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

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Sectarianism in Syria: myth and reality

Click here to access article by Marwa Daoudy from openDemocracy.

This Western educated scholar, yet independent thinker, explains to us how Empire agents have cynically used sectarianism to destabilize Syria, and identifies the larger "Great Game" being played out in the Middle East.
The real divide is not religious or sectarian but geopolitical; and foreign intervention is not motivated by religious affiliations nor the promotion of democracy.  The Great Game being played in Syria is between a broad coalition of US-Israeli-Saudi-Qatari-Turkish interests on the one hand and Syria, Russia, Iran and Hizbollah on the other.
Unfortunately her Western training is evident when she fails to identify what the "US-Israeli-Saudi-Qatari-Turkish interests" consist of.