Opinions

15 months after Mubarak ’s ouster, this week Egyptians headed to the ballot box to choose a new President in the country’s first multi-candidate Presidential election. Unlike previous polls when election results had invariably been foregone conclusions, the outcome of this historic vote is uncertain with analysts and voters unable to speculate who the likely winner may be.

I strongly believe that the time is right for Turkey and Israel to mend their critically important bilateral relationship which has suffered a precipitous decline since 2010. With the Middle East in turmoil as a result of the Arab Spring, the perilously unfolding crisis in Syria, the concerns around the Iranian nuclear program…. (read more)….

“More wood, this is war!” The train in the Marx Brothers’ film is the most accurate picture of present-day capitalism. Running away, fleeing forward, dismantling itself to further fuel the machine: destroying rights, guarantees, life, wealth, resources, care, bonds, the entire building of modern social civilization.

Nobody thought that the Police would *actually* allow en encampment opposite the Bank of England, symbol of just about everything that is wrong with the present economic system. But a few tents went up after marching from St Paul’s Cathedral rally and the placards expressed the most important thing: a new generation is busy thinking about how to create a better world.

Shareholder meetings can be routine, unless you are Bank of America, in which case it may be declared an “extraordinary event”. That is what the city of Charlotte, North Carolina called the bank’s shareholder meeting this week. Bank of America is currently the second largest bank in the US (after JP Morgan Chase), claiming more than $2tn in assets.

While Japan is to nationalize Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the Indian central government is paying off Tamil Nadu State big-wigs for co-operation to reopen Kudankulam nuclear plant. In Europe the 15M movement is gathering forces while the Greek citizenry rethink the bailout. Such undercurrents indicate a groundswell of hitherto unrecognised forces at work – the human factor!

I was questioned under caution! Not in a gloomy cellar, without blinding projectors like in the movies, without Shin Bet ( Israel Security Agency ) interrogators who shouted and caressed alternately.

The questioning was conducted by officials from the Interior Ministry’s Construction Inspection Unit, in Jerusalem.

Reaching Critical Will, a branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, report daily from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty prepcom. In this report, the last one of the first week, the issues of progress and taking responsibility are tackled. “The most important thing is that non-nuclear weapon states actively take the reins.”

No other image embodies better the mood of the moment: Munch’s “The Scream” becomes another example of economic violence and the dehumanisation of this system’s values by selling for a record $119.9 million. Meanwhile, as the Spring/Occupy/Indignados movement prepares for a Global Spring to move from despair to action, we are given a clear choice to open the future.

Once again states parties, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations are meeting in Vienna to start another review cycle of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Unlike in 2007, however, we are returning to this first preparatory committee with a final document and an action plan adopted by consensus from the last Review Conference.