will be done to bring in the Hindu Rashtra

16 September, 2005

Who Are The 75,000 Body Bags For?
By Lynn Landes

Questions mount over Hurricane Katrina's death count. Estimates are now well below 10,000 with the death toll currently standing at 648 for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. So, why did the Bush Administration order 75,000 body bags?

Imperial Propagandists
By Ghali Hassan

The roles of imperial propagandists to save a crumbling U.S. empire are proved to be limited in the face of worldwide resistance to military violence. People around the world should urge for popular action in support of the Iraqi people defending their cities against terrorist attacks and fighting to liberate their country from foreign Occupation. A victory for the Iraqi people is a victory for the rest of the civilised world

What Afghanistan Has To Teach
By Aseem Shrivastava

This is the second part of an essay published in the columns of Counterpunch a year ago. The first part was the story of an Afghan refugee, Jamal, who journeyed perilously from Afghanistan to Norway over a period of 6 years

14 September, 2005

The Net Censors
By George Monbiot

Indispensable as the internet has become, political debate is still dominated by the mainstream media: a story on the net changes nothing until it finds its way into the newspapers or onto television. What this means is that while the better networking Friedman celebrates can assist a democratic transition, the democracy it leaves us with is filtered and controlled. Someone else owns the routers

Were Women Raped In New Orleans?
By Lucinda Marshall

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, women whose lives were disrupted by the storm face numerous gender-specific vulnerabilities that commonly occur with disasters of this magnitude

Behind The Curtain No Longer
By Todd Huffman

Hurricane Katrina not only flooded a city and flattened a coast. She also blew away the thick curtain our nation had drawn across our most poor. Katrina has exposed our poor for all the world to see

Katrina, A Warning To The Mighty
By Junaid Aslam Khan

The Americans atleast have the satisfaction of knowing that they have been hit by a natural calmity but the Iraqis and Afghans die many deaths in a day everytime they see the very same occupied forces patrolling their streets who brought them destruction and devastation. Every day a Katrina hits them more severe then the previous one

A Company Charged With Desecrating
Corpses Hired To Collect Deceased Victims
Of Hurricane Katrina
By Jason Leopold

A funeral services company which recently learned that one of its subsidiaries is negotiating a lucrative contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to remove dead bodies in areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, paid $100 million to settle a class-action lawsuit several years ago alleging the company desecrated thousands of corpses, and dumped bodies into mass graves

Light And Darkness: America's Reaction To 9/11
By Remi Kanazi

How have we commemorated those fallen heroes of four years ago? We have used their names and awful tragedy to unleash a war on the world and ourselves. Our president told us we were going to fight for the greater good, but what good has come out of the fight we embarked on?

Guardians Of The Haramain-The Reality
By Ousama Hanif

After the death of King Fahd, one could have expected the US to pressurize for free and fair elections in Saudi Arabia in line with the rhetoric of Freedom & democracy voiced by the Bush administration with regards to the Middle East. Instead, the Bush administration being a spectator has silently approved Prince Abdullah as the new King and accepted the continuation of the Monarchy

In Defence Of Workers' Right To Organization
By K. Venugopal Reddy

There is a widely held perception that trade unions are a nuisance to industrial prosperity. And so, there are often demands for some sort of ban on strikes as an instrument of struggle by organized employees. It is a preposterous position and it is fraught with dangerous consequences for the future of organized working class movement in India

Is 'Riot Free India' A Possibility?
By Ram Puniyani

The demonization of minorities seems to be the ground on which violence stands and sustains itself. No measures for the riot free India can be complete without bringing to halt the stereotyping the minorities and effectively neutralizing the 'hate other' propaganda

13 September, 2005

Hurricane Katrina And The Meaning Of 9/11
By Patrick Martin

September 11, 2005 marked the fourth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in US history, with nearly 3,000 innocent people killed as a consequence of the hijacking of the four jetliners that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon. It also marked two weeks since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, causing the worst natural disaster in US history and revealing the unpreparedness of the US government at all levels, federal state and local, for a tragedy that was widely forecast and predicted

On Katrina, Global Warming
By Al Gore

Transcript of a speech given by former Vice President Al Gore at the National Sierra Club Convention in San Francisco on September 9, 2005 addressing the challenges and moral imperatives posed by Hurricane Katrina and global warming

September 11, 2005...
By Baghdad Burning

As I write this, Tel Afar, a small place north of Mosul, is being bombed. Dozens of people are going to be buried under their homes in the dead of the night. Their water and electricity have been cut off for days. It doesn’t seem to matter much though because they don’t live in a wonderful skyscraper in a glamorous city. They are, quite simply, farmers and herders not worth a second thought

