Politics

Call it perfect timing or a sheer historical coincidence; be it because they feel caught between the Israeli nuclear hammer and the Iranian might-be atomic anvil or just because they truly want it, the fact is that the leaders of 22 Arab countries have launched an unprecedented massive and pressing call to free the world from nuclear weapons.

“If we talk about deactivating something that has already expired, it makes no sense. I have a medicine cabinet at home from which I remove expired medicines. Unless we talk seriously about disarmament we cannot accept that there are countries that are armed to the teeth and others that are unarmed”, said the President of Brazil regarding the new USA and Russia agreement.

Now that nuclear arsenals reduction is much in the news, the US and Russia have agreed to downsize their stockpiles by 30% and 22 Arab countries called for a nuke-free world, it’s time to ask how many countries have decided to eliminate the threat of a devastating nuclear war and consequently managed to liberate themselves from the most atrocious weapons of mass destruction.

Two Hollywood film-makers joined a queen from the Middle East and a computer multimillionaire along with diplomats from the United States in order to demand from world leaders meeting next week in the United States a world without nuclear weapons. The promoters of the film say “our only choice is eradicating every last missile”

The victory of the right in last elections in Chile has stirred reflections on the crisis of the left. Of the 15 countries in Europe that had leftist governments in 1992, only 5 do today, and of these 3
-Portugal, Spain, and Greece- presently find themselves in grave financial and social difficulty. For people under 50 it is hard to grasp how deep the roots of this crisis go.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament described today’s United States’ Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) as timid, with the modest advances not living up to the ambitious goals the Obama administration has set itself.
“We had hoped this review would mark a sea-change in US nuclear policy. The result is markedly disappointing”, Kate Hudson, Chair of the CND, said.

President Bill Clinton, now the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, publicly apologized last month for forcing Haiti to drop tariffs on imported, subsidized US rice during his time in office. The policy wiped out Haitian rice farming and seriously damaged Haiti’s ability to be self-sufficient. Journalist Kim Ives of Haiti Liberté questioned Clinton about his change of heart.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he planned to visit Iran next month in order to prevent a “mistake” like the one that led to the invasion of Iraq. “I am going there because I do not want the mistake that was made in Iraq to be repeated in Iran,” he said, in comments that the state news agency ABR reproduced.

The United States President Barack Obama and the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have sealed an agreement on a landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty. Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev plan to officially sign the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty on April 8 in Prague, Europe, cutting by about a third, the nuclear weapons that the United States and Russia will deploy.

This weekend, while US Congress voted to pass a historic health care bill, more than 100,000 activists gathered in Washington, D.C. to mark the dawn of a new civil rights movement. These activists included students, parents and children. They are young and old, Asian, African-American, Latino and Caucasian, and they are demanding immigration reform and economic justice now.