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E.J. Dionne
$28.50
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By Gore Vidal
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$20
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The Bush administration’s specific failures—in foreign and domestic policy and on matters related to civil liberties—are clear enough. Yet the deeper cause of the public’s disaffection goes beyond these specifics.
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AP photo
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Truthdig normally celebrates Martin Luther King Day by remembering the more complex, more subversive King—the man who railed against America as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” and “a society gone mad on war.” But a day before America inaugurates its first black president, we have other things on our mind.
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By Eugene Robinson — In his eyes, there’s “no such thing as short-term history.” It’s true that some presidencies look different after a few decades. But it’s also true that presidential acts can have immediate consequences—and Bush’s eight years are seen as a nadir that will take years to recover from.
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By Marie Cocco — Peace is not at hand, at least not as Americans define it. Yet peace has been breaking out all over.
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AP photo / Riccardo Gangale
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By Gbemisola Olujobi — As the dust settles from the feverish dances that greeted Barack Obama’s victory in the American elections, Africans wonder what “our son and brother” will be able to do for Africa in the face of daunting challenges in the United States and other parts of the world.
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AP photo / Khalil Hamra
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By Chris Hedges — We fool ourselves into believing we are immune to the savagery and chaos of failed states. Take away the rigid social structure, let society continue to break down, and we become, like anyone else, brutes.
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AP photo / Gary C. Knapp
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By Titus Levi — The U.S. budget is bleeding red ink by the buckets. So even as we take on deficits and debts, we should look for places to trim the budget. The incoming administration should start by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000 a year and by putting the ax to the most sacred of sacred cows in the federal budget: the Department of Defense.
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U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Lock
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The U.S. has finally decided that it is “well past time” for Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to be shown the door. This after he stole an election in June, subverted a power-sharing arrangement and run his once-prosperous nation into the ground.
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Flickr / mknobil
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World AIDS Day turns 20 today, and while we still don’t have a vaccine, researchers continue to make lifesaving breakthroughs. A team at the World Health Organization in Geneva recently came up with a “thought experiment” that, according to a mathematical model, could end the AIDS epidemic in Africa in only a decade.
Posted on Dec 1, 2008
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EPA / Jon Hrusa
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In a glaring example of the importance of theory in practice, U.S. researchers have accused former South African President Thabo Mbeki of being responsible for more than 300,000 AIDS-related “avoidable deaths,” pointing to Mbeki’s siding with a theoretical camp that argues AIDS is caused by a collapsed immune system, not a viral infection. As a result, offers of free drugs and grant money for AIDS treatment were rejected.
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Flickr / DavidDennisPhotos
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A Yemeni freighter has become the 39th vessel seized by Somali pirates this year. Such hijackings have become a common occurrence off the coast of Somalia. Ship owners have called on the U.N. to police the affected waters.
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Flickr / seiu_international
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Here’s a summary of the day’s Clinton watch via Political Wire: The Guardian says she’ll definitely take the job that The Washington Post reports she may be up for. All eyes now turn to Bill, who’s Global Initiative, huge personality and international superstardom complicate the vetting process. Update: Oy vey.
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An unabashed triumph, Morrison’s new novel is a gloriously poetic and incantatory retelling of America’s tragic and redemptive story.
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Fox News’ Greta von Susteren spends a good portion of the first part of her lengthy interview with Sarah Palin asking about the clothes Palin and her family wore on the campaign trail, but the Alaska governor also addresses several other rumors and “oddities” that circulated before the election.
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Having returned home to Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin said she wasn’t going to comment on the negative reports that emerged about her on Wednesday from within the McCain campaign, but she opined that whoever made those claims was likely a “small ... evidently bitter type of person ... .”
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Sarah Palin didn’t endear herself to everyone in the McCain campaign, from the look of this Fox News report on Wednesday. Stories about Palin sourced to campaign staffers are a bit on the, um, career-demolishing side, let’s say.
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bbc.co.uk / Kate Eshebly
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The chaos in the Democratic Republic of Congo escalated Friday as a refugee camp of 50,000 people reportedly was looted and burned, probably by Tutsi rebel groups. The violence is rooted in the colonial ethnic divisions that led to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
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guardian.co.uk
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Former Secretary of State and current dance sensation Colin Powell graced the stage of a London hip-hop concert “in celebration of African culture.” The song he sang and danced to? A Nigerian hit about people spending money gleaned from U.S. Internet scam victims.
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Carolyn Eisenberg takes a close look at Melvyn Leffler’s “For the Soul of Mankind” to ask whether our current troubles are rooted in a history that continues to haunt us.
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Rainer Hachfeld, Neues Deutschland, Germany —
Posted on Sep 17, 2008
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commons.wikimedia.org (image has been altered)
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After months of conflict, Zimbabwean political rivals Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai have finally agreed to share power. One problem: The deal is so confusing and vague, even close observers are having trouble sorting out exactly how it’s supposed to work.
Posted on Sep 16, 2008
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This week’s Mosaic Intelligence Report looks into al-Qaida’s apparent interest in Algeria, which is evidenced by two deadly car bombings near the country’s capital of Algiers. Why would Osama bin Laden turn his focus to Algeria?
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javno.com
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The government of President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdellah came to an end Wednesday in the West African state of Mauritania, as military officers arrested both Abdellah and the prime minister in a coup against a government denounced for its “corruption and ineptitude in handling rising food prices and oil revenues.” Sound familiar at all?
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After two years of investigation, a Rwandan commission has accused France of facilitating the 1994 genocide by training Hutu militias and providing support to the Hutu government. The commission also says French forces murdered and raped Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The French government has consistently denied involvement in the genocide, in which 800,000 people were killed, but said it would look at the new report.
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westminster.gov.uk
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By Gbemisola Olujobi — Why do so many in the global health establishment insist on viewing the AIDS crisis in Africa through the lens of a 19th century stereotype?
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commons.wikimedia.org
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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have taken a step toward reconciliation, albeit a sluggish one. According to a U.N. envoy, the two sides have tentatively agreed to an outline of conditions for negotiations. Update 2.
Posted on Jul 20, 2008
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AP photo / Denis Farrell
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During his 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela might not have imagined that he would make it to his 90th birthday. The U.S. government gave him an early gift just recently by removing the former South African president and freedom fighter from its terrorist watch list. For his part, Mandela plans to mark the occasion quietly with family at home.
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AP photo / Kevin Sanders, file
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By Chris Hedges — I survive the degradation that has become America—a land that exalts itself as a bastion of freedom and liberty while it tortures human beings, stripped of their rights, in offshore penal colonies, a land that wages wars defined under international law as criminal wars of aggression, a land that turns its back on its poor, its weak, its mentally ill, in a relentless drive to embrace totalitarian capitalism—because I read books.
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After months of strife and bloodshed, the presidential runoff in Zimbabwe finally became a reality Friday; however, it hardly seems like an election, considering there’s only one candidate: long-time President Robert Mugabe.
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USAF / Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Lock
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Robert Mugabe has been condemned by everyone from Nelson Mandela to the queen of England over his conduct in Zimbabwe’s runoff election, but he plans to go ahead with the contest even though the opposition has dropped out.
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Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps, Switzerland —
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After winning one round of elections (perhaps outright), Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s challenger has dropped out of the race, citing rampant government interference and the abuse and murder of his supporters by militias loyal to Mugabe. “We have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process,” said Morgan Tsvangirai.
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U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Lock
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Zimbabwe’s president plans to stop by Rome for a food summit sponsored by the United Nations, a fact that Australia’s foreign minister finds “frankly obscene.” He’s not alone in his disdain for Robert Mugabe, who has transformed Zimbabwe from one of Africa’s bread baskets into a place of chronic hunger.
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PBS has made the film “A Walk to Beautiful” available online. It’s the extraordinary story of women who suffer for years from a preventable and treatable injury simply because they are poor.
Posted on May 16, 2008
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commons.wikimedia.org
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By James Harris — Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus, argues for a more humane foreign policy and explains why American airstrikes in Somalia and elsewhere are about more than terrorism.
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commons.wikimedia.org
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Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus, argues for a more humane foreign policy and explains why American airstrikes in Somalia and elsewhere are about more than terrorism.
Posted on May 6, 2008
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AP photo / Lori Cain
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The former president and superdelegate wouldn’t tell a Nigerian reporter which of the Democratic candidates he intends to support, but he offered a pretty good hint: “Don’t forget that [Barack] Obama won in my state of Georgia. My town, which is home to 625 people, is for Obama. My children and their spouses are pro-Obama. My grandchildren are also pro-Obama.”
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Gruesome details are emerging from the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor (above, right), the former president of Liberia. The leader of one of Taylor’s death squads has testified that the president ordered his militias to cannibalize their enemies, including African and U.N. peacekeepers.
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Fist-pounding tantrums? Slide shows of his presidential visit to Africa? Sputtering at the podium? Suddenly, George W. Bush’s antics are strangely amusing for Jon Stewart, who speculates that the president may be afflicted with senioritis in his twilight days in the White House.
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It’s hard to tell from this clip whether the people rushing to the stage to egg President Bush on as he attempts to enact a little rhythmic diplomacy at this recent function in Liberia are cheering for or jeering at him. We have our suspicions, though.
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The year is 2008, and President George W. Bush has learned an important lesson in global affairs: “Outside forces” taking part in foreign clashes “tend to divide people up inside their country” and “are unbelievably counterproductive.”
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Manny Francisco, Manila, The Phillippines —
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By Amy Goodman — It’s the deadliest conflict since World War II. More than 5 million people have died in the past decade, yet it goes virtually unnoticed and unreported in the United States.
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AP photo / Karel Prinsloo
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A tentative peace may have come to Kenya after the political opposition canceled its rallies and after there were reports that the head of the African Union would attempt to broker a truce. Rioting and other violence since elections last week have killed hundreds.
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Finally, some good news in the world (relatively speaking): AIDS scientists at the United Nations are ready to announce that they have been overestimating the scale of the viral epidemic for quite some time now, and that the spread of AIDS has actually been decelerating over the last decade.
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By Eugene Robinson — I can’t summon any schadenfreude for Winfrey, just sympathy—both for her good intentions and her determination to live up to them. And I pity anyone foolish enough to stand in her way.
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The Onion targets religious hypocrisy with this satirical interview with the head of a mock Christian charity that provides relief to heterosexual Africans: “As long as you’re not gay, we welcome you with open arms.”
Posted on Nov 1, 2007
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cbs.com
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The Doctors Without Borders relief organization has whipped up an ingenious (and, apparently, tasty) lifesaving food product called Plumpynut, a nutritionally enriched mixture of peanut butter, powdered milk and sugar, along with other simple ingredients—and it’s already working wonders on malnourished children around the world.
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Truthdigger of the Week: Sen. Angus King
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