We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, May 28, 2012

The hands behind Sudan’s Oil War

Click here to access article by Ramzy Baroud from Ceasefire (UK). 

Wherever there are few independent journalists and outside observers--and this applies most frequently in Africa--one finds highly distorted information in US mainstream media designed to further the interests of the Empire and its corporations in the region. Ramzy Baroud's piece is a good attempt to correct this problem regarding the ongoing turmoil in Sudan.

The destabilization and balkanization of resource rich countries is one way for powerful countries to gain access to resources of poorer counties. The British practiced this most effectively with their carving up of the Middle East into compliant, weaker countries that they could play off against each other, followed by the division of India along religious lines. More recently we've seen this with the breakup of Yugoslavia by the US Empire.