France Will Compensate Nuclear Tests Victims
On Tuesday, the French parliament approved a long overdue bill offering compensation to the victims of controversial nuclear tests carried out by France for almost four decades, between 1960 and 1996. French authorities, across the political spectrum, had previously failed to accept responsibility for the numerous and serious health problems suffered by those present or [...]
United States: The World’s Leading Jailer
The United States has a longstanding policy of mass incarceration. Recent statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistic (BJS), a branch of the US Department of Justice, showed that the US has more than 2.4 million people behind bars on any given day, and an incarceration rate of 754 per 100,000 residents. This is the [...]
Human Rights Day: “Embrace Diversity, End Discrimination”
Today, the big story was in Oslo, Norway. The title of it could have been: “War President Receives Nobel Peace Prize”. President Obama made the best of his oratorical skills, talked about war & peace. But yet, the paradox of his win remains. The Nobel is supposed to reward achievements not potentials, to recognize what [...]
The Family: Fundamentalists Preaching A Gospel Of American Empire
In his new book, The Family, journalist Jeff Sharlet takes us inside Christian fundamentalism’s most elite, disturbing and secretive organization. The Family is fundamentalism’s avant-garde, on a mission to wage a spiritual war in the halls of American power and around the globe. They consider themselves the “new chosen”, Senators, Congressmen, Generals and foreign dictators [...]
The Scandal Of Hunger In America
Today, about 49 million Americans experience what the US government refers to as “food insecurity with hunger”. It is Thanksgiving, a perfect time to reflect on hunger. Hunger is a miserable feeling and a powerful word that rightly produces anger and outrage. Today’s hunger and poverty crisis is similar, in scope, to the one of [...]
