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

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Obama’s "Asia Pivot": The Himalayan Angle

Click here to access article by Wayne Madsen from Strategic Culture.

While there is much to learn about the Empire's doings in the Middle East, we shouldn't forget that the Empire is a global phenomenon. This author brings us up-to-date on Empire actions in relation to Asia which Obama referred to using Newspeak as the "Asia Pivot", specifically in the important region between China and India.
The Obama administration’s "Asia Pivot" is playing out in earnest in joint U.S.-Indian-Israeli intelligence operations in the Himalayan region. The actions by the three cooperative nations’ intelligence agencies are aimed at limiting Chinese influence here. The strategy in the mountainous area of the Sino-Indian border complements other U.S. strategies now being played out in the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, the South China Sea, the South Pacific, and the Indian Ocean to box in China and prevent it from challenging America’s military presence in the Asia-Pacific region….
I particularly liked the report about Bhutan's Prime Minister attempting to talk world capitalist powers into adopting a new measure of economic progress, "Gross National Happiness", instead of GNP, which is a key measure of profit-making opportunities in the religion of capitalism. So it was no surprise that he didn't stay long as Prime Minister.