Who Murdered Arafat?
By Uri Avnery

Since taking part in his tumultuous funeral in Ramallah, I have abstained from giving my opinion on the cause of his death. I am not a doctor, and my dozens of years as editor of an investigative news magazine have taught me not to voice allegations which I am unable to prove in court. But, since now all dikes have been breached, I am prepared to say what is on my mind: from the first moment, I was sure that Arafat had been poisoned

The Iran Trap
By Scott Ritter

Iran has resumed operations of facilities designed to convert uranium into a product usable in enrichment processes. From that point forward consensus on just about anything begins to fall apart

12 September, 2005

Sorry Mr President, Katrina Is Not 9/11
By Simon Schama

America this weekend marked the fourth anniversary of 9/11 as anger over the hurricane continued to mount. The two disasters revealed very different faces of the same country

Our Modern-Day 'Grapes Of Wrath'
By Les Payne

The alienation of the poor of New Orleans prior to the hurricane is as much a calamity as the displacement of this permanent underclass in the wake of Katrina's floodwaters.Steinbeck must have recoiled in his grave

"Bungling Once... Bungling Twice....."
By Leigh Saavedra

FEMA was always meant to be the agency ready to handle disasters such as Katrina. As billions of dollars were poured into purported preparation for terrorist attacks, however, we took the muscle from an agency qualified to handle a non-terrorist emergency

New Orleans Unmasks “Apartheid, American Style”
By Jason Miller

The New Orleans debacle exposed America's "heart of darkness" to the world as its leaders allowed their own tens of thousands of Americans to suffer or die

"IT" Is Happening Here!!
By Rob Kall

Paid mercenary killers—Blackwater paramilitary mercenaries—the ones that are hired to stalk the worst danger zones of Iraq—are roving the streets of New Orleans, armed to the teeth, with permission to kill

11 September, 2005

9/11 Revisited: The US A Victim And A Testbed?
By Mathew Maavak

The European elite cannot quite understand the likes of Cindy Sheehan in their treasured laboratory. The US has a dialectical history that no advanced nation can match. It is peopled by descendants of those fled the tyranny of elite oppression. The battle for our future may well be fought by the men, women, and - if there are any - brave politicians of the United States. If this battle is not fought, God help us all

New Orleans: The Specter Of Military Dictatorship
By World Socialist Web

The appalling incompetence and negligence that characterized the government’s response at the outset of the human tragedy unleashed by Hurricane Katrina have now given way to ruthlessly efficient methods of military occupation and repression in the ravaged city of New Orleans

To Those Who Voted for Bush: Do You Get It Now?
By Bernard Weiner

We have been abandoned by our own country. Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst storms ever to hit an American coast. But the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history. ?

Donate To Help Ben Marble
By Jackson Thoreau

Donate to help Ben Marble, the physician who lost his home in Katrina and told off Cheney

Gaza Pullout Paves Way For
Further West Bank Land Grab
By Jean Shaoul

Hardly had the last of the 8,000 or so Israeli settlers left Gaza than Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that Israel would expand the settlements on the West Bank

War In The Parivar
By Jyotirmaya Sharma

As the Bharatiya Janata Party prepares to hold its National Executive meeting in Chennai next week, dissonance within the organisation over questions of ideology, leadership and politics is clearly visible

10 September, 2005

Katrina Fuels Global Warming Storm
By Alister Doyle

Hurricane Katrina has spurred debate about global warming worldwide with some environmentalists sniping at President George W. Bush for pulling out of the main U.N. plan for braking climate change

Old World Order
By Karen Armstrong

We need a modern way to recreate religion's respect for the earth

The Politics Of The “Blame Game”
By Patrick Martin

The Bush administration’s response to the social disaster unfolding in Louisiana and Mississippi is to deny any responsibility for the horrifying conditions facing more than one million people. White House officials, from Bush on down, have rejected all criticism of the federal government’s failure to prepare before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast or respond adequately afterwards

Bush - The Man With A Snafu Plan
By Sheila Samples

It's a good thing President George Bush doesn't read newspapers or watch TV. If he did, even he could see that people from one end of this nation to the other are rapidly reaching zero tolerance with his bumbling ineptitude each time he is faced with a crisis

Winning Votes With Tax Payer's Money
By Jason Leopold

Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances and three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush win a majority of votes in that state during his reelection campaign, according to a May 19 story in the Washington Post that quoted DHS sources

The Physician Who Told Cheney The F*** Word
By Jackson Thoreau

Physician who told Cheney to go F*ck Himself Lost His Home in Katrina, Detained, Cuffed by Cheney's M-16-carrying Goons

