Martin Drewry, “The Truth About Global Health,” The Huffington Post UK, 27/05/2013
As the World Health Assembly draws to a close and the great and the good in global health head home, it’s time to focus on some truths about health.
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Martin Drewry, “Bill Gates Is Wrong,” The Huffington Post UK, 21/02/2013
Bill Gates has suggested that the Millennium Development Goals do not need updating. He is wrong. Here’s why:
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Clive Thompson, “How to Keep the NSA Out of Your Computer,” Mother Jones, September/October 2013 Issue
Joseph Bonicioli mostly uses the same internet you and I do. He pays a service provider a monthly fee to get him online. But to talk to his friends and neighbors in Athens, Greece, he’s also got something much weirder and more interesting: a private, parallel internet.
He and his fellow Athenians built it. They did so by linking up a set of rooftop wifi antennas to create a “mesh,” a sort of bucket brigade that can pass along data and signals. It’s actually faster than the Net we pay for: Data travels through the mesh at no less than 14 megabits a second, and up to 150 Mbs a second, about 30 times faster than the commercial pipeline I get at home. Bonicioli and the others can send messages, video chat, and trade huge files without ever appearing on the regular internet. And it’s a pretty big group of people: Their Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network has more than 1,000 members, from Athens proper to nearby islands. Anyone can join for free by installing some equipment. “It’s like a whole other web,” Bonicioli told me recently. “It’s our network, but it’s also a playground.” Continue reading
Franklin C. Spinney, “Syria in the Crosshairs,” CounterPunch, 27 August 2013
The inestimable Diana Johnstone ably dissected the illegalities and subterfuges of the Kosovo adventure in numerous articles over the years — her latest being “US Uses Past Crimes to Legalize Future Ones” on 26 August in Counterpunch.
Today, I want to address the stupidity of the Kosovo precedent from a somewhat different angle.
Not only was the Kosovo adventure illegal, it was also a case study in the failure of US precision strike doctrine. One would think the Obama White House would be sensitive to this, because the reasons for the failure are again evident in the metastasizing targets lists governing the conduct of the drone wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Continue reading
“Tax Justice Focus: The Finance Curse,” Tax Justice Network (TJN), 23 September 2013
The latest edition of Tax Justice Focus, edited by Daniel Hind, Nicholas Shaxson and John Christensen, explores the Finance Curse, a phenomenon rather similar to the Resource Curse afflicting resource-rich economies. Evidence continues to mount suggesting that, far from being an asset, a large and globally ‘competitive’ financial sector, above a certain size, becomes a drain on the rest of the economy. Continue reading
Excerpted from “War Play: Video Games and the Future of Armed Conflict“
Corey Mead, “Shall we play a game?: The rise of the military-entertainment complex,” Salon, 19 September 2013
The origins of the U.S. military’s involvement with video games lie in its century-old status as this country’s primary sponsor of new technologies. A quick checklist of the technologies that either stem from or were significantly refined in defense-funded contexts shows how pervasive the military’s influence has been: digital computers, nuclear power, high-speed integrated circuits, the first version of the Internet, semiconductors, radar, sonar, jet engines, portable phones, transistors, microwave ovens, GPS—the list goes on. As Ed Halter writes in his book “From Sun Tzu to Xbox,” “The technologies that shape our culture have always been pushed forward by war.” Continue reading
Samuel Scheffler, “The Importance of the Afterlife. Seriously,” New York Times, 21 September 2013
I believe in life after death.
No, I don’t think that I will live on as a conscious being after my earthly demise. I’m firmly convinced that death marks the unqualified and irreversible end of our lives.
My belief in life after death is more mundane. What I believe is that other people will continue to live after I myself have died. You probably make the same assumption in your own case. Although we know that humanity won’t exist forever, most of us take it for granted that the human race will survive, at least for a while, after we ourselves are gone.
Because we take this belief for granted, we don’t think much about its significance. Yet I think that this belief plays an extremely important role in our lives, quietly but critically shaping our values, commitments and sense of what is worth doing. Astonishing though it may seem, there are ways in which the continuing existence of other people after our deaths — even that of complete strangers — matters more to us than does our own survival and that of our loved ones. Continue reading
MicahZenko, “The Soldier and the State Go Public,” Foreign Policy, 25 September 2013
Washington has found itself in a crisis over the proper relationship between senior civilian and military officials. This has played out in recent op-eds (“A War the Pentagon Doesn’t Want“) and articles (“Some U.S. Military Officers Not Happy With Syrian War Prep“), which have been countered by other op-eds (“No Military Consensus on Syria” and “U.S. War Decisions Rightfully Belong to Elected Civilian Leaders, Not the Military“). It’s a tension that shows little sign of abating, regardless of how the Syria issue plays out: Underlying forces seem guaranteed to make it worse.
