Universities are engines of higher learning – generators not only of individual human growth, but of national development and prosperity. No one knows this better than little Israel – home to some of the most prestigious universities, and the highest percentage of university-educated people in the world. Universities do more than just teach. On lands where they sit, students and faculty come to exercise a sort of sovereign claim. Israel knows this full well – an awareness made plain in its dealings with Al-Quds – a Palestinian university in East Jerusalem. Israeli authorities would love to see not-so-little Al-Quds move out or just disappear.
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Until recently, Rwandan farmers knew when the rains would come; when best to plant their crops. These days, with varying weather patterns attributed to climate change, more and more Rwandan farmers struggle to grow the food they need to survive. Didier Bikorimana reports from a rural farming community in southern Rwanda.
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On January 31, 2013, former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel appeared before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee to face questions regarding his nomination for the post of Defense Secretary. Of all the issues that might have occupied the minds of American legislators tasked with their nation’s security and defense, none stirred as much passion or outrage than the presumed inadequacy of Hagel’s support for a foreign country — Israel. In today’s Congress, insufficient support for Israel is apparently as un-American as Communism was in the McCarthy years. Listen to extracts from Hagel’s brutal inquisition.
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In the early hours of Sunday morning, January 13, a small army of black-suited Israeli police and soldiers forcibly evicted two hundred Palestinian activists and their international supporters from a hilltop tent encampment in the E-1 corridor between East Jerusalem and the Jewish settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, in the heart of the disputed West Bank.
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For those who speak and write non-Latin languages, being able to type on a ‘standard’ computer keyboard is a major barrier to digital democracy. In Cambodia, this problem has been solved and communities are now experimenting with wireless communication.
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The city of Curitiba, in southern Brazil, is famous among urban planners for its innovation and rational development, with a reputation for being highly livable and very sustainable. It was one of the first cities to market itself as “green” in a 1980s advertising campaign. And it is.
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When it comes to garbage, it’s a matter of perspective. One person’s trash is another person’s cash. Outside of Kigali, in the east African nation of Rwanda, villagers have figured out how to turn food waste into cooking fuel. Janna Graham reports.
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A few of the remarkable faces captured (along with audio) on last August/September’s trip to Palestine/Israel. Speaking with folks like these, it’s hard not to feel optimistic about the future of Israel as a nation of its citizens.
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Food is wonderful. A delight to be eaten as well as to behold. At this festive time of year, feast your eyes on some of the tastiest foods and beverages Palestinians and Israelis have to offer. One day, when that ugly wall is demolished and the inhabitants of this wondrous land live side by side — a nation of its citizens — no end of fine meals shall be served and drinks flow.
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By mainstream media accounts, the truce between Israel and Hamas is holding steady. Alternative sources tell a different story. This past Friday, eleven Gazans were injured by Israeli soldiers near Israel’s Rafah crossing. Twenty one year-old Mahmoud Jaroun died of his wounds. Israeli military authorities say the Palestinians had wandered too close to Israel’s barrier [...]
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Nothing captures my attention more, listening to Canadian public radio, than a discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian “conflict” or the U.S.-backed “Peace Process” with Palestine’s leading woman politician, Hanan Ashrawi. Much of what passes for incisive current affairs programming at Canada’s Mother Corp seems strangely devoid of substance these days — particularly when it comes to topics “responsible” broadcasters tend to handle with kid gloves — so an interview with Ashrawi is not to be missed. On a recent trip to Palestine, I set out to speak with Ashrawi myself.
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Finding myself in the Israeli-occupied “West Bank,” ensconced in the heart of what Benjamin Netanyahu insists will be a fine capital of any future Palestinian state — Ramallah — I set out to speak with someone who’d refer to the gorgeous lands north of here as “Samaria.” That is to say, with a Jewish settler. [...]
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Amira Hass is a columnist for the left-center Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz. She began reporting from the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 1991, at the height of the Second Intifada, and has lived in both Gaza and the West Bank. She is currently a resident of Ramallah. Hass is the winner of numerous awards, including the World Press Freedom Hero award (2000), the Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Award (2002), the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize (2003), and the Hrant Dink Memorial Award (2009).
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deplores the criticism his beloved Jewish state receives from abroad. Human rights are under assault all over the world, he retorts — starting next door in Syria and Iran. Singling out Israel is unfair and antisemitic. North Americans who share Bibi’s point of view are invited to examine recent statistics on the Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in annexed East Jerusalem, and in that part of the Occupied “West Bank” referred to in the 1994 Oslo Accords as “Area C,” where almost half a million Jewish settlers now live (in violation of international law).