Guilty Of Gohana- In Search Of The Real Perpetrators
By Subhash Gatade

On 31 st August the town of Gohana witnessed burning of 50-60 houses belonging to Valmiki community in broad daylight. As it has been reported in the media a 1,500-2,000 strong of mob of upper caste people mainly belonging to the Jat community attacked their houses in a systematic manner

09 September, 2005

New Orleans Mass Murder By US Delay
By Gideon Polya

The World has been watching a dishonest, incompetent, violent and racist US government passively killing thousands of its own elderly, infirm, poor and Afro-American citizens

Lifting The Curtain On Racism And Poverty
By Leigh Saavedra

When Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on August 29, she tore open not only a city, its levees, and a coastline, but a glamorous body that was false, something created with cosmetic surgery; she exposed the cancers and scar tissue and ugly organs of our nation that we had either forgotten or never known were there

Katrina + Baghdad = Tipping Point?
By Jeff Berg

So remember my friends you heard it here first. August 31, 2005, was the day when the bell that tolls eventually for each and every one of us began tolling for America's use of force abroad and the day that New Orleans showed America the problem with her soul

New Orleans And The Third World
By Mukoma Wa Ngugi

The devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina is being compared to disasters in the “Third World” but with no specific countries or disasters named

Knowing Death
By E.L Doctorow

I fault this president (George W. Bush) for not knowing what death is

Came Hell And High Water
By Todd Huffman

The drowning of New Orleans looks to become America's worst natural disaster in living memory. Thousands upon thousands of Americans are dead. Almost without exception, they are the weak, the sick, the old, the infirm, and, in most cases, the poor. And most died not during Hurricane Katrina itself, but while waiting for help to arrive

Parts Of America Are As Poor As Third World
By Paul Vallely

Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World, according to a shocking United Nations report on global inequality

What Kind Of Extremist Will You Be?
By Cindy Sheehan

If there ever was a time in our nation's history that required the passion and compassion of extremists, it is now: This very minute. What kind of extremist will you be?

Hurricane Racism
By Remi Kanazi

A Poem

08 September, 2005

Another Massacre In Tal Afar?
By James Cogan

The largest US military offensive on an urban area since the attack on Fallujah last year has been underway since September 2 in the city of Tal Afar, an ancient metropolis with a predominantly Sunni Muslim, ethnic Turkish population of some 300,000

Thousands Who Stayed Prepare
For Enforced Evacuation
By Andrew Buncombe

Nobody really wanted to leave, everyone had reasons to stay. Mostly, it was the realisation that the homes they were sitting in were all they had - and no one knew when they would be coming back to them. But eventually the realisation struck; without food or water, without power and without any real expectation of getting these things turned around any time soon, there was really no alternative but to leave

It Always Lies Below
By Timothy Garton Ash

A hurricane produces anarchy. Decivilisation is not as far away as we like to think

New Orleans Becomes A War Zone
By Bill Van Auken

The disaster that struck New Orleans and the southern Gulf Coast has given rise to the largest military mobilization in modern history on US soil. Nearly 65,000 US military personnel are now deployed in disaster area, transforming the devastated port city into a war zone

Lessons From Hell
By John Chuckman

Amid death and destruction, Bush not as Nero, but as Caligula's Horse Incitatus

Peace And Conflict Resolution
By Asghar Ali Engineer

It is also important to remember that root cause of conflict is often injustice. Justice and peace, are inseparable. Where there is injustice, there will be conflict. Peace can never be established by using mere rhetoric or exhortation. For peace to prevail one must first establish justice

07 September, 2005

New Orleans: The Toxic Time Bomb
By Andrew Gumbel and Rupert Cornwell

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina has created a vast toxic soup that stretches across south-eastern Louisiana and Mississippi, and portends the arrival of an environmental disaster to rival the awe-inspiring destruction of property and human life over the past week

State Failure And Human Solidarity
By Dan La Botz

While the United States government failed in New Orleans, people acted to save themselves and each other. Once again, as so often in American history, ordinary people provided us with an example and an alternative to our existing system. Once again black people's solidarity provided a model for us all

Global Warming Hits New Orleans
By Jeremy Rifkin

Katrina will be looked back on as a “tipping point” of the fossil fuel era the moment when the American public began to discard the comfortable myth that the end of the oil era and the cataclysmic effects of global warming lie far in the distant future

The Levee Will Break
By Jonathan Freedland

Hurricanes toss everything into the air; how things settle afterwards is up to the people on the ground. A new political settlement will not come about by a simple act of nature - it has to be fought for and won. And that process is just beginning

Rule Of Death
By Jason Leopold

Seems like more people died than prospered under Bush’s leadership

The Many Flavors Of John Roberts
By Remi Kanazi

Ice cream lover and intellect, John Roberts, has had a short career, with enough faults to scare any liberty craving American. Who knows how far to the right he'll go if nominated. Where will he stand on a constitutional ban on gay marriage? What will his ruling be on the overreaching measures in Patriot Act Seven?

