With protests sweeping across Pakistan and around the world, Malalai Joya adds her voice to protest attack on Malala Yousafzai.
Pakistan
Pakistan floods: Why should we care?
Yesterday, a non-Pakistani friend emailed me: "I wanted to ask you which you think would be the best organization to make a donation to for the current crisis in Pakistan. We usually give to MSF, but their website doesn't seem to offer the opportunity to give specifically for Pakistan. Can you offer advice?"
This friend is British and greatly prefers British media outlets, but I need to believe that there are many Americans who also want to help flood victims in Pakistan -- or who would want to, if they knew the scale and severity of the disaster.
Climate change, capitalism and war produce disaster in Pakistan
The massive floods in Pakistan that affect 20 million people are far from a random 'natural disaster.' Rather, they are a predictable result of human negligence and strife.
Related rabble.ca story:
Climate change, capitalism and war produce disaster in Pakistan
The massive floods in Pakistan that affect 20 million people are far from a random "natural disaster." Rather, they are a predictable result of global warming, capitalist development, and US-backed war.
The Afghan War diary data -- an initial look
An initial look at the first 76,000 records in the "Afghan War Diary" leaked by Wikileaks yields some important information, much of which has been known or suspected by analysts for years. Given the sheer size of the database, there is a great deal more to be learned, but here are some initial findings.
Casualty data
The first impression is one of an extremely lopsided war, like all wars of occupation, where occupied casualties are vastly higher than those by the occupier.
The missing persons of Baluchistan
I've seen their silent faces
They scream so loud
If they were to speak these words
They’d go missing too
Another woman on the torture table
What else can they do ?
One day we’ll dance on their graves
One day we’ll sing our freedom
One day we’ll laugh in our joy
And we’ll dance (twice)
Hey Mr. Pinochet, you’ve sown a bitter crop
It’s foreign money that supports you
One day the money is going to stop
No wages for your torturers
No budget for your guns
Can you think of your own mother
Dancin’ with her invisible son?
The new 'green scare': Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire
Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire
(Haymarket Books ,
2012;
$17.00)
In 2009, several U.S. citizens or legal residents were arrested for alleged connections to "terrorist" activity. In the latter part of the year these became high-profile cases that drew sustained media attention. Following hard upon this media frenzy, in December 2009 the Obama administration announced plans to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending in more troops and by stepping up drone attacks on Pakistan, in what came to be known as the "Af-Pak strategy." Almost a full year into his presidency, the "peace" president had failed to fulfill his campaign promises to shut down Guantanamo Bay and undo the violations of civil liberties unleashed by Bush. The "homegrown terrorist" threat being whipped up by the media served well to continue the status quo.
