In the absence of any long term prospect for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, Canada has decided to go it alone and try for bilateral agreements. This started with the Chrétien Liberals but has continued under PMS.To date, we’ve si…
Continue readingTag: Middle East
RedBedHead: Workers of Egypt: Strike! Occupy! Bring revolution to victory!
This is an awesome leaflet from a section of the Egyptian left on how to drive forward the revolution. It deserves wide distribution and is a taste of the ferment that is going on in Egypt at the moment. From here in Canada it can be hard to really und…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Canada boycotts arms meeting
I rarely agree with the Harper Government on anything. But on this one, I do. We have every right, indeed the duty, to boycott a disarmament conference if the country chairing the meeting is North Korea. …
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Arab Spring leads to “Ivory Revolution” in Celesteville
After weeks of unprecedented protests another repressive dictator has been overthrown in the Middle East. King Babar (pictured above fleeing the country in a hot-air balloon with his cousin/wife) was ousted as monarch of the small African country of “Celesteville.” Inspired by … Continue reading →
Continue readingRedBedHead: Israel Is No Different Than Syria
Israel likes to tout itself as the “plucky little democracy” in the Middle East, and as an island of European-style democracy besieged by a sea of dictatorships and dark, Arabic hordes. Besides the (fading) appeal to the oppressions Jews suffered in Eu…
Continue readingArt Threat: Walk the line in Palestine – Explore the West Bank perimeter through Mark Thomas’ gonzo rambling and Francis Alÿs’ action painting
It is possible to experience aspects of the Palestinian political drama through complementary events on both sides of the Atlantic; through the work of the British comedian and activist, Mark Thomas, in London and the Belgian artist Francis Alÿs in New York.
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Obama: 1967 borders, please
It’s quite the provocation in the minds of many, but Barack Obama has done an almost complete reversal of what he said when campaigning in 2008.
At a meeting of AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, then Senator Obama said that he suppo…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Obama Gets it Right on Palestine
President Obama understands what I wrote three and a half years ago, that ending the Israeli Palestinian conflict depends on recognizing that “the solution essentially comes down to understanding the most and least that each side can accept”.We could a…
Continue readingArt Threat: Paint and piano reflect Mideast resistance – Uprising by Sundus Abdul Hadi & Stefan Christoff
Uprising is a mixed-media painting by Sundus Abdul Hadi in collaboration with her sister Tamara Abdul Hadi’s photography, in which her flying figures grace the work. Visuals go hand in hand with Stefan Christoff’s piano composition.
Continue readingArt Threat: Imaging Apartheid around the world – Poster project supports the Palestinian struggle against occupation
A small collective of artists and activists have spent the past six months calling upon their creative colleagues to submit work related to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: Molly’sBlog 2011-04-15 00:50:00
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS; THE ARAB REVOLUTIONS:THE POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS OF REVOLUTION:I guess that one might consider me fortunate to have lived through three different eras of international revolutionary ferment. The first was the late 60s, ear…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: World strikes back against Libya
I’ve often felt that military intervention is warranted when there are gross human rights violations, but often it has not happened where it was most needed or when it was too late — think Rwanda and Bosnia for instance. But now the rubber has hi…
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Turmoil in the Middle East
This is just a sidebar, or metacomment, to the coverage of upheaval in the middle east.I don’t trust the coverage we’re getting, because behind it I see a smirk – both from the people in the news rooms, and from our western governments.Since September …
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Ireland hits the polls, and the wall
In terms of politics, this is truly an earthquake.True, the top two parties in Ireland are pretty much Tweedledum and Tweedledee (they’re both centre right) but after all the ballots have been counted in Ireland the party that has pretty much dominated…
Continue readingTattered Sleeve: EXCLUSIVE: Mubarak’s conversation with Obama:
“If I go there will be trouble, If I stay there will be double” So, go.
Continue readingTattered Sleeve: Hosni Mubarak, and the world that matters not to him
With time on my hands, I spent the afternoon flipping between Aljazeera English, CNN, CBC Newsworld and CTV Newsnet in between loads of laundry.
At around 4 pm EST, I watched live footage of a pro-Mubarak bus being driven backwards 50 metres or so int…
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Egypt, Tunisia, Thailand… Top 10 destinations for Social Upheaval
A Tide of civil unrest has swept through at least 11 nations in just the past week. Media focus has been on the successes of the “Jasmine Revolution” and developments in Egypt, which is populous, geopolitically significant, and in total upheaval; but nations far and wide are experiencing mass-protests and
Continue readingA. Picazo: Child Soldiers: The Other Taliban and Al-Qaeda Militants
“A poignant reality of contemporary conflicts is that increasingly children are being used as cheap and readily available weapons of war. From Colombia to Sri Lanka, from Sierra Leone to Uganda, thousands of children have been used in armed conflict situations. In Afghanistan, our forces are seeing the increasing use
Continue readingA. Picazo: The Crisis In Gaza — An International Tipping Point
If, and as long as between the Jordan and the sea, there is only one political entity, named Israel, it will end up being either non-Jewish or non-democratic… If the Palestinians vote in elections, it is a binational state, and if they don’t, it is an apartheid state. – Ehud
Continue readingTattered Sleeve: Well Israel, you have really lost the PR war now
You have got yourselves perfectly embroiled in an international incident that is not going away until you learn that even you must eat crow sometimes. So far, it doesn’t appear to have sunk in. I notice it only took you a few hours to release some prop…
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