The Crime And Advertisement
By Sorit Gupto

To create an awareness in the citizens of Delhi against eve teasers, Delhi Police has come up with an advertisement in the news papers, which infact shows the deep male chauvinistic attitude of the police force

06 September, 2005

The City Where The Dead Are
Left Lying On The Streets
By Andrew Buncombe

In a makeshift grave on the streets of New Orleans lies the body of Vera Smith. She was an ordinary woman who, like thousands of her neighbours, died because she was poor. Abandoned to her fate as the waters rose around her, Vera's tragedy symbolises the great divide in America today

U.S. Influence 'Too Much'
By Dahr Jamail

U.S. influence in the process of drafting a constitution for Iraq is excessive and "highly inappropriate", a United Nations official says

Dear Boss Man: Stick’em Up!
By Chuck Richardson

Hurricane Katrina was the last straw. It all started with your god, Ronald Reagan, and his religion of trickle down economics. Now it’s all going to end with a new system—blow up finances

Indo-Pakistan Rivalry In Afghanistan Intensifies
By M B Naqvi

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's fervent wish for improved regional cooperation among India, Pakistan and his own country, expressed during the Indo-Afghan summit at the beginning of the week, may be doomed to remain just that, given the state of sub-continental rivalry

The Battle Against Hunger
By Harsh Mander

The proposed employment guarantee programme currently on the anvil of Indian Parliament, combined with committed state and citizen action, carries the potential of reversing hunger in every rural household where adults can work

05 September, 2005

The Silent Oil Crisis
By James Howard

The oil crisis gets louder – listen to it, talk about it, prepare for it – it is out there, the tide is rising and rushing towards us

Peak oil, Business As Usual,And Katrina
By Bill Henderson

Most oil producing countries have peaked: America, Norway, Venezuela, UK, Indonesia, Iran, etc.Most of the major oil companies have peaked: Chevron's production in the second quarter of 05 is down 6% from last year, for example; Exxon 5%; Shell 3%; Conoco 3%; and total 1%

Katrina And America's Tipping Point
By Abid Mustafa

In the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and Bush's inept response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in New Orleans, the myth of America's super power status has been shattered

Three-Fifths Relief
By Remi Kanazi

We shouldn't be surprised how this administration is treating the poor and downtrodden in their time of crisis because this how they've always treated them. Scoffing at their necessity of health care and vital social programs, rewriting bankruptcy laws that help keep poor people poor

An Ill Wind
By Paul Harris

Everyone who is supposed to know about these things, knew that Katarina was coming. They didn’t know her name, and they didn’t know when to expect her, but they knew she was coming. They had known it for years

Bush Scapegoats State, Local Officials
By Joseph Kay

With the federal government coming under increasing criticism for its shocking display of indifference and negligence, the White House is seeking to transfer blame onto the backs of local and state authorities

Receding Floodwaters Expose
The Dark Side Of America
By Jonathan Freedland

The waters flow in and the waters flow out, washing away all that once lay on the surface -and revealing what lies beneath. So it is with all floods in all places, but now it is America which stands exposed. And neither America nor the world much likes what it sees

The Dispossessed Of New Orleans
Tell Of Their Medieval Nightmare
By David Usborne

"I do think the nation would be responding differently if they were white elderly and white babies actually dying on the street and being covered with newspapers and shrouds and being left there."

04 September, 2005

Notes From Inside New Orleans
By Jordan Flaherty

Long before Katrina, New Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty, racism, disinvestment, deindustrialization and corruption. Simply the damage from this pre-Katrina hurricane will take billions to repair. Now that the money is flowing in, and the world's eyes are focused on Katrina, its vital that progressive-minded people take this opportunity to fight for a rebuilding with justice

New Orleans And Baghdad
By Bill Van Auken

As US National Guard troops—just returned from Iraq—moved into New Orleans Friday with “shoot-to-kill” orders, and Blackhawk helicopters flew over the city, the essential unity between the policies pursued by Washington at home and abroad found stark expression

'They're Not Giving Us What We Need To Survive'
By Jamie Doward

Only now, a week after Hurricane Katrina roared across the Deep South, leaving a trail of devastation across America's psyche, is the true story of the Battle of New Orleans emerging

