'04 Analysis/Opinion

12/31/2004 Jeremy Rifkin, best selling author of the ‘The End of Time’ believes that the AmericanDream--which was the gold standard for the whole world for 200 years--“has completely unravelled in the last forty years.” With the U.S. ranking 24th in income disparity among industrial nations, the “American Dream is fading and in its place a new more inclusive European vision of the future is on the rise.”

12/30/2004 “I wanted to work at a decent job and earn a decent wage, with decent benefits, so I can raise my kids, give them a decent education,” said 31-year-old Aaron Kemp who used to work at Maytag corporation’s factory in Galesburg, Illinois. The corporation closed the plant in September, sending most of the 1,600 jobs performed there to Mexico in a move the workers blame more on corporate greed than declining revenue.

12/29/2004 The tsunami may have struck on the other side of the world, ripple effects of more positive kind are emerging across America. Communities and concerned individuals from Massachusetts to Texas rally to provide aid to victims and survivors.

12/28/2004

Bajo presión de EEUU

In Latin American cities, governments are exploiting public fear to implement the New York style hard line crime control model made popular by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Analysts fear this approach which enhances state powers of coercion at the expense of civil liberties, is preparing the ground for another questionable U.S anti-crime export: the private prison industry.

12/23/2004 Some 201 million women worldwide want to limit their family size but lack access to the means to do so. In Bangladesh, the estimated $62 the government spends to prevent an unwanted pregnancy is one tenth what it would otherwise spend on social services for mother and child. Investing in family planning benefits the environment, society, and governments, says the Earth Policy Institute's Janet Larsen.

12/23/2004 A negotiating table with only men around it will debate about weapons, territorial integrity, political power—the so-called hard issues. Women will describe their lives in the evacuation centers, food blockades, sick children, and broken relationships. "If we put women at the negotiating table, they will change the equation of the negotiation," says the Chair of the UN's Indigenous Women's Caucus, Stella Tamang. "They will introduce practical workable solutions to the conflict."

12/22/2004 "We support elections as one component of democratization. But not every election is a legitimate instrument of democracy," notes international affairs expert Phyllis Bennis. An election cannot be legitimate when it is conducted under foreign military occupation, administered by a government put in place by those occupiers, and when war is raging throughout the country, she explains.

12/22/2004 Trade and technical assistance between developing nations has become one of the most significant factors driving development worldwide, prominent UN officials and other diplomats have said. "South-South trade is becoming a dominant factor in the international economic relations," said the chairman of the UN's Group of 77 developing nations, noting that trade between developing countries grew at more than twice the rate of world trade in 2003.

12/21/2004 The war in Iraq has clearly not unfolded the way those who instigated it intended. U.S. and Iraqi civilian casualties are much higher than expected and reconstruction has been nearly impossible under U.S. leadership. But the most important reason the U.S. should commit to withdrawing all troops by the end of next year? The Iraqi people want them to, says Global Exchange co-founder Medea Benjamin.

12/21/2004 Ariel Sharon's recent offer represents the dovish Israeli consensus. Mahmoud Abbas represents the dovish Palestinian consensus, but they are still light-years apart, writes Ami Isseroff on the MidEastWeb for Coexistance.

12/20/2004 International Migrants Day--celebrated Saturday--is an occasion to remind governments and employers of the need to protect the rights of migrant workers, for whom slavery, discrimination, arrests, exploitation, and physical and sexual abuses are still daily facts of life, says the European group December 18.

12/20/2004 Flush with cash from high oil prices, Venezuela's president is promoting his anti-globalization, leftist vision across Latin America. But is Chavez's rule growing increasingly autocratic as his country rises to new prominence?

12/20/2004 Two wars involving Rwanda in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have left nearly 4 million dead over the past decade. The countries' newest crisis could ignite the entire Great Lakes region, warns the International Crisis Group, recommending the international community sit all parties down for urgent discussions and apply a mix of muscle and diplomacy to forge a comprehensive solution.

12/17/2004 The world is facing a clash between two models of agriculture. One is controlled by massive global corporations and sustained by privatization and unbridled free trade. The other is based on family farming and prioritizes local, sustainable production and local knowledge. While the corporate-driven model has become dominant, the world's landless people and small farmers are beginning to mobilize, says Peter Rosset of the Center for the Study of Change in the Mexican Countryside.

12/17/2004 The murder of CARE-Iraq direcor Margaret Hassan demonstrates just hwo vulnerable aid workers have become around the world. And as long as governments continue to provide aid to promote strategic--rather than humanitarian--interests, the situation won't change, says the policy director for the refugee aid organization Ockenden International.

12/16/2004 A new report confirms many suspicions about voter disenfranchisement in the 2004 elections, and momentum is growing for a Congressional commission to look into voting irregularities. With memories of 2000 still fresh, the lesson of 2004 is that our vote is not secure, says Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., arguing for a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing every American citizen's right to vote.

12/16/2004 Rwanda has been threatening for some time to send troops into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to dispel and destroy Rwandan rebels leftover from the genocide of 1994 whom they say are planning new attacks on their country. There have been some reports of Rwandan forces already fighting inside the DRC. Now Uganda has amassed its forces along the DRC border. As tensions boil in Africa's Great Lakes region, allafrica's Charlie Cobb spoke with Rwanda's Foreign Affairs Minister to get his country's side of the story.

12/15/2004 The Bush Administration's force-based strategy for containing Islamic radicalism and its tolerance of authoritarian regimes in Southwest and Central Asia has convinced many Muslims across the region that U.S.-style democracy is wrong for their societies. If the White House doesn't change course over the next four years, it can expect little progress towards increasing the security situation and democratic prospects in the region, says Pakistan-based journalist Ahmed Rashid.

12/15/2004 Argentina's decline since the economic collapse of 2001 has been staggering--much of Buenos Aires' middle class now survive as street vendors or by begging. The country is beginning to turn around, however, experiencing modest growth and even small budget surpluses, but how long can it hold out as the IMF demands it put foreign creditors above its own poor?

12/14/2004 The U.S. Senate is broiling in controversy over a proposed $9 billion spy satellite that largely duplicates existing reconnaissance capabilities. Council for a Livable World explains why military "pork" is just as wasteful as domestic "pork."