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 […]
War On Poverty:The Only War Worth Fighting For
Almost 46 years ago, on January 8 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared a “war on poverty” in his first State of The Union speech. Making poverty a national priority set in motion a series of bills and acts such as head start, food stamps, Medicare & Medicaid. The programs initiated by Lyndon Johnson, which still […]
