Global Police State Calls for Globalization of Dissent and Protest
A report from The International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations presents alarming case studies of protest suppression and criminalization of political and social dissent around the world. Ironically, the name of the report, “Take Back the Streets,” came from an order from Toronto’s police commander to his force in June 2010, when more than 100,000 […]
Should Prostitution Be Legal?
While modern media exploit the human body to sell ideas, products, femininity and masculinity on television, in movies, magazines, and much else, they cast shadows on the sale of sex itself, although this involves the same capitalistic notions that are tirelessly promoted. The bottom line is: sex sells, but one cannot buy sex without paying […]
Supermax Prisons and Guantanamo: Worse Than the Gulag?
Saturday October 5, 2013 marks a full year in United States custody for Talha Ahsan, Babar Ahmad and three other British residents extradited from the United Kingdom to the US. Nobody in the UK knows specifically why they are being held in the US, except that the charges relate, in Talha and Babar’s cases, to […]
Saudi Arabia and Qatar: Kingdoms of Slave Labor, Human Rights Abuses
In the past few decades, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have seen their influence, both regional and global, grow rapidly. The extraordinary wealth of both oil-rich nations give them a lot of say and sway far beyond the Gulf area. Both Kingdoms have used their tremendous power of the purse, given by oil revenues, to gain […]
Turkey’s Revolutionary Conundrum
To characterize the current struggle in Turkey as being a clash of secularism versus Islam — that is, a conflict between the secular demands of the urban Turkish population and the pro-Islamic social conservative forces led by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) — is dangerous. This not only […]