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According to Mahatma Gandhi, nothing poses more of a threat to an oppressive regime than well organized, non-violent resistance. Mubarak Awad — some call him the Arab Gandhi — is a case in point. Awad’s call for peaceful resistance against Israeli occupation in the early phase of the First Intifada (1987-1990) led the Israeli government to deport him.
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Mustafa Barghouti is a Palestinian politician and democracy activist. He and I sat down for an interview this past August in his office on the outskirts of Ramallah. I had been looking forward to our meeting. We had managed to connect by phone on a couple of occasions, long distance, but each time our chat would be aborted. The last time this happened, Barghouti was at a demonstration at Israel’s Qualandia checkpoint, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, and would have to hang up as Israeli tear gas and rubber bullets began to fly.
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In search of proof that “West Bank” Palestinians have indeed been consigned to a big open prison — as many complain — no spot is more evidence-laden than an Israeli checkpoint. The largest of Israel’s hundred or so checkpoints, Qualandia — between northern Jerusalem and the road to Ramallah — is a masterpiece in population engineering. Israeli Machsom Watch activists keep an eye on what happens there, and at other security barriers throughout occupied Palestine.
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Thirty years have come and gone since the end of the American War – as the Vietnamese call it – and its toxic aftermath lingers on. Between 1961 and the early 1970s, the U.S. drenched Vietnam with almost a hundred million liters of Agent Orange and other herbicides. It wasn’t just rainforests and mangroves that suffered … and the poison continues its dirty work.
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The next time you buy roses for your honey, consider this: The cut flowers in your Valentine’s bouquet were fumigated for insects and mildew, then drenched with preservatives for the long flight north. They may only make your lover sneeze – or perhaps break out in a rash – but the farmers who grow the flowers may suffer chronic poisoning. GPM producer Jen Moore sends us this report from Ecuador, a major exporter of cut flowers.
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Few industries provoke as much controversy as mining. When powerful companies seek out concessions in poor countries, communities rally around democratic institutions to defend their land and water. From the Andean mountains of Peru, Jen Moore brings us this story about how a democratic vote saved the day … perhaps.
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Isabel La Torre knew they’d finally hit upon the right idea when women’s participation in the Central Coffee Organization of Northwestern Peru (CECANOR) more than doubled in less than three years. For more than three decades, this vibrant Peruvian coffee marketer has been interested in addressing gender inequity on the farm. But after various attempts, putting a dollar value on women’s work is what has made a difference.
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Think about resources crucial to human survival. What comes to mind? Fresh, clean water for sure. Food tops the list. Earth’s primary living products – plants that grow from seeds – are the foundation of humanity’s food supply. Wheat, barley, oats, corn, potatoes and a dizzying variety of beans and legumes … Conserving these seeds of survival – as a common resource – is one of humanity’s greatest challenges … Never more so than in the age of global climate change and plant disease pandemics.
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Small farmers in the hills of Honduras are improving their lives through seed saving and on-farm experimentation. Jen Moore reports.
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They’re scrubby, fierce with mosquitoes and impossible to walk through, but salt water mangroves are the guardians of Earth’s tropical coastlines and nurseries for her fish. Coastal mangroves are endangered by unsustainable fishing and cutting practices. The mangroves of southern Cambodia, on the Gulf of Thailand, are a case in point.
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Dar es Salaam … City of Peace on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast. Driving a car into, out of or around the city, or commuting in one of the Tanzanian capital’s jam-packed dala-dalas, is anything but a peaceful enterprise — although the people of Dar are exceptionally friendly. Dar Rapid Transit (DART) is a dream now rising from the drawing board. Listen to this audio.
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Mumbai … the world’s third most populous city. This little neck of land dangling in the Arabian Sea is a Mecca for India’s corporate giants. Real estate prices have skyrocketed. But almost half of Mumbai’s eighteen million residents are poor and the real estate crunch is squeezing them out. Nowhere is the clash between global real estate forces and traditional residents more evident than in Asia’s “largest slum”: Dharavi
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It’s easy to forget – living in the middle of a continent – that there are limits to the amount of dross we can toss. But when you’re living on an island, in the middle of the ocean, trash can get in your face
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Spring is fast approaching. Wherever you are on the planet, the sun will shine down for twelve hours each day – assuming it isn’t cloudy. Nowhere are the sun’s warming rays more welcome than in Canada’s far north. In the Nunavut community of Cambridge Bay, just north of the Arctic Circle, people have another reason to rejoice.
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There’s a quiet killer living in the walls of traditional adobe houses in Central and South America. You can’t see it; you can’t hear it. It sneaks out at night, crawling or tumbling into your bed.
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For all the damage they’ve inflicted on their one and only home, many human beings reflect on where they’ve gone wrong, and the major changes they’ll have to embrace in order to survive. Here are a few voices we’ve managed to capture.
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An Interview with 1989 Right Livelihood Award winner Melaku Worede.
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