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Resistance Considers its Options: Limited Confrontation or Open War?

Author / Source / Date: 

Ibrahim al-Amin, May 13, 2013

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Israel’s Sunday air strikes on military targets in Damascus has led to much speculation about the motives behind the attack and whether Syria – or its Iranian or Hezbollah allies – will respond in kind.

Recent Developments in Syria

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Newsclick Production, January 16, 2013

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Prof. Vijay Prashad discusses with NewsClick the developments taking place in Syria. He says the humanitarian situation inside and outside Syria (of Syrian refugees) is abysmal. Prof. Prashad says US is bleeding Syria, as it is difficult to tackle it militarily because Syria has built up a formidable air defense system..

Einstein's Promised Land

Author / Source / Date: 

Saswat Pattanayak, Courtesy: kindlemag.in, December 3, 2012

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With the “God Letter” recently auctioned for over $3 million, the world has started taking a renewed interest in Albert Einstein’s core philosophies.

Tunisia to Reject Odious Debt

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Courtesy: The Real News, August 27, 2012

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Leonce Ndikumana: Tunisia to audit foreign debt and reject loans embezzled by former dictator

Vijay Prashad: Arab Spring Libyan Winter - Part II

Author / Source / Date: 

Newsclick Production, July 19, 2012

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Vijay Prashad discusses with Newsclick how the US and its allies have struck back against the mas movements that overthrew Ben Ali and Mubarak. This is what he terms as the Libyan Winter. He analyses the forces that the US and its allies are putting together and the danger to the region from these forces.

Will Israel Do It?

Author / Source / Date: 

Ibrahim al-Amin, Courtesy: Alakhbar English, July 17, 2012

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Israel and its backers have been hinting at possible military intervention in Syria on the pretext of preventing the transfer of its chemical weapons stockpiles to the Lebanese resistance. Such a step would set the region ablaze. Iran and Hezbollah have let it be known to all concerned that they would not stand idly by.

Putting aside all theoretical commentary about what is happening in Syria and the region, it would seem that we face a very high risk of a major explosion in the coming weeks.

The Middle East Needs Dialogue not War

Author / Source / Date: 

Patrick Seale, Courtesy: agenceglobal.com

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“Dialogue is the strategy of the brave.” This is the striking phrase I heard from the mouth of Norway’s Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, one of the wisest of European statesmen, when I attended the Oslo Forum last month, an annual gathering of would-be mediators of the world’s conflicts. Rarely has dialogue been more necessary than in today’s deeply disturbed Middle East.

Going Rogue: America's Unconventional Warfare in the Mideast

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Courtesy: Sharmine Narwani, Alakhbar, May 28, 2012

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The intent of U.S. [Unconventional Warfare] UW efforts is to exploit a hostile power’s political, military, economic, and psychological vulnerabilities by developing and sustaining resistance forces to accomplish U.S. strategic objectives…For the foreseeable future, U.S. forces will predominantly engage in irregular warfare (IW) operations.

Algeria, Democracy and the Left

Author / Source / Date: 

Newsclick Production, Dec. 23, 2011

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Samia Zennadi, a writer and an activist discusses the political situation in Algeria with Newsclick. While agreeing that the events in the Arab world and pro-democracy movements will have an impact on Algeria as well, she also focuses on the past suchmovements. She discusses the weakness of the secular and left forces in Algeria and contrasts it with the kind of grass-root support that Islamist forces are able to generate.

The Stories that Media Does not Get

Author / Source / Date: 

Seema Mustafa, Newsclick, Nov. 28, 2011

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The internet is buzzing with news of peoples protests, opposition to various legislations slated for Parliament, petitions against government oppression, an entirely different world from that reflected in the so called mainstream media through the long, and often very tedious, 24 hours coverage.