The President’s Priorities: State Of Marriage
Took Precedent Over State Of Louisiana
By Jason Leopold

Despite more than four hurricanes that have whipped through New Orleans since 2002, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake, and personal pleas to the president by Louisiana’s local and state officials to provide much needed funding to rebuild the state’s rapidly disappearing wetlands, the Bush administration declined, shifting its priorities—and federal funds—into its foreign policy initiatives

Delusions Under Siege
By Jason Miller

I left the Bring Them Home Now Tour with a renewed sense of hope and a stronger faith in the power and magnitude of the grass roots, spiritual movement toward a better America. The "virus" of activism for humanity is spreading rapidly throughout the "hard drive" supporting America's Propaganda Matrix

Why Chavez Is In U.S. Crosshairs
By Linda McQuaig

The future of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez started to look precarious last January. It was then that CNN announcers began referring to him as a "Latin American strongman." The term suggests a dictator, so it actually doesn't fit Chavez, who's twice been democratically elected in national elections

The Brahmanic Conspiracy
By Revd. Barnabas Alexander & Dr. Kristoffson Somanader

Cultural/spiritual corruption came via the Brahmins as they conspired to enslave the Tamils, inter alios, politically, intellectually, and spiritually

Buddha, The Feminist
By Chandrabhan Prasad

According to a UNICEF study conducted in 1984 in Mumbai, out of 8,000 sex determination cases, where fetuses were terminated, 7,999 were of females. According to another study, in Jaipur alone, about 3,500 female fetuses are terminated annually

02 September, 2005

Honoring The Dead
By Dr. Trudy Bond

As if they were figurines, terrifying images of Iraqis and Afghanis dismembered by explosions are exchanged on-line for free access to a porn site. The invitation to post photos of shocking cruelty is proposed to US combat troops who are asked to post their horror shots in order to enter the porn section of the site. Once gaining entry, many site visitors have been unable to resist the deal offered by www.nowthatsfuckedup.com

Why I Do Not Support The Troops
By Lucinda Marshall

As Cindy Sheehan has so eloquently pointed out, using our children as "human cluster-bombs" to kill other children in never-ending wars is not a family value, it is the callous betrayal of our youth and the wanton destruction of our future. It is for these reasons that I will not say that I support our troops

What Eating Cindy Sheehan?
By Jason Leopold

Cindy Sheehan has been subjected to an unwarranted backlash by right-wing pundits because of her antiwar protests and some explosive statements she made about President Bush

Why New Orleans Is In Deep Water
By Molly Ivins

One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water

How New Orleans was Lost
By Paul Craig Roberts

Chalk up the city of New Orleans as a cost of Bush's Iraq war

Rushing After A Mirage
By Hasan Abu Nimah

There are striking similarities between Israel's departure from southern Lebanon in May 2000 and the events in Gaza over the past two weeks. This is no surprise, as events in the Arab-Israeli conflict have been seemingly moving in circles for years

Arroyo Clings To Philippines Presidency
Amid Growing Economic Crisis
By John Roberts

After months of political turmoil, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has staved off efforts to impeach her but remains deeply unpopular and faces a continuing opposition campaign to have her removed from office

Winning The West: Progressives 'Stand Up'
By Joshua Frank

If Tester is to learn anything from Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, he better realize that in order to win, he has to shoot it straight with the Montana public. He can't be wishy-washy. Tester has to take a position, no matter how unpopular it may be, and stand behind it through thick and thin

India's Subalterns Too Have A Poet
By Syed Amin Jafri

The folk singer Gaddar, Gummadi Vittal Rao, is 56 years old, has acted in two movies, and carries a bullet in his body. He is best known as a singer, and thousands of copies of his songs have been sold throughout India

01 September, 2005

Hurricane Katrina Exposes Racism And Inequality
By Lee Sustar

Decades of official neglect, racism and the impact of global warming magnified the destructive impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and other parts of the South

A Calamity Compounded By Poverty And Neglect
By Joseph Kay

The enormous devastation wreaked upon parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama by Hurricane Katrina is only beginning to come to light, even as the situation in New Orleans grows worse by the hour

Global Warming And Widespread Blackouts
Are Just As Deadly As Terrorism
By Jason Leopold

Two years ago this month, a Blackout plunged 50 million people in Northeastern U.S. and the Canadian province of Ontario into total darkness for more than a day, wreaking havoc on the U.S. economy. Now, it’s the devastation in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi wrought by Hurricane Katrina that has killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of people

Bush Gives New Reason For Iraq War
By Jennifer Loven

President Bush answered growing antiwar protests yesterday with a fresh reason for US troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists

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