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Gerry Caplan's blog
Gerald Caplan has an MA in Canadian history and a Ph.D. in African history from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He is an author, teacher, media commentator, and social and political activist with a lifelong commitment to African development. He is preoccupied with genocide and genocide prevention, particularly the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, about which he has frequently written. He has been a consultant on African development issues to many United Nations agencies as well as to the African Union. His latest book is called The Betrayal of Africa. He writes a weekly online column for the Globe and Mail.
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog July 15 Gerry Caplan | The late investigative journalist I. F. Stone insisted that "All governments lie." From Kennedy to Clinton, Nixon to Harper, not one government has been able to turn that statement into a falsehood. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog July 8 Gerry Caplan | It’s not too much to say that everywhere on earth there is a war raging against women and girls and that it shows little sign of waning. Gerry Caplan elaborates. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog July 1 Gerry Caplan | For the Prime Minister, more of the same is a recipe for electoral disaster. Stephen Harper needs to either start seeing his government the way most Canadians do, or go finish his hockey history book. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog June 24 Gerry Caplan | President Barack Obama and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair's faux leftism and frail progressive façades make them perfect for each other. And bad for everyone else. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog June 17 Gerry Caplan | Gerry Caplan reflects on the powerful legacy left to us by Nelson Mandela. On the night of his release from prison in 1990, everyone celebrating knew there'd never be another night like it again. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog June 12 Gerry Caplan | In some countries, those who disagree with their government's policies are vilified, demonized, accused of being unpatriotic and operating under the influence of malign foreign influences. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog June 2 Gerry Caplan | While Senate and staff scandals bloomed in Ottawa, PM Harper was pursuing one of his fondest past times: promoting Canadian mining interests wherever they exist across the globe. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog May 27 Gerry Caplan | Bullying is an expansive phenomenon, running along a wide continuum, ranging from physical to verbal abuse. For some reason, society deems much of it to be perfectly acceptable, at least in politics. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog May 20 Gerry Caplan | Gerry Caplan offers some observations on last week's calamitous election result for the NDP and its implication across the country. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog May 13 Gerry Caplan | When an American graduate student uncovered errors in Reinhart and Rogoff's study upholding the merits of austerity, many thought its adherents would eat some crow. The laugh, as usual, remains on us. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog May 4 Gerry Caplan | Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam is not just another history book. Its implications for today are both profound and unnerving. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog April 30 Gerry Caplan | Commemorations to mark the 19th anniversary this month of the genocide against the Tutsi people of Rwanda have been taking place everywhere throughout the world. But not quite everywhere. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog April 15 Gerry Caplan | Heaven knows where the Liberal Party would be today were it not for Justin Trudeau. We now have the answers to three of the central questions at the heart of Canadian political life today. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog April 8 Gerry Caplan | Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is on a long visit to the Middle East. Like Canadian foreign policy in general these days, the exact purpose of the trip is a bit murky. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog April 1 Gerry Caplan | This film must be seen by anyone who wants to grasp Middle East realities. In a sane world, that would include the Prime Minister of Canada and certainly his Foreign Affairs Minister. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog March 25 Gerry Caplan | Despite the apparently exhaustive coverage of the Vatican and its new pope, four fascinating matters remain hanging in the air, some raised, all unresolved. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog March 18 Gerry Caplan | It is a phenomenon rarely noted that virtually every left-wing government since the Second World War, almost all of them elected, has faced vicious, sometimes violent, obstruction by its enemies. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog March 11 Gerry Caplan | Maybe there is no sinister conspiracy. After all, capitalists must do what capitalists must do. It's in their nature. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog March 4 Gerry Caplan | It's hard to understand how someone on an MP's salary, who also happens to be worth more than a million dollars, can rationalize taking large speakers' fees. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog February 25 Gerry Caplan | For the many who wish the Catholic Church ill, including numerous Catholics, Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec would be a welcome choice as the next Pope. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog February 18 Gerry Caplan | For decades the major responsibility of Hon. Senators was to be bagmen for the party that appointed them and to defend corporate interests against mob rule, a.k.a. the House of Commons. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog February 11 Gerry Caplan | Whenever the next election falls, Ontario's teachers have made their intentions unmistakable. They're prepared to campaign against politicians who treat teachers as little more than a political tool. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog February 4 Gerry Caplan | Do France's objectives for Operation Serval, its military intervention in Mali, make sense? This question matters to everyone, not least to the countries from which France is seeking assistance. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog January 28 Gerry Caplan | A veritable orgy of Liberal leadership races have transfixed Canadians. Well, three, anyway. In Ontario and the Dominion at large, the thrill is palpable. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog January 21 Gerry Caplan | Another interminable foreign war by the white world against another group of Muslims is certain to fuel even more extremism, to provoke retaliation and to exacerbate the humanitarian disaster. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog January 14 Gerry Caplan | In the Harper government, First Nations face a tough negotiating partner. A huge groundswell of non-native support for Idle No More will remind Stephen Harper that this movement is not going away. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog January 7 Gerry Caplan | From now on, no more protecting readers from the whole truth, however unpalatable. It's humanity's record, after all, and while you can run away from it, you really can't hide. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog December 24 Gerry Caplan | Humanity is yet again awash in injustice and oppression, much of which, as always, we are helpless to end or can't be bothered trying. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog December 17 Gerry Caplan | Before going any further, the Minister of International Co-operation owes it to Canadians to talk to real experts in the field who'll explain to him the basic truths about international development. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog December 10 Gerald Caplan | The Conservative technique for smearing their opponents is simply a form of political bullying. And it's been enormously successful. |