The VIP media of editors and proprietors with farm houses and five star book launches covers only VIP politicians, mega scams, corporate honcho successions, sensational rapes, leaving the protesting people of India to fend for themselves. So while television channels are engaged in sensationalizing non events, and generating debates on inconsequential political happenings, the people of India have moved on to the internet, flooding it with petitions, videos, photographs of a reality that has been squeezed out of the so called ‘national’ media altogether. For instance, there was coverage of the peoples protests against the Koodankulam nuclear power project so long as the anchors could dress up the story in sexy garb by pitching the centre against Chief Minister Jayalalitha. It was almost projected as a protest organized by the AIADMK leader in a major distortion of the facts. But there has not been a word in the media about the fact that 3015 persons, including leading activists like Dr S.P.Udayakumar, have been charged now for waging war against the country and sedition by the Tamil Nadu police. The media has disappeared from view, leaving it to activists to launch petition campaigns and seek justice on their own.

 
Similarly, there has not been a word in the media criticizing former Home Secretary G.K.Pillai for virtually justifying the encounter murder of young Ishrat Jehan by the Gujarat police by suggesting that by checking into different hotels with “another man” was definite ground for suspicion. This at a time when the SIT report has established her death as an encounter, in the first glimmerings of justice for the victims of the Gujarat violence. It is the Pillai kind of mindset that justifies state brutality, as clearly his case is that an independent woman taking control of her own life is suspect. This mentality is reflected in the police station where rape victims are placed on trial by the cops---“the woman is of ‘loose’ character”, “she was not dressed soberly,”etc--- before they even register the complaint. It has been left to civil society to move a petition for signatures against the former Home Secretary demanding an “immediate apology.” The Gujarat High Court has fortunately expressed serious displeasure at the comments made by Pillai to the media.
 
Tired and disillusioned, the young people are moving to the internet not just in India but all across the world. The real pictures of Libya and now possibly Syria are not found in the world media, controlled as it is by the big powers, but on the internet where local journalists and photographers have been posting videos about the cold blooded murders of sovereign state leaders like Gadaffi (after Saddam Hussein), the repression of the people by Israel in Palestine on a daily basis, and the contrast between the rebels and the people who are supporting the regime in Syria as they do not want their country to be destroyed by US/Nato bombers. The story on the internet is often totally different to what is projected by the big media that has either not understood what is happening inside a nation, or has understood but does not care, or more sinister, is playing along with a larger international conspiracy.
 
The story of a country cannot be without its people. The government’s decision to bring in a Food Security Bill cannot be divorced, in the coverage, of what impact it will have on the ground. It is the job of the media to explore not the legalities of the legislation, but whether it will bring relief to the people, and to what extent. These stories are not being covered any more with the media getting away with a couple of quotes from the VIP politicians, and a ‘this party is against the other party’ kind of superficial approach. What has happened to the Womens' Reservation Bill? What does 51 per cent FDI in the retail sector mean for the people? And by people, the yardstick should be the poor people at the receiving end, and not just the consumers who determine the advertisements and the TRP ratings.
 
People do not like to come out on the streets to protest. Not even those who belong to political parties. They do so because they genuinely believe that there is no other course, and the issue is important enough to merit their full participation. But when thousands of workers march on the streets of Delhi for justice and rights, the entire media with not a single exception blocks them out as they are the conscience check for unbridled capitalism keeping the corporates in business. All that is reported are traffic jams as a result of peoples protests. Of course, if the protests turn violent the media is in full attendance to damn the protestors and their supporters.
 

Pilgers film (The War You Don't See) while very important is not mainstream media. It can never be as it is too honest, very courageous and brutal in projecting the truth. It will be seen by a handful of persons as compared to the millions who are bombarded with contrived images and manipulated news about the Arab world day after day. The media motto is: convert the lie into a truth by repeating it over and over again. It works as international, and of course national, stereotypes have been created on this basis, completely suffocating the tiny voices of truth. Right and wrong is established through this manipulation, with the definition being determined by the powerful few and not the impoverished many.

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