Top 7 Middle East Foreign Policy Challenges in 2016

Published on Zcomm.org (first on Informed Comment), by Juan Cole, Jan 1, 2015.

… But in 2016 the Middle East is likely to be the hot button issue in US foreign policy. While I recognize the enormous Iran breakthrough as a major feather in the administration’s cap, I’m a critic of many of the Obama administration’s other policies in the region. We are allied with allies of al-Qaeda in Syria, allied with the Saudis in bombing Yemen, allied with the hard line Shiites in Iraq, allied with the hard line Israeli squatters in the Palestinian West Bank, and in some arenas where a little diplomacy would be helpful, we haven’t done much. These policies are pernicious and self-contradictory, and this administration only has a year to change some of them … // Continuer la lecture de « Top 7 Middle East Foreign Policy Challenges in 2016 »

The Privatization of Water in India, how Coca-Cola Destroys the Aquifer

Published on Global Research.ca (first on The Ecologist), by Amit Srivastava, Dec 31, 2015: never mind the Greenwash – Coca Cola can never be Water Neutral.

… The Coca-Cola company is planning to announce that it is close to replenishing all the water it uses“back to communities and nature” by the end of 2015, well ahead of schedule. Continuer la lecture de « The Privatization of Water in India, how Coca-Cola Destroys the Aquifer »

notre argent et nous

Some Women Are More Invisible

Published on ZNet (first on teleSUR english), by Cynthia Peters, Dec 31, 2015.

There are two countries in the world that have no laws mandating paid maternity leave. One is Papua New Guinea. The other is the United States of America.

This was one of the points made by the U.N. Working Group on discrimination against women, which visited the U.S. recently and expressed shock at their findings. After politely acknowledging the U.S.’s commitment to liberty, the report went on to lambaste the government for failing women on many levels, including:   Continuer la lecture de « Some Women Are More Invisible »