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Stéphane Horel and Brian Bienkowski, “Special report: Scientists critical of EU chemical policy have industry ties,” Environmental Health News, 23 September 2013
Seventeen scientists who have criticized plans in Europe to regulate endocrine-disrupting chemicals have past or current ties to regulated industries. An investigation by Environmental Health News reveals that of 18 toxicology journal editors who signed a controversial editorial, 17 have collaborated with the chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, tobacco, pesticide or biotechnology industries. Some have received research funds from industry associations, while some have served as industry consultants or advisors. The stakes are high in the controversy because it involves the European Union’s strategy to regulate hormone-altering chemicals – the first attempt in the world to do so. The new rules would have sweeping, global ramifications because all companies that sell a variety of products in Europe would have to comply.
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Robert Newman, “There is no population explosion on this planet,” The Guardian, 22 September 2013
Let’s get one thing straight from the start. There is no population explosion. The rate of population growth has been slowing since the 1960s, and has fallen below replacement levels half the world over. But what about the other half? That’s where population is exploding, right? Well, actually, no. The UN Population Division’s world fertility patterns show that, worldwide, fertility per woman has fallen from 4.7 babies in 1970–75 to 2.6 in 2005-10. As Peoplequake author Fred Pearce puts it: “Today’s women have half as many babies as their mothers … That is not just in the rich world. It is the global average today.” …
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Jeremy Schulman, “Defense Contractor: Climate Change Could Create ‘Business Opportunities‘,” Mother Jones, 14 August 2013
Of all the business opportunities presented by global warming, Raytheon Company may have found one of the most alarming. The Massachusetts-based defense contractor—which makes everything from communications systems to Tomahawk missiles—thinks that future “security concerns” caused by climate change could mean expanded sales of its military products. …
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Harry Belafonte, “Martin Luther King: Harry Belafonte remembers ‘I Have a Dream’,” The Observer, 11 August 2013
There is one thing I have to say about the speech, though, and I say it when I am called on to speak about Dr King to students all over America. I tell them: you need to study the whole speech because the text before the “I Have a Dream” part is a deeper reflection of what he was striving for. The details and the passion of the struggle are spelt out in the preceding passages.
The spirit that Dr King called forth was a profoundly American spirit, as was his struggle. What made me feel so good about that struggle was that it was ordinary people who were becoming empowered through his words, to realise their own possibilities.
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“The shocking truth,” The Economist, Aug 27th 2013
The numbers may be small but they are growing. In 2011 documentary films grossed £11m at the British box office. This was only 1% of the year’s total box-office takings but it was a six-fold increase on the year before. Moreover, while the budgets can be high they are still much cheaper to produce than studio features.
But why are audiences increasingly choosing fact over fiction? Perhaps the current dearth of realism (endless comic-book sequels and apocalyptic action movies) is forcing more discerning viewers to choose authentic storytelling over spectacular visuals and far-fetched plots. Documentaries such as “Blackfish” may also fill a gap in investigative journalism, as fewer newspapers and broadcasters invest in long-term projects.
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“Solar Energy Perspectives,” International Energy Agency, 2011
In 90 minutes, enough sunlight strikes the earth to provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year. While solar energy is abundant, it represents a tiny fraction of the world’s current energy mix. But this is changing rapidly and is being driven by global action to improve energy access and supply security, and to mitigate climate change.
Download the report here.
Glenn Greenwald, “MLK’s vehement condemnations of US militarism are more relevant than ever,” The Guardian, 21 January 2013
The civil right achievements of Martin Luther King are quite justly the focus of the annual birthday commemoration of his legacy. But it is remarkable, as I’ve noted before on this holiday, how completely his vehement anti-war advocacy is ignored when commemorating his life (just as his economic views are). By King’s own description, his work against US violence and militarism, not only in Vietnam but generally, was central – indispensable – to his worldview and activism, yet it has been almost completely erased from how he is remembered.
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We are delighted that the Cambridge Film Festival 2013 are screening Leila Sansour’s ‘Operation Bethlehem’ as a work in progress
Leila will join the audience for a post-film discussion.
For more information, see link below.
http://www.cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk/films/2013/operation-bethlehem#sthash.5ghqnjqL.dpuf
A work in progress: Daughter to the late founder of Bethlehem University, Leila Sansour returned to the place she was so desperate to escape as teenager with the intention of making a film honouring her father and his relationship with the legendary town. Instead, she found herself compelled to document the wall being built around Bethlehem, transforming the city into an open-air prison patrolled by the Israeli military. Five years later, Sansour has created a touching personal record of her own re-assimilation into her ancestral home, but also an evocative archive of Bethlehem’s cultural and historical riches, and a crucial expose of the threats this history is facing. Allied with a campaign to resist this erasure and preserve the town’s identity as bastion of harmonious multifaith cohabitation in the Middle East, OPERATION BETHLEHEM is a hugely affecting and significant work.
See more at:
http://www.cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk/films/2013/operation-bethlehem#sthash.5ghqnjqL.dpuf
“Greenbelt ranks alongside Glastonbury as my favourite festival gig of the summer.” Mark Thomas.
TPFF looks forward to another bank holiday Greenbelt festival – and a special one as Greenbelt celebrates its 40thBirthday!
And our three day programme stays with the ‘anniversary’ theme as 50 years on, we mark Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech through the beautifully told story of his fellow civil rights friend and activist, the extra-ordinary Harry Belafonte; we preview TPFF supported film by Amir Amirani ‘We Are Many’ – a film marking the 10th anniversary of the 2003 global anti-Iraq war marches; and eight years on from Make Poverty History, we look at the tax campaign related outcomes of the recent G8 meeting as we screen the highly popular ‘We’re Not Broke’ – a film about corporates, tax avoidance and citizens.
We’ll be there Saturday, Sunday and Monday – 2pm-4.30pm at the film venue. Each screening is followed by post film discussion with specially invited guests…
We look forward to seeing you there!
Tom Z. Collina, “Nuke the Budget,” Foreign Policy, August 9 2013
Consider this: The Pentagon, as directed by Congress, must dramatically cut its budget. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warns the projected cuts are so large that they would “break” key parts of the military’s national security strategy, and even then “the savings fall well short” of meeting the $500 billion 10-year target.
At the same time, President Barack Obama, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Pentagon have determined that the United States has more strategic nuclear warheads than it needs to deter potential threats and can therefore reduce the deployed stockpile by up to one-third, to about 1,000 warheads. Hagel supported even deeper nuclear reductions before he was tapped to head the Pentagon.
Perfect target for budget cuts, right? Wrong, says Hagel, who has taken the U.S. nuclear weapons budget off the chopping block, all $31 billion per year of it. …
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Abdi Ismail Samatar, “Famine as a crime against humanity,” Al Jazeera, 01 Dec 2011
Drought does not necessarily lead to famine: The catastrophe in Somalia was man-made.
The coordinator of the Monitoring Group recently published an article in which he claimed that the Somali famine is not only a catastrophe, but that identifiable individuals and groups engaged in the production of the famine and therefore have committed crimes against humanity. This bold statement by the coordinator of the Monitoring Group demands careful assessment.
It has been common wisdom for decades that droughts do not by themselves lead to famines, and the cause of the latter is the failure by national and international authorities to take action long before people run out of food. There have been 10 major droughts over the last 50 years in the Horn of Africa in general, and in Somalia in particular.
The evidence gleaned from this climatic record show that most droughts did not produce famine. …
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Charles Davis, “Sharing science is a crime,” Al Jazeera, 03 Aug 2013
The more one shares, the more one undermines a future patent application and a system that encourages privatisation.
It doesn’t matter if you start out working for a university. Scientists are given two choices for getting their research funded, academia or not: go to work for the Pentagon or start making something you can patent. And the government and its corporations want it that way.
Of the $140bn in research and development funding requested by President Barack Obama for 2013, according to the Congressional Research Service, more than half goes through the Department of Defense; less than $30bn through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). That invariably leads to a shift in resources, with scientists going to where the money is: instead of finding ways to cure, finding high-tech ways to kill or otherwise aid the war effort. Researchers at the University of Arizona, for instance, received a $1.5m grant to “adapt their breast cancer imaging research for detection of embedded explosives”, which speaks rather well to the US government’s priorities and the toll it takes on research that has the general public in mind. …
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