Opinions

I have grown pretty tired of hearing about the Senkakus.  I have a feeling I’m not alone. As far as I can see, Taiwan has the strongest claim to the Senkakus, by geography, geology,  history, and propinquity.  Japan grabbed the…

Buying more stuff is associated with depression, anxiety and broken relationships. It is socially destructive and self-destructive George Monbiot for The Guardian, Monday 9 December 2013 Owning more doesn’t bring happiness: ‘the material pursuit of self-esteem reduces self-esteem.’ Photograph: Dominic…

By Jayantha Dhanapala* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN) – Even cynics must admit that the time comes in international relations when long frozen situations suddenly thaw causing positive change for international peace and security. Examples of such “game-changers”…

By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan for Democracy Now! The holiday season is upon us. Sadly, the big retailers are Scrooges when it comes to paying their staffs. Undergirding the sale prices is an army of workers earning the minimum…

Plans to create an EU-US single market will allow corporations to sue governments using secretive panels, bypassing courts and parliaments George Monbiot The Guardian, Monday 2 December 2013 Panic spreads through the European commission like ferrets in a rabbit warren.…

[divide] WARSAW, Poland—The United Nations is holding this year’s climate conference in Warsaw, a city steeped in history. Nicolaus Copernicus, the famous Polish astronomer who first posited that the Earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa, is celebrated…

The recent high-drama nuclear negotiations in Geneva were riveting, to be sure. Old foes shuttled between conference rooms, chatted amiably in corridors, colluded to guard the sensitive details of their discussions from an eager global media. Every utterance from officials,…

Meteorologists are calling the typhoon that slammed into the Philippines with 195-mile-an-hour winds on November 8, 2013, the most powerful tropical storm to make landfall on record. Super Typhoon Haiyan had gusts reaching 235 miles per hour and a storm…

At the United Nations climate talks in Poland, Philippines representative Yeb Sano, in an emotional speech that “brought tears to the eyes of other delegates and a standing ovation,” as reported by the BBC, linked the staggering devastation to a…

Noam Chomsky Truthout, November 5, 2013   During the latest episode of the Washington farce that has astonished a bemused world, a Chinese commentator wrote that if the United States cannot be a responsible member of the world system, perhaps…