John Pilger’s latest. Runs an hour and a half.
News of the Restless A door at the end of a dead-end street…
Festive Left Friday Blogging: Manu Chao in Chiapas
August 31, 2007 — Sabina Becker“Radio Bemba”, with special guest appearance by the EZLN (Zapatista) guerrillas.
Stupid Sex Tricks: We are not amused
August 30, 2007 — Sabina BeckerSome people just pop a Viagra. Some pop a…well, a popper. This guy decided to pop the weasel in a less than appropriate location.
A couple having sex on a "Super Spiral" ride at York’s Wild Kingdom "horrified" a mother with young children who witnessed the act at "Maine’s largest zoo and amusement park," say police.
As a result, Adrian Levy, 26 — a native of Jamaica and amusement park employee — is charged with one count of indecent conduct, said York Police Sgt. Tom Baran.
An uppity woman rears her fair head
August 29, 2007 — Sabina BeckerLadies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Dr. Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia and winner of this week’s Buzzflash “Wings of Justice” award:
Well, that didn’t take long…
August 28, 2007 — Sabina BeckerLooks like that whole immunity-for-ex-paramilitaries thing isn’t working out so well in Colombia. Whatta surprise:
A US court has requested the extradition of former Colombian paramilitary boss Carlos Jimenez.
The move comes a few days after Jimenez, alias Macaco, was stripped of his preferential prison treatment afforded to demobilised fighters.
Colombia said Jimenez violated a peace agreement by continuing to organise cocaine shipments and run a criminal empire from prison.
Jimenez is wanted in the US on drug trafficking charges.
Oh no, now they’re provoking thought!
August 27, 2007 — Sabina BeckerThe Montreal Gazette is shocked, SHOCKED that what I’ve long known–that it’s never a riot till the cops show up to get the violence started–might actually be true:
Every time protesters gather at such meetings – notably at Seattle in 1999, Quebec City and Genoa in 2001 and Miami in 2003 – there are rumours of state-paid agents provocateurs whose job is to tar non-violent protesters with a reputation for violence and anarchy.
Thanks to the SQ [Surete de Quebec], these rumours will now take on new life and credibility. The SQ officers were got up like members of Black Bloc, a loosely organized group that first came to North American attention in 1999 in Seattle when they smashed storefronts of stores like Gap, Starbucks and Old Navy during the anti-World Trade Organization demonstrations.
While Black Bloc has done a great deal to undermine more serious and legitimate protests, now the SQ has done the Black Bloc an unexpected and undeserved favour: Because of Montebello, fair-minded people might now be tempted to conclude the people they thought were hooligans could eventually turn out to be police undercover officers.
Stupid Sex Tricks: More AIDS ignorance in New Guinea
August 27, 2007 — Sabina BeckerThis is what happens when you don’t educate the public enough about AIDS.
Some AIDS victims are being buried alive in Papua New Guinea by relatives who cannot look after them and fear becoming infected themselves, a health worker said Monday.
Margaret Marabe, who spent five months carrying out an AIDS awareness campaign in the remote Southern Highlands of the South Pacific nation, said she had seen five people buried while still breathing.
One was calling out “Mama, Mama” as the soil was shoveled over his head, said Marabe, who works for a volunteer organisation called Igat Hope, Pidgin English for I’ve Got Hope.
9-11 Press For Truth
August 27, 2007 — Sabina BeckerWith Spanish subtitles.
Try to keep your eyes dry.
Festive Left Friday Blogging: Evo gets nominated
August 24, 2007 — Sabina BeckerIt couldn’t happen to a nicer guy:
Bolivian author Nestor Taboada (“Tierra Martir – Martyr Land”) stressed the importance of Bolivian President Evo Morales’ candidature for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize does justice to all Latin American farmers, poor people and indigenous communities.
“Evo Morales is at the same level as Benito Juarez or Nelson Mandela,” he said.
Headline Howler: Hurricane Dean blows mixed messages
August 24, 2007 — Sabina BeckerPoor Yahoo News. They’re so confused. On the one hand, they report that “Dean leaves Mexico relatively unscathed”; on the other, “Hurricane robs Maya of vital fruit trees”.
What are we to make of this, other than that, as usual, Mayan people don’t count for a whole lot in Mexico?
(See also the un-starlike treatment Rigoberta Menchu–Mayan, activist, Guatemalan presidential candidate and Nobel prizewinner–recently got there. Ouch.)
