Opinions

The recent statements of singer Morgan, who openly admits having used cocaine as an “anti-depressant”, are a clear example of how today’s society no longer accepts any sort of problem or concern: everything has to be “subdued”; a pill will make all troubles magically disappear. Young people especially, are the main target of campaigns that endorse these people as role models.

Alyn Ware, winner of a 2009 right-livelihood award promotes the Nuclear Weapons Convention and vegetarianism in his acceptance speech, at the award dinner in Sweden. He attacks the weapons industry and calls on individuals to act locally while thinking globally to tackle the threat of nuclear weapons and climate change. “It is a minority who are spoiling it for the rest”.

Confronted by the tragic earthquake that shook the ancestral destitution of the suffering Haitian people, a lot of debris has come to light. We, the Dominican people, did and will do everything that we should do in this painful and torturous time for the Haitian people and we appeal for them, for ourselves and for all the people of the world.

Not even Simón Bolívar, as brave as he was known to be, had the courage to sign diplomatic recognition of the country of African descendants. Bolívar was able to re-launch his struggle for American independence, when Spain had already defeated him, thanks to Haiti’s support. The government of Haiti had supported him with the sole condition that Bolivar free the slaves.

The London conference on Afghanistan was a done deal and has been in the works for a long time. The Taliban seem to be resistant to killing, they actually add to their numbers like amoeba and launch attacks ever closer to the hearts of power. So, if military power, the Big Stick, even carried by 44 countries in a coalition does not work, let us try economic power, the carrot.

Victoria Manno is an actor, journalist and pentathlete, among many other interests. Since 2000, she has started the year by performing a challenge for Peace in one of the 6 continents. She joined the organisation World without Wars and began by climbing mount Aconcagua, carrying the World March for Peace and Non Violence flag to the highest point in the Western World.

President Obama delivered his first State of the Union address Wednesday night. A full two-thirds of the President’s seventy-minute address was devoted to the economy, the central theme of which was job creation. We get response from MIT professor Noam Chomsky author of Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy.

A week has already passed since I left Punta de Vacas. I have arrived in Geneva and am going to leave my bags at home, in the Valais Mountains.
I’d love to sum up this wonderful adventure. The World March already seems like a far-away memory and a chapter has just ended. The experience and facts now belong to the past.

With 142 member nations already signed on, the new International Renewable Energy Agency is promoting a fast, global transition to clean, safe, and renewable energy. Alice Slater explains why it’s so necessary. “Every 30 minutes, enough of the sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s surface to meet global energy demand for an entire year.”

In my Reflection of January 14, two days after the catastrophe in Haiti, which destroyed that neighboring sister nation, I wrote: “In the area of healthcare and others the Haitian people has received the cooperation of Cuba, even though this is a small and blockaded country. Approximately 400 doctors and healthcare workers are helping the Haitian people free of charge.