Mois : décembre 2014

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Anne Backhaus and Simone Salden in Bhopal, India, Dec 9, 2014.

Thirty years after the worst chemical accident in history, the disaster is hitting a new generation. The victims have received little help, professional clean-up has not happened and there are no signs the ongoing environmental catastrophe will end.

When the monsoon washes away the dust of the Indian summer from the landscape, huts and people of Bhopal, the dry basin behind the slum of J.P. Nagar turns into a lake. Laughing children swim in it, fishermen wait for the telltale tug on their lines to signal a catch, and buffalos greedily devour the succulent stems of water lilies … // Continuer la lecture de « Generations of Victims: Bhopal's Unending Catrastrophe – part 1 »

Published on Russia Today RT (first in german on DIE ZEIT) *, Dec 8, 2014.

A group of prominent Germans are urging their country and the West to open dialogue with Russia. They believe this is essential to ensure peace in Europe, rather than further isolate Moscow, which they say would be “dangerous for the world.”

The petition named ‘New war in Europe? Not in our name!’ was signed by 60 people from Germany’s politics, economy, culture and media sectors – among them former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and film director Wim Wenders.   Continuer la lecture de « Prominent Germans urge West to stop sabre rattling toward Russia »

Published on Global Research.ca, by RT, Dec 8, 2014.

(The 113th US-) Congress is poised to give a foreign mining company 2,400 acres of national forest in Arizona that is cherished ancestral homeland to Apache natives. Controversially, the measure is attached to annual legislation that funds the US Defense Department … //

… Arizona Sen. John McCain was instrumental in adding to the NDAA the land deal that had been pursued by Rio Tinto for a decade, according to HuffPo. Some in Congress were reportedly concerned with the deal, but it ultimately materialized thanks to economic assurances. Rio Tinto claims mining in Tonto will generate $61 billion in economic activity and 3,700 direct and indirect jobs over 40 years.   Continuer la lecture de « Congress Gives Native American Lands to Foreign Mining Company With New NDAA »

Published on ZNet (first on TeleSUR english), by John Pilger, Dec 6, 2014.

Why has so much journalism succumbed to propaganda? Why are censorship and distortion standard practice? Why is the BBC so often a mouthpiece of rapacious power? Why do the New York Times and the Washington Post deceive their readers?

Why are young journalists not taught to understand media agendas and to challenge the high claims and low purpose of fake objectivity? And why are they not taught that the essence of so much of what’s called the mainstream media is not information, but power?   Continuer la lecture de « War by media and the triumph of propaganda »

Video – Interview with Noam Chomsky: Can we save our Democracy and History, 28.04 min, uploaded by The Chomsky Videos, Dec 3, 2014 – (see (US-)Republicans ‘dedicated with utter servility’ to the needs of the 1 percent – Noam Chomsky, on RawStory, by Scott Kaufman, Dec 5, 2014): “The last vote,” he said, referring to the November elections:

• “was the lowest turnout since 1940, in the middle of [World War II], when people couldn’t vote.”
• “Why? Because people understand what is shown in academic political science — that their voices just don’t matter. The opinions of the lowest 70 percent of the population — the lowest on the income scale — are simply disregarded” … //

… (full text).

Chomsky in 2014: FULL List and SMALL Clips, on raw story.   Continuer la lecture de « On the Republicans and the 1% – Noam Chomsky »