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, January 23, 2014

Preparing Geneva-2

Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from VoltaireNet. 

If you have watched too much propaganda from corporate-sponsored media regarding Syrian events, you no doubt are totally confused about what has gone on there, the present negotiations starting today in Switzerland known as "Geneva 2", and the humanitarian crises in the nearby areas. Meyssan in this article adds much clarity to our understanding of these tragic events.
The last days of a war are always the deadliest. Routed armies avenge their defeat by committing futile atrocities, as we have seen in Adra where the tortures inflicted on loyalist workers have nothing to envy those committed during the fall of the Third Reich. But the situation is exacerbated by the collapse of what remains of the international anti-Syria coalition, each ex-partner trying to protect his interests at the expense of his